Isolated

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

That peace I felt before no longer existed in the swift second that everything changed.  The bright orange fields were not around us.  The other cars around us didn't matter.  It was all gone and in it's place... was the sudden shock of the instant impact against the side of the car - Jackson's side.  I could tell because I could feel it.  The jolt ran up my body and made me grunt, gasp, and scream the moment of impact.  My eyes widened - but with what to take in?  The skidding of the car as the impact bent inward? Or the actual movement of us being forced off the road to the side with what hit us?  The visual of the inside not moving? My thoughts were in panic.  Because all I could think was no, no, no.... No for that this can't be happening to us already - that they found us because after dismissing this as a random accident, that was the only other option.

There was no time to produce any other thoughts.  It just occurred faster than my ability to overcome it with rational thinking.  It was just so fast. The car that hit us didn't plow into us that hard on Jackson's side - but hard enough where it was grinding the car tires against the cement and pushed us off the road and onto the shoulder.  And past the shoulder and parallel to the road in the strip of grass lit up by the setting sun.

I was just happy we didn't flip.  It was still a huge sensation of shock for me.  All the windows on the left side of the car and the windshield shattered as the vehicle rammed into that side near the back.  The clatter of snowing glass against the dash flooded my ears past the screech of the car and the one still against the side.  But as soon as the car stopped, Jackson paid no mind to the broken windows.  Or to the other car's front against his side of the car.  It was such a rush and blur... you would think I would be use to this.

The moment we stopped, Jackson acted.  Acted swiftly and with thought unlike the shocked state of me.  I watched him with wide eyes and hard breaths as he spun in his seat, taking off his belt.  He reached behind him and into the back seat quickly.  My head craned to the side to look at him, shocked I wasn't hurt at all, I noticed that that wasn't the case for Jackson.  His left arm was bloody from the glass that was shattered on that side.  Streaks of red crawled down from above his elbow as he reached around with that arm to get what he was searching for.  Which I noticed was one of the guns we had.

My heart beat double time. I couldn't let these people get to us... how could they have found us?  Fuck!  The gun I saw didn't help my nerves and my mind from jumping to outcomes.  Of me taken, of Jackson dead....

Moving back and to face me, his eyes were wide.  He wasn't pausing for nothing either because I think he saw that outcome happening in his head if he wasn't ready.  He removed my seat belt, looking back over his shoulder to see if whoever crashed into us was coming.  "Get out this door and run through that field! And do not stop," he said to me, pushing me towards the passenger door.  His words were compelling because I could have been covered in the tall grasses or cornfields, hidden.  But before I could move or do anything, my eyes still on Jackson, my body tensed and froze the moment I saw past him and where he was facing me in the car.  Because past him... was a man with a gun.  Right outside his car door, pointing it in the car and right at him from where the glass was shattered.

Behind that gun though... was a man I didn't expect. That was a big ass understatement too.   Because seeing this man made me freeze wide eyed in my seat and I couldn't move.  When Jackson saw I wasn't moving and instead was staring past him, he turned around hard with the gun, and pointed it right at Luke.  And in the process, his feet pushed his body up and over towards me more, where I felt his body try to block mine as he aimed his gun back at Luke. 

The second their eyes met, Jackson knew exactly who he was.  He knew the people from my past and would especially recognize a guy that effected me like no other.  However, how was Luke suppose to know that Jackson was basically my guardian? Hell, how was I suppose to know that this could have happened to begin with?  It was so... unreal.  And I didn't understand at all. I was so convinced my eyes were playing tricks on me.  Luke was out of my life after all.  We said our painful goodbyes.