16 and On the Run

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16 and On the Run Page 2

by Opal Jones

“What's going on?” she asked groggily.

  The dog turned its head and growled in her direction. I tried to move, but it redirected its attention to me.

  “Dog. Me. Help. NOW.” I said. Then, with a psychotic bark, it lurched at me. It tried to bite my neck but I covered up with my deer skin.

  “God bless! Get up and help me!” I cried. It viciously tore through the skin like it was a tissue. It bit my left hand and shook it violently. I cried out in pain.

  Finally, she rocketed out of the tent and shot the dog through the eye. It howled in pain like a lone wolf. Then it fell to its side, dead.

  We were both breathing heavily. Then I dared to glance down at my hand.

  I'm not going to go into full description about what it looked like, but I'll give you a good idea: imagine the most painful-looking thing you've ever seen and multiply by ten. That's still not enough. My bloody hand burned with pain and droplets of blood fell onto the dog.

  I looked up at her, “Great timing. If you'd come any later, my hand would just be completely gone.”

  She ignored me and walked over to the hollow tree. She came back with a bottle and some gauze. The bottle's contents were gently poured over my hand. Yeah, um, OW! Then she delicately wrapped my hand in three layers of gauze. The first two layers turned bright red. But the third was still somewhat white.

  Something dawned on me. Her eyes, her hair. It was her. My breath quickened. After all this time, I'd been hanging out the girl of my dreams. No, not in that way. I meant she was the girl I saw in my dreams.

  “I, uh, never got your name.” I said slowly.

  She looked up and returned, “Anne, but you'll call me Annabeth.”

  That was that then, I guess.

  CHAPTER 4

  After that, we stayed up for an hour each in shifts. Annabeth took the first and last shifts for me, since I really needed sleep after that.

  In the “morning” (4 am), we looked at the body of the dog. I noticed that he had a dog tag that just read “Slayer”. Whoever named this one was just way too literal.

  We skinned it too and ate the appendages. Then we buried the remains. Soon afterword we set out due west. Call me crazy, but north was the direction we were supposed to be going. I mentioned this to her but she just laughed and said,

  “Boy, am I glad I found you or you'd be long off.”

  After that, I just shut up and followed. The forest creaked and growled at us. It didn't get light until two hours later.

  In the middle of nowhere, Annabeth knocked me down.

  “Use your eyes, will you?” she whispered. I looked up and saw what she meant.

  We were lying on a hillside. Below was a large gray building. It was low enough to not be seen by passerby’s. Naturally, there was security. I could pick out several security cameras, and on the roof there was a sniper.

  I bit my lip. After all this time I had wasted chasing him, I was finally going to kill him.

  “I'll take out the cameras, you take the sniper.” I said.

  “Done.” she muttered.

  She crawled army-style behind a tree. Hardly exposing herself, she fired a long arrow. It hit its mark, from what I could tell.

  I cocked my gun and deactivated two of the cameras quickly. We slid down the hill, and we jogged over to the wall. I took care of the remaining cameras. Now we just had to get inside. Annabeth went to walk to the door, but I held her back.

  “Wait,” I started. “We just can't waltz in there like we own the place. What would we even say? 'Hi! We're two kids looking for your boss. Oh yeah we need to kill him?' Not happening!”

  “Well what then?” she rolled her eyes.

  “You, first of all, need a hairbrush. I need a haircut. And we both need new clothes.”

  Annabeth pulled out her dagger and walked behind me. I felt it cutting away my shaggy blonde hair.

  “There.” she said. I felt it. Not half bad for taking thirty seconds. Annabeth then took something out of her quiver. It was a green battered-up hairbrush.

  “I'll be honest,” she said uneasily. “Being out here so long I never really learned how to use a hairbrush.” Annabeth blushed with embarrassment. Now it was my turn to help out.

  I went through her knotted hair until it shimmered like a diamond necklace.

  She felt it and smiled, “I thinks that's the best it's felt for a while.”

  She pulled out some faded clothes. Then she handed me a gray tee and and ripped jeans. Annabeth unfolded a blue “I Love New York” shirt and green capris.

  “Took these from a thrift shop last year.” she explained. “I don't know why I got guy clothes, though.”

  I smiled as we changed to each other’s backs. When I turned around, I was pretty impressed. We both looked like typical high-school students. Annabeth nodded her approval and knocked on the door.

  CHAPTER 5

  A small hatch opened and piercing gray eyes stared right at us. I didn't have any idea what to say, but Annabeth had it covered.

  “Hello, sir. We're from the county high-school. We were wondering if you would be interested in purchasing new computer software to support our school.” she lied. She said it all without blinking and was actually pretty convincing.

  The hatch closed and I heard distant whispering from behind the door. It reopened and I saw black sunglasses look through. Then it closed again. I grinned when I heard locks being undone.

  The door opened entirely and revealed several deep corridors.

  “Come in.” the man mumbled miserably. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man walking down a corridors.

  Annabeth took it from there, “We'll take from here sir. Thanks for your patronage.”

  We walked down one of the hallways and looked around. The walls were a pure white. There were doors and the occasional window. Man, where did we start?

  After a brief discussion, we would just try doors. It was the best shot we had. But we hit a roadblock after only a minute: all the doors we tried were locked. Even when we dared to knock, there was no response.

  We stayed for an hour and decided this was probably a lost cause. Of course, that was before it happened.

  I turned around and a middle-aged man with a black hoodie and blue jeans. In his left hand, a syringe filled with yellow liquid. He concealed it up his sleeve.

  “Annabeth, we're being followed.” I whispered.

  She looked back and asked what we should do, but I didn't know. We just kept walking, hoping we'd lose him. Oh, who were we kidding? There was no place to hid or barricade ourselves in.

  Then I did something incredibly stupid: I broke into a run. Annabeth looked at me like I was crazy. She ran anyway. The man followed the suit. From a distance, it probably looked like one of those cartoons where everyone's chasing someone.

  You'd think being out here for all these years would make unbelievably fast runners. Well, WRONG! We were pretty fast, but not as fast we should be.

  My shoes slipped and slid across the cold marble tile. I hit the wall and scrambled across to the left. Then I hid behind a corner. Annabeth's shoes screeched and I heard her footsteps growing fainter.

  Perfect, she turned right. I poked my head around the corner. The gray hoodie man came to an sudden stop. He turned his back to me and walked right. I hoped Annabeth would be okay.

  My feet were glued to the floor. That guy scared me, I'll admit it. I probably could've stopped him, but I was frozen solid.

  He turned the corner. I heard distant fighting. Someone grunted, a thud, then continuous grunting.

  I loaded my gun. Carefully, I walked across the hall. As I turned the corner, my stomach churned in disgust. On the floor was the man, but he looked simply awful. His eye had been gored out with an arrow. The empty syringe was wedged in his leg. His face looked like a rhino had stomped on it.

  I looked over at Annabeth, and glanced down. Her right foot was covered in blood. I made a mental note not to get into a fight with her. She looked pretty upset and
was trembling, so I didn't mention it.

  We pushed the body into a small closet that happened to be unlocked. After that, we tried to find X as quietly as possible.

  It probably wasn't my business; why Annabeth acted the way she did, but I wasn't good at keeping to myself.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She looked down and growled, “It's none of your business, just something that happened a while ago.”

  I could tell it was more personal than that, so my mind blurted it out for me;

  “He was there that day, wasn't he? The day your parents died.”

  Annabeth grabbed her knife and pointed it at my throat. She hissed at me, “How do you know about my family?”

  I swallowed and said, “I don't really know, just intuition. I guess.”

  She looked ready to gut me then and there, but she put it back in her belt. I made sure I wouldn't mention that until we were on friendlier terms.

  Five minutes later, we came to an intersection. I glanced at Annabeth; she looked ready to pass out.

  “Hey,” I asked. “Are you feeling okay?”

  She shook her head. All of a sudden, she collapsed against a wall. I ran next to her. Something had happened to Annabeth, and I prayed she wasn't going to die.

  Annabeth swallowed and rolled up her sleeve. There was an extremely tiny puncture. It dawned on me: during the scuffle, she must have gotten pricked.

  “Kinda stupid, huh?” she muttered. “We made it this far for me to hold you up.”

  “Do you know if it was poisonous?” I asked. Now I was really shaken up.

  “Doubt it.” Annabeth answered. “Probably some sleeping tonic.”

  That did make sense. Before I knew it, Annabeth had slipped into a sleep. No matter how much I tried to wake her up, she was still sleeping harder than a bear in hibernation.

  I couldn't just leave her laying here, I had to get her somewhere safe. Looking around, there was only one door in sight. I peeked in. Lucky me, it was just a closet. Carefully, I dragged her and sat her down in the corner.

  Gently, I shut the door. I looked at my hand and saw I had some of Annabeth's shoe blood on me. That gave me an idea. I smeared some of it on the knob. Now I knew which door was which in this place.

  I continued through the twisting halls. As I turned a corner, I bumped into a surly looking man. I gulped.

  “What are you doing here?” his voice was like nails on a chalk board.

  I wet my lips and replied boldly, “Computer software installation. I got lost looking for the computers.”

  He looked at me uneasily. Then he motioned me to follow him. I nodded and did a mental happy dance. The man led me to a black door, pulled out a key, and unlocked the door.

  When the door opened, I was really stupid not to knock him out. It was a dark room with nothing in it except a computer and a chair. The only light was from a hanging lamp above the computer. Um hello? Red flag going up. But I just needed to be alone, so I was an idiot and took the bait.

  As soon as I entered, he slammed the door shut. I walked over to the computer. Gut instinct told me not to sit down. So I just cut to the chase. Clicking on the mouse, I saw it was opened to security camera footage. The catch? They were all on me.

  Light bulbs switched on. I pulled out my gun and shot at two cameras. As soon as the second camera broke, I heard a hissing sound coming from an air vent. Not like a snake, like air escaping from a balloon.

  I backed up to the center of the room. My lips were cracked and my left hand wound was starting to burn. I imagined my body being dragged out, and that thought gave me serious chills.

  I coughed. My vision was growing hazy. I could literally feel my lungs start to tighten up. The room filled with a green mist. It burned my throat. I coughed again. If I coughed any harder, I was sure my lung would come up with it.

  I fell to my knees, gasping for breath. Either they wanted as dead or alive. I was hoping for the alive option. As I tried to get to my feet, I collapsed to the floor on my back. Now all I could see was the ever-growing green mist.

  CHAPTER 6

  I fought to see the room. The only thing I could make out was that I was defiantly not in the same room. And, since when was I a whole foot taller? I squinted at a light coming from a door.

  My hands wouldn't budge. That sure snapped me awake. Call me crazy, but it felt like I was in one of those medieval torture devices. You know, the one that pulls on you until your arms and legs pop clean out their sockets. Not fun.

  Outside the door, I heard distant voices. They were getting closer. I got ready for the worse.

  In walked the buff man I ran into earlier. He was the last person I wanted to see right now. He snarled at me. I gave a goofy smile and thought, Please don't hurt me. Then he spit at me and walked to my side. Next to walk in was a man wearing a black suit. It was the man with the sunglasses.

  My eyes burned with fury when I realized who he was. Unless you've been starring at the ground until now, you know who I'm talking about. He looked emotionless, as he probably always did.

  I fought to get just one hand free so I could sock him, but those bonds were like steel. Literally. X chuckled. I suppose beating up kids was his favorite pastime.

  “Where is she?” he asked calmly.

  Hah! Like I was really going to tell him. What an idiot.

  Apparently he had a timer on these questions. He motioned to the brute next to me, and then the man punched me in the ribs. I cringed in bitter pain. That was almost worse than that stupid dog.

  He asked three more times, and each time I refused to talk. And that resulted in me being clobbered in the face, gut, and my left hand. “X” asked me a fourth time. Just before the man could punch me again, the door swung open. He was pretty puny, so I guessed he was either comedy relief or a secretary, or some combination of the two.

  “Time sir.” the meager man stated. “X” grabbed the puncher’s favorite hand in mid-punch. The two walked out. I felt my lip; it was bleeding and I was pretty sure a rib or two was broken. I don't even want to talk about my hand.

  Then, two men burst into the room. They took out two separate keys and took me out of the machine. I was pulled into a closet and locked in. With my good hand, I pounded on the door. After ten minutes, I gave up. What a way to die; locked in a closet.

  I muttered to myself, “This sucks.” Hey, it did!

  While I waited for something to happen, I passed the time by thinking of possible ways to get out. I felt my pocket. Why was my gun still in its holder? Yes, yes, YES! Hurriedly, I aimed it the best I could at the door-knob and pulled the trigger.

  'Click'. Huh? I pulled it again and again, but every time it only made the clicking sounds. I plopped down to the floor. It was never that easy. Of course, why didn't I know they would unload my gun?

  Fifteen seconds later. I heard talking outside. I leapt to my feet. This was my chance! The lock clicked and I burst out. Wait, this wasn't right. Why was there a police officer here? Uh-oh.

  I broke into a run. The officer pulled out a taser a shot it. Thank God for the corner, or I'd be on the floor in seconds flat. My ribs burned with pain. They were certainly slowing me down. And, naturally, I was clumsy enough to trip over my own two feet. I fell flat on my face. That didn't make my rib pain any better. I gripped my ribcage area.

  The cop slid across the floor and stopped short when he saw me on the floor in agony. Walking in behind him was X.

  “Well?” X asked the cop. “Aren't you going to arrest him? He's a dangerous criminal!”

  If I was in the proper condition, I would've defended myself. But my ribs were shrieking in pain. All I could do was lay there.

  The officer looked at both of us, and then took out his radio. He called for backup; fast.

  I took a deep breath and used the wall to boost myself up. The cop steadied his taser. I told him to just follow me for my defense. He didn't drop the taser an inch, but he followed me.

  I searched
all the doors, but none of them had the stained knob. It wasn't until 30 doors later I found the doorknob. There was still blood on it, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw it. I grinned as I opened the door with confidence.

  That smile faded. It was nothing but a simple broom closet. My shock turned to blind furry. Boy, did I sure pick a bad time for it. When I exploded, two other police officers were sprinting down the hall.

  I launched myself at him, but the main officer grabbed my arms and held me back. Then I started to call X some inappropriate names. You really thought I was going to put them down on paper? You wish.

  “What did you do with her?” I screamed. X shook his head. If I didn't know better, I'd say he looked concerned.

  “I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.”

  That did it. This little “This kid's the criminal” act went too far. My arms slipped out of the officer’s hands and I sent my right hand flying. I thought X would stop it like he did the other man, but he let it hit him in the jaw.

  Doing that felt better than anything, but I probably shouldn't have done it with three police officers around me. One of the cops(a girl) whipped out her taser and it hit me in center back.

  I fell down. Now if any of you have been hit with a taser- and I hope you haven't- you know its painful. You lose mobility of your muscles, basically. She and her partner picked up my arms, and the first grabbed my legs. I felt hand-cuffs go around my wrists.

  I didn't bother to struggle, but I felt like a bomb ready to burst. That and I REALLY didn't want to get tasered again. I just let them carry me to the entrance. As I was carried out, I looked back and saw X. He smirked and held up a broken arrow. I held my breath in disgust and anger.

  They set me down in a cruiser and they closed the door. The three talked while looking at me intensely. The main officer opened the door. He explained his name was Officer Miller. Miller had clean cut black hair and brown eyes. Then he told me I was being charged with breaking-and-entering. I didn't mention how I had done way more than that.

  Afterword, the female officer and Miller got in the cruiser. I was driven through a shabby back-road. The car bumped and swerved around rocks, plants, and animals.

  I knew this wasn't going to stand. My handcuffs rattled in their hold. Carefully, I lifted my foot and unlocked the door. Then I rammed against it. The car door shook and bumped.

 

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