Average Joe (2018)

21

I walked down Carthall Boulevard, my neck cranking my head back to the man's lean form.

"Really, Ross," I said, trying to lose him. "You don't have to follow me around."

"Oh yes, I do. Orders straight from your mother's mouth."

"Well, uh... just wait outside for me. These um... book club meetings can get pretty boring." Ross looked like he was thinking about it for a moment, then shook his head.

"No can do." A police car with a screaming siren sped down the road. Ross turned to look at it. "I can't let you out of my sight." Ross turned back to face me but I was gone.

"Oh no," he grumbled.

___

The clock tower looked the same as ever. The woods surrounding the building were like shrubs compared to the tower's size and kept me shadowed from the summer sun with shade. I walked to the front double doors, which I took note were already open, the insides of the tower pitch black.

My heart started to pound. I turned the light of my phone on and stepped inside.

A chill ran up the back of my neck. I ducked and rolled forward as a pipe swung over my head. I fell on my hands and knees and quickly picked myself up. I turned to face the man to see he was wearing a ski mask with sunglasses and a dark jacket and sweatpants.

"Where's Bryan and Cora?" I demanded.

The man swung again but I saw it coming. I got on the inside of his swing and grabbed the chest of his jacket. The man growled before turning in one swift motion, my hands still gripping his jacket. I flew backward and through the open doors, and into the sunshine and soft grass.

I stopped rolling once I reached the bottom of the slope behind the back of the clock tower. About twenty feet behind me was a steep drop covered in bushes and weeds, leading straight to I-87 where cars zoomed by.

I stood and brushed the dust off my jeans. The man ran through the doorway straight at me. I flew above him and landed right behind him. Before he could respond, I kicked the back of his calf with my engineer boot. He dropped to one knee and I tackled him, my hands wrapping around his neck.

"Where's Bryan?" I screamed so loud I knew all of Yonkers could hear me.

The man's knee flew up into my gut. Everything went blurry and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. The man grabbed me and rolled, his form landing on top of me, his meaty hands squeezing my airway shut.

We were only two yards from the drop now. I rammed my knee in between the man's legs. As I suspected, his back arched pulling back from the blow. I let the man's strength pull back and cannon bolt us both toward the drop.

The man tried frantically to grab onto something but then we fell over. I gripped onto a bush five feet from the top of the drop. The man did the same and hung three feet to my left and two feet below me.

The highway snaked below us, with cars, semi-trucks, buses, and other motor vehicles driving across it. If one of us fell we would fall straight into oncoming traffic, about thirty yards below us.