Innocent Fugitive

Separated

"The dump?" Teresa was disgusted. She hated the smell. She hated the looks. She hated everything about this place.

Joseph obviously didn't. He breathed in the sulphuric smell as though is was as sweet as flowers.

"Dump, sweet, Dump!" He smiled happily.

"This place is disgusting," Margo cut straight out. She wasn't going to say what Joseph wanted to hear, she was going to say what was on everybody's minds.

"It's a dump, what do you expect?" Joseph replied easily. The others stared at him shocked. They had all been under the impression that Joseph actually liked this place.

He took them to what looked like an old hut built out of scrap metal. Without a word to them, he walked inside.

The others looked at each other for a moment then walked in after him. Inside was exactly what many would call a pig's sty. There was a hand made table make out of old and rotting pieces of timber and a obviously used couch sitting behind it. The couch had been torn many times with a few springs sticking out. There was an old television that had obviously been alive for a long time. It had small scratches on the screen and the frame was dented in quite a few places.

Joseph motioned to them to sit and only Carlo did so.

"I am not sitting on that or that," Margo pointed to the couch and then the floor which had an old and seriously stained carpet to make the floor more 'comfortable'. "Or that, or  that, and definitely not that," Margo pointed one by one to the crate sitting in the corner, the table in the middle of the room and the upside down bin in the corner of the room.

"Fine, don't," Joseph huffed. He went over to the refrigerator that they were all surprised to see working and started to look around inside.

"Can anyone tell me what we are doing here?" Bella cried.

The group were restless. Teresa was fiddling her fingers and constantly checking the time, Bella was shuffling in her spot, Margo was looking around like she was looking for a conversation starter and Carlo, well, if he was restless, he had a good way of not showing it.

Joseph pulled out a can of beer and took a drink from it. Then he replied to Bella's question, "We are hiding, aren't we?" He looked at her as though this was the most obvious thing in the world and that she should have picked it up already.

"Yeah, but why are we here?" Bella asked again, slowly this time.

"Because, who would think of a dump as a hiding place?" Joseph answered with another question.

Bella just groaned. Teresa stepped forward suddenly. "Is there at least a bathroom at this place or do you just pee outside?"

"It's round the back. Mind the smell," Joseph smirked.

"Gross," Teresa said as she walked to the bathroom.

Margo and Bella didn't like it when Teresa had left. Then felt like they were one man down. What they didn't know was that Teresa wasn't going to the bathroom, she wanted to check this place out. She wanted to see what Joseph was really up to.

As Teresa pursued this stupid quest, Bella was getting impatient. She should be back by now, it doesn't take that long. So, Bella decided to see what was up. When she found the bathroom, and also the fact that Teresa wasn't even in there, she decide to find her.

Margo was feeling extremely lonely. Bella had just walked off, probably to check on Teresa, and Teresa still wasn't back from going to the toilet. Although Carlo was there, it still didn't feel right. So without asking, she also, decided to find her friends.

Although the hut was small, there were some separate small buildings that to Teresa looked like they might have been either bedrooms or just sheds. So when Teresa went outside to look at these, she walked past a lot of them, almost like it was a small village or something. Finally, Teresa decided to stop walking and that was when she realised she was lost.

Bella had also found this small village of rooms and other huts, but wasn't as lost as Teresa. She knew that Teresa had come this way only because her footprints were still fresh in the dirt. What she didn't expect was another set of footprints to join on. She stood there for a while trying to work out whose footprints were Teresa's when a hand clamped over her mouth with a napkin. The world became fuzzy and the next thing she knew was darkness.

Margo was making her way around the Dump nervously, the last thing she wanted was getting lost.

Which she already was.

She decided to try and follow her footprints back to the Hut, but stopped when she got the queer sense of being followed. She shook it off and continued to slowly follow her footprints when she heard a rustling sound behind her.

"Probably just a rat," she muttered to herself. Although that didn't really help at all. She hated rats. Then she heard a voice.

"You're right, little girl, it is a rat. But not the type of rat you were hoping for..."

Before Margo could turn around to see who it was, there was a thud on her head and she fell to the floor unconscious.

Teresa had no idea of what had happened to her friends, she just kept walking on, hoping to find a place where she had been before and could remember the way back from there. She stopped. Someone is watching me.

She immediately thought back to one of her favourite childhood books where the main character always had a set of rules and one of her favourite ones were: Rule 9: There is always a chance that someone, somewhere, is watching you.

She turned slowly, taking in her surroundings. As soon as she had reached 270 degrees of her 360 degree turn, she spotted movement.

Stupidly, she called out, "Who are you?"

She waited to hear any movement or a reply. Nothing. She started walking again. The feeling of being stalked continued to follow her. Finally, she decided to stop again. She pretended to tie up her shoelaces when she heard something snap behind her. She stood up straight immediately. Before she could do another slow turn to see what it was, a sharp prick hit her leg. She turned to see what it was as a man slowly crept towards her.

"A tranquiliser?" Was all she said before she passed out cold.