Thunder and Storm

The Fugitive

SALLY



“I didn't do anything to you. We have to leave right now, I'll explain everything in the car.” She grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me out of the room.

There was an urgency in her action, her eyes flickered from window to window. I've never seen her look so scared. Dad had already gotten the car out of the garage and was waiting by the roadside when we made it out of the house. I suddenly remembered my backpack by the doorway and turned to go get it, breaking her hold on me.

"Mom, my backpack."

"Leave it.” She grabbed my arm again and I dug my feet into the ground.

"But it has my books in it," I protested.

She turned sharply and grabbed both of my arms, looking me in the eye. "You don't seem to understand the severity of this situation, Sally. When those people get here, they might take you away or worse kill you. So when I say your books are the last thing you need to worry about right now, I mean it."

Kill me? I froze. People are trying to kill me. Mom scoffed and dragged me the rest of the way to the car. I got in and she got in the front with my dad.

I took in shaky breaths as I looked up at my parents. Dad glanced at me through the rear-view mirror and looked away. He pulled away from the curb and I looked back at my house as the distance between us grew. I couldn't believe this was happening. We were supposed to go to Marcelo's to celebrate my birthday when I got back from school but instead, we were running out of town like some fugitives.

"What is happening, Dad? You're not saying anything.” My eyes watered as I looked at my parents, both of them refusing to look at me.

"Remember the news we heard on the radio this morning? It escalated,” mom was the one to speak up.

"It wasn't fake news after all or a publicity stunt. Medex truly has been running an underground research facility on the mutation of human DNA. They're currently fighting a lawsuit with the state. It was supposed to be on the low so as not to cause panic but the news got leaked yesterday."
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Your dad got a message from the channel. He was supposed to feature the news in his show tonight,” she replied.
"Okay." I licked my lips, "But what does any of that have to do with me?"

Mom turned to face me now and I wished she hadn't. The look on her face made me even more scared. Her eyes were red, her cheeks wet with tears. The situation seemed to be more serious than I thought.

"Don't you see it, Sally? You are the proof, the evidence that Medex has been modifying humans, children. You're no longer Sally Jenkins, you're now a fugitive of the law. They’re going to come looking for you and the aftermath is not going to be pretty.”

I gasped, my stomach plummeted. I had never done as little as steal candy from a store, never done anything unscrupulous and I was a fugitive?

"I'm just sixteen, Mom. I can't be a fugitive,” I tried to reason with her. There must’ve been a mistake somewhere. I couldn't possibly be a fugitive.

"Your dad and I aren't taking any chances. We're going to go away for a while and lay low until everything dies down."

"But what about me, Mom? What happened to me?"

She sniffled and pursed her lips. I thought she wasn't going to say anything but then she spoke up. "After the cure for the virus was found, everything went back to the way it was. Millions died during the pandemic and to prevent another outbreak everyone got vaccinated monthly. But there was a threat of another outbreak some years ago. Children were found to be more susceptible to the virus than adults, at least that's what we were told. Every citizen was to submit their children to the nearest Medex hospital for proper vaccination."

"When you started getting vaccinated, we noticed some changes in you and we reported to the hospital. Your hair and eye color changed. We were told it was just a side effect of the treatment and you were taken in for monitoring and further testing. You stayed in that hospital for months."

She started to cry again and my Dad let go of the steering wheel to hold her hand. I hated to see my mom cry but I couldn't do anything at the moment. I was still frozen in shock.

She took some tissue from the dashboard and blew her nose into it. "We had to involve the authorities before you were released. I am so sorry, baby. If we had known this would happen we would've stopped it. I wouldn't have taken you to that hospital. Everything seemed so sketchy, we should’ve noticed it on time. This is all my fault."

I moved forward on my seat and grabbed the hand my dad was still holding. "It's okay, Mom. Everything is going to be fine. None of it was your fault, you shouldn't blame yourself."

She smiled and ran her hand over my hair. "My brave girl."

"I won't let them take you away again. We're in this together, okay, my darling?" Dad spoke up. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and gave me a small smile.

It made me feel better. I was worried he'd think I was some kind of monster but I forgot he was my dad, he would never think like that.

"I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Sweetheart."

I sat back in my seat and rested my head on the backseat. We made it onto Highway 25 and I closed my eyes. The adrenaline rush was finally dissipating, I was bone tired. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and go to sleep. I couldn't do that now. I would just have to settle for sleeping in the car.

"Buckle up, we've got company,” my dad said suddenly and my eyes sprang open. I looked behind me to see two black SUVs approaching us at full speed.

My heart jumped in my throat. "Is that them?"

"I don't know but buckle up your seatbelt," Dad replied, glancing at the rear-view mirror. He looked worried so I did exactly as he told me to.

I strapped myself in and clenched my sweaty palms. My heart was racing, I tried not to look back to see how close they were to our car but not knowing was even worse than knowing.

The wind picked up, lightning crackled in the sky. The sound of thunder tore through the car loudly and I jumped. I glanced behind me and I wished I'd listened to myself. The cars were now behind us.

"Dad, drive faster." I panicked.

"I'm driving as fast as I can,” he shouted.

I glanced at the speedometer, he truly was driving as fast as he could but dad's car was a Corolla. It wasn't as fast as the cars chasing us.

I licked my lips and glanced behind me wishing there was something I could do. The weather picked up, the wind got too strong and we had to wind up all the windows. This weather was only slowing us down. My heart palpitated, my palms got sweatier and I wiped them on my dress.

The weather only got worse, the wind so strong we could barely see. It threw the cars in front of us to the side, cracked our windows and I screamed. Out of the chaos, a tornado formed, heading straight for our car. My hands shook as I trembled in my seat.

My mom looked back at me with fear written all over her face. "Sally, what are you doing?" she screamed.

"It's not me," I shouted. But then, I looked down at my hands, there was an electrical current around them. My eyes widened and I looked up at my mom.

"Make it stop, Sally," Dad shouted.

"I can’t,” I cried. I didn’t understand what was happening. My hands trembled, I tried to make it stop but one of the SUVs rammed into our car, jolting me. Lightning struck our car just as the tornado threw it in the air.

I'll be updating weekly from now on. So if you're loving this, remember to come on Wattpad every Monday to start your day or end it with a dose of thrill from yours truly. 😘

Remember to vote and comment. I love to hear your thoughts.