What a beautiful way to say goodbye to a place you have known momentarily. I didn’t knew things would get bad within hours. Cara and I have been running for over 15 minutes. We are pacing toward a barren land, which used to be a farm I guess. I see a small barn just few feets ahead.
Cara stops running abruptly. I turn and see her grabbing her left leg. “Ah shit! I guess I got a strain in my hamstring.”
“We can’t stay in open Cara, come on.” I put my arms around her shoulders and take her towards the barn.
My fear instincts are racing. I can feel the adrenaline rush getting low slowly, I guess we are far away now.
There’s no gate holding the barn closed. This town is more ruined than my life. The barn has got nothing else except dust and hay bale. I take Cara to the other end of this barn and tell her to sit down. She tells me to open the bag that she gave me, as she had stuffed it with some medicines and food. I take out a pain-relieving spray and spray it near her left hamstring. Now we have to wait and think about our next move.
“Do you know who were they?” I ask Cara.
“No, but when I peeped from the hole in the floor wood I saw some three or four armed men.”
“Maybe people from enemy reinforcements?”
“Yeah… maybe” sighs Cara.
“But I’m thinking how did they got to know our location?”
“I guess they might have been patrolling”.
“Yeah it could be that, but Cara were you using your laptop in incognito mode?”
“Yes I was, but now I have left it there, and I have all the copies of files and videos that we are collecting as proof against this conspiracy”
She takes out a pen drive from her jean shorts' pocket and grins. “They would have found out about the basement, and if they do so they might come here trailing us.” I say to her. She nods. “We should get going then, how’s your leg now?”
“It's not hurting that much now.”
“So would you be able to walk?”I ask. She nods uncertainly. “There’s a map in your bag Ayu, take it out.” I search for the map and find out it's the one that was there on the wall. The sun is rising above the horizon so there’s a little bit light around us now that is sneaking in from the cracks in the roof and walls. I haven’t seen a sunrise for a long time. It suddenly reminds me of my homeland. The memories trace back to eight years. Let’s hope this sunshine means a good omen for our mission.
“Don’t turn on the flashlight! This might raise a suspicion if someone would be around outside there.” I say abruptly to Cara. I try to pin our location as our previous location is marked on the map, it would be helpful. I ask Cara to which direction did that secret tunnel opens up. “North, I remember the coordinates and the directions.”
“Great” I add.
“I know a gas station in the Northwest direction, we are near the collapsed farms. I have once been here. Let’s go and look out for some help there.” She points on the map and runs her finger over it and takes out a device from the gun holster on her waist. It shows the time and coordinates of our place. I help Cara to stand up.
07:10 am Collapsed Farms, Orla, Texas
We have been walking towards the north-west. Cara requires my support to walk properly. We are trying to remain safe and unnoticed. There are some bushes around here to help with that task. A minute ago I heard some heavy footsteps, we hid ourselves in the bushes quickly. It was an animal herd.
I see an old gas station and there’s something moving outside it. Cara pushes her hand on my stomach and tells me to hide near the fallen wire pole. I lay down but Cara suddenly makes a crying sound, I guess her leg strain is back. I pull her down but I guess her sound startled the person outside the gas station. He slowly moves towards our side without knowing two women are hiding there. He’s holding a gun. I take out my gun to at least try save ourselves from dying in this ghost town from a stranger’s hands. I plan my moves — the man will cross the pole and I’ll point my gun to him. We cannot run away now. It’s do or die.
He crosses the pole I spring myself upwards and shout -“Put your weapon down right now.” and he turns around. He looks shocked, so are we.
I see him now, a typical texas man. “Dad Gum It! I thought those BD’s have been successful to show up here.” he sounds relieved to see two still human creatures. He doesn’t look like a threat, but I should be careful.
“Bless your heart" he takes a look at Cara. She’s afraid.
“Are you a local?” I ask him with a pointed look. The man smirks “Can’t ya see?”. He gives his hand to Cara and holds her still. I put my gun down and help Cara, he points towards the sitting area outside the gas station “Over there", we take Cara there.
“What are you two doing here ha?”. Cara and I tell him that we are just two other locals from the south side of the town. We shouldn’t reveal our identities to him, because we cannot trust him. He raises an eyebrow and says “Haven’t seen ya two around"
And I repeat the same thing -“Even we haven’t seen ya around.”
Cara tells him that we need help to reach outside the town. And he tells us that he has got a truck. A truck would be really helpful to escape but we don’t know if those patroling guys are still nearby. “We are running away from enemy soldiers they were here to take the survivors,” I tell him. His expressions turn serious.
“Oh, but I know one way from the barren lands to take you outside the borders.” Cara and I exchange looks. “Hurry up we should leave!” he adds.
One more journey ahead…
(To be continued)
All the characters and events in this story are fictional
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