Some Thorns, Some Roses

XIV | Get to the Underpass

(A/N: Buckle Up! Here's what you've been looking for)

The very next weekend after braving another week of school, completely avoiding Atlas, Atwood, and Beau, completely avoiding certain topics with Seraphina, and completely avoiding Laura and Liz. I was sitting at the park, soaking up the sun, drinking up all the vitamin D I could. 

The scenery was beautiful, trees and flowers that lead to a forest. The other side was a parking lot and I didn't want to face that way, it gave away the illusion of being in some kind of national park. 

Perris was somewhere alert, somewhere looking around the park while I read a thriller novel. I was completely wrapped up, not paying any attention to my surroundings until I was forced to. I was forced to look up at the street as a large black truck entered the parking lot, tires screeching, leaving black marks on the ground. 

I watched as three large armed men hopped out of the truck and started treading towards me. My eyes widened, my heart dropped and turned to look at Perris. Before I could fully look at him, he yanked my arm while causing me stand. 

Then, he jerked me towards him and told me harshly to, "Run." 

So I ran in the opposite direction of the armed men, Perris holding my hand and treading directly behind me. We ran into the middle of forest, passing through trees and jumping over bushes.

We could hear the footsteps of the men, crunching leaves and then that's when the bullets started to fly. I ducked down instinctively and out of the blue I felt really tired, I really wanted for this to be over. Thankfully, Perris was behind me as some kind of encouragement. "Keep going." he whispered to me, somewhat pushing me forward. 

I kept running, eventually running into a creek. Fortunately, there was a stone underpass that we could hide under. 

Thoughts ran wild in my head, but the loudest screaming factor was, "Get to the underpass." It was a hushed whisper, but it seemed to be louder than any other thought in my head. "Get to the underpass," my mind nearly screamed at me as I glanced back to see that the guys were, in fact, closer than before. "Get to the underpass." This moment felt like a horror movie where the ax murderer chases the stupid girl into the woods and she has one escape or maybe that was the illusion I built because of the thriller novel I was reading.

"Get to the underpass!" 

I ran towards the underpass, successfully hiding from the armed men. Perris placed his hand over my mouth, muffling the sound of my heavy breathing. He was making absolutely no sounds. Even though every sound was echoed in this partially enclosed space. 

The underpass was dark and only the light from the opening illuminated the area. If those men were to jump below, we would be easily seen to them. However, it was mostly covered by tall weeds and vines, making it seem like a very tiny hole that perhaps a small child could fit threw. But that was only an illusion. Two large men could easily fit in the fairly congested underpass. 

You could hear them on top of the underpass, you could hear their footsteps and their dialogue. "Where did they go?" one of them asked and the other answered sharply. 

"She had the golden boy with her so they are probably hiding somewhere in the woods." the other answered as their footsteps were located right over our heads. 

I completely ignored the "golden boy," statement, I was more concerned about them noticing the underpass. I was breathing erratically and my eyes were squeezed shut as tears started to fall down my face. 

"Split up," another one of the three told them, "I'm sure we can find them if we keep searching." 

They all left in different direction. One of them jumped down and walked right pass the underpass, causing Perris and I to scoot back as far as possible. It wasn't much room to do so, but we stretched to the capacity of the space.