Free Crave by Jordan Sweet

CRAVE
     
    CHAPTER 1
     
    I’m running at full speed to catch a train, my lungs gasping for air, legs burning as I try desperately to keep up with the railroad cars as they begin to gain more and more speed.  The train has only just begun gathering momentum, and already I feel like I can’t keep up.
    In the movies, I’d have hopped on by now like it was nothing and my hair would still be perfect. 
    But this is different.  I’ve got about one minute left before my body gives out and my last chance to get out of this wasteland pulls away from me forever.
    The only thing left to do is catch up to that one open stock car door and jump like my life depends on it—which, given my luck, it just might..
    I look down to get my bearings and I see blood.  My big toe nail is split.  It feels like someone shoved a needle all the way through it.
    My heart pounds harder.  And harder.  I am not giving up on this, I keep telling myself.
    The cows are making a terrible ruckus from inside the other compartments.  And the smell is like nothing I ever knew back in the small town of New Bedford.  That awful smell.  That muddy farm and manure smell. 
    I saw the sign on the front car back when it first approached: “Colson Cattle- Wyoming’s Finest Livestock”.  Of all the trains, in all the United States, I get cattle.
    This trip couldn’t get any better.  Really.
    Somehow, I force more effort out of my protesting legs, ignoring the pain, ignoring the signals telling me to stop running and give up.  With the last effort I can manage, I finally get close enough to the open stock car to get a glimpse inside.
    It’s mostly empty, with some boxes and what looks like a few scattered piles of hey on the floor.  But what’s most surprising is that there’s actually another person in there.
    At first, I’m so startled that I don’t jump inside. 
    Instead, I fall back a little bit.  “Shit,” I say, although it’s a gasp that comes out of my mouth, I can barely hear myself speak.
    The train is really pulling away from me now.  I blew it.
    Stuck.  Stuck with nothing but a broken-down car, no money, no way to get anywhere and nothing in sight to get me to where I’m going. 
    But just as I’m about to finally give up and fall to my knees, an arm reaches out of the open stock car and a hand opens up.  “Come on, grab my hand!” a powerful voice calls to me.
    “I can’t!” I yell, but who knows if my voice even reaches him amidst the noise and racket around us.
    Suddenly, the man is hanging off the train like Spiderman, half of him holding onto the door, the other half leaning towards me, trying to bridge the gap as I fall behind.
    He’s risking his life to help me, I realize.
    If he can risk his life, I can certainly run a little faster.  And so, despite the fact that I already had nothing left in my weary limbs, I somehow begin trying harder to reach the stranger.
    What if we don’t connect?  I’ll hit the ground and all will be lost.  And I might be killed if I roll under this train.
    When we get to the intersection and I hit pavement, my speed increases.  I’ve come up a level now from the rocks and I can feel the end of this race.  I reach higher than ever before focusing in on the stranger’s hand.
    “You can do it!” he yells out, as I finally get close enough to grab hold.
    With shocking strength, the stranger hauls me inside like he was picking up a pillow, pulling me inside.
    As I land on my feet, our hands are still locked.  I first see the part of his forearm, revealed by an unbuttoned sleeve.  And then a little higher the flesh of his chest between the open collars of his jean jacket.  As his head starts to come up, I can see the stubble around his chin flaring up each side of his jawline.  Rugged.
    His eyes meet mine and I’m shocked to find that the stranger is handsome.  No, he’s beyond handsome—he’s gorgeous.
    His sky blue eyes are intense, but he offsets the intensity with a