Bounty Hunter

Chapter 1

 Salty sweat drips down my forehead in response to the searing Florida sun. My legs gradually slow to a stop as I finish my last mile. Hastily, I gulp down the remnants of my water before wiping the perspiration from my forehead. I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the window display of a boutique. Self-consciously, I push the messy strands of black hair away from my face. My dark almond shaped eyes appear bright when contrasted with my flushed cheeks. Turning away from the mirror, I sit on the iron bench, and attempt to catch my breath. Ready to embrace the silence of the summer air I unplug my headphones. Leaping back, I clutch the bench arm. I catch a glimpse of a tiny black kitten with its hair standing on end, running as if its life depends on it. Cautiously, I rise from the bench clenching my I-phone and thermos. The shriek must have emanated from the kitten. It was probably just another alley cat fight, I reassure myself. I take out my earphones to listen for any other oddities. With a perplexed frown I rise from the bench to leave. But before I can resume running, a hard object thuds against the back of my skull. Angrily I whip around, searching for the culprit.

My attacker hovers in front of me buzzing with an electronic whirring sound. Its tiny silver body mimics that of a real puppy, but instead of flesh it has robotic parts. Pissed at the way my run has taken a turn for the worse, I search for its owner. My eyes widen involuntarily as the robot's accomplice approaches. "Did we lose her?" its accomplice says breathlessly. Judging by his stature and muscular build, evident even through his torn shirt, he's at least 17 or 18. However, the manner in which he carries himself would suggest he's older. I eye his hands with distaste, noticing they're clad in leather biker gloves, completely ill-suited for this weather. The robot dog whirs seeming displeased for a mechanical robot. "Damn it!" the guy curses. A frown crosses my face. In addition to the weird gloves he's wearing hiking boots. He brushes his long black hair out of his face revealing remarkably green eyes. His eyes gleam with an almost alien like beauty. He rubs his strong jaw with evident frustration.

Unfortunately for him, his pretty face won't save him from my wrath. My run is supposed to be my stress reliever, and now this idiot and his geeky dog have ruined it. Finally he acknowledges my presence and I stare at him impassively. "Aren't you going to apologize for hitting me with your toy?" I ask angrily. He runs his large hands through his hair and almost distracts me from my anger. "Gizmo," he says emphasizing the name. "-is not! A toy." I throw up my hands in annoyance. "Oh I'm sorry; I didn't know your toy had a name!" "Gizmo is not a toy! He's a high tech space dog with advanced tracking skills," He says clenching his jaw. "Well maybe your dog needs to be sent back to the tech lab. Because they obviously screwed up his motion sense." The boy looks at me in outrage as if I hurt the dog's feelings. The robot dog's metal ears bend down sadly, like a real puppy. "I'm not going to waste my time with this anymore. Listen, I just need to know if you've seen any animals around here today. It might have been a cat, or a squirrel. This is really important." I clench my fist angrily around my thermos as I narrow my eyes at him. "Yes I might have seen some animals go past here. It's FLORIDA. It's a swamp there are animals everywhere." "Listen, this is really important," he iterates. "I'll tell you what you need to know if you apologize," I say patronizingly. He groans loudly throwing his head back, "Look I'm really sorry that Gizmo hit you, but it was an accident. We're kind of in a rush so I'd really appreciate it if you could just tell us whether you saw anything." I lend him a fake smile, "Apology accepted. Was that so hard? Admitting you were at fault? I would love to help you now! In fact I did notice a little black kitten run past here. That was right after its shriek scared the hell out of me. It ran past here just moments before 'Gizmo' hit my head."

"Crap!" he swears. Gizmo's beeping grows even louder and increasingly panicked. "Run!" he yells! He grabs my wrist scooping me into his arms. I drop my thermos and it clatters to the concrete. Furiously I pound his chest with my free hand. There's no way I'm dropping my I-phone. "Put me down!" I scream. Gizmo zips past us flying ahead. "This is assault and kidnap!" I yell struggling. I stuff my I-phone into my sports bra freeing both my hands to attack him. It's extremely unfortunate for me, since no one can hear my screams. All the shops are closed at this time of the morning. No one except me would wake up this early on a Sunday during the summer. "I'm not kidnapping you! I'm saving your life!" he protests. The sound of bullets whizzes past my ears. My stomach lurches and my heart beats like a ticking bomb. I struggle to breath and clutch his soiled shirt tightly. "Now do you believe me?!" he shouts over the gun sounds. "Put me down!" I yell. "You won't be able to run fast enough! This cat isn't just a cat!" he huffs while running. Despite my extra weight he manages to speed forward at an inhuman pace. His legs tirelessly carry him forward, as if he were running an Olympic race. "What the hell is going on here?!" I scream.

A painful throb attacks my temples in response to the sharp shooting sounds. These gun sounds are incredibly fast and accompanied by a quick beeping sound. Normal gun sounds are louder and much more explosive. "Damn it!" the guy gasps. "What?!? What happened?!" I yell clinging to his shirt. "She shot me!" he yells. "WHO?!" I yell outraged. "The cat!" he yells back. I drop my head against him hopelessly. I've either developed dementia or I'm going to die in the arms of this psychotic stranger. Behind us the sound of an explosion ensues. "She just destroyed our entire supply of bounty tech!" he cries. Gizmo bleeps franticly in response. My face scrunches as I attempt to take deep breaths. I cough as the smell of smoke enters my nostrils. He's lucky I'm so short otherwise it wouldn't have been this easy to carry me. Gizmo flies ahead and suddenly I start to think he might be more than a toy. I didn't even know they had invented such high tech robots for the public.

Gizmo circles around the door of a boutique store, and the door mysteriously unlocks. The bastard holding me shoves the door open with his shoulder, leaping into the store with Gizmo in the lead. His legs maintain their lightning speed and we reach the boutique's back entrance. He roughly drops me down onto a bundle of pink fabrics. His green eyes are wildly dark and his cheeks blaze red. I can barely breathe and I know my strength would be no match for his. If only I had brought my pepper spray. Under any other circumstance I would have attempted to kick his ass. But I have no idea what is happening to me right now. And it was either stay behind and get shot by a killer cat, or allow the rude stranger to carry me to G-d knows where.

"Don't scream," he whispers hoarsely. I nod my head quickly, barely concealing my gasps for air. Oddly enough it's not from a fear of him. He seems more antagonizing than threatening. My fear stems from the violent shooting sounds, and the heat of the explosion. And the fact that I might die. "Are you from the government? Is cat a code word for terrorist?" I rush. "No, it's nothing like that. I can explain everything later. But you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. So now you're a part of this," he says apologetically. "That cat must have seen me talking to you and assumed you were a bounty hunter too. She knows it's either kill or be captured. You have no clue what I'm saying right now. But the cat I'm hunting isn't actually a cat, and she ambushed me. I have to capture her alive. In order to do that, I need to get to my other bunker. It's only a few blocks away. Hiding in here will buy us a few minutes, but we need to leave now," he says in a hurried voice.

I rub my temples praying this is merely a hallucination. "Do you have to carry me again?" I ask. His pouty lips shape themselves into a smirk, "Only if you need me to." he replies seriously. I lend him a displeased expression to silence him. "I don't need anything from you," I claim. A cat mewls furiously in the distance grating my ears. For every single bound of his I have to leap three. In a matter of minutes we reach a blue beach house, similar to the ones adjacent to it. Gizmo unlocks the door in the same manner as before, without having to touch it. The dog hums in his strange voice and a series of mechanics click and shift. The house suddenly changes and instead of a normal beach house my eyes are met by a vast storage unit. I stumble into the house after him sending him a devilish glare. He views my bent over form with pity. "I offered to carry you," he says in his defense. "Don't say another word," I gasp out angrily. I straighten myself into a standing position and regain my composure.

The house before me has transformed into a bunker, complete with steely walls and an array of weapons. Weapons I've never seen before, not even on T.V. Silver hoops with flashing blue and green lights hang from the walls. My eyes fall upon what appears to be a wall of sunglasses. The glasses are inlayed with various diamond like buttons, and the frames are either chrome or some type of emerald glass material. Cases upon cases of expensive looking capture devices and weapons are laid out on display. "Pretty impressive right?" psycho says. "Now might be a good time to tell me who you are," I say abruptly.