Walls

14

"This is not good," Abbie bit her lip.

The laptop was propped on her knees as she sat beside Elias in the car, speeding past the lake they had passed on their way to the motel.

"What is not good?"

"Well, the message initiated from a cell tower further into this area called Weeper's Creek. Considering the diameter of the area covered by this tower, it looks like it was built specifically for two power plants. That could mean a lot of people!"

"Are you sure that there is no residence around?"

"Nothing listed at least," Abbie sighed.

"Fuck!"

Abbie jumped in her seat, sitting up straight. She could see Elias watching her from the corner of his eyes.

"Maybe I could get a satellite image? You know, check the area on google maps?"

"Do it!"

Abbie powered up her phone. Now that she had disabled the password prompts, she could surf the internet on the device. She entered the location to the app and watched as it loaded a satellite image.

After a few minutes of zooming in and out on the screen, she let out a gasp, "There is a tiny house closer to the power plants. It looks like it is under construction on this map, but the images have not been updated in ages."

Elias nodded, his eyes on the road, "Get me the location."

Abbie entered the address of the house into navigation and set the phone on the dashboard so that Elias could see it.

Heaving a loud sigh, she stared out the window as more greenery swished past them. The house was thirty minutes away and the prospect of sitting next to Elias for thirty minutes was not doing well with her anxiety.

The timer had counted down half the time they had earlier - it now had two and a half hours remaining. Abbie could not take her mind off her thoughts about what it could mean. Was it a bomb? Was it some kind of huge explosion? Something more horrible?

Wind gushed in through all the windows and the shattered back glass, throwing her hair in a wild frenzy. She shook her head trying to pull herself out of ruminating on the subject when Elias briefly jerked his head towards her.

"So," he cleared his throat, "You wanna talk about it?"

"The bomb?"

Elias furrowed his brows, giving her a wide-eyed look, "What bomb?"

Right! He did not know that she was freaking out about potentially dying in a huge explosion.

"I mean - nothing. I mean.... What are you talking about?"

"Us, of course. The engagement," Elias paused, "Unless you want to call that 'the bomb'."

"Oh, that. I mean, no - I was not referring to that as the..you know... as the bomb," she mumbled the last word.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know-" Elias cut himself off, his mouth opening and closing before he cleared his throat, "I guess I should say that I don't remember getting engaged to you."

"Me neither."

Elias nodded. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he gave Abbie a quick sideways glance before setting his eyes back on the road.

"I-"

"Turn left in 300 meters onto Dawson Mager Road. Turn left in 300 meters onto Dawson Mager Road," the navigation lady echoed in an annoying robotic voice.

Elias sighed loudly, gritting his teeth together as he turned left onto Dawson Mager Road. Abbie pressed into the seat, hoping that she could blend in with the fabric and melt herself out of the situation.

She didn't want to talk about the engagement. It also didn't help that each time she took a glance at Elia's lips, her stomach flipped upside down.

The sun shone brightly in their face as more trees came into view. Elias squinted at the rearview mirror, cursing loudly.

Abbie gave him a troubled look, only to realize the look of terror on his face. She checked the mirror, and sure enough, a yellow car appeared in it.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

A look of determination washed over Elias' face as Abbie watched him grope around his waist pulling out the gun he had on him. He flicked the gun around as he held it pointed at the yellow car between the crack of their seats. Abbie could see the calculating glare in his eyes as he took his eyes off the road for a millisecond to fire a shot.

It missed the car.

With his eyes back on the road, he swerved to a tiny road that was not part of the plan, which sent the navigation lady into a violent panic attack.

"Did it hit him?" Elias asked, his eyes wide with concentration.

Abbie sucked in her bottom lip, "I don't think so. He's still good."

"Fuck!"

He craned his hand placing it stiffly between the crack and fired again. Missed again.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

The yellow car had almost caught up to them despite how faster Elias was accelerating. With a shiver of panic, Abbie realized that they did not have a plan for when they got to their destination.

"What are we going to do once we find where this cell signal is leading us?" Abbie squeaked.

"You're going to figure that out."

"What?"

Elias glanced at her briefly before swearing the wheel towards another road that appeared out of nowhere, "I'm going to drop you at the location and keep this crazy person on my tail so that you have enough time to figure something out."

Abbie swallowed. She did not feel like walking into a potentially bomb-rigged house all alone. But she decided that it was probably a chance that she was willing to take - the other alternative being shot to death by a crazy gunman.

"Okay, I can do it," she bit her lip as soon as the words were out.

She checked the rearview mirror. The yellow car was nowhere to be seen, yet. Elias had put some distance between them.

The car jerked over a speed bump throwing her roughly against the seat. The wild wind swirled her hair around to the point of creating a tornado on its own. Elias broke his steady gaze on the road for a millisecond to look at her.

"I'll be back in about 15 minutes. Make it quick," he said.

Abbie nodded, absorbing the thick pair of eyebrows scrunched over his eyes. She ran her eyes over his set mouth and sharp jaw committing the image to mind. She did not want to think about it, but couldn't also help assuming the worst - what if she never saw him again? What if she died in a bomb explosion?

It took a second for her to register that the car they were in had come to a halt and Elias was yelling at her to get out. She climbed out in a hurry, the laptop hugged to her chest, and slammed the door shut.

Elias took off, leaving behind a gust of dirt.