CW: A Girl from the Apple Orchard (3/12)

Previously, in Part 1:

We meet Laura on a Saturday, deep in thought in her home office where Roy thinks she is writing her book. Instead, we learn that she is trying to write a letter explaining why she is about to leave. Her thoughts take her far away, and only a loud noise brings her out of the trance. Upon investigation, Laura learns that it was only wind slamming the previously open window shut. Relieved, she tries to write, but nothing satisfactory makes it onto the paper. A pile of discarded balls of paper surrounds the trash can. Roy returns home with groceries to make dinner. When Laura confesses she was not able to write anything, he comforts her by saying she will do better next time.

Previously, in Part 2:

Roy returns with groceries on another Saturday afternoon to a quiet home. Assuming that Laura is writing, as per usual, he unpacks the bags and begins to make plans for dinner. After a while, he grows slightly agitated and looks for Laura in her office. In the dark room, all he finds is what looks like a gift bag placed on the desk. In the meantime, we learn that Laura is on a moving train, but we are unsure of her immediate plans. Her fellow passenger – a young boy keeps swinging his legs and kicking her in the shins, but his mother does not even seem to care, excusing him as: “just a kid.” Laura gets up and walks out in search of a more peaceful seat. Then, we jump back to Roy who is finishing reading a letter from Laura. There is a teddy bear for Tommy in the gift bag. When Tommy runs into the room and tells Roy he is hungry, Roy puts the gift away and tells his son they will get pizza for dinner and watch TV. They leave the room, the letter, and the bear behind.

The moment Laura pulled the trigger, she knew she had made a mistake. A loud bang split the quiet, still air.

“Shit,” Laura cursed under her breath as she holstered her gun and began to run.

She wanted to search the guy and maybe grab some of his stuff for herself, but she knew she could not spare even a single second. No doubt the dead guy’s friends would swarm the area in no time. Although Laura knew that she should not have fired the way she did, she felt like she had no choice when she saw the enemy appear out of thin air in front of her. There was nowhere to hide, she was too far away from him to try hand-to-hand combat, and he was already lifting his weapon to aim at her. It was kill or be killed and Laura did not want to die.

Running down the hill, Laura tripped and tumbled down the remainder of the way. As soon as she came to a halt, Laura got up to her feet and set her sights on a forest she spotted on the horizon. Covered in dirt and scratches, she ran for her life. The yelling in the distance behind her reminded her that the woods were her only chance of survival. After all, she could not take on a group of armed rebels by herself. The forest seemed thousands of miles away and Laura began to tire. She wanted to turn around to assess the situation but she knew that would lose her precious seconds – time she could not afford to spare. The bullet that flew past her right ear reminded her of that.

“C’mon,” she whispered to motivate herself and then repeated the same command only louder.

It was as if that disconnected Laura’s brain from her body. She began to run faster and did not even feel some of the deeper cuts on her leg. Adrenaline does wonders. Laura, with her energy renewed, ran into the forest and weaved through the trees to confuse the men on her tail. She only stopped after she found a ravine and hid underneath a huge rock sticking out from the sides, which granted her temporary cover. Even though she still did not allow herself to feel the pain and exhaustion, she knew that she should not push her body any further without taking a break and assessing her injuries first.

Aside from a few superficial cuts and scrapes, there were only two areas of concern for Laura – a gash on the side of her thigh, with a metal fragment still in it, and a head wound. She disinfected both of them, applied a bandage to her head, and then sewed her leg wound shut.

“It will heal before the wedding,” she giggled to herself as she peered around the rock.

The forest was noisy with the birds singing and the leaves rustling in the wind, but Laura did not hear a single sign of her enemies. She could breathe and relax, if only for a moment. Nestled tightly against the wall, Laura decided to take a few minutes to form a plan. Soon, her mind began to wander.

A man with his face against the floor lied in a pool of blood. There was so much blood everywhere. Her stained hands trembled, letting go of the hammer that hit her toes while falling to the ground.

Laura waved the fragmented thought away.

She should have just stayed home, playing house with Roy and Tommy and hoping that one day she would become a famous writer. Life would have been so much easier then. She should have but she could not. That was not her life. Laura was on a mission and she was not leaving without getting what she came here for. Jason warned her it was a suicide mission but he knew that once Laura made up her mind, there was no swaying her. She was so close, she could smell it.

Once she replenished her energy a little, she got up and walked out of the ravine and straight into an ambush. One man grabbed her from behind while another held his gun pointing at her head. They tied her hands and feet and the man that grabbed her threw her over his shoulder. There was no way out of this one. Laura hoped that wherever they were taking her she would have the ability to survive long enough to escape. The burlap sack made it harder for Laura to see where the two men were taking her but she knew the general direction in which they were traveling.

After a short walk and a horse ride that could have lasted anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes, they arrived at their destination. They only took the bag off Laura’s head after they walked her through a series of doors and thrusted her onto a stone-cold floor. Immediately, Laura looked around to try and gather any information that could help her escape, but before she could do a full 360 sweep around the room, her eyes fixated on the woman sitting upon a throne.

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“Write a story inspired by the word ‘fragment.'”
– prompt used for this CW piece.
[Source: BlogBattle]

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P.S. As always, you are more than welcome to use this prompt to inspire your post. If you decide to write something, be sure to pingback to this post so that I can get an alert and check out your piece. (A post on how to do pingbacks can be found here.) If pingbacks are not your thing, feel free to simply leave a link to your piece in the comment section below. The more, the merrier!

Stay golden,

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***

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Share in the COMMENTS.
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