Dale and I pulled into a gas station half an hour later. We made small talk in the car after we told our stories to each other for the rest of the car ride. Dale ran in to grab some snacks while I filled up the tank. I plugged in my headphones and played my music after finishing my duty. I watched cars speed by the gas station as I waited for Dale to come out. A black SUV with tinted windows pulled into the tiny station and parked right behind me. The driver door opened and out stepped Marcus. I quickly unbuckled and slid under the glove compartment. I sat there until I saw the SUV drive away. I slid out from my hiding spot and looked around the gas station. Dale sprinted to the car with a white plastic bag in her hand loaded with snacks. She slid into the driver's seat and we sped off.
"Did you see them?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said out of breath. She pulled the car out of the gas station and continued on the trail we were going. I sat back in my seat and huffed out an exasperated sigh. I'm already sick of running.
I later dozed off and when I woke back up Dale checked us in to a motel. We went out and had some dinner and went back to the motel to sleep. While we were talking before we went to bed when we heard men outside in the parking lot yelling at one another. We turned off the lights and ran to the curtains. We peeked through the fabric and saw Marcus's men out in the parking lot leaning on Dale's car. They we're obviously fighting over something because of the hand gestures they made and their loud voices. They laughed and tipped bottles back, chugging whatever was held inside them.
"Shit, Marcus is here! We have to get out of here!" I said in a forceful whisper.
"Yeah, but if you haven't noticed they're having a party by the car and they'll see us in a flash," she said while rolling her eyes.
"What're we going to do?" I asked on edge.
"Go to bed I guess," she replied and she walked toward her bed. I looked at her through the darkness and scowled.
"Go to bed? Are you insane? The men that are hunting us are sleeping next door to us!" I said in a harsh whisper.
"They don't know were here. We'll be fine because there's other people here and they'll call the cops if something happens," she said reassuringly. I sat back down on the stiff bed and tilted my neck backwards staring at the ceiling.
"I'm not getting any sleep whatsoever," I said.
"Good! Then you can take first watch!" she said happily. I scoffed and laid down.
"You're outrageous," I said. She huffed out a small laugh lied down on the bed parallel to mine.
She must have been exhausted because her breathing evened and she fell asleep minutes later. I felt bad instantly. I've been overworking her and I was a huge weight on her shoulders. She decided to help me because she felt bad for me and all I was doing was dragging her down.
I stayed up the rest of the night listening to Marcus' men in the parking lot yelling and laughing. They finally went to bed or left around four o'clock. At about nine o'clock Dale woke up. I previously ran out of the room to the small eating area and picked up some breakfast for us and ran back to the room. I handed her food and watched TV as she munched on it. After she finished, she took a shower and we packed up. We checked out sprinted to Dale's car. Panting, we drove off in the opposite direction when we heard a car peeling out of a parking lot. I turned around and looked back and saw a black SUV with tinted windows. "Dale, did you check us in under different names?" I asked.
"No, I used the ones Marcus gave us," she said as she fixated the rearview mirror. I grabbed the armrests and dug my nails into them.
"Dale, they found us because we used our identities under his name!" I said as I shot another nervous glance behind us. She cursed under her breath and slammed down on the ignition. My body shot back into my seat from inertia and I gnawed on my lower lip as we sped down the highway.
CHAPTER IS UNEDITED