Flash Fiction Entries

Escape

I heard a twig snap and turned my head toward the wind. Human sweat assailed my nostrils. Fear washed onto me like water lapping at the side of a boat. I stumbled down the dark trail, massive vines at each side, leaving me with tunnel vision.

I thought of the ear-piercing crack of each bullet and my mom and little sister lying in their blood, the dreamlike quality of it all. I had bolted through the screen door, across the rickety porch and run. Deep into the woods, sirens wailed their way up to my ears from the serpentine road below.

Pine needles pricked my feet and thorny undergrowth cut my ankles and burned like a slicing knife. Pausing to catch my breath, I heard more rustling and darted to the next shadow. I stumbled over something in the darkness, big enough that I landed on my hands and knees. I felt around. My arm bumped against a knee-high rock about three feet wide. Rocks littered these mountain paths like some giant hand had thrown them helter skelter. If I fell, he might, too.

Then I saw the old tree stand with the handmade rungs of a ladder disappearing under the low hanging branches. The sharp edges cut into the arches of my feet, twisting under my weight, as I hoisted myself upwards. I sat on the rotted plywood and waited.

A flashlight shone in my eyes as I tried to stand.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Son. Throw down that gun.”

I looked down in disbelief at the shiny weapon and tightened my grip on it just as the blow came. My legs went weak, and I fell to the ground below. The Sheriff towered over me; his questioning eyes the last thing I saw.


word count = 294