Chapter six: A Great Man

Stomp…

"Mommy…" Aldrea's voice trailed off.

A fraction of a second seemed to take hours to pass, and Eloise felt the weight of the world, and her mistakes fall upon her gut in a nauseating plummet.

Male hands parted the leaves of the bush, and Brian's face appeared.

Eloise's hand stopped dead in its tracks, abruptly ending the path towards poking Brian's eyes.

"Brian!" Eloise exclaimed in a whisper. "What are you doing her?"

"What are you doing here? I saw you guys driving this way, but I didn't see you park."

Eloise gulped. She sort of owed Brian a new SUV, which would have been funny if it hadn't been true in such a grim way. Involving guns.

Eloise could hear guns moving in the hands of their carriers not far off, but the soldiers were searching in the wrong direction.

"C'mon," she whispered. "Let's go to the car, but keep low."

Eloise led, with Aldrea following and Brian bringing up the rear. Brian felt clownish trying to stay low, as Eloise had instructed. He wondered vaguely if she might've gone insane, but she seemed too serious, and Aldrea, quite on the ball for a child her age, didn't doubt her mother.

Brian watched Eloise in front of him, and she didn't look clownish at all. She looked as if she were made to creep along the ground. "Where are we going?" Brian whispered.

"To where we've already been. Keep quiet."

Soon they had crept their way back to Brian's shattered vehicle.

"What happened Eloise?!" Brian's eyes were wide, "who are we hiding from?"

"I'm sorry about your car-"

"I don't care! Eloise! What's going on?"

"They're looking for me and Aldrea," Jondy searched for a lie. "They think I've committed a murder, and that I coerced Aldrea into robbery."

Brian stared. "What? Why?"

Eloise berated herself for not being able to think up a better story. "I don't know why, that's just what I've gathered from them shouting at me, okay?"

Brian vaguely wondered at her sanity again, but then there was the fact of his shot-up vehicle. That couldn't have just happened. And Eloise would never-

"You aren't actually, um… Guilty. Are you?"

Eloise looked hurt. "Of course not! You actually think I'm capable of murder?"

"Mommy SHHH!" Aldrea reminded them. She looked pathetic. Her hair was matted, her face was dirty, with muddy looking paths were her tears had trailed down. Her clothes looked as if she'd fallen in a puddle and out of a tree, and there was a sticky red gash above her left eyebrow.

"Right Kiddo. Let's keep quiet," whispered Eloise.

"I don't think you'd ever kill anyone," said Brian. "But you never know right, I've only known you a few of weeks… So I was just asking."

"I understand."

"How long are we going to hide here?" Aldrea wondered.

"Not long… Okay, you and Brian go back through the park. Act normal, okay?"

Brian suppressed a smirk and nodded.

"Aldrea's all dirty and cut up, so Brian, you should carry her. That way if they see you they won't suspect as much. Understand?" Both nodded. "Okay, um, just start heading towards home. I know it's a long way to walk, but there's no other way."

"What are you going to do?" asked Brian.

"I'm going to lead them away from you guys. They've seen the SUV before, so-" she stopped. "I'm sorry Brian. I'll get you a new one. I swear."

"It's okay. So long as when you get back, you tell me what's going on. And so long as you promise to actually come back."

Eloise smiled. How did she just happen to meet such a great person?

"Okay you guys," she said, climbing into the SUV. "Good luck."

"You too Mommy."

Eloise grinned and started the car. Not ten second later she was gone, and Brian and Aldrea heard shouting and gunfire. It was coming from the direction away from home.

- - - -

Eloise had them on her tail; that was the easy part of the plan. The hard part was next: lead them out of San Francisco and loose them. Then she planned to wreak the SUV, and leave it for them to find.

They had her for miles and miles, but then a lucky find: just around a curve in the road was a long driveway. Lydecker's men hadn't made the curve yet, and they didn't have her in view. Eloise turned down the driveway, and sped up it, trees scratching at the already damaged window.

With her enhanced hearing, she heard the convoy pass the driveway by, and she sighed and closed her eyes a moment. Then she heard footsteps outside the car.

"Hey you! What'er ya think yer doin'? Can't you read? No tresspassin'!" A fat, hairy man smacked the butt of a rifle on the passenger side door, and the window shattered onto the seat.

"I'm sorry," said Eloise calmly. "I was just leaving."

"The sign says 'no trespassin''! Get outta the car!"

Eloise did as the man asked, already smirking about what she was about to do.

The man walked around the car to face her, and began to swing the nose of the rifle in her face. "The sign says 'no trespassin'. So no I'm-"

Eloise grabbed the rifle with her left hand and pulled the man forward, into her right elbow, hitting the man in the nose.

Now in possession of the rifle, she smacked the man on the head with it, knocking herm unconscious.

Perfect! A shiny, new, black pick-up was parked in the garage. With the keys in it too. After all, why take the keys out if it says, "No Trespassin'?"

EPILOUGE:

"Mommy!" yelled Aldrea, running into Eloise's arms. "I was worried mommy, but it's okay now right?"

Eloise smiled. "Yes, everything's great right now. Where's Brian?"

"He's at his house. He's getting a puzzle for us to do."

Just then Brian entered Eloise and Aldrea's apartment, puzzle in hand. He dropped it, and pieces scattered everywhere, but no one cared. A monstrous grin filled his face, his eyes beaming.

"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again!" said Brain.

"Aw," said Eloise, kissing him on the cheek. "I wouldn't abandon you guys!"

THE END.

Shameless plug: Don't miss Jondy the Abandoner three: Barcoded.