The Runner

Chapter 1

 Running for her life was pretty typical. Everywhere she went she was constantly on the run. This time it was different though. She was wounded... Oh, to hell with it, she was shot. Bleeding from the shoulder and running to save herself wasn't exactly a good mix. She ran to the elevator she was racing to and rapidly press the up button, repetitively.

"Come on.... Come on, hurry up!" She yelled, quietly at the elevator and once the doors slide open she ran in and pressed the button to the top floor. She heard the sound of bullets being shot and hit the walls and even the elevator.

Once the doors were safely closed she heard the pinging sound of some bullets hit the elevator door then it went silent as the elevator car rose. She leaned against the wall of the elevator cart to catch her breath, panting with the struggle to do so.

She clutched her bleeding shoulder and examined it, carefully. It looked pretty bad, but luckily the bullet didn't hit the bone. She exhaled and tried to collect her thoughts. She knew this would happen; she stayed in one place for too long. She knew the drill, two weeks and two weeks only. Rests, train, plan, and then get the hell out. She couldn't believe she let herself get so distracted. It's too late now, she thought, what’s done is done; now it's time to focus. But she couldn't keep running around a hotel all night and going back to my room was practically suicide. She needed to find a place to stay and fast.

The elevator doors opened back up, and with her plan in mind she took a deep breath and ran for it again. She ran for about forty seconds until she stopped in front of a room and took another deep breath, closing her eyes. In a matter of seconds, she forced herself to cry as she banged on the door of the hotel room.

"Please, open the door! I need your help, please!" She cried out frantically, bawling her eyes out. When it came to the damsel in distress act, she was an expert at it.

The door was flung open and in the room was a boy who couldn't be older than twenty. He had short, brown hair that was gelled up in the front and dark brown eyes that immediately flickered to the bullet in my shoulder. "O-Oh my god! Are you okay? What the heck happened?!"

She looked up at him through then around the hallway to make sure no one was around. "I was shot! Now, can you please let me in? I need to hide, it's not safe for me out here." He opened the door wider and she pushed passed him to get in while he struggled to say any words. Okay, maybe I could work on maintaining my act a little better. He closed the door behind him then turned to look at me, eyeing me curiously.

She wandered into the bathroom, helped herself to a towel, and pressed it against her shoulder to stop the bleeding. She sat on the messy bed with a sigh of relief while he continued to stare at her. She finally chose to acknowledge him and looked up at him, slightly agitated.

"What?!" She asked, rather sharply. Just because he helped her, didn't mean she had to be nice to him. Not that she was really nice to anyone.

He scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "As much as I would want you to jump into bed with me, the fact that you just got shot is a major turn off!"

"Shush!!" She shot up from the bed and moved closer to him, ignoring the fact that he just insinuated that she wanted to sleep with him.

"Look, I'll explain everything later. Right now, you need to hide me." His eyebrows bunched together and he slightly shook his head.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, obviously annoyed with her aggressive tone.

"I don't have to do anything. And maybe instead of hiding from... from whatever it is you're hiding from, you should go to a hospital. Did that ever cross your mind?"