Chapter Eight: An Escape
“I’m doing very well.”
“That’s great. You would be discharged soon. Just get enough rest.”
“Thanks.”
The lady walked out after taking her notes of vitals check.
“Mum, I got the key.”
“What? Why would you do that? What if we get caught?”
“We won’t if we leave here immediately.”
We walked down the hallway as we got away from the ward. I walked in front while my parents followed behind. Ahead, I sighted some men reaching towards our direction with the familiar wear of that of Raymond’s men. We must have been taken back to his territory. We diverted into a small room by the hallway closing the door behind us.
“What’s wrong Dad?” I whispered as I watched him gasping for breath.
“We need to be quiet, so we don’t get heard.”
But his breathing had become too noisy, I held my hands over his mouth just so that they would not hear him breathing as they approached the door. Suddenly, the thumping footsteps stopped as soon as they got closer to the door. I watched the shadows of their feet loitering around. Mum shut her eyes, my hand trembled as it had grown weary holding over Dad’s lips. My heart thumped as I thought of the possibility of being caught. Just then, we watched their shadows pass by. And their thumping footsteps became distant.
After a few minutes catching our breaths as we finally thought they would be far distant, I gradually pulled the door, scanning the surroundings with just a glance. They were gone.
“We have to keep going,” I ordered and we began walking down.
Unknowingly, one of the men walked from behind, I noticed as soon as I saw him and put on the hoodie I had along in my grip avoiding his eyes.
“We need to quicken our steps. I think that man has seen us.”
“Do you think he would recognize us?”
Mum asked.
“I don’t know, but you are still on the patient’s gown. He would notice something.”
“Fuck! Clara, I told you to put on that dress I handed you with the hoodie.”
“There was no time Mum.”
“Hey!” The man’s voice echoed from the hallway as he approached us.
“Oh shit! We need to keep moving.”This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
“Hey! Stop there at once!”
We did not respond nor did we turn backwards, instead, I ran so fast and fled down the stairs constantly watching my parents so they would just be behind me. They clearly did not need my assistance as their wolf side was fully charged and their fangs and claws were all out. We jumped down from the three-storey building and hid under the stair house. When the men came close, they could not find us around so we got to the parking lot.
“We should get in a car and leave here.” I advised.
“But that would be stealing,” Mum was clearly against all the ideas I had up my sleeves.
“We have no choice. We are fugitives now and we need to do what we need to do to survive.”
“But there must be another way. Taking this car will only cause more havoc.”
“C’mon Mum, no one cares about that and besides there are over a hundred cars here, who would notice? We are only borrowing it for a spin.”
“We can run , we are fast.”
“Our wolf side is getting weak, and Clara is pregnant. Clara is right, we need to get in a car and leave before we get caught,” Dad said.
“Thank you for that Dad.”
A young boy walked down a car, swinging the keys in his grip.
“Hello,” he waved to us. I noticed that he was unaware of what was going on so I decided to play along.
“Hi,”
“Are you guys okay?”
“Not really.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I sent a man to give my car keys to one of the valets. And now, I don’t know which valet he gave the keys to. I need to take my parents home.”
“Oh, I see. I’m so sorry for that. I’m a valet and I’ve helped park a lot of cars today. But this key was given to me by a man this morning. It’s been with me all day. Maybe you can take a look at the car and see if it’s yours.”
“Yeah, sure that would be great.”
“This is it, ” He pointed to a Mercedes G-20, “This is your car right?”
“Yes, it is,” I avoided the gaze of Mum as I retrieved the key from him.
“What’s wrong?” He asked as he had seemed to notice the constant stare we faced outside.
“Nothing, we are fine.”
“And I noticed that there isn’t enough gas in the car. Make sure to stop by and get gas so you wouldn’t stop your trip halfway.”
“Yeah, sure,” I faked a smile, “What else did you notice?”
“I thought it’s you car. Or is it not?”
“Clara, enough with the chit-chat I think we should leave here immediately,” Dad whispered.
“We need gas Dad.”
“What’s wrong? You guys seem distressed.”
“Nothing we can’t handle. Just that we urgently need gas. Do you not assist with such services?”
“We do,” He answered. I was stunned by his reply,” We? I thought you were the only one here.” My voice trembled.
“No, are you okay?” As he asked, three other men walked in. They were also surprised to see us.
“Like I said, I just need gas, that’s all.”
“Then, I’d get gas for you.”
One of the men walked out as soon as he had walked in and I began to suspect that the men knew what was going on. And then he returned still with a wide gaze. As he was about to get the keys from me, the other man held him still so that he would not move. Just then, I got the signal, I heard the thumping footsteps from a distance, the guards were fast approaching.
“What did you do?!” I shouted, “You led them to me, you fool!”
“I’m sorry but I was only following orders.”
“You sons of bitches, you will all pay for this. Mum! … Dad! get in. We shut the doors immediately zooming off into the road. Just in time before the guards could get hold of us.
We had been on the road all through the night. We did not stop for a rest nor did we stop for gas. We trailed through until it was dawn and still kept on driving until we got to the lake.
“We are out of gas, this car is going to stop any minute now.”
“Then, we have to get off the road.”
“I feel so bad about this. First we steal a car, now we are getting through a path with zero gas. With no money or food.”
“Darling, you do not have to remind us of our situation now.”
“Maybe we can see a new pack or at least a new town. Let’s be optimistic for once!” I barked as I navigated through the road.
I held the steering firm as I drove, stepping on the accelerator at intervals. I turned to a path on the right side. A rough road through a forested land. The road had brown sand with tall grass by the side. It looked more like a bush path. With such a trial, I was sure we would lose the people following behind us. Or so I thought.