The Aztec Saga - Hunted
Page 31
Chapter Nineteen
He drove on back roads the entire way to Warrangatta. Twice a day we would stop, and he would bathe my shoulders in salted water. It didn’t reverse the infection, but it slowed its spread considerably. It wasn’t enough, though. By the fifth day of travelling, I could feel the infection had moved into dangerous ground. As I lay along the back seat, I could feel the fever spread throughout my body. My skin was an inferno, but my insides were frozen.
“Ally. Hold on. We’ve just passed the sign to Warrangatta. We’re only twenty minutes away! We’ll be at the bush nurse in no time, and even if there’s no one there, we’ll find some medicine,” Andy called over his shoulder.
I heard his words, but I couldn’t understand them. It was as though he was speaking through water.
“Oh shit!” he yelled as he slowed the car.
I rolled my head towards him. I tried to sit up, but my head spun too much.
“Wha..?” I tried to ask, but my voice wouldn’t work.
“Shit! Shit!” He frantically looked through all the windows. “They’re here! I can’t see them properly in the dark, but they’re here!” He ran hands over his head, as though trying to clear his thoughts.
I mustered as much strength as I could to yell at Andy. “Run. Leave me here. They want me! Just run!”
“No. Not a chance,” he snapped.
He turned the steering wheel on full lock and started to turn the car around, trying to escape. There was no point because there was no escape. They had made it their mission to find me, to kill me. They would also kill anyone who was with me.
In that instant, I made my decision. I couldn’t change my fate, but I could alter Andy’s. I turned over onto my stomach and pushed myself closer to the door. I grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.
“Alexandra! No!” Andy screamed as he tried to reach for me to hold me in the car.
I didn’t look at him as I fell to the coarse gravel road, the stones grabbing at my skin as my body skidded along to a stop. It should have hurt, but I didn’t feel anything—my senses had become desensitized.
As I lay on the hard ground, I looked up to the sky. It was night. The stars twinkled as they smiled down at me. I rolled my head around. I wanted to see Andy’s car driving into the distance, but he wasn’t fleeing; he was running towards me. I tried to scream at him to run away, to just leave me, but my eyes grew too heavy; I was losing consciousness. Just before my eyes closed, two black hands wrapped themselves around my waist. Him! He promised to always find me and he had. He was taking me. I belonged to him ...
*****
I sit with my head resting back, eyes closed, exhausted from my effort. I have done as they asked and filled the notebook with my memories.
The feeding door slides open again. A rusted tray scratches its way across the concrete floor. Another notebook has been delivered, to be filled with more of my memories. During the time spent filling this first notebook, no boxes have entered the room. But there could be another hundred boxes sitting on the other side of the wall, each to be filled with body parts if I deviate from my task; a cruel reminder that retribution awaits. So, I have no option but to continue to re-live my life and record my memories—for what reason I still do not know. I do know that I am being watched, and I do know that they must still need some secret I hold locked within me; I have no clue as to what that secret may be.
Are my loved ones still alive? Are my allies searching for us? Perhaps it is foolish, but I still cling to something—I still cling to hope.
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