"Where's your proof?" the policeman asked. We thought for a moment. I stood up. "Stand up," I told Taylor. "What?" he asked. "Just stand up," I said. He stood up. "Turn around," I told him. He turned around. I pulled up the back of his shirt. The scars from the whips were still there. "There you go," I said to the policeman. He had a look. After a while, he left the room. We sat dwon again. "Things couldn't get any worse," I moaned. "They just did," Taylor said. I looked up. Greg had just walked thrugh the front door. We ducked. Some policemen were trying to question him about us, and he was trying to see where we were. Taylor tried the door handle. It was locked. The police obviously didn't trust us. We looked for Greg again. He was sitting down with the policemen, taking glances around every now and then to see if he could see us. Then he looked over at the office we were in and we ducked.Taylor looked around the office. He crawled over to a desk, and picked up something off it. "A paperclip?" I asked. "Remember last time?" Taylor reminded me. He began to pick the lock. He soon had the door open. "We'll make a run for it," he said, and we began to crawl through the door. My leg suddenly hit a chair, which fell over with a loud clang!
As if by reflex, we got up and ran out the door as fast as we could. And, as if by reflex, Greg was straight up after us. We slammed the door as we ran through. There were four policemen sitting in the yard, talking. Greg opened the door. "Stop them!" a policeman shouted. We ran to the gate again, climbed over it, and jumped down. When we turned around, we found six of Greg's men waiting for us. We didn't have much time to think, the men were already after us, and the police were climbing over the gate. Plus, Greg appeared from the front door, and was on his way over to us. Realizing we were trapped, we waited for someone to get us. The men reached us first, and took us over to a car that Greg was already in, and shoved us in the back. The police were still running after us, and caught up with a couple of the men. Greg hit the automatic locking, and the locks slid down in place. Then the car sped off, with a couple of police cars in pursuit. Taylor tried the door. Greg was watching us through the rear vision mirror. We looked back at te police in pursuit. "Forget it," Greg began, "they're not going to catch us." Actually, Taylor and I were silently begging for them to catch up to us. We preferred being in that kind of trouble. At least it didn't involve life and death situations.
"Listen," Taylor began to whisper, "I'm going to hit the locking switch. You open the door and jump. Don't let the police get you." I looked back. The police were nearly out of sight anyway. "I'm not leaving you," I said sternly. "What are you whispering?" Greg asked. I hesitated, but went back to telling Taylor that I didn't trust him and Greg alone. "Do you want to die or not?" Taylor whispered urgently. I didn't answer. Instead, I put my hand on the door handle, ready to open it and jump. Taylor got ready to hit the locking switch. When Greg's arm moved away, Taylor's arm darted forward, and hit the switch. Immediately, my door flew open, and I fell out. I hit the ground hard, and rolled off the road. Greg hit the brakes, and the car skidded to a halt. I saw Taylor reach out and close the door. I hid in the bushes. After a hesitation, the car took off again. Then a hand fell on my shoulder, and I jumped.
When I turned, I saw... Rachel and Fabian! "What are you doing here?" I asked. "We could ask you the same thing," Rachel said, taking her hand off my shoulder. "How did you get away?" I asked. "Easy," Fabian laughed. "This guy's wife didn't know anything about it, so we told her we were going for a walk," Rachel explained. "And we never returned," Fabian said, with his eyes wide. "What just happened to you?" Rachel asked. "It's kind of a long story," I said. "Then don't tell us," Fabian said. "By the way, we're lost," Rachel exclaimed. "Where was he going?" Fabian asked, pointing in the direction that Greg had driven off. "Back to his house," I replied. "OK," Rachel said, and started walking in the indicated direction. "Where are you going?" I asked. Fabian looked equally confused. "Don't you want to save Taylor?" Rachel asked. "Yeah," I replied. "Well come on," she said, and started walking again. Fabian and I looked at each other, and ran to catch up to her. |
