I turned the corner, my shoes sliding against the hard pavement, the footsteps of my pursuer growing louder and louder. I had to get away.

Run, just keep running, I repeated in my thoughts. I heard a door slam several feet behind me, and then footsteps approaching me. I was becoming breathless; I knew I wasn’t going to make it. And although I feared for my life, I could not forget the people I would save. "As long as they're okay, that’s all that really matters," I said to myself. Reassuring words that kept me going until my very last breath.

I gasped, and I felt a sharp blow to the back of my skull. Then I saw my life flash before my eyes, and the image of death right before me.