|
_O u t F o r A R u n
Ruth finished tying the laces of her left shoe. She found it odd how, for some reason, the left shoe was always the second to get tied.
It was around 7:50pm and the day was beginning to cool off. The extreme heat that engulfs most of the day had been mixed with the cool temperature of the oncoming night. School had ended about a month and a half ago and, since then, Ruth hadn’t done any form of exercise. The summer had made her lazy because in school she was constantly working out, always in some sort of sport.
“I’ll be back in about forty minutes,” she said to her mom. Closing the door behind her, she sighed. Her family-dad, mom, and her-were staying in an RV park for the summer.
Ruth began by jogging to one end of the fence that surrounded the park. There was a small gate that led to a dirt road which lay beside a small canal. She stopped, looked both ways, and saw that the path was slightly curved. She decided to go as far left as possible; then, come back and repeat the process. With one last calm breath, she was on her way.
Sixty yards from her starting point and she felt like she had been running for hours. She tried not to think of it. She looked at the backyards of houses she ran by. Looked at dogs, old rusty cars, and kids in a pool. Before she knew it, the distance she had run had doubled. Another five seconds and Ruth found herself stopping in front of a seven foot tall fence. A road was on the other side of the fence, followed by an identical segment of criss-crossed wires and then the dirt path continued. The gate that led to the other side was locked and chained.
Ruth turned and began to run back to where she started. Halfway back, there was a dog in the middle of the path. She stopped. With any other dog, she would’ve ran passed it but this wasn’t any other dog. It was a Pit bull, and a stray by the looks of it. Its muscles were well built; its teeth, strong and sharp. It looked like the killing machine it was designed to be.
Good thing the dog was busy munching on a rabbit he had just killed; otherwise, his intentions might have been on Ruth. Not sure of what to do, she slowly moved as far away as possible and took small steps forward. Her view was stuck on the dog. Even when she was about ten yards away she stayed looking at it; not a good thing. She stepped on a fallen branch by accident. The leaves shook and were loud, grabbing the Pit bulls attention. The dog’s gaze moved to Ruth. She was terrified. Her heart was beating fiercely. Her muscles seemed paralyzed.
The canine began taking small steps toward Ruth, careful not to scare her away. When she noticed the movement, she turned and ran. Ran faster than the speed of light, or so it felt like she was. Her muscles ached, they wanted to give up. Going from not exercising for a month and a half to running for your life was a great burden to her out-of-shape body. Every few steps she would look over her shoulders to catch a glimpse of the dog. With every glimpse, it seemed that the Pit bull was gaining on her. Tears began to flow from her eyes. She wished that she would’ve never gone for a run in the first place.
When it seemed that all hope of outrunning the dog was lost, he let out a loud cry. Her eyes were still letting out streams of tears when she looked back to see the dog once more. To her surprise, it wasn’t there. That was impossible! Where could he have gone? She hadn’t slowed but her head was still looking back in amazement. Her foot found itself on top of a three inch high, jagged rock.
Her body fell forward, involuntarily. The pain was too much to continue running. She quickly turned and sat upright. Her eyes were still frantically searching for the dog. She was applying pressure to her foot with her hands to ease the pain. Slowly, the throbbing came to a halt. Perplexity got the best of her; she rose to her feet, moved closer to the canal, and checked to see if the dog that had been chasing her was there.
Her eyes grew with fear. Her hand covered her mouth. Her heartbeat increased dramatically. Her instincts made her turn and run.
The dog lay on the floor; its belly split in half and guts all over the place. A man with gray hair in a dirty green trench coat and boots that had holes in them was sitting over the dog; eating it. He saw Ruth, his eyes filled with rage and hunger. Spitting out the meat in his mouth, he focused his eyes on her, wanting her. Wanting to taste her flesh.
Ruth was twenty yards away when the ill-minded man started to run after her. The only thing keeping her muscles from giving up was the adrenaline of trying to stay alive. She could hear the man panting and making strange sounds behind her. There was no need to look back. After what seemed an eternity of running, she could see the gate that led to the RV Park.
“Finally!” she muttered to herself.
As she got closer, she noticed something that wasn’t there before. A lock had been place on the gate; probably due to the 9 o’clock curfew the park had. She had to jump the fence, only she had never done it before. Scared of becoming someone’s dinner, Ruth jumped and placed a foot in a gap from the fence for leverage. Her hands were at the top, pulling the rest of the body. She put the other leg on top of the fence and pushed herself over.
When her legs hit the ground, she stumbled forward. Ruth turned, only to see the man almost over the fence. She was in the RV Park. Someone would notice the man trying to get her, right?
Running through one of the small streets in the park, Ruth began to think of where to go. Going home would only endanger the rest of her family and they would be trapped inside with death running on the outside and trying to get in. She knew nobody. Her only hope would be to run and wait for someone to see her being chased and call the police. Even then, what if they didn’t think much of it and just went back in their home?
She needed more time to think.
Ruth turned to see where the man was. Surprisingly, he wasn’t there. Where did he go? Did he stop the chase and run off? No, he couldn’t have just quit. When did he take another route? He could be anywhere. She stood, dumbfounded, in the middle of the street; no lights were on, except for the small porch lights on some of the RV’s. The night was dark now.
“s**t,” she murmured to herself in a low, frantic, voice, “I have to hide!”
Looking at different RV’s and possible hiding spots, she decided to fix herself between a fairly large bush and the side of a car.
She could hear footsteps, they were slowly getting louder. Her heartbeat rose with every second. The steps sounded as if they were traveling towards her. To her left, the road, and possibly another chance to run and hide. To her right, a monkey wrench. Impulsively, Ruth ran to the right, picked up the tool, and got ready to hit the man. It wasn’t the man she thought it was. It was just another resident of the RV Park.
“Is everything alright, ma’am?” he asked in a calm voice.
“Thank God,” a sense of relief fell over her, “You see, this man’s been chasing me and I saw him eating a dog, which was chasing me first, and then I came here and jumped over the fence, and-” she stopped to take a breath. The guy looked at her as if she were speaking another language. “Look, please just call the police.”
“Sure thing, ma’am. Why don’t you come inside to wait while the cops get here?” he half turned, leaving her to see the entrance of the door.
As she began towards the door, the guy let out a faint sigh. The kind of sigh a person makes when someone hurts them. Ruth turned and saw him on the floor, blood pouring out of his neck. Standing above him, the man who had been chasing her earlier; he now held a knife in his right hand.
Panicking, she threw the monkey wrench at his face, turned, and ran. The hit forced the knife out of the man’s hand. He fell to his knees, his hands over his face, yelling.
Ruth stopped at the end of the road. Ahead of her, a room for laundry. To her left, the road ended about sixty yards out. And to her right, the entrance to the RV Park. Across the street from the entrance was a gas station. She could go and call the cops there. Also, there were a couple of customers, which was good in case the man followed her in. Ruth looked back. The man had gotten up. He had his left hand on his face and his right arm was dangling with the knife firmly gripped in his hand.
With that image, she began running to the gas station. The man had seen her and began running also, his left hand still on his face. It was still about twenty yards from the entrance to the road. The man had closed the gap between him and Ruth to only fifteen yards.
By the time Ruth was a few feet from the road, the gap between them was only eight yards. She could see the lights of an oncoming car faintly touching the road. She knew she could make it across without getting hit.
Ruth increased her speed a little more. She cut through the road and stumbled onto the other side. When the man leaped on the road to get to Ruth, he stopped in his tracks and looked to his left only to see a vehicle coming towards him. The truck hit him with such a great force that he landed twenty feet ahead. The truck was going too fast to stop before it ran over him. He was dragged for about fifteen feet, leaving a bloody trail on the pavement.
People ran out of the gas station to see the horrible incident.
Ruth’s body ached. Her legs and arms were numb. She felt light headed. She couldn’t catch her breath because her heart was beating too fast to let her. She fell, unconscious.
It was 3 months since Ruth had escaped with her life from a man who was determined to kill her. Now, she lay on her bed in her room. She was glad to be home, where she was safe. Her eyes were slowly closing. Sleep was creeping up on her. Her head tilted towards her window.
She jumped and fell out of her bed. Her eyes widened, her heart went crazy, her mouth let out no scream.
On the other side of the window was a man. A man with gray hair, wearing a dirty green trench coat and boots that had holes in them. The very same person who she saw mutilated in front of her very own eyes 3 months ago. The man finally got the window open and began crawling inside.
Her heart seemed as if it were about to jump out of her chest and run. The man reached out to grab her by the hair.
Ruth woke up sitting down; cold sweat ran down her back. She was panting; her heart was still going crazy. She reluctantly looked towards her window. Nobody was there. She felt a sense of relief.
Too scared to sleep on her own, Ruth walked over to her parent’s room and cuddled between them.
|
