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!
