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“Now what?” I mutter to myself.
Now what to everything…
Keyingham didn’t have a bus, and the last train went through at ten. I had no phone, no wallet, no jacket, and no fucking underwear.
With a sigh, I come to a stop, wrapping my arms around myself. I’m still hot from running, but my skin is ice cold to the touch. Sleepy town or not, I can’t stay out here like this. I can see my breath in the air, and the sidewalk is sparkling with ice crystals. If I head back now, I might make it to the house before Syn’s curfew, and if not, I can spend the night in a classroom.
I turn on the spot, just as I hear a low rumble. There are heavy clouds in the night sky, but it’s not thunder. It’s a car engine. Or several. The kind of engine that comes with a high-performance car that so many students at JKU have. In the distance, I can see pinpricks of headlights.
My heart seems to leap into my throat.
The drivers are coming here looking for me.
If students were going to leave campus, they’d have done it long before now. There’s an Elite party in full swing, and no one’s leaving that. Not unless they’re told to.
Which means whoever is in those cars are here under Syn’s orders.
So, I turn and run, bolting around the first corner. As I get to the end of the block, I hear cars passing the top on the main street I’d only just been on. Rounding the corner, I swerve into the parking lot of one of the few cafes in town and duck down behind the wall.
My options are limited.
There are only a few stores around the town square like cafes and a pizza place. There’s a fire station, and the police station… but if I were chasing someone, I’d make sure to have people waiting outside them.
Main Street will eventually lead to the next, larger town, where there’s a Walmart, a hospital, and a lot more options to hide, but that’s a few miles with no cover. The other roads that spiral off are residential. Maybe I could find a garage that’s been left unlocked.
I close my eyes and concentrate. Whoever’s hunting me is doing so in cars with obnoxious engines, and the one advantage of this dead town is that the noise carries.
The Elite has about sixty members spread out across all four of the college years. If I assume the worst, Syn has sent all of them. There’s probably only half the student body with cars because, like Penny, they’ll just send for a service when they want to leave campus. Most with cars have the kind with no back seat.
If I was given the task of hunting me down, I’d split them into three. Keep some hunting on campus. I think Syn underestimates me and probably still thinks I’m at the university. But just in case, I’d send two groups off campus. Some headed left into Keyingham since it’s closer, but a few headed right in case I could make it to the next town.
Five cars, ten people? Maybe double that?
I’ve barely explored Keyingham other than Main Street, but I saw trees at the end of the street before I hid behind this wall. Oaks with thick trunks, and diligently maintained shrubbery give more places to hide than sticking to well-lit streets where most buildings sit on the sidewalk, and there are no cars to hide behind.
Certain there isn’t a car in the immediate area, I poke my head out from behind the wall and look to the trees. There’s no cover between here and the corner, but once I make it there, I should be okay.
Without wasting more time, I sprint across the road, wincing at the sound of my footsteps echoing around me. I don’t slow, and when I reach the corner, I’m relieved to see the buildings thinning out into fields, lined with low, stone walls. I quickly run across the road, scrambling over the stone wall, and then drop down behind it.
The grass on the other side is long, coarse, and poking at me between my legs, but before I can stand, I hear a car engine. Ignoring my discomfort, I stay low.
“Here doggy, doggy, doggy.”
I’m not sure if they’ve been saying that while they’ve driven through town, or if it’s because they saw me run in this direction. Even though my head is already below the wall, I drop to my hands and knees, and hold my breath.
The car moves slowly, but it doesn’t stop.
I wait until I can no longer hear the engine or their whistling before I slowly stand.
Which, of course, is when it starts to rain. A steady stream that’s not quite water, but not snow either, instantly cools my body from after running. For a brief moment, I consider staying here, making myself comfortable behind this wall, hoping I could wait out the morning.
It’s one thing to stay out in the cold, but being wet is going to make this a hundred times harder.
And I’m not ready to give up yet.
Keeping on this side of the wall, I run across the field until I reach the trees at the end. By now, most of them have lost their leaves, and they offer me little protection from the wintery rain. But with the clouds almost completely blocking any light, I’m stumbling over roots and whatever else lines the ground.
At this rate, I’m going to trip and break my leg, and then I’ll really die out here.
