Escape

“Heeeeeeeeeelp!” I cry out with the last of my strength.

I weep at the helplessness I feel inside as I bang on the walls fruitlessly. The box holding me had run thin on air hours ago. I couldn’t muster enough strength to make it count. There was no banging for someone on the outside to hear. I could barely manage a light tapping.

There was never really a point in the first place. I thought back to all the energy and precious time I spent screaming and banging on the walls. All the air lost that I should have been conserving. This is really it isn’t it? I’m gonna die in this box. Fuck!

What would the point even be of conserving energy? I’m gonna die anyway. What’s the point of putting it off for a couple extra hours? What’s the point of dying in silence?

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” I screamed until my throat was horse.

There were spots in my vision. That scream would cost me. I couldn’t decide if it was worth it or not. It didn’t matter anyway. It was done now. And I would be soon. So, it was worth it. The sound of my heart beating had turned into a pounding, which grew louder and louder until.

*crash*

Air poured into my lungs. Air? Where did it come from. I felt my body lifted up from the ground. I must be going to heaven now. My vision slowly grew more clear. I was surrounded by bloodied farm tools. I was looking down at my arms which were limp and covered in blood. No, not heaven, this was hell.

I felt my back hit something solid and someone was standing over me. I could hear muffled talking. It was whoever stood over me.

“Anna… Anna get up.”

The voice was starting to make sense. It was starting to sound familiar.

“Anna come on. I can’t carry you.” My sister Mavis sobbed.

The room spun chaotically into focus as I sat up. My sister was covered in mud, tears, and blood.

“Come on Anna we have to go. Before he comes back.” Mavis whispered.

I nodded in understanding. We ran out of the decaying old barn and ran towards the woods.

“Wait” I stopped in my tracks and ran for the back door of the old farmhouse and crouched out of sight.

“What the fuck are you doing!” Mavis asked crouching next to me.

“We can’t just cut through the woods” I told her, “he knows those woods way better than we do, we’ll be lost and he’ll be able to track us.”

“What other choice do we have?” She asked.

“I saw his keys hung up in the kitchen.” I told her, “It’s right through this door. If we get his truck, we can get out of here and he won’t be able to keep up with us.”

She looked skeptical for a moment, before nodding in agreement. Just in that moment the back door swung open. My sister and I ducked back, hoping we were out of his line of sight. When he marched off towards the barn we both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Better be quick. We’ve got one shot.” Mavis told me.

She ran off in the direction of the truck and I quickly ducked inside and snagged the key off the wall where they hung. This was it. This was the way out. I ran out the door quietly just in time to see the man stepping out of the barn with a chainsaw and marching my direction.

“Shit!” I shouted.

I sprinted as fast as I could to the truck as the man grew closer and closer. There was no way I would make it.

“START THE ENGINE!” I screamed.

I threw the keys as far as I could towards my sister. She had to run a short distance to get to them. She ran to the car and shoved the key in the ignition right as the man grabbed me by the hair. My sister and I locked eyes. She would hesitate, but she had time to escape. She was safe.

Mavis turned the key as a tear fell down her face. The engine stuttered, then died down right as the chainsaw dug into my belly and blood poured out of my mouth. Fuck. The truck wouldn’t start. She wasn’t safe.

She hesitated for a moment before getting out of the truck and running towards the woods. The man threw me to the ground to bleed out and die as he ran after my sister. I tried to reach for him. To stop him. But I wasn’t fast enough. It didn’t look like she was either. As she ran he was quickly catching up to her.

She wouldn’t survive the woods. I started to try to get up, but I’d lost too much blood. It was over, and there was nothing i could do to save my sister. I could hear Mavis’s screams echo through the woods as I slowly lost consciousness. The last thing I saw was the man returning from the woods dragging Mavis’s lifeless body behind him.

When I came to my arms were dragging behind me on the ground. I looked over and saw my sisters' body being drug across the ground next to me. Blood poured from a gash in her head. I felt myself fade out of consciousness again.

The next time I regained consciousness I was flying through the air into the bed of a truck and falling onto my sisters body. I could hear the trucks engine starting up as I faded out of consciousness again. I came to again to find myself rolling over some bumpy surface. When I stopped rolling I felt around with my hands, the surface was cold and clammy and wet. When the world stopped spinning I realized I was surrounded by dead bodies.

“No no no no” I sobbed quietly.

I heard something else tumbling towards me. I felt a weight land on me as I came face to face with my dead sister.

“Mavis wake up” I begged through my sobs. “No no no no no.”

I heard the man’s truck start up again, then I heard its hum dim away as he drove off. Now was my chance.

“I’m sorry Mavis” I apologized.

I shoved my sisters body off of me and climbed up the hill of bodies back to ground level. When I got to the top and pulled myself out I found myself along a long stretch of backroad. I climbed to my feet and listened for the truck engine. It was coming from the left, so I went to the right.