Escape

4

Why would they fly us all the way from America to fucking Kirghust-wathever? America is big enough to hold us captive somewhere closer and far away the same time. Its not like the all state wasn't made of fifty other states. All of this because of this joke of a father. I slam my hand on the counter and get out of the shop in search for fresh air. I need to calm down. This has got to be some type of joke. I can't be that far from the city, I can't be this far from them.

"Are you alright?" the feminine voice of my companion calls behind me after she closes the door behind her. I didn't hear her following me.

"Do you realize how far from home we are right now?" How does she stays so calm? And why is it getting so hot out here? Why is it getting hard to breathe? And to see? My vision is getting blurry.

"Hey! Look at me, are you alright?" Neil's voice is getting further from me. I bend over to try and breathe better. It doesn't work. I'm wheezing. What the fuck is happening to me? What is this? I feel a hand on my shoulder but I don't react, I can't, I'm stuck and all I hear is the frantic beating of my heart in my chest and ears and tinnitus. Then fingers are clicking in front of my eyes. My eyes follow the fingers until a face. Neil. "FoCuS oN mYfAce" she cups my cheeks and make me look at her. "BReAtHe iN" I take the biggest breath in I can despite of the bulge in my throat. I see her head move up and down "bREathE oUt" I exhale until there is no air in my lungs anymore, "rePeat" I close my eyes and execute "we're gonna be okay, it's okay" she says and after a few breaths in and out, my heart rate slows down, vision stills, breath gets even again. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight."

By the time she's done counting, everything goes back to normal. I open my eyes again. "You're back?" she asks then I realize she is still holding my face in her palms. I brusquely get off her grip like her touch is scorching hot. She frowns in response probably not understanding my reaction but I ignore it and go back inside the shop. We need to figure out how to get back to the continent.

"жакшысыңбы досум?" (are you okay mate?)" the cashier says.

"I don't understand you dude" I answer, annoyed. I know I should be nice to him considering he is helping us but right now I can't fake it.

"What do we do now?" I haven't heard Neil coming back inside.

"Well, call someone, people must be looking for you by now, they might help us." I say turning back to her. Her mouth opens to speak by she doesn't say anything and closes it and avoid my gaze "what?" I frown.

"Why don't you call someone?" I frown deeper as she hands the phone to me, does she really wants to do this? Is it really time to play?

"There's no one I can call." I can't call my brother, I'm definitely not calling my mom and there's no way in hell I'm calling my father for this.

"Hm, well... there's no one I can call either" I barely hear her. She shrugs then put the phone on the counter.

"Don't you have a family or something?" I argue

"Don't you!?" I'm in disbelief right now. "you said your father is rich and everything, why don't you call him to help?"

"Well I can't!" in response she just shrugs again. This is some fucking bullshit. What degree of fucking bad luck do you need to have to get lost millions of miles away with someone with no family? "We're screwed."

She tries arguing why I can't call my father when he is the reason why I'm in this situation to begin with but I cut her off by adventuring myself into the shop again. I need to find a solution out of here. I don't have the time for this and I'm screwed if I don't get back to the country soon. Everything I've been doing will be for nothing.

I sit on a pile of boxes at the end of the shop and put my head between my knees trying to think. If there's no one she can call and no one I can call we're going to have to do this on our own. We're going to need to find our way home alone. This girl is now the only person I can rely on and I really hope this is going to be okay.

"Nate get up, we need to go they found us" said girl hurries toward me and I push my head up.

"What?" I ask lost.

"Come on," she whispers loudly as the door of the shops open from afar. In a hurry I grab her arm and yank her down with me. I can see in between the department in front of us two tall men dressed in black, speaking with the cashier. One of them has a white drawing on the side of his pants. Near his hip where his gun is settled. Neil looks at me with big open panicking eyes and I press my finger to my mouth in order to tell her to stay quiet, then give her a sign to move backward and go further away where they won't see us. I get back as well and sneak my head slightly across the wall to see what's happening. They're armed and the cashier looks threatened but not terrified.

One of the man suddenly turns around and starts walking in the department facing me. This cashier is starting to look way too guilty. I press my head against the wall behind us and look for an escape. I can hear the guy's steps getting closer to us, my heart is beating so loud in my chest but I can feel Neil even more panicked. I look up and finally notice the knob on top of us. I guide Neil with my eyes then give her a sign to not make any noise again. She crawls to the other wall then stands, it's a dead end so they can't see us. I stand myself then turn and open the door as silently as possible. Neil rushes inside and I follow. As I'm just about to close the door completely I notice the man wandering near our spot and the door closes with a loud noise. I turn to my companion with big eyes and we both stare at each other stoically for a few seconds before we hear voices.

"Oh my God" Neil whispers and takes a few steps back as someone starts punching loudly on the door. The man screams something and I grab the first thing I find to defend myself. They keep shouting something probably to the cashier as I take a few more steps backwards with Neil behind me.

We finally hear the cashier close to the door as well. This motherfucker can't just deliver us to these murderers like that.

A few loud bangs resonate on the door again followed by the cashiers voice and I stand ready to jump on whoever enters. I've done a few years of boxing and this wouldn't be my first fight anyways. I'm supposed to be able to handle these guys. Well they're armed but if manage to get rid of their arms, I mean I can do this; or at least I'd die trying.

There's no noise for a while. "Do you think they're gone?" Neil gives a tap on my shoulder then mouths. I'm about to mouth back that I don't know when the door is slowly pushed open. I get back on guard ready to fight when the cashier's head appears in the opening. He waves at us with a smile and Neil exhales. "Thank God!" She says and hand on her heart.

I put down the stick I have in my hand with a long exhale of my own. The cashier hands me his phone and on the screen is a google trad page "Мен аларга бул жерде келемиштер экенин айттым – I told them it was rats in here"

He is still smiling like an idiot but I can't help but feel glad. Though, when I answer via the trad page, it's just to ask what the men said.
From what I understand they had pictures of us. They said we were wanted because of some crime we committed against the state chief but we didn't look threatening enough for him. I narrow my eyes at him for the comment. The fuck he means not threatening enough? I ask myself mentally but the up and down look he gives me tells me he heard my mind. Neil takes the phone from me to thank him because I sure won't now.

- You need to go, if these guys work for the president, they're really dangerous, you can't stay here – Neil shows me the phone. Why the fuck did we not though about using google trad to begin with? It's much easier to communicate.
A backpack is thrown at our feet by blondie. Neil opens it to find two bottles of water, a few snacks, two caps, and a few other things. That's really naïve of him considering he doesn't even know for sure that we're not in fact criminals.
"Thank you so much!" Nell thanks and the cashier lead us to the back door leading to a street behind the building
"Кудайым жардам берсин" he says behind us.