Hunting Me (Under Reconstruction)

The Calm Before the Storm

Half an hour after the sun had set and the stars had come out to replace the sky I'd painted red in my tirade, we made it to a dirt road. Parked in the centre of the road was a sleek black BMW that reminded me of a leech for some unknown reason. Leaning against the vehicle was a man that looked well suited to it. With his jet black hair slicked with gel, his tinted sunglasses, and suit pressed and primped within an inch of its life, he gave off an air of power and stood as if he was used to people cowering under his abusive glare. You wouldn't think anything would overshadow these features but his size was astounding. The man was built like a brick shithouse. Come to think of it, he looked a lot like Mr. Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch. Not that I watch those kiddie movies.

What can I say, regardless of his size and stature, a girl's attitude will prevail. 'Good Evening fine sir, and my aren't you looking dashing! Dressed up for the occasion did we?'

Mr Bubbles, skilfully ignoring my sarcasm -a wise choice, one many fail to make- merely walked stiffly towards the rear of the vehicle, more or less confirming my suspicions that there was in fact a long stick rammed up his ass, and opened the boot. 'Please place your bags in here,' he gestured to the open boot, 'leave your attitude out here, and sit your ass in there,' he nodded to the car.

'Aye, aye Captain!' I saluted him and threw my backpack into the boot, turning onto my heel and walking to the passenger seat of the car. I pulled up the silver handle and jumped into the car, perhaps with a little too much exaggerated enthusiasm; the car rocked back. The seats were black leather and I glided right in, how could I have expected any less? With one hand I slammed the door and the other opened the glove box to rifle through its contents. Skylar, having silently -the first time in his life I think- slid into the car the moment we reached it hissed at me from the back seat, 'You know, as much as you and I would love to believe otherwise, there is a line Ember. Imagine how embarrassed the poor man would be if you found some 'private' things in there.'

I turned around to face him, my forehead against the head rest, 'Don't pretend you have a considerate bone in your body, Skylar. In this business there is no such thing as 'private'.' I spun back around to face the front and pulled a piece of gum from among a pair of gloves, an umbrella and a gun in the glove box. 'And besides, it's not like this guy actually gives a crap about us, he's up high and mighty on his horse. Typical government hunter. Gets paid a fuckload to do jack shit, and when he does do something it's dodgy as all hell.'

'Yeah, because you do everything above board, don't you Ember,' he chastised.

'Whatever.'

The Bubblenator got in the car, inserted the keys into the ignition and put his foot down on the accelerator. 'So, Mr Bubbles, where are we headed?' I asked, blowing a big slobbery bubble at his head. The symmetry was beautiful.

'You will find out when we get there.' Good answer.

'Thankyou for that very concise answer,' I said, sarcasm lacing my words.

'No worries,' was all he said and dropped his sunnies back down from on top of his head.

The drive was long and silent. I'd placed my feet up on the dashboard just for the satisfaction of seeing Bubbles' mouth twitch at the corners as I did so. What can I say, arrogance is fun. After three hours, twenty one minutes, thirty-five seconds (I was counting), we reached our destination. And what an inviting destination it was. Five star, I'm sure. After driving in what seemed like circles past identical shed after shed after shed after shed... we finally reached our shed. Crap heap is one word that comes to mind. It's corrugated iron shell was rusted not far from dust, giving it a dry bloody appearance. However it wasn't completely void of life as moss and algae clogged up nooks, corners and crannies of the shed, inside and out; water from an unknown source.