Rush Hour

the second

I don’t know if I’m breathing anymore. All I know is that a sharp pain enters my stomach at Kane’s words, and it takes my breath away.

“What,” I gasp, confused, “What do you mean?”

Kane shakes his head, “After you yelled to us to get down, it was pure chaos. We all got down, in a big pile, all of us on top of one another. We managed to move away from the fuel we were unloading at the time so if the fire reached us that one wouldn’t go off and kill us. When we got up, we had to pull you out of the wreckage. Nate and Luke went back to get the fuel while I was carrying you, but a chopper flew overhead, and we had to go to the woods.”

I run a hand through my hair, trying to process this, “The people in the chopper, do you think they were from Project 379?”

Kane shrugs, “I guess so.”

I think back to the guys named Thomas’s phone conversation. “The guy who dropped the match was on the phone at the time with a guy who sounded like he was his boss. He told him to drop the match so it would kill us all. I guess the guy on the phone sent a helicopter to make sure we were dead. Which means he knows we aren’t.”

Kane sighs out through his nose, “They know we’re not dead, and they want us dead because we have vital information about the fuel and location.”

I lean back against the window of the car, still semi laying down. “So, where are we going?”

Nate turns around up front and says, “Well, we could go to a news station and try to convince them that we have information against the government of the United States of America without any proof, or we could run far far away.”

“Well, Nate, it sounds like you’ve got an obvious opinion about what we should do,” Kane snorts.

Nate shrugs, “I don’t know where you got that idea from.”

I laugh. Out loud.

It’s the first time in hours that I’ve laughed, I think.

Kane turns and looks at me, grinning. “What do you think we should do, Charlie?”

I sigh through my nose, “They’re already looking for us, and they probably will for a long time since they didn’t find any bodies back at the warehouse. We can’t make ourselves any more wanted than we already are, and this way we can tell people. Make a difference. Let them know.”

Kane’s smile stretches wider, “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

Nate groans from the front, “Why can’t we just go to Canada or something?”

Luke starts laughing as he turns the car around and begins heading in another direction to where the news station is.

Lizzie sits up on the seat and looks up at me. She’s been asleep. I didn’t know if she was asleep or just lying down, but from her eyelid heavy eyes and yawning, it was the former.

“Hey, Liz,” I say, my voice softer now.

She rubs her eyes, “You’re okay?”

I laugh softly, and then scoot over on the seat so Kane can finally sit down somewhere other than the floor. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Her voice quivers as she hardens her jaw. I’m reminded of when she was four and went into the bathroom by herself. I was supposed to be watching her, but I was too busy to pay her attention and so when she wandered off I didn’t notice. She started wailing a few moments later and walked back into my room holding her hand. She had cut her finger on my razor that was sitting on the edge of the tub. Big fat tears rolled down her face and her bottom lip started shaking, but she was trying so hard to keep it together.