The New Ways

Ali turned to Vera, her cheeks flushed, as she bent over, gasping to try and catch her breath, her words coming out slowly and in a more deep and raspy tone "Vera... We... we need to stop running for, for the night."

Vera turned to Ali, clasping both of Ali's hands in hers, holding them against her own heart, her eyes searching deep into Ali's, "Please Ali. You know what we gave up to come this far. You know what we left behind, we can't give up! They'll find us, they'll take us back to that.."She shivered in memory, "Horrid, horrid place."

Ali had always had a soft spot for her best friend Vera, and had a hard time denying her anything, after thinking for a few moments she grudgingly agreed to keep going, "I'll keep going, but only if we can walk for.. for at least ten or so minutes, please Vera, we will loose all of our energy if we run at full speed... We'll get sloppy with our hiding, they'll track us down if we're not careful. Please."She begged Vera, feeling Vera's slightly clammy hands clasp hers harder as if Vera was holding on for her life.

"Yes, Yes, you were always the wise one," Vera said, with an airy chuckle, and a small smile penetrating her wise-looking face, looking almost out of place, but beautiful, as Vera's smile always did.

Ali let go of Vera's hand, "This way."She motioned, as they went through the back alley, "We don't want to be seen, I saw when we stopped for the coffee and eggs at the dinner this morning, we were on the news, that's why I rushed us out of there after we paid, we have to be careful."

Vera groaned in frustration, gently rubbing her eyes, "Goddammit, I knew they'd know we were gone only an hour or two after we left but don't they have to wait 24 hours until they file a missings person case?"

Ali bit her lip, an anxious habit she had, "They probably bent the rules, or lied, saying we were gone for longer than we were, to get the word out and hopefully stop us before we leave the state as we plan on doing."

And so the two 15-year-olds continued walking, Vera had her phone in her pocket with the GPS turned on, it was directing them towards the bus, so they could buy a ticket to London, which was more than 1,000 miles away from their home, or a ticket to whatever city would get them closer to there.

You may ask, where is there money coming from?

Ever since the two 15-year-olds had hit the age of 10 they had started working, saving, doing odd jobs, helping out with their school fundraiser, and when they were 13, getting a part-time job. Younge, yes- they had to lie about their age, well Vera did, Ali didn't pass as a 15-year-old, since she had such a young face. But Vera always was able to pass as older than her age, they had saved quite the pretty penny, for two teenagers at least, but we won't get into the exact money dollars, we don't want you using them for their money, now do we? Anyways, Back to the story!

Vera smiled brightly, "Ali! Ali look, it's the bus station, we need to run, the bus leaves in..."She looked at her phone, "Two and a half minutes.."She said in panic, could they make it? Or would they have to wait two more hours and risk c