2 On The Run

I looked and saw Ms. Kreives fire a ball of, well, FIRE! I can't make do with what just happened I mean I just watched my friends, well, some of them BURN ALIVE. Think of me, a normal student from my school, watch the people he cares most about dying in the arms of that mother f@#$er. It's unbearable. Next thing you know we're on the run. I'm going to stop my tangent and go back to the dilemma at hand. Then I look over and see the scariest thing I've ever seen. The Fire Walker is going at speeds of around 96 mph towards us.

"ARE YOU SEEING THIS!" I yell at Jessie.

"Yeah, and it's nerve-wracking as s#!t!" She yells back. "Also we need to lose him!" She was running close to Maple, and I think I saw the brown-haired girl grab her hand.

"No, Duh," I state.

We bolted down the stairs to the front desk. I saw the sickening black scorch marks on the wood floor. The glass around the front doors of the school was covered in paper murals made by the fifth grade. But I knew this was still no time for sightseeing. We burst out the door and ran across the smooth cement pathway. The light posts at the end were off during the day, and I let my eyes adjust. We suddenly halted to a stop, looking around us. The parking lot was eerily still filled with cars, and the enormous playground was ghosted. The swings at the end and the jungle gym was scorched. I saw the garden dome, to the right of the gate, on fire. The grey smoke curled horrifyingly in the air, reaching towards the clouds as if it were a snake's fangs reaching for its prey.

"Where are we going to go?!" I yelled in a panic, swiveling around. The street to my right was rushing with cars now.

"I know a hotel downtown that we can go to. This way!" Maple cried, trying to swallow the panic in her voice. She quickly adjusted her grey jean jacket and sprinted towards the street, beckoning to us.

There was a pinewood picket fence that went around the school, shaded by oak and cottonwood trees. We all quickly climbed the fence, the street right in front of us. Maple took a sharp right again and ran down the sidewalk, panting quietly, but heavily. We all followed her without argument. I looked at the brick and grey buildings all around me. She stopped at the block, a gardening store a few yards ahead. The greenery shined in the sunlight. She looked like she was... waiting for something.

Why did we stop? I thought to myself. I realized she was looking at the traffic light, which shined a scarlet hand in the yellow box. Before I could say anything, someone cut me off.

"Are you seriously following the law when our lives are at stake?" Will said, nudging her in the shoulder. Maple had a protesting face, but I opened my mouth to speak.

"This might be the last time we jaywalk. Let's go!" I yelped, darting across the street. The others followed me as I dodged a blue ram truck that honked at me. Maple stopped at the railroad tracks, which were a hideous rusty color, and made a right turn once more. All I could see were trees, gravel, and streets up ahead, genuinely terrified. We were officially on the run.

We ran for about a mile before we took a break. I was exhausted, sprinting that fast. Jessie, Dykota, Brianan, and I lean up against the short railroad tracks, catching our breath, while Maple sat down in front of Jessie, their feet almost touching. It was almost noon now, and I was exhausted, my throat begging for water.

We sat in a moment of terrified silence. It had all happened so fast- I thought it was going to be a normal day at school... but then... that happened.

I noticed Brianan grabbed our lunch boxes and water bottles out of her backpack, handing them to each of us. I snatched my water bottle out of her hands, unscrewed the cap, and took a large gup.

"You are a lifesaver." Dykota and I said in unison. Dykota straightened the tongue of his checkered loafers, then started to eat his lunch.

"You're welcome," Brianan said, throwing her hair back dramatically.

"We better eat quick, fire boy is still after us." Jessie said, tearing off a piece of her sandwich and tossing it in her mouth. I smothered my laugh. How could I laugh at a time like this? I noticed that Jessie had been stuck to Mapple like glue almost the whole time.

We all sat in silence as we ate, which took about ten minutes, as we thought our own thoughts. How will we get food and water? How will we pay for shelter? Will we ever see our friends again? Will we ever go back home to our families? And most of all... Will we ever make out of this alive?

"How are we going to pay for the hotel?" I asked, getting up, taking another sip of water as the sun beat down on my head, the heat worsened because of how dark my hair is. The question of that sank in for a moment as we exchanged glances.

Will shuffled around in his pockets, revealing Ms. Krieves' wallet in his left hand with a grin.

"How did you- you know what I'm not even going to ask." I stated.

All of us got over to Oldtown about two hours later. The streets were quieter now, but they were always full of cars. The parking was full, as usual, the old, brick walls of restaurants, businesses, and shopping buildings were simply everywhere. Some of the alleyways were used as parking lots, which is clever. Key Bank towered over everything else as we walked on the cement sidewalk, it's giant clock flashing from the time, 5:14, to the temperature which I didn't bother to memorize. Small gambel oaks were planted and restrained along the sidewalk, quietly letting their leaves sway in the wind. They passed a tiny water park- it slowly went into the ground like a large cement sinkhole as water shot from the ground like geysers, and a huge, metal vase-looking thing was drizzling with water. Brianan splashed in it for a brief moment, then ran to catch up with us. Tables were dotted around the park, and the entire area was shaded by trees. Maple took us down a street that was suddenly not civilized. Gravel dust whirled around, then Maple took a right. We walked down another two blocks before she turned right again, vanishing behind the bricks.

We walked across the crosswalk, shrouded by people. Maple took us through winding streets and crowds of people. We finally came up to a stop.

It was an enormous hotel, out in some open space for parking. It looked recently built, its long, steel, and brick shape looking like a modern exterior. Cottonwoods were spaced around the parking lot as we crossed the street's crosswalk. As we walked along the parking lot, passing idle cars, I felt like I couldn't get the smell of fire out of my nose. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

Dark wood zigzagged in triangular patterns across the polished floor. The interior was made of quartz- or white metal, I couldn't tell. Flowery designs hung with lots of LED lights on the ceiling, lighting the whole room up. The check-in desk was made up of white and black stone- white granite, I guessed. The desk's ends went down then out again, and the stone was mounted on a glass surrounded by wood on one side, sitting on an area rug. There was a painting of a bear sitting up against a tree on a summer day with pine trees and the mountains behind him mounted on a dark oak wall. A healthy-looking man in a suit was waiting serenely at the front desk. I clear my throat, walking up to the desk, beckoning towards the rest of the group.

"Welcome to The Elizabeth Hotel." The man said kindly. He looked down at an iPad, then continued. "Do you have a reservation, or are you wanting to make one?"

"I want to make one, sir." I replied solemnly. Will slipped me Ms. Kreives' wallet silently into my hand. "Any available suit rooms, please. One night." I said, slipping out a VISA card, handing it to the man. He took it, vigilance washing over his face.

"Two hundred ten dollars and six cents. Where are your parents?" He asked, pointing to the group and handing them golden keys.

I tried not to show the alarm on my face. I thought about it quickly, and I impulsively replied,

"Our parents are waiting in the car to check us in."

He looked in my eyes for a moment, then at the group. Dykota was nodding his head to my story, and Jessie put a smile on her face that said 'Yep! It's the truth'. Thank you, I thought to them silently.

After a while, maybe a minute or so, the man nodded and sighed. "Alright. Room 318. Take the staircase on your left. Have a wonderful stay."

"Thanks." Dykota said, beaming at him. The man pointed to a spiraling quartz staircase that had a gold railing. We ran up the stairs, entering a burgundy hallway that had golden lights every six steps covered by circles of glass. We finally reached a room marked 318. I put the keys in and turned them counterclockwise, opening the door.

It was nicer than I expected. The door to the bathroom was a grey wood to the left, and a tiny hallway led into a bedroom. A white bed was mounted to the right wall, it was hung with prints of bicycles, pine trees, and mountain lakes. To the left of the bed was a floating entertainment center and above it was a TV. A small, open room led beyond that, where it had a curtained over the window with two grey chairs mounted near it. The TV remote was sitting on a polished log of wood along with some plant decorations.

We watched TV in silence on the bed until the evening. We heard an ear-splitting shriek as we hear a person being burned. Jessie grew wide-eyed as Brianan shivered and I smelled smoke. Will turned off the television.

"He's here." Dykota whispers to me in a tone of such sorrow it was unbearable to listen to. The shock must have hit Dykota hard, to the point of emotional trauma. Aside from that, the incident, I corrected myself. It seems like a nice hotel. It even has a pool.

"We need to hide. Now!" I said, swiveling around to see the possible hiding places. The bathroom? Definitely not. Under the bed? Maybe.

Then I saw something I hadn't noticed before- a closet at the entryway. I bolted there and flung the door open with no further comment. The darkness inside suddenly disappeared. There was a single iron bar with a few coat hangers and nothing more. I sat down in the darkest corner and let the door swing shut. I got up to lock it since I still (somehow) had the keys to the room.

A long time seemed to pass, almost forever to me. The smell of smoke seemed to be very faint but new, or it was just me. Something blocked some light through the crack, and my heart hastened.

But it wasn't on fire. They were just regular tennis shoes.

"He's gone." Jessie's voice whispered, like falling leaves in the summer.

I sighed with heavy relief, slowly getting up, taking a moment to stretch. I cautiously opened the door, and Jessie just smiled at me, glad that I was safe. Will, Dykota, and Brianan were halfway squeezed out from under the bed. Maple opened the door to the balcony and came out of it. I was glad that everyone was alright.

"Where did you even hide, J?" asked Maple. Jessie walked over to her and rested her head on her shoulder.

"I hid under the sink in the bathroom." she said, her eyes closed. I had noticed that she'd been more tired lately.

"You can fit under there!?" asked Will, surprised.

"Not as well as I used to, but this one was bigger than most. And I play hide-n-seek a lot."

"That explains it..."

We ordered Little Caesars and watched TV for the rest of the night, only really talking to each other during commercial breaks. We tried not to talk about what happened today, which was actually really hard. No real surprise there. I look outside to find the night sky, with a sliver of a crescent moon just barely peeking out from behind the clouds.

"Jessie, no, you've had enough of the cheesy bread!" I heard Dykota's voice and turned around. He was holding one of the boxes in the air and away from Jessie while Maple held her back by the shoulders. Will and Brianan were sitting on the bed laughing as Jessie struggled to get out of Maple's grasp.

"'I'm going to commit arson... when I escape from the mortal chains!'" she yelled in a high pitched voice that sounded almost like Elmo. Then she took a deep breath and...

"'EEEEEEEEEEEE-'" She screamed, leaning back but getting cut off when Maple covered her mouth, "Ha!! I'm free!! Now hand over the cheese." She said, pulling way from Maple.

"AH AH, NO!!" yelled Dykota, quickly moving away from her. I laughed, really hard. Then I ran behind him and took the box from his hands. I was taller than him meaning I had a higher chance of keeping the food away from our weird friend. Eventually, she gave up and dragged Maple to the other bed (there were two) and just laid there with her. We watched TV for another few hours and went to bed around midnight.