5-5: Arrested
Warning! Warning! This is a cliffy-chapter. You can kill me, yes, but then you'll never find out what happens. Ha ha! Foiled you again! P.S. Dedicated to Paz for her input via regular email.
(((-5-)))
The sirens were blaring, but luckily nobody had spotted the three kids and their prisoner out on the roof. Yet. All the nurses knew was that Janika was no longer in her room.
Without wasting any more time, Jeremy fastened the extra straps on the harness around Odd and Janika draped over his back. Yumi attached the length of rope they'd brought to the clip and they made certain she was secure. The boy began the long trip down, but not without complaint.
"Whoa! She's no featherweight. I thought she was supposed to be starving herself this whole week!"
The safety lines held by Yumi supported some of the weight and kept him from overbalancing as he descended. Shouts echoed along with the sirens and the blonde kid tried to hurry. Finally his foot touched the ground and he stepped off the ladder. His two friends hurried down and started running with him.
"Over here!"
Yumi had gone ahead and was tugging at the bottom of a chain-link fence. Once they got past it they could make their way to the school and reach the factory safely along the usual route. She strained against it until the lower end bent upward.
The two boys barely scraped under and were trying to drag their unconscious burden through when a car turned down the street flashing red and blue lights! A pair of headlights illuminated them as they were still dragging Janika under.
Yumi gave her limp friend a shove, but the girl's brown braid snagged a wire on the fence and she got stuck! Odd tried to untangle the mess, but he was only making it worse and wasting time.
The older girl slipped a hand into her pocket. Usually she didn't resort to this kind of thing, but Sissy had just gotten to her that night. The knife sliced cleanly through Janika's hair and freed it.
"Yumi, get over here!" Odd hissed.
The cop car was getting close and slowing down.
She ignored him, instead facing the car. "You guys had better get going." She glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, and Jeremy, if you don't go back in time to erase this, I will personally make sure you suffer for it."
The policeman stopped his car and got out, shouting at her to drop to the ground. She sprinted off, and the foot-chase was on. Odd picked up Janika again and the two boys dashed into the gloom.
(V)
Sissy held onto Ulrich so tight that it was getting hard for him to breathe. "Don't worry about your friends. I know they were just a bad influence on you."
"They are a bad influence? You've obviously never considered yourself anything other than a perfect angel," he said rolling his eyes.
"I know what you were planning. I'm not blind. I just want to know why. She's always had problems and they just seemed to get worse when she got here. Her parents aren't fond of her, you know. Daddy says my aunt was popular when she was young and when Nika turned out to be nothing but a washout, she became second-best. Naturally, having a sister who—"
"Why exactly am I listening to this?! You don't know anything about it. You put your big nose where it doesn't belong and then you start talking about things that I doubt you have permission to say. Janika doesn't strike me as the type who would want us to learn about her from other people, so just quit right there!"
He managed to wrench his arm out of her tight grip but she pressed close to him, suddenly seeming nervous.
"Let's get out of here, Ulrich. It's going to be dark and we're outside in the open."
"What are you afraid of? The Boogey-man?" he said rolling his eyes.
Her serious face made him raise an eyebrow.
"You're afraid of an urban legend?"
"I most certainly am not!" she huffed, arms crossed. Sissy shut her eyes and stuck her nose in the air, turning away from him haughtily.
Without warning he clamped the chloroform cloth over her face! She thrashed in his grip and Ulrich thought he heard a muffled scream that sounded like "Boogey-man!" before she finally withered in his arms.
The boy propped her nerveless body up against a building and breathed a sigh of relief. He had to go catch up with the others now. They were taking a shortcut, if he remembered correctly.
No sooner had Ulrich turned down the right street than he caught sight of a police car parked in front of the fence. The driver's door was wide open and there were sounds of a struggle down the street in the shadows. Had they gotten caught?
(V)
Just my luck to have ticked off the only cop in the force who could compete in the Olympics, Yumi thought dismally as the guy's knee dug cruelly into her back. He had tackled her to the sidewalk and handcuffed her.
"I warned you, kid," he said yanking her to her feet.
One leg felt like it was broken. "I was just hanging out with my friends. You startled us. Cops mean trouble, you know."
"You and your little pals just happen to be moping around near a hospital that just had a break-in and kidnapping, hmm?"
They better have gotten Janika to safety. If they screw it up, I'm going to kill them before X.A.N.A. has a chance to! she promised silently.
He dragged her back to the patrol car without being lenient on her poor leg. She was stuffed unceremoniously into the back seat. Her cell was in her back pocket. She edged her hand over to it as the car started to move, lights still flashing.
The cop spoke several words of police-code into his radio and requested backup to find a couple teenagers that had abducted someone from the hospital.
Yumi froze suddenly as she heard the radio cackle with eerie static. The hair on the back of her neck stood up straight and she tensed. Please don't let it be him! she begged.
The officer dropped the receiver as it sparked visibly in his hand. "What the—" He slammed on the brakes. "What's going on?"
"Sir, could we please leave the car?" she asked, trying her best not to sound panicked. She couldn't run or defend herself in this position. If X.A.N.A. struck right then and there, she was as good as dead.
The car revved and he let out an exclamation. It shifted into drive suddenly and the adult panicked. Fumbling with his door, the cop forgot all about Yumi trapped in the back. She kicked his seat to attract attention, but as the tires squealed, he managed to get the door open and fall out onto the pavement.
The black-haired girl braced herself as the car picked up speed, veering toward a telephone pole! The front end crumpled like tinfoil and Yumi was a rag doll thrown forward. An explosion tossed her back again as the engine blew up.
You know how hard it is to keep these things from getting cliché? Some of you might think this X.A.N.A.-attack is a bit familiar, but it's not a bus or a couple of trains and serves a pretty simple purpose: kill.