One second she was totally vertical, the next she was flat on her back, pain shooting through the side of her head and black dots marring her vision. She sucked in a deep breath, blinking wildly, trying to get her bearings. The pain in her temple didn’t abate, but her vision cleared to reveal just how precarious a situation she’d found herself in. Angry faces and moving bodies whizzed above her. She braced both palms on the hot pavement and tried to stand up, only to fall backward when someone bumped into her. Someone else stepped on her foot, bringing a jolt of pain. Uh-oh. This was bad. Each time she succeeded in unsteadily climbing to her feet, she got knocked right back down, and now she was seeing stars again. Her eyes couldn’t seem to focus and shapes were beginning to look blurry. The fear finally hit her, clogging her throat and making her heart pound. Agony burned up her arm as she got stomped on again.
