Runner

by A. J. Summer

  Thug One flicks his tongue out and licks her from jawbone to temple. Talon struggles and pinches her eyes closed when his hands start roaming lower, down her neck and shoulders, and still I show nothing. Even as my blood starts a slow simmer in my veins. I’m angry at them, but most of all I’m pissed with myself. This happened because of me. I lied to myself, I am a fuck-up.

  “No! No! Don’t fucking touch me!” Talon starts screaming when he lowers the zipper of the hoody. Mike moans from the floor and lifts his head. When his eyes fall on Talon, he starts moving. Little blue veins pop up on the side of his head as he struggles with the tape around his wrists, and then he looks at me and stills. Like he can’t believe I’m just standing there. I don’t like the look on his face. The accusations I see in his eyes. I didn’t make Talon come here, and he knows the rules!

  Thug Two walks over to Mike and kicks him in the gut. Mike groans and folds over, but the guy just keeps kicking him until his eyes roll into the back of his head. Talon starts to sob behind me, and I don’t even look back to see why.

  “This isn’t working,” Thug Two pants. “He isn’t going to talk.”

  “Maybe she will,” Thug One says behind me before kicking my knee in. I don’t fall, but I bend down on my knees like he intended, but he is a pussy and can’t kick for shit. He punches me in the face, and my lip splits and paints my tongue in blood. I spit the horrid rusty taste to the floor and lift my face. Try to break me, fucker. I dare you. I won’t talk, because I don’t have the answer they need. I won’t cry or yell while they ruin the girl behind me, I won’t play hero when they finally shoot my friend. There’s no need for that, we are all going to die anyway. I just want to die first. Let this just finally end.

  “You’re not going to fight!” Talon cries behind me. “Damn it, Runner, Mike is your friend! Where’s the big, bad Runner everyone is always talking about?” I don’t say anything. I knew I was going to let them down some time or another. I told them, everyone around me is in danger. They knew that!

  “If you won’t do it, I will. I will fight for you!” Talon pushes me over and throws herself at Thug One, but he has his gun pointed at her head before she can even touch him. And in that split second, my heart starts beating; it starts slow, just a gentle thud when I realize he might shoot her in front of me. It slowly picks up speed until it races so fast I’m sure I’m going to burst a blood vessel. “Take your gun off of her,” I say slow and even. I rise to my feet. Thug One suddenly looks nervous, like he doesn’t know who to point the gun at anymore.

  “You want to talk, let’s talk,” I say, pulling the chair upright that I knocked over when Talon pushed me at Thug One. He takes a step back and looks at Thug Two over his shoulder.

  Thug Two looks at him and then to me and smiles. “You heard him, he wants to talk. I’ll go get the boss,” Thug Two says.

  He turns to leave the room but stops to kick Mike one more time. Mike groans from behind his duct tape.

  “You better go get Daniel before I change my mind.” I kick absently at the leg of the chair.

  “Are you getting cocky with me, boy?” Thug Two asks. Oh, he has no idea how cocky I’m about to get. He walks up to me quickly and Talon scrambles to her feet. Both guys take their eyes off me to look at the girl who’s proven herself to be very unpredictable.

  That’s when I take my chance. I swing the broken leg of the chair that I’ve been kicking and slam it down into Thug One’s neck. He grabs at the piece of wood protruding from his neck even as his newborn scream dies in a hardly audible gurgle. He slumps, twitching, to the floor.

  Thug Two fires his gun, but his bullet doesn’t find me, and I grab his hand, wrestling for his gun. The fucker is a lot bigger than me and strong as a damn ox. He brings his gun close to my jaw, and I know I’m done for. A flash of red flies passed my face. Thug Two screams, dropping the gun and covering his eye. Talon bends down ready to hit him again, but I stop her and take her shoe out of her hand. I said those things would cost someone an eye. I slam my fist into the side of his head, and he goes out cold. I unstrapped the hunting knife from his thigh, my second target, if the chair leg didn’t work, luckily it did.

  I run over to Mike and cut him lose with the knife I took off of Thug Two. “Should we look for Daniel?” Mike asks.

  I point to the camera in the corner of the room, “He already knows. Let’s see if he lets us leave.”

  “No, Mike is right, you have to kill him or this will never end,” Talon says, looking around the room until she finds what she is looking for. She walks over, but when she bends to pick up the gun, she stumbles to her knees. She clutches her side and cries out in pain. My stupid legs won’t work fast enough to get me the few feet to her, and I almost fall over Mike in my panic. When I pull the grey hoodie away from her body, all I see is the blood. It’s already soaking her shirt. She moves her hand away and looks at her red-stained hands.

  “Shit, I don’t think I like red so much anymore,” she says, followed by a short laugh before she faints.

  I pick Talon up and head for the door. I don’t care if Daniel plans on shooting me in the back as I leave with her cradled to my chest. She’s still breathing, but barely. I don’t know what will happen to me if she dies in my arms. I don’t think my mind will survive it. I hear Mike rambling on the phone with Reno’s doctor. He holds the front door open for me, and as soon as I’m out, he hurries to open his car door. I will have to come back for mine later. Or Daniel can torch it. I don’t really care. I need to get Talon out of here.

  I lay Talon down on the back seat and slide in next to her. If she bleeds out, it’s on me and I’ll be right here with her. Mike hurries to the driver’s side and speeds off towards the cabin.

  “Doc will meet us at the cabin. Jonah and the girls are on their way,” Mike says after a while, like I couldn’t hear the whole conversation he had before we got into the car. I nod and focus on my hands. I’m pressing as hard as I can without doing any more damage, but Talon won’t stop bleeding. She also hasn’t woken up since she passed out. She looks so pale. I don’t think she has any blood left, yet she keeps on bleeding anyway.

  “Drive faster.”

  He accelerates and the trees blur past faster. I was a fucking idiot. If Talon dies tonight, the last thing about her I’ll remember is that asshole’s hands all over her. For a moment back there, I didn’t care what they did to them, as long as I died first. I didn’t want to watch, but when he put the gun against her head, I knew I couldn’t watch her die. I couldn’t just give up. She did fight for me, even if I didn’t deserve it. Now she just has to keep on fighting so I can make it up to her.

  “Why did you come?”

  “What?” Mike asks. He takes his eyes off the road briefly to look at me.

  “To Warehouse 9. Why did you come? I told you not to.”

  “Because that’s what we do. We look out for each other. And you had Talon. Damn, I knew she was trouble. Can’t believe she hit a guy in the face. With her shoe!” Mike shakes his head like he can’t believe it.

  Yeah, she’s trouble alright. In more ways than one. Crazy-ass-chick.

  The cabin looks peaceful with the setting sun behind it as we speed toward it. The doc’s car is already parked in front. He climbs out as we approach, and his daughter follows close behind him. Mike skids the car to a stop, and a spray of pebbles hit the shiny silver car next to us. Mike helps me get Talon out. I readjust her head that’s hanging limply off my arm as I wait for him to unlock the door. I carry her toward the bedroom in the back. I almost squash Mike in the doorway when he doesn’t get out of the way fast enough.

  “We have to get her shirt off,” the doctor says to his daughter while she’s sliding off Talon’s hoodie. “There’s a lot of blood.” He takes out a pair of scissors and starts cutting her shirt. I spin around to Mike and point my finger at the door. He needs to get out. “Are you serious right now?” he asks, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Get out,” I say.


  “I think you both should get out. Nelly and I have this. There’s not enough space in here,” the doctor says, cutting her shirt down the middle.

  “It’ll be fine. Go,” Nelly says, her voice soft as she leads me to the door and pushes me through.

  “Nelly!” Doc shouts from the bed, and then the door slams closed. I slide down the wall and do something I haven’t done in a long time. I pray. I pray for the feisty redhead that drives me insane with anger. I pray for the girl who made me care, just like I knew she would.

  “I brought you coffee,” Jonah says, sitting down awkwardly next to me in the hallway.

  I wonder if his leg will ever be back to normal. I doubt he’ll be a professional football player or chase a cheap-ass loaner down an alley soon. I guess it still hurts really bad. I sit up straighter and grimace when my back cramps. I’ve been sitting in this hallway for two hours staring at that closed door. I take a grateful sip of the coffee and almost choke on it when the door finally opens. Doc comes out looking tired and Nelly looks even worse, but she’s smiling and that’s all I need.

  I scramble to my feet and start for the door, but Doc stops me. “She needs rest.” I nod quickly, but I’m still going in there. He can try to stop me if he likes. I wonder how good Nelly’s stitching is.

  “Take a walk with me,” Doc says, taking my arm. He waits for me to walk with him. I peer into the room, but all I can see are Talon’s legs covered in sheets.

  “She’ll be okay. Nelly will stay if it makes you feel better.” I nod, because that will make me feel better, but I can’t get the words past the thickness in my throat.

  “We almost lost her, but I brought some blood. Experience after your friend over there.” Doc nods his head to the back where Jonah is standing at Talon’s door.

  “Okay, but she’s going to be alright?”

  “She should be fine, but she needs rest. Nelly will be around to clean the dressing. But you need to stop doing what you boys are doing. I’m not a miracle worker, and one day I’m going to lose this fight.”

  Doc is a kind man, an honest man, and I don’t want to lie to him. I know this is far from over. So instead I stare at the floor. He gives my shoulder a tight squeeze before moving to the bathroom to clean up. I look back down the passage at Jonah still standing at the door, and I wish it was that simple. That we could just stop and not do this anymore. And that would be the end of it. But we’ve made some dangerous enemies, and retribution is a hungry wolf.

  * * *

  Talon’s face is pale in the dim lighting of the room. She looks peaceful, but she’s so pale. I can see the little arteries at her temples. I keep staring at the fluttering pulse there. It assures me she’s still alive. And that keeps me calm. Keeps me from running away. I don’t want to run anymore. I want to stay and fight. I want to fight for her.

  Doc assured me she’s not in any pain when he gave me all the other care instructions. Nelly will be back in the morning to check on the wound and clean the dressing. He says infection is probably her biggest threat, but other than that, she should be fine. He also told me Talon can’t have any solid food for the next twenty-four hours.

  I shudder as I look at the green shake standing next to her bed for when she wakes up. I also look at the rest of the stuff I put out for her. The candles, a white rose. Not red even though it’s her favorite color. A neutral color. I’m giving Talon’s friend idea a shot. It scares the shit out of me that I care so much about her, so this is the only way I can do this. One step at a time. Fuck, I’ll crawl if I have to. But I’m not jumping. I can’t jump. Not yet.

  “Hi,” Talon croaks. She tries to sit up, but I put my hands on her shoulders and hold her down.

  “Don’t sit up,” I say softly.

  “Ow, I don’t think I’ll try again.” She pinches her lips together.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I got shot.”

  I shake my head and smile. “Daniel?” she asks. And I can’t believe the anger I feel from hearing his name coming from her mouth. He doesn’t deserve the privilege of even being in her thoughts.

  “You were shot, Talon, I wasn’t going to go look for him. You were bleeding out.” A little of the fear I felt earlier creeps back in, but this time it’s fear that she might tell me to fuck off after all this.

  “What do we do now?” she asks.

  “We wait. He’ll make his move. Hopefully we scared him, or at least you scared him off. And you get better. You’re quite killer with those heels of yours.” Talon’s eyes widen and I realize my mistake; she stabbed a man in the face tonight. I don’t think she’s ever hurt anyone like that before. But that’s the only sign of distress she shows, which is a little weird, but she’s also high on pain meds, so maybe that’s it. If she’s not careful, she’s going to lose all her brain cells to tranquilizers. I reach over and cup her cheek. I don’t like her reaction. The cold acceptance of what she has done just isn’t right. Isn’t she supposed to freak out or something? She smiles and leans her face into my hand when I slowly stroke her cheek with my thumb.

  I pull my hand away and stand up to light the candles on the dresser. I pick up the rose and hand it to her. She looks so adorably confused. Wait until she sees her dinner. I eye the shakes suspiciously, not sure if I’ll be able to go through with it. I can’t even look at the green sludge without the urge to spill my guts. Talon is smiling at me, softly. She is beautiful, even if she’s still a little colorless and her hair is one big tangle. She is a goddess, and the next fucker to hurt her is going to get seriously acquainted with my gun. I just pray it’s not me. I pick up both shakes and hand her one. I raise mine and stare into her eyes.

  “And we have dinner,” I say, finishing off her list of things to do now.

  TALON

  “Please don’t go, Talonia,” my little sister whispered with fear in her voice. It was so soft and scared. I stopped easing the door open and turned back to her. I could just make out her form where she was lying on the thin mattress on the floor. I swallowed down the thick clot of tears building in my throat.

  “I’ll be back, Nina, I’ll be back,” I whispered, my voice giving way, so no more words formed. I slipped through the door and inched my way down the passage, staying as close to the wall as possible. I pulled on the heavy latch from the thick wooden door, and the thud of the latch finally giving way echoed down the passage. I cringed and held my breath, taking a quick look down the shadowed prison we called home. I released the breath I was holding and hurried through.

  The perfect manicured lawn loomed vast in front of me. I was tempted to just bolt straight across it and leave this place behind forever. Never to look back again. But I’d have to come back. I couldn’t leave her here. The security lights secured on the side of the house wouldn’t allow for a quick dash across the lawn anyway. I’d have to slowly inch my way around the house.

  The rough texture of the white enamel on the house scuffed my hands as I moved slowly around the corner, keeping close to the shadows. Just a few more feet and I’d be free.

  “I’ll be back, Nina…” I whispered as I stepped clear of the house and got ready to run for my life.

  “You! Stop!” one of the guards shouted. No! Little bolts of adrenaline spiked through my veins and jolted my body into action. I dashed toward the smattering of trees at the edge of the garden. A beam of light bounced off the ground in front of me, and I ran faster. I wasn’t watching where I was going, not really caring as long as it was away from here.

  My foot caught on a root in the overgrowth, and I rolled head over feet down the embankment leading to the river. I lay on my stomach in the sand, and I heard the men searching for me. The sound of them ripping the reeds apart rang like a church bell in my head. I needed to get up. I needed to run, but my ribs hurt and my head felt like it was located somewhere far away from my shoulders. Get up, Talonia! Do it for Nina. Move! I needed to do this for her. If I didn’t, we were both stuck here, and god knows what would happe
n to us!

  I lifted my head limply on my shoulders and saw the flashlight streaming through the trees. There was nowhere for me to go. There were long river reeds to my left. Guards to my back, and the river blocked my way forward, more shouts came from my right.

  “Here! There’s something over here,” Demitri shouted close to my side. Demitri was another one of Devrin’s slaves. The master’s slave. My heart panged painfully. Demitri wasn’t always bad. We use to be friends, so much more than friends. He was my light in this dark hole of existence. I loved him. I thought he loved me too. Until he saw Devrin jam his privates into my mouth and me allowing it. I had no choice—when your little sister is at another person’s mercy, you do whatever you need to do to survive. And that day it was giving Devrin what he wanted.

  Demitri was only two years older than me at the time. Both of us pawns, playthings to the people who owned us. I knew Devrin was training him to do his dirty work. But it still stung like a motherfucker when I experienced it firsthand.

  Demitri just stared up at the wooden rafters of the shed, pumping his hips into my face. With each thrust he destroyed a little more of my love for him. I knew my best friend was dead, the good one. All that was left was another mindless pawn, a player to the rich.

  I pulled my bag closer, ready to run, when the shouting sounded dangerously close again. But I wouldn’t make it, not with the pain in my side. This was not going as I planned. There was only one way to go and that was into the river.

  I slipped into the water as fast and quietly as possible. The thought of the creatures lurking in the murky depths made my skin crawl, and I almost got out, almost. I pulled my backpack into the water and pushed it in the opposite direction, leaving it to wobble on the surface before I waded slowly into the reeds. I didn’t touch anything. I made my water steps as light as possible in fear of touching or stepping on anything. I could hear the guards searching the bank.