The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die

Cady assesses her surroundings, looking for a weapon or something else to buy her time. They reach the door, and she hears a voice in her head: “Don’t act. Be” (5). She goes limp, falling to the floor and trying to pretend she’s unconscious despite the grueling pain in her body. The man opens the door and begins dragging her outside by supporting her under her shoulders. She notices blood on her jeans and wonders if she’s bleeding from other places. She feels a rock on the ground as she’s being dragged but realizes that if the man has a gun, then the rock won’t help. She contemplates the fact that she’s about to be killed for reasons she doesn’t even know, and that she doesn’t even know who she is. Cady is unable to take being murdered and not putting up a fight, so when the man tells her not to struggle and tries to reposition his grip, she elbows him and knocks the wind out of him. Then she hits him in the groin and cracks his nose with a punch, aided by the rock in her hand. She scratches at his face and then punches him in the throat again with the rock, leaving him unconscious and possibly not breathing. When it’s all over, she realizes that her body moved on its own: “All my moves were automatic. I didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to remember anything” (8).

The man lies on the ground gagging, barely alive it seems. Cadynotes that he’s white, slim, and in his 30s. She’s afraid that he might get up at any moment and grab her, but she knows she must find the gun he might have. She searches him and finds a gun, takes it, and ties his hands with his belt. She also notices that his head has hit a rock after his fall, and that he’s bleeding from the wound. Cady is conflicted about the thought of not only harming him but possibly having killed him. She certainly doesn’t want to shoot him but tells herself that he was going to do the same thing to her. She takes his wallet and finds his car keys. She can’t remember if she even knows how to drive or if there’s a car there at the cabin, but she hopes the answer to both questions is yes.

Cady heads back inside the cabin and sees a girl staring at her. She realizes that she’s staring into a mirror and assesses herself: “I […] stare at myself. At me. At who I must be. Only it’s a face I don’t recognize” (14).She doesn’t recognize herself and nearly vomits from how pale and beat up she looks. She finds a picture on the mantel and realizes that she is the girl in the picture, although she doesn’t know who the other people are: “I am that girl” (15). She then takes the overcoat hanging near the mirror, as well as the picture, and sees an SUV outside the cabin. While looking through the rooms in the cabin, she’s appalled at how everything has been upended but manages to find some Band-aids. She then rushes outside to the SUV and is relieved that she knows how to drive.

Cady reaches a road but doesn’t know if she should go left or right. It’s a small road, and there aren’t any road signs. Since left goes up and higher, she goes right, hoping to find a town. Although she looks at her surroundings as she drives, she can’t see any sign of civilization, and she realizes that the sun is going down. She also notes that she’s driving south and wonders why she keeps compiling information. A car passes her finally, but she doesn’t stop it for help, fearing that it could be the man who gave the order to kill her. She then remembers the phone in her pocket and thinks to call 9-1-1, but after attempting to retrieve the phone causes her to experience a huge amount of pain, she realizes that she wouldn’t even be able to tell the police where she is. She determines to make it to town before seeking help so that there are witnesses. But the cellphone she’s taken from the man at the cabin begins buzzing, frightening her anew: “Will they find him—and then set out to find me?” (19).She speeds up, hoping that the man who gave the order to kill her doesn’t return soon to find his friend.

The phone stops buzzing, but her fear doesn’t subside: “Waves of shivers wash over me. I’m in a nightmare” (20).Cady continues on the road until it reaches a wider road. She turns left onto this road, hoping she’s made the right choice. She thinks about the picture in her pocket and wonders if it shows her family. Perhaps the cabin belonged to her parents or grandparents. Even though cars pass her by with more frequency, she’s still too afraid to ask anyone for help as it might result in her death if she chooses the wrong car and it’s the man who wants her dead. She makes it to a highway and almost gets into an accident. She turns off the road to calm her nerves and remembers that the man’s phone she took has Internet. She looks up Google Maps on the phone and sees that she’s in the middle of Oregon, near a place called Newberry Ranch that has a police department. Newberry Ranch is a resort, but since it has a police station and is only two miles away, she heads there. When she arrives, she takes the gun and runs for the door of the police station.