Part 29 (2/2)

She didn't detect any real threat from David aside from a general sense of apathy, and yet she felt extremely uneasy.

Jenny seemed absolutely content.

Maybe I'm overthinking things, she thought. Maybe this is all just the product of stress. After all, I haven't had any sleep since I arrived. The lack of rest could be affecting my decision-making ability.

She remembered reading that lack of sleep could produce feelings of paranoia, hallucinations and worse. Maybe this was a textbook case of that.

Maybe.

David agreed to get them to town as quickly as possible and accelerated the truck. The road was twisting and they took several curves faster than seemed safe. Annja decided there was nothing she could do but hang on and enjoy the ride.

She closed her eyes and thought about the sword. Instantly, she could see it hovering in front of her. She was feeling calm and clearheaded. She'd go after Joey on her own if she had to.

She was completely unprepared for an explosion.

She opened her eyes as the entire body of the truck flew into the air, and then they were rolling, turning and flipping over and over again as the truck came down with a screeching gnash of metal.

Jenny screamed.

Annja felt the truck hit the ground and blackness rushed over her.

Chapter 16.

Annja had the distinct impression that she was flying through the air. And she found herself experiencing the worry that eventually she would have to come back to earth, thanks to the effects of gravity.

And yet she did not crash into the ground at all.

After a moment, she felt the hardness of the ground around her body, but she had no idea how she'd gotten there. She couldn't see anything, just the same blackness that had rushed at her when her world had suddenly exploded into an intense flash and concussive roar that made her ears ring.

Slowly, her senses started to return. She could taste acrid smoke in her mouth. It seemed to have singed the interior of her nostrils, as well. Something was burning and she hoped that it wasn't her flesh.

Aches suddenly invaded her joints and her bones. The back of her neck seemed to have seized up, and Annja found it difficult to move her head or neck at all.

Am I paralyzed? She tried to wiggle her toes, but she couldn't feel anything down there, either.

This is bad, she thought. What the h.e.l.l happened?

Annja felt as if she'd been used to sc.r.a.pe barnacles off the hull of a tramp steamer. She tried to take an internal a.s.sessment of her injuries, but found she simply couldn't concentrate enough to draw her awareness throughout her body.

The blackness that surrounded her seemed absolute. She thought about the sword and imagined reaching her hands out for it in the otherwhere.

She took a breath and felt the stabbing of a thousand needles in her lungs. It felt as if shards of hot metal had lanced her through. Fragmentation? She couldn't be sure. She wondered if she was in some sort of catatonic limbo where she couldn't die and yet wasn't quite alive.

I need help, she thought. I've got to get some help. But how?

She tried to move her arms. Nothing.

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