Mike paused, waiting for the man to go inside to pay for gas. Nate slipped out of the car, and then once the man was inside, they took off. They made it to the sheltered trees when Mike frowned, "We have a problem."
"Your tracking anklet?"
"Yeah, I've tried every way from Sunday to get it off."
"You just have to know how," Nate said as he touched the bracelet. "It's been wired so you can't take it off, but anyone else can. Watch." With a simple motion, he unclipped the two bracelets." "Holy damn...you got two."
"Yeah. One to watch me and one-where's a river we can dump this in?" Mike asked, just now realizing Briggs could watch everything he was doing. FUCK FUCK.
"Hey look," Nate said as he grabbed them and tossed them over to the river. They didn't land, though. Mike started to go after them, but Nate stopped him.
"We should be more focused on gaining ground. Let's go across the street and wade in that stream for a bit. They might bring dogs."
"Bring dogs?"
"Search dogs. They are dead serious about tracking anyone down who tries to leave their owner-slash-abuser," Nate said.
"Damn," Mike whistled.
"Yeah. Come on. Oh, and ditch your shirt."
Mike hesitated, knowing he meant the jacket. "It's the last thing I have of Braxton's."
"Look, this is your idea, not mine, but now that we're going along with it I may as well go too. We've gotta ditch the jackets. Do you seriously want to go back to him when he beats the shit out of you? He just broke your arm. Speaking of which-here's your sling."
"Thanks." Mike sighed before grinning. "Hey, I have an idea for discarding the jackets…." Within ten minutes, he and Nate had switched shirts and Nate had properly splinted Mike's arm using the jackets.
"That should throw them off," Nate said. "Let's go the opposite way I went from last time. I was stupid when I was younger and went the same way, so they will probably think I'm going that way."
"Thanks for splinting my arm," Mike responded as they crossed the terrain. He couldn't explain why he felt Nate needed to get out of there now, but he just knew the kid did.
"Hey, you're the one who is saving my ass. They were gonna kill me tonight."
Mike almost stopped and stared at Nate but paused. "How did you know?"
"Because they told me a few days ago. I was trying frantically to think of a way out, to plead with them-this saves me."
Mike nodded. "Yeah. I hear you. Why didn't you tell me?"
"They said if I told anyone, they really would kill me. I was hoping they meant this would just be a punishment or something. I don't know why they had you with me, maybe to scare you?"
"Maybe…" Mike let his voice trail off. "Let me give you the information about how to get to my sister's house in case something happens…"
## break ##
"Hey, Charlie!" Johnny yelled, knocking on her door. Shit, shit, shit fuck fuck fuck. This wasn't good. "We just lost the kid's signal!"
"Go away, it's 2:00 a.m!"
"WE LOST LEVI!"
Two seconds later, Charlie was at the door. "What the hell?"
"Come look," Johnny said. He played back the last few seconds of the video.
Mike paused, waiting for the man to go inside to pay for gas. Nate slipped out of the car, and then once the man was inside, they took off. They made it to the sheltered trees when Mike frowned, "We have a problem."
"Your tracking anklet?"
"Yeah, I've tried every way from Sunday to get it off."
"You just have to know how," Nate said as he touched the bracelet. "It's been wired so you can't take it off, but anyone else can. Watch." With a simple motion, he unclipped the two bracelets." "Holy damn...you got two."
"Yeah. One to watch me and one-where's a river we can dump this in?" Mike asked.
"Hey look," Nate said as he grabbed them and tossed them over to the river.
"That's when we lost him."
"Fuck, who's the person he's with?"
"Another shelter resident. Should I call Braxton?"
"Maybe….it wouldn't hurt. Yes, call him."
Within seconds, they were calling him.
## break ##
Briggs groaned as he rolled over in his sleep. It was 2:00 a.m., who the fuck was calling him now? He sighed as he looked at the phone screen. Seeing it was just Johnny, he rolled over and went back to sleep.
At 7:30 a.m., he sighed as he got up and looked at his phone. 25 missed calls, each from Johnny and Clarissa. He groaned as he answered the phone. "This is Braxton."
"Hey...have you heard from Levi?"
"Johnny, why the fuck were you calling me at 2:00 in the morning asking me that? I know right where he is."
"Good, because he took his tracker off. Sorry to bother you." With that, the phone clicked off and Briggs swore.
.
He quickly called down to the shelter. "Hey, Ray. This is Braxton. Is Levi still there?"
"No," Ray replied. "It looks like he was checked out at 2:30 a.m. by Harrison. I'll call Harrison." He put Briggs on hold. Three minutes later, he called back. "It looks like Harrison called the police, because Nate and Levi both escaped."
"And he didn't bother to call me or you?"
"No. I'm going to call Nate's owner. How soon will you be here?"
"Twenty minutes." Briggs hung up the phone. Shit. Why didn't he answer his phone earlier? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He had no way of knowing if Mike was in friendly or unfriendly hands or what the hell happened.
Fuck.
"Dear God," Briggs muttered, throwing his stuff in a backpack, "Please don't let anyone discover the kid's a fed."
## break ##
Nate and Mike were halfway across the forest terrain. Even with Mike's busted arm, he could still move pretty fast. He sighed, wishing he had a cellular device; that would make everything so much easier. "Do you know what time it is, Nate?"
"No….but it's gotta be getting early, you can tell that from the light in the sky. Is your sisters house on the bus line?"
"Not really...but do you have bus fare?"
"Let's see…." Nate dumped open his bag, and together they were able to get $4.00.
"That'll get us on one bus. I think the 17 goes out closest to her house, but it'd still be a mile or two."
"Hey, better than ten miles."
"Yeah…"
"You really think she'll help us? Hey, why don't we just call her?"
"I don't know….what if Braxton tapped the phones? Plus...I don't know."
"You think your boyfriend might have tapped the phones?"
"Yeah. I mean, I kind of doubt it, I just….I don't know how far his power reaches. I guess he wouldn't. I…. I don't know."
"Hey, it's fine. We can get there. Come on, let's go find a #17 bus stop."
## break ##
A/N Disclaimer: I have know knowledge of public transportation in Southern Carolina, so I may have taken a few major liberties. You'll see why in the next chapter.
What do you think will happen next?
A special thanks to all my reviewers...I love your thoughts and ideas.
Stay tuned for - more of Mike's disappearance and Briggs freaking out….