How she got there remains unspoken, for now. On her own with no help except what she was able to summon up from inside. But the worse was yet to come…

From ROPE BREAK:

Grace was moving much slower now. She needed water and her vision was blurring if she ran too fast. She held it to a walk, a fast walk. It was all she could do. Now she wished she had eaten more, she needed the energy.

She could see the looming shadows of trees ahead. Several big oaks were clustered together and she came up to the edge of the starlight shadow and stepped in. At the base of one of the oaks was a clear spot and she sat down to rest. She was determined not to fall asleep again and actually slapped herself twice to keep alert.

There was a fallen piece of thin oak branch close to her legs and she reached over and flipped it away into a palmetto cluster. The sound she heard puzzled her. Then all the TV shows and movies she had seen in the past told her what the buzzing sound was. She couldn’t see the snake, but it was there. The buzzing got louder and she was afraid to move.