Their Lies

Chapter 11

Clinton, New York

    “We are falling apart,” Jax shuddered. “If we go back, we’ll die. If we go to Canada, they’ll find us. We’ll die. What do we do now? Axel, Colby, and Mils are dead, Hannah’s going to die, and now all we have is…. nothing.”
    “What about me? I think I’m a little more than nothing,” Chris said while patting Jax on the head.
    “How long have I known you?”
    “Let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about not dying,” Devin suggested.
    “That sounds nice,” Alexis sighed.  
    “I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, my parents would hide us in our house, if we make it their. It’s only in Woodhurst, Pennsylvania. One bus to get into PA, then a few more to get to Goulcrest, which is like, and hour walk to Woodhurst,” Devin reassured.
    “Uh, yeah, but the lab in Pennsylvania is like five minutes from our houses. And where do we put Loki?” Alexis asked, Loki looking up at them with his big brown eyes.
“Let’s just do it, what do we have to lose? All my friends are dead, my family thinks I’m dead, and we’re being hunted down! Let’s just go for it!” Jax burst, flailing his arms up in the air. They could see the pain behind his smile.
“Are you good, bro?” Chris worried.
“I’m fine. Let’s go.” His enthusiasm completely disappeared within seconds. “Alright, get your bags.” Devin and Alexis were now sharing a bag because of having to save space, Alexis grabbed the bag, Devin grabbed Loki. Jax took the food bag and his bag, and Chris excitedly got his small bag, checking if Mu Mu’s collar was in his pocket on the way out the door. Mils’ body still laid dead on the floor.
“Can we afford the tickets? Usually Hannah takes care of money,” Jax said.
“I got some on our travels,” Alexis bubbled. “Hannah taught me some tricks.” She pulled out $250 from the bag and handed it to Jax.
“We aren’t going to the same bus station as last time, are we? That lady gave me the creeps,” Chris complained.
“We are, it’s the closest one. We’ll be fine,” Jax said while rolling his eyes.
    “Do you think she was on drugs?” Chris wondered.
    “There it is,” Alexis whispered. They walked in casually. The lady was not there. Instead there was a sign with her face on it. The sign read, “In Loving Memory Of Carol Wright.”
    “You don’t think they...killed her, do you?” Devin asked.
    “I wouldn’t put it past them,” Chris said solemnly. They walked towards the desk to meet the new worker. He was a small and frail looking man, he was probably more than 70 years old.  
    “Hello, there young-” The man started to say. He looked at them with fear in his eyes. “I’ll be right back, you just stay right here, okay?” He got up slowly and picked up a cane from behind the desk. As soon as he left the room, Jax jumped behind the counter and got them tickets to Pennsylvania. It seemed as if he had done it before.
    “Okay, we gotta go,” Jax whispered. They sped walked out of the station and sat on a bench by the bus stop. “The bus is coming in half an hour, but I think they’ll have guys on our trail before then. Let’s just hide out in the family bathroom until the bus comes.”
    “No homo, bro,” Chris said as they walked into the bathroom.
    “What are we even gonna do in here?” Alexis asked. Loki laid down on the floor and closed his eyes.
    “Wait.”

Twenty-five minutes later they left the bathroom and headed out to the bus stop. There were a few other people there, but not many. There was a big family, the mother looked quite young for having five children, if they were even hers. A overweight man wearing a fedora was sitting on one of the benches eating a bag of cheese puffs, and a stern old woman sat down next to him.
“Mi’lady,” He said as he tipped his hat.
“What a crowd,” Chris whispered. Not a minute later, the bus pulled up to the stop. The woman got on first, then her kids. Jax, Alexis, Chris, Devin, and Loki all boarded the bus and went to the very back.
    “This bus ride is going to be interesting,” Devin smirked while looking at the four young kids, plus a baby. The baby started to cry, then the big man took out his head phones and glared at the woman while she tried to calm the baby down.
    After an hour, the baby’s crying hadn’t slowed down. The man in the fedora and a comic book T-shirt looked like he was about to explode.
    “Will you shut that thing up?!” The fat man hollered, orange spit flying out of his mouth.
    “I-I-I’m trying, sir, please he’s just a kid,” the woman cried. The man took his cheeto dust covered fingers and pulled himself out of his seat and loomed over the woman and her baby. The other children were hiding in their seats.
    “Dude, stop!” Chris shouted.
    “Yeah, that’s just a baby, leave the poor woman alone,” Alexis told him.
    “I’m not going to let a woman tell me what to do,” The fat man hissed as he hobbled towards Alexis. Loki started to growl, his fur standing up on his back.
    “Okay, first of all, that is super sexist dude, and second of all, YOUR GETTING UPSET OVER AN UNAVOIDABLE PART OF LIFE, HE’S JUST A BABY!” Devin hollered. The driver didn’t seem to notice or care that the huge man was walking towards the teenagers with a death glare. Loki prepared to fight the man, but Jax held him back.
He loomed over Devin, Devin stared right back into his cold eyes with a look of determination. He lifted his fist, Devin prepared herself to take the blow. Then, Alexis hit him in the head with her baseball bat.
    “Do not, ever, mess with me, my friends, that baby, those children, or that woman again,” She said, her foot on his huge chest, his head in one seat, the rest of him in the isle. “Now go back to your seat and think about how miserable your life really is.”
    The guy looked at Alexis, Devin, Chris, and Jax, who were all giving him a death glare. Loki growled, making sure to show the man his sharp, yellow teeth. He slowly got up and walked over to his seat.
    “That was fun. This ride was SUPER boring until now,” Chris said.
    “Honestly, that did make this ride a lot more fun,” Devin agreed. For the next few hours, they talked about what had happened on the bus, then they talked about how great their past lives were, knowing they could never go back.
    “We made it. We’re back. We’re….. home,”  Alexis pondered as they stepped out of the bus.  They were all nervous, but Chris, Devin, and Alexis were the most concerned. What would their parents think? Would they even except them back into their lives?
Jax had never even been to Pennsylvania, let alone a small town that nobody but locals knew about. He decided he’d just go along with the others, he was the odd one out.
“There’s the lab.” Devin pointed to the large building with no windows that was only a mile away.
“And right in front of it is the graveyard!” Chris beamed. Loki tilted his head and nudged himself between Devin and Alexis.
“Let’s not go anywhere near that place,” Alexis advised. They all nodded their heads.
“How do we get to your house?” Jax asked.
“This way,” Alexis and Devin said at the same time. They walked west from the bus stop until they arrived in town. It was extremely small,  It felt good to be back in their hometown.
“Remember when we got locked in the elementary school in second grade?” Devin asked.
“Oh yeah, you two were crying like babies,” Chris chimed in.
“We were six years old,” Alexis testified. They laughed a bit as they passed the elementary school. Then they walked by the middle school that they had ran out of what seemed like years ago. They were so close to home.
“It’s a ten minutes walk from here,” Alexis told Jax. And so they walked for ten minutes. Devin’s palms were getting sweaty as they arrived in their neighborhood. Alexis was getting short of breath. Chris could care less, and Jax was just trying to survive the government. They approached Devin and Alexis’ street. There were missing posters with Devin and Alexis’ faces on them. Amongst the posters of Devin and Alexis there was only one with Chris’ picture.
“We are here.” Devin walked up to the driveway, everyone else followed. Her parents cars were gone. They must be at work, Devin thought.
“Ok, we’ll go inside and wait until my parents get home. They’ll be a little surprised when they get home, and I have a house key hidden under this rock.” The town seemed unusually quiet. It was small, but there were usually kids running around, biking, and playing in the creek in their development. Today it was empty.
“Ok, let’s go in,” Jax grinned as Devin put the key in the keyhole. Jax looked ecstatic, he was finally going to catch a break after what seemed like a lifetime of constant running.  As soon as the door was open Jax jumped in. He shot right back down. Chris looked down at Jax and saw a bullet hole n his head.
“OH MY BEJESUS!” Chris cried.
“Just fricken run, run until our legs are jello!” Alexis screamed. They ran. But they had guns. Alexis was shot first, directly in the middle of her arm. Then Devin in the leg. She fell to the floor.
“Come on, get up!” Alexis shouted at Devin and pulled her by the arm. “Chris help!” Chris ran over to help when he got shot in the hand. Again.
“Leave,” Devin mumbled.
“What?”
“LEAVE ME! RUN AND SAVE YOURSELVES!” She screamed. She looked down at her boody leg and passed out. A woman dressed up in a swat outfit grabbed Alexis and Chris by the collars of their shirts. Chris bit her hand. She didn’t even flinch. Alexis and Chris struggled to escape. A man dressed in black came towards them.
Then everything went dark.