Children of Dawn

CC’s POV
I peeled my eyes open and looked around. I was still buried in the leaves, but the sunlight that had been around me was almost gone. I awoke into a twilight zone. My head was throbbing and my shoulder was screaming in pain, but I was alive. Alive and no one had found me. My throat was parched, I needed to get water, that was the first thing. As I started to think about who might give me water I realized that I had no one. My family didn’t want me and my girlfriend was dead. My face was all over the news, I was a wanted man and surely people thought that I was a killer. I was sure that my family would not hesitate to turn me in if I went to them. As the world around me continued to get darker I realised that I’d never felt so utterly alone. I felt my lower lip start to wobble, then I forced it to stop. I was not going to let my tears get in the way of me finding my way out of this.
I grabbed onto the root above my head and started to pull myself out of the hole, using my good arm. The other arm was curled helplessly against my chest. I needed to find some way to put it into a sling so it didn’t get any more hurt than it was. I sat up in the leaves and my back protested vehemently. I forced myself to stand up anyway and look around. The sun was going down and the moon was rising, it would be night time soon. I could see the reflection of the moon on the river that I’d pulled myself out of. I didn’t think drinking that was a very good idea, but I was very thirsty. I did it anyway. I stepped to the edge of the river and fell to my knees, drinking the muddy water. It was warm and tasted sour, but I drank it anyway. I was going to start walking that night and I didn’t need to be passing out from dehydration. I didn’t know where I was going to go, but at least I was going to get moving.
I pulled my head from the water and sat on the bank for a moment, catching my breath. I didn’t want to make myself get up and go, but I knew I had to. I forced myself to my feet and headed off, back into the woods where I’d been sleeping. I was going to go as far as I could in that direction for as long as I could. So I began to walk. It was hard to see in the moonlit forest. The trees seemed like they were out to get me, the roots stuck up to make me trip and the branches reached out to scrape my face. Before long I had fallen more times than I wanted to admit, my hair was tangled with twigs, and my morale was slipping lower and lower. I wanted to stop so I could sit down and cry my eyes out, but I didn’t let myself. I kept walking, but I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore. So I made my way, sniffling and tripping through the woods. I was about to sit down and rest when I stumbled upon a dirt road. It snaked off, disappearing into the woods in both directions.
I looked both ways, I couldn’t see where the road led in either direction. There were no lights from houses or barns, no sounds of motors. It would be a lot easier for me to walk if I was on the road. I stepped off to the right and continued on my way. Tripping significantly less, but still wiping my eyes as I went. My hurt arm throbbed as I cradled it to my chest. The injury probably needed some sort of medical attention but there was no way that I could get it. As I walked the going was easy enough that I started to zone out as I went. It was easier than thinking about all the things that had just happened. It took me a moment to realize that I was hearing something as a low rumbling slowly grew louder behind me. Then I could see my shadow on the ground as a pair of headlights appeared behind me. In my stupor I somehow managed to stumble out of the road without getting run over. I probably should have run, or maybe even ducked to get out of the way, but I didn’t. I stood there and watched as an older, muddy, blue truck rolled up next to me and slowed to a stop.
“Where you going boy?” A voice called, I looked farther into the truck, a man with brown hair was looking at me from the driver’s side.
“Uhm, I don’t know,” I said, my voice sounded very loud to me.
“Looking to get out of town?” The man said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied, wondering if I should be talking to him at all.
“Well, hop in. I’ve got a half a day’s drive left and I’d like someone to help keep me awake,” He waved a hand to beckon me in. I thought about it for a minute, this guy didn’t seem to know who I was and he could get me away from there quickly. I hesitated.
“Come on in here, boy. I don’t bite,” The man said. I reached out, pulled on the rusty door handle and slid into the passenger seat. As the door thumped closed the man shuddered the car into gear and we rolled on down the road.
“So what’s your name?” The man asked as we bumped down the road.
“Chris. What about you?” I said, turning to face the man.
“Call me Tommy,” The man said taking his hand off the wheel to shake mine. I turned to look out the window and watched the dark trees roll past.
“So Chris, you don’t look like the normal hitchhiker, no bag, no extra clothes. What are you doing out here?” Tommy asked to stop us from plunging into an awkward silence. I searched my brain quickly for an excuse that worked.
“Uh, girl trouble,” I said. It made sense, but it was vague enough that it didn’t cause any suspicion.
“Uh-oh, she kicked you out did she?” Tommy said smiling a bit, I forced a grin.
“Yeah man, and I don’t have any family or anything here, so it’s time for me to move on, find a job. Start over, you know?”
“I feel you, man I do,” Tommy shook his head good naturedly. We bumped down the road in silence for a few miles. I stared out the window and tried not to think to hard about my problems. I rested my head on the windowsill and pulled my left arm closer to myself.
“What are you doing there with that arm of yours?” Tommy asked looking over at me.
“I hurt it, but I fixed it. I think it was dislocated, but I put it back. It should be okay,” I explained quickly.
“You serious?” Tommy gasped looking over at me in shock. I nodded quickly and looked away.
“Here now, use this sheet, make yourself a sling so that thing doesn’t get more hurt than it already is,” Tommy said reaching behind my head and pulling out a small white sheet, “How’d you manage to do that?”
“I, uh… fell” I said, hoping that he hadn’t heard anything about my escape.
“That explain the scratches all over your face as well?” Tommy said gesturing at me and looking suspiciously.
“Yeah, I slipped off an embankment, hurt my arm and got all scratched up,” I said tying the sheet around my neck to make the sling. Tommy nodded slowly.
“So, what about you? What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Just grabbin some stuff I need for the farm, it may be a drive but it’s the best stuff,” He said with a shrug.
“So you drive twelve hours just to buy things for your farm,” I asked.
“Yep, it’s a bit of a get away, give the wife some time to do whatever it is she does when I’m not around. You know,”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said. We lapsed into silence and Tommy turned on the radio. The ending of a country song twanged out of the speakers and then a voice came on.
“The police do want you to know that they are looking for an escaped criminal this evening. A white male in his late teens, wearing all black, with hair down to his shoulders, about six feet tall, and very thin escaped police by jumping off a bridge after a head on collision on the highway, he is most likely injured. We do not know if he is armed or if he is dangerous, but we do know that he killed his girlfriend and is on the run right now. If you see him on the roads let police know,” The radio announced before lulling into another song. I swallowed hard and looked out the window, waiting for Tommy to say something or turn me in.
“That’s quite the description there, buddy. Know anyone who looks like that,” Tommy said.
“I bet he’s innocent,” I whispered, but I didn’t want to say anything else.
“Well, you weren’t kidding when you said you had girl troubles where you?”
“Nope,” I said and we lapsed into silence again, but Tommy didn’t stop, or call the police, or try to restrain me.
“You said you were looking for work?” Tommy said. I stared into the dark woods.
“I am,”
“You said that you are innocent?”
“I am,”
“The forensics team will figure that out if you give them long enough. Are you afraid of a little bit of manual labor?”
“No,”
“What if I took you out to my farm, we work out a deal where you live and eat with us and I’ll pay you some amount until this thing blows over and they know you’re innocent. All you have to do is work,” Tommy suggested, I couldn’t look at him.
“Won’t you and your family get in trouble if they find me there?” I asked.
“Well boy, if the cops come calling for you. We had no idea you were wanted, it will be a secret between you and I. My wife and kids never need to know,”
“Why would you do that for me?” I asked, confused.
“Well you seem like a genuinely nice fellow. I really need some help around the farm. Would you do it?” Tommy asked.
“You got yourself a deal,” I said, just grateful that I’d have a bed to sleep in. We drove on for the rest of the night, at one point I told Tommy my whole story, which he believed. The night lagged on for what seemed like hours, we stopped for coffee, and some late night cheeseburgers. Tommy and I got along very well. Eventually we pulled off the highway and onto roads that lead through a small town. I looked around at the tiny convenience stores and body shops for trucks. It was the kind of everybody knows everybody place. We went straight through the town and onto the small curving country road. It snaked through the woods for about ten miles before we pulled off onto another dirt road. As we road the trees melted away into a corn field. In the distance I could see a farmhouse with the lights on. A barn was next to it and it was surrounded by woods.
“Welcome to my home,” Tommy said as we pulled up.
“Thank you for offering this to me,” I said, looking up at the house. As we stopped Tommy and I climbed out of the car.
“Let me talk to the wife and introduce you, we’ve had workers stay with us before,” Tommy said.
“You got it,” I followed him up to the door. He unlocked the door as the run breached the horizon. The door opened up and a woman in her early forties stood, she smiled brightly and came out into the yard to give her husband a hug. I hung a few feet back
“How are you?” She asked him.
“I’m tired, you’re up getting the kids ready for school?” He asked with a smile on his face.
“Yep,” She said, then she looked up and saw me, “Who’s this?”
“This is Chris. I picked him up on the way back. He kept me awake through the drive and he’s looking for work, if you’ll have him,” Tommy explained. A look of concern crossed his wife’s face, but she shook it off and came out into the yard to shake my hand.
“It’s very nice to meet you Chris, I’m Leslie. If you work hard and aren’t a creep to my daughter you’ll get on well here,” She said with a smile.
I was welcomed inside and shown to the bed that was mine, it was in the attic and I had to pass several kids bedrooms and climb up a set of rickety attic stairs to get there. As I laid there in bed falling asleep I didn’t realize that I had signed up for three months of the hardest work of my entire life.

September, 20th 2003
CC’s POV
“CC why don’t you come on in, your dinner is going to be cold!” Leslie called to me from the house.
“I’ll be there in just, like ten minutes!” I called from the edge of the field near the trees. Leslie flashed me a thumbs up in the darkening autumn air. I just had to find the ball that the kids had lost there the other day. I was reaching into the woods when suddenly there came the frantic sounds of branches breaking farther into the woods. I looked up, suddenly, thinking that it could be a deer getting ready to run the field, but as I looked I didn’t see anything. The scrambling and branches got closer and I backed up quickly. Suddenly a boy burst from the bushes. He was dirty, his clothes were ripped, and his hair was matted on top of his head.
He stumbled out of the woods gasping for breath and fell forward. I caught his sweaty body in my arms. He pushed me away quickly and took a few steps back. He was about my age and his brown eyes were wide in a panic.
“Dude chill out, what’s going on?” I asked. He looked behind himself into the woods.
“The feds are after me!” He gasped.
“Dude, me too!” I said. He stopped and gave me a weird look.
“Seriously?” He asked, like he suddenly forgot what he was running from.
“Yeah, seriously. I’m CC,” I said sticking out my hand, he shook it.
“I’m Jake,”

Notes

Hey guys! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it. Just so you guys know this story is going to jump around in time a little bit, so watch the dates so that things make sense as time pass. I probably won’t ever go back in time but I will skip months at a time, just to make sure I can get all the important stuff in, so watch for that. Anyway leave me a comment to let me know what you think, and subscribe for more.