THE MEET
“E le pa! Chase him! Don’t let him get away! Make sure you take him down!”
Tanya sat up as she heard the approaching feet and commotion as a group of men seemed to be chasing someone.
“Oh great! She sniffled and added the mangled tissue paper in her hand to the growing pile on the passenger seat. ” Just my luck! A girl can’t even wallow in her misery in peace? Is it too much to ask for a moment of solitude?” She shouted to the roof of her car and then quickly shut her mouth when she saw a man dart out of a corner, running full speed towards where her car was parked in the dark away from the streetlights.
Tanya mistakenly flashed her lights while she was fumbling around for her phone on the console and quickly switched it off back but the guy had looked right at her in that fleeting moment.
Tanya was taken aback by the sheer terror on his face.
“Nobody should be that afraid” then she shook her head when she realized belatedly that he was not just intending to run past her. He was running to her!
“No, no, no, buddy. Keep going! Keep going!” She said fervently to herself as she saw him getting closer to her car with intent. As if, if she recite it enough, it would happen. “Don’t stop, please, just keep going!”
She realized belatedly that her windows were rolled down and she was trying to reach for the button in the dark when the guy got to her.
Tanya screamed shortly, hating the girlish sound even as her subconscious registered how hot the guy was.
“Damn, he is so hot!” She thought as she shouted at him. “What the heck? Get….”
“Please, save me” he shouted in a gravelly voice.
“What are you talking about? Save you from what?” She shouted back at him and was answered almost immediately as four burly men with murder in their eyes rounded the corner the guy had come out from. The streetlight shone on their faces as they looked around obviously in search of the guy. The menace in their countenance made Tanya shrank back involuntarily against her seat.
“Those…those men are after you?” She asked in a whisper like they could hear her from three lanes away.
“Please! Please!! Please!!! Just get us out of here! They would kill me if they found me here! And they won’t spare you as well” He pulled urgently at the car door as he looked back to check if the men had seen him yet “Just open the damn door!”
“What? I can’t just…..” She saw the desperation on the guy’s face as one of the men spotted him near the car and then shouted to the others “The motherfucker is there!”
Tanya knew that she would certainly regret her next move but she unlocked the car. The guy got in, shouting at her “Please, go, go go!“. Tanya gunned the engine and pulled out while he was still getting in.
“Jesus! I am going to kill somebody. Are you okay?”
“Just go! I am fine!” He snapped.
Tanya froze when she saw that the approaching men were not intending to leave the road; they were instead getting together to block the car’s path.
“What are you doing? Get going!” The guy snapped, fear evident in his voice.
“Don’t you shout at me, you idiot! What do you mean by ” Get going?” I should simply run over them, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said simply.
Tanya looked at him like he had lost his mind then she voiced it “You are crazy!”
“They won’t stop coming!”
“No, I am not deliberately hitting anything or anyone a day to my wedding or ever! Not for you or anyone!”
“You are getting married?” He looked at her in surprise then back at the road. One of the men had gotten to the car and was hitting the car with his big fist even while in motion as he tried to stop them.
Tanya saw one of the approaching men bring out a shiny object. “Is that….”
“Yes, a dagger and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it on me, well it is us now. You have to run them over or at least attempt to or the one behind us now would probably smash the window in no time at all”
“What do you mean by us? There is no us! Get out of my car now and go sort out whatever it was that you have with them! ” Tanya yelled at him.
“I will be dead then and I would rather not. Also, you won’t be spared as well, these people don’t leave behind witnesses”
“What?” Tanya swallowed hard, involuntarily slamming on the brakes.
“I am sorry,” the man said to her, and before Tanya could reply, he put his hands over hers on the steering wheel, taking control. He was bent sideways on the passenger’s seat and Tanya quickly pressed the button that depressed her seat back. She scrambled out of his way after removing her seatbelt to get to the back seat. He gave her a brief grateful look and gunned the engine
He hit one of the advancing goons while the other one quickly scrambled out of the way.
Tanya heard a pinging sound behind her as something penetrated her rear window and she looked up in time to see something whizzed by the guy’s ear, breaking the front glass in its exit.
“Was that….”
“Yes, a bullet. They are not joking at all!” The guy informed her hurriedly “Please stay down as you are”
“Oh my God! Oh my God! We are going to die! A day to my wedding and I am going to die in my car with a random guy;?! This sure would make a great headline” she panicked.
“No one is dying today if I have anything to say about it so please stop worrying about the fact that you wouldn’t look perfect in your morgue shot” Then he looked back as he saw something in the side mirror “Shit, that was what he went back for!”
“Ehn, what who went back for?”
“There were five of them! Been wondering where the fifth one was!” He shouted.
“What did he…..oh!” She said as she saw headlights flashing at them from behind “He went to get the car! Great! What would my mother say?! She would be so heartbroken! Oh my God, I am not even twenty-four yet. I can’t die before I clock thirty. That just makes no sense” she rambled on in panic as she tried to envision her parents face when they told them that she was no more.
“Damn! They are gaining upon us! Stay down! He shouted as he bent down close to the steering wheel barely seeing where he was going. Another bullet whizzed by where his head had just been then another struck the fender, then another, and another. The men seemed intent on riddling the car with bullets till it stopped.
Tanya flinched with each striking sound as she tried not to scream out loud.
“The irony of it was that no sound could even be heard from the shots. So if one should penetrate my body now, I would simply die without a sound. Always thought I would go out with a bang”
“Are you okay back there?” The car asked just as he swerved the car in a way that Tanya got thrown from her spot to the opposite side.
“Not dead yet if that’s what you mean by okay?” She shouted back at him.
“Good. I would hate to have to explain things to your fiance. Can you run in your shoes?
" I can run on anything but this is a special occasion so I don’t mind taking it off if….“.
“Now!”
“Wha…..” She squealed as he stopped the car and got out, opening her door and grabbing her.
Tanya was blinded for a moment by car lights. She had no idea how she had tuned out the sounds in her terror but they were in the middle of a traffic jam surrounded by what seemed like a hundred cars, all stretched out and moving slowly. She chanced a look back and saw that the car that was chasing them was about six cars behind them.
They swerved between honking cars, running at high speed. The clattering sound of her heels sounded deafening to her ears but there was no time for them to stop. They almost got knocked down by a car but the driver stopped on time, cursing at them.
“I am so sorry” Tanya shouted but the guy turned to the irate driver while running backwards.
“I was coming to inform you that I caught your wife in bed with that man running after us ” he pointed at one of the men that had gotten down from the car to chase after them ” That was why he was chasing me, he wanted to stop me! To silence me!”
The angry driver got out of his car and lay in wait for the approaching goon. Then as if he just remembered something, he turned to shout at their departing backs.
“I am fucking single, you asshole! She left me for a man who was better in bed! That was my damn wife’s excuse!”
Tanya giggled hysterically as they kept running then she looked back when she heard shouts. The driver had punched the goon anyway!
