What Do You Mean?

Chapter Six

My heart thudded in my chest. Did he say we had to jump? No way. He couldn't have really meant that. I looked to him, trying to search for any sign of joking, but there was none.

"Look, do you trust me?" He whispered.

"I don't..Why do we..What does that have to do with--" My voice quivered before he quickly cut me off.

"Luna, just answer the damn question. Do you trust me?"

How could I, in my right mind, put my life into the hands of someone I barely knew? It seemed ridiculous, but when I looked into his eyes I realized that I had to trust him.

Mustering up the most courageous voice I could, I spoke.

"Y-yes. But why do we have to jump?"

"No time for that. Close your eyes and take my hand."

Without batting an eye I grabbed onto his large hand and we slowly walked towards the edge of the building.

"Okay, listen," he whispered, "there is a small ledge on the building opposite of us. It's maybe a thirty or forty foot drop, and we'll have to land just right otherwise we're falling eighty more feet to splat on the concrete."

My face widened in horror and he looked apologetic, realizing he didn't word that sentence in a discrete manner.

"I mean, we'll--"

Justin was immediately cut short by several loud voices yelling in our direction, and the sound of a group of men running towards us, guns in hand.

"Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand."

Before I could even reply, Justin kissed me shortly and then, without warning, he told me to jump. And I did.

In a matter of seconds, I saw my entire life playing behind my eyelids. Memories and events were flickering by like the flames on a candle. The wind pushed my hair up and bit harshly at my face. As I was about to open my eyes, I was flipped over onto my stomach and landed on something hard with an abrupt thud.

I looked around and saw that I was on the small ledge Justin had mentioned, but I couldn't see Justin.

I started to freak out, and then realized my hand was still in his and that he was below me on his back. His eyes opened and he looked up at me with a sense of relief. We had barely landed on the ledge, but we were okay.

"Come on, we have to hurry."

I realized that we weren't out of danger yet, and followed Justin through a window of the building we landed on. It was some old office building that looked like it had been abandoned for a few years. It gave me the creeps as we walked over the creaky floors as fast as we could to the front door.

As Justin opened the squeaky door, we could see his car across the parking lot, in Ryan's driveway. I saw three or four people laying on the lawn, lifelessly. Reality set in and I soon understood that those poor teenagers were probably dead. My heart ached for them, despite me not knowing who any of them were.

The men who did this circled back around and came into full view. Justin shut the door almost completely and we watched the men scope around the house.

"We have to get to my car. We'll be okay once we get in. But I don't know how to get there without them seeing us." His voice was worried and even though he tried to act tough, I could tell he was just as scared as I was.

The problem swirled in the stagnant air for a couple of minutes. Sounds of the men overtook the atmosphere and I did my best to think of a good plan. Finally, it hit me.

"We should try to find something that's made of glass, or would make a loud sound if it hit the ground. I'll throw it out of the back door towards the back of Ryan's house, and they'll all run over there. When they start running the other way and we can't see them anymore, we run to your car." I felt good for having come up with something that might actually work.

Justin smiled at me and nodded his head. "That will work. But we need to be quick."

Without saying anymore, he and I started searching for anything that would work. There weren't many items in the room except for old papers and small computer parts. We were starting to run out of places to look, when something caught my eye.

A large stapler sat on a stack of printer paper. It was big enough to make a pretty noticeable noise if it was thrown and hit the concrete. It was our best shot at that point.

"Justin, I think I found something."

I showed him the stapler and he nodded in approval. My stomach quivered at the thought of what was happening, and because we were about to run for our lives.

I walked over towards the rear door, and looked back at Justin who had his hand on the doorknob of the front door. We exchanged glances, and I yanked the door open. Surprisingly, it didn't make any noise. The men were nowhere in sight. With every single ounce of strength left in my body, I drew my arm back and then threw the stapler. It made a pretty loud sound and it echoed into the distance. Almost immediately I ran to the front door and we waited no longer than two seconds for the men to run around back.

Once they had took off running, we started running even faster in the direction of Justin's car. Every second felt so long. I pushed my legs as far and as fast as they would allow. The world whizzed by my peripheral view, because the only thing I could focus on was his car.

When we were about ten feet away, Justin pulled out his keys without stopping and I ran over to the passenger side as he got in the driver's seat. Shoving the key in the ignition, the car came to life under Justin's fingers and I could physically feel the terror somewhat leave my body.

Right as we were speeding backwards out of the driveway, the men were rushing back towards us, guns aimed. In the blink of an eye, I heard a loud noise and I thought that was it. I thought we were going to be shot and left for dead. And the men were shooting right at us. I could hear the guns going off. The bullets were actually hitting his car. But none pierced it.

I looked over to Justin with curiosity and he quickly replied as we sped forward towards the highway.

"Bulletproof. That's why I said we'd be okay once we got to my car."

Everything all made sense then, and I could finally take a deep breath without feeling like my lungs were constricted.

He sped immensely down every road and ran basically every stop sign and red light. I was surprised that we didn't get pulled over or something.

Even though I was still a bit shaken up and scared that the men were somehow chasing us, I thought Justin was going to take me home. And I was okay with that. I would've just gone home and made sure to lock all of my windows and doors. But he didn't drive towards my house.

"Where are we going, Justin?"

With a serious tone he replied.

"We're going to my house. I have some serious explaining to do."