Page 50 of It's Kind of a Bunny Story
I squeezed through and collapsed onto a gravel pathway. Breathing in the honeysuckle-scented night air, I fought a wave of dizziness as sweat dripped from my chin and nose to splash on the ground. I wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for a thousand years, but I forced myself to stand. This wasn’t where my story was going to end.
Searching the landscape to orient myself, I bolted toward the lake in the distance. I had to get there and get across before my body was too weak to swim. It was my only shot at escaping this place.
As I ran, the lake came into view. I kept my gaze fixed on the glinting surface, trying to ignore the erratic beating of my heart and the strange tingling in my fingers and toes.
Why hadn’t I thought to ask Boone about the side effects? It didn’t matter. Since he’d never directly injected anyone, it was likely he wouldn’t have known what to expect, anyway.
Just as my feet touched the pebbled shore, a man’s shout came from behind me, causing my heart to nearly leap from my chest.
“Freeze! Stop right there before I shoot!”
Ignoring the man, I pushed my trembling legs to run faster. I was so close to the lake, and once I hit the water, no one could catch me. Gravel crunched beneath the man’s boots as they pounded against the ground behind me.
I pretended I couldn’t feel the tightness in my chest or the burning of my lungs, because if I acknowledged it, I’d be forced to recognize how much trouble I was in. Truthfully, even if I made it to the water before being tackled, I was already exhausted and struggling to breathe. How could I make the long swim to the far shore?
The man let out a string of curses, and his thundering steps drew closer.
“Faster, faster, faster,” I repeated like a mantra to myself.
“I said stop!” the man ordered.
Yeah, I’d do that… just as soon as mathematicians reached the last digit of pi.
I wove my way through the trees, but just as I ran onto the pebbled shore, his fingertips brushed against my back. He tried to grab me, but wasn’t able to get a grip on my skin-tight top.
Yes! Who’s your daddy?I screamed in my mind, delighted that planning had helped me outmaneuver him.
Unfortunately, my momentary victory came to a screeching halt when he grabbed my arm. The toxin-filled injections had already affected my muscles, causing them to grow stiff. Thanks to our momentum, the hard yank backward had a scream ripping from my throat.
Pain.
So. Much. Pain.
My knees buckled from the sudden shock of it. I went down hard, but I wasn’t ready to give up, especially when I could practically taste the water.
Rolling quickly to my back, I stared up at the man. With zero hesitation, I pulled back my leg and kicked his chuckle nuggets with every bit of force I could muster. He hit the ground harder than I had.
Not waiting around to gloat, I cradled my aching arm against my chest and scrambled to my feet. But before I could take more than a couple of steps, my attacker’s fingers wrapped around my ankle like an iron band. He yanked me off balance, sending me toppling face-first onto the stones.
My chin and cheek collided with the ground. A sickening crack that reverberated through my skull followed the impact, and I was pretty sure my brain was bruised from rattling about. Still, I didn’t have time to dwell on my injuries. Especially when I had already caught the beam of a flashlight hurrying toward us. The guard’s backup had arrived.
Which meant this was my last chance to escape.
Fleeing wasn’t going to work, so I was left with only one option.
Yanking the knife from its sheath at my waist, I threw myself toward my would-be captor. He went from being the predator to becoming my prey, and his momentary shock at the role reversal gave me the slight advantage that I needed.
I aimed for his chest. People liked to think that when you stabbed someone, the knife would go in like butter. That wasn’t always the case, and things like whether the person was wearing cotton or leather, and where the knife penetrated, could change the outcome. That, combined with our size difference, meant I’d need to put my all in this one attack, because he wouldn’t give me a second chance.
It was a kill or be killed situation. And if I was about to be killed, I was taking him with me.
You’d be proud of me, Linc,I thought, throwing all my weight behind the knife.
At the last second, the man jerked his body to the left, causing my blade to slice a line across his chest before plunging into his skin just below his collarbone. While the knife sank deep, it hit nothing vital.
Before I could pull my weapon free, the guard backhanded me with so much force that I tasted blood. The sudden explosion of white-hot pain lit up the dark night, momentarily blinding me as he shoved me off him. Leaping to his feet, he sent the metal toe of his boot into my stomach.
Unable to breathe and still struggling to see thanks to the brilliant pain lighting up every nerve ending in my body, I could do little more than curl into the fetal position and try to protect myself from another attack. With difficulty, I did my best to push past the agony that was stealing my ability to come up with a plan.
