The moment I woke up, I knew something was wrong. I looked around the room for a clue. There were books lying strewn across the floor. The table lamp was still on. My laptop had gone into sleep mode. There were signs of a frantic search for something. But I couldn't remember what it was, and whether or not it was found.
Lily was still asleep. The curtains were half-drawn, and the sun's rays gently kissed her face. I felt like I could look at her all day.
And then there was a shuffle of footsteps. Loud noises came from the hallway outside. Someone seemed to be shouting out orders in a foreign language. And then it hit me. The dream. Something told me to believe my instincts. I had to react quickly. So I woke Lily up, who was oblivious to the situation at hand, and protested-
"What happened? Are you OK? Where are we going?"
But there was no time to explain. I stuffed some of my essentials into my pockets, the others into my backpack, and we rushed towards the fire exit, that led up to the roof.
And at that exact moment, there was a sound of a door breaking. And through the corner of my eye, I could see a handful of people with guns.
"They're getting away!", one of them said.
"Dont let them!", said the other. (Guess who's the smart one. Hint- Neither)
And they opened fire. One of the bullets narrowly grazed past my jeans. But we managed to make it out alive. Atop the roof, there seemed to be nowhere to go. The main road on three sides, and rows of buildings on the other. And then the craziest idea occured to me-
"Jump", I said.
"What? Have you gone insane?"
"Just do it..there's no other choice"
And we both decided to jump to the adjacent roof. She went first. Although was terrified, she managed to make a sketchy landing. I was about to jump next. But then I stopped. The cabin on the roof-top. The door was still ajar. I ran in, opened the cupboard, and searched through the clothes.
And there it was- the Key.
I kept it in my pocket, and made a run for my life. By this time the gunmen caught up with us, and my leap of faith was interrupted by a gunshot- this time it was my hand. I felt a strong numbing pain, but there was no time to lose. So I jumped across. And we both dashed for the exit.
We ran down the stairs, three at a time.
"What the hell is going on here?", Lily asked.
"I'll explain later, honey, trust me", I replied.
She nodded her head, but didn't seem to be satisfied.
Once we reached the ground floor, we saw that there were guards all around. Just when I was about to give up hope-
"In here!", she shouted, pointing towards the ladies' toilet.
Now on any other day, I wouldn't have agreed. But today was definitely not 'any other day'. So I followed her inside. On the way, I saw an empty cup of tea.
I knew I'd seen it somewhere. Either way I knew it was one of the pieces of the puzzle, so I pocketed that as well.
She ran in, and grabbed what seemed to be a small uneven package from under the sink. Then she clambered out the window, and beckoned me to come.
So we both jumped outside, and were about to decide what to do next, when we heard footsteps in the distance- the gunmen were hot on our heels.
Just as all hope seemed to be lost, a black Mustang GT screeched to a halt near us.
"Get in" the driver of the car said.
And we did just as asked, zooming off into the distance, leaving the henchmen in the dust.
to be continued
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