THE RUNNER

I took a breath as my degenerating eyes focused on time slowing down. The echoes around me faded, I knew this was my moment, I got this.

It wasn’t my only thought but when I moved my hand towards the line, just close enough to be ready for the fiery shot to ring my dysfunctional ears. BANG! I ran as the echoes behind me faded.

I can make it, I thought, as my legs shook with each step I took.

“You aren’t going to make it!” a man said.

I ran into the forest spaced out enough for me to slip through, hoping for a clear path with few obstacles, but I wasn’t sure.

“Dang,” I said, “my arm—”

I put pressure on it as I hid behind a tree. Grabbing some wild herbs with green stems and white moss around the middle, I noticed the scent of mushrooms off-putting enough to make me nauseous. I sat down to let the herb work for a few minutes. My heart was racing, but I was worried they were going to catch up to me.

I’ve been through this many times, running away from the people behind me. As a child I thought, one day I was going to make it.

“He’s over there,” a woman said.

“Don’t let him get any further,” a man said.

Have to go, I thought.

The sun disorienting my eyes, my legs punching back with every step, I couldn’t stop now. I went left then right, weaving the zigzag line of trees in front of me. Running through the dark-mossy, white trees for over a mile, my mind started to wander.

“How far is the end?” I said.

“He’s almost out,” a man said.

Diverting my attention I plunged down a hill shielding my head as my arms and legs smashed into rocks, slamming into a boulder.

“No!” I said.

I tried to hold back my voice biting my finger hard enough for it to bleed. My eyes poured hopeless tears and the taste of dirt filled my mouth with bitter sorrow, I leaned back on the boulder to rest from the pain for a while taking slow breaths, but after a few moments, I heard someone run past me.

I sat there for some time, I knew I had to pass them to make it out first, but I didn’t know how. I looked at my body to see how bad I was and then I saw it.

“No, come on,” I said.

My left arm limp like rubber, I knew if I lifted it the pain would shock my whole left side enough that I would throw up. I had been through this before and I couldn’t try to fix such a small distraction, being so close to the end. I knew this was a sacrifice I had to take advantage of no matter how bad it was, I needed to get through this forest.

“Where did he go?” a man said.

I peeked my head out after a while to see that the one that passed me was going the wrong way, Dumb ass. I tried to climb, but my shoes filled with dirt and mud made me struggle more. With one arm, it was taking me too long to --

“There he is!” two men yelled.

I saw them closer than before, but I didn’t want them to know that I fell. I glanced at my arm, but I had to keep going. I started to stand up and felt shocks of lightning shoot into my heart. I looked forward and saw the opening, the way out, the end, and I knew I could make it. I ran hard, one step after another the wind flowing around me, tripping over big brown roots and branches like a game of rock, paper, scissors.

I stopped a few times to see where he was, the one who passed me. Every time I stopped the cuts and bruises filled me with the rage of a wild man. I intently leaned toward the left so that if I slammed into a tree it wasn’t going to slow me down.

“He’s almost out,” a man said.

I didn’t know how close I was, but when I looked to my left, I saw the man who had passed me and realized how close he was. He turned to face me, his eyes became wide and psychotic as he rushed in my direction.

“Dumb ass,” I yelled.

“Go, go, go!” the crowd said.

The echoes I heard before faded back as I got closer to the end, not knowing if they were for me or not, I knew I couldn’t slow down to look. I was a one-armed man running through the forest, I’m sure I looked ridiculous, but I didn’t care. I went left, right, left, and right again. I jumped over a bolder so big I could have been jumping over a mountain.

The forest disappeared when I landed and then I saw it --The End, two words so enlightening not even God could stop me from getting there. I slowed down for just a second and realized that the man behind me was still rushing toward my direction, eyes burning to steal my soul if I went any further. I stared back, a smile so disturbing I could have looked insane. I took one more deep breath and burst down the last quarter mile.

“Yay!” the crowd roared.

I made it to the end with one less arm and blood dripping down from parts I didn’t know the names of, but I knew as a Cross Country Runner, that I was the best even though this was my final run.

Enrique Melendez is a writer from Full Sail University who favors thriller, suspense, and mystery genres. He became aware of his storytelling capabilities from a young age when he began to write poetry. He continues to grow his stories to try to affect others on his path to screenwriting.