BULLET-CITY

Part-16

--

It felt like they had been running for hours. In fact it had only been 25 minutes. It was sunset around 18:00 hours. Both Vince and Laura stopped for a quick breather.

"So that went well," Vince looked at Laura, "you better remove the battery from your phone if you've got one. They could be tracking us as we speak."

Vince was panting and leaning his hands on his knees.

"Whew! I need a breather, a run like that really sucks the oxygen right out of you," Vince put a cigarette in his mouth. He pulled out his zippo and ran it down his jeans attempting to spark it. He looked back slightly, as if running through the event in his head once more. Laura didn't speak, she just walked up beside him and dropped the purse and clothes on the sidewalk. She sat down and put the sneakers she had been carrying on her feet.

"So what's in the bag?" said Vince still trying to spark his zippo, cigarette hanging from his lip.

"It's my emergency fund purse. I have all the essentials in here," replied Laura proudly.

"Like say... any cash?"

Ignoring Vince's statement Laura began taking out some items, naming them as she pulled them out. There was lipstick, a folded toothbrush and toothpaste, a small hair and body wash, a Purel bottle, and about $200 in cash. Vince's eyes lit up when he saw the money.

"Ghahck," said Vince after a vain fourth attempt to light the zippo.

He shook the zippo close to his ear and put both the cigarette and lighter back in his vest pocket. As if getting a second wind Vince told her to pack up and immediately began walking down the street.

"Where are we going now?" inquired Laura.

"Well, the way I figure it, these crazy thugs are obviously after you and the Feds are after us, which means my apartment is out, so I think our safest bet is Green Meadows Motel down on State Street."

Laura made both a confused and disgusted face.

"No way would I ever be caught dead in a dirty old motel, especially with you."

"Well, lucky for you you'll probably get your wish either way if those thugs find us," replied Vince smugly. "Listen, a motel is exactly the last place they'll look. Once we get there we can call my friend Frank, he's on the force and will probably have some good intel on what's really going on."

"You mean that so-called friend that you punched when he tried to arrest you?"

"He may not be too happy with me at the moment, but I'm sure he'll oblige us."

"And what 'Intel' will this Frank possibly give us?" said Laura. She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers to mock him.

"I'm glad you asked. Since we seem to be the victims of both sides of the law, the way I see it, we have two choices if we want to survive: run down south and live out the rest of our days as Mexican hat dancers, or we can prove our innocence by leading the FBI to the thugs in action. Since we don't know where they are, I'm sure that Ol' Frankie boy will know just where to start. Plus, he might be able to give us some background or evidence we can use to nail these suckas!...Of course...if we fail..."

Vince stopped for a moment, as if pondering a deep yet another philosophical question. Laura made an impatient face and waved her hands, trying to prod him on.

"Quema como el fuego bebé!" whispered Vince, turning his head to Laura and raising both eyebrows up and down.

Laura gave him another puzzled look as Vince turned around and began heading down the street. Once he got some distance, Laura yelled to him.

"You know this is crazy, it's never going to work!"

The back of Vince's head was just out of sight, Laura could just barely hear the echo of his voice down the street.

"Quema como el fuego bebé. Como el fuego." He spoke the last phrase with an added shakiness to add dramatic effect.

Laura hesitated. 'This man is absolutely crazy, she thought. Not to mention, he has bad hair and thinks he is Donnie Yen or something'.

"Humph!" She folded her arms tight and stuck her nose in the air.

She meant to walk the other way, but for one reason or another, her feet just didn't listen.

Laura hesitantly looked back and forth. Despite her best judgments she forced her feet to move.

"Como el blah, blah, blah, stupid jerk!"
With that, she made a final decision and began walking.