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

myself for hurting Heather the way I did, she had him first, and I took him away unfairly.

“Bonnie! Come on! Quit standing there skulking! We’ve got to go try on all our dresses!” Anna shouts out to me, looking back over to her I see that Barrette has her over one shoulder and Ferra over the other. “What did I get myself into? Four sisters that have the maturity level of preschoolers?” Barrette grumbles as he dumps Ferra into the back seat on one side then Anna on the opposite with the more mature, much younger Terra separating the two. “She started it.” Ferra says to Barrette who’s already in the driver’s seat of the cougar just as I’m slipping into the passenger’s seat.

“Did not.” Anna chuckles maniacally. “Anna, we all know you started it. I watched you hit Ferra first.” Barrette informs as he leans against the center piece separating him and I so that he can drape his arm over my shoulders. “Ha-ha.” My thirty year old oldest sister teases my twenty two year old middle sister. “Brat.” Anna sneers causing Terra to groan with clear and distinct distaste for being left as referee to this argument. “Stupid face.” Ferra replies. “Girls!” Barrette shouts over the two. “You sure you still want to jump into having kids after the honeymoon?” I say to Barrette reminding him in a way that twins and girls run in my side of the family, so much that it over powers the male genetics.

“Yep, god pray that we don’t have twin girls.” Barrette replies sure set that he wants kids immediately, I don’t blame him there is a very large age difference between the two of us. Not that it’s been a problem at all in the last two years we’ve officially been a couple. “Yeah, knowing Bonnie’s luck you’ll mirror identical quintuplets, all girls.” Anna gives the horrific idea and throws it right in my face reminding ‘me’ of my grandmother back in the eighteen nineties who did have mirror quintuplet girls. “Anna.” Barrette says her name very simply. “Yes?” Anna replies trying to sound adorable. “Shut up, or you can walk home.” Barrette says, all of us finally fall silent and peaceful until Terra has to go and make things awkward by resting her head on my shoulder and inadvertently Barrette’s forearm.

“I hate you three.” I sigh wishing that Barrette had of waited longer to bring them out, my eyes suddenly go wide when I realize that if they are here then… “My entire family is here, aren’t they?” I yelp fearfully thinking of the many redneck faces that will be under the same roof. “Oops, did I buy to many plane tickets?” Barrette says. “Sorry, not sorry.” He adds a second later. “Yeah the family is at home waiting for you to come back.” Terra informs then looks at me curiously. “Why were you all the way down at the park?” She asks, I ignore the question to reply to Terra’s comment about the family being at the house.

“That’s if there’s still a house to go back to, you left my insane hillbilly family in a house filled with guns and explosives.” I say sarcastically, Barrette’s foot lowers on the gas pedal a little more urging the car up over the cruising speed of fifty miles an hour.

“Bonnie?” I hear Barrette calling out for me. “No, let me sleep.” I whisper in a pleading tone, I hear a confused and somewhat sad sigh from the waking world. “Marcus just posted on TheChat we are two hours away from Lynyrd falls Mississippi we need to move before Devon finds us.” Barrette urges gently, with a depressed sigh of my own I open my eyes shattering the dream I never wanted to wake from. Barrette is crouched down beside my side of the wannabe bed that is surprisingly really comfy considering this is hay we were sleeping on.

“Alright, I’m awake.” I announce as I throw back the blanket hesitating long enough for Barrette to move before I step to my feet. “I let you sleep in until ten but we need to move, Devon should be catching up fairly quickly and we still need to get into Clapton to get food and fuel up. Plus I’m thinking I should get a couple magazines for the Kimbers.” Barrette says as I start to fold the blanket back up, I look up at him to see he still holds the loving look in his eyes that he did last night. “Whatever, we can make the stop. I’m driving though, so we’ll be there in no time.” I say to Barrette who looks a little downed that even after our moment last night I have not changed at all. I don’t discuss things and I definitely still do not ask permission.

“I’ll go start the car.” Barrette announces then jumps from the loft down into the hay pile below. “Barrette, is now a good time to be taking unneeded risks? Neither of us needs you accidentally impaling yourself on a pitch fork or breaking a bone.” I call after him as if he were a child. “No worries, I’m alive.” Barrette replies sounding a bit acidic with his response like I offended him somehow by scolding him for goofing around. With the blanket folded and the pillow on the stack I stop a moment to reach up and stretch giving a huge tired yawn at the same time. Without even thinking about what I’m doing I retrieve the stack of bedding and turn around only to step directly off the edge of the loft, with a shriek I fall and thankfully land in the hay pile.

From the direction of my mustang I hear Barrette laughing uncontrollably as he approaches the spot I’m laying in. His face comes into my view and I glare up at him. “Not a word out of you!” I shout up at him. “Bonnie, I now a good time to be taking nose dives off of the hayloft? Neither of us needs you accidentally impaling yourself on a pitch fork or breaking a bone.” Barrette laughs then reaches down to give me a hand up, I accept his hand up. “Once again, quit using my words against me.” I say to Barrette once I’m on my own two feet and dusting hay off of my clothes.

“Well if you weren’t so grumpy all the time I wouldn’t have to.” Barrette replies taking the bedding from me to take it over to the car. “I’m not grumpy. Just pleasantly displeased with the world.” I explain with my own logic.

“Exactly you’re grumpy.” Barrette says sliding into the passenger’s seat just as I’m closing my car door. “Not grumpy.” I reply trying to sound happy. “Bonnie I know you, you’re always a crab apple.” Barrette replies. “Okay, now I’m irritated. Thanks for ruining my good mood, Barrette.” I bicker back as I reverse the Mustang out of the bar.

“No Bonnie, you’re just using me as an excuse to say your grumpy. It’s a common vote that you are always in a bad mood, even your sisters agree with me on that.” Barrette returns the bickering tone. “Oh, so your bringing my sisters into this now? Huh, wonderful!” I squeak back. “Don’t even go there Bonnie you know I didn’t mean it like that.” Barrette says holding a childish banter to his tone.

“You’re the one who mentioned my sisters.” I reply as I drive off down the dirt road that leads out onto the freeway.

Chapter 17

 

On the run chapter 17

East bound and going down

Bonnie’s perspective

“You are a very strange woman, Bonnie Parker.” Barrette comments on the eighties disco music playing from my music player.  We are rolling down the freeway headed towards the Georgia border. Barrette has become increasingly happy the closer we get to Georgia. I’ve watched his mood go from angry, to neutral, to excited, to entirely ecstatic in a matter of three days time. Me on the other hand, the closer we move towards Georgia, the more nervous and panicky I become, I know that once we hit Georgia all hell is going to break loose. My biggest concern isn’t about myself; in fact I’m not really all that worried about Barrette either. After his loving words last night by the pond I know we will both be okay, my greater concern is about the innocent citizens that will end up caught in the final battle.

Floyd, Louisiana ended up with a death toll of one hundred and four people by the end of Devon’s contemptible march through the town. Him and his men shot down or blew up all of the people on the death toll list, and I still feel somehow equally as guilty as Devon. Perhaps if I was driving that night we would have reached Floyd that much sooner and perhaps eliminated such a massive disaster to an undeserving town full of otherwise innocent people.

“I get bored with certain music sometimes, sorry. Besides, we’ve listened to that CD eighteen times since the Mississippi border.” I reply all the while searching every car passing us by as well as watching the rearview mirror adamantly looking for Devon or Hugo, two people we really do not want to deal with right now. “Seriously though Bonnie? Wild Cherry, your taste in music is sometimes cringe worthy?” Barrette continues his teasing when my cell phone gives a loud shrill chirp, a sound it’s never made before causing me to jump well out of my seat and Barrette to actually cringe at the noise.

“What the hell was that?” Barrette all but shouts at me as if this new obnoxious noise was my fault. I make swift work of finding my phone only to see that Rodney’s name is on the caller ID as an incoming call. I flip the phone open and hit the answer key. “What did you do to my phone?” I demand of Rodney who just laughs at my angry voice coming through to his end of the line. “Is that disco music I hear?” Rodney comments in a very disgusted manner, I give a deep eye roll of my own being slightly more dramatic than called for when I reach over to turn the radio off.

“This better be important.” I say once there is silence in the car, Barrette looks over at me with concern written into his expression. “I have good, bad, and terrible news.” Rodney explains first off being standoffish as if he really doesn’t want to even call me to begin with. “Bad news first.” I say pinching the bridge of my nose. “Bad news is that Devon Morgan has just opened a new offshore account, terrible news is that a man named Ross Byrd the Duke of Austria, Sir Lukas Kelmendi just purchased a plane ticket to the air port you will be passing in say fifteen minutes? Him coming to the states with suspicion of attack on US people is considered a terrorist threat so we hacked into his phone. There are e-mails going back and forth between him and Devon Morgan talking plans of murdering Barrette and taking you back to Austria to become wife of Luka’s