Escape into the Dark
The forest is dark, quiet, suffocating and mostly, terrifyingly familiar, as Gabbie leads the exhausted group deeper into the forest. She uses her survival instinct, which has gotten her this far already. They try to move as fast but as quietly as possible. They don’t use words, only signals to each other. They have no clue how far along Miguel and Margret are, but they feel the pressure. Five minutes in and the group starts to slow down, Angéla is clearly weakened. They need to stop and rest for a moment. But just when they stopped running for a few seconds, they see the flashlights of Miguel and Margret beam through the misty forest. They need to go.
Gabbie points towards the densest part of the forest surrounding them. She leads them through the trees, it’s super muddy but nothing is going to stop them now. Gabbie spots a fallen tree near a riverbank. “Quick, go hide, I’ll stay here and distract them”, Gabbie whispers. It’s the first vocal communication they have made since entering the forest. Cármen opens her mouth to reply, but Gabbie does not let her speak. “No discussion, go go go!”, she quickly whispers as the flashlights keep getting closer. The girls quickly walk towards the fallen tree. It’s a big oak, they hide partially underneath the tree, so they can peek through the leaves what is happening.
Gabbie quickly runs towards the riverbank, the muddy river flowing below. She does not hesitate for a second and jumps into the pool of mud. She can hear Margret yelling her name, they’re getting closer. Gabbie reaches the other side of the muddy river and pulls herself onto the land. She looks behind her, there they are. She waves sarcastically before running away from them. “You never get away again, not this time!”, she hears Margret yell before she hears two people clearly struggling in the muddy river. Gabbie runs further away from them, this is her moment to build some space between them, but quickly she reaches a fork near the old riverbank where Gabbie once crossed.
Gabbie’s distraction worked. She finds herself cornered by Miguel on the slippery rocks of the riverbank under pale moonlight. No longer the scared girl, she demands to know where her family is. “Tell me, I have every right to know”, she demands information from Miguel. Miguel scoffs. “You deserve nothing, little girl. We deserve you, you’re ours, and you know it. You have no rights, no name, no life, give up already”, Miguel replies. He gets closer, but before he can get any closer, Gabbie uses his own momentum to push him into the raging current below.
She watches Miguel as he disappears into the dark water below. Her relief is short-lived. A horrified scream echoes through the trees as Margret reaches the riverbank, staring in disbelief at the water where Miguel vanished. She turns to Gabbie with pure hatred in her eyes, but Gabbie does not wait. She turns around and runs back into the darkness, towards Cármen, Monica, and Angéla, when suddenly a gunshot rings out. A bullet hits a tree directly next to Gabbie. Margret is getting better at aiming, but Gabbie does not stop. She keeps on running.