Chapter 1: Katerina

My hold on my gun did not waver even as the blood draining from my thigh caused my vision to. I closed my eyes and leaned against the trunk of a tree to listen for the men following me. It had been at least three that managed to follow my car up to the woods, but I was very certain that at least one had been lost to my bullets.

I didn’t hear anything over the sound of my own breathing for two of the longest minutes of my life. Each second caused more of my life to pulse from the open wound and I needed to find a place to stop so I could staunch the flow.

The continued silence all around me did little to calm my racing heart because I knew all to well that the wet ground would only fuck me over. The mud held footprints like a vice but could muffle the sound of tromping feet in a way that dry earth never could. ‘Fuck fuck fuckity fuck’ I felt like screaming in frustration at the turn of events but knew it would only hurt my cause.

At the very least, twigs still snapped when stepped on or passed through. Every bit a blessing and a curse because both parties would know if the other approached. Even knowing this though, knowing that staying still was my only way of remaining undetected, it didn’t prevent me from acknowledging that I had to move or I would die as surely from blood loss as I would from a bullet to my head or center mass.

I started moving again. I didnt run, just took slow, deliberate moves through all of the branches and foliage around me. A wrong step and a twisting of my leg almost sent me hurdling to the ground and sent my heart pounding harder. At this rate, I was going to bleed out before I even had a chance to reach the cabin.

Finally, I had to acknowledge that if I didn’t stop the bleeding, I was going to be DOA. I stopped next to a tree with a thick enough trunk to hide behind. I crouched low, dropped my pack and examined the hole in my thigh. The pant leg was sticking to the wound and each tug had stars dancing in my eyes but I finally got it unstuck and had to sit for a second, gathering myself for more pain.

I then reached around to the pack at my side and removed all of the supplies that I needed. Saline, gauze, gloves and sanitizer. Check, check and check. I started by tearing a small rip in the gauze pack so I didn’t have to fight with it later then took the saline and started spraying it into the open wound in order to clean it. It stung like a son of a bitch, because I was literally pouring salt in the wound, and I wanted to hit something. ‘It’s better than dying, it’s better than dying’. Tears sprang up in my eyes and I took a deep breath to calm myself. I then donned the gloves and lathered them in sanitizer as a precaution.