I moved; my training from the last few months snapped into place. My hands grabbed Ben's jacket and yanked him up. "Run!" I hissed to the group.
A gunshot rang through the museum. The paintball missed me. Not by much, it only missed because I moved. The others did what I ordered without looking around. My hand gripped Ben's arm as he struggled to run beside me.
Another gunshot and blue paint covered the windshield of an old-time truck to my left. The officer-rebel was toying with us. He and I both knew he could shoot me or Ben down with no need for a second bullet.
Before us, Carlos and Alec ran side by side. The two reached a right turn and disappeared behind a large truck.
A breath of relief rattled out of me. We were at the turn, meaning we were almost to the van. Ben and I reached that turn, and I pushed Ben to the right. The van was straight ahead. Alec climbed into the driver's seat. Carlos, with one gun pointed at the museum behind us, opened the back door and then the passenger door.
Reaching the van, I pushed Ben to the back seat before joining Carlos, my handgun out and ready. An officer-rebel popped up to the right between two small cars.
I aimed and shot.
And missed.
No.
Not missed. If the officer-rebel hadn't ducked, I would have gotten him in his neck.
Grant and Wong made the turn and sprinted towards us. Behind them were more officer-rebels.
"Hurry!" I called, aiming at the officers between the two men.
Neither Wong nor Grant turned or slowed as they rushed past us and jumped into the van.
"Get in," I ordered Carlos. I waited for him to get in and the door closed behind him before I sat back into the passenger's seat and closed the door behind me. The locks clicked into place. Around us, officer-rebels released their load of paintballs on us.
The tick, tick, tick of the paintball was like nails on a chalkboard. Paint coated the windows making it hard to see the officer-rebels.
"I got an idea of how to get out. Does this thing drive?" Alec asked. The key hovered in his hand beside the steering wheel. Alec and I spun our heads to the backseat. The sight was nearly comical. Ben looked uncomfortable and irritated. Grant smirked at Ben before he focused on us. Carlos was in the seat behind them and Wong was in the third row behind them.
"Can we drive this out of here? I don't want to if I am not allowed to."
"You are allowed to do whatever you need to escape," Grant responded.
"So I can drive this?" Alec's voice was steady and confident.
"Why are you questioning it?" Wong demanded from the back.
"Because I don't want to get in trouble if I'm not allowed to do this."
"Yes," Grant nodded. "You can drive out of here. There's a garage door that should be open. And please, don't try to hit the other cars. That statement is coming from me, not from the Alliance."
"I'll do my best." Alec smashed the key into the ignition and turned. The van roared to life around us. Cheerful music blared through the speakers, drowning out the sound of the paintballs. A wild guess told me that some officer thought it would be funny to put some 1960s song on full blast. I found the volume knob and turned it down.
"I can't see," Alec said. Blue paintball paint covered the windshield. He tried the window wipers. Bad idea, the paint smeared across the windshield. "Damn it! I hoped there would be window cleaning fluid. There's not."
A half-baked idea formed in my mind. "Get us out of the way of the guns and I have an idea. I will see for you. The walking path is to the right, so go that way first."
Without question, Alec threw the van into drive. The van lunged to the right, all swaying violently in our seats. From what I could see between the few clear spots of the windows, the officers moved out of the way.
The van spun forward, leaving the officers behind.
Crack!
We all hurled forward. My head almost collided with the dashboard.
"Damn, I hit something," Alec muttered as he drove by it.
A small whimper came from Grant. "Not the Model T."
"I have a tiny clear patch," Alec said, he slouched in his seat to see the narrow walkway.
"Keep driving," I ordered. I rolled down the window with the hand crank. The window lowered smoothly and much faster than the one in Dad's old truck. "I'm going to tell you where to go. Just please don't hit anything or my head may come off."
"Good idea," Alec rolled down his window.
I cautiously looked out the window. Exhibits and trucks flew by. We were about eye level with most everything. If I was an inch or two taller, I could see above everything to look for the garage door.
Wait, I could be a bit taller.
I turned and pulled myself out of the window, my butt sitting on the window ledge of the door. That was better. My left elbow braced the smooth ceiling as my hand tried to grip it. My other hand held onto the little ceiling handle.
Behind us, the officers jogged. A paintball whizzed harmlessly by my head. "Keep going straight." Looking forward again to scan for the garage door.
In the van, Ben asked no one in particular, "Where are the furry dice? That should have the handcuff key in it."
"Umm, it's... Wait. Here is the dice."
"Mel, where's that key that was in my pocket?" Ben called me.
"Left pocket." I didn't dare let go of the van for fear of falling to the carpeted floor that flashed by. A set of fingers fished for the key in the small pocket of my pants. We neared the corner of the large room. "Alec. We are going to have to turn right soon."
"I got the dice open. There's a key inside! Let's try it. Okay... Yeah! Ben, you're free."
A screech behind us snapped my head to the left to see a military truck turn sharply onto the path behind us. "Shit! Alec, we got company. It's a truck. No! Don't speed up, you're going to have to turn soon."
A man popped out of the window and sat like me. A gun aimed at us. No. Aimed at me.
"We have a shooter.."
"We got it, Mel," Wong called, "Carlos and I will go to the back and shoot from there. Focus on getting us out. Carlos, give me all the backpacks, I'll put them in the seat, so we don't lose them."
I spun around; my hair was falling out of the French braid from the wind. Strains of hair covered my eyes. Releasing one death grip from the van, I pulled the strains away.
"You are going to turn right very soon," I called to Alec.
A pair of hands grabbed onto my legs, and a body slipped into the passenger seat. "I'm stabilizing you," Ben said. His arms and hands gripped my legs. The feeling added reassurance that I wouldn't fall to my untimely death.
A bang echoed from behind the van where Carlos and Wong opened the back doors to shoot at the truck.
The brick wall of the end of the room neared. "On the count of five, Alec, turn right."
Alec didn't slow. The turn would be sharp then. I gripped the roof. "Hold on back there!" I yelled back to Wong and Carlos. Orange paintball paint littered the windshield of the truck. The truck didn't slow down.
"Okay, five!"
The exhibits flew by.
"Four."
If I fell, I wondered how bad the carpet burn would hurt. Would I break an arm?
"Three."
Would the truck behind us slow in time before they run me over?
"Two!"
The popping of the paintball guns stopped. An image of Carlos and Wong holding on for dear life crossed my mind.
"Now!"
The van sharply turned right, inches away from the brick wall. My body pressed into the roof. Ben held on to my legs as his body slid to the left.
We cleared the turn. Shit! I banged on the roof. I banged my hand against the roof. "Turn right!" I screamed, "Now turn right now!" Another obstacle sat directly before us. A large hotdog-shaped vehicle was a few yards before us.
Alec yanked the wheel before we almost crashed into the white, red, and yellow hotdog-looking van that read Oscar M-something on the side.
"Is there an exit?" Alec yelled out of his open window.
We were at the front of the building, there had to be an exit toward the back. Or I hoped.
"Mel?"
"I'm looking!" I snapped back.
All I could see were exhibits, tractors, and cars.
And the sun.
There!
There was sunlight at the back of the building. "I found it! Ow!" A yell tore through my throat, a sharp pain spiderweb up from the paintball bullet that, at last, found my back.
"You, okay?" Ben called up.
"Fine. Alec, you're going to turn left soon." Several walkways led towards the back of the room, but none were big enough to fit the van. There had to be one, though. Driving parallel to the wall with the garage door, we were getting close to missing it if we did not turn left soon.
"You have to take a sudden turn," I called to Alec as the small walkways flew past. "I can't tell the size of the alleyways until we're almost past it." The garage door was nearly parallel to where we were. "When I say turn, you turn left."
That walkway was too small.
Exhibits and old-world relics were a blur as we passed.
That walkway was also too small.
We passed by a diner exhibit.
There it was!
A path big enough for the van.
"Now! Left!" I screamed, and the tire joined me when Alec, not slowing at all, jerked the wheel to the left. My body flew from the window. My fingers could not keep a grip on the smooth roof and my body flew backwards toward the carpet.
A broad hand snapped out of the window and grabbed my wrist. The grip around my legs tightened. My free hand clenched Ben's hand that caught me.
The turn ended and my butt was no longer on the window ledge, my knees were. Ben looked out the window. He was at eye level with me, and he held on to my wrist and legs.
"That was too close," Ben said.
"You're telling me. And thanks," I breathed.
"Are we good?" asked Alec.
I snapped my head to the wall we now hurdled toward. The garage door stood before us.
"Yes! Go! Help me up, please." Ben pulled on my hand and legs. In a second, I was again sitting on the window ledge.
Behind us, wheels shrieked as the truck that followed us halted. The truck doors opened to reveal firing guns. Exchange fire came from the back of the van. Focusing back on the garage door before us, there was a flash of movement out of the corner of my vision. Between exhibits, I searched for the movement. All around us, everything was stationary. We were the only thing that was moving.
A break between exhibits and there it was.
Another truck, like the one that followed us. The truck drove parallel to the wall. Racing toward the open garage door to block us in.
"There's another truck!" I banged on the roof. "It's going to intercept us! Gun it!"
Alec didn't hesitate. His foot slammed on the floor. "I have a visual on the door!" Alec yelled. "Keep an eye on the truck."
"Hurry!" I screamed back. We weren't going to make it. My focus was on the truck hurtling toward our exit. It seemed the truck was going much, much faster than us. "Go!"
My heart thundered in my chest. We were so close, so close to getting out. There could be another exit. Somewhere. But this was our best shot.
Alec sped up. "I am going for it!" he yelled. "Everyone brace in case of impact. Mel! Get in here!"
My focus was on the truck that grew closer and closer, and I nearly forgot about the garage door we sped towards. A glance at the wall. All I saw was brick. I pushed myself in with the help of Ben, and I sat on his lap. At some point, Alec and Ben put their seatbelts on.
Clicks in the backseat gave away that everyone was buckled in. Other than me.
Ben's arm wrapped around me in a death grip. My head nestled under Ben's chin as I hugged him back just as hard. There was no time for me to get a seat belt. Ben was my seatbelt.
We braced for impact.
A crack sounded behind me as the mirror broke off. At the same moment, a horn sounded through Alec's open window. Across Alec, I watched a pair of headlights closing in, then vanished. Sunlight replaced the headlights as the van flew through the garage door.
The van slowed and Alec turned to the right, where an alleyway was between the museum and another brick building.
Heavy breaths echoed in the van. A cheerful '60s song played through the speakers. The sound was so at odds and comical with the adrenaline we all felt.
"No one is coming out of the door," Wong said from the back, breaking the silence.
I leaned back, my back resting on the door, my braid flying in the wind from the open window.
"Still no one. I think we aren't going to follow us," Carlos said.
But Alec didn't slow down. "Mel," he said. His hands had a death grip on the wheel. His chest rose and lowered just as fast as mine. "Can you get back out there and help us get out of the area before we stop to clean off the window?"
I peeled myself off of Ben's chest. "Yeah." My fingers were a bit shaky as I hooked a few strands of hair behind my ear. With the help of Ben, I sat back on the window ledge to give directions.
The van sputtered to a stop fifteen minutes away from the museum. I lowered my head to peek inside to see Alec release his tight grip on the wheel.
"Okay," Alec said, "We are walking from here. Ran out of gas."
"Already?" Wong asked from the back.
"We didn't have a full tank to begin with." Alec looked over at Ben, whose hand rested on my legs to keep me from falling out. "I'm guessing the Alliance only put just enough gas in it to help us out of the museum."
Ben shrugged. His little smile confirmed what Alec said was true. I had no idea what we would have done in the museum if we had run. The only thing to do would have been to run for it.
I eased into the van, trying my best to avoid sitting in Ben's lap as he opened the door. With a bit of difficulty, I maneuvered out of the van and took in the surroundings. We were near the city. The tall hotel where we lost Ben was in sight of the skyline.
"Please tell me you remember my backpack," Ben told me as everyone out of the truck other than Wong.
I smirked. "You look so good, though. The orange sweater really suits you. And the flare, faded pants." Ben shook his head as Wong handed out backpacks.
"What's the plan now?" I asked.
We got Ben, but now what? We still needed to get a package from the officer-rebels to complete our mission.
Ben shouldered his bag. "I overheard the officers talking before they tied me up. They said something about a church by the river." Wong got out of the van and closed the door.
"They may be there? At a church?" I asked. Ben shrugged.
Carlos shrugged. "Sounds like we got some spying to do."
"How many churches are there in the downtown area?" I asked Wong.
He pulled out his map. "I'll look while we walk there."
Though we were all exhausted, we shouldered our bags and trekked back to Detroit proper.