Free Will of Man - Part Four by William Scanlan

WILL OF MAN
    PART FOUR
    By
    William Scanlan
     
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOR WILLIAM SCANLAN
    This publication is property of William Scanlan. All rights reserved for William Scanlan. Copyright 2013.
    No part of this book shall be copied, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without permission.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
    Other books by William Scanlan   found at Amazon.com
     
    To purchase WILL OF MAN - PART ONE (click here)
    To purchase WILL OF MAN - PART TWO (click here)
    To purchase WILL OF MAN – PART THREE (click here)
     
     
     
    WILL OF MAN – PART FOUR
     
    Tyler's Journal Entry: 389
    Date: August 8
    Day: Thursday
    Weather: Hazy and warm
    Miles to go: 580
     
    My leap from the steamboat landed me in the control of the pirates. I escaped the raging river, crawled myself to the top of the river bank, and was quickly grabbed by a pirate.
     
    The bank was steep and slick, and I was able to squirm out of the pirates grip. The pirate fell and slid face first down the muddy bank into the fast moving river. I watched as he slipped from site down the raging river.
    Even though I escaped that particular pirate, I had to avoid the numerous other pirates who littered the river bank. Despite the hurricane like storm, the pirates still had the ambition to stalk the steamboat until its final demise.
    I watched them snagging any survivors, and anything valuable left over from the destroyed steamboat. Like the poor women I witnessed get captured from the train derailment, survivors from the boat wreck were being snagged, collared, and hauled away. In the swirling wind and flying debris, I could see a tall priest saying a prayer in the direction of the sinking steamboat.
    I decided to put my triathlon skills to use and run. I knew I couldn’t out wrestle any pirate, but I was confident I could out-run most of them. As I started to run, I sensed pirates running behind me, trying to catch me. I jumped logs, ran around trees, and sprinted up hills. Sprinting up hills was my “great divider” in any races with steep hills. Where most racers slow down going up hills, I took pride in speeding up. So when I hit those hills, the pirates didn’t stand a chance.
    However, my victory was short lived when I went to jump a fallen tree. I snagged my foot on a branch, and twisted my ankle. The pain was horrible, and I’ve been injured enough to know when the race is over.
    But I wasn’t giving up. I had a decent lead on my pirate friends, and I thought I could hobble into the thick woods and lose them. I struggled through the woods for a good amount of time, thinking I was in the clear, when I came across an old rustic cabin.
    I only wanted to stop for a moment to catch my breath and stabilize my ankle with some medical tape my dad put in my backpack. As I took off my wetsuit and packed it in my backpack, a man came running in looking very scared and out of breath. I recognized him as one of the guards from the boat.
    He barged in the front door, slammed the door behind him, and collapsed on the floor in front of me gasping for air. Before he could say anything, we both noticed torches outside the windows.
    I watched as one torch turned into many, and then I knew I was surrounded. With my hurt ankle, and being surrounded, I decide to quickly hide my backpack inside the cabin. There was a loose step in the stairs leading to the second floor, and I quickly pride it up and shoved my backpack under the board and into the stairway.
    My backpack is my only chance of finding my family again. It has the maps and all my survival gear. If the pirates find it, they will take it, and then I am lost.
    The pirates followed protocol and snagged me, collared me, and then haul me away. As I was being pulled through the woods, I took note of recognizable features so I could find my way back to the cabin.
    Part of me was waiting for Balow to