Free Escape, a New Life by David Antocci

give him some sort of bearing on how to find his way back.  That is what she would have done anyway.
    She spent the better part of the next hour searching in vain.  Every ten yards or so, she would stop and listen for him.  Every rustling leaf or snapping twig made her jump.  She continued like this for nearly an hour.  The deeper she went into the trees, the less light there was filtering through, and the more on edge her nerves became.  Finally, she removed her knife from its sheath.  She continued forward with the knife held by her side, ready to strike. 
    Eventually she had made her way several miless through the trees, with no sign of Eric.  On the way, she had done a great deal of stopping and starting.  If she were to walk back at a normal pace, without stopping, she could be back to their camp before sundown.  After convincing herself that Eric would be at the camp waiting for her and worried that she was gone, she decided to head back.  There was no sense in being out here, lost in the dark, looking for him.  If he was not there when she got back, she would wait it out overnight and hike back up the mountain at dawn to enlist Robert’s assistance in the search.
    “I won’t have to do that,” she told herself aloud . “He’s going to be waiting for me when I get back.”
    A women’s voice came from just behind her . “Who’s that?”
    Abby nearly jumped out of her skin.  She spun, and held her knife straight out.  Standing ten feet away was a dirty, but beautiful, young woman.  Abby immediately looked at her hands. They were empty.  As she looked up toward the woman’s face, she could not decide what was more striking – how great her thick blond hair looked for being in the middle of nowhere, or her sky blue eyes. 
    “Who are you?”  Abby demanded.
    The woman held up her empty hands to emphasize that she meant to harm.  “It’s OK,” she tried to reassure Abby.
    Locking eyes, they sized each other up for several uncomfortable moments, until
    Abby turned and ran.  Assuming there were others around, she was not about to stand there and wait to have a bag thrown over her head again. 
    The woman called after her, “Wait!”
    Abby never broke stride, sprinting through the trees on the narrow path.  She could hear the woman trying to keep pace behind her, but Abby was sure that she was the faster of the two.  Continually scanning the trees ahead, she anticipated that someone else would jump out.  She ran like this for ten minutes, flat out, dodging trees and ducking low-lying branches.  The woman was still calling after her.  By the sound of her voice, Abby could tell that she was tired and falling behind. 
    Glancing over her shoulder, she confirmed that the woman was quite far behind.  Also, it seemed that they were alone, as there had been no sign of any of the others.  Surely she would not have made it this far if any of them were around.  Abby ducked behind a thick growth of ferns and pushed her hair out of her face, breathing heavily.  She waited half a minute until the woman came jogging by.  Jumping from her hiding place, she grabbed the woman by her thick hair and held the knife to her throat.
    The woman pleaded, “It’s OK, it’s OK.  I’m not here to hurt you.”
    “OK , my ass,” Abby said.  “Where are the rest of your people?”
    “My people?”
    “Yes, your people. The band of assholes that snatched us up a few days ago.  Those people.” 
    The woman tried to nod, but Abby held her hair tight.  “You must have run into Tom.  That sounds like him.”
    Abby studied the profile of the woman’s face.  She did not recognize her as one of the women by the fire, but she had to assume that there were more of them than she had seen that night.  “So you know this guy?”
    The woman allowed herself a smile . “You could say that.”
    “So who the hell are you, and how do you know him?”
    The woman swallowed hard. “My name is Sara.  Would you