April PPOW: The Runaway

The Runaway

John Doe was always on the run, staying in old rundown shacks along the coast of San Francisco. John was an ex-marine, but ever since he has returned; he has never been the same. He could see the sudden flash of red and blue in the distance, and hear the sirens cry out like a baby in dead silence. He had been running from the cops his whole life, but this time he was in real trouble. It all started that Friday night when John made the biggest mistake of his life…

John woke up in a pool of sweat in his run down hotel room that smelled like rotten fish. The bed sheets were stained yellow from the visitors before him, there were cockroaches under the sink and covering the walls. He looked outside and seen the horizon of southern San Francisco. The sun was just rising over the Golden Gate Bridge. He rushed to pack up all of his clothes and stuffed his suitcase to the top. He slammed the door behind him and started his car. He didn’t notice the car parked behind him and backed right into it.

The neighbor came storming out of his front yard and started screaming in John’s face. John jumped in his car and drove off with his bumper scraping against the pavement. The neighbor screamed and yelled while chasing John’s beaten up car down the street. John was halfway down the interstate, when he seen the familiar flash of red and blue out of his rear view mirror. He pushed the gas pedal all the way to the floor and heard the engine roar. That’s when the school bus in front of him slammed on its brakes. He swerved to the left diving into the median going over 90 miles per hour. He ramped out of the median into oncoming traffic; he felt the impact and thats when everything went black.

John woke up in a small ambulance surrounded by strangers dressed in white gowns. He looked down at his leg and seen bright red bleeding through the white bed sheet surrounding him. He panicked and started kicking and thrashing. The nurse picked up the needle and that’s when John felt a slight pinch in his right arm and began to feel sleepy. He fell asleep thinking about his leg, wondering what he had done.

John woke up this time to the air conditioner in his hospital room that sounded like a swarm of bees. He had a bag pumping fluids in his arm that looked like clear Kool-aid. He instantly lifted up his bedsheet to the see the long, blue, gnarly stitches sticking out of his leg. They ran from his ankle all the way up to the inside of his kneecap. A big, bulky, police officer came into his room and gave him the death stare. He sat in the chair directly across from John.

“You are going to have to come with me.” said the officer.

“Why?” asked John.

“When you were running from me and went into the median, you went into oncoming traffic. A semi then smoked your car which made a motorcycle run into the back of the semi. You have to serve 10 years in jail for running from the authorities.” barked the officer. The cop pulled out his handcuffs and yanked them on John’s wrists. The cop yanked the IV needle out of John’s arms and escorted him to the door. As soon as John put weight on his leg, he collapsed in a heap on the floor. The cop dragged him into the hall and onto the elevator. A lot of people looked at him weird, but everything turned out okay.

Meanwhile John’s plan was working out great, he still felt a sharp pain in his lower leg, but he thought he could run on it. As soon as the cop reached to open the door, John jumped off and sprinted towards the nearest gas station. The cop seen John sprinting for his life, so he got in his car and wildly drove in the direction of the runaway. John was as quick as lightning, sprinting over 20 miles per hour. He used to be a track star in high school shattering Usain Bolt’s record of 19.19 in the 200 meter dash. He jumped over the curb and that’s when he felt the stitches split in his leg and he cried out in pain. He began to see the red blood stain seeping through his hospital gown. John laid in the grass groaning in pain. He tried getting up, but it was no use his leg had split open again and he was beginning to lose blood fast. He could feel himself getting dizzy and lightheaded, but he told himself that he was never going back to jail. He never wanted to see the rusty bars and gray walls enclosing him like a animal in a cage.

The cop was closing in on him from behind John panicked and jumped off the bridge into the crystal clear ocean water. As soon as he submerged into the water, he felt the sudden burn of salt in his leg. He surfaced gasping for air searching for the nearest sandy beach. He seen a stretch of land to his north, and swam as fast as Michael Phelps in the 200 meter race in the Olympics. He choked on water and gasped for air; he could hear the water splashing behind him with bullets. He kept telling himself that he could make it. He felt the edge of the sandbar and was relieved, but when he looked up he seen the swat team pulling up in their camo Hummers.

John jumped up and started sprinting towards the treeline; his marine training had come in handy in this situation; he thought to himself. He could hear the firing of the AR-15’s and M-16’s in the distance. Then all of a sudden he felt a sharp pain in his lower back. He looked down at his stomach and seen the familiar red bloodstain seeping through his white hospital gown. He fell down and everything went black. To be continued………...