Ted put the car in reverse and turned off the headlights. He backed up a good five hundred feet more, putting an even larger space between he and Emily, who was now waving frantically as she ran. He saw her silhouette in the headlights of the other car, confident that there was no way she'd reach his position in time. At this position, he was even farther from her than the approaching car.
Gary was on the way back home from a beer run. He'd already opened the case and had two, and was contemplating a third but they weren't as cold now, so he waited. He had his radio up all the way because his exhaust had gotten so rusty, and the noise wouldn't let him hear the music any other way.
Rounding the corner, he thought he saw, what? Not a deer. Definitely not a bear, but it was, ah, it was a person. But what was someone doing out here alone on foot? He guessed they'd had car trouble and were walking. Time to be the Good Samaritan, he thought. Especially if it was a chick.
As he got closer, he saw the person was running. A jogger out here? No, they weren't running like that. It looked like they were yelling and waving, but at what? Gary still didn't see the other car, as he was focused on what his headlights were revealing as he caught up with the running figure.
"Holy shit," he said out loud.
Emily looked back again, knowing what was about to happen. She knew Ted wasn't going to help her. She knew the driver in the other car could see her. The car was close, and slowing down. Once again she wished for the jacket to wrap around her waist.
Looking back again, she saw the car was less than twenty feet away.
She ran for the ditch, splashing through the icy ankle-deep water, and up the other side, and into the woods.
Gary stopped the car and put it in park. Motor and radio still on, he got out, walking towards the girl he had seen. She was half naked! The first thing he thought was maybe she was drunk and wandering the road, then he wondered if she had been raped and dumped out here, but if that was the case, wouldn't she be running towards him wanting his help? Confused and curious, he pursued the girl, calling out to her.
"Hey! I ain't gonna hurt you! Come back!" The girl kept running into the woods.
"Don't go in there, there's snakes and shit! Get back out here or you're gonna get messed up real bad!"
Emily ran until she couldn't hear the man any more, only the fading rumble of the car exhaust. She didn't like this game any more. She wasn't turned on; she was terrified.
With every step, twigs snapped under her feet, and the underbrush scraped and cut at her legs. Deep in the woods, the wind was less severe, but the temperature had dropped, and she was shivering. She finally turned back when the noise had ceased.
Gary had gone about twenty feet into the woods himself, but without a flashlight, he was in no mood to go farther. The beers were making him wobbly and angry, and naked girl or not, he wasn't about to go running into these woods and get snake bit.
"Fuck it," he said, turning back.
As he got into his car, he yelled into the woods one more time, "I wasn't gonna try to fuck ya, I just wanted to help,"
He got into his car and put it on drive. "Dumb bitch." He cursed as he drove away.
Ted ducked down as the car passed. Gary slowed down, but he didn't stop. "Maybe that's her car," he mused, but kept driving. Ted stayed down until he heard the sound fade.