The Enigma's Anomaly

A Story In Your Head, But That's Okay

The tickle in my throat goes away after a few minutes, but I'm positive it will return again if I do any more running. I check my phone to see that it's pushing on eight o'clock, and there's no cell service, which isn't surprising. I would have really liked to have called the police though, but I can't unfortunately.

"Can we maybe head back to the car?" Gerard asks.

"I don't remember which direction that was, we'd get even more lost," I respond, "and you crashed into a tree, I don't think it would run anyway."

"I sort of remember which way it was," he says.

"Enough to get us back there?"

Gerard frowns and shakes his head, "Frankie, I don't want to die tonight."

I look at him desperately, and say, "You're not going to. Neither of us will. I'll keep you safe, okay?"

Gerard doesn't look like he believes me but he nods anyway. I think he knows that I would do anything to keep him safe, and if I have to I'll take another bullet for him. I would really prefer not to, but if that's what it takes then I'll do it. I wouldn't even think twice.

"I've had this dream a million times, Frank," Gerard says, "and it usually doesn't end very happily."

"You're so negative," I tell him, and it's definitely not untrue. "Do you want to keep moving, or hope they don't find us here?"

"Uh, moving, I think. It sounds like a better plan," Gerard says. "We know roughly which direction the car is let's just head that way and hope for the best."

I nod and my hand almost slips from his because I'm sweating. I'm almost too paralyzed to move, but I allow myself to take a few steps in the direction that leads away from our followers. What I really need is a gun, or something for self-defense. I just need to keep Gerard alive, and breathing. Preferably undamaged as well.

I hear his breathing and my own, but other than a very faint sound of crunching leaves, we're pretty quiet. I look up to see that the sun has all but disappeared which should be a good thing if we are to run from them. They're a lot bigger than us so they make more noise, and I'm fairly certain that we would've heard them if they'd started walking this way.

It's getting harder to see which is not a good thing, and I keep my eyes trained on anything that's darker than my surroundings. I still almost run into a few trees, but I'm starting to think that we're heading back in the right direction. There's a definite trail that we're following of broken branches, as well as the floor being a little unnatural spread. I guide Gerard down it, and hope that we're getting further and further from our pursuers. If we can make it back to the car, we might be able to walk along the road until we find some cell service. I could also hotwire the other car, which I can do, it just might take a few minutes. If they have extra guns it shouldn't be too hard to watch over it.

I don't want to try hitchhiking though, not when we're being followed by men with guns, because I could end up putting someone else in harm's way.

"Frank, I can't see," Gerard whispers to me, and I sigh because I can't either. The only light that I have is from the stars that are just starting to come out, because the moon is new, making it absent from the sky. I grab my cell phone and use it as a flashlight, but I don't want to run out of battery, so I switch it off every other minute.

Our progress seems to be extremely slow, but at least we don't hear any noise around us. I pause every now and again and perk my ear out for any signal that someone else is there, but I hear nothing.

I'm starting to get really tired of walking and it seems like we've been walking for so much longer than it should take, but at the same time I guess it makes sense because we were running the first time through.