Joanie cringed in abject horror, aware that once this awful man discovered her, she would die. Terrified, she tried to force herself to get up and run, but, something inside her mind told her to keep absolutely still. Her mind was filled with only one thought; that of the chilling expression on the face of the man who, at this moment was within twenty-five feet of her newest hiding place. She wondered what he would do, when he found her. Would he grab her arms and lift her high in the air, before stabbing her? Or, would he just dispatch her where she cowered and let her bleed to death on the ground? Perhaps he would have his way with her before doing either of these things. Joanie actually hoped that would be the case. That way, she could buy some time to maybe find a way to distract, and in turn, kill him. She watched, as his mud-covered boots stepped closer to where she hid. Strangely, he stopped, at a point just a few feet from her and turned, seemingly startled by a loud crackling noise. Apparently, in his fervor to try to locate the woman who’d left her cell phone on the ground, he’d forgotten the steaks he’d placed on the grill. Now, the flames from the cooking fire had been fanned by the steady cool breeze and had engulfed the steaks with tongues of fire, searing them to a crispy ebony color. As she watched the man run back to tend to his now burned meal, Joanie let out another deep sigh of relief. She smiled, as she thought how she’d literally dodged another bullet. The first threat of imminent death had come from the coyotes and now she’d been saved from certain death by an out-of-control fire. The irony of the first situation was not lost on her; the man who’d unknowingly saved her from the coyotes had, by his own forgetfulness saved her once again. Joanie knew that this was her chance to run from this place; even if she were to get hopelessly lost in the vastness of the Windsor property. She realized that once the man had either tended to his meal, or, eaten it, he’d return again to attempt to find her. This time, she might not be so lucky. But, there was another fear; that of the small pack of coyotes. They would be out there somewhere, waiting. Jake was fond of telling her about the habits of wild animals and she remembered him telling her that coyotes were very patient animals. Perhaps the pack was not all that far from her at this moment. She shuddered at the thought of all of them sitting nearby, watching to see what this human food source would do next. How far could she expect to run, before being hunted down and attacked by all three of the vicious canids?
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