|
Chapter 7: Chasing and Running
As the sun slowly rose into the sky, its blinding rays of light were filtered through the thick mists and clouds. The air smelled cool and damp, even though it was summer.
The road stretched around the cliff walls and the abundant pine trees. Leaves littered across the pavements and they trailed after the speeding jeep. In the distant, mountain faces appeared here and there, some were exposed fully while others were partly covered by one another.
Throughout the whole journey, the scenery kept on changing: from buildings to bare lands to a sprinkle of timbers to an abundant growth of trees.
With the fresh air whipping around us and my hair flapping in the wind, I took in a deep breath forcefully. I almost couldn't breathe, but I welcomed the unusual sensation. I dumped the soft blanket beside me in the back of the jeep and spread my wings wide. It was strange to have the chilling breeze brushing against my bare chest.
Without warning, I lost the grip on the metal bar in front of me that was affixed down onto the floorboard of the car. The wind was so strong that it had caught my wings and almost carried me away. I scrambled for a hold, and grabbed the side of the vehicle nervously.
"You okay back there?" John yelled over the roaring gust. He wore black sunglasses and his hair flew backward.
"Yeah! I just lost my grip that's all!" I shouted back.
"Better be careful! I don't want you to fall out of the car and get hurt!" John stole a quick glance over his shoulder. "You want to listen to something? It's a long ride from here to where we're going."
I shrugged and folded my wings close to me. "You decide!"
He turned on the radio and switched to the news station. "I want to see how they react to your disappearance."
Now I was interested. Slowly, I inched forward and got near to the speakers.
"... And the police have identified that John Flake, thirty-three, have kidnapped Tobieaz Redil, age fourteen. The Redil parents are very upset over the loss of their only son-"
"Ptfff, yeah right," both of us said in unison. We looked at each other and laughed.
"Here's the breaking news: apparently, the county police and FBI have blocked all the exit routes from Hope Highway all the way to the Gibson Lane. If you are traveling in that direction, or if you are on the aforementioned roads, you may experience a traffic jam during rush hour. They are now checking every single car near the roadblocks."
"Damn it!" John shouted as he thumped the steering wheel angrily. "We are on Hope Highway right now! They are blocking all the exits on this route!"
Fear suddenly clutched at my heart. I felt my chest tightened and I began to quiver. "John... they are not going to take me back there, are they?" I said with trembling lips. Then I literally crawled into the front passenger seat. "John? They are not going to take me away, right? You are not going to let them do that, are you?"
He didn't answer. All he did was staring forward and didn't say anything. I could hear his heavy breathing. I could sense the frustration swelling up inside his body.
"John?" I urged him to say something, anything!
Finally, he sighed as he pulled the jeep to the side of the cliff wall. On our left, a sheering ledge cut off the roadbed. I could see an eagle flying in the sky, circling, searching for a prey dwelling in the woodland below. The cliff wall beside us was old and blocky. It seemed like it was unstable, and could cause a landslide anytime. The stony surface was tainted with red iron and calcium, something that I had learned in school. A few sprouts of wild grass extended from the sandy ground in a few places. Judging from the wide, drawn out area, I suspected that this was once a temporarily resting place for drivers like John that had come from far away.
John turned around and looked at me in the eyes. "Don't worry. I'll think of something to get pass those roadblocks. I won't let them make an experiment out of you, and I certainly won't let them make you a specimen that everyone can observe and make comments."
I felt relieved. Slumping onto the back of the jeep in a sitting position with my wings cleared of the trunk door, I wiped my forehead and found it wet with perspiration.
"I'm sorry that you have to go through all these..." John leaned back into the leather seat. He sighed as he gazed up into the hazy sky. Wind was howling beneath in the canyons and birds sang in the surrounding environment. There were no cars driving by. It was still early, and my guess was that it was around eight.
"Why? It's not your fault," I answered back. My feathers shivered in the morning breeze. Small goosebumps appeared along my naked upper-torso.
"I could have stopped it, Tobieaz. I could have prevented Dr. Triden from contacting other scientists... But... I too, was so tempted by the discovery that I went along with it. You know? I'm feeling guilty. I've completely destroyed a virtuous child, just because I can't control the temptation of becoming a part of the group who have discovered that a winged boy exists."
I remained silent as I pondered about this. After a moment of silence, I said: "It doesn't matter. My parents don't care if I exist or not. It's better if I can just go somewhere far away, where I can have all the freedom in the world to myself." I stared at the osprey fleeing from the eagle. "Though the wilderness may be a dangerous place, but I like it better than staying at home or at school, where my existence does not matter."
John peered over his shoulder. "You sure talk maturely for a kid your age."
I let loose a weak laugh. "When you are basically living by yourself, you will notice that you tend to grow up faster than the others."
"We now have the newest status of the search for Tobieaz Redil," The radio was still on, "Due to the unusual condition that the child has, even the military is forced to use one-forth of its force to participate in the search. They are handing out Biochemical Suits just incase the youngster is contagious-"
"Damn it! I hate it when they say that! You are not more infectious than any of us!" John swore out loudly as he slammed his large hand on top of the dashboard over and over again. "Why can't they listen to what I've said?"
I played with a tiny pebbled that I had found beside me. I rolled it between my fingers as my green eyes tagged onto the stone.
John started up the engine as he made up his mind. The car roared to life and the carrier beneath me shuddered with the tempo of the combustion engine.
"All right. We are around twelve miles from the Pine Forests - which is where I'm taking you. There are about four exits along this stretch of the highway, so that makes it four roadblocks that we have to get through. I think traffic won't be a problem right now, since we haven't met any other vehicles since seven o'clock."
"What are you going to do?" I asked while getting up. I grasped the bar tightly in my fists lest I flew off by accident.
He shifted to the first gear and the jeep rolled off the side and onto the freeway. Dust floated in the air behind us. He gunned the motor and the car shot forward. "I'm going to ram through all the road blocks... That's the only way, and I'm sick of reasoning with them."
My eyes were wide with disbelieve. "You can't be serious!"
John looked into the rearview mirror and smiled.
"What about your reputation? Your job? Your life?" I stammered as I tried to figure out a way to stop the madness.
"There's no point of submitting to the likes of them," he explained as he rotated the wheel in a tight curve. Rubbers screeched and burned on the oily pavement.
I took a glance at the speedometer: eighty miles per hour and still increasing.
"Don't do this, John! Don't do it because of me!" I screamed over the howling gale.
"It's okay. By 'kidnapping you', I'm already a fugitive. It makes no difference."
I quieted down when I knew that whatever I said wasn't going to work. I closed my eyes and hung my head between my arms. My life was a screw up, and now I was taking John's life with me?
It seemed like hours before we both saw the first police obstruction. There were two wooden bars raised from the ground with a stop sign in the middle. Two police cruisers were parked on either side of the Hope Highway. There were six officers standing around the roadblock. They were looking at us.
John showed no sign of stopping. Instead, he stomped on the accelerator all the way down and the jeep whined even louder as our speed increased in double.
"Driver! Slow down immediately! This is the police!" A bullhorn sounded over the rushing air.
I held on tight and pressed my wings even tighter to my body. We were still speeding up: a hundred and six mile per hour now.
"Holy shi-"
Now the officers in front of us pulled out their guns and dodged out of way. The flying vehicle of ours crashed through the roadblock, sending splinters and pieces of wood whistling all over the place. A few struck against the police cars, denting them and making holes.
I glimpsed back and saw they were chasing after us with lights flashing. A siren wailed out into the quiet mountain range. The pursuit was on.
"Hang on!" John shouted as he navigated through a series of curves around the alp.
The police cars tailed dangerously close behind. The air smelled like burnt rubber, and I was frightened. Not for myself, but for John. He was risking everything, for me.
After ten minutes of running away from the law, we came upon the second police roadblock. This time, two spike strips were laid down on the ground in front of us. John saw them, and whipped around the piercing needles by sending the jeep through the forest in an arc and came back out of the highway on the other side. Tree branches scraped the side of the car and one painfully slapped me in the arm. My wings were scouring the leaves. The two engaging cruisers followed and yet another two automobiles backed them up, all with alarms blaring from the bullhorns.
"You okay back there?" John shouted as he tried to maintain control of the vehicle.
I couldn't answer, because we came upon a third barrier shortly after. This time, the jeep didn't have enough time to react and it ran over four spike belts and two tires exploded with bangs. I could feel us veering off course, but John held on. Instead of evading from the people in uniforms before us, he drove through them. Everybody jumped away, but their police cars were rammed to the sides from the powerful four-ton flying bullet.
Headlights shattered and windshields cracked, the place was a disaster. The front hood of John's jeep was seriously dented and crushed in.
"John! Is it necessary to do so?" I inquired after opening my eyes. I was afraid that broken glasses would fly into my green eyes.
"Can't help it! We are losing speed and control! We'll flip over if I didn't go in a straight line!"
I wheeled around and saw six cars racing after us. They formed a line, almost like a line of fire, advancing rapidly, threatening to devour both of us.
Finally, John brought us to the final checkpoint. By now, the front tires were running on metal rims. Sparks flew out from underneath, showering the road with red-hot metallic pieces. Our speed had dropped down to fifty miles per hour. We were covered in leaves and branches and sweat and dust. I knew that our time was up. We had to face our dreadful fate. John would go to jail, and I would go back to my eternal prison - my house. I felt tears flowing down my face, though they crawled backward diagonally as the wind pushed them along forcefully. My long, dark brown hair flapped in the air currents.
"Tobieaz!" John bellowed as he strained to fight for response of the sluggish vehicle. "Grab the equipment bag and the rolled up tent! Be sure to have some warm clothes folded inside the pack!"
I didn't know what to do. I was frozen like an ice cube; I was extremely tensed up.
"Tobieaz! Hurry up!" He shouted as he glanced into the rearview mirror. The sirens were getting louder, both from behind and in front. "Grab the bags and get to the side of the jeep!"
"Driver! Stop this car immediately! Or we will be forced to shoot! You are now under arrest from assaulting police officers and damaging public properties! Comply, or we will open fire!" A fat detective in a light blue suit with a black tie spoke to us with an amplifier. "This is your final warning! Stop the car, now!" I could see people in front of us.
"Tobieaz!"
"I'm ready! What do you want to do?" I screamed over my fears and looked at the back of his sweat-drenched head. My left hand was seizing the over-sized bag, and under my right arm was the small, rolled up portable tent.
"It's not what I am going to do, it's what you're going to do!" John replied as he brought the jeep to a stop. We were caught between the police cars. All around us, blinding flashes of red and blue lights appeared. Car doors slammed shut all over the place.
"What?" I was stunned to a point where I couldn't continue.
John leaned to the side and gazed at me. His face was sad, but with a smile. "I want you to know, that you are a wonderful kid. It is too bad that we can't meet each other and become friends earlier in a normal situation."
"John, what are you talking about?" I stuttered as I tried to clear my throat. A lump was forming, I didn't know why.
He watched the officers pointing their guns at him and sighed. "I want you to jump off when I accelerate again. Once you are safely on the ground, head for the thick woods to your right instantly. Just keep on running until you can find a place to hide. I know that you can stay away from them and they will also have a hard to of finding you. I've been here many times before since I was a kid, just like you, and I know there are a lot of places to cloak yourself."
I burst out crying. "NO! You can't do this to me! You might be shot and killed! You can't! You can't!"
"Tobieaz, you really have no-"
"I won't follow your orders this time!" I shrieked, ignoring the muttering of men around us. "You can't do this to me! You can't abandon me like this! Like my Mom and Dad! Like my best friend, Jake!"
"Driver! Turn off the engine and raise up your hands!"
John groaned as he sank into his seat. "Tobieaz, if you view me as your friend, do what I say, go! This is for your own good, don't let my sacrifice be in vain."
I was going to argue more when I saw the determination in his eyes. With great reluctance, I got to the edge of the jeep carrier. I looked back at him; he grinned foolishly, like a teenager who loved to do stuns like this one. With a wink, he shifted into the first gear, the car howled and I leaped. I heard the officers gasped when they saw my widespread wings. Like an angel, I nimbly landed onto the rough surface of the freeway.
"Hey kid! Come to us! We'll protect you!"
One of them started to run toward me to grab me, but I didn't listen to him or any other clamors. I dashed toward the weald as fast as my legs could carry me.
"Hey! Hey kid! No! Stop running away from us! Stop, god damn it!" Now they were sprinting after me. I stole a look and saw their hands were carrying handcuffs and tasers. I ran faster, my wings fastened to my body. The camping bag and the rolled up tent were dragged through the trees, brushes, and vines, literally. My body was pumped with adrenaline. Anxiety kept me going on and on without stopping. The pursuing footsteps grew more distant, softer. They were giving up, perhaps calling for backup. Who knows?
Far away, I heard gunshots. Then I stopped suddenly, and looked to where John was. Gunshots... had John been killed? I felt my eyes starting to get watery again. But I shook my head. I would follow John Flake's advice and keep going. I would find a place to hide, a place to live and call my own. I would find a place where no one could track me down, where I would live by myself, peacefully. I would figure out a way to survive, and I would figure out a way to get myself back to normal...
~End Chapter 7~
|
|