Abandon

This is just a short story.  Though I have some ideas to continue it, that's not something I'm going to be working on right now as I have two other full length novels in progress.  This story came to me while I was at work a week or so ago during a longer break between customers.  I have a tendency to bring a notebook with me to work in case I feel like writing and that's what happened here.  The first sentence just came to me and I ran with it and this is the finished piece for now.  So hopefully you will enjoy it or, if nothing else, find it moderately interesting.

I didn't want to leave her there alone, but what choice did I have?  With the world falling apart around us, how was I to protect her and save myself at the same time?  The unselfish answer was, of course, that I wasn't.  I should give myself up, willingly, so that she could have the chance to live.  Ah, but I was not so unselfish and even if I did give my life up and she escaped, there was no guarantee that she would survive.  In fact there was every chance that she would not.  However, if I saved myself and left her behind, I was fairly certain that I would survive, more certain by far of that outcome than the one of her surviving on her own.

So I left her, alone in those dark echoing caves, alone and injured, hunted by creatures not of this world.  I told her how to get out, but I had no hope that she would be able to outrun our hunters.  They were far too cunning and deadly for a single girl to be able to defeat.  She had nearly collapsed when I told her I was going on without her.  Falling to her knees, she pleaded with me, begged me to stay, to not abandon her.  She knew I was handing her a death sentence.  Her eyes, desperate and haunted, had filled with tears as she realized that she had no hold on me.  Those eyes, shining like the rarest of sapphires in the dim torchlight, had very nearly changed my mind.  But self-preservation is often stronger than the strongest pull to stay.  And so I gave her two of our remaining torches, flint and a piece of steel, and with a quick kiss on her forehead, I left her.

Her terrified cries echoed after me.  I forced myself to ignore them, hard though it was with the sound amplified all around me by the caves, chasing me, accusing me, tormenting me.  I had no real reason to care about the girl.  We had met by chance in the caves, each left completely alone after the deaths of our families at the hand of the Serpent King.  I had managed to escape unscathed, but the girl had sustained numerous injuries trying to protect her family.  She never told me how she escaped and I never asked.  It didn't seem terribly important at the time.  Still, we had bonded in the short time we were together.  We'd each thought the caves would be a safe place to hide temporarily, safer than remaining in our own country that is.  If you knew your way, the caves could lead you to the other lands that ours was separated from by the giant, impassable mountains above.  Neither of us had really considered undertaking the long and dangerous journey to another land, not seriously at least.  But not three days after I had entered the caves and four days after she had, the Hunters caught our scent and we found ourselves out of time and choices.

No one knows what the Hunters are or what they look like.  No on who has ever set eyes on them has lived to tell the tale.  They've roamed through our world as long as anyone can remember though they are not of our world.  The story is that they entered our land from the caves after their land was destroyed.  Whether that is the true story is unknown.  They are few in number as much as we can tell, but they were far too deadly for lack of numbers to truly hinder them.  They go and hunt where they please without opposition.  Even the Serpent King dares not hunt them.

Terror had filled our hearts when their horrific howls had sounded out, echoing all around us.  Trusting to hope that they were behind us and not before, we had fled deeper into the caves.  Days had passed and the howls slowly grew louder, nearer.  Try as she might, the girl could go no faster than a slow run.  Only when the Hunters were less than half a day behind us did I abandon her.

And I ran, ran as I had never run before, fleeing from this unknown evil.  I had always been fast and now I pushed my body harder than ever before.  The howls gradually faded, growing fainter and fainter until at last I could no longer hear them.  I ran until my legs collapsed under me and I fell to the hard floor.  For many minutes I lay unmoving, drawing in huge gulps of air.  When at last I found I could stand, I staggered to my feet and picked up my torch, which miraculously had not been extinguished in my fall, and began walking.

I have no idea how long I walked, the darkness gave no indication of time passing.  I ate and drank what little food and water I had when I was hungry or thirsty, slept when exhaustion overwhelmed me, and kept moving forward the rest of the time.  Though I had committed the map of the caves I'd seen to memory, there was still the haunting thought that I was going the wrong way and I was doomed to wander the caves until starvation or lack of water drained my body of life.  But at long last I recognized the familiar scent of clear, fresh air, so completely different from the musty, earthy smells that permeated the caves.  I began to run again, sprinting towards freedom.  As I ran, I began to notice a gradual dimming of the darkness.  And then, there it was, shining like a beacon, the mouth of the cave, a circle of light through which the brilliant blueness of the sky could be glimpsed above dark green treetops.  Tears of joy began to run down my face as I pushed my legs to run ever faster.  With my eyes so completely focused on the light, I tripped and stumbled over the uneven ground numerous times but always managed to catch myself.  Then suddenly I was outside, surrounded by trees and grass and blue sky.  I breathed in the fresh air and felt more alive than ever before.  And just as suddenly as it had come, the incredibly joy of just being alive deserted me and was replaced by the crushing guilt that I had left a girl alone to die so that I could live.  I wept bitter tears as I mourned the nameless girl who had trusted me with her life only for me to abandon her.

At long last, with no more tears left to cry, I forced myself to keep moving.  I looked back only once at the gaping black hole at the base of the mountains that marked the entrance to the caves.  I knew that by now the girl must be dead, but there was the faintest spark of hope in my heart that she too would make it out alive.  Turning my back for the last time, I began walking toward whatever future destiny had in store for me.