Run

“Hello?”

I heard a woman’s voice. “Sam Berg?”

“Yes who is this?”

“Take down my phone number.”

I looked at the number on my phone.

5 18 8 5 19 22 1

“Who-“

“Don’t speak.”

“GG5BE”

“Hu-?”

“The ant holds the gun in firelight. Are you writing this down?” She was annoyed

“Now-“

“Shut up.”

“Now wait just a minute.”

“Your name is Sam Berg you were born March 8 your parents names are Taylor and Matthew, your social security number is 345675765, and your address is 25 West Avenue Boulevard, White Plains, New York. Write.”

I was dumbstruck and my heart was racing. I tore the plastic from my black moleskine notebook; it was new, I couldn’t find my old one. She did not repeat herself and my pen flew across the page. I wrote down his phone number, the ant holds the gun in the firelight, and GG5BE.

“I’m do-“

“Good. Now, look out your window.”

Horrified, two men in black suits were running through my front yard. I choked back a scream and froze. She seemed to understand.

“Run.” She said, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen in place. “If they don’t kill you I will; now, move!”

I snapped out of it and took off. My phone held to my ear I received further instructions.

“The back door. Hop the fence. There’s a car waiting for you on the other side. The door is open. Get in.”

I did what I was told and slammed the door behind me. The car took off; I was still catching my breath.

“Okay what now?” I finally managed. “Now you have 20 minutes, good luck.”

The line went dead and I stared horrified out the window. I started panicking. I searched frantically for something to hang on to. The car was spinning and I found myself hyper aware. I was in the back seat of a Lincoln town car. The divider was up. I couldn’t see the driver, but I felt sure they could see me.

“Where are we going?” I cried.

“Hey! Hey!”

I banged on the window but it was no use. There were three cameras staring at me and a countdown timer. I took a deep breath, sat back and tried to orient myself.

Where am I going? I wondered. I looked for some clue; I found my notebook in my hand, and after finding nothing in the car, decided to start there. I dropped it in my lap and started digging. Eight words and two numbers; I stared at them; time was ticking away. I sighed and suddenly, i was thrown through the window.

There was a pale ringing in my ears, but over the ringing I could hear tires squealing and gunshots.

“Get back in!” I heard vaguely. The voice was urgent, but far away. Vaguely, I chastised myself for not wearing my seatbelt, and then I shook my head and focused. I ran back to the car through the gunshots and popping, and got in. The car sped off.

I searched frantically for my moleskine, and when I found it, threw it open. I glared at the phone number scrawled there. It was a code and I knew it. I just had to figure it out. The timer, cracked, read ten minutes, fifty six seconds. I half growled, wincing, and got to work.

I look at the phone number. Only, the way I’d written it, it didn’t look like a phone number.

5 18 8 5 19 22 1

Had it looked like that on my phone? I took out my phone to look, but it was broken, destroyed in the crash. I shook it off. I was annoyed and angry, but I was focused.

Letters, I decided. I wrote the letters out, but they were scrambled.

E. R. H. E. S. V. A.

I moved on to the next puzzle. GG5BE. I turned the letters into numbers and the numbers into letters 77E25. I tried reversing them: 25E77, but it was no use. Nothing. I stared at the page, but I couldn’t make the letters and numbers fit together and make sense.

5 minutes.

I tossed my notebook against the window that was not broken. I felt the breaks again. Scared, I ducked as we screeched to a stop. My eyes were closed, but I heard the engine again. I looked up and we were weaving through the city. There was traffic everywhere, but this girl must’ve been a stunt driver or something, because we were racing through traffic. She shot through red lights and on coming traffic.

“Get to work! They can’t know we’re coming, and you need to be ready when we get there!” She screamed from the front seat.

Furious, I moved on to the last code The ant holds the gun in firelight.

I stared at it until I was blue in the face, but nothing made sense. Hopeless, I gave up. I took a deep breath and resigned, it was comforting. I felt a calm settle over me. I sighed and closed my eyes. I almost smiled. Then I looked back down at the page.

It clicked just as the car screamed around the last corner and jerked to a stop.

E. R. H. E. S. V. A.

Save her.

The door opened beside me and I was thrown out. I had 2 minutes, 13 seconds. I watched the car speed away, it disappeared around the corner, but not before I got a good look at the driver. There wasn’t one. I didn’t understand, but I didn’t care. I was undaunted. I looked around me for my next clue. Somehow this was all going to make sense. I turned around and around. I found myself on East 77th Street. When the last piece of the puzzle fell into place, I was running. I found 25 East 77th street. There was a gaudy statue of an ant playing the saxophone in front of the house. I threw it down and found the gun. I took a deep breath, and kicked down the door.

I closed my eyes and ran in. I was afraid, but I charged in anyway. I opened my eyes and found myself in the middle of a polished townhouse in downtown Manhattan. It was quiet; marble floors, pristine furniture. The only thing wrong with the picture was the pretty girl, bleeding out in the middle of the floor.

I dropped the gun, not thinking and ran towards her. I took off my shirt and found where she was bleeding.

I was just wrapping it around her head when I was thrown onto the floor.

I heard a growl. “What are you doing here? Who are you?”

I looked for my gun. It was behind him. He saw me look. He turned back at me and we both dove for it. He got there first, but I hit him as hard as I could. He was unfocused, but unhurt. He swung his arms around wildly, aiming the gun at me. He shot, but missed far wide. I grabbed for the gun, but he was stronger. I couldn’t hold him.

Almost... please...

Please! I wasn’t sure if I said it out loud.

“PLEASE!” I screamed! “I DON’T KNOW WHAT IM DOING HERE! PLEASE!”

He did not hear me or he did not care. The gun inched closer to my head.

“NO!” I scream cried, but then he fell dumbstruck and hit the floor. I heard a metallic thud, and when I looked up from the floor, I saw her.

She stood over him with an aluminium baseball bat, red blood flowing through her blond hair and my ratty old tee-shirt. She wore a white pristine dress with a deep v and high heels. She looked like an angel sent from heaven to take me away.

She took my hand, dragged me up, and together we stood in silence and chaos. I was looking down, but in that moment I would swear I could see all around me.

After a while, she lead me to the front door, and at length, she opened it.

“Congrats kid, you’ve been recruited.” She said, and she handed me my worn, old, black moleskine notebook, and patted me on the back.

I opened it and found all of my old notes.

“Hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for this! I just bought a new one, where’d you find it?” I asked, but when I turned, she was gone and the door was locked.

I blinked, shook, and turned to sit on the front steps to catch my breath.