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

“Yeah it’s a cheap lock.” Barrette shrugs back as I start loading six more armor piercing rounds into the gun. “Cover me.” I say to Barrette giving him no time at all to object as I leap out into the open and take aim at the padlock, I fire off a first shot that hits the lock but doesn’t break it. I fire three more shots as I bare down on the cellar door; finally, after six attempts the lock obliterates sending shrapnel scraps flying everywhere.

“There they are!” I hear someone shout, looking left I see the kid who ran away earlier point our direction with even more gooks behind him. “Run!” Barrette orders, he drags me straight to the cellar door. While he unravels the chain I cover his back and fire at the guards who are trying to get close enough to land a fatal gunshot to either me or Barrette, or both.

I take one last shot when Barrette reaches up and yanks me down into the cellar with me out of the way and out of harm’s way, he reaches up to close the doors. He reaches over to a nearby shovel and with more strength than I realized he had he snaps the head off a shovel to use the handle for a way to bar the door.

“no, no, no, no, please not yet.” I hear a quiet whimpering from somewhere further in the basement. “Mr. Hallway, I know you’re in here. My name is Bonnie Parker, if you tell me where Devon’s files are I will get you out of here alive.” I call out into the darkness.

“You already killed one Mayor and he gave you what you want.” Mr.Hallway replies from the far right corner of the room. “I didn’t kill him, Devon did. I know you don’t want to die here, so give me the files and I give you another chance to live. Otherwise I will start shooting until I hit you.” I threaten, I hear a hushed whimper from the old man, but finally a small light turns on, as I’d guessed Mr. Hallway is in the far right corner of the room clutching a brief case for dear life.

“Heh, heh, here. Ta…take them, take them and get that mad man away from me.” Mr. Hallway says holding the brief case out to me with arms so shaky you would think there was an earth quake happening in his corner of the room.

“Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnnie!” I hear moments after the storm cellar doors burst open and lights fills the basement. “Mark is there another exit in here?” Barrette asks running up to the Mayor, he nods and starts trembling towards a secondary set of stairs.

“Where are you going Bonnie?” I hear Devon closer than ever. “Bonnie let’s go!” Barrette shouts out to me, I start towards the stairs only to see Barrette is already at the top with the secret door opened and waiting for me to come out. Once I’m out him and the Mayor slam the door shut giving a slight sigh of relief we’ve evaded Devon.

“This way.” Barrette takes lead now towards the busted down front door, just as he gets to the door Devon steps in front blocking the door. Barrette thankfully has gained some reflexes throughout our journey and leaps back just narrowly being shot in the chest. I grab the mayor and shove him towards the noticeably open back door, by this point Barrette is up and dragging me after the Mayor to the back door. We make it through the door when I plant my feet firmly on the ground making Barrette stop in his tracks. “Bonnie what are you doing, let’s go?” He urges with such an adoring urgency that I want to listen.

“Barrette, I promised you I’d get you out of this, I would stop Devon if it was the last thing I did. Take the brief case and run back to the car, I’ll be there shortly. If I don’t stop Devon now I may not ever get the chance to again, I won’t get a third chance.” I say to Barrette.

“Bonnie, he will follow us, he wants us dead. Please, come with us we’ll figure it out-

“Go, Barrette! Go now!” I scream as I thrust the brief case into his chest, he takes it but needs another hard shove to get him to run on without me. “I love you.” I say after him, he looks back disbelievingly almost as if he isn’t sure if what he heard is what I said. Thankfully though, he does not turn back he just keeps going.

I sense Devon directly behind me and whirl around just in time to block his down swinging hand. As soon as his wrist is in my hand I kick him where the sun doest shine causing him to collapse to the ground. Another swift kick to the ribs has him reeling back with pain.

“Go ahead and kill me Bonnie, you’ve got everything you need to get out of the murder charges.” Devon says, his voice is winded and pained. “Oh no, I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to beat you senseless, turn you and the evidence over to the police and let you rot in prison. And all that money you stole is going to go back to the families you destroyed with your tyranny.” I say swinging my fist down into his face breaking his nose, splitting his lip, and busting his cheek with the impact.

When my hand swings away Devon is laughing. “Either way, I win, I go to prison and I still live, no justice for the poverty stricken and the forgotten. If I die, I get all the riches I could ever want.” Devon laughs then starts to cough up blood, I pummel my fist into his face a few more times. I’m about to go for a fourth strike when I hear Michael’s voice.

Looking up at the back door where me, Barrette, and Mayor ran from I see Michael standing there holding my old shot gun. If that is not terrifying enough for me, I see his equally evil family standing behind; all three of his brothers are behind him each with their own guns.

“Make your choice Bonnie, run, or leave me here. Trust me, if you leave, this isn’t over, I will not stop until you and your boy toy is dead.” Devon groans, I stand up abruptly and fire one shot directly at Michael just as cops come running around from either side of the house.

The shot I fired at Michael strikes him directly in the heart, he falls to the ground dead, the cops that rounded the corner have guns drawn on the rest of the Dastard boys all except for eight of them who have guns aimed at me. “This isn’t over Devon Morgan!” I shout as I turn tail and run into the house next door, the eight cops with guns trained on me decide to chase after. By the time they get in the door I just passed through I’m out the other side over the fence and running down the alley way Barrette and I used earlier.

Exiting out of the alley way I see more cops who are too busy checking pulses to notice the fugitive woman in their presence. Looking to the Camero I see Barrette standing outside of the driver’s side, his fingers thrumming on the roof nervously as he searches for me.

“There’s the fugitive! Take her down!” The cops are after me shout, but I’m already running as fast I can, the gash in my right side from Michael stabbing me is throbbing from how fast my blood is pumping, and the gunshot wound to my arm is bleeding again.

“Barrette!” I shout out, his focus trains from the direction of the Mayors house to me, as soon as he spots the cops chasing me he dives into the car and starts it up, with the car started he reaches over and opens my door allowing me just enough time to jump in and slam it before he’s driving out of the dirt turn off we parked in. The cops shoot after us proving only to shoot out the back windshield, thankfully by the grace of god the on ramp going back towards Georgia is close by and the bridge for traffic going the opposite direction thoroughly blocks anymore gun fire.

“Bonnie are you okay?” Barrette asks frantically, he looks over at me to see my side is bleeding again but not nearly as bad as it was before. “Yeah, I just ripped open a few stitching beating the stupid out of Devon, but ya know what?” I reply as I pull off my black T shirt to press against the wound.

“What?” Barrette asks still sounding worried. “You can’t fix stupid, that SOB got away, Michael and his brother ran up, I shot Michael in the chest, and the cops took off after me.” I groan giving my best effort to catch my breath. “Is this over? Is Devon dead?” The mayor whom I forgot was with us, asks from the back seat. “It’s not over, Devon swore he wouldn’t stop till we were dead.” I sigh as my heart starts to settle.

On the Run chapter 12

Home again

Barrette’s perspective

“Bonnie Parker, Barrette Green, this is Rodney he’s from the Los Angeles branch of the FBI. He’s the person you want to present all of that evidence to.” Montgomery says as he enters the only interrogation room with an FBI agent behind him. “Bonnie, Barrette, you two have been on quite the crime spree in the last three weeks.” Agent Rodney says taking a seat at the table across from us.

“All for good reason I hear.” Rodney adds as he sets one huge brief case on the table and opens it, inside is all of the information from the different Mayors we robbed. “Devon Morgan, what a character. Now I read Bonnie’s letter, I read yours, but there is one thing that was never mentioned.” Rodney speaks as he closes the brief case again.

“What’s that sir?” Barrette wonders. “Why did you two decide to go after Devon, why not just call the police?” Rodney asks but he aims the question at me. “Well Rodney, my day started out simple enough, I ran away from Michael Dastards home, got to my father’s house and then decided to go visit my grandfather’s grave…

 As Bonnie starts launching into a more detailed story of how this whole thing started I slump forward finally falling asleep. Somehow, between me and Bonnie taking turns driving we made it from Louisiana back to my home town in Georgia within three days. We immediately went to Montgomery gave him all evidence and turned Mr. Mark Hallway over to him before Bonnie and I were both handcuffed and locked in this jail cell slash interrogation room.  Her and I didn’t sleep at all last night either because we had to stay up and write to Rodney in detail what happened and why.

“Barrette? Barrette.” I hear Bonnie calling my name only seconds after I close my eyes, I lift my head to