On The Run

Chapter 9

I slid the tube down yet another cars gas tank and let the gas drizzle out and an into the container I had laid on the ground. It's been just over a week since those boys had come to our store, planning on robbing it and I thought it would be smart to have a full tank of gas to get away if trouble came by again. Unfortunatly none of these cars had much gas to give and most didn't have any. I sighed "stupid cars" I mumbled "stupid boys, stupid IAAN." I was done with all of it. I yanked the tube out from the gas tank after the last drop came out and flung it over my shoulder and began to walk to the next car. Once there I once again shoved the tube up and into the tank of the car and waited. Nothing. "Uhg" I groaned and got up, taking the tube with me and walked on. I leaned beside a large truck and was just about to slide the tube in its gas tank when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was faced with my sister. "Hey" I said "what's up?" I asked before turning back around to carry on with my work. "Oh, I was bored so I was wondering if I could help" my sister responded. I nodded "sure. I'll show you how" I said and pulled the tube back out.

My sister turned out to be pretty good at steeling gas, not that it was hard but still. I sat back and watched her work with the many vehicles in the store parking lot and laughed when she got a dry car and kicked the tire. Ocasionaly I had to help Caroline if the tube got caught somewhere or the cap to the gas tank was stuck but for the most part it was all her. 'Glad I can take a break from that stupid shit' I thought to myself and chuckled a bit as I continued to watch my sister.

I walked out of the store with a cold can of soup in each hand, my sister and I had been working for a large portion of the day and we were both starving. We sat down behind an old Ford so we weren't in the open and shoveled the thick soup into our mouths. We had been eating like kings since we got to this store. I was grateful that the girl down the street had brought us to this place. 'The girl down the street. I hope she is ok.' I thought and slurped up another spoonful of cold soup. I figured I could visit her later and make sure she was ok; you can never be too safe. I nodded and placed my empty can down and went to get up only to be pulled back down by Caroline. "What ar-" I was cut off by her hand being shoved onto my mouth. Caroline pointed out onto the road, I looked out to where she was pointing and saw a newer looking car driving along the street. 'Other kids?' I thought and prayed for the best. I looked closer, my prayer hadn't been answered; they were older, in their mid twenties maybe. They were driving slowly along the road right in front of us and heading west, toward the girl. Opon further inspection I saw that the passenger, a man was holding a gun. 'Shit. Shit, shit, shit' was all I could think, I didn't know what to do; if they had bad in tensions I couldn't do anything, I can't go up against a gun. I pulled Caroline's hand off my mouth "go in the store, pack everything up and grab all the food you can" I whispered to her. She looked at me with a questioning look. "We might need to leave" I said "and we need to be ready if we do". She nodded and swiftly turned and ran back to the store as I went in the opposite direction and followed the people in the car.

They hadn't made if far when I caught up to them, they were driving incredibly slow. 'Looking for something' I thought 'or someone' I mentally added and hoped it wasn't the second one. I moved ahead, ducking behind a garbage can for cover and poked my head out from behind it to keep on eye on the car.

I continued on like that forever; I stayed in the shadows of allies and ducked behind garbage cans and abandoned cars that lined the street. As I went along I noticed the distance closing between them and the girl. 'I should just head back' I thought 'get Caroline out of her' I knew I could and we would be fine but I wasn't going to leave someone, let alone someone who helped us here to die. With my mind made up I kept going only to stop almoast imidiatly after I did; They had parked right beside her store. I quickly jumped behind a car not far from them and watched as they stepped out from the car, the man cocked the gun and the driver, a woman, nodded. I moved closer when I saw her lips moving, I hoped to catch their conversation. "-they saw her here" was what I picked up of the woman's sentence. The man just nodded and walked over to the store in front of where they had parked. I tensed up as I watched the man, a door slammed shut and I jumped and looked back at the woman who was looking at the screen of a pure black tablet. "No next store over dummy!" She yelled at the man and showed him the tablet. As she pulled it back toward herself I caught a quick glance at the screen only to see a picture of the girl. She had bruises all over her face and she was soaked with her short hair plastered to her face, the picture was horrific. I suddenly froze, the only way they had known where she was and had her info was because they were Skip Tracers; and they were after her.