Them

Chapter Fourteen:

The Chase

Jessica

Luis, Gregory, Kal and I made the jump. I thought we were going to slip on ice and fall to our death. The only person who did slip on ice was me, and that was when we landed on the next building. My knees hit the ice pretty hard but Luis brought me to my feet and was pushing me to keep running and jumping to the roofs of other buildings. Luis lets go of my waist and I'm guessing he thinks I can run on my own now. My thigh still hurts badly but I ignore the pain and keep looking forward. As for Luis, he kept looking back, and good thing he did because a hunter had thrown an axe at him.

Luis ducks and slides on the ice but gets back on his feet, still running. I peek behind me and blink many times to make sure what I was seeing was real. 7 men were chasing us and were amazingly catching up to us. One guy had his eyes on me and was getting too close. "Big one! Coming up!" Kal yells to us and jumps over a large space between the buildings and so did Gregory. Luis and I jump safely over it and so do the 7 hunters. I felt a his eyes sting on the back of my head and I knew he was close. I need to hurry up to catch up with Luis and the others but my thigh was throbbing. The pain was insane.

There was a downslope on this roof and I slid down on my back. What I didn't know about this downslope, is that at the very end of it, was a hole. My body breaks through the wooden boards that used to be nailed to cover the hole. As I was falling, I heard a distant voice yelling, "Down here!"

Two hunters fall into the hole as well and we come crashing down on piles of bagged rice. Our landing made a loud 'Slap' and the bags of rice under me broke and out came the rice. It spread all over the hard, cold floor and made the place look like a bigger mess than moments before. Hurriedly, I stood up and took a good look at my surroundings. There was food everywhere and my stomach growled louder than the ruckus the hunters were making in the pile of rice.

The grocery store was ridiculously huge and had many great places to hide but I didn't have time to hide at the moment.

A pair of footsteps were heard from behind me and I ran, skidding at a turn and found gallons of what is now, spoiled milk. I grabbed a jug of milk, uncapped the milk and spilled the liquid all over the floor, where the hunters would soon slip on. Ditching where I once was, I crouched behind a fruit stand and waited for the sounds of shoes squeaking. While I waited, I took the chance of taking some fruit that didn't look too rotten and packed them in my bag. If they kill me, they're going to go after the rest of us. It wouldn't be a fair fight and I would have failed them. I am not going to die so that Gregory would regret ever coming for me. I have to be brave.

Squeak. "Agh! Damn it!"

My head snapped up at the area of spilt milk. Only one hunter slipped on the milk, and his head hit the floor. He lost a little bit of blood from his head but got back up and took small steps towards my spot.

Think J, Think.

I turn my head around and I see it. A shopping cart, filled with fruit. It must be super heavy! I sprint to the shopping cart and knowing that the hunter saw me, I take out my knife from it's holster to defend myself. Using all my strength, I push the fruit filled shopping cart at the hunter. It crashed into him and he was knocked down to the floor, the fruit piled on top of him. Laughing, I spin around and bump into something hard. It was his chest. The hunters buff arms grabbed my wrist before I could stab him and pinned me to the floor.

His revolting breath swarmed around me as he spoke, "Hello sweet heart."

•
Luis

A rusty ladder stood on the side of the building and I took all my courage to climb down, knowing there was a huge possibility it might break. Midway down the ladder, I felt it shake under my hands and feet and I look above me. Down the ladder with me went Gregory and then Kal.