I see her only a second before I run over her, not enough time to stop. My boot connects with some part of her body and I tumble to the dirt, taking her down with me. My head hits the ground with the thud and I come up with a mouthful of dirt. Panic distracts me from the pain. Did those men chasing me hear that crash? I roll onto my back to look around and almost choke on my tongue to see a gun in my face.

The girl, a black slave girl, is holding a gun to my face. At first, my wild thoughts imagine she's the same slave girl I saved from Billy. But when I blink the dirt from my eyes I see that other than their skin color nothing about them is similar. This girl is much taller and stronger looking. Her dark hair is wavier and her stance is surer. And the other slave girl definitely didn't have that fiery look in her eyes.

I hold up my hands, palms out. "Easy, easy."

"Move and I'll blow your head off," she snaps, her fingers tightening around the trigger.

What is with everyone threatening to kill me today? "Okay, I'm still. See? Don't shoot." I stay as still as I can, but it's not easy half laying on my back and still trying to keep my head up to see her movements.

She narrows her eyes at me. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you."

A good reason? "Uh, because I haven't done anything to you?"

"Haven't done anything to me? You call you and your white buddies chasing me through the forest nothing?"

What is she talking about? "Listen, I'm not chasing you, I swear. I tripped over you by accident—I didn't even know you were there."

A look of confusion flashes across her face, but her grip on the gun doesn't falter.

"Just...just let me get up," I say softly, but it still rubs her the wrong way.

"I said don't move," she cocks the gun.

"Okay, okay! Please, let's talk about this."

"If you weren't following me, then why were you running?"

Should I tell her I'm being pursued by the brother of the man I killed? "Uh, long story."

She moves the gun closer. "You've got about five seconds to tell it."

"These men, they're after me," I blurt out. "If they catch me, I'm going to jail."

The scowl marring her face lessens a little. "What?"

I work my shoulders off the ground and get into a sitting position. The girl seems too busy processing to be angry about it. "I'm wanted," I tell her. "I can't be hunting you or anyone else."

She opens her mouth to respond when a cracking twig to her left claims her attention. I take the chance. Leaping to my feet I dive at her. My weight easily knocks her to the ground. The gun goes flying from her hand into a patch of weeds a few feet away.

The girl grunts in pain then wiggles her hand out from underneath my body and slaps me across the face. For a skinny slave girl, she has a lot of strength in her fingers. Hot needles rush down my cheek when I feel one of her fingernails catch some skin.

Strength wise I can easily hold her down, but she's bucking under me a like a newborn calf on branding day. Maybe I should just reach into the bag at my hip and use the gun on her and end this. But for some reason, I can't bring myself to shoot her like that. It's stupid, she was literally just threatening to kill me. And any minute now, she's going to take out one of my eyes.

I feel a terrible throb in my groin area and realize she's kneed me. Making a sound that's a cross between a whimper and choke I fall off her. She shoves me away and climbs to her feet, looking around frantically for the gun.

I can still see the rusted handle sticking out from among the overgrown grass at the base of the tree. If she finds it she's going to go ahead and kill me for attacking her.

"Hey, we...we can work something out right?" I wheeze from my fetal position on the forest floor.

She ignores me until she spots the gun and scrambles to pick it up. She whirls around and I shut my eyes waiting for the boom, wondering how bad it will hurt. A few seconds' elapse and the only sound is her heavy breathing.

Opening my eyes, I see her panting as she grips the gun between two hands and trains it on me. Why hasn't she shot me yet? Is it for the same reasons I hadn't shot her? I kinda doubt it, she doesn't strike me as the sympathetic type.

Dirt clings to her hair and dress and her caramel colored skin is flushed red. She's probably had a difficult life. Like the slave girl I saw before things have always been hard for them. But this is nothing new, right? Why am I just noticing now?

"Okay listen," the girl speaks. I detect a slight tremor in her voice, but she does well at holding it steady. "If you get up and leave right now, I'll let you live."

I'm shocked. "You're letting me go?"

"That's what I just said isn't it?" Her tone reminds me of Mason asking me if I was a parrot whenever I repeated him. Slowly I sit up. After a few moments, I'm able to stand. The girl still has the gun aimed at me. I hold my hands up and start walking backward, but I won't turn my back on her.

A shout and crashing underbrush echoes through the forest.

The girl jumps and looks around for the source. Dread fills my stomach because I know what it means.

"They found me," we both murmur. Our heads jerk around at almost the same time to stare at each other. "You?"

From the direction behind her, the branches and brush tremble as someone starts to emerge. "Get down!" Without thinking I tackle her to the ground again. This time I'm careful to keep her hands pent above her head and I have my other hand clamped over her mouth.

The crackling of the underbrush grows louder and I try to tell the girl to be quiet, but she's doing her best to scream. She tries to kick me again so I trap her legs in between my knees.

I lean down and press my mouth to her ear, "Shut up, I'm not going to hurt you." But considering our position I can understand why she has some doubts.

"Be quiet," I hiss. "Someone's here." That quiets her almost instantly.

The heavy footsteps are booted and obviously from a man. They're joined by more steps and they move around the area, inches away from hiding spot in the tall grass beneath the embankment.

The girl goes so still I'm almost lying on top of her instead of holding her down. If they find me I'll never make it back for a trial by hanging, I'll be dead right here.

The noises still. A bird sings a high-pitched note somewhere off in the distance. The sound of the girl's muffled breathing beneath my hand fills my ears until it's the only thing I can hear.

I'm concentrating on the feel of her air against my palm when she suddenly smacks my arm. "Ow." The pain jolts me back to reality. She looks like she's trying to say something so I move my hand.

"Are you trying to suffocate me, you idiot?" she whispers shouts this while wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, and somehow her anger still comes through. "They've left. Get off."

I lift myself upwards until I'm in a squat and fall back onto the seat of my pants. "Sorry."

"You're sorry?" she sits up, brushes dirt off her arms. "You're insane."

I've gathered that she's a runaway slave, but I'm still surprised with the way she talks to me. She picks up the gun from the dirt.

"Not that again," I groan. "I just saved your life."

"You knocked me down twice." She stands and motions with the gun for me to do the same. She glances at the gun and a troubled expression crosses her face. "But...I'm still going to let you go if you leave now."

She knows if she fires the gun she'll alert everyone to where we are. At least she's not a stupid slave. "I can't just run off into the woods now. And neither can you. How many are chasing you?"

She debates whether to tell me. "Three."

"Five."

"Great."

I rub a hand through my hair. Adrenaline and fear makes it difficult to think. "I'm guessing there are slave hunters after you. Look it's obvious neither one of us wants to be caught. If we go crashing off into the wood, it's a good chance we'll both be caught."

"Well, I'm not going to sit here until dark. I told you to go."

"If you were going to shoot me you would have done it by now. You know if you fire off the gun everyone will know where we are."

She scowls. "That's right..."

"It sounds like everyone went that way." I point to the east. "If we head to the north we probably won't run into them. But we'd have to go together."

Her eyebrow raises. "No."

"We don't have much of a choice. I'm not staying behind and I doubt you are."

I can tell she wants to argue, but she can't come up with one and that irritates her. "As soon as we get out of this forest I never want to see you again."

"Fine with me. Uh, but could you put your gun away for a second please?" I expect her to snarl and protest, but she slips it into the bag across her shoulders.

"If you lie to me...you'll regret it."

There's something about her blazing eyes that convinces me without a doubt I could never, ever lie to her even if I wanted to.

~

A/N: Does this seemed like it was too fast paced? I hope not. It's supposed to be a split second decision thing, and I'm not the best at that. Well, let me know what you think :)