17 The Edge of the End #3
"Is there something wrong?" Diana looked up to see Elliot staring at her. "You are oddly obsessed with time. I noticed you keep checking it often." He leaned forward, she then noticed that their hand was still locked together.
She pulled away, ignoring the odd look he had given her. She shook her head. "No, nothing, I'm just anxious." He looked like he didn't believe her, but he let her so.
She had then asked him about why were they following her. If they wanted to kill her, they could have done so that the first time.
"Well, they thought maybe you can open the door your father had closed,"
"I can't-"
"They don't know that." Elliot's feet were tapping on the ground. "I hope they still don't know that fact. If they do…" His trailed, but she caught the meaning behind his words.
"Then what do we do now?" He was staring at something outside of the window. She followed his gaze to see a small car parked outside. It was black and seemed suspicious, especially since it didn't fit the scene at all.
Elliot sent her a look before pointing at the restroom with his eyes. He stood up and went there, and she played with the menu in her hands, ordering a few plates before following him to the restroom.
The restroom area had a panel blocking the two doors from outside and she found Elliot waiting outside of the men's bathroom impatiently. He grasped her hand and headed toward the kitchen that was nearby. "Are we even allowed in there?"
"Act natural and nothing would happen," He whispered back. And true to his words, nobody minded them passing by as everyone was busy cooking and answering orders. Everyone was rushing around them, and they just blended in with them as they reached the kitchen exit door.
They walked out and closed the door behind them. Outside was an alley and they saw a few staff who were smoking. Elliot nodded at them which, surprisingly, made them all nod back with a smile.
They kept moving fast, yet not running to not pull anyone's attention to them. They passed by a baker and overlooked a shop that sold antique items. Some people kept greeting them and a girl smiled brightly before throwing rose petals all over them.
"Where are we going?" Elliot didn't answer, he only started moving more hastily toward the less crowded part of town. They moved till they ultimately saw an extended area with a lake in the middle leading to the unknown. They were both panting.
There were a few old boats going here and there, but in general, there weren't many people roaming around this area.
Elliot accompanied her to an area where trees were dense, almost a forest, and hid behind a few trees. He motioned to Diana to keep quiet as she hid behind one near him.
A few moments passed, and they saw three men and one woman running and looking left and right, searching for them. She noted how they looked at the few boats that were sailing on the sea with joyous people in them. Each boat had a lamp lighting it up, so people can see each other and their surroundings and it would make finding the boat easier.
But, it was extremely dark to see who was riding which boat.
She saw one of them stomping on the ground before pointing in the opposite direction and telling them to go there. They split up, two of them going back to the direction where they were, one went to the small forest and the other one taking the left turn to go in an alley.
The way they hid made the man pass right by them without noticing. They waited for a few moments more until they made sure they weren't coming back and then Elliot took her hand and pulled her down the path that led to the lines of boats and was ready to take one.
Diana felt uneasy about this and pulled his hand to a stop.
"Let's find another way." She almost pleaded, realizing that if they got in the lake and time ran out, what would happen next would be bad.
Elliot shook his head. "I heard when we were changing our clothes about a port not far from here that leads to a train that we can take to reach Jeson. The only way to there is by getting a boat from here."
She stared at him still looking unconvinced. "How long would that take?"
"Probably half an hour," She looked at her watch and it was eleven-fifteen. She took a deep breath and decided to go with it. There was no other choice, at least if they went and reached there before the time limit, maybe there was a chance of survival.
"Okay," She agreed, and he pulled her to one of the boats and paid the watcher the fee. The man, taking care of the boats, offered rowing the boat for them till they reach their destination, but Elliot had refused, seeming to be on his toes.
He carefully had led her inside the boat before he stepped in too and gestured to the man to push the boat away. When he did, Elliot began rowing the boat toward where the man had told them the port was located.
Diana's hand held onto the vacant seat and the boat kept moving and stared at Elliot. He kept on looking behind her and pushing the handles in his hands in circular motions. Around them were a few people enjoying the night sky, and all their boats had a lamp on, so they can see and everyone around them could see them.
She looked behind her and could barely see in the night, but she saw the man that had given the boat to them was talking to two strangers. The following thing she saw was they were getting physical with him as he kept refusing and jerking his head and they forced him away.
And then they shot him.
Diana stifled her gasp with her hand. Elliot mumbled a curse as they saw the two men search the man's pocket seconds after shooting him and took something out of his pockets and went to one of the boats.
Some people heard the gunshot and started screaming, and someone even lost their control over the boat and accidentally dropped one of the handles. She heard a woman cry for help and the majority of the people in the river tried to go to the shore to escape these men.
Diana and Elliot did the opposite as they just increased their speed toward the port. It was late at night, and Diana couldn't see anything but she could see a light from far away and knew that that might be where they should be going to. Elliot rowed once more before abandoning one of the handles and grasping a gun out of his pockets, passing it to her with a knowing look.
Her heart sank as she held the killing machine. It felt heavy in her hands and even though it had been in Elliot's pocket all that time, it felt cold.
She knew the men couldn't pinpoint which boat they were on as everyone was getting all over the place, especially as they took their time to get on the boat and row it away from the shore. But she knew it wouldn't take long before they noticed them because they were the only ones moving forward.
And after a minute, they really did notice them.
They shot at them but missed as some of the bullets hit the water and others were aimed inches above them. It was a dark night, so it was hard to aim right. Diana got down with Elliot to hide from the bullets and directed her gun at one of the men. She shot without any hesitation this time. The gun made her ears ring and the force made her stagger a little bit. The bullet didn't hit any of them.
She hid deeper and accidentally met Elliot's gaze. His eyes were cold "Diana," He said, "Shoot to kill." He was right, they weren't kind people and if she didn't shoot to kill then, it would be her that would be the victim.
She let his words sink in and took a deep breath, ignoring their tries of shooting. She saw a bullet hitting the boat. She raised her body and aimed at the men. She looked straight ahead the men and imagined as if they were targets, and she shot two times.
One of the bullets had missed one of them by a hair, but the other had struck one of them in the head. She felt a burning pain growing in her stomach and kneeled in the boat in pain.
He had shot her.
"Oh fuck," She heard Elliot curse. She concealed the wound with her hand and breathed hard. She saw Elliot taking the gun from her hand and aiming before shooting again. She peeked from behind her and saw that the same man that she had shot in his stomach had fallen down the river.
The boat wasn't steady, and they kept moving up and down. She tried her best to get her breath in order, she put pressure on her wound to stop the bleeding. In her pockets was the bag with the pills, and she slowly got them out and took one of them.
She saw Elliot aiming and shooting at the guy, it was easier now that there wasn't anyone rowing the boat at the enemy's side. The bullet hit him right on the chest.
Her hand and clothes were wet with blood, and she couldn't help but keep groaning with pain.
The pills weren't working fast enough and Elliot helped her lay down before removing his jacket to placing it on the wound and pressing. "Stay with me, okay?" He instructed loudly. She saw how his hands kept shaking. "Here, swallow this," He made her take another pill, but she felt it wouldn't work.
"I want you to keep putting pressure on the wound, okay?" She could merely nod. He took her hands and put them on the wound and pushed. She nodded again to tell him that she understood.
He stood up and started rowing again, and all she could hear was the sound of water, Elliot's breathe and hers.
"I'm going to get us to safety."
