Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“What’s happening?” I breathe, but Torin just grips my hand harder.
“Talk later. Just run.”
I hear a woman screaming from the direction of the main road, and then a light crunching sound that sounds like a car going over a curb in the wrong way.
I whip around to check behind us and see the front of the goddamn SUV, heading down the extremely narrow walking path we used to cut into the alley.
“They’re right fucking there,” I utter.
“Then move faster,” he shouts, glancing back.
The car is barreling forward at high speed toward us in the alley. A man walks out in an apron from the back of one of the shops, and I watch in horror as he gets hit by one of the side mirrors of the SUV, roaring in pain and gripping his arm as the vehicle speeds past.
“Oh my God.”
“We’re going to have to jump one of these. Understand?”
There are stone walls ahead that line the backyards of private homes. “Okay. Yes. Anything,” I breathe.
There’s too much stimulus right now.
The hum of the engine behind us. The occasional shouting, every time someone on the street sees what’s happening. The guys in the vehicle don’t seem to give a fuck, charging forward and gaining speed on us.
I hear the first gunshot before we hop the fence.
Molten fear shoots through my stomach.
Instantly I look over to Torin, confirming he isn’t hit.
“Tell me you’re okay,” Torin yells.
“I’m fine. Are you?”
“Not hit. We need to jump the third fence on the right. See it? Pink flowers hanging over the edge?”
“Yes,” I utter.
“I’ll use my hands, you hop up on them.”
“Then what about you?” I shout.
“I’m going to have to go around.”
“I’m not going without you,” I scream.
Another gunshot pops behind us, hitting a recycling bin beside me and tearing a hole through it.
“Fuck. The lower fence. Further down,” he says. “Go.”
I use every ounce of adrenaline to propel myself forward.
It’s strange how the gunshots solidify the reality of it in my mind: I might die, but if I do, I’m going to make these fuckers work for it.
But all that keeps flashing through my mind is how it would affect everyone else.
Would the guys be okay, without me?
Would Torin?
“I’m going for it,” I tell him as we approach the shorter fence. It’s easy to hop, and thank fuck we can both make it over on our own.
“Go. Three. Two. One. Jump,” he says.
I push my hands onto the top of the stone and launch myself over. One of the stones is loose and my hand slips a little, twisting my wrist in a bad direction.
“Holy fuck,” I groan, pain searing through my arm.
“Are you okay?”
“I can make it,” I tell him, standing in the back of the yard. “We need to go.”
We cut through the person’s backyard, finding an open fence along the front. Once we’re on the residential street we duck and weave behind hedges, finding a neat row to disappear behind.
“There were no other exits from that alley. They’re going to have to go all the way down to exit. Let’s go to the left, loop to the side, and get onto campus. Roman is there with Maks.”
I keep the pace high even as pain radiates from my wrist.
My lungs are burning.
The sun’s light is overwhelming now, higher up in the sky and beating down on us with intense heat.
Keep going.
Just keep fucking going.
We make it to the end of the street, turn to the side, and take another curving, banked street up toward the side of campus.
And just as I’m starting to think we’ve lost them, I hear tires screeching behind us.
“You can do this, Noah,” Torin says. “The campus entrance is right there.”
My eyes sting.
I feel like my legs can’t keep moving, like I’m going to collapse into a heap on the sidewalk and be gunned down the moment I drop.
The closer we get to campus, the more students are around.
And guilt gnaws at me from the inside, forming a toxic mix with my fear.
They could be killed, because of me.
This can’t be happening.
The road is wider here, and the SUV is able to gain speed. I can see the stone arch that leads onto campus, and the short wall with the Crimson College plaque and seal.
A girl screams beside me as another gunshot comes out.
“Ahead of me. Now,” Torin screams, and it takes me a moment to realize why he’s dropping behind me.
He’s using himself as a fucking meat shield.
For me.
“No,” I tell him. “Don’t do this—”
The next gunshot is close.
Too close.
And when I glance down and see red spilling out of Torin, I lurch in place.
“No,” I whisper. “No, no, no—”
“Keep going,” he says, still running as best as he can behind me, too. “Just get to the goddamn entrance.”
I see Roman and Maks up there now.