The Runaways

Chapter Eight

Suddenly, a police siren sounds We both jump. Luke stands quickly, then helps me up. Wrapping me in a beach towel, he walks to the fence and

cautiously peers over. Two policeman get out of the car and walk to the neighbor's front door.

"What are they doing?" I ask, walking up behind him.

He shakes his head. "I'm not sure. Let's get dressed, though."

Luke takes my hand and walks back to the pool. Once we're inside and dry, I plop down on the

leather couch while he clicks on the news in the kitchen. He immediately shuts it off and runs into the living room, straight to the window. He turns around to face me, pale-faced.

"Luke. What's wrong?" I say as I

slowly stand up.

The doorbell rings.

"Skyler," he grabs my hand, "We need to get out of here."

"Are- Are they here for me?"

Luke nods.

There's banging on the door. "Open up!" says a gruff voice. Luke takes off running, pushing me in front of him. Out the back door, and hopping the

fence surrounding the pool. My heart is pounding.

"Skyler, run behind me."

He takes the front, holding my hand and leading me through the dark, thick woods. More sirens behind us. More shouting.

"Come on, come on," Luke says

as he pulls me over a ditch. "Where are we going?" I pant.

Luke glances back at me. "I'm not sure yet. But somewhere where you'll be safe."

I swear, my heart is going to throb out of my chest. I can hear the policemen behind us, now. They're getting closer. Luke stops in front of a large tree.

"Luke," I pant, "I would hate myself for the rest of my life if you

got hurt. Please, be careful."

He shakes his head and hugs me tightly.

"Climb," he says and faces me toward the tree. I've bever had a problem climbing trees, but these branches are very, very thick.

Five feet up.

Ten feet, fifteen feet.

Luke climbs up behind me after listening for our pursuers. I lay on a wide branch, so wide that I can't get my arms around it. I hear Luke come up and sit on the branch opposite of me, almost completely hidden by leaves.

"You okay?" he whispers. I just nod slowly.

I don't know if I'm okay, though. I've never been this scared other than the day I ran away. Below us, three policeman approach the clearing.

"Parker, we've got a 4-67, in pursuit," one cop says into his radio.

I try not to make a sound, but I'm shaking so badly, and my hands are losing their grip on the bark. No, no, no. This isn't happening.

"Luke," I whisper, "If they do end up catching me, don't you dare get

involved. It's not worth you getting caught, too."

He looks at me and furrows his eyebrows. Did he hear me? I'm struggling to even keep quiet,

now. As I try to re-grip the branch, leaves around me rustle. The three

cops are now right at the base of our tree, setting up a strategy to lure us in, but they don't see us.

I begin to think that we're home-free as the cops walk a few yards more, but, suddenly, the unthinkable happens. The huge branch beneath me slips out of my arms. Desperately reaching for it, I fail.

As I silently plummet fifteen feet toward the ground I catch a

glimpse of Luke's horrified face. Landing flat on my back, my head is jolted backwards, smacking tree roots. I can feel the blood on the back of my head and see everything doubled.

My breath refuses to come to me.

It's like someone dropped an anvil on my chest.

Black is closing in on my vision. Gasping and heaving, I finally get oxygen. I slowly turn my head to the left and see blurry policemen coming toward me. Oh, God, no. As quickly as I can, I try to scramble to my feet. They immediately buckle underneath me. I am on the ground, once again, crawling away from the officers.

"Hey, hey. Skyler? Can you hear me?" a young-looking officer says as he turns my shoulders to face him.

I try to push him away, but I picked the wrong one in my vision.

I lie on my back, feeling the blood from my head flow down the side of my neck and to my shirt.

"Look at me. Can you see me?" the same officer says as he holds my head straight.

"Let me go, just go away," I say, turning to crawl again. The other two cops leave us and run toward the direction of Jeremy's house. I look up into the large tree and see Luke, hands on his temples, eyes searching the ground. He meets my gaze. I shake my head, begging him not to try anything. Looking away, I hope the cop didn't notice.

The officer's quickly asking basic questions, now, and saying things like, "Your father is very worried about you," but I'm too busy

watching Luke slowly make his way down the tree.

"No, no, no, no," I say as

loudly as I can, shaking my head and trying to get up. The officer firmly, but gently holds down my shoulders once again. My head is burning and is now in a small puddle of blood.

"Skyler, we have to stop your head from bleeding, okay?" the man says, "If I let go of you, will you let me take care of it?" I nod blankly, glancing at Luke.

He's almost immediately

behind the officer. What is he going to do?! As the man lets my shoulders loose, I gather all of my strength and shove him backwards with my feet. I didn't push him that hard, but it was enough to knock him off-balance. Luke dashes toward me and scoops me up, sprinting deeper into the woods.

"No, she needs medical help! Her father's looking for her, bring her back!" the officer shouts after us as he clumsily gets to his feet.

One of the other officers is right on our tail, gun raised.

"Stop running, or I'll have to open fire!" he yells at us.

"Luke," I whisper.

Luke looks down at me, but keeps on running. The cop slows down, and I assume that he just gave up. I was wrong.

A gunshot sounds.

"No!" I scream, but Luke falls forward.

We both hit the ground, gasping.

Me, from blood-loss and head trauma, and Luke from a bullet in his right calf.