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Another opened the skin along my forearm.

Blood. Keep moving. I did.

There were pieces. Water flashing silver. Mud sucking at my shoes. My knee hitting rock. Getting up. Running.

Max’s face.

Red twine.

Cold fur.

Running.

The light changed. I noticed that once.

Sun between the trees.

Then gray.

Then nothing.

I was still moving.

My legs had stopped feeling like legs.

They were weight. Pain. Motion.

One foot. Then the other. Again. Again. My chest pulled too tight.

I slowed. Something inside me shoved.

I ran.

A voice. Maybe. I couldn’t tell anymore. My own breathing swallowed everything.

Max. I tried to turn back. Back where?

Trees. Only trees.

I kept moving. My shoe slipped.

I fell against a trunk hard enough to knock air from my lungs.

For a second I stayed there. Cheek against bark. Hands hanging uselessly at my sides. My heart beat against the tree.

Then my body pushed away. Running again.

Dark. Fully dark now.

That mattered.

I thought it did. It had been morning.

Hadn’t it?

I stumbled. Caught myself. Kept going. My feet hurt. Not running hurt.

Stopping felt worse. So I ran.