She half expected gunfire, but instead there was shouting and the sound of pursuit. She was willing to bet Gym Bro Cop could outrun her in a straight race, so she started weaving between the trees. She headed for where they grew close and the shadows hung heaviest, with the mad idea of ducking behind a tree and somehow evading his notice entirely.

On the other hand, she might be running away from the only human beings in a hundred miles—perhaps in this world. She might have gone camping a few times, but that didn’t translate to living off the land. And this wasn’t even the land she might have learned to live off, because that land didn’t have actual dinosaurs roaming about.

Gym Bro had miraculously failed to catch her yet, but she could hear him scuffing down the slope she’d descended, cursing her name. He was going to beat her to within an inch of her life when he caught her, she guessed, and the thought gave her an extra turn of speed.

Then she was out of the trees.

She hadn’t expected it, and she was abruptly crashing down a bank, skidding on her backside. She dug the heels of her sodden trainers in to slow her before she went into the water beyond. Gym Bro exploded from the trees above her, pelting full tilt, and he almost put a foot through her face as he stumbled over her. He ended up on the water’s edge, turning with a gun in one hand and the other already reaching for her. Without thinking, she kicked and caught him on the hip. She’d been aiming for the groin, but it wasn’t a move she had much experience with, and anyway the impact was enough. With a dismayed yell he went backwards into the mud-coloured river.

She slithered to her feet, a hair from joining him, and bolted off along the bank. Gym Bro’s friends arrived, but they lost vital seconds when all three fell over each other to pull him from the water. At least one was being yelled at to follow her, but then they were all hooting and hollering and at least one gun went off. She risked a look back. But whatever had emerged to snap at Gym Bro’s heels was already submerging, a curved grey back vanishing into the opaque water.

Then she was running, following the curve of the bank, knowing she’d have to go back into the forest to try and lose them, and that would mean a struggle up the crumbling, slimy bank. Her filthy hands were already numb with cold and the rest of her wasn’t far behind. And she had nowhere to go. That was the kicker, really. She could run as far and fast as she possibly could and she’d still be nowhere at the end of it.