Personal Narrative: My Car Race

He screams then, and dark blood blossoms out of the wound, soaking his white shirt.

The driver hits the brakes, exactly as I hoped, and I fling myself over his seat back and stab him through the side of his neck. He gags and lets go of the wheel to staunch the blood flow with his hand. The car swerves dangerously but, luckily, doesn’t roll. I tuck the knife into the thin satin belt of my dress, pushed open the heavy car door, and jump.

I hit the dirt hard and roll. Bits of rock embed into my skin. I break two fingers. I grimace and look up, dazed, just in time to see the car flip. It rolls, flinging shattered glass in every direction. I hear the sound of metal bending under pressure. The car careens off the side of the road into an embankment.

Tires screech behind me. I glance over my shoulder and see the

My dress catches on a branch and rips, but I speed through the darkness as fast as I can. I’m still alive. I still have a chance. My thoughts race. They can’t shoot me. They’ll have to use tranquilizers. They need me alive.

A sudden surge of air brushes past my arm and I see a thin red dart sink into the bark of a soft aspen tree. A tranq gun! I swerve and duck, changing my running pattern erratically the way I always practiced with Mami. I hear more darts thud against trees and snap through the brush. Some only miss me by inches. I scurry down a steep embankment and veer sharply to the right.

I spot a huge hollow log rotting across the forest floor. I dive into it. I can’t outrun them, but maybe I can out smart them. The log shreds the skin open along my stomach and back. A huge spider creeps across my arm and cobwebs cling to my face. Footsteps tromp across the forest floor. I hold my breath and try to make my body as small as possible.

“Where’d she go?”

“Kesh! That woman is fast!”

“I think she went that