North Oak, Book 1 - BORN TO RUN

Chapter 1: Run Baby Run

Alex whimpered. She kept wiping in desperation. She had not been there to protect Ashley.

This was supposed to be our day. Our new life. Alex thought if her heart could explode, really explode, it would be less painful than what she felt right now.

She took off through the woods, vaguely aware of the green and brown whizzing by, how the rain had softened the pine needles and ground debris poking at her toes. Petrichor invaded each breath.

When she emerged on Mobley Lane, loose gravel jumped from old asphalt, biting into her arches and sticking until velocity flung them off. Some of them stabbed her ankles and calves.

The sound of skin slapping on wet pavement seemed louder than the gunshot. She pumped her arms harder despite the pain in her legs and feet, sprinting as far away from her past as she could get.

The morning sun fully crested the Tennessee Ridge tree tops near Main Street ahead. Darting toward the apron of Ace Hardware, she dove into the center of a circular clearance rack she had watched an employee wheel outside. Alex peered between shirts as several police cars zipped by, sirens wailing.

Her lungs seized at the thought of getting caught and going back to that horrible place. Haven Point looked like a legitimate home for troubled girls on the surface, but Alex knew better.

If the social workers realized what really went on there, it would be shut down in an instant. The Open Arms Organization sounded like a benevolent charity, but it was nothing more than a shady subsidy of the Vantage Corporation.

Alex gulped when she remembered a girl, who had killed someone, that had passed through the home as a ward of the organization. She said Open Arms was trying to "sweep her under the carpet".

Vanessa DeGelder, the woman who ran Haven, gave the other girls nightmares by insisting the murder sentence would be death. An eye for an eye.

What have I done?

Alex's right forefinger throbbed as a phantom gunshot thundered in her head. She winced and sucked in air between her teeth. Her hand shot to the side and grabbed a shirt from the rack. She changed into it and left her torn t-shirt on the ground, then hopped out from her hiding place to snatch a pair of flip flops from a sales bin beside the rack.

Alex bit off the plastic tie binding them together as she started running again. She threw them on with an awkward hop and darted into the trees across the street.

Alex emerged hours later near the Austin Peay Memorial Highway going over the south end of Kentucky Lake, north of The Big Sandy. She watched cars motor across the causeway and chewed her lip, pacing. What do I do? She ran her hands through her hair. Ashley would know what to do.

A beat up blue car rattled behind her and slowed. She stared blankly at it, rooted to the asphalt beneath her. A man with two little girls buckled into carseats in the back rolled down his window and leaned out.

"Y'lost?"

Alex's mind ran wildly. "No," she said thinly. She glanced toward the water, then back to the man. The two young girls in the back seat swatted playfully at each other.

"Could I get a ride into town?" Alex asked. "We broke down on Ryden Road and someone told my mom the marina might have some gas."

The man squinted at her. His eyes wandered up and down with clear suspicion. "The marina? Most likely she ended up at the Exxon a stretch up the road from there."

Alex stuffed her hands in her pockets and shrugged. "Sorry. We're not from around here."

He sighed. "Get in. I need to stop for gas myself."