The Run

The Run Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"They're heading North!" One man said enthusiastically as he bent closer to his computer screen. "I got the plates of the van on a traffic cam." My heart sped up in hopes that we would find Raine faster than expected.

"Keep watching all cams around there and see if they turned or kept going." Mayers told the men still gathered in our room. They had only taken a few hour break at a time. There was always a few men around the computers, even when the others were resting. "This may be long and tedious boys, but it's getting us somewhere."

During all of this, I was laying on my bed. I would periodically go to sleep for a little while, until one of the agents found something that I woke up to hear about. I needed sleep, and the only way I was going to get it was if I slept lightly. If I tried to sleep deep, I would never be able to fall asleep because I would know I might not wake up quick if something big happened. Sleeping lightly helped me fall asleep knowing that I could easily wake up in case of something important.

"I found them at the next stoplight, still heading north." Another man said, looking to Mayers.

"Keep going. Watch them closely. I have a feeling that they headed to a less-populated area. If I'm right, we might have some problems finding them again." Mayers said as the men continued to call out when they found the van again. Then, it seemed to disappear.

"Find it!" Mayers told the agents loudly. "Check every camera we have access to that has a view of a street near the last place we saw them. We're pretty close now. They must have turned off to go to their lab." The noise in the room grew as the men quickly searched everything they could to spot the van once again. At last, someone found footage of the van going through a stoplight in a small town. We had lucked out because the security cameras there had just been installed recently.

"We now have a basic idea of where they are men." Mayers told the group of assembled agents, and me, as everyone became silent. "It's time to move out. We're going to make a base as close as we can to their last known location, then we're going to search for them. We know that they're going to be close by. I want everyone ready to leave here within the hour." Before he was even finished speaking, the men were already packing up the bank of computers.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and started to feel even more hopeful than before. We were so much closer to finding Raine. We were so much closer to getting her out of that evil place. Who knew what they had been doing to her. I hoped that we might get there before they did anything major.

"You ok?" Mayers asked me as he stuffed things into his duffel bag. I was sitting on my bed watching him. I didn't need to pack anything because I hadn't bothered to unpack. I had been hoping that we wouldn't be there long enough for me to need to. I was right, thankfully.

"Yeah, I just can't believe that this is actually happening. I mean, I was hopeful the whole way through this. But I still had that little bit of doubt in the back of my mind saying that we wouldn't even be able to find a clue about where she was." I said shaking my head slowly. "I'm so happy and hopeful that I just can't quite believe it."

"Don't get your hopes up too high. Even though we're on the right track, we still might not find her. There's always a chance we might not." Mayers said slowly, turning to look at me funny. I nodded back at him.

"I know, but now we have a much better chance than before."

"That we do." He replied with a small smile. "Let's go downstairs and wait on everyone. They'll probably take a little more time than we do and I can go ahead and turn in our keys." I nodded slowly and followed Mayers outside the door. We walked to the elevator and I pressed the down arrow.

"It's about a two hour drive to where we saw them last." Mayers informed me as the elevator started to descend.

"I'm gonna call my mom and let her know what's going on while we wait." I told Mayers as the elevator doors opened on the main floor. He nodded and walked over to the front desk. I made my way to one of the plush couches and sat down. I pulled my cell phone out and dialed home, hoping that Mom picked up instead of Dad.

"Jaxon?" Mom asked as she picked up the phone.

"Yeah Mom, it's me. What happened to hello?" I asked, trying to make light of the entire situation. She didn't laugh.

"Hush Jaxon. Have you found her yet?" She asked worriedly.

"We have an idea of where she is. We're moving closer to where we last saw them. I think if everything goes well we should be able to find her pretty soon. That is, if we actually can figure out where the lab is." I told her quickly.

"Oh I hope you can find her soon. I'm so worried about her." Mom told me, and I could hear that she had been crying.

"It's ok Mom, we're going to find her. Maybe the next time I call you, Raine can talk to you." I told her, hoping that I was right.

"Oh Jax I hope so. I really hope so." She said softly. "Your father wants to talk to you Jaxon." She said, and before I could say anything the phone was handed to Dad.

"Hello son." Dad said gruffly, somewhat unlike him.

"Hey Dad." I said slowly, trying to figure out whether he was mad at me or not. I decided to just as him. I was thousands of miles away from him at the moment. He couldn't do much to me, at least at that moment. "Are you mad at me for going after Raine?"

"Why would I be?" He asked, surprising me. "That girl was worth going after. I'm mad that these people scared the girl so much that she had to leave."

"Really?" I asked, pretty shocked at his reaction. I knew he liked Raine and all, but I still expected him to be somewhat angry with me for leaving.

"You had better bring her back here Jaxon. I want that girl to be my new daughter, do you understand?" I felt a faint blush rising up my cheeks, both surprising me and embarrassing me at the same time.

"Y-yeah. I understand Dad." I stammered. "Look, I've got to go. We're getting ready to leave. I'll call you guys when I know something else."

"You had better." Dad said, hanging up the phone without another word. I chuckled lightly, he was still the same old Dad. Right after I hung up, Mr. Mayers came over to me and lay a hand on my shoulder.

"How's your family?" He asked me, sitting down beside me.

"They're fine. They want me to bring back Raine though." I told him with a small smile.

"From what you've told me, she seems like a pretty incredible girl. I hope we can find her for you." He said without a hint of a smile on his face. It was somewhat depressing to see him have very little hope in finding Raine.

"We will. I know we will."

"I'm glad you're so certain." Mayers said as he stood up and stretched. I looked over to see all of the agents standing in a group. One of the agents looked like he was coming back from the front desk, probably from turning in the keys.

"Lets go men!" Mayers called to the group as we walked out to the parking lot. We loaded all the bags into the two dodge vans quickly. Again, I rode with Mayers. It's not like I knew any of the agents anyway. As we drove away, I started thinking about Raine again. We were so close to her, but still so far away. We didn't actually know where she was just yet, but we would. And when we figured it out, I would be there to get her.