Bad Decisions

Chapter 29: Run

           

Mac made no sound and ended up carrying me out of the basement. We passed a shifted Olga on the way out who was barking very loudly. It was a wonder the bars were still holding after being hit with her full weight repeatedly. We made it out of the house through a secret passage that I never knew about. Mac had put me on his back and nabbed a backpack sitting outside the hidden door. Mac shifted and put me on his back. He ran like his life depended on it.

                I thought my parents had come and Ivan sent Mac to protect me. Tears were making their way down my face as I tried to hold them back and not distract Mac. After what seemed like an hour of running, Mac put me down. He held some fresh clothes out for me. They smelled strongly of pine trees and grass. He took my old clothes and held them while he gave me the backpack. As Mac saw the confused expression on my face, he nudged the map in my hand and whimpered a little. I started to open it up and Mac took off in a new direction.

On the map were big red letters and a few red X's.

Run.

I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me with the red X's, but I knew I would never find my way back to the house and doubted whether I should if he brought me out here to begin with. I didn't have my phone and there was only cash in the backpack. I noticed I was near a stream that was clearly marked on the map. I followed it down and started my trek to the nearest red X.

I had walked for the rest of the day and night trying to make it to the town on the map. When I saw the road ahead of me, I ran. As excited as I was to get to a shower and food, I didn't want my mom or her people to find me. I stuck to the shadows and ended up in the nearest store.

I saw a few older women and mothers shopping in the store while I ran to the water section. I picked out as much food and water as I could carry in the backpack, a new burner phone, and some clothes. I went to pay for all of it when the cashier raised her nose to sniff me. I didn't know if she was a friendly werewolf or not so I decided to play ignorant.

"Not territory, little human. Otto meet you. Care for... visitors." The devious expression turned feral smile was enough to know this chick was not friendly. I noticed the other women had navigated themselves toward all the exits.

"Is Otto the mayor? That is very kind of him." I started to put the food and water in my pack. This was a bad decision. So the X's meant don't go there. It would have been helpful to know that before I made my way here.

"Not stupid, human. Smell pups. Faint. Ivan's human? Only Ivan have human. Otto take to Ivan." She spoke decently, but it was slightly difficult to understand with that accent.

When one of the older women started walking closer to me, I smiled at the cashier and nodded my head to act cooperative. The other women started to continue shopping and the cashier pulled her phone out. When the front door was unblocked I made a run for it. I tripped and managed to take out a display and the werewolf lady tripped on that. For once, my clumsiness was working for me. I got out the door and ran to the nearest car on the street. I jumped in front of it to make it stop. It didn't. That was like nothing I had felt before. The driver got out to check on me and when he rounded the car, I limped to him. He had left the keys in the car and the door open. I pushed him over with as much force as I could and stole his car. I drove out of that town as fast as I could and to a city not anywhere close to an X. I took the back roads and dumped the car outside of the town. 

Limping into town, I headed for the nearest cheap and least likely to check ID kind of hotel. I got myself a room for the night and would figure out what I was going to do, the next day. I was going to run out of cash if I kept this up. I didn't have my passport, wallet, ID, or anything to help get me far from here, but it would also send flags to my parents. I missed Ivan so much.