And now, our story continues…
Day 32: There were other bits of information that were less pleasing to hear.
There were other bits of information that were less pleasing to hear. The fact that no one believed she could stay ahead of the hunters was no surprise. If asked before she fled, she would have agreed and guessed that she would have been captured by nightfall.
As it was she only escaped detection for the first few months because she managed to run with an evacuation kit one of her uncles prepared. He prepared many of them and made sure each of them had one. At the time, Anna thought it was a paranoid precaution. When things went sideways a few weeks later, she grabbed her kit, thanks his precaution and ran with the kit. She was lucky she was close enough to grab it and remembered it was there.
Others weren’t so lucky.
By the time the supplies ran low, Anna started to figure things out and managed to keep herself safe. While she couldn’t fault the others for not realizing she could stay ahead of the hunters, Anna had to admit she was hurt by the fact that the others placed bets as to when she would be captured. She thought of those she knew and despite the sting, she had to admit, she could see many of them placing bets on such a thing.
‘They were less friends and more competitors,’ she reminded herself. It was why she hadn’t contacted any of them when she found it was no longer illegal. Thinking of them betting on the date of her capture still stung and Anna struggled to push away the hurt.
Under her feet the land started to rise and Anna began to climb higher into the mountains. The road cut a straight path through the mountains and the city she wanted to reach was on the other side. The isolating mountains helped keep the city lost and abandoned, forming a physical barrier as well as a magical one. No one could see the city and gradually it was as if it was forgotten.
The hurt Anna felt kept her pushing forward past where she planned to stop. She instead walked on as the day faded and the moon rose high. The light from the full moon was bright and lit the path nearly as well as the sun. Eventually she had to admit that her legs were too tired to proceed. Anna found a small cave and crawled inside for the night. It was not deep, but it would keep the wind away from her for the night. She kept her shield up and left her pack on her back. She pulled the blanket she had tied to the side of the pack over herself. Soon She was sound asleep.
The first rays of the morning sun woke her and Anna stretched. She was stiff from her sleeping position and the rock that was her bed, and tired from the long day’s walk. Knowing she would loosen up as she moved, Anna took a moment to relieve her overly full bladder. She ten took her small breakfast ration from her pack and slipped the pack back on her back.
Deciding she was little likely to see anything if she looked in on Marcus at this time of morning, Anna decided to wait until she stopped for lunch to listen in for new information. She ate her breakfast as she started walking. As expected her muscles loosened up as she got into motion. The morning light was soft and hazy, just beginning to come in.
Ten til Midnight 