Marked

Chapter 23

There were no gunshots when they saw me, only guns held high followed by the swing of the clear glass doors. Now it was only the sound of the orders given, by a tall man in the middle. There were to people on his flanks. The main hall split into two corridors, the two men at his right went through the one in front of them, the men at his left followed suit in their corresponding corridor. They were right behind me.

My steps echoed in the halls. I wanted to be soundless; I wanted to lose them. How did they find me? How did they even know who I was? Files, of course, my tutors used to work for them. And the pictures, all those memories that hung on the main hallway of my old house. Talk about deadly memories.

They were gaining on me; I could hear the rushing of their steps become louder.

"Sight on Morpher 502" I heard a deep-set voice behind me, "permission to put down".

Blood rushed to my head at the sternness of his voice, they were going to kill me! I willed my legs to run faster. We were reaching the end of this building, a pair metal double doors marking the exit. But I couldn't go through those doors; they were much faster, much stronger. They had two more on the other hall; they would reach me in now time. They wanted to trap me in.

And then I heard. "Permission granted" out of an intercom.

I felt things rush around me, one passed near my arm, another one buzzed right past my ear. I felt a small impact in my back. Something hit my backpack. Never in my life had I been so thankful for a bag full of books. Time was running out, they were even closer now than they were before.

The kept shooting. I kept running. Suddenly I was pulled aside inside a dark room, a mouth was placed over my mouth muffling my scream. I lashed out, biting his hand. MARC was not going to take me without a fight. My hands hit muscle and it was followed by a deep voice.

"Ow! Damn woman, you throw quite a hit" I knew that voice.

"Marcus?" I said in disbelief.

"The one and only. Now lets go, they're not stupid I bet they already know you are being helped and we have seconds until the open that door."

He suddenly got in motion. The room was dark but my eyes began to quickly adjust. We were in the computer lab. Rows upon rows of monitors and CPU's crowded the room. Marcus quickly went to the back. I followed in suit. He was closet from the wall. I helped him, doubtful but zealous. I had no other choice.

There were thumps on the door. "Open up!" one of the men shouted as he pounded on it with his fist. Marcus cursed under his breath. We hurried trying to pull the closet away from the wall and as we slowly moved it away I saw a bit of a door on the other side: a secret door, an exit. We edged the door just a bit more, enough for Marcus and I to go through. At that moment the door busted open, bullets began to fly once again. I rushed to the door; Marcus was on my heels. Somehow someway, we were facing the forest; I heard the rush of the steps of the others. I felt Marcus grab my wrist and drag me into the woods.

We jumped over rocks and bushes, dodged under low branches but we never stopped running. And he never let go of my wrist. They were still behind us, at a couple meters distance at the very least, but it wasn't enough. We had to be smart. We would tire and they would capture us eventually.

There was a big dead tree a few feet away, enough to hide us both. I was a long shot but it was the only shot. I ran faster and pulled Marcus with me. Fog slowly began to rise and soon enough we would be lost in it. My legs were beginning to ache from exhaustion. I suddenly yanked him toward the dead tree. He resisted, insisting on going forward. I signaled towards the tree with my head, doubtfully he followed in.