The Runaway

Chapter 18

They were ambushed suddenly - without warning and without expecting it. One minute it was the atmosphere was calm and the next there was a roar of an engine followed by an influx of Security officers jumping down from trucks, all waving guns just metres away and screaming at them to get down on the ground. Aggressive, dangerous and armed. 

Don't listen. RUN. RUN, VALERIE JUST RUN. DON'T LET THEM GET YOU. GRAB SOMEONE AND RUN.

She switched into survival mode and ducked down, running at full speed towards the buildings just metres away.

Everyone else did the same, scattering. There was a sound of a gun going off and she prayed that no one had gotten hit.

Please, please - let us escape - let us escape, she thought, heart hammering. She was going to puke - if she stopped she was going to puke - there was no turning back now.

She was panting and screaming as she ran, every nerve in her body on standby.

So close.

There was a scream from behind her. Someone must have gotten caught. No time to look back. She was going to make it. If she could just get behind a building-

"Oof!" She was smashed into the snow sideways, landing painfully on her arm with a weight on her back, digging into her shoulder blades.

She managed to break free and scramble up, running again. There was an antagonising, drawn out scream from behind and she turned around - ruining everything.

Monica collapsed to the ground, clutching her stomach and staining the snow red.

Theodore screamed her name.

The officer grabbed Valerie by the legs and pulled her back down as she watched her friend go down. There was nothing she could do.

She screamed out for help and thrashed wildly.

ESCAPE, ESCAPE. DO ANYTHING, JUST ESCAPE.

"Don't fight! Don't move! Move and I'll shoot you. I swear I will! Stay down!"

The officer barked, pressing a gun against the back of her head. Valerie screamed out again, sobbing for help.

The officer forcibly pushed her face into the snow, muffling her protests. She managed to get her head sideways so that she could breathe and kept on yelling gutturally.

FIGHT AGAINST HIM. GET OUT OF THERE. FIGHT. THRASH. SCREAM. RUN. RUN. RUN.

She watched as someone - Axel - was also tacked to the ground.

He was tasered before her eyes, twitching erratically and crying out in pain as he fell to the ground .

"Axel! No- Axel - get up!" She screamed. He couldn't answer her.

Three down, including herself.

The others still had a chance.

Run- just run-

She watched as Theodore was overpowered, screaming and thrashing against the two guards holding him back from where Monica lay. He was being dragged away towards a van.

No- just- no. NO. NO NO.

They had lost Theodore too.

She screamed out again, trying to wriggle free but that just resulted in a knee being forced onto her back, pinning her down securely.

"Tanner! Theodore! Robyn! Run! Run!" She screeched through her sobs.

"I said shut up, bitch!"

RUN. GET OUT. RUN. TOO MUCH. MALFUNCITON. SHUT DOWN. RUN. RUN. GO.