Flames

Chapter 7 The Wild Run

Reika slipped in the earthy slush.

Struggling to get to her feet Conall muttered about how dumb she was as he arrived to rescue her.
The air holders began climbing up her shins, and her first thought was, "I just took a bath."
Her brother angrily hoisted her out of the squishy, musty mud.
"What're you doing ya dummy!"
She squeezed his upper arm and lifted herself to a standing position, refraining from pinching him.

"I was stalling it, the program won't kill us. I think it might stop at-a certain point if we put ourselves in real danger. Now run ya dummy!" Following her own advice she galloped through the weighty foot or so of wet ground.

Reika had no plan or idea where they were supposed to go, plus the German guy was nowhere in sight.
Lumbering away from the hotel, they scouted every angle, west, east, north, and south to realize there was nothing.
No structures, no shanties, just expansive earth, and distant sea blue mountains. 

Why were they alone? Was this a test?
The teens ran till they could barely hold themselves up. 

Looking over her shoulder Reika gazed at the building, a speck on the horizon.

Sweating raindrops and heaving, she stretched out an arm to stop him.
His clothes were damp from perspiration.
A few hundred feet from where they were, was an abandoned automobile. 

"The-s-un's-go-ing-down." He barely got it out, and oh boy his face was red as a beet, but she probably didn't look so hot herself. 

Reika drank in the flares from the setting sun, somehow content.
Another triggered verse settled softly into her mind.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God."

1 John 4:7

Not only was the sunset breathtaking, the verse hit her like a bullet, if she ever wanted to be free she had to choose to love.

"Let's check it out." He tipped his head in a half nod as she pointed to the dinosaur age car, swiping away sweat with the back of his hand.

Her body cried from thirst, but the murky puddles were undesirable to drink from.

They made their way to the rusty oldy, enclosed by tall wilting weeds. Their newly showered selves were now draped in layers of sweat and earth. Her clothes were hardened by dried mud.
Why had the Wires ceased leading them.
A pigeon cooed overhead and flew into the blueness, evaporating into the touch less sky.

"Do-you think there's-someone-in it?"

"Conall-shh. Please."

Nearing it she sniffed mentally for signs of danger.
Behind her he was huffing like an old locomotive.

"Watch. It's gonna hold a secret or something-maybe a clue." He said regaining regular intervals of breathing.

Instead of trampling the green weeds, Reika wrung and yanked them out.
As she did this he slid into the back of the rusting vehicle, onto a bit of torn up cushions.
Essaying every space she got on her rubbery knees, there beneath the automobile was a circular hole, like a mini pit.
"Ope, yup, I found something."
Holding onto the crusty hood she wobbly stood.
"I said there's something under you."
Conall was resting his head against the torn up seat, eyes shut. He was depleted.
A new emotion crashed into her heart like a wave, compassion.

Dusk was a canopy over the sky, reeling in the stars in its shadow.
Reika's feet were swollen inside of her tennis shoes, and her legs lacked stamina to continue but she clambered back down on the dusty ground and crept below the vehicle.

He began snoring, phlegm loosening from his esophagus.

Blinking a handful of times she surveyed each crevice.
It was a cellar. Cans and jars were stacked neatly on wooden racks chained to the concrete wall.
She would rather they slept out of the open.
Jerking him awake they crawled to the hole and leaped down.

"At least we're safe." In the murky light, he looked her in the eyes without a nod.

Uncapping three jars of peaches each they gulped the first can, hardly chewing. It was hydration even if it wasn't water. They were silent and absent minded.

Reika was backtracking on their recent journey, worried because she'd forgotten to cover their tracks. Conall was also feeling peculiar, but he couldn't back out now, he had already signed up for hell.

Sleep invaded the concrete room set into the ground. The siblings curled up on the cement, backs pressed against each other.
Crickets chirped, the air was frozen, and the floor inhospitable but they were invisible to the eye.

Shivering she shut her lids, tiredness brought restless sleep.
Too bad they weren't really free, too bad most of it was lies.