Life isn’t supposed to hurt this much , she thought and sank to the ground. Her thoughts went to Rhyn then Hannah then the past few weeks as she sought to figure out where she’d gone wrong. She was alone and soon, she and her baby would be dead.
A strange sound pierced her sorrow. She ignored it, not wanting to exert the effort needed to leave the dark place where she’d fallen.
The sound came again, the cry of someone who was hurt. Katie wiped her eyes. She was drenched with rain and curled against the large root of a tree. The birds of the jungle made screaming sounds, but this was different. This was human.
“Hello?” she said. “Is someone there?”
“Please help me!” came the faint response.
Katie started in the direction of the woman’s voice. She stumbled over fallen, slick wood and brambles she couldn’t see. Whatever magic that had cleared a path for her was gone. She struggled through the jungle before calling out,
“Can you hear me? I can’t see much. You’ll have to say something, so I can find you.”
“I’m here. You sound close.”
Katie angled herself towards the voice once again. The woman was close. She continued and then stopped suddenly, nearly tripping over the small form in her path. She looked at the woman closely in the limited light to make sure it wasn’t a demon or some other kind of under-worldly creature out to eat her. The woman looked human enough. Her features were hard to make out in the dark, but she at least had two arms and two legs.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked and knelt beside her as much out of exhaustion as curiosity.
“I tripped in the rain. I think my foot is stuck in a root.”
“Are you from here?”
“I don’t think so. I’m from Maine.”
Katie hesitated before shuffling forward on her knees. She carefully touched the woman’s leg then patted it as she followed it down to the thick roots wrapped around her ankles. Unable to see exactly how she was stuck, Katie used her cold fingers to fumble around the root and the woman’s sneakers.
“It’s really jammed in there,” she said at last.