On the Run by M Zeigler (short story to read TXT) 📖

happy place…in heaven. But be warned if you return to earth you secure place in heaven may be lost should you fail on your life’s quest.” Death’s voice echoes away as he speaks until I’m left standing in the hallway alone with two doors ahead of me.

My whole life, I’ve been cold but I have always looked out for other people, this is truly my one last offer to do something for myself instead of someone else.

I take a deep breath making my final decision and step forward.

Chapter 10

 

On the run chapter 10

Party crashing

Barrette’s perspective

I’ve been watching Bonnie since the moment I brought her into the hospital and they got her settled, both of us are handcuffed to chairs welded to the floor. I knew that her step father Michael had hit a vital organ the moment I seen that knife sticking into the lower half of her rib cage. There was no other choice but to bring her to the emergency room where we were quickly escorted to the prisoner ward and handcuffed. I watched as the doctor cut into Bonnie’s side and operated to close up the wide gash in her right kidney, her step father did a considerable amount of damage. Physically she’s okay, which is if she recovers from the blood loss, no matter what I did to try and stop the bleeding on the way here the blood kept soaking through.

This morning the doctor said that she should survive and be waking up soon, I want to believe him. Sadly, Bonnie has put me in a place where her words are haunting me; just before she fell unconscious she spoke the words to a Johnny Cash song.  “And I heard as it word, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying come and see. And behold a white horse.” I know from my own biblical learning that the white horse means death; I think somehow she may have known that she was dying. Her face was so peaceful after that, I think she was accepting of death.

Really, it shouldn’t surprise me if she dies here; it’s what she wanted since the months before I met her, when she was just a depressed woman writing a star whose words saved her sorry butt. In recent days I started to assume that maybe she’d given up on wanting death to claim her because of the fact that she finally found a place she belongs. Maybe that is just it, she doesn’t belong with me, she doesn’t belong with family or other people, maybe she doesn’t even belong in LA perhaps she belongs in the life of an outlaw? Maybe she belongs out on the open road like many of my motorcyclist friends, wind blowing through her hair, the wide open road ahead of her with all cylinders firing wide open.

“Mr. Green, is there anything I can get you?” A kindly nurse asks, I look up from where I had my eyes trained on Bonnie to see a very young nurse standing there. Or at least in theory she should be a nurse but this woman is in no way a doctor’s assistant. Her hair is far to neon blue to be anywhere in the vicinity of professional.

“We heard you hit a bump in the road.” I hear Heather’s voice next, my ex girlfriend from years ago, the one that got away comes walking into the room with the doctor in one hand mouth and hands duck taped and a roll of duck tape in the other. “I’m Terra, this is Anna, and Ferra, Bonnie’s sisters, and that’s her little brother Ricky.” The blue haired, blue eyed, tattooed mess of a beautiful woman says beckoning to all the people now gathered in the room.

“I didn’t know Bonnie had sisters? She only mentioned a brother.” I say through a hoarse voice, I’ll admit it, I was up all night crying my eyes out over Bonnie’s seemingly lifeless body all the while begging god almighty to let her live a little longer and to take me instead.

“Yeah we aren’t related by blood, Ferra is her oldest step sister, her mother’s step daughter from a previous marriage. Anna is her best friend since kindergarten Michael adopted her for a few years, and I’m her best friend since high school, she adopted me as a sister.” Terra explains as she kneels down in front of me with a bobby pin and an L wrench, she takes a few seconds to prod both metal pieces into the lock on the handcuffs which quickly drop away from my wrist.

“Are you breaking us out of prison? That a felony you know.” I remind the electric blue haired woman. “Yeah well, after talking to your manager and finding out what happened we figure you can get us all off the hook. Okay Blondie, get up!” Anna says smacking Bonnie’s cheeks then poking her shoulder repeatedly.

“Can’t I die in peace!” I hear Bonnie’s voice shout in a raspy way as her cuffed hand attempts to smack her middle sister. “Nope, you’re not allowed to die yet. I’m not letting you, come one, get up.” Anna continues as Terra works on unlocking Bonnie’s hand cuffs.

When the cuffs are gone Bonnie’s hand flies up to smack Anna in the face, the blonde leaps back glaring at Bonnie. “Well your welcome for the jailhouse escape.” Anna snaps rubbing her sore cheek; Bonnie sits up to look directly at me.

“Barrette.” She breathes a sigh of relief as she forces through the pain and onto her feet. “She shouldn’t be leaving yet.” The doctor garbles through his duck taped mouth; Bonnie looks at him with a determination in her eyes that burns hotter than any wildfire ever seen before. Her sister’s see the look and take a step back. “It’s going to take a little more than a jab to the kidneys for me to be killed.” Bonnie says, there’s a sultry touch to her voice now that can only be described as leather and lace, like Jessica Rabbit.

“Barrette, where’s my clothes?” Bonnie demands, Anna vanishes into the bathroom placed conveniently in the corner only to return moments later with the silken blue dress that Bonnie picked out herself back at the store she was stabbed in. “You two have a Mississippi party to crash and less than two hours to get there…and I hate to be the bearer of bad news but. You’re car is no longer, we managed to get everything out before the police impounded it but your car is in a high security impound lot.” Anna informs, Bonnie glowers furiously at the news.

“Someone better get my car back.” Bonnie says in a tizzy as she stomps over to the bathroom to get dressed.

It doesn’t take very long to get out of the hospital, in fact the place is so relaxed for guards that we literally walked out the front exit unnoticed. But that still leaves us with one minor problem, if you think about it, is a huge problem.

“Anna, the brown noise is not going to get us very far.” Bonnie says looking at Anna’s dilapidated brown car. “Her name isn’t the brown noise, it’s the brown thing. And she made it from LA to Mississippi didn’t it?” Anna says. “She’s right we’re going to need something less conspicuous while you guys get her car out of impound.” I interject the bickering sisters who might I add almost look like twins with their hair color aside.

“Children?” A man’s voice interrupts over the rumbling of a powerful car engine. “Dad? What are you doing out here?” Bonnie scoffs looking over to our left where her dad is parked, the man before me is almost entirely bald underneath a green and yellow foot ball logoed hat on his head. His beard has grown in to look like a goat’s tail, his form is hunched, but he’s well built, still muscular for man his age. I see where Bonnie get’s her eye color from, her father whose eyes are just a few shades lighter than her own. There’s a tattoo on his arm that tells me he is a retired militant, and the way he carries himself says he’s a fellow motorcyclist.

“My kid was in trouble, and her car was grounded. I’m here to rescue you and prince charming here.” Her father says stepping out of a silver colored nineteen sixty seven Chevy Camero SS. “Hello sir, I’m Barrette Green.” I introduce myself formally outstretching a handshake to the man, he accepts the gesture. “Jack Parker.” He says taking note of the many biker rings on my hand. “Fellow rider, at least I know she’s in good hands.” Jack comments releasing the handshake, Bonnie sighs stepping between the two of us.

“So you come to rescue me in granddad’s Camero?” Bonnie interrupts focusing on our next mission rather than mine and her father’s introduction. It’s obvious she doesn’t care what her father thinks of me. “Alex is down with his big rig picking up the mustang as we speak, and this isn’t your grandfather’s set of wheels. It’s yours, so get in and get this over with.”  Jack orders, Bonnie looks at him with a treacherous beaming smile on her face.

“No problem.” She says with a voice that sounds like a pyromaniac asked to burn down a fire department. I give her father a curt as a farewell as I walk around the front end to the passenger’s seat and slide in. Looking at the interior I’m impressed to see two leather race bucket seats equip with five point harnesses and a reinforced roll cage around us. This car is obviously built for racing.

Before Bonnie has the chance to move the car Anna, and Ferra step forward with our belongings that was ever present in the mustang. Bonnie reaches down to the trunk latch and the back end pops open, both girls place our belongings in the trunk before slamming it closed once more.

“And, kiddo?” Jack says tapping the window frame, Bonnie looks up at him. “I’m proud of you, your grandfather didn’t even get this far. Remember this as well, fifteen hundred ponies, so keep it in line.” Jack says to Bonnie who goes from bemused to Cheshire grin on a dime. “Thanks daddy.” She says in a childlike voice before doing her normal stunt of peeling out of the parking lot.

 “Yowza!” Bonnie screams as her car screams onto the freeway, thankfully it’s later on in the night around seven so there are not very many people traveling around right now. My hand instinctively finds the, oh no, handle of the door as Bonnie shifts into full gear. Her foot goes down to the floor; the car gives a mighty roar as it lurches forward. Bonnie reaches down to the radio and cranks it up full blast, I wonder if her father or her grandfather did the work on this beast because everything about the car is beyond my expectations of any mechanic. Top notch paint, top notch interior, top notch sound system, everything about the car almost seems better than factory made.

“Yeehaw!” Bonnie’s approving hillbilly shriek rips through the car as she high speed drifts around the surface street corner heading directly