Final Departure

Chapter Ten

        Eric looked up at the street sign and peered up and down the street. Jamie and Nick did the same.

        "Um," Jamie said.

        "Now what do we do?" Eric asked.

        The street was dark and desolate in both directions. From where the group stood, the road seemed to stretch on forever.  Little shops were shuttered up tight.

        "Should we split up again?" Nick suggested.

        "No," Jamie said quickly.  She didn't like the idea of heading down that empty street on her own, but she couldn't think of an alternative suggestion.  They stood in silence.

        "We came all this way," Eric said to Jamie, gently, "We have to do something."

        Jamie looked up and down the street again, took a deep breath, and, cupping her hands around the sides of her mouth, began screaming.

        "Johnny!" she bellowed, trying as best she could to propel her voice down the entire street.  She turned and screamed, "Johnny!" again down the other side.  Nick and Eric shrugged.  This seemed as good an idea as any.

        "Johnny!" they joined in.  Then they stopped, straining their ears to listen for a response.  Nothing.

        "Let's walk a bit?" Eric suggested, pointing down the street.

They headed off together down the cobblestones, pausing at intersections to continue yelling for Johnny. After a few blocks, Jamie put up her hands to stop the boys.

        "Wait," she said. "Did you hear that?"

They all froze where they stood, craning their necks in each direction.  At first, they didn't hear anything at all, but then...something in the distance, so quiet at first that they weren't sure they had heard it at all. But it was coming closer, and getting louder as it did so.

        "Johnny?" Nick yelled towards the sound.

        "Shh!" Jamie ordered, still straining to decipher the noise. She only had to wait a few seconds, however, because the source of the noise zoomed by them.  A rough looking man on an even rougher looking bicycle pedaled past, screaming profanities...not at them, not at anyone in particular, but loudly and with enough aggression to send Jamie cowering against Nick.

        "Ugh," said Eric, covering his nose.  "Did you smell him?"

        "Pee," agreed Nick, stifling a gag.

Disheartened, they continued walking.

                                                                        *        *        *

        After some time, a distance had grown between the three, Nick moving more slowly, checking carefully for any sign that Johnny may have been there. Jamie walked faster. She kept thinking that every step she took brought her closer to Johnny, so she was practically flying down the street, out of breath. Eric was maintaining a normal pace between the two.

        Jamie backtracked to the intersection she had just passed and stopped in her tracks. She had seen something move, she was certain of it. She squinted at the gas station in the distance and listened closely. She could make out what sounded like a slight whining. The parking lot ajoining the gas station was fairly small, and she could now see clearly. Yes, there was something there, but not as far away as she had imagined it to be. 

It was a black shirt. With white stripes. And it was moving.

It was Johnny!

        "Johnny!" Jamie screamed at the top of her lungs, but stood, cemented to the spot. She couldn't move. She could hardly breathe. 

        "Jamie!" Johnny replied in a yell, whipping around to face her. "Help!"  Jamie could barely hear him over her own pulse pounding in her ears.

Behind her, Eric came running. He had obviously heard her scream, and now he saw Johnny, too.

        "Johnny!" he yelled.

        "Eric!" Johnny hollered back. "Help!"

Luckily, Eric wasn't frozen to the spot. He rushed toward Johnny. But there was more movement off to the side--Jamie noticed it, but Eric didn't. It was another figure. A man, holding a gun.

       "Eric! Stop!" Jamie screamed in warning, ripping her throat raw. She lunged for the ground just as the man pulled the trigger. Glancing up, she saw Eric stagger and fall. She didn't see the man anymore, and worst of all, she no longer saw Johnny.

Once she was certain the man had gone, Jamie crawled over to Eric, who was shaking, but stood up.

        "Are you okay?" she cried.

        "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm-" Eric looked at where Johnny had been.

Jamie stood up and ran toward the direction the man was. When she got there, she collapsed on the asphalt and began pounding at it with her fists.

        "Eric, we were so close! He was right there, Eric! Right there!" She wept.

Eric folded Jamie into his arms, keeping an eye towards the street.

        "I know," he said softly, blinking back tears.  "Don't worry. We'll find him."