Fugitive

Chapter 32

Everything seemed to slow for a few seconds. There on the ceiling was a panel that looked a little bit loose. Eyeing it up I moved the bed slightly so I could stand on it. The bed wasn't very stable, it wobbled as I stood up. I crouched slightly to avoid banging my head on the roof. I pressed my hands against the panel. It wiggled a bit. I gave it a heavier shove and it lifted into the roof. There wasn't much room there either. But I figured if I could pull myself up I could crawl around in the ceiling and make my way to another part of the hospital. I got a good grip on a solid handhold and lifted myself up. The effort strained my arms. They ached from lack of exercise. I kicked my legs up and swung into the roof space. It was dark and there were wires and cords I wasn't sure if I should touch. There was no way I was getting any higher than my hands and knees. Once I'd crawled out of the way I put the panel back into place so they wouldn't know I'd climbed into the roof. Though I'm sure after a while they'll guess. It'll buy me a few minutes anyway. I crawled slowly and carefully so I didn't make any noise. There was some kind of machine running, a fan I think. AC maybe. It generated a lot of noise that got irritating. I had no idea where I was going but I tried to get as far from my room as I could in the time I had. I crawled in the same general direction taking a left and then a right. I couldn't hear much. I pulled up a panel to see what was going on and where I was. I didn't know my way around the hospital but I have been here before. Below was a hallway. A nurse wheeled a man down on a stretcher. I could hear doctors and patients talking. So not there. From then on, I started checking everywhere I thought there would be a different room. I got to a few different hallways, or different parts of the hallway. A room with some patients in. A waiting area. I didn't always have to lift a panel. Sometimes there was a vent there. It was risky. If someone looked up at the wrong moment I would be caught. I opened into what appeared to be a store room. Taking the opportunity, I hung from the edge and dropped to the floor. It was a store room of types. It had some lockers and bags inside. A locker room. All the lockers were locked but the bags left on the benches had some clothes inside. I put on some sneakers and changed from the hospital gown into a hoodie and a pair of casual sweat pants I found in a different bag. I put the gown in the bag and zipped it closed putting it back in place. I opened the door into the hallway keeping my head low. No one seemed to take any notice of me. I glanced up briefly to figure out where the exit was. I followed some clearly marked signs and reached the door. Just as I was leaving an alarm sounded and the doors all started closing, a lock down. They'd realised I was missing. I snuck out the door before it closed. No one attempted to stop me. Walking through the parking lot three police cars pulled up blocking off all the obvious exits onto the street. Shit. I took off running, not attempting to be casual or blend in. Cops were out of the cars and yelling for me to freeze in seconds. They fired shots. Fortunately, all of them missed. I put it down to the dim lighting, not my dodging skills. My chest was in a lot of pain. I clutched a hand to the bandage as I ran. My breathing was way too shaky and I couldn't move very quickly. I couldn't do it. I couldn't keep running, but the police were close behind. Really close. I needed to find somewhere to hide. If you can't run hide, right? It was dark, so I had an advantage. I could easily hide in the shadows. I kept running, as fast as I could handle. But I was on the edge of collapsing. My feet were stumbling on the pavement. I knew the police would be able to see my figure under the street lights. I rounded a corner and slowed down a bit looking for somewhere to hide. On the side of one of the buildings there was a board. I pulled it back. Behind was a hole that went under the building. I slipped underneath and crawled to the side so that if anyone where to look under they wouldn't see me. I pulled the board back into place and waited. The police rounded the corner only seconds later. I froze and tried to calm my breathing. I could feel a cough coming on. My lungs couldn't keep up. I took long breaths. The police stopped briefly their flashlights searching the area. One of them called out and they continued down the street. I stayed for a good five minutes to be safe. I couldn't stay there forever. They would bring in dogs when they realised I'd disappeared. I crawled out. The streetlights illuminated my body, covered in dirt and dust. I could feel the spider webs on my face that I hadn't noticed crawling through at the time. I peeled them off my face and brushed myself off a bit. The area was crawling with cops. But I stuck to the shadows and managed to get a few blocks away. At that point, I figured I was ok for the time being. I had to get to the park before midnight. Which shouldn't really be a big problem, unless I had to dodge more cops on the way. Then I realised in a moment of horror that I had left the letter in the hospital room. With the decoded message written on it. Fuck. I was such an idiot. The police would have seen that by then, if they hadn't as soon as they realised I was missing. It only says meet me at the park. There are plenty of parks in Jacksonville. They don't know which one we used to hang out at when we were younger. But they'll be sending police to every park they can think of. If they're that desperate to catch me. I couldn't run any more. I already felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, or I would cough up my lungs. Either way I wasn't about to attempt a sprint like that any time soon. Tony had been talking about Jack Amyette Park. I went to Clyde Erwin Elementary School for a bit and the park was close so I guess that's where I always gravitated to. It wasn't great but there was a baseball pitch and some basketball courts, which at the time was plenty enough to keep me happy and out of trouble. Tony was more of a basketball person that a baseball person. I was the opposite, so having a place where we could do both pretty close to each other was a good compromise. It wasn't too far away from here. People had all shut their blinds for the night, leaving the streets deserted, dark and silent. Beside the occasional car, it felt like the world had gone through some kind of apocalypse or alien invasion where everything was destroyed. I kept walking my breath fogging up. I felt like I had the stitch but about 100 times more painful. I bend over resting for a second but it didn't help much. I ate dinner not too long ago and it looked like it was coming up to haunt me. I knelt on the side of the road and threw up in the bushes of someone's backyard. I figured some animal would eat it anyway. It left an acidic taste in my mouth that I just couldn't get rid of. I wish I had my backpack, with some water or food. My phone and the one I bought to record Dennis. Probably in a box in evidence lock up by then. Great. Instead I got up and kept moving stumbling around in the dark like a drunk coming home from a late night out. I didn't know what the time was but I figured I had a couple of hours before midnight. I knew if I stopped for too long I might pass out, or my body would just refuse to get up again. My feet tripped over themselves and I coughed every so often, choking on air. I wasn't in any condition to run and I was getting the worst of it. Was this really supposed to happen? What this normal? It's been like a week. I was beginning to lose track of the days, dates and weeks becoming a bit of a blur. I had ended up running away from the park to escape the police. I was now in more of a suburb area but found my way to Western Boulevard and headed towards the Onslow Memorial Hospital. Not the best idea since there would be people around but it was the quickest route that I knew of without having to backtrack past the Brynn Marr Hospital again. I went past the Red Lobster, a place I'd never been too but I could smell it from the street. Normally it would have made me hungry but I'd lost my appetite for a while. I kept to the shadows and turned the corner at the Memorial Hospital onto Huff Drive. I know I looked like some homeless alcoholic but I guess it was a good thing. It meant no one would come near me and hence wouldn't recognise me. I kept up a brisk walk fighting off more nausea. The park was a good couple of miles away. Just thinking about it made me want to collapse onto the side walk and just wait for Tony to come looking for me. Except he wouldn't. Not until he heard the news I'd escaped from hospital anyway. Before that he would just assume I hadn't gotten the message. After an hour of walking I was almost there. The streets were recognisable and memories of younger years kept flooding back. As I went through New River Drive the park came into view. I made my way over to the stands by the baseball pitch. The seats were cold, the air misty and not a lot of light. Again, a few cars went past, none of them out of the ordinary. I put my head in my hands, elbows resting on my knees. My adrenaline had disappeared and I was starting to get cold. I pulled my sleeves down, over my hands to keep them warm. There wasn't anything for me to do and no way of knowing what the time was. I ended up laying down on the seats. Uncomfortable but I was too tired to care. I drifted to sleep, only to wake up to someone shaking me. My hand instinctively went to the man's throat holding down to compress the airways. It only took a second for me to realise it was Tony. "Shit sorry Tony". He breathed heavily for a second, exaggerating. "It's fine. I guess I deserved that. I should have stood behind you and pushed you down with me foot or something". "Right, that would have been better", I replied sarcastically sitting upright. "Dude you look terrible". I shrugged off his comment. "I got your message". "Clearly. I'll admit for a while I wasn't sure if you were going to be smart enough to figure it out". I shoved his shoulder. "So, you have a plan or something"? "Sort of. I kept a backup transmitter. When I heard you'd been admitted to hospital I figured I better turn it on, see what it had recorded. Don't get your hopes up Jacob", Tony sighed when he saw my hopeful expression. "He didn't say nothing about Katherine or Toby. But, and here's the good news, he was talking about a meeting or conference or something. He's going to be there at 5:00pm tomorrow. I think they're selling weapons or drugs or something. I didn't get specifics. He liked to refer to it as 'the parcel'. Clearly just wants to sound more important than he really is". I smiled at his attempt at a joke. So, it wasn't what I'd hoped for. But it was something. It was clear now that Dennis wasn't going to admit to anything. Without any evidence, there was no way I was going to reveal to the world it was him. I nodded at Tony to let him know I'd heard what he said. "Thanks man. Thank god you're smart enough to think of a back-up transmitter right"? Even I could hear the disappointment in my voice. "So, what are you gonna do"? I shrugged. "Nothing, I guess. What can I do? He's not going to admit anything". Tony looked around, at anything but me. He was trying to decide whether or not to tell me something. It was on the tip of his tongue. "Listen"...