Courageous Compassion | Illinois x Reader |

Car

[Mark] Yeah, good call. To be honest, I don't even know how to fly a helicopter. Come on, they might still be behind us, so we gotta get in and get out, and we gotta do that real quiet, so hop in.

We made our way over to the bright red transportation system and Mark, generously, opened the door for me. I climbed in while he continued to talk.

[Mark] All right, I'm gonna figure out how to hotwire this bad boy.

I closed the door behind me and Mark went right away to hotwire the vehicle. When he did, he started it up and he drove.

[Mark] Okay! I got it. Right? This is working. We're gonna get—

But we could hear sirens bleeping loudly behind us. I didn't dare to look back because I knew from the sight of red and blue upon Mark's face.

[Mark] No. Okay, uh, hold on. I know how to lose 'em.

Mark swiftly turned the wheel to the right, which made me lose my hand placing and I fell to the side of the vehicle, hitting my head pretty hard. Mark turned around, and by the looks of his face, we were succeeding in getting away.

[Mark] Yeah, take that, eh?

I held the spot where I had gotten hit and I looked out the front window. In front of us, what appears to be the silhouette of two people in front of us, light beaming behind them. I pointed at them.

[Mark] What you see something?

When Mark turned his head in front, the two figures disappeared.

[Mark] Oh, come on. Don't lose your head. We're not out of the woods yet.

He turned to face me with the goofiest face I had ever seen and he made a goofy laugh to go along with it.

[Mark] All right. Anyway, no time for jokes. We're pulling off here. Hang on.

He stepped on the breaks and I flew forwards. I placed my hands in front of me to stable myself from hitting anything again. I looked up to see a clearing of trees, the headlights beaming towards the forest to give an eerie look to it. Mark turned off the engine and you could faintly hear the sirens in the background.

[Mark] And I think...we're good. Let me consult my map real quick, but we are right where we need to be.

He took out his map to reveal the whole parts of the plan. To be honest, I'm pretty sure a map doesn't need about 61 parts to it.

[Mark] Yeah, we're doing great. And we've got the box.

Mark pulled out the small package and he lightly kissed the top of it. Man, he really was looking forward to seeing this box if it meant for him to kiss it.

[Mark] Now, all we need to do is lie low and wait for the heat to die down, and then we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. But with those police patrolling around we should probably stay here for a bit longer. Why don't you take a nap? I'll take first watch.

I nodded in response as a yawn fallen out of my mouth. I slowly let down my body with Mark talking.

[Mark] And I'll wake you up if there's any problems, any bandits, any anything. Sweet dreams.

After trying to fight off the drowsiness for a couple of seconds, I fluttered my eyes close and fell into the abyss of mind.

-

I was awoken to the smell of food. I got up, yawned, and stretched huge. In the corner of my eye, I saw Mark in a different outfit of a grey suit, holding a miniature pan, cooking some meat on it.

[Mark] Oh, hey. Good morning, sleepyhead. Hope you slept well. There were no ambushes, no cops, no bears, no monsters in the woods, no nothing. For once, a plan went off without a hitch.

I did some stretches in my triceps and shoulders because they felt tense and I listened to what Mark had to say next.

[Mark] So all you need to do is sit back, enjoy some breakfast while I drive us back to home base.

He turned around to start up the vehicle again, but when he tried, the engine wasn't responding. All it was was just sputtering and hissing. Mark tried some more times, but each one failed to cooperate. A little wave of smoke began to come out of the engine and Mark sighed, resting his head on the wheel.

[Mark] This is fine. This is fine. It's fine because I don't think we're that far from base, so we could always walk straight through the woods over there and find it. Conversely, I could try and fix the engine. I've seen at least...

He counted his fingers.

[Mark] One YouTube video on engines, so I kind of know what they look like. I'd have to guess, though. I've never seen this one before. But how different could engines be, honestly?

He chuckled.

[Mark] I don't know. What do you think?

. . .

If you'd like to pass this segment of the story, you can go to 'Boulder Chase' in the table of contexts above.