Stolen!

Dammit!  Shit! Shit! Shit!

I shouldn’t have stolen it! 

They’re getting closer, I can hear them as I run along the streets, pushing people out of the way, dodging around others who are constantly looking down at their damned phones and around seats and bins that seem to pop out of the ground like a Super-Mario Game.

I had dumped the friggin’ car, so why didn’t they want that?  Why are they after me?  I turn a corner only to find more of them…

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! 

Backing away, I find another my way across the Mall into a building and up a steep flight of stairs.  We pass a second-hand record store with some loud, blaring heavy metal… my knees are killing me, but keep on going… the amount of feet behind me double as they follow me up there!

There are other businesses we pass – internet cafés, an Asian bookstore, karaoke bar – and all of them we ignore as I try to leave the pack of blue dogs behind me!

Shit, it was just a damned car!  I didn’t smash it up, there wasn’t anything bad in it…

…was there?

I come to the top of the stairs where there’s a hallway and I pick a direction quickly without thinking.  I pick left… why did I go left? 

Dammit!

I find the door to the roof, shove it open and end up evacuating the damn building because it set off the alarm!  Running across the roof, I notice the next building isn’t as far away as I thought it was going to be.  I pick up speed, step up onto the edge and jump! As I clear the space in between, I hear shouts to stop!  To come back!

Ha! Ha, too bad suckers!

I land hard, twisting my ankle, rolling onto my shoulder, whacking my head hard.  Stars twinkle in my vision for a few moments as I push myself to stand and keep going. 

Their voices are shouting at me to stop. 

I don’t.

Shaking the sudden solar system of stars from orbiting my head, I limp away from them to the door of the roof I’m on. 

It’s locked.

The fire escape is nearby, and so I make my way to it, look down and find that I’m surrounded from below.  There’s red and blue lights flashing off the buildings and I can see dogs running with their trainers waiting for me to climb down, to corner me… to hold me down until the boys in blue slip on my very own, personal pair of steel bracelets; and they’ll put them on just that little too tight.

“Dammit!” I whisper into the dying day hanging onto the top of the ladder of the fire escape to watch the antics below of the tiny people and animals. 

“Come down!” One calls over a loud speaker, “We’ll keep the dogs away from you.  We just have some questions, that’s all.”

Frowning, I tilt my head to the side a little.  This is a lot of hoopla for just a few questions. 

I don’t believe a word of it. 

I turn away from the fire escape but don’t get far.  As I put weight on my twisted ankle, pain shoots up my leg and to my knee and I collapse to the ground!  Checking my right foot, I find it’s swollen up against my shoe and sock, throbbing like hell!… my jeans feel tight around it too.

Dammit, it’s broken!

“So what will it be?” the voice calls from the street, from over the edge of the building behind me, “Will you come down?”

There’s got to be another way out of here.  I push myself off the ground and force my feet to walk  – as painful as it is - to the roof door where I thought I saw it move in the evening breeze.  As I approach it, I find I’m right.  Pushing it open, I wonder if I should trust it; seeing it was locked before, but before I can make a decision, a couple of pairs of hands grab my arms and I’m pulled into the darkness of the stairwell!