Tainted

Chapter 59: The End Game

The engine roars to life as we leave all of it behind. The picnic, the smashed phones, and the hope for everything that we had there as well. We just have to make it to the police station and we'll be safe, that's what John said. We need to get there to meet up with Katie and Chris. I wonder if he knows― the same sharp knife cuts at my heart as I think of her. But I can't, I can't think of her right now. I need to grieve later because if I grieve now it may not only cost me my life but Jesse's as well and I know that I will not be able to live with that on my hands.

Jesse's eyes stay trained on the country road as he goes around 80 miles per hour down them with immense focus. My heart hammers violently in me making my chest ache, whether it's from the pulsing of my heart or fear and pain I really can't tell. I feel everything in me go haywire, I feel every cell in my body, I can see the dark road all too clearly for it being just around twilight, and I can hear every one of Jesse's uneven breaths.

This is it. This is the end of Christopher's game, the final level and he is just waiting to be the victor in it all. But I won't let that happen, it's not going to happen I will kill him before he can do anything to anyone I love. He has killed so many of the people I love and I won't let him do it again, even if that means I have to die I am done.

I watch as the ghost town comes into view, the fallen buildings look so much more daunting and dead than they did before. The sun is no longer up but it still sheds some light on the town making large shadows appear in the dark and the road to be even more hard to follow. Jesse's speed decreases only in the slightest and even more as he takes a sharp turn gliding hard on the dirt road.

The feeling of a large bump shakes the car and a loud shot fills the air causing the van to spin sharply and my head to snap back onto the head rest violently. Jesse lets out a loud cry of panic as he tries to control the spinning car that skids to the side of the road and finally jolts into a stop. My mind spins as I try to refocus my blurry vision and push the sharp headache out of my head as I realize how badly my neck hurts. Reaching for my buckle I unclasp it while glancing back into the dark night to see that the right tire is now flat.
"The―" I stutter, "The tire's been shot."

Jesse's head snaps towards mine before he jumps into the back of the van and I follow in suit. "We can't stay in here!" I exclaim just as Jesse rummages through everything in the back of the van. "I know find a weapon!" he orders quickly while tearing apart the van. I quickly follow him looking for anything sharp or bat-like but I know it's no use. We practically emptied everything out of the van when we went to stay at Jim's ranch. After almost a minute of frantic searching I finally give a small shout of victory as I pull out Katie's hairspray.

"That's it there's nothing else here we gotta go now!" Jesse's panicked tone serves even more fear to me as he swings the van door wide open. He takes my hand in his and the next thing I know we're sprinting in the direction of one of the fallen buildings, whether or not it's in the direction of Christopher, I really don't know.

Our feet pad viscously on the ground as we make it through an alleyway in the direction of Austin. We have to be at least 30 minutes on foot of constant running ―and I don't doubt for a second that I won't have enough adrenaline to run that much― but I do question whether or not he'll catch up to us. But I know he has a plan, he always does and us running has to be apart of it.

Soon our feet aren't the only one's echoing in the alleyway, another set of footsteps follow after us and I don't dare look back in fear of meeting the same face the creeps into my nightmares. He's chasing us, he's right behind us. My legs move faster and move lighter than before, my feet don't last longer than a millisecond on the ground before I fling them violently back into the air in the direction of Jesse who's thundering through the alleyway slightly ahead of me.