Fear Cuts Like A Blade, Tiffany Bauer [digital book reader .TXT] 📗

the shelf, through the entry, and came face-to-face with none other than...........................................Olivia. (Had you fooled, didn't I? You thought it was going to be a Killer clown? Sorry. That comes later.)
Crawling slowly to not make noise, I analyzed the situation. Hair caked with flour. Crawling in a space too small for my liking. My boots didn't feel right without the weight. And to put the mud on top, I had to constantly pull my pants up from lack of a belt.
I decided today was not my day. Olivia brought up the rear, leaving me to take point. This wasn't new. It didn't matter who I was with. I always took point. Pushing the heavy white sack ahead of me I crawled onward. Slow and steady had never been my style. It was either give it 110% and get it done right away or don't do it at all.
I came to another fan cover, looking through the slats I saw the robbers. I motioned to Olivia an A-okay. Now for the fun part. I heaved myself over the white bag and headed over to another fan cover. I knocked the cover down, catching their attention in an instant when it crashed to the floor.
In my peripheral vision, I caught sight of the flour bag floating slowly to the floor. Though it took its dear sweet time getting there, it, like the other, exploded on contact. Sending flour into every nook and cranny in reach.
Now was our chance. They were distracted, and the flour cloud was our cover. I wiggled through the little fan hole and dropped, quite loudly, to the industrial floor. Olivia was already down and running through the back door where the men had packed the boxes out.
I sprinted out into a back alley and went with my instinct to go left. The ally was stuffed with wooden crates and fifty-five-gallon barrels. At the end of it was an industrial size dumpster that stunk like rotten eggs and stale bread.
Skidding around the corner a strong arm wrapped firmly around my waist and jerked me back, knocking the breath out of my already on-fire lungs. My mouth was dry as reality slowly, taking its dear sweet time, sunk in.
I was caught. Probably going to die. My mind was running a million miles per hour and yet not a single thought came into my head. Fear began to claw its way through my cluttered thoughts. Regrets poured in after it.
I clenched my jaw. No, this was not how I'd go down. If I had to die, I was going to die fighting. I'd stand up and at least try to escape. If I couldn't, then so be it. Olivia was probably halfway to Mexico with the speed she had been going. She was smart and reliable. She'd call for help. All I had to do now was stall.

 

Wrong Move

I lifted my knee and slammed it back, hitting whoever was behind me dead center in the kneecap with the heel of my hard sole sneaker. I jerked my head forward, then back again and caught him, like I did the leader, on his nose, crushing it completely. Outraged, he stomped his foot in front of mine and slid it back, forcing me to fall, face first, into the hard concrete. Guess he wasn't too happy with me. Good, don't give what you can't take.
My nose began to bleed furiously as the pain swelled. The impact had opened the cut on my lip and knocked the air out of my lungs. It only took a second to catch my breath, but it didn't help calm my panicky outraged and ready to run attitude. In less than a second, he was kneeling to the side of me, fumbling around for my wrists I hadn't been aware of moving.
I yanked my elbow up and jabbed him hard as I could in the ribs, knocking him back a few inches, if that. I rolled towards him onto my side, forcing him to lose his balance and fall with me to the cold ground. looking death in the eyes had never been on my favorite things to do list and now that I was actually doing it, I put it on my mental bucket list. Right behind jumping willingly into a muddy lake filled with piranhas and electric eels slicing through thick dark green seaweed.
Disregarding the throbbing pain constantly tormenting my body, I frantically scrambled to my aching feet and took off at a dead sprint with nothing left to lose. If I could get to a street I could signal for help. It was almost dark, telling me it was around eight 'o' clock, and making it much harder to find my way through the endless back alleys and tricky side streets.
If it was eight now that meant I'd been gone from my apartment for about three hours. Neither JJ nor Kate would be looking for me for at least another hour, if not two. My luck ran low at the best of times and this was not nearly the best of times.
I'd gone exploring through the block around my apartment but was still new to the area, just getting familiar with the sharp turns and long straightaways. I'd only eaten the ice cream, but adrenalin was on my side, giving me enough energy to run a marathon.
I turned right and hit the skitters. Dead end. I flipped around and decided to go left where yet another three-way could be seen at the end. The sun was already down, leaving behind a soft orange yellow glow.
The smell of old grease consumed me as I jumped over yet another short stack of old-looking wooden crates. My limbs felt like hot pudding and my throat burned with every breath, but there was no way even thinkable I could stop.
dirty stainless steel garbage cans reeking of what smelled worse than roadkill lined the grungy wall to my right, contrasting to the bright colorful graffiti covering the soot-stained brick wall on my left. Running at full speed I splashed through the muddy puddles below me.
This was not how my day was supposed to go. I did not plan for anything close to this. I actually believed this would never happen, at least not to me.
My blood was just over stroke level as I jerked my tired body left, around yet another corner and saw Kin Kan street just ahead. I was in the home stretch. Once I got to the street I could get help. I ran even faster, swinging my arms for no apparent reason, with some new found energy.
The street sounded less than empty, not a single car or truck could be heard even in the distance. But I could find my way from Kin Kan to somewhere where I could get help. I glanced over my shoulder and, seeing nothing of interest to me, whipped my head around, half expecting to see a killer clown with a drug induced smile holding a bloody machete and chanting some Voo-Doo spell.
I didn't notice any killer clowns crossing my path so I kept going. Twenty feet from the pavement I froze like dry ice at the sound of heavy footfalls coming up fast behind me. Judging by the calm steady thump thump..thump thump it had to be a professional. The men at the bakery didn't seem like pros to me, but hey, I couldn't tell the difference between Brad Pitt and Brad Thor, even if my life, and right now it was, was on the line.
I quickly analyzed my surroundings for anything of cover. Not finding anything but two rusted out steel garbage cans at the end of the alley just before the street and a stack of old busted wooden crates with faded block letters labeling them sat directly in front of me, in the middle of the ally.
back in the day, when I was little I built top secret hide-outs with regular household items, it was always so much fun until my sister or brother decided to destroy it and tell me to stop goofing off.
They had always said it would never lead to anything of importance but right now it was my only chance of survival. Thank goodness for the little things. The gears in my rock solid head had already begun to turn, working up the outline of a natural looking fort. If I played my cards right, which I never could during any kind of poker game, I could clear out a big enough space to hide in until the coast was clear.
Then run like crazy until my American dollar was worth 18.83 pesos. I knew it'd only be when I got out of harm's reach would my breath be steady, so I reached out for my first box. I realized my hands were numb as I wrapped my fingers around the square container.
The pile was constructed into an odd shape in the first place, meaning I didn't need to worry about placing the boxes perfectly in line to each other. Rushing so not to be caught, I stacked more and more boxes into two, side by side, parallel columns.
With the walls done I took a step back and examined my work. It wasn't bad, and most definitely wouldn't be easily noticed. I took one leaping step into the middle of the tiny space and, twisting around to face the other boxes, pulled two large crates from their positions and blocked the opening with them.
Knowing they - whoever they were - were about to round the corner by the loud footfalls I swiftly yanked two more boxes from behind me and placed them atop the other two at the wanna be doorway.
Crouching down I sucked in an unsteady breath and crossed my fingers. As if crossing my fingers would actually help. I mean, come on, what are they going to say, " I'm gonna kill y- Ah darn, you crossed your fingers." My lips cracked into a grin and I flung my hand up to stifle an uncontrolled giggle.
I froze realizing they had stopped when they reached the 4-way. I peeked through a crack in the wood and my heart jumped into my throat. There were two of them, both dressed in dark green and black as if they were ex-marine or something. And they were big. The cruel looks on their hard faces sent my heart plummeting with fear.
My eye twitched more furiously as they crept closer. My thoughts scattered as my mind began to race. So many thoughts circling like sharks; yet not one of them was clear enough to process. My breathing stopped as they steadily made progress towards my makeshift safe haven.
I wasn't safe, not at all. What if they knew? What if they knew where I am? What if they found me? The Semi-Automatics gripped in their hands told me what would happen when they found me. I'd be dead in a ditch on the side of Route One before the sun came up.
A tight panicky shiver snaked it's way down my spine. Just the thought of it scared the bejeebers out of me. I didn't want to die. I wasn't ready to say goodbye. Heck, if I was being really honest, I was just