Three feet away Roza was curled into herself, her thin arms pulling her bent knees as close to her body as she could, rocking, rocking. Roza had been so brave – but it had lasted all of ten minutes. For the next four hours Corinne had had to half drag her through the woods. Every gust of wind terrified her. Every shriek of a hawk flying overhead had her ducking, hands clamped over her ears. Every time Corinne had loosed her hold, the girl had gone all potato bug on her, rolling up into that damned ball. Which Corinne totally understood. She’d like to curl up herself, and poor Roza had been through so much more. But there was a limit to what was humanly possible, and Corinne had hit that wall. I’m done, she thought. I’m all used up. If he comes after me now, I won’t be able to fight. She was hungry. And dehydrated. Poor Roza must be too. She didn’t even know where they were. It was dark and they were in a huge forest. Miles and miles of forest. They hadn’t seen a single solitary person, or a house, or even another road.
