Getting Away

Urrrggghhhhh she screamed. She felt like pulling her hair out and seriously contemplated the action as there was a possibility that the pain involved would be a distraction from the emotions that were currently rampaging through her system. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down. The shaking had eased off somewhat, though there was still the odd tremor now and then, but on the whole her blood had ceased to boil and was now only a slight simmer.

She rested her head on the steering wheel.

Another deep breath and she felt almost together. The sound of the baby stirring in his car seat brought both comfort as well as more anguish.  It reminded her that she was still without a clear plan.  In fact she was actually without any plan at all.  She was suddenly realising that she had not thought any of this through at all.  Everything had happened so fast that there was no time to stop and think about it.

How could they possibly have had a baby in such a place?  And not just any old baby either.  No.  It was her baby.  Her precious little bundle of joy that she had been forced to hand over.  Her flesh and blood that was practically ripped out of her arms the moment he left the safety of her womb.

She still couldn't believe that she had really agreed to it all.  But they had been so convincing.  They had made it seem like there was no other option.  They made her believe their lies and doubt her ability.  How could she have been so stupid?

Now was not the time to think about any of that now.  What ever lead she had was quickly diminishing. She wondered how long it would be before they noticed he was no longer in the nursery.  She shuddered just thinking about that awful place.

Her head was well and truly pounding.  She felt fuzzy and unsteady.  She must have hit her head as the car spun out of control.  It was hard to decide what to do next.  Turning the key in the ignition all she heard was the engine whir.  There was no way she would be able to get it started.   She unclipped her seatbelt and turned to look in the back.

Brenton was still snuggly in his car seat oblivious to it all.  Which she was rather glad about.  The pour little soul had already seen enough drama without watching his mother slash kidnapper aquaplane across a puddle in a hurried escape.

Taking a deep breath and pulling herself together Rebecca opened the car door and got out.  She had no option but to carry on by foot.  Opening the back door she leant over the car seat and place a kiss on Brenton's forehead.

"It's alright darling, mummy is here now.  Everything will be alright and we will never be apart again" She whispered into his ear as she lifted him out of the seat.  She pulled him in close and wrapped her arms around him.  It was much colder than she expected.  Darkness wasn't too far away so she knew it would only be getting worse.  Thankfully her jacket was thick and warm.  She knew that if it came to the worst it would be warm enough to wrap the baby in.  There was no way he would be getting cold.

With a final check through the car she decided there was nothing else of use in it.  She had wasted enough time and needed to get moving while there was still some light.  She looked over at the quickly setting sun.  It was the direction she had just come.  Turning away she hoped that neither her or her son would ever have to return.

While every inch of her being wanted to run she knew that she had to conserve her energy.  She would be of no use to anyone, least of all her son if she didn't think sensibly.  After all she had been through in the last few weeks she certainly did not want to fall in a heap and lose it all now.  So she resisted the overwhelming urge to run and just kept on walking. It felt like she had been going on for hours but she knew it was unlikely that even an hour had passed since her escape.

The sun was gone now, though it still wasn't dark dark.  There was a twilighty glow that was holding of the inevitable darkness.  She felt a chill go through her bones.  She couldn't tell whether it was from the cold or from thinking about the onset of darkness.  Either way it didn't matter, she was powerless to do anything about either of them.

Looking into the distance she could see a beam of light coming towards.  Still not really sure of what the next step of her plan was she decided the best thing to do was get out of sight.  Whoever it was coming towards her was heading towards where she was trying to escape from.  There was no point risking being taken back there.  She could feel the shivers starting to come back.

As she headed off the road and into the dense scrub she was a little relieved to be in the bush.  It was the first time ever though that she had felt that the outdoors was her friend.  It meant that she would be able to easily hide from any passing traffic.  She was certain that someone would start looking for her soon.  In fact she was surprised that she had not seen any cars coming from behind her.  Surely they knew by now that she was gone.  

The outdoors was not exactly somewhere she felt comfortable.  In fact the bush was probably her least favourite place in the world.  She was a city girl.  She loved looking at skyscrapers and bustling people.  Open spaces, trees and animals had little to no space in her life.  Oh what she would give to be surrounded by crowds of people right now.  She found it comforting to just blend into a crowd and feel unnoticed.

Sitting on the ground behind a shrub she watched the car pass.  Torn between relief of not being seen and yet still being alone she could feel a tear roll down her cheek.  Wiping it away she took a deep breath and pulled her baby even tighter to her chest.  He let out a little murmur as if to say it's ok mum, we are together now nothing else matters.