"Abigail" I say quietly, a smile plastered on my face. "We have to get out of here."
"Why?" asks, starting to turn around but I grab her arm, keeping her faced firmly towards me.
"Do you trust me?" I ask, my eyes meeting hers.
"Of course I do."
"Then we have to walk away like nothing's happening. Do you understand me?"
She nods her assent and we both start walking away toward the direction of her apartment. "Grab my arm" I say "They won't shoot you if they might hit me."
Panic floods her eyes and she grips my arm tightly, like a lifeline. An unmarked van is speeding towards us, so we duck into the alleyway to try and avoid it.
No luck.
The van makes a sharp turn into the alleyway and three masked men come bursting out of the vehicle. They run towards us at an alarming speed.
"How fast can you run?" I ask Abigail, not waiting for an answer, just gripping her hand in mine and running through the alleyway. I throw a dumpster in their way but they just push it aside. The alley's a dead end. I push Abigail behind me, and get ready to fight the guys who are coming closer and closer with every passing second. Abigail grabs my arm and points up to something.
I follow her gaze until I'm met with the sight of a fire escape, but it's too high to reach... unless you jump. I nod my assent to Abigail and she takes a running jump, launching herself off of my back, grabbing hold of the ladder. There's a fleeting moment where her hands meet the metal and she struggles to pull herself up where I think it's the end.
But she does it. She yanks herself up and sends down the ladder for me. I scamper up the ladder, faster than I've ever climbed before, and yank it up after me. We run up the fire escape until we reach the roof.
There are two helicopter's coming toward the roof at an alarming speed, three men coming up the stairs, and no exits.
"Abigail" I say "I'm going to have to ask you to jump." The buildings of the roofs are close together, about five feet apart, but if you don't make the jump then you fall ten stories onto solid asphalt.
"Jump?" She screams "Are you crazy?"
I shrug. "Crazy is apart of the job. Now jump!" I feel my feet lift off of the roof and for about 3 seconds I'm flying. I land solidly onto the other roof, but I don't hear Abigail land next to me. I turn around to face her, and she's frozen in place on the other roof.
"I'm scared of heights" She admits and I curse under my breath. I forgot about the basketball hoop incident even though it was only 20 minutes ago. A lot can change in twenty minutes.
"It's okay. You'll be fine." I tell her, but she shakes her head. "ABIGAIL WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. YOU HAVE TO JUMP."
She takes a deep breath and takes a running jump...
and misses the roof.
She's dangling from the roof by her fingertips, tears streaming down her face. She has a gash on her cheek and her hands are all busted up. I run towards her pulling her up towards me and her blood stains my hands. She lets out a cry of pain when her hands meet mine, but I don't let go.
Suddenly I hear a sound I'd know anywhere.
They've sent a sniper.
The shot lands ten feet to my left, hitting a door. I drag Abigail towards it, swinging it open. Together, we run down the stairwell, down four floors into one of the halls in the building. We're on the sixth floor and I run towards the end of the hall and kick open the window leading to a small balcony. They'll be here any minute.
I look around for an awning, a bush, anything to help us escape. When my eyes find it, I look at Abigail uneasily. "Close your eyes" I say, and she does it. I clamp my hand over her mouth and jump into the trashcan below.
The smell is horrible. I want to throw up, the trash juices covering my clothes, my skin. But I don't. I force Abigail deeper into the bin, keeping my hand over hers to stiffle her soft cries. The van zooms past us and I realize that they didn't see us jump off.
I sigh in relief "We'll wait here for twenty to make sure they're gone. Then we'll make our way to the train station."
"No." She says "We'll make our way to the airfield."
"Okay."
"Zach" She says to me "Is this what you're doing when you're not hanging out with me."
"Nah" I tell her "It's normally more dangerous than this."
Her eyes widen in disbelief "You're kidding, please tell me you're kidding."
I smile.
"You're not kidding." She groans.
When the twenty minutes are up we make out way towards the airfield. A single runway lies between two fields of grass, and two planes and a helicopter lie in wait. Abigail's parents have 24 hour on-duty pilots, so it takes less than five minutes to get into the plane, ready for lift off.
Once we're safely in the sky, I tend to Abigail's wounds. I wrap her hands in bandages and clean the cut on her face. "Thanks" she mumbles not looking at me.
"I'll be back. I need to talk to the pilot."
"Okay."
I make my way towards the cockpit where a young man is flying the plane. "We need to get to Roseville, Virginia." I tell him, but he doesn't make any adjustments. He just keeps flying north, the exact opposite of where I want to go.
"Sir?" I say again.
He shrugs. "Sorry Mr. Goode, but I'm afraid there's been alternate arrangements.