Chapter 39
Mr. Reynolds turned around to check the status of the stalkers. "We left them behind, I guess, keep running ", he focused his attention. I paused for a while to breathe as kissing already took half of my strength. I could feel his taste yet in my mouth. My mind didn't overcome his kiss yet, flashbacks surrounded my thoughts whilst running, "I guess they're way behind now ", I broke the silence.
"Shouldn't stop you from running Miss Waters ", he paused for a while "they're seven and it's just the two of us ", he took my hand and dragged me again. I was tired now, tired of running away without doing something bad. I felt like a prisoner who runs for life when he gets a chance to free himself. Every joint in my body was paining but considering this pain relevant against the fear of death made sense somehow.
I ran without considering the surrounding, I just ran as the hare did in the initial race when with tortoise. I heard a slow thud from behind, I turned around to inquire about the noise. To my extreme agitation, it was Mr. Reynolds on the ground. His left leg was drowned in a puddle, his head collided with the stone causing small red droplets of blood to form across that area.
He wiped off the dripping blood with the sleeves of his shirt and tried to pull his leg out of the puddle, his every attempt failed miserably. I ran towards him and pushed him upwards taking possession over his arms. We finally succeeded in our attempt, I was perturbed by the injury which was now visible to me on his legs.
"Oh my God, it's bleeding so hard ", I covered my mouth as an outcome of shock. I straightened his left leg tearing off his pants so that I could take a deeper view of the wound. I could see small pebbles perforated inside the wound, I took a briefer view of them after placing his legs on my lap.
He tried to move them away "Hey-hey its okay ", I tried consoling whilst yanking the small pebbles slowly so that it doesn't cause him any pain. "Can you walk ?", I questioned.
"I can try ", his voice was courageous but his eyes showed the pain he was hiding from me. I tore off a little part of my cotton floral dress making it 3 more inches shorter. I tied the cloth across his wound striving to stop the never-ceasing blood.
"Come on now, get up ", I tried to motivate him after lowering my hands towards him. He interlocked his fingers with mine to take support. His other hand took the support of the ground. He stood up for a while but then collapsed again "they really hurt so much Miss Waters, it's like every nerve close to that wound is electrified with pain "
"It's you, Mr. Reynolds, nothing in this world is more electrified than your courage", I praised him to raise his guts.
"Oh no, they're here", I heard loud footsteps so I revoked our conversation and pulled him towards the back of a huge tree through his shoulders. "This is scaring me now ", I l focused towards the direction of the noise.
"Run, Miss Waters .", he interrupted the silence.
"What?", I interrogated.
"Run for your life Miss Waters ", his command felt like care for a change.
"Are you insane. Stop speaking shit. I am not leaving without you, its either us or no one ", I said the words in one single breadth out of annoyance.
"You dumb idiot, don't you get it. I can't run for fuck's sake. Why do you want to put your life in danger for m-m"
"You? Yes, I want to risk my life for you just like you did for me ", I cut his line and continued mine dominantly.
I pulled him up with all my strength placing his right arms across my shoulder to get a grip over his body. I caught his right hand with my right hand and locked my left hand across his waist. "I guess it's time for me to reciprocate those lines ", I raised both of my brows.
"and that is ", he looked perplexed.
"That maybe you should eat less or book yourself an appointment with some good nutritionist ", I laughed out loud and made the first walking move.
"Not again, Miss Waters", he matched my step with his.
"A bit faster Mr. Reynolds', I gave him a certain push so as to walk faster, not that I didn't understand his condition.
"I am trying very hard. I did tell you to leave me behind", he offended.
"Let's not discuss it ", we kept walking. I witnessed an increase in his walking speed now. I let go of him for a while to inquire about the hooligans, I couldn't sense any clue or movement of theirs. "Maybe they changed their direction", I curled my hands around his waist again.
"Let's play safe which means let's keep walking", he ordered as usual.
"Never asked you to stop", I offended faking out a smile. The next few moments were surrounded by silence. No one among us dared to speak and interrupt the silence. Our legs just marched without having any idea regarding the direction. I had a few awkward eye contacts with him, every time my eye met his. I felt clingy, I had no answer why. I just felt that way.
I heard something, I focused my attention towards the noise "Oh my God, Mr. Reynolds", I side hugged him as I already was tangled with him. "Oh my God ", I repeated the words out of happiness.
"The horns and the beeps eh. We're very close to the highway. We completed nailed it, Miss Waters "
"Like a team", I continued his sentence grinning.
Every beep of the horn sparked our courage with enthusiasm. With every step, we were closer to the highway. "Look they're there", I turned around and saw a man pointing towards us to his other two fellow mates.
"Jimmy, go and inform everyone that we found the fugitive couple. We'll take care of the couple till then", the Jimmy guy ran off track as per instructed to inform his mates.
"I guess we're now to the dead-end where there's no escape", I whispered in Mr. Reynolds's ears.
"Stay assertive", he replied calming me down. He caught my hand tightly which shivered at this moment. In fact, my whole body was trembling out of terror. Even if they did nothing to me, they'll be running after Mr. Reynolds's life.
"Hey -hey, let's resort to something by peaceful means", Mr. Reynolds didn't look really happy with this action of mine, I could make that out from his facial expression.