Green Desert - Chapter 3.1.4 - Fírí

I willed my body to move. I had to move. I could see the cops feet coming closer.

Still breathing hard, still sweating horribly, I threw myself to a sitting position, scrambled into the garage, behind our little brown car.

Had the cop heard me? I held my breath. My pulse raced.

Crunch. Crunch. Footsteps on gravel, purposeful, striding, powerful. Coming to take me away forever. Coming to lock me away forever. They stopped.

I held my breath. Silence. My nose throbbed. My head was about to explode. A roaring in my ears. Pain in my temples. My throat burned. Can’t breathe. Cannot breathe. My head pounded, filled with expanding rocks.

I gasped, raw and sandpaper. Noisy. I sucked in gulps of air. The cop was going to come over and grab my wrist, arrest me. Shoot me. I was dead. Might as well breathe deep. Breathe deep. I enjoyed my last breaths as a free woman.

The concrete was cold and hard, dirt-covered. My white tshirt would be all rusty on the back. A shiver crawled up my back, rattled my head.

The cop. Where was the cop? What was taking him so long? He should be picking me up, dragging me to his car, reading me my rights.

Another shiver shook me. What did I do with my sweatshirt? I looked around but didn’t see it.

No cop. He hadn’t been going for me. . . . What about Zhíno?