Surviving Sue

         Searing flashes of pain bolted up his damaged leg. He bit down hard on the length of dried wood he had put in his mouth for just that purpose. For a moment or two he thought he might actually be able to reach his shattered ankle, but the pain became unbearable, forcing him back down. He lay panting, thin beads of sweat running down his forehead. He tried to chase away the swarms of black dots playing at the edge of his vision. They came at him in waves, nauseating, rolling waves. He rolled over on his side and vomited, the movement triggering a new attack of painful muscle spasms. The pain rippled through the intricate network of nerves in his leg, collecting at the base of his spine, causing all of the muscles in his back to convulse in protest. This time it was simply too much for his already frail mind to bear. Unconsciousness washed over him like a wonderful pain killing tsunami, the world disappearing in a sea of swimming darkness.

~~

         Sue was getting on his nerves again. Every Sunday evening she’d play the same old tune. “Why can’t you be like other men and show some ambition?” She’d whine. “Why don’t you show some balls and ask for a raise?” They were on their way home from the weekly family dinner. “Look at Mike. Now there’s a man!” She didn’t even try to hide the obvious distaste she felt towards him.
“If you like Mike so much, why didn’t you marry him instead of me? Oh, I forgot, he didn’t want your slutty little ass. He just fucked you till you were blue in the face and then married your sister instead.” He usually didn’t allow her to draw him into these venomous little fits of hers and although she seemed to take immense pleasure in torturing him every week, he always felt especially miserable if she managed to provoke a response. He still loved her.

~~

         It must have rained sometime during the night. Everything was wet. He awoke stiff and sore, his head pounding, his throat feeling like he’d been eating handfuls of broken glass. He was running a fever, judging from the fluff in his mind, a bad one. He was relieved to find that the pain in his leg had subsided a little. He lay as still as he could, afraid of moving a muscle and waking up the beast in his leg. He lay staring up at the forest canopy. Hazy rays of light shone through the young spring leaves, which softly rustled in the gentle morning breeze, creating a shimmering pool of soft green. He felt himself being drawn into it, like an inviting oasis drawing in a travel weary stranger. He felt his mind gently floating off towards the mesmerizing leafy lake.

~~

         “No!” Sue was flush with anger. Anthony could see the little now-Sue-is-really-pissed-off vein on her forehead throb and knew he had really struck a nerve this time. “I won’t go! You did this on purpose! You found another job, in another state, because you wanted to get rid of me.”
He stared at her for a second, not knowing what to say, knowing that no matter what he said, it would be wrong. “I thought this is what you wanted. You’re the one who’s always telling me I’m not ambitious enough.”
“Me! Now you’re blaming me! I never told you to move us half way around the fucking country! You knew I wouldn’t go with you. You knew I wouldn’t leave my garden, my plants, my babies! We’re not going!”

         He had known the garden would be a deal breaker for Sue. She loved their little garden. She spent most of her time in the garden, planting, watering, nurturing. They didn't have any children, but Sue did – her plants. “But Honey…”
“Don’t you But Honey me! You’re a big old fucking meany aren’t you! You think you can take away my precious babies? I’ll show you! I’ll show you how I fix big fucking meanies like you!”

For a second he thought she was going to have a stroke. Her eyes were bulging and droplets of foamy spit ran down the sides of her mouth. She stood panting, her fists clenched. She looked as though she was getting ready to pummel him to death with her bare hands. The look of murderous hatred in her ice-blue eyes chilled him to the bone.

~~

         He was running through the forest. Something was chasing him. He didn’t know what it was, but it was bad. He could hear it. It screamed through the trees, destroying everything in its path. It was getting closer. He could hear it gaining on him. He couldn’t get away, couldn’t run fast enough. The forest floor was changing, turning into thick sticky soup. It grabbed at his legs. He tried to turn around, to see what was making the terrible noise, but he was stuck. He was up to his waist in the horrible black ooze. He could hear it bearing down on him. He cringed, waiting for it to run him down. It screamed again, closer, right on top of him.
Anthony sat bolt upright. His leg exploded in fiery agony. He was awake, but the thing was still coming, coming to finish him off. It screamed again, but somehow different, somehow familiar. A truck! A big-rig!

         He lay down, relieved. His leg throbbed in protest. It took a second to clear his mind of the fevery fog. “Am I that close to the road?” He wondered out loud. He tried to focus on the cacophony of sound around him, tried to filter out the deafening whisper of rustling leaves and the symphony of bird song. He listened for the sounds of man, the sound of a passing car, the angry blaring of a horn, anything that could give him a glimmer of hope. Maybe he could crawl. He didn’t think he’d be able to crawl very far, but if he had a goal…

~~

         Sue didn’t pommel him to death the night he announced their imminent move. In the following weeks she withdrew into herself. She turned secretive, skulking around the house like a burglar in a jewelry store. Sometimes she spat horrible insults at him. She became more hurtful and belittling than before, but Anthony stood his ground. She had always said she wanted him to grow some balls, and that was exactly what he intended to do.

         While Sue figured out new and improved ways of hurting him, he planned their move to Ohio, making all the arrangements himself. He didn’t trust her with anything. He was sure she’d do everything in her power to stop him. He didn’t mind doing everything himself. He found that he liked making the arrangements, that for the first time in years he felt alive, like he had something to look forward to. He was disappointed that Sue did not feel the same, that she was not excited about his new job, or about the promise of a much higher salary, but he was sure that the move would be good for them. Maybe getting away from the people and places they knew would help bring back a little of the magic they had lost so long ago.

~~

         He pulled himself along by his fingers. The earth was soft and moist, allowing him to get a relatively good handhold, but ripping his fingertips to shreds. His burning fingers were a minor concern compared to the pain in his leg. Every little bump was agony. It wasn’t long before the dark stain around his ankle began spreading once more. “One thing is sure,” he muttered through teeth clenched in pain, “I’ll never get these jeans clean again.”

~~

         As usual, Sue kept her best ammunition for Sunday. Only this time, she didn’t wait until after dinner. She was in a great mood that morning. She got out of bed early and made breakfast. Anthony couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent more time in the kitchen than it took to pop a TV dinner in the microwave. Sue actually using cooking utensils was almost too good to be true.

         She made eggs and bacon for breakfast which they ate in the sunny little breakfast nook they’d never used before. Anthony’s old hope, that everything would be better after the move, seemed more promising than ever before. “Would you like some coffee?” She asked, rising to put her dishes in the dishwasher.
“I’d love some.”
She hit him from behind. The frying pan, still greasy from the bacon, made an almost comical thud as it struck his head. He fell sideways, too dazed to defend himself from further attack. Luckily, Sue seemed to have other plans. “I warned you,” she said, standing over him, frying pan in hand. Her eyes glimmered madly. “You wouldn’t listen and now you’re gonna see what happens to filthy little meanies who hurt the people that love them.” She smiled wildly as she swung back and struck him on the side of the head, knocking him out.

~~

         He was bleeding profusely. He could feel the warm liquid seeping from him, draining his strength. He had no idea how far he’d crawled, or how far he still had to go to get to the road, only that he had to get there. He crawled on, still dragging himself along by his raw fingers. He was nauseous all the time now and just a heart beat away from fainting again. “I won’t faint!” He told himself. If he fainted now, he wouldn’t be able to go any further when he woke up again. “If I wake up again,” he corrected himself. He tried to focus all of his attention on putting one hand in front of the other, pulling himself along, struggling to keep his mind clear of the fog which was trying to overpower it.

~~

         He awoke stiff and sore, his head pounding, his throat feeling like he’d been eating handfuls of broken glass. He looked up at the midmorning sun playing through the trees. Instinctively, he reached out to touch his tender scalp, only to find that his arms were securely tied behind his back. Apparently, he had been lying on them for quite some time. He could barely feel them anymore. He rolled onto his side. His arms screamed in protest as life slowly trickled back into them. “Where’s Sue!?!” The thought brought him crashing back to full consciousness. “That crazy bitch tried to kill me,” he whispered. He guessed that deep down in side he had always suspected Sue was a little loony, but exactly how loony he never would have believed if he hadn't seen it for himself.

         He could hear her moving around, working. “Digging! She’s going to bury me!” His heart raced at the thought of Sue digging his grave, out there in the woods, where nobody would ever find him. He frantically tried to reach the front pocket of his jeans, where he always kept the small Swiss Army knife his father had given him for his eleventh birthday. He nearly popped his shoulder out, getting to the little knife, but once out, it made light work of the thin black cable ties Sue had used to tie his hands and feet with.

         Sue came storming around their old blue pinto, just as he was finishing off the cable ties around his ankles. She let out an unearthly wail, hoisting the shovel above her head as she ran towards him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and leaped towards her, catching her by surprise, driving her down. He expected her to struggle, but she didn’t. He lay on top of her, the two of them staring into each others eyes. She coughed, spewing up blood from her punctured lung. Anthony scrambled away in horror. He stared at Sue in disbelief. She lay motionless, her eyes wide with shock, his little red Swiss Army knife sticking out of her chest. She began laughing madly, bringing on another wet coughing fit, bringing up more of the bright red, oxygen rich blood, which ran down her face in little red rivulets.

         Anthony turned and ran.

~~

         There were lights all around him, flickering brightly, washing the side of the road in alternating blue red flashes of color. There were people too, talking hurriedly, scurrying from one place to another. He tried to talk to them, tried to tell them to help Sue. She was in the forest somewhere and she needed help. He tried to get them to listen, but he could barely manage to lift his head. It felt like he was floating. No, not floating, they were wheeling him away, to an ambulance.

         Detective Jack Whealand watched as the paramedics loaded Anthony McCay into the back of one of their meat wagons. “So, what've we got Sergeant?” He asked the patrol sergeant in charge of the crime scene.
“A truck driver spotted him lying next to the road. Him and his wife have been missing since Sunday. Some of the neighbours reported hearing noises, a fight, and the wife screamin' at the husband that she was going to kill him. A patrol unit found the doors unlocked, and signs of a struggle.”
“Sunday? He's been here four days?”
“Yes sir, it seems so. We found the wife about a mile and a half from here. Looks like she was planning on burying him alive. He must've gotten loose somehow, they struggled, she ended up with a knife in the chest.”
“So he got injured in the fight?”
“Well, no sir, not exactly. It looks like he ran away, and, well... Well, it looks like the unlucky bastard stepped in a bear trap. God only knows how it got here, but it damn well nearly took his leg off. Then he crawled all the way here. Seems he crawled more than a mile, dragging that bear trap with him. The meds say its a miracle he didn't bleed to death.”

         Whealand watched as the ambulance pulled away. “Better get someone to show me where the wife is Serge,” he said, a cold shiver running up his spine at the sight of the rusty old bear trap.

The End