The Story of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book One

Chapter Six

I heard a squeal of tires in the distance and turned my head towards the sound.

I have a number of childhood fears, dolls being the primary fear. Vans, however, come in second.  I think it's because this fear is drilled into each of our psyches through the fault of well-meaning parents and Hollywood. Clowns, creepy dolls, and vans are the modern-day triple threat.

So no matter how brave I thought I was, I was not immune to the moment of panic at the sight of someone driving towards me at high speed in a van - a menacing, black sprinter van. This automobile had sliding doors on each side panel, and both doors were open. A man, wearing a black stocking mask and holding a rifle, was hanging from the door closest to me. When I saw the gun,  I froze as flight and fight started arm-wrestling within me. Up to that point, I would not have thought there was a third option to the reflex, but then, no one had ever pointed a gun or rifle at me until that day. Finally, a high-pitched zing sounded at my ear, and Jace cried out from behind me. Adrian called out his name and crouched by him. I glanced back at the boy and saw a dart sticking from his chest.

The van was making a U-turn, so I turned and ran down the street. I may not have the best education, but no one could call me stupid.  While I applied all the speed I had in my body, my mouth compressed into a thin line.

Trying to run for your life on a busy San Francisco street, which was crowded with people even on a Monday, was like trying to ski through an overgrown forest in the middle of summer. As I wove through a thick snarl of tourists and shoppers, I dodged an old Chinese woman carrying bags of vegetables with a twist of my body but collided with an obese man carrying a grape slushy. When the drink splattered all over me, I exclaimed as the purple slurry of ice made its way inside my shirt and slid down my chest. While I stumbled from the cold shock, I gasped out a half-apology as the man hollered something rude at me. 

My stumbling allowed my pursuers to get closer. I knew I was about to get nabbed, and I didn't want to find out what would happen when I did.

Now, I was never the fittest person in the world. Because I have always preferred to work smarter and not harder, sprinting uphill and downhill at top speed left me with burning lungs. A stitch in my side was quickly becoming a monumental cramp. In addition, I could feel my vision narrowing and knew that it was only terror and adrenaline that were keeping me upright and my legs churning. When I slowed a hair to spin my backpack around to my front, it almost undid any distance I had left between the van and me. Although I could see ghosts darting in and out of the places they haunted, they couldn't do anything about the van. They tried to hinder it, but it was going too fast for them to affect it. Like I've mentioned, most of the ghosts in the city weren't the free-floating variety. So they had to stay with their haunt. Dang it.

I took out a can of Cherry Coke from the bag and chucked it at one person hanging from the van. It beaned him right on the side of the face, making him fall out of the vehicle, and I pumped my fist. As the van skidded and slowed down to pick up their co-thug, I pulled out another object from my bag and realized that it was the red cell phone Mike gave me. As I realized what I had, my eyes narrowed. Mike again. This whole chase was probably his fault. He'd probably had tracking software put on that phone. Heck, he probably had tracking software in the cans of Coke! So I found a side alley that went all the way through to another street and ducked into it. I was such a stupid fool, such a stupid, trusting fool. If I got out of this, I would put him in a box and mail him to China! I was going to hang him by a shoestring over Niagara Falls! I was gonna -

Then I heard the growl of a snarly motor behind me, interrupting my revenge fantasies.  Adrian pulled into the narrow alley on a black and gold motorcycle like some knight to the rescue. He tossed his helmet at me. "Get on, Matt."

 Even though I figured he still wanted to kick my ass, I leapfrogged onto the back of Adrian's bike.  I mashed the helmet onto my head and nearly fell backward when he took off. I clutched at his back with a cry, and the pack fell out of my hands.  My hand closed around the little yellow box that Mike gave me before the pack fell.

"There's probably some tracker in this too!" I opened the lid and tossed it. An icy feeling passed over me like someone dropped snow down my back, making me shiver.

"What are you doing, Moron? Hold on!" I pressed myself closer to him and he stiffened. "What the hell, Matt? Did you stuff socks in your shirt or something?"

"What?" I gasped. My voice sounded higher in pitch and I cleared my throat.

Another whizz of a dart and an object clattered against the narrow wall. With a curse, Adrian sped off, and I barely had time to hang onto his waist. 

We careened around the corner and down a side street. An old Ford pickup was heading right toward us. "One way!" I hollered again. Then Adrian hopped onto the sidewalk and made an excellent imitation of playing chicken with the pedestrians there. People leaped and darted left and right, trying to avoid us. We nearly collided with a woman wearing the most godawful color of puce. She was carrying a terrified, howling, black poodle in her arms. A man wearing a dragon shirt pulled her out of the way just in time for us to speed past. He screamed at us in Chinese, and I figured he didn't wish us a nice day.

We found another side street, and we were going the right way again. I clutched Adrian more tightly and figured out why he was asking about socks in my shirt. I glanced down and groaned. It was early; the change was early. As we roared through the side street, the black van caught up to us and paced us. I swallowed and pounded on Adrian's leg like he was some horse I was trying to goad. "Go! Go!"

Two people reached out of the van and tried to grab me. "Adrian, turn left!" I screamed.

Adrian turned left but made the turn too quickly and spun out. We both tumbled off the bike. Adrian slid across the sidewalk and bashed his head against a plate-glass window, causing it to shatter. I landed hard on my side and groaned as my body scraped against the sidewalk. "Adrian!" I cried in panic as I struggled to get up. He hadn't moved since he hit the window and he was a bloody mess since he'd been wearing little protection. Before I could get to him, arms grabbed me up from behind and pulled me into the van. They grabbed Adrian as well.

I bucked and kicked as I screamed, ignoring the pain in my left hip and ribs, "Adrian!"

I thrust my head upward and caught the person under the chin. He grunted with pain but wouldn't let me go. I stretched my body savagely and stomped my feet, trying to get him to surrender. Because of my efforts, his right arm loosened slightly, allowing me to pull my arm out and begin swinging. While I wildly thrashed my fist about, I solidly hit someone's nose. It made my fingers hurt, so I winced, but I kept swinging.

Somebody grappled with my arm, and I craned my neck and snapped my teeth at him. Then, as I tried to do it again, the driver, who was wearing a stocking mask, hissed, "Oh, please keep struggling; we would love to go careening into oncoming traffic."

Someone pulled the helmet off of me and I spit hair from my mouth then hollered,  "Let me go!"  Then I looked behind me and saw that they not only had Adrian, but Dominic and Luis were also in the van - all unconscious and bound. "What the heck? Luis! Dom!" I struggled to reach them. How had they gotten to them? Dom especially had nothing to do with this, and he had his problems, what with his father getting arrested.

After the man constraining me held me tighter to prevent me from going to my friend, he laughed and tutted as I tried to bite him. Finally, the driver reached towards me and put a cloth over my mouth and nose. While I struggled against the cloying smell and the sweet taste, I smacked at his hand and scratched it, digging my nails viciously into his flesh. He cursed and dropped his hand away. However, my victory was short-lived as my eyes fought against the desire to close. Wave after wave of dizziness overtook me, and my world narrowed until I could see no more. Nausea clutched at my stomach and spilled the contents of it onto the floor of the van. After that, my three captors made cries of dismay.

"Damn it! We have miles to drive!"

I smirked for as long as the muscles in my face would let me - a minor triumph, but I would take it. Before the darkness took me over, my hair fell into my face and  I realized it was long and bright yellow.