CHAPTER FOUR
It wasn’t going to take them anytime to get down and out of
the building, and so I had to establish some distance before that happened. I
was running as fast as I possibly could, I could feel the adrenaline surging
through my whole body as I pushed on.
They were out through the main building door in seconds, and
it was clear that I had underestimated them. They might be middle aged men, but
they didn’t run middle aged. They were going to catch up to me sooner or later,
and I could already the hear their footsteps growing louder.
I was running a
straight line down the sidewalk, and they were going to catch up to me if I
kept it that way. I looked to my right to see if there was any junction or
alley I could turn to, but there wasn’t any; I looked to my left, and saw cars
parked separating us from the roadway. I gathered momentum from my run, and
jumped onto one of the parked cars, landing on my butt and skidded through the
bonnet to the other side. I thought it was going to create distance between me
and the police, but I was wrong. One cop followed me, climbing on top of the
car, while the other went behind the parked cars, and followed.
I could see one of the cops clearly ailing, nursing himself
from where the knife had hit him on his shoulder, but still trying to continue
the chase, running after me as fast as he could. I made a beeline through the
road, to the other side where the sidewalk was. They were still behind me, hot
on my tail. This part of the sidewalk had a lot of people on it - they were all
wearing shocked expressions on their faces, and all seemed to pave a way for me
and the cops to pass through. I couldn’t afford to keep the chase up and I was
running out of breath. I needed to find
a way to shake them off.
I spotted a junction just to my right, and I ran straight
in, and just kept taking every single turn I saw. I was having a feeling that I
was finally shaking them off, before I started to feel a cringe in my right
knee. It started heating up, and with every step I took, it gave me a stabbing
sensation on the same spot. Shit. It had to be from the way I landed after the
jump, but I couldn’t afford to worry about it right now, so I pushed on, and kept
running through the pain.
I had no idea where I was, and it didn’t matter, I wasn’t
paying any attention to my surroundings, all that mattered was getting away, so
I just on kept running - before I heard the screech – it was from a car brake,
a car in front of me. That’s when I realized I was in the middle of a road, but
I couldn’t stop now, I just had to keep running. I looked over my shoulder, and
saw just one cop chasing - he got caught on the road too, so it got some
distance between us. But I knew, if I didn’t shake them off soon, I was going
to get caught. My leg was starting to give way, and my run was slowly regressing
to a limp. I realized I couldn’t go any longer, and so I ducked behind a cargo
truck, parked at the end of an alley. And there I was, behind the truck,
praying I wasn’t going get found, but I knew, it was nothing more than wishful
thinking, he wasn’t too far behind not to have seen where I’d followed.
I had to think fast, he was going to charge past the truck,
thinking I’d run this way, and when he got past it and couldn’t see me ahead,
he’d look back at the truck and see me, crouching behind it like a lost animal.
And if he sees me, I wouldn’t be able take him on, especially not in the
condition I was in. I looked around me for tools I could use, anything I could
use for a fight, but nothing was forthcoming. I heard loud fast footsteps
approaching me. Damn. I stood up, and reflexively, I swung my arm at the first
person I saw coming past the truck. My arm – bicep, connected with his neck,
similar to a clothesline.
The momentum and force from both of us – his running and the
swing of my hands, resulted in an impact that sent his legs on a trip to the
air; it seemed as though he levitated for a while before he was back on the
ground with a slam. It was only after he was on the ground, that I knew who I
had just clotheslined – from the trench coat, I could tell it was one of the
cops – not the one with the shoulder injury. I didn’t have the time to relax,
so I got up to my feet and kept on limping away as fast as I could, before I
spotted the other officer closing in on me. He was obviously slower because of
his wound, but I wasn’t in a position to outrun anyone. Hell, I couldn’t even run right now.
I was trying my best to limp away, but it was futile, he was
catching up to me. There was no way I could outrun him again. All my effort was
going to come to an end. His footsteps grew louder, and my limp grew worse. No
matter how much I had run, no matter how much effort I had put in, I just
couldn’t win. This was my life, and it was not fair.
I had always tried to run away from trouble in my life, but
no matter what I did, it always seemed to catch up with me. No matter how much
I tried to atone, karma would have none of it. Memories of my life started to
flash by – my friends smoking and getting high in school, but never getting
caught, only to get caught the first time I gave it a try. I got expelled after
that, and life just kept on going downhill from there. I just couldn’t win
again. Everything I was involved in never ended well.
My eyes started to well up as thoughts of Chimamanda ran
through my mind. I should have warned her better about me. I told her I was bad
news, but she smiled in my face anyways. I caused her sadness, but she always
took me in her arms no matter. She cared for me, even when I caused her nothing
but pain. I cared for her, I did, but I knew I had a penchant for the bad
things life had to offer, and I didn’t want her to get caught up in it. She
always told me I was being too hard on myself, and for a while I believed her.
I thought maybe the world wasn’t out to get me after all. Maybe it was all in
my head, a construct of my mind, misperception of what things really were. But
of course, I was brought back to reality. The devil had laughed at me for
perceiving hope, he mocked me for my naivety, he had given me a taste of what
the world would be like if things were different, just so I could have a feel of
the things I could never have, and then just before I could grasp it, he took
it away, took me back to despair. Only this time, he didn’t let me float on the
surface, no, he had drowned me in it, entrenched me so deep in it. I had sunk
into the oblivion of despair. The world was my disturbia.
I could feel the cops presence right behind me. I had given
up. I had been caught. There was no escape for me now. I had lost one last and
final time. I stopped running. No I had stopped limping; I just stood, and
waited for him to grab me by the neck. I could feel his hands already, choking
me, and slamming me on the ground, putting the cuffs to shackle and chain me,
to remind me that I had lost once again. I knew all of this was going to happen;
it was just a matter of seconds.
This was the second time today I had heard a screech – a
similar screech, only this time the sound was louder and closer. It brought me
back, snapped me out of my head. I turned to face where the screech was coming
from, and I saw a car. And then I saw a man being hurled up in the air, and
before I could wrap my head around it, he was smashed against the windshield of
the car, and then rolled down to the ground. I heard screams; I heard gasps, as
people surrounded the scene. I was so confused, I was looking for the officer,
and his hand that was supposed to be on me, but all I saw was a man, who looked
exactly like him, lying face flat on the ground. I realized what had just
happened, how even though it seemed like one, this was no accident, and I was
not going to let the moment pass me by.
The driver, a woman had gotten out of her car already, as
people circled him. I knew what I had to do. I moved towards the cop, and
ducked down on the floor, next to him, and I reached for his sheathed weapon,
and pulled it out from under his belt. “HE’S GOT A GUN!” one of the onlookers
screamed and in seconds, the people dispersed. The woman tried to run back into
her car, but I stopped her. “If you get into that car, I. Will. Kill. You”, I
screamed at the woman as I pointed the gun towards her.
She started to cry and sob, fell to the ground, and was
pleading with me, begging for her life. I didn’t need her for anything, I
wasn’t going to kill her either, shit, I had never even held a gun till now.
All I wanted was to get out of here. All I needed was her car. I limped towards
her car, and opened the driver’s door and found the key in the ignition. Thank
God. And so I turned the key, started the car and sped off.
I drove as fast as I could, for what seemed like hours, but
really wasn’t. it was just over an hour. I had carried a car with an almost
empty tank, and so after a while, the car stopped on the road. I hopped out of
the car, and all I could see around me were forests and bushes, and a filling
station. From the scenery, I knew I wasn’t out of town yet, but I was pretty
close, so I ran into the bushes, and just kept running. I didn’t know where I
was going but I kept on moving.
I started to feel lightheaded, my whole body began to freeze
up, I was feeling numb. I was going to pass out very soon, it was just a matter
of when. I stopped to catch my breath; I had gone through so much today. Only
now did I realize how much damage I had done to myself. My right hand was still
bleeding, my clothes were all torn up I was bruised all over, and I looked like
a mad man of some sort. I rolled up my trousers, to see my knee- there was
heavy swelling around it, coupled with grazes and cuts all over my legs. I fell
to the ground in one swoop. There was a tree behind me, so I dragged myself to
it, and rested my back against it. I had no clue what was going on anymore, but
I didn’t have the strength to think about anything.
My eyes were growing weak, I was shivering, and my body was
falling asleep.
*beep* *beep* *beep*
I felt a vibration on my backside. I hadn’t carried my phone
with me. Damn it. I had Amanda’s phone on me. I reached into my back pocket,
and pulled it out to see who it was. Before I could read the name on the
screen, I passed out, with the phone on my hand, as it kept on ringing…
(Read all the released chapters here)
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