The hours stretched endlessly like a river of molten lead, each minute seeming to drag with the weight of their collective exhaustion and trauma. The landscape outside continued its monotonous parade of desolation. The sun climbed higher in the sky, its rays growing warmer and more insistent as the morning progressed into afternoon, yet inside the vehicle, time seemed suspended in a haze of weariness and lingering shock.
Cara's hands had begun to tremble almost imperceptibly on the steering wheel, the fine tremors becoming more pronounced with each passing hour. Dark circles shadowed her eyes like bruises, and her normally sharp gaze had taken on the glassy quality of someone running purely on adrenaline and stubborn determination. She'd been driving for nearly eighteen hours straight, her body pushed far beyond its natural limits by the desperate need to put distance between them and the nightmare they'd escaped.
