FREAK

Amber

     Here I am, running with a ten year old girl in my arms back to base before the beast behind me catches up.
     "Miss," the girl said in a panicked tone, "I'm scared. When will we get there?"
     "As soon as I lose your parents, sweet pea," I was out of breath. Running at full speed was hard when you've got a ten year old in your arms bridal style.
     "But, miss," she was sniffling, "we've been running for so long. How much longer?"
     "Don't sweat. They usually give up around this point," I lied. These chases can last hours. We had only been running for twenty minutes. Maybe the time had been stretched longer because her adrenaline had kicked in somewhere along the way. These chases were essential. Not only did they help with my stamina but they kept the government from finding us. I'm going to keep these kids safe no matter what it takes.
     "Miss!" The girl snapped me away from my thoughts with a scream. We were headed to the end of the street. No more buildings to leap off to.
     "Shit," I whispered under my breath, "hold on, sweet pea."
     No sooner than when she clamped her arms around my neck, I jumped off of the building we were on. I ended up using my boots to try and create friction between me an the walls of the buildings we had jumped in between. A small ally was below us with a basket of laundry next to a doorway.
Bingo!
     The girl screamed one final time before we dropped into the basket and I covered us up. I clamped a hand over her mouth and waited a good fifteen minutes before checking for anyone. Surely enough, nobody was there and we exited the hiding place.
     "Alright," I said breathlessly, "let's get you back to base and clean you up. You'll be safer there."
     She nodded her head and I grabbed her hand. I opened up an umbrella and used it to cover my face as not to look suspicious. The girl and I exited the city and made our way into the thick forest located a little ways outside of it.
     "Just a little further, sweet pea."
     "Yes, miss," her stomach growled.
     "Hungry?" I asked in a calming tone.
     "Yea," she said nervously, "I've been so stressed about the altercation that I couldn't eat all day."
    "Well, it's all over now. No altercation for you, I promise. What's your favorite meal?"
     "Thank you," she said. I could see her shoulders relax a bit. "I guess my favorite would be spaghetti."
     "Italian, ay," I began putting on an Italian accent and naming as many pastas as possible.
     "Yeah, pasta," she joined in and we both giggled until we hit a rundown concrete road.
     "Wow, I didn't know we were this close already!" I exclaimed.
     "I wish I could say the same. But, I don't know were we're going," we giggled at her statement.
     About five minutes later, we found a street about a mile long. It was U shaped and had rather tall, rundown buildings on either side. we stopped at a hospital and made our way inside.
     "Here we are," I said, "sorry it's not much. We have to stay off of the map. Everything is clean of course. It's just a bit...old."
     To my surprise, the girl smiled, "thank you so much," she said, "whatever keeps me safe."
     I showed the girl around and made my way back into my own room in another building. This one was an old hotel. I found my room and rested before getting a call on my ear piece. I answered it reluctantly, "what is it, Blake?"
"We have another kid down by rock springs elementary school."
"Mkay, give me a name and details so I don't snatch the wrong kid," yes, that happened before. I was in a rush and the kid was short. What else was I supposed to do? Take both?
I could hear him shuffling through papers in his desk for the information, "the kid's got blue eyes, freckles, brown hair, and he's short as hell."
I sighed, working with Blake was hard to do. An undercover survivor was hard enough to get out there. But, one that couldn't even give me the information I needed, I was about to pull my hair out. "I need his name, Blake."
"Oh, um, a name, uh," more shuffling, "Noah," he said, "his name is Noah."
"Aight, I'll pick 'em up in two hours."
"Good luck, Amber. I heard his dad is one of the more violent ones."
"Yeah, they can get pretty violent, can't they?" I laughed.
"This isn't a joke, Amber!" I had to pull the ear piece out while he was shouting that.
"Alright, alright, just calm down. I'll be fine," I began Messing with my ring as Blake gave a lecture on how to be careful.
It finally ended. "Alright I'll call ya when I have 'em. Kay?"
"I expect you to do so, Amber," he hung up.
I lied there for the majority of the two hours playing with the engagement ring resting on my finger.
God damn, I wish he was here.