The Beginning of The End

Chapter 5 - The Help

THE HELP

Luke bolted out of the wheelchair and grabbed Carlie's forearm, dragging her along as they ran down the hallway. The only problems with that plan was the fact that a) Carlie was kinda down a leg to run with, making her slow both of them down, and b) the boy behind them was a little older and probably faster than both of them. No - definitely faster.

"Hey!" he shouted, gaining quickly.

"Luke, let go! I'm only dragging you down!" Carlie called to him, trying to release her hand from his grip.

"No! I can't leave you!"

"This is no time to be sweet. Just save yourself!"

"No, I literally can't leave you! It's my orders!"

Oh, well, in that case, stay with me and don't be a gentleman. See how much I care, Carlie thought to herself.

"Hey! Kids! Stop so I don't hurt you!"

Why would he have to hurt-

He tackled Carlie to the floor, making her scream in agony from her leg. Luke stopped short and whirled around, kicking the boy off Carlie. He had a furious expression on his face that made her glad she wasn't opposing him. She hobbled up and winced, but kept limping in the direction that they were heading to before the boy saw them.

"Run to the front!" Luke ordered, punching the guy in the gut. The boy recovered from the punch quickly and immediately slammed Luke into the wall. He barreled toward Carlie and wrapped his muscular arms around her waist, picking her up.

She slapped his back hard with her good hand repeatedly, cursing as she did it, but resulting in nothing.

"Calm the hell down. I'm not gonna hurt you, alright?" he said, clear annoyance in his voice. He seemed to take the slaps as just small pokes on his back. "Dude, I've got your girl. Come with me," he instructed Luke, draping Carlie over his shoulder as if she was nothing but a sack of feathers.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Luke growled, running over.

"I kinda have to touch her to carry her," the boy responded with an obvious tone to his voice.

"No duh," Carlie snarled, trying to kick the spot that supposedly doesn't feel good for boys.

"Hey, I'm only trying to help! Don't kick me!" he yelped, readjusting his arms to pin her legs against his toned core.

"Ugh! Stop being strong!"

"Stop struggling then!"

"Arg!" She went limp on his shoulder, letting him relax a little and just carry her to wherever they were going - she couldn't do anything else to prevent that outcome. But Luke could.

"I said DON'T TOUCH HER!" he yelled and tried to bravely karate kick the boy from the back.

The boy slightly side-stepped and grumbled a curse word. "Yeah, and I said a gazillion times that I don't want to hurt either of you, but you're not making it easy."

Luke howled in pain as his side connected with the tile. He let out a jumble of swears as he rolled over onto his stomach.

"Jeez man, next time scream louder for the people in China to hear you," the boy grunted and pushed open a door.

Inside the small room were multiple metal cabinets and shelves, holding cleaning supplies such as spray bottles and cloths.

The boy gently set Carlie on the ground in front of the cabinet so she could lean against it and rest. Then he rushed back out and dragged Luke in by his legs, laying him next to Carlie. He quietly closed the door and for some reason locked it.