Day 180 - Running

 RUNNING

Prompt - Running : Write about running away from someone or something.

Was she really this unfit?  Shouldn't adrenaline compensate in some way?  Answers wouldn't help right now, so she concentrated on keeping going, keeping her pace up.  Her legs already ached, despite it all being downhill.  Her feet felt sore and sweaty from shoes that were never intended for athleticism.  But the worst was in her lungs, her whole chest.  The burn, the grip that wouldn't let go, the sense that there wasn't enough space in there for the breath she needed, the feeling of that oh so necessary supply giving out.  She couldn't hear anyone behind, but she wasn't going to risk slowing down to look round, she was in enough danger already.  So she kept on running, jumping the steps, trying to look out for pitfalls in her path, anything that might turn flight into fall.  And hoped that she could make it to safety...

She'd been to the French Institute for a film.  Stayed behind for the Q&A with the director, even though she struggled to understand much.  So then Julie had to explain it to her after, and by the time they's parted it was well after eleven.  Julie dashed for her bus back to Morningside, Lucy headed down the Mile to get hers on The Bridges. There was nobody about, but she walked briskly, conscious there wouldn't be many more buses to Leith at that time.  And that there was always the chance of something happening to a single woman on her own.

She regretted that thought within seconds.  As she approached St Giles two guys suddenly appeared from the shadows as she was approaching the Heart, the romantic stone insert in the cobbles that commemorated a place of execution.  She stepped over the link chain to cross over to the north side.  The two guys watched.  As she almost drew level with them one headed straight for her, the other down the hill, on a path that would take him in front of her.  She sped up.  So did they.  She looked around for an escape route, or someone to call to, but there was nowhere, nobody.  And it was clear they could run faster.

The trio converged, Lucy forced towards the wall.  

"What'd'you want?" she snapped out, the panic clear in her tone.

"Don be like tha, we jus wanna tok, yeah."  The beer fumes, the look in his eyes, said more than the words.  

"Jus tok, yeah" giggled the other one, moving closer.  "You look nice."  She processed the thought that this was his chat up line, suppressed an inappropriate giggle of her own.  Tried to think.  She had one advantage.  Sobriety.  Reaction time.  And fear.  

"Yeah, nice" said the first one.  "Gonna be nice tae us, eh?  Eh?"

The front one grabbed her, pulled her towards him, pushed a hand in between her thighs.  She froze in reaction, shock the dominant emotion.  But the other sliding his hand around to grab, far from gently, her right boob, brought her back.  From somewhere she didn't know existed she found her arm shoot out and, fingers V shaped, poked hard into the eyes of the first groper.  He staggered back, yelping, hands up, bent over, legs wobbling.

"What the..?"

The other one looked at his pal, uncertain what had happened, brain slowly trying to figure out this new situation.  Lucy turned and kicked with every ounce of strength and energy and desperation she possessed, landed on target, right in the goolies.  Just as well he was a shortarse she managed to realise.  He doubled over, breath pumped out hard, followed by the groan.

She looked.  She realised.  She ran.

Down the hill was easier, and towards where she needed to be.  But how long before one or both recovered, set off after her?  Which they would, wouldn't they?  She had to act as if they would, didn't she?  But which way?  The most obvious was the way she'd been walking, straight on down to The Bridges.  But there was nobody about, she'd be clearly visible on the way, and when she got there what if there was still nobody?  There's be some traffic, but how did she get anyone to stop and help?  And she could hardly go and wait for her bus...

Heading for Waverley sounded like the best option.  There would, if she could make it, be people there, police too.  And going down one of the closes would maybe confuse them, taking her out of sight.  It would be darker for her down there, but for them too.

She took Advocate's Close.  Wrong choice?  It was narrower, darker, steeper than she remembered.  Too late to turn back now.  She had to commit.  She ran.  And jumped.  And ran.  Kept on running like she hadn't run in years and years.  The close turned, she saw the lights of Cockburn Street at the bottom.  Just those few more steps and...

She stumbled and spilled out on to the pavement, and into the road from the momentum and need to keep herself upright.  Into the path of a car.  Slow moving.  White.  With fluorescent markings on it.  Could not believe her luck.  A policeman got out of the passenger door just as a figure ejected from the close.

"Theah you ah.  Got you now."  It was groper one, his eyes still looking watery, and clearly not fully registering what he was looking at.  The drivers door opened.  Groper two hobbled down behind, pale and even more unsteady than number one.

The police looked at all three.

"I was looking for you" she said.