by Dean Murray
Before the sound had even fully died away I found myself swept off of my feet as the blond guy picked me up and sprinted around the car wash. His car was there waiting for us, driver side door open, keys in the ignition. He all but threw me in, I sailed across the bench seat and hit the passenger door hard enough to bruise, and then we were peeling out of the parking lot.
I looked out at the side mirror and saw a flash of movement before my companion threw the vehicle around the curve and onto the highway.
"Are you hurt?"
For some reason it took me a second to realize he was talking to me.
"Did he hurt you?"
"I…I don't think so. Not really."
It was like my mind had been skipping and then suddenly started tracking again. Everything came back to me in a rush and the sheer amount of violence I'd just witness made me start shaking.
"Marge. Beth. Neither of them were moving. We've got to go back!"
I reached for the door handle, half-formed thoughts of getting out of the car crashing around in my head, only to be pulled up short as he reached over and pulled me back against the seat.
"You can't get out right now, we're doing ninety."
I started to struggle, but his hand just clamped down with more force. It didn't seem possible for him to restrain me with one hand like that, but given all of the other things that had just happened, it was pretty much the least important thing to be worrying about.
"Turn around."
"I can't do that right now. I hit him several times, but he's even stronger than I was afraid of. If we go back he'll be waiting for us."
"What do you mean? You shot him! Even assuming that he was stupid enough to come after you, seeing as you have a gun and he didn't, he's not going to be attacking anyone now. He'll probably be dead before we even get back there."
My companion shook his head, but he released me. "You honestly didn't see him as we were leaving? He followed us out of the parking lot. I had to hit forty before he stopped gaining on us."
My mind stuttered back to the flash of movement. I couldn't explain it, but whatever I had seen had been the right shape and size. I was trying to process what kind of person, what kind of thing could possibly survive four or five bullets to the chest. My eyes got even wider as he reached down to the seat between us and picked up the empty pistol and slipped another magazine into it.
"Who are you?"
He didn't take his eyes off of the road, but he paused in the process of sliding the weapon back into his shoulder holster.
"You can call me Ash."
"I can call you Ash, but that's not your name?"
"It's best if we leave it at that. What do you want me to call you?"
"Kristin. I mean that's my name."
"Kristin it is then. You don't believe me, do you?"
I shook my head before realizing that he wouldn't be able to see the motion. "No. No I don't. Real life isn't like the movies. People don't survive multiple gunshots like that."
"That thing isn't a person. Not really, not in any of the ways that actually matter. I'm sorry that you wandered into this, but if you don't do exactly as I say over the next little while, not even I will be able to keep you alive."
Chapter 2
Ash made me throw my phone out the window. It was a cheap piece of crap, but I was surprised just how adrift I felt once it was gone. I'd had vague plans of texting the police or something the first time Ash fell asleep, but when I'd tried to tell him I didn't have a phone he'd just reached over and fished it out of my pocket without even taking his eyes off of the road.
It felt like I should be freaking out. Ash certainly seemed to be waiting for me to break down. I caught him looking at me out of the corner of his eye a couple of times, but I never managed to engage him in any kind of dialogue after his cryptic comment about Anton being some kind of animal.
I fell asleep after a couple of hours. If someone had asked me if I would be able to sleep after being kidnapped by some kind of psycho nutjob, I'd have told them no. Reality turned out to be a bit different. I'd had a very long day before Anton tried to kidnap me, and the adrenaline from the shootout had pretty much burned through whatever stores of energy I'd had left. When the immediate danger had passed, it took all of my willpower to stay awake, and even then, I could tell it was a losing battle. Besides, for all that Ash was obviously delusional, he hadn't actually done anything to hurt me yet.
The LCD display on the radio said it was noon when I finally woke up. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that Ash was talking on the phone.
"Look, it's not negotiable. I either need a commitment for tomorrow, or I'll find someone else to take care of it."
There was a pause while whoever was on the other end of the signal responded, and then Ash sighed.
"OK, my guy will make sure you're compensated for it. I want the car they are picking up cross-loaded in Chicago…no, I'll have someone call with instructions as to the final destination. You just make sure that driver doesn't stop between here and Chicago."
I sat motionless on my side of the car, but I must have made more noise than I'd realized when I woke up, because Ash turned to me as soon as he'd hung up.
"You get enough sleep?"
I nodded cautiously, not sure where he was headed.
"You've put me in quite a bind, Kristin."
I wasn't quite sure what he was looking for. What could you say to placate a psychopath?
"I'm…sorry."
"Don't say you're sorry when you're not really sorry."
There wasn't really anything I could say to that. I sat in silence waiting to see what else he was going to say.
"I've had someone monitoring events back in your hometown. That guy…"
I inserted his name by reflex. "Anton."
"Right, Anton made the front page. Not him actually, but the number he did on the gas station did at least. Your friends are both in the hospital, but they seem to be stable as near as I can tell."
Ash paused again, but I still didn't know what he was after. A tiny part of me seemed to think that I should be feeling something, but even after so much time I still felt like I was in shock. It was too soon for me to be feeling anything but numbness. After a minute he shrugged and continued, but I got the feeling he was…disappointed somehow.
"The police are reporting some kind of violent confrontation, but they aren't quite sure what to make of it. No bodies, but plenty of shell casings and a surprisingly large amount of blood considering that everyone but Beth and Marge left under their own power."
Now I could see where he was going, but I wasn't sure how safe it was to play along.
"So you're saying that Anton trashed the gas station, bled all over the place, and then picked up and left?"
"Pretty much. He took the footage from the closed-circuit cameras before he left, but other than that, you've pretty much got it."
It wasn't smart to bait him, but I just couldn't help myself. If I was going to die sometime in the next couple of days, then I was at least going to say what was on my mind.
"Look, it's a nice story, but you do realize you haven't given me any kind of proof yet, don't you?"
Ash shrugged. "I didn't necessarily expect that you'd believe me, but I need you to understand certain things or neither one of us is going to make it through this."
"Fine, I'll play along. What do I need to know?"
"Your friends are alive and in a known location, which is good for them, but bad for us. If he'd killed them, or disappeared them, then that would be an indication that he was placing the blame on them rather than us. Since he's not, we can expect that he's tailing us."
I blinked a couple of times. "He's tracking us? Even assuming he really did survive somehow, how would he possibly be able to track us? We're in a car doing seventy-something down the interstate. So what, he's got us on satellite or something?"
"Something like that. The hows are less important than the fact that he'll be
trying to find us, and he's got a decent chance of succeeding."
Whatever Ash was about to say was cut off by a prodigious yawn, and I felt myself fighting one of my own.
"Apologies, I've been up for far too long, which leads me to the point of all of this. In a few minutes we're going to get off of the interstate and try to find a motel. I need to know whether or not you trust me enough not to run while I get some sleep."
Now I was regretting getting in his face about his delusions. It would be easier to escape if he thought that I was going to do exactly what he wanted me to do.
"I…believe you. I don't know how, but I know you're telling me the truth."
Ash slowed the car down slightly and turned the full force of his gray eyes on me.
"Kristin, I don't need to know whether you believe me or not. I just need to know whether or not you'll behave and not do anything stupid which would draw attention to us."
I nodded once, not really trusting my voice to not give me away. He looked at me for another couple of seconds and then returned his attention to the road. It was odd how little in the way of social cues he provided sometimes. I'd expected a nod, or an 'OK', but he hadn't done any of that, he'd just made whatever decision he'd needed to make and then went back to ignoring me.
Fifteen minutes later we took an exit ramp. I was so busy staring at the landscape that I missed the name of the town we were entering, but it didn't look to be much of a prize. I had some vague thought that the more helpful I was the more likely he was to trust me, so I started pointing out hotels. He just shook his head and continued on until he found a shabby motel on the far end of town.
It was my turn to shake my head as Ash pulled into the parking lot. Actually it made a lot of sense for him to choose this place. It was shaped more or less like a 'U' with two-story buildings making up all three sides. We'd just driven into the top of the 'U' and parking was in the center.
I scanned the area, looking for a way out, but other than a small gap between two of the buildings on the far end of the parking lot, there was nothing, and even that gap was covered by a chain-link fence that was nearly as tall as the building.
Ash turned the car off and then looked over at me. "Are you going to stay in the car while I go check us into a room?"
It was an easy answer. He'd parked us twenty feet from the front desk, which was at the top of the 'U'. Whichever direction I ran, he'd easily catch me before I made it very far. I could always hope to make enough of a scene that the police got involved, but I hadn't forgotten about the gun hidden inside his jacket.
"I won't go anywhere."
Ash considered my response, nodded and then exited the car. I craned around so I could follow his progress. Checking in seemed to go smoothly, and five minutes later Ash was back at the car.
Our unit was all the way to the end at the base of the U on the ground floor, and based on what I could see through the windows, it was just as run-down as the exterior had suggested it would be.
Ash popped the trunk, grabbed a duffle bag, and then escorted me inside. If anything, it was worse than I'd expected from outside. Dark shag carpet that had obviously seen better days, walls with honest-to-goodness peeling wallpaper on them, and a bed that I was almost positive was leaning slightly to one side.
"I need to get some sleep. It's dangerous to stop, but it's even more dangerous to be operating this tired. Can I trust you to stay put?"
It was hard to believe he was this stupid. Of course I wasn't going to stay put. I'd let him nod off, wait for him to get into a really deep sleep, and then I'd sneak out.
"Of course. I'm not going anywhere considering that there's a psychopath out there looking for us."
Ash nodded as he started emptying the contents of the duffle bag onto the bed. Clothes, knives, duct tape, another gun, extra ammunition, a first-aid kit. Despite having slept for at least a few hours, I was still feeling some of the effects of having been scared for my life off and on for most of the last day. My knees wanted to buckle, so I obliged them by dropping down onto the room's only chair, a Spartan metal number, and putting my head in my hands.
Ash continued to rattle around on the other side of the room. It sounded like he was repacking, but I just couldn't bring myself to care much. When the movement stopped, I finally picked my head back up enough to see that he had indeed re-packed his duffle of everything but one of the knives, a couple of magazines, and a box of ammunition.
He left all of that on the bed, turned on the TV, and then walked over to me. I half-expected him to go into the bathroom. Instead he moved with some of the unnatural speed both he and Anton had demonstrated the night before. Before I realized his intention he dropped onto my lap, immobilized my arms with his legs, and pulled the roll of duct tape out from behind his back.
I had a moment to scream, but he'd surprised me so completely that I was gagged before I could really react. Working with an unhurried efficiency, Ash proceeded to tape me to the chair, first my torso and arms, and then my legs. When he finished, I was able to move my hands from the wrist down and nothing else.
"Sorry, Kristin. I wish I hadn't had to do that, but you were lying to me just now. Believe it or not, it's for your own protection."
I couldn't say anything, so I cursed him under my breath and glared, but it didn't seem to bother him. He casually picked me up, chair and all, and placed me in front of the window. With the blinds mostly closed, I could look out, but there wasn't much chance anyone would see me. As he moved back to my side, I realized just how impressive his casual feat of strength had been. Plenty of guys could pick me up, but not many could do it without huffing and puffing. I'd known he was strong, but I hadn't realized he was quite that strong.
"OK, here's what you need to do. I want you to watch very carefully out that window. Every time you see a car pull into the parking lot, every time you see someone walk in off the street, you need to make sure you're positive it isn't Anton. If it's Anton then wake me up by tapping these against the chair."
He slipped his keys into my right hand.
"Don't wake me up unless you see either him or something suspicious, but when in doubt wake me up. I only need a couple of hours, but the sooner I can get them out of the way, the sooner we can be back on the road and putting distance between him and us."
I sat there fuming for several minutes after Ash lay down on the bed, but eventually started paying attention to the comings and goings outside the window just to combat the boredom.
It didn't help much. It was early enough in the day that there wasn't much in the way of activity. A cleaning lady was slowly working her way down the line of units on my right, headed towards the front desk. As it got nearer to checkout time, a few people exited various rooms and started packing up their cars, but that was it, and by the time I'd been at it for what I figured was an hour, I wanted to just close my own eyes and go to sleep.
I'd nearly given into the urge when a familiar-looking car pulled into the parking lot. It was the bullet holes that finally jarred me out of my daze, and I started slamming Ash's keys against the chair frame before I'd even processed the fact that Ash had been telling the truth.
Ash grabbed my hands, stilling them and then he whipped out the knife he'd unpacked earlier and sliced through the duct tape.
"Believe me now?"
Ash waited for me to nod before ripping the tape off of my mouth.
Anton was out of his car now, walking towards us with an unhurried stride.
Ash was staring at Anton, but I didn't get the feeling that he'd frozen. It was more like he was calculating odds.
"You know how to use one of these?"
I took the proffered handgun with one hand while the other was still absently pulling tape off of my chest.
"Not really."
"Pull the slide back, it's ready to go now, just point it at your target and pull the trigger. It probably won't matter, as fast as he moves you're unlikely to actually hit him."
We
were back in the corner of the room. It meant we'd lost sight of Anton through the window, but we were as far away from the door as we could get. My hand was getting clammy, so I started to transfer the gun to my other hand and then a hand reached through the wall behind me in an explosion of plaster and pulled Ash through the wall.
Things were happening so quickly that I had a hard time processing who was doing what. I was pretty sure that Ash got his knife into Anton, but Anton had a knife too, and blood seemed to be sprouting all over Ash's chest.
A gun went off, once and then again, but it was Ash who was reeling away rather than Anton. I held my gun up and pulled the trigger. The recoil almost tore the weapon out of my hand, but Anton stumbled backwards, moving with only a fraction of his normal speed.
Ash was suddenly at my side and he pumped three more shots in Anton's direction as the bigger man disappeared around the corner of the building.
I had only a moment to consider the massive hole that had been torn out of the wall before Ash was pulling me out the door and towards his car.
"We have to get out of here."
He was panting now, and his hand on my arm was suddenly doing more to support him than it was to hurry me along. I put a shoulder under his arm and half dragged him to his car. He fumbled with his keys, but then he was falling into his car. He managed to drag himself over to the passenger side and I slipped behind the wheel.
"Just drive! No more than five over the speed limit, back the way we came."
Ash had his phone out now, dialing a number with fingers that even out of the corner of my eye I could see were shaking.
"We're in Kearney. Just had a run-in. I need you to distract the cops, feed them information that the perpetrator was in a dark-colored BMW. It's mostly true so it shouldn't be hard."
Ash hung up and dialed a second number.
"It's me. I know. I wouldn't have called if it wasn't important though. Look, there's a stray cat in Kearney right now. No, I don't know how he made it past the border packs, but he's strong. Maybe strong enough to have just carved his way through one of the smaller groups."
