An Uncivilized Romance

by Elliee Atkinson

  “Don’t throw me down there, Jason. Please. Please don’t. Don’t do this. I haven’t done anything wrong. Please don’t throw me down there.”

  Jason snorted. “You can beg and plead all you want. This is less than what you deserve.”

  “Jason, don’t! Don’t!”

  She wriggled to get out of his grasp but he was holding her over the edge so even if she got away, she was going to fall down the side of the mountain anyway. She screamed as he dropped her.

  Sarah hit the ground full force on her left side. She felt pain slice through her hip. She rolled over and over down the side of the ravine, bringing her arms up instinctively to cover her face and head, pulling her legs up to cover her stomach. She slammed into a tree but bounced off and continued rolling down over sharp rocks, fallen branches, and shrubbery.

  She kept her wits about her, trying not to breathe too hard and keep from screaming. The effect of being slammed against the ground as she rolled took her breath away anyway, making it impossible to make more than grunting sounds.

  She rolled down quickly. At one point, her knee made contact with a rock and she heard a loud crack. The pain that shot through her body nearly rendered her unconscious, but she fought to stay awake. She caught a glimpse of the stream of water at the bottom of the ravine and knew that if she went into the water unconscious, she would drown.

  She regained her wits and began to fight for control. She scrambled with her hands in the dirt, trying to catch herself on a tree root or a large rock before she went into the water. Just before she was set to splash into the shallow stream, her hand caught on a large tree root. Her body swung downward as she gripped on as tight as she could. She felt water spray lightly up onto her ankles. One shoe had come off as she went down the mountain and the toes on that foot were wet.

  She swallowed and tried to take a deep breath but her chest hurt when she breathed. She let go of the tree root and laid her head to the side, not caring that the grass and sticks under her face were poking into her skin. It was the least of her pain at that moment.

  She pulled in as deep a breath as she could and held it for a moment. Her entire body was on fire, pulsing with pain in every part. She squeezed her eyes together but the tears were going to come anyway, so she let them.

  After crying for what seemed like a much shorter time than she should properly have cried, she stopped, closed her eyes, and tried to rest. She didn’t want to move. She was afraid to move. Everything was going to cry out in pain. She was on her stomach, and her dress was nearly torn off, hanging from one side of her shoulder, ripped down to the bodice. The one shoe she had on was scuffed and dirty. She could feel rocks inside it. Long cuts in her skin had bled and soaked through various parts of the fabric of her dress. Her hair… she didn’t even want to think about what her hair might look like. If she still even had any on her head.

  The thought made her reach up and feel her head. As soon as she moved her arm, she whimpered from the pain it caused. She ran her hand over her hair. It was tangled and probably a terrible mess but it was all still there. Jason hadn’t ripped any out. She let her arm drop back to the ground. If she didn’t move soon, bugs were going to come and get her. Ants might come as an army and carry her off to their ant hills.

  The corners of her lips lifted slightly. She tried to encourage herself to move. She needed to push herself up and inspect the damage. It took her nearly ten minutes to gather enough courage to attempt to push herself off the ground or at least turn over onto her back. When it became clear she was not going to be able to push up with both arms, she used the one she had moved to test the hair on her head to push against the ground and turn her over.

  With a mighty shove, she pushed against the ground and turned over onto her back. The effort seemed almost easier when she let out a loud yell at the same time. She laid there staring up at the sun through a mess of leaves. There were several white clouds floating through the sky mocking her.

  “You are so peaceful,” she said aloud. “Yet I am down here in need of rescue and you can do nothing for me. What good are you to me but to float up there and look pretty?”

  She continued staring at them, feeling her heel getting wet from where her one shoeless foot was sitting in the stream water below her.

  “I need to sit up.” She told herself aloud. “I need to sit up. At least I’m not unconscious. Things could be worse.” She snorted. Only if a wild animal were to come by.

  The thought of her child made her heart ache and she pushed it away. It had probably not survived that fall. She wasn’t going to count on it now. If she ever got out of these woods, it would be a miracle all in itself. She certainly wasn’t going to count on her baby being born healthy and alive.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SARAH SURVIVES THE FALL

  SARAH SURVIVES THE FALL

  Sarah only allowed herself to lay there motionless until she felt she might stiffen up if she didn’t try to move. The fear of the pain she would feel when she moved slowly ebbed away as the pain she was already in sent heat waves through her body. She put her one good arm on the ground with her palm flat and pushed as hard as she could. The other arm had come in contact with a tree along the way and it was surely broken or fractured. It was useless to her.

  She screamed as she sat up, pain searing through her body. She breathed quick and harsh, closing her eyes against the ripples of pain that swept through her. She reached down with her good arm and folded back the bloody, torn fabric of her skirt to inspect the knee that had hit the rock. It looked mangled and bloody, with tiny rocks embedded in the skin. Blood seeped from it. She could see a bit of white and the thought that it must be bone made her shiver.

  The rope tied around her hands had ripped off on her way down. Her ankles were still tied together. She bent over further, fighting the pain it caused, and untied the rope around her ankles. She tried to scoot up just a little bit so that her feet did not touch the water.

  Sarah stared out over the rippling water, thinking about how cool and refreshing it would be to wash off in the water and put on clean, dry clothes. Although, she had no clean, dry clothes.

  “Oh Sarah, what a tragedy this has become.”

  She looked up the ravine and couldn’t even see where the road was. If she had been able to see it, she would have known whether or not Jason had stayed to watch her fall or left because he didn’t care whether she lived or died.

  He must have assumed she died on her way down or at the bottom because surely a man with his mind set on murder would make sure the job was done before he left the scene of the crime. However, Jason wasn’t the smartest man on earth. He had probably left.

  She nodded at her thoughts. Yes, surely he had left.

  The anger she felt rising inside her was only serving to make her pain worse. Her head was thumping, her right arm was sore and she didn’t dare move it and her knee was making the rest of her pain seem like a minor scratch.

  She pushed away all her emotions and tried to think logically. Crying wasn’t going to serve her any good, except to make streaks of dirt down her face. She wasn’t going to be able to walk, not without assistance. She looked around. There was no one in sight. No animals. No people. She didn’t expect people but animals should be nearby. What if there was a ravenous bear somewhere around here? Or a big cat of some kind.

  She shook her head. “Stop scaring yourself, Sarah,” she murmured. “Try to think logically. Come on now. Think.”

  The first thing she wanted to do was be clean. But without clean clothes to put back on, it seemed almost useless.

  She looked back up the ravine to see if she could spot her shoe. It would have to be pretty close for her to get to it without causing more damage. Even if she saw it and went to retrieve it, she might fall back down the steep hillside again.

  She shook her head, giving up on the idea of finding her shoe. She reached down and took the other one off, untying its lace and slipping it from her foot. She wiggled her toes
, glad that the movement didn’t cause her any pain. She sighed.

  After a few more moments of pondering her next move, she decided to go down into the water fully dressed. She needed to cleanse herself. Leaving open wounds without cleaning them could cause her situation to become much worse, leading to infection or something of that nature. That would be devastating for her. The situation was bad enough.

  Slowly, she scooted across the semi-level ground she was on, and put both her feet in the water. It was warm but cool enough to be refreshing to her skin. She wiggled her toes in the water, making small splashes. She inched into the water. Every small movement made pain streak through her body, making her wince.

  Her body erupted in chills when she pushed herself hard down into the water, dropping back so that her entire body was immersed. The water was like a shock to her system. She wondered if it had been wise to get in the water after all. What if the fish started feeding off her open wounds?

  She smiled at herself, pushed down to the bottom with her hand and sat up. The water came to just below her breasts once she was sitting. She looked down at it. It was so clear that she could see the bottom without trouble. However, the dirt and blood coming from her body was making it cloudy. She splashed the water up onto her right arm, wincing as blood from the cuts and scratches ran down and mixed in with the stream water.

  She tried moving her right arm again and found that she was able to move it some. She surmised that it must not be broken and if it was, it couldn’t be that bad. She used her left hand to lift her right arm to see how much function she could get from it with a little assistance. The pain ran through her as sharp as a tack. Nevertheless, after a few tries, she was able to move the arm on its own, painfully, but capably.

  She pulled in a deep breath.

  “What do I do, Jesus?” She asked aloud, looking up at the sky. “Where do I go from here? I need help. There’s not much I can do on my own. Not right now.”

  She pulled her knees up out of the water and gathered the bottom of her skirt in her hands, pulling it up. Her left knee was torn to shreds but it had cleaned out. She could still see a bit of white and it terrified her. She didn’t want to see her own bones.

  She lifted the fabric of her dress to her mouth and began to gnaw on part of it. When she’d bitten a hole through it, she used her fingers to rip it so that it was much shorter than it had been to begin with. She was grateful for the thin fabric now.

  “Hated this dress anyway,” she mumbled, comforting herself.

  She tore the piece of fabric she ripped off into strips and circled her knee with them, tying them off at various points.

  Soon she felt clean and had bandaged her knee tightly, hoping it would not continue to bleed. She wasn’t going to be able to walk, she knew that. She scooted herself out of the water, grateful that there was a patch of sun directly on a grassy spot outside the water. She laid back on it, exhausted, spreading her arms out to her sides. She closed her eyes, wondering what could possibly happen next. She was fearful of large animals, like bears or big cats or coyotes. She wasn’t sure if any of those animals were in this part of the woods but she knew it was likely not just deer, rabbits, and squirrels.

  A sound made her eyes snap open. She stared straight up, listening closely to the sounds around her. Very slowly, she turned her head in the direction it was coming from.

  A white-tailed deer was on the edge of the stream, its head lowered to take a drink. She watched it in silence, barely breathing. It was a beautiful sight. Despite the pain in her body, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Everything was quiet around her. Her body pulsed with the heat of pain but her mind was quiet and serene.

  The deer flicked one of its ears and looked up as if it had heard something.

  Sarah was alerted and moved her eyes around in a circle, taking in as much as she could around her. Her first thought was that Jason had made his way down the ravine and was coming to finish her off. Or perhaps it was a man-eating lion or a bear smelling her wounds. Did that even happen? Was it a possibility? Sarah didn’t know. She just knew she didn’t want to be eaten alive by a wild animal.

  She didn’t hear anything. She looked back at the deer. It had lowered its head once more and was drinking from the stream as if it hadn’t just scared her half to death.

  She grinned, bringing to her attention the fact that one of her lips was busted and bleeding. When she stretched it to smile, it broke open and she tasted blood. She made the mistake of licking at it. The salty taste burned her lip and tongue. She sat up slowly. She was mostly dry by that time. She scooted herself close to the water so that she could bring up some of it in a cupped hand and splash it against her bloody mouth. She ran her tongue over her teeth to make sure she still had them all and none had come loose.

  She seemed to be all right.

  She pulled in another frustrated breath and tried to think clearly. What could she do now? Which way would take her back to Wickenburg? Would the stream even lead to Wickenburg? There were no streams running through the town nor any that actually led to it so she couldn’t use it to get her directly home.

  She thought of the road at the top of the ravine. There was little chance it was a straight shot down to Wickenburg. Most of the paths and roadways carved into nature by wagons made their way up and around mountains by winding around them. For all she knew, she could be on the complete opposite side of the mountain from Wickenburg. She also knew of no other towns around the mountain.

  She didn’t even know the name of the mountain she was on.

  “I cannot despair,” she murmured to herself. “I have to survive. I have to survive for my child.” She placed her good hand on her stomach and looked down, as if the baby bump was already there. “I will keep you safe, my child, if you are still there. If you are still alive, I will take care of you. From now on, no one will harm you. I swear this to you.”

  She looked up around the area where she had fallen. Her eyes fell on a gathering of tree limbs, as if someone had made to build a fire nearby at some point. She tilted her head to the side, wondering how she had missed that bundle of sticks before. She knew how to build a fire but did she want to do that? She had no food. What would be the point in building a fire? It wasn’t cold.

  She turned over onto her good knee and dragged the bad one behind her to get to the bundle of sticks.

  One of them caught her eye. It was about the length of her body and had a hook on the side, almost like a handle. She blinked a few times, staring at it. An idea formed in her mind.

  She looked back to where she had been sitting near the water. She had left several strips of fabric on the ground where she’d been and she had two wrapped around her knee currently. She slowly moved back to the strips of fabric and took them up into her hand. She laid them over her shoulder and scooted back to the bundle of sticks. She pulled out the one with the hook for a handle and held it upright so that she could see if it was fairly straight. It was solid and thick. It should easily support her body weight.

  She picked through the rest of the bundle until she found two more that were about the length of her leg. She placed both of the sticks on either side of her leg and began to fashion a leg splint from the sticks and the pieces of fabric. She barely had enough to do it tight enough. Once she was finished, she felt a bit more secure. She scooted to a nearby tree and used it to help her pull herself to her feet.

  She put her hand through the hook on the walking stick and took a few limping steps. Pain sliced through her with every movement but she forced herself to do it.

  Then she looked up the ravine to the road. It seemed an impossible task. It was such a long way from where she was and the path was incredibly steep. She felt like she would almost need a rope to pull herself up the side. And what if she slipped and fell back down?

  She pulled in a deep sigh. What could she do now?

  CHAPTER TEN

  SARAH’S THOUGHTS

  SARAH’S THOUGHTS

 
Sarah sat down again to think for a while. She wanted to come up with a plan but everything she thought of was shot down by the impossibility of the task. Even in the best of shape, it was unlikely she could climb that hill. It certainly wasn’t that she didn’t want to try. She wanted to try and succeed, and get back home and be seen by Doc Brown. However, right now, stuck in the middle of the woods at the bottom of a ravine and badly beaten up, she could barely think through the pain, much less think logically.

  She felt like what she’d accomplished so far was just short of a miracle. She looked up the side of the mountain to where the road was. She thought about how settlers in America had made their way around mountains by winding their way around them.

  She pulled herself to her feet using the walking stick and surveyed the land around her. There were some flat areas and if she could reach them, in zigzag walking patterns, she might be able to get up to the top. It was going to take a long time. Although, she had plenty of time.

  The first few steps sent jolting pain through her lower left leg. If her knee bent even slightly, it sent pain zipping through her entire left side. She would wince, groan, and take another step.

  After a few steps, she realized that dragging her leg behind her was not a good idea. It was making her foot drag over the ground. The rocks, twigs, dead leaves, and sharp grass were creating new bleeding cuts on her foot. She looked down at her dress but it was already so short her breeches were showing. She didn’t have any more to spare. She couldn’t strip down to her skivvies. She couldn’t be seen in town or by anyone in society in that condition. Though it would look worse for Jason if she did. If anyone saw her in the condition she was in, Jason would be in more trouble than he bargained for. However, no one could see her. No one was watching. No one even knew where to look if they were looking. She allowed herself a few moments to be angry at Jason. All of this because he didn’t want a baby. If he hadn’t wanted a baby, he shouldn’t have gotten married and had sex with her. She didn’t want to be intimate with him anyway. She never had. After they had married, she had relinquished her desire to be celibate because he claimed he loved her. If that was all he’d wanted, he would have gotten it from the ladies at the saloon. That wasn’t what he’d wanted. He’d wanted the house and the land. Not a wife and a baby.