How to be Alone

Chapter Three: Whisked Away

We sprint as fast as our legs can take us but we both know that the military will catch us. They're faster, stronger, probably smarter than us. We're screwed. One of them lunges and tackles me sending a tear up my arm skidding across the pavement.

"Ryan, help!" I call out. He hesitates and it costs him the distance he had left, and he's soon tackled as well.

"Stupid kids," The woman insults us. "Why'd you run?"

I wince and try to roll over but the woman pushes me down harder. "Ow, OW!" I cry. At last I assume she sees the blood coming from my arm because she releases her grasp on me and lets me roll over. All across my arm I can only see blood. The wound is hidden underneath all of the blood.

"Dammit, kid, why'd you have to run?" She echoes herself. I don't answer her, I just sit up and shuffle away from her. The woman turns away from me and calls back, "This girl needs a doctor," But by the time she turned back to face me, I was already gone.

The man who tackled Ryan sees me run past him and he calls out for me. He releases Ryan to chase me, who also gets up and runs away in the opposite direction, towards my house. This time the man only attempts to grab me, but he keeps missing. He must not want to tackle me and open my arm up completely. That would be grounds for a lawsuit! I suppose it already is... It stings a lot.

I glance behind myself for only a second to see the distance I'd gained but then I stop suddenly, colliding with none other than Sheriff Terry. I'm about to fall over when he grabs my arm—fortunately not the cut one—and stops me before the ground. He steps between myself and the soldier, keeping me behind himself to prevent them from grabbing me.

"Ah, Sheriff, thank you," The man says. His breathing is a little heavy but he doesn't appear to be out of breath.

"Thank you?" Terry asks. "For what?"

The man gestures to me, "For stopping the girl. I can take her back."

"Why?" Terry asks. "What'd she do?"

"Well, I..." He takes a deep breath and puts his hands on his hips. "She asked for her scooter that was on the scene of the arson. We thought she might've done it, but she ran from us."

"Is that right? You think she's the arsonist because her scooter was there?" He chuckled and glanced back at me. "I saw her scooter there yesterday before the fire. It wasn't her."

What? No he didn't. Well, of course he didn't, because it wasn't there. Why was he lying to the army?

Terry shoves the man's shoulder slightly. "Give the girl her scooter back."

"Sir, I—"

"Now. And I want your little crew over there out of my park by noon."

The man seems annoyed, but he nods. "Of course, sir. I'll let them know now."

I wait by Terry for them to bring my scooter back to me, then he puts me in his car to bring me down to the hospital.

Terry closes his door and starts the ignition. "Try not to bleed all over my car, will you?" He shoves my left shoulder (not the one bleeding) and laughs. "I'm just messing with you, Lila."

I force a pity laugh and stare out the window.

"Second time in my car in two days, huh? You're really getting yourself in a lot of trouble."

"I just wanted my scooter back," I lie. It's only a partial lie. "Um, why did you lie to them?"

"About your scooter?" He asks. "Well, sometimes you have to lie to protect people you care about."