Chapter 3: Tracked

August's eyes were wide as she waited, breath held, listening for more—stunned by what Jonathan had already said. 'GPS implant… GPS implant… How is that even possible?' she thought. Her arm was hurting, though, so perhaps… 'I'm being tracked?'

The sound of Jonathan's footfalls started again, but they were growing distant. He was leaving her.

August let out her breath and slowly collapsed, shivering into herself against the fall air. It was funny how she hadn't felt the cold until now. It hadn't even registered, but now the chill seeped into her clothes and sunk into her skin.

What now? August looked down at her hands and the rope that tied them. It wasn't very tight, probably because Jonathan expected her to stay unconscious.

Using her mouth to tug on the rope as she twisted her hands, it took only a few minutes before she was able to maneuver them free. Her fingers gingerly ran along the wrist that was painful, feeling for anything foreign. What would a GPS implant look like? Would she even be able to feel it?

Sure enough, she noticed a flat object that felt to be about half an inch in length and width. She tried hooking behind it with one of her fingernails, but the pain that had been blooming there quickly engulfed her arm, and a sudden wave of nausea had her doubled-over vomiting whatever was left in her stomach. 'Uggggh. Eggs.'

Silent tears slid down August's face as she held her wrist. Despite having layers on, her whole body was shaking—in pain or in fear, she wasn't sure. 'Maybe mom was right,' she thought. 'I shouldn't have gone away to school this year.' A quiet laugh sputtered out of her mouth. 'In the midst of a pandemic, who would have thought I'd die alone in a creepy forest.' Elsie's black eyes flashed through her mind again, and she shuddered.

August's mom had fought hard against her leaving to start her freshman year. She recalled how her mom stood in their kitchen with the afternoon sun streaming in across her face, deepening the worry lines on her forehead.

"Does this make sense to you, August? We can't even go buy a gallon of milk without a face mask. Schools have closed. Every holiday has been cancelled since March. People are drinking bleach for god's sake, but it's somehow safe for you to move into a cramped dorm?" Her mom had laughed, her voice high and thin. It was absurd, she said. Well, that was until August's stepdad came home with information about a university in Maine with a unique plan for the upcoming school year.

Although it was last minute and August had already planned to attend a college in her home state of Wisconsin, Eliade was expediting the admissions process. She was actually shocked her stepdad Alan had suggested she apply, because tuition for this university's special pandemic protocol was outrageous. Strict social distancing guaranteed each student their own private room and super small class sizes while students, staff, and faculty all had regular mandatory medical checks and virus tests.

August figured Alan loathed her presence at home so much that the price was worth it to him. He certainly didn't suggest Eliade out of concern for her safety. He thought most of the hype around the virus was overblown, and he made his belief that August was immune very clear. He was desperate to get rid of her, and Eliade made it possible for her mom to get onboard.

'Whatever, if he is willing to pay that much to get rid of me, so be it,' she had thought. He had been such a tight ass since he and her mom married, it was about time August benefit in some way from his overbearing presence. Plus, Eliade was surrounded by beautiful wilderness and had a killer photography program that meant she wouldn't have to transfer halfway through. 'Oh yeah, it's killer, all right.'

This tracker Jonathan referred to needed to be out if August had any chance of surviving whatever horror film had become her life. Maybe… her—her teeth? Her stomach twisted at the thought, but she brought her wrist to her mouth and tested it—grasping the object between her teeth and gently pulling. The pain from her wrist shot up her arm, and she let go with a groan.

But the pain didn't stop at her arm, and it didn't recede. For some reason, it grew and spread. August slumped back against the tree as this new, more intense pain bloomed in excruciating colors behind her eyes and throughout her abdomen. Her body reacted with heat, and now—despite the chilly air—beads of sweat glistened on her forehead as she braced herself against this insane pain that was consuming her.

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August began panicking—something was happening to her body that made no sense. There was pain everywhere. All over. And she was stranded out here in suicide forest with no help.

Her scattered thoughts all crystalized around the foreign object in her arm. It had to be the reason for this condition she was in now. Maybe she had activated it or… or broken it. Maybe it was injecting her with something.

Another tremor of pain had her panting against the ground in agony, and with no more than a moment's further hesitation, August pierced her wrist with her teeth, whimpering against the soft flesh that was her own.

Biting into the thin layer of skin wasn't the problem, but the tearing… The tearing was different. Another wave of nausea had August releasing her wrist and doubling over, getting sick on the forest floor once again.

The pain and the nausea and the panic and the dark were closing in on every side. August risked a glance at her arm and saw a small bit hanging where the bright pain from her tearing skin had blinded her. She groaned, realizing it was doubtful that she could finish what had been started.

From somewhere nearby, a twin groan matched hers. A wild groan. Her eyes that had been hazy with pain flew open, and she shot up in terror.

The forest had been eerily silent, but now something else was here. Something wild. And she instantly understood that it was much more terrifying than Jonathan.

As she sprinted away from the sound, the pattering of footfalls echoed behind her, weaving through the darkness. A low growl had her whipping her head around to look for the creature that now sounded so close, but all she saw were shadows.

With every breath as she ran, high desperate noises started to escape from her—the terror so gripping now that she didn't even notice. Her awareness consisted only of the darkness chasing her. Somehow even her pain had fled, bleeding out behind her—unable to keep up.

But adrenaline can only do so much, and soon August became light-headed from the exertion. Her legs started to buckle even as she kept leaping forward, but there was nowhere to go. No way out. Only the last of her adrenaline rush to ride until a sure, fateful end.

Just then, August caught sight of a flurry of fur—a huge animal now jogging alongside her in the shadows. With a stuttered gasp, she jumped and turned away from the creature only to find herself running right off the edge of a steep embankment. And then she was flailing—tumbling, rolling, falling—wet leaves and earth spinning faster and faster around her until, mid-fall, she slammed against a broad tree trunk.

A lightening rod of pain shattered along her spine, and everything came to an abrupt halt as she crumpled. The pain that had fled now engulfed her completely.

Flat against the earth, August tried to raise her head—took one desperate gasp for air—and became instantly aware of the creature hovering over her. This was it—the reality of looming death washing over her even as excruciating pain had every inch of her burning.

But instead of the snarls and lunge she anticipated, there was a whine. Massive paws pacing. A wet nose nudging her and sniffing her wrist.. And then the creature bit into her, and everything went mercifully black.

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