“Well, Tyler… you don’t look too happy to see us, my friend.” The tall one spoke. His voice was deep, low and rumbling in his chest. His words barely articulated through his gritting teeth. I thought I detected a southern accent, maybe Texas…?
“What are you doing here? I have three days,” Tyler said.
“Yeah, I don’t know about that. You had three days about five days ago. I guess your math is worse than we thought.”
“No, I’ve talked to the boss. He knows I’m a man of my word.”
The smaller one who was still about six feet three and two hundred twenty pounds stepped forward. “He is impatient. He has things going on. It’s time to make this happen.”
“Now, if you aren’t ready to make it happen,” the bigger one said. “Then you are shit out of luck.”
“Maybe we can take it out of her, and get an extension…” The one in the middle finally spoke. He was eyeballing me up and down. His hair was shoulder length, blonde, and he had a crooked smile with a few days scruffy beard on his throat.
I felt my heart leap into my chest.
“Over my dead body,” Tyler growled through gritted teeth as he stepped in front of this man.
The man chuckled and shoved Tyler, who had braced himself. He barely moved. Tyler answered back with a quick jab and then a hard right to the solar plexus. The man doubled over in pain.
“Run!” Tyler yelled at me.
He then turned to throw a right cross at the tall man. The man sidestepped it and punched Tyler right in the face. I heard bone crunching as if his nose had been shattered. I gasped as I saw Tyler stumble. He wasn’t going to his feet though. He threw his left leg out towards the other man and kicked him hard in the stomach. The man doubled over, but he kept coming after him.
Tyler looked at me again. He screamed. “Run! Now!”
Instinct took over and through my fear I found the ability to move my legs. I had to get help. I turned and ran from the scene. I felt like a coward but I knew there was nothing I could do except become a victim, too. Too…? Tyler was going to die, wasn’t he? I thought so. Somehow this realization hit me all at once as I ran.
I was just about to turn the corner off the sidewalk and down towards a main road that would lead to the highway when I turned back. I wish to hell I hadn’t. I saw that Tyler was now on his knees. He was looking up as if recovering from a blow. The bigger man was stepping backwards, taking his time. Suddenly, he pulled something out of his pocket. A knife. A large knife. Shit!
He grabbed Tyler by the hair and then plunged the blade into his chest. Tyler made a loud, guttural sound like he was drowning.
Then he slumped to the ground. I saw blood all over the sidewalk.
“Tyler!” I screamed. I couldn’t help it. I was too terrified to move.
The men looked up at me. The smaller one was staggering to his feet holding his stomach. The big man pointed at me with the bloody knife. “Get her.”
The men began to lumber after me.
I took off like a bat out of hell running as fast as my legs would carry me. I tried to forget about Tyler’s death and what I had seen. I had to keep the fear out of my head or it would tense my muscles and just slow me down. I had to keep going. I couldn’t look back. I could hear them yelling at me and their footsteps gaining. I had to be faster.
I closed my eyes and remembered my track days from high school and college. I’m five feet eight and athletic, slender but muscular. I’ve always been able to run like a gazelle and I received a college scholarship (partial) for track. Right now, I needed every bit of that speed.
I went somewhere in my mind, back to a place where I was one of the fastest runners on the team. I closed my eyes and put myself there so that I could run as fast as I possibly could. I felt my feet barely touching the ground, just the balls of my feet grazing the pavement and then back up in the air, my steps large and light, and my arms pumping as fast as possible. I controlled my breath to fuel my muscles and I ran even harder than I ever had before.
I saw the highway up ahead. Yes. I had to flag down a ride. I was too far from actual town to run there. The restaurant was kind of out of the way, part of its mystique.