- Run to the right. Make as wide a curve as you can and let’s meet further ahead. Avoid snow as much as possible.
I go left, planning to make a curve, too and trying not to step on snow to not avoid leaving footprints, that they will be able to track. Whatever is going on here, I just know, that getting caught will mean death to me and the boy.
What’s that sound? A helicopter? There’s an abandoned building, let’s hide there for a moment.
It’s actually firing at me! Fuck! One of the bullets hits my arms just a bit below the inner side of elbow. Seems more like a graze, but bleeds a lot. Can’t stop though. Not now when there is a rocket coming my way. Isn’t that an overkill?
There are people here among the houses! Why do they look so calm, even though there were explosions? What if they are involved somehow? I am out of breath, so I won’t have much time, need to be quick. I hold my breath to become invisible and pass the crowd.
I get to the house, where we agreed to meet. I run up to second floor. What the hell? There are 2 men at the desk there. One of them is bald with strange eyes: what usually is white is dark-red and iris is white as paper. The other has a face burnt to 2 thirds, parts of lips missing, but hair is mostly intact or so it looks.
- Oh, finally. – says the burnt one. – I can’t help you if you do not arrive, you know.
- What are you talking about?
- Don’t listen to him, - says the Eye. – It’s his goons that are after you. I am the one who will help you escape.
- No, you’re not. It was your helicopter.
- Hijacked by your men.
- Inconsequential.
- What the hell? How did you find me here? – I ask.
- Inconsequential. Come one, take the gun and kill him. – burnt one points to the gun on the table, that was not there a moment ago.
- What?
- Idiot. If you kill me, you won’t leave this place alive. Kill him, so there won’t be anyone to give orders.
I take the gun and point it on burnt man and then the Eye, then burnt one again, then the Eye…
- What the hell is going on here?
- Relax, - says the burnt man. – But hurry up, since your time is running out. You will need to choose soon.
- What?
- That wound on your arm – it’s the timer. It hits zero and you’re dead with no hope to escape that.
I look down on the wound from the bullet the helicopter has left and see a timer. Yellow digits counting down and already past 1 minute. This can’t be real. How could my wound turn into a clock? I don’t believe any of them is here to help. There are here to confuse me, and to kill us. How would this clock know that I have killed any of them? Well, since I am dead anyway… I put the gun to my mouth.
- What are you doing? You need to kill one of us, not yourself.
It will be fine. The boy is smart, he’ll figure it out even without me. But what if no? I drop down the gun, stare at the clock. 20 seconds left. Will it really kill me? How will it kill me? 10 seconds left. This must be just a bad dream, nothing more. 3… 2… 1…
I am in a place made out of Lego blocks: floor is blue, walls are, too. There are tables along the walls with stuff on them. I look at my hands and feet – I am a Lego man, too. Seems like one in pirate clothing.
There is a shark after me! I run, climb on one of the tables and then jump all over the place in panic, because this is not real, and I need to get out. The only thing, that leads out is a tube like from Super Mario Bros. I jump in.
I am back to what seems the real world now. Same place where I split from the boy, but he is nowhere to be found. There seems to be no pursuit, too. I return to the house and find him sitting in the corner crying softly. I calm him down. I need to get him away from this world.