BETH
I can’t believe it, but we have left our pursuers behind us under the trees. We are in the parking lot of a diner, closed now for the night, but just off the main highway. The forest closes behind us, but ahead, dissolves away to more open ground. In the night, I cannot make out any detail.
Bending over, clutching my sides against a stitch, I heave in great lungfuls of air.
“Don’t relax too much,” says Charlotte. “We’re not stopping here. It’s the first place they’ll look, a parking lot like this. If we follow the highway, we’ll make best speed. We can hide off-road if we need to.”
She’s bending over into a trash bin.
“Charlotte, what are you doing?”
“Looking for something to eat.”
“Eat? Out of the trash bin?”
“It’ll be okay. These places always empty the bins overnight, so this’ll be today’s. So long as it’s still in the box so the flies can’t get at it, it’s fine. And you’d be surprised what people throw away.…”
Appalled, but fascinated, I watch her; this girl, apparently so like me. But right now, she feels alien, as the depth of the differences between us comes home to me. “How do you know this stuff?”
Still searching through the bin, she says “When I was a kid, trying to run from the home, the first couple of times, I got picked up by the police when I was caught shoplifting for food. After that, I found other ways to eat….”
She roots among cardboard and greasy papers, then emerges with a box. “See, here you are. There’s most of a meal in here. It’s cold, but it will keep us going.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Do want to eat or not?”
“Is it good?”
“No, it’s lousy. I hate junk food, but we’ve got to have something inside us. Your body can’t run on empty.”
Reluctantly, I reach into the box; deep fried chicken. I bite in, fighting my instinct to gag. She’s right; the food is perfectly edible, but I’m eating trash and my stomach heaves at the thought.
of car engines. “Come
*****
MICHAEL
only a mile or so away, on the
foot to the floor, I make a screeching turnaround, then
minute, cornering, the headlights swing onto two figures, running ahead, one lagging behind the other, being dragged behind by
them, both of
head around, red hair flying... She U-turns, now running away from us, still towing Beth behind her. Beth staggers and trails, but Charlotte
They don’t realise it’s
Richard hangs out of the window, shouting and
still dragging the weary Beth behind her, and now running towards us. She’s
A car screeches in from the opposite direction, moving directly towards them, and a second drives in from off-road. Charlotte, head twisting, looks from
hard down, wheels squealing, I speed
we can. The other may do so. Charlotte suddenly breaks loose from Beth, pushing her towards us, waving her arms
different directions, Beth hobbling towards us, Charlotte dashing into the off-road darkness.
pushes his laptop aside. “Shit! We can’t
they…” I concentrate on my driving, closing
still hanging out of the window,
to pull her in,” I yell
visibly tear-streaked even
hard, metal shrieking,
her. The car is still moving, the on-coming vehicle screaming down on us. As Richard pulls Beth bodily into the
for
the gas, and the car pulls
Charlotte...
darkness, scanning for her running figure, but there is no sign
the headlights have a chance of catching her, we give chase, but there is nothing. In the night, hiding, she could be anywhere; behind a tree, or a rock, or simply flat to the
can’t stay. If we lose a tyre, we’ve all had it, and we’ll be
what do you think are her chances of escaping a second
her to safety. We’ll come back. How far away can she be? And if we come in daylight, with
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