Bunker Read Free Page B

feel calm, I’m not afraid any more. Let him do whatever he likes! I’m staying here on the ground. If he wants to kill me he’ll have to do it here. I’ll just stay lying where I am, I won’t move. My life might end here and now. There’s something peaceful about the idea. I feel a strange wish for it: just to stay here for ever and ever.
    His hand is tugging at my shoulder. He grabs me, hauls me up. Why can’t he just leave me alone? I get a bit of purchase on the ground once I’m kneeling. He pushes me in the ribs until I stand up, then forces me back to the car.
    â€˜Now, sit down! Wait!’
    I try to sit down, but I slowly slip to the ground, my back against the car door. I stay squatting on the ground. I hearquiet footsteps. The car doors are opened and closed. The slight sound of footsteps again, dry twigs snapping. Then silence. Nothing happens. I wait. Why should I wait here? Why isn’t anything happening? Insects humming quietly around me, that’s all, a lot of birds twittering. I sit there, breathing, calming down. Nothing happens.
    Am I alone? I rub my head against the car, pushing the blindfold further up. It works loose and falls off. I open my eyes as far as I can with one of them so swollen, see the irregular outline of the treetops moving slightly back and forth, rays of light from the setting sun falling through them. I sit there leaning against the car, it’s warm, my body relaxes. No sign of that guy, I’m alone.
    As if by some miracle, I’m still holding the little pocketknife. I didn’t drop it when I fell, I kept it clutched in my fist. I was trying to open it all through the drive. I didn’t succeed. Now, sitting here with my back to the car, I try again. And this time it works. I can open the knife. A little way, then a little more. The knife jumps out of my hand and falls to the ground. Bloody hell! I grope about on the ground with my fingers. I can’t find it, but I touch a squashed tin can. I rub the cords against the sharp lid of the can. I shift, it scratches my wrists, but never mind that now. Desperately I tug and pull at my bonds, until the cord comes apart and my hands arefree. I shake them, rub my sore wrists. Everything is still calm around me. I cautiously look in all directions. The forest, the woodland track, the car.
    Slowly, I get to my feet. I’m alone. I’m free. I can get away. I walk round the car, taking care with every step. Maybe the key’s still in the ignition. I slowly press the door handle until the driver’s door opens with a loud click. Hell! I stand there for a moment, drawing air in sharply through my teeth, and looking in all directions again. Thank God, still no one anywhere in sight. I open the driver’s door fully, lean forward and into the car. Where’s the ignition? Out of sight under the steering wheel. I put my hand through the spokes in the steering wheel and grope for the ignition, feel the longish slit.
    Damn, no key.
    At that moment I hear something crack behind me. Leaning half over the steering wheel, I stare straight ahead, I daren’t move. I feel sweat at the back of my neck and running down my backbone. I’m still in the trap, that bastard must be behind me.
    Slowly, I straighten up, duck my head as I clamber out, take a step backwards, look cautiously around. Nothing! Just the insects humming and the birds twittering, no human being.
    I have to get away from here. Along the forest path, theway he brought me in the Fiesta? He’ll be sure to search that first, and with the car he’s bound to catch up with me. That’s no good. I must cut through the forest. Find a road or a house.
    Where’s he gone? Never mind. I must just get out of here before he turns up again. I force my way through the brambles and undergrowth, going further into the forest. I run, I stumble, I jump up. I have no idea where I’m going, I’m just running, running