Monsters

Chapter Three

"Well, what do we do?" I asked quietly as she put her bag on her shoulder and grabbed a bat with a tight grip. Her eyes lingered toward the window as I watched emotions pass through them along with her contemplation. Tapping my foot anxiously I sighed while placing my hand on my forehead trying to fight off another dizzy spell. There was a distant slamming sound coming from near below us though she drew my focus back on her with a question.

"When's the last time you ate?" I heard her brash voice cut through my focus and I rolled my eyes to myself. Looking towards her it seemed as if she saw my actions and her grip on the bat increased. I let my face fall into a softer gaze to keep from acting so unfairly. She was only asking a question. I heard the bashing sounds growing closer and less distant to us as I went to answer her with a brow raised in concern.

"It's been a few days," I said while looking off to the side, avoiding her eyes. I didn't want to see the pity. Though pity is far from what I received.

"Okay, let's fix that then." She spoke tonelessly while digging through her bag. I went to argue but I'd found myself freezing when I heard a sudden and loud crash. The noise echoed thunderously down the hall that lay on the other side of the door. A sound once distant, now here. "They're breaching through the staircase door to our floor now. Here," She informed me bluntly before throwing something across the room at me. Catching it in my hand I saw it was some sort of granola bar.

Gunshots rang from outside only succeeding in drawing more attention to our current location. My heart rate picked up and I turned to see the girl walking up to the door and placing the same chair she had used earlier up against it underneath the doorknob. The way she'd moved so easily, almost careless in a way as if she had done this many times before, led me to start to question who I had found myself trapped in a room with.

She placed the bat on one of her shoulders and closed her eyes for a moment. Opening her eyes she turned towards me before walking in my direction and grasping my wrist in her hand tightly. "They are about thirty seconds from getting into this room. We'll take the fire escape." I was dragged towards the back of the room where a window stood. She let my hand go, squeezing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath before going to open the window.

Looking at her for a moment as she motioned me to step out through the window. I took a step out before looking down at the sheer height we were from the ground, a good five levels up. Looking towards her, my fear of heights somewhat outweighed my need for survival, my flight taking over my fight. She looked at me with a small smirk, "fifteen seconds." She shoved my shoulder and I freaked out finding the steel barrier in my sweaty hands as I looked at her in disbelief.

I watched as she turned away from me, my gaze following her figure as she went towards the cabinets in search of something. Once she'd found it, she lifted it in the air while shouting in achievement before the door to the room we were in started to get pounded upon. Frowning she ran towards the window and stepped out. "You've got five seconds to start running." She shouted and my feet moved on their own accord as I began descending the steps of the fire escape hastily. And somehow, just like she had said, five seconds later I heard the door give in as the sound erupted from the open window where we made our escape.

The adrenaline kicked in and I began to feel alive as my fear pushed me to run faster, further. Away from the unknown threat and into something even less known. As we made it to the bottom, I was out of breath and depending solely on the fear that was driving me. I was shoved to the side as bullets flew passed where I had just been. I rolled onto my back and the girl got up and offered her hand impatiently. My hand fell into hers and we took off running with me simply following her lead at this point.

Edric's words had rung out in my mind; keep moving, no matter what, and never stop running. So that's what I did. I took off running with a stranger away from dangerous people without a plan, but with a new appreciation for my life. This, living to find my family, was important to me. And I will stop at nothing to find them.