The Code of The Alpha

Chapter Fourteen - Running in the Rain

Luca was standing in the living room, looking out the glass doors into the backyard. He turned his attention to me as he heard me coming down the staircase.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Running."

"It's about to rain."

"I'm waterproof," I said, picking my tennis shoes up from beside the side door.

Before Luca could say anything else, I walked outside and put my shoes on in the breezeway.

As it turns out, I had been right: there was a dark cloud. And, unfortunately, Luca had been right as well. It certainly looked like it would rain.

Shrugging, I walked out onto the driveway and towards the gate that would lead me to the road.

Remembering the roads being much flatter on the other side of the pack land where the meeting house was, I decided to run in that direction.

Hopefully I can get there and back in time before it falls a flood, I thought.

I walked about half a mile before starting with a slow jog. Eventually, I paid less attention to the dying ache of soreness in my legs and more to the scenery around me.

Houses of varying sizes were scattered in between trees, each of them resembling those I remember seeing in higher-end, snobbish neighborhoods back home.

I reminisced about the times when Mady and I would drive through those neighborhoods while we were in high school, picking out our favorites and daydreaming about what it would be like to live in houses like those.

After I chose not to go to medical school, it was a dream I thought that I had given up.

And yet there I was: jogging through a similar neighborhood, all the while knowing I would return to the biggest house of them all. 

Before I knew it, I had become lost in my daydreams and also in reality.

I stopped running when I realized that I no longer recognized where I was. Feeling a little uneasy, I turned and began to run back the way I had come from.

It wasn't long before I came to an intersection that I didn't remember.

Did I turn the corner down this road or did I cross the street?

As I stood there deliberating on which direction to take, I felt a raindrop fall against my cheek. I wiped it away and sighed, feeling more begin to fall on my shoulders and face.

Hearing a car approach, I looked up to see a old, green pickup truck driving along the road intersecting the one I was on.

I waved at the driver and the truck began to slow. I smiled as he rolled down his window.

"Hi," I said awkwardly. "I'm a little lost. Could you tell me how to get back to the other side of the pack, where the training fields are?"

His eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"I just moved here," I explained quickly. "I'm not really familiar with the neighborhoods."