Walls

15

Positioned behind a tree, Abbie waited for the yellow car to pass. Once it had disappeared, she took a look around where she was.

It was deserted with lots of greenery wrapping around her. Sunlight barely streaked through the treetops, leaving the area dark and gloomy.

Her eyes took in the tiny house that stood right in front of her. It was a wooden cabin with a red door and tinted windows. The walls looked streaked with mud and dust drooping down to a dirty floor. Heaps of dried leaves covered the ground.

Abbie clutched the laptop to her chest, taking in deep breaths to calm her heart. But the pounding still ensured, drumming in her head and ears. She surveyed the area once again, making sure that no one was in her vicinity.

Taking care to not make any noise, despite the crumpled leaves she had to walk over, she made her way to the cabin. Cupping one palm around her eyes, she peeped in through one of the windows. The inside was dark, and she could not make anything out.

Her eyes caught the bright blue glow of a computer screen, but apart from that, there was no motion she could detect.

She checked the door - it was locked with a chain and a padlock. She heavily considered finding some way in that did not involve breaking the chain. Maybe she could drop down through the fireplace - Santa style. No one can accuse her of 'breaking and entering' when there is no actual breaking on her part - it was just entering.

But she had no time to find a way up to the roof. She only had about 10 more minutes before Elias showed up outside.

She found a heavy stone under one of the many trees around and slammed it onto the padlock until it broke. It was not easy - because whoever owned the house had big concerns for the safety of whatever was inside. Abbie sincerely hoped that it was not a bomb - that would not do any good for her.

After multiple rounds of cussing and slamming onto the lock with all her might, it popped open.

"Thank Goodness!" Abbie breathed, pushing the padlock aside to push the door open.

What first greeted her was the strong reeking of old food and mud. She scrunched her nose, taking a peek inside. The darkness was overwhelming.

Abbie ran her fingers across the inside walls until she came in contact with a switch, and flipped it on. A bright top light illuminated the room, basking it in warm yellow. At the center of the one-room cabin stood a giant bed with dark and dirty bedding. The floor around it was littered with upturned jeans and underwear. Abbie gulped - clearly, it was a very untidy man who lived here.

She shivered as she took in the equally messy countertops of the little pantry that spanned the wall left of the bed. Empty cans of beer and old food reeked from inside a trashcan set casually under the counters.

Abbie pulled her gaze to the right of the room, where a laptop sat on a wooden table right under the tinted windows. She walked over to the table and took a peek at the laptop screen. A program was running in the background.

She clicked through all the programs running on the machine to bring up one that she had a good idea about - A program to impose a call block.

She let a small smirk play on her lips. That was easy.

She found the terminal she was looking for.

*****

The yellow car kept a steady pace behind Elias. With the back glass completely nonexistent, wind rushed in all directions - almost plugging his ears.

But Elias had his lips tipped upward. His fingers were firmly grabbing the wheel, spinning in and out of random lanes. The navigation lady had gone into an utter frenzy, trying to direct him to where he had left Abbie - but he had a few more minutes to kill.

The great thing about this was, Elias had realized that the gunman chasing him might be good with a gun, but not the wheel.

Elias believed that his wild days in college were finally coming to fruition. The crazy partying and the drag races down deserted streets - this was what it was finally adding up to. The moment that he needed to puff down the suit and imagine long wisps of hair flapping around his head as he raced the yellow car. Although he was in an old Toyota Corolla, he felt the energy of his Ferrari days.

His eyes snapped to the screen of the phone set up on the dashboard. There was an intersection coming up, and his mind went into adrenaline mode as his eyes focused back on the road. He noticed the intersection coming ahead  faster and faster towards him.

He chucked his arm out of the window and fired a round onto the windshield of the yellow. He missed.

"Fuck!"

He tried again - the glass shattered.

Without a second to spare, he swerved left at the intersection, plunging himself into a narrow road. Just like he calculated, there was yet another turn to the left, beside a huge tree. It was hard to spot unless one was paying attention.

He quickly turned into the much narrower road, which looked like a walking trail, compared to the others.

As soon as he had taken a few turns along the road, he killed the engine, panting loudly, and finally feeling the tremors of the adrenaline.

The sky was blossoming onto a full-blown morning - with the sun peeking out through some of the rain clouds. On either side of the road that he was parked in, Elias could make out the silent non-silence of the thick woods surrounding them - tiny birds chirping and tree leaves whistling.

It was strange over the loud pounding of Elias' heart in his ears, mixed with the wheezing of the wind, as he struggled to catch his breath.

He felt like he ran a marathon. Strangely, he felt good.

Elias stared at the rear-view mirror for a few seconds waiting for the yellow car to appear. When it did not, he pushed on the gas and sped towards where he had dropped Abbie off.