Just Keep Running

Chapter 19 Out of Time

TW: Mention of gun

"You found them?" Daniel asked skeptically. John nods, "When you were on the phone with them I tracked the location of where the call was from but after they hung up they destroyed the phone but I think that we have a good idea of where they are." John states. "And where would that be?" Asked Daniel. "The woods." John replied. "In a cabin Luke bought quite a while ago just in case something happened I guess." he finished. "The cabin! Yes I remember Luke talking about that when he first bought it, he didn't say too much about it he just said that it was in the woods somewhere." Daniel said, remembering a bit. John nods. "Well go get them!" Daniel exclaimed. John nodded and left back down the stairs of the roof. Annie was shaking in fear of them finding Maddie and Luke. "Annie, don't worry I'll make it quick." Daniel said, trying to calm her down. "Why do you have to do all of this, why can't everything just go back to how it was, Maddie and I were happy and now she's hurt and you're gonna make her kill us, then what Daniel huh! Then what are you gonna make her do! kill everyone she comes across, everyone that looks at her funny, everyone she ever knew that was mean to her!" She yelled, trembling in fear. "Annie-" He tried to walk closer to her and reason with her but she cut him off. "NO! Daniel don't touch me, I don't want Maddie to have to do anything bad and I know that she doesn't want to do those things either because I know her more than you ever will and she is a sweet and kind girl she doesn't want to hurt anyone but people don't like her and she tries to ignore them and then and only then does she get mean and mad then you know what happens! I get called into the office for her fighting with another student when she and I know damn well that other kid stated all of it! Where have you been for that Daniel where have you been huh! Getting drunk and killing people? Because if you think that I'm gonna let you kill me and have my daughter watch willingly you got another thing coming for you!" She yelled, out of breath. Daniel sighed and stepped back processing what Annie said. He then grabs her hand gently and she jerks away at first then lets him take her hand in his and Together, they approach the edge of the roof, looking out into the dark night sky with the sounds of honking cars and sirens beneath them. Annie shivers from the slight chill in the air. Daniel takes off his jacket and places it on her shoulders, then gives her a slight smile. "Thanks." She mutters, then looks back out into the night sky. He just nodded and stood next to her watching the stars in the night sky. 

"Get some sleep Maddie." Luke tells me. He gets off the couch and walks into the kitchen and grabs a glass then fills it with water. I nod and lay down on the couch. He walks over to me and sets the glass down on the table next to me and places a blanket over me then walks away. I lay my head on a pillow that was on the couch and start to fall asleep, I see Luke walk up the stairs and then I fall asleep. A few hours later I feel someone shake me awake. I wake up. "Wake up Maddie." Luke says in a panicked tone. "I'm up." I reply half asleep. "We got to go." He tells me. "Wait why I thought we were safe here." I ask sitting up. "So did I but I was wrong so we gotta go!" He told me in a panic as he helped me up off the couch and led me near the stairs. He crouched down and opened a door that was under a rug. "Come on, get in!" He told me. "Okay, okay." I Responded, walking down the stairs that were under the door. I turned around and Luke handed me a flashlight. He stood up and looked at me. "I'll be right back, just stay there." He said. I nodded. He walked away and came back a minute later with a shotgun. He grabbed the rope that was attached to the door and climbed down the stairs behind me. There was a loud bang when Luke closed the door and I gasped. "Hey, hey it's okay, turn the flashlight on Maddie." Luke said as he strapped the gun around his torso. I nodded and turned the flashlight on and we walked down the stairs. When we got to the bottom of the stairs Luke walked in front of me. I looked around the basement, the walls and the ground were made of concrete. There was a small window where very little light was coming through. I heard a loud bang come from above us and I gasped, Luke looked at me and put a finger over his mouth signaling to be quiet. I nodded as we kept walking, as we were walking there was a small window we were walking towards. "Turn off the flashlight." Luke whispered. I nodded and turned it off. As we got closer to the window we heard a voice come from outside. We hid under the window and listened to what the voice was saying. "Goddammit, it's John." I heard Luke mumble under his breath. We heard John walk away, Luke then grabbed my hand and led me to another set of stairs that led to outside. "Okay Maddie, I'm gonna open this door and you're gonna go up the stairs and run okay?" He tells me. "But what about you?" I say. He sighs and looks down and the ground for a moment before looking back at me. "Don't worry about me, okay kiddo? I'll be fine just run, run out into the woods okay? I'll find you I promise then we will go save Annie okay?" He says. I nod. He opens the door and I take off running out into the woods. I look back to see Luke walk around to the front of the house with the shotgun in his hands heading towards John. He looks at me for a moment and yells "Keep running!" I nod with tears in my eyes and the last thing I see is John's head snap around at the sound of Luke's voice then I see Luke run towards him and hit John with the gun. I turn back around and keep running with tears running down my face.   

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