"Hey!" A voice calls out to me in a sten and loud tone. The tone of the person's voice conveys a desire to have dominace. I come to a stop as I am close to dropping my berries I have found throughout the walk so far. The berries wern't much, or what I usually eat but enough to last me a cupole hours. They're wildberries, small yet the only soruce of food so far. A bush, about the size of an avreage hedge made a ruffing sound, where I took a step closer to the bush. "Come on little girl, come here. I got some candy.
"No." I continue my walk, I said something in a low tone that no one could understand . One by one, my fingers from my left hand easily start to pick up the berries that are in my right and place them in my mouth.
"Oh come on, I know your lost." The bush yelled again, with a calm voice. "I can help you get to your mom and dad."
I ignore the voice this time, and keep walking trying to find some more berries to munch on. Right near there are another three routes: west, east, and north. I tilt my head slightly upward to see the sun almost in the center of the sky.
Alreday almost noon?
I have been walking for amost two hours, with a little bit of food, and no water. My mouth is dry, and the only source of a "drink" is from the berries. From the looks of time from the sun's direction it seems to be 11:45a.m or so. The clouds in the sky are huge puffy shapes, where once in a while a huge swarm of them cover the sun. Behind me, I hear the same voice. It's footsteps getting louder and louder, where pebbles and sticks crunch. With my trembling head I turn back to see a man standing.
The man is tall and dresses like a motorcycle gang member. It has chracoal sleeky hair with visible wrinkles with an odour of ashes. A lighten up ciggertte is in its mouth. That voice, too. It's the same one as before. As the smell of ciggertte breath got closer and closer to me, I began to pick up my pace.
"Come on, you can trust me, little girl. I've got some candy for you." The man said this as he rummaged through his pockets for a piece of candy. Dispite being 4'5 for my age, and most people calling me a 'little girl' because of it, and when people say "oh" espcally when I tell my age. It get's annoying, and this time. It's the last time I had it with it. Espcally creepy perves who just want them for sexual pleasure.
My head turns slowly, trembling in terror as alreday I'm breaking the rule. The man's a lot taller than I had anticipated. My heart is racing, and my hands are becoming clammy. He reminds me of someone. But who is it, exactly? I couldn't remember who it was, but it wasn't on my mind.
"No! I'm not interested in your candy!" I scream my body becoming rigid and stiff, where with instict I raise a fist. I swallow heavily. "G-get the hell away from me! Stranger danger!" I begin to run, not paying attention to where I'm going as I tripped once. The berries I had so far for today dropped all onto the pebbles. No time for those anymore. I got up, using my hands where I see my pants .They have holes at the knees.
Great. This is the absolute last thing I want to do to while on this journey.
Running for my life and possibly feeling the touch of death.
I contunie running the same pace.
This time, the man starts running in an attempt to catch up to me. It comes to a halt and takes a breath before running again. Which I take that as a advantage. It's cursing at me to come to him. Which I don't pay attention to. But tears steamed down my cheeks from the words. His ashy breath would occasionally get close enough to brush against the back of my neck.
A clicking sound can be heard in the distance, not too far away. There's also a slide that's being pushed back.
Wait. . .that's a gun!?
I turn around quickly and see the man running again, his pace getting faster and faster. It's firing the gun at random. Every time it shot, my heart keeps skipping a beat. The loud bang shot sent adrenaline rushing through my veins. Some sticks and twigs got deep into my skin, where I try my best to aviod them.
"Come back here, you mother fuckin' peice of, o--" Once again, the man is gasping for air. His hands on his jeans. I ran like I'd never run before, with no intention of looking back. Only until I am certain he is no longer in my view.
It took me ten minutes to decide whether to keep running, taking paths I'd never taken before, or to stop and take a breath. Now it's the right time to stop. I look back and see no veiw of the man, or anyone else trying to shoot me alive. My mouth opens wide as I exhale deeply, my lungs scream for air, as my hands place onto my knees, I sit down and look ahead of me. I move my hair out of my face where I see nothing but a bunch of trees, sticks, and potentially more fruit.
I stare ahead as I set the bag on my lap, take out the journal and pen, and begin filling in the first page of the journal with the events that happened so far.