Infinite Loop - Chapter 27

Hurting while Crossing State Lines

Warren drifted out of a sea of black, his memories flooding before him like a film where the moving images of his past lives came and went in waves. He slowly noticed the hard surface his head lay on, and each breath hurt. Behind him, his wrists suddenly burned as someone clumsily tried to untie him. When the rope suddenly released him, he winced.

“You need to wake up. We have to get out of here.” Amber’s voice was on edge.

He lingered in a partial stupor, his arms and winced again as his rib muscles seized up. He tried to move his legs, but they were still bound to the chair legs, and Amber went to work on the knot.

“Ugh—what—fuck—happened?” Warren clutched his ribs as tried to fight off the fog still seeping into his head.

“We’ll talk about it when we get out of here. Now move! The police are coming.” Amber took him by the wrist and began pulling to help him up.

“URGH, damn it! Get the hell away from me.”

His rib cage burned like fire at the effort as he forced her away. Slowly, he got to his feet, trying to assess what parts of his body still worked.

There isn’t much working.

His balls and ribs hurt every time he took a step across the office floor. Amber watched him for a moment, undecided, then she tried to help him again.

“Leave me the fuck alone!” He growled at her.

Growing desperate, Amber hurried through the office, grabbing his hat and the items from Warren’s pocket still sitting on the desk. She ran back out to the hallway, where Warren was slogging his way down the stairs. Impatiently, she took his arm and let him lean on her for support. This time, he didn’t reject her, and she could feel him tense, sucking in quick breaths of air with each step.

Outside, they had just got into her car when they heard the distant wail of sirens. Throwing his stuff between them on the front seat, Amber hurried to get out of the area. The speeding police car went by them about a half a block away.

Warren didn’t bother to look back; it would have hurt too much.

“Are they turning to follow us?” He asked.

After looking into the rearview mirror, Amber shook her head. She got a glimpse of policemen rushing into the building.

“No, we’re safe for now.”

While he felt every bump and turn, Warren slowly tried to piece together what had happened.

“What do you mean we, Kemosabe?”

It was a half-hearted attempt at a joke which fell flat. He didn’t care.

“Why didn’t you just leave me to them? You set this all up in the first place,” he groaned.

His words pained her more than she imagined.

“Listen, I didn’t mean for them to do that.” She said, then paused. “It wasn’t supposed to be that way.”

Amber took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, alright. They showed up this morning and told me you would take a deal since you were running scared of the cops.”

He grunted when she took a turn.

“Yeah, I’m sure they were just going to scare me into telling them all I knew,” Warren told her sarcastically. “And all you would do is get the Halloween masks to help them.”

His bitterness spit out along with a bloody drool down his lips.