imperfect (14 page)

She peeked behind her; several law
enforcement officers searched the streets of Alma. Each officer
shone his or her flashlight down every nook and cranny. They kicked
the trashcans lining the streets and peered under the porches in
front of the houses.

Somehow, Kristi always managed to stay just
out of reach of their flashlights. Spotting a stack of empty fruit
crates, she darted behind the rotting wood. The stench of overripe
apples, bananas and pears clogged up her nose, forcing her to
breath through her mouth.

Kristi crossed her fingers and wished for
all the officers to bypass her. And most of them did—they walked
right by without giving a second look at the fruit crates. Except
for one officer who stared at her hiding spot a few seconds too
long for comfort.

“
Linda, let’s go,” a
senior officer yelled. “There’s nobody there.”

“
One minute, sir,” replied
Linda. She strode towards Kristi. “I’ll catch up with you in a
minute, sir!”

Kristi crouched lower to the ground and
pressed herself against the wall. Linda kicked over the stack of
crates concealing Kristi and shone her flashlight a bit too far to
the right. Kristi stopped breathing and began praying Linda would
leave, like all her comrades did.

Linda didn’t; she swung her flashlight
straight onto Kristi and yelled, “I found someone!”

Kristi made a run for it.
She ducked underneath Linda’s arm while Linda fumbled for her
handgun.
The woods,
Kristi thought frantically.
The
trees should provide some protection from the bullets.

There was just one problem with her plan. In
order to reach the woods, she needed to cross fifty yards of open
space.

She pounded down the pavement, sneakers
slapping loudly. A solar-car crossed by; Kristi seized this
opportunity to surge across the road, causing the driver to honk
irritably when he slammed on the breaks. The car squealed to a stop
less than a foot away from her.

There was a brief moment of silence while
Kristi momentarily lost the officers on her trail. Rising walls on
either side of her provided plenty of shadows for her to blend
into. A door ahead opened and an arm snagged Kristi around her
waist, pulling her inside of the stone building. The door slammed
shut and someone locked it.

“
Seemed like you needed
some place to hide,” a voice grunted in the darkness. “Don’t worry,
you’re safe here. There’s a hiding place in the fireplace for you
if the officers decide to search the store.”

A solar lamp flickered on, allowing Kristi
to discern that she was in a bookstore. All the shades were drawn
over the windows and the person who pulled her inside was a woman
who looked to be in her fifties. The woman thrust Kristi into the
fireplace before she had a chance to protest.

“
You comfortable in
there?” the woman asked.

“
Yeah,” she lied, feeling
cramped. She was in a hidden compartment within the fireplace; the
compartment was just barely big enough to fit a person.

“
Alright. I’m going to
close the lid over you now.” The woman dimmed the solar lamp and
slid the lid above Kristi shut with a click.

It felt like several
hours
had passed by the time the woman let
Kristi out from the fireplace. In reality, only forty-five minutes
had elapsed.

“
Thanks for hiding me.”
Kristi scraped some ash and soot off her skin.

“
No problem,” the
bookstore keeper said. “I’m so tired of the government sticking
their noses in other people’s business. I don’t understand why they
can’t just leave people alone. Been here for thirty-six years and
every time I see someone running down the street, I let them hide
here. Government has stuck their noses in my own business too. God
knows that fireplace has seen more thieves, beggars and lawbreakers
than any other.”

Kristi wasn’t sure how she
felt to be lumped together with criminals. But then again, she
reasoned, officially, she
was
a wanted fugitive. “I really appreciate your
help, but I should get going.”

The woman opened the door and let her back
out into the streets. “Remember Beth the Bookkeeper if you ever
need a safe place to stay,” she said before closing the door.

Kristi took a huge gulp of the crisp, night
air. Breathing in fresh air felt heavenly after living off stuffy
air for forty-five minutes.

Jaiden was already at the intersection
between Rhine Lane and Route 56.

“
Thank God, you’re alive,”
he said as soon as he saw her approach. He looked rumpled and
sweaty, but was otherwise unharmed.

“
Never felt so good be
alive.”

Less than five minutes passed and Chelsa
came jogging over to them with Ghost by her heels. She had
scratches on her face and hands; her hair was littered with leaves
and twigs.

“
I don’t think we should
stay in Alma for the night,” Chelsa said. She shook out her hair,
displacing some of the sprigs. “It’ll be safer if we camped
outside.” Chelsa purposely spoke only to Kristi and ignored Jaiden,
still angry with him about his electro-slate.

“
I’m sorry,” Jaiden said,
catching the drift. “I honestly didn’t know there was a tracker in
the slate. I acted inappropriately when you smashed my
electro-slate; I understand you were concerned about our
safety.”

Chelsa’s expression softened a bit. “Apology
accepted.” Then, after an awkward moment of silence, she added, “I
apologize too. I shouldn’t have been so rude to you. You didn’t
know any better about the tracker in you electro-slate.”

“
Apology accepted. So
we’re cool, right? No hard feelings?”

“
No hard
feelings.”

“
Can we move on?” Kristi
said. “Save the touchy, feely stuff for later, when I’m not about
to fall asleep on my feet.”

“
Sure. I found a nice
clearing in the woods.”

“
Get up! No time
for
extra snoozing!” Chelsa’s voice
brought Kristi out of her slumber.

Kristi grabbed the pillow from beneath her
head and smacked Chelsa. Then she settled back down for more sleep.
She considered her sleep to be very important.

“
I said get up,” Chelsa
said.

“
Well, then I say shut
up,” said Kristi. She wondered when had she and Chelsa started
harassing each other in a friendly way.
Probably the past couple of days. Surviving so many
near-death experiences has an uncanny way of bringing people closer
together. The learning centers ought to consider putting students
through near-death-scenarios for their teambuilding
exercises.

“
I might as well get up
seeing as I won’t get any more sleep,” Kristi grumbled
good-naturedly, wiggling out from her sleeping bag.

“
That’s the spirit,” said
Chelsa. “There’s no time to waste when we have a long trip ahead of
us.”

Kristi noted that Chelsa was already dressed
and had her sleeping bag rolled. Jaiden came back into the tent to
roll up his own sleeping bag. Seeing no other options, Kristi
reproachfully trundled up her own, warm, comfy sleeping bag.

“
Here’s breakfast.” Chelsa
handed her a protein bar. “I’ll go take down the tent in the
meantime.”

Kristi took a huge bite out of the bar. It
had a chocolate-peanut butter flavor, which tasted pretty good
considering it had expired a week ago.

“
Let’s hit the road,”
Chelsa said. “We should reach the town of Oxfield by nightfall.
Hopefully we’ll be able to refuel without running into any
problems. However, we should be even more on our guard after our
narrow escape last night.”

“
Perhaps we should change
our appearances?” Kristi suggested.

“
Can’t believe I didn’t
think of that.”

Chelsa dug out a knife from her boots and
motioned for Kristi to come over. “How much of your hair do you
want me to cut?” She fingered Kristi’s hair, which almost hung to
her waist.

“
A bit past my shoulders
sounds good.”

Chelsa started hacking away. She worked
quickly and efficiently, cutting off hunks of hair. Within minutes,
the ground around them was littered with clumps of hair. Jaiden
watched with a certain amount of interest, chomping on his
breakfast.

“
All done.” Chelsa rinsed
off her knife with water from her water bottle.

Kristi shook her head back
and forth, trying to get used to the lightness of it now that two
thirds of her hair had been cut off.
I
never knew hair could be so heavy.

Kristi looked at Jaiden. “Your turn.”

He stood there, combing through his hair
with his fingers. A small songbird fluttered to the ground near his
feet, tilting its head. Then the bird picked up a cluster of
Kristi’s fallen hair with its tiny beak and flapped away.

Chelsa watched the songbird fly away,
carrying its precious cargo, with a slight smile. “I’ve forgotten
chickadees like to line their nests with hair.”

Eventually, Jaiden allowed Chelsa to cut his
hair.

“
Thanks?” he said once
Chelsa was done. The word came out unsure.

“
Never knew you were vain
about your hair,” Kristi said.

“
I’m not.” He shuffled
over to his backpack and lifted the considerably lighter pack onto
his shoulder.

The sun threw a golden glow across the sky.
The temperature today was cooler than yesterday and a biting wind
cut through the air. Kristi burrowed deeper into her jacket.

The three of them trekked along the road,
shoes encrusted with mud that was the result of last night’s
drizzle, feeling heavy on their feet. Several solar-cars zipped by,
passengers and drivers shielded from the outside world by tinted
windows.

“
Wish we had a car,”
Jaiden said, not for the first time. “We could’ve reached
Charleston within four days.”

“
Suck it up, toughie.”
Chelsa spread her arms open, waving to the open space all around
them. “What’s the harm of walking? You get to enjoy the fresh air,
the scenery and get some exercise as well.”

“
You get to enjoy being
drenched in rain, swarmed by bugs and blisters on your feet,”
Jaiden said.

“
You big wimp.” She
punched Jaiden lightly in the arm. “And to think that I thought you
were good at everything!”

“
Your compliment flatters
me, but being good at something doesn’t mean I enjoy it. It’s hard
work being perfect, you know.”

Chelsa and Kristi looked
at each other and rolled their eyes. “Right Jaiden, it’s
just
so
hard
to
walk
,” said
Kristi.

“
Aren’t you supposed to be
the manly one? From what I’m seeing, both Kristi and I beat you in
our manliness.” Chelsa let out a bark of amusement.

“
I never knew you were
sexist,” Jaiden replied.

“
Discovering new stuff
every day, aren’t you?” Kristi said.

They continued bantering in a friendly
fashion, not noticing a rider slow his droid-horse’s pace to keep
at the same speed as them until he coughed to grab their
attention.

“
How may we help you,
sir?” Jaiden asked.

“
I was wondering where you
are headed towards,” said the stranger.

“
Launceston,” Kristi lied,
figuring it wouldn’t be a smart idea to entrust a stranger with
their destination. Launceston was two towns before Oxfield.
What is this guy doing on Route 56 by himself
anyways? Is he an idiot? Nobody travels by themselves on such a
dangerous route.

“
I’m going there as well.
However, I am rather unfamiliar with the roads. Would you mind if I
accompanied you?” He scratched his balding head then yanked on the
reins to halt his droid-horse.

He’s giving me a creepy
vibe.
Kristi scooted a few steps away from
the flea-bitten grey droid-horse. She pulled the hood of her jacket
down before Creepy Guy could get a clear look at her
face.

“
Will one of you kindly
please answer my question?” Creepy Guy inquired.

“
We’ll slow down your
traveling because we don’t have droid-horses,” said Chelsa. Her
tone wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t friendly either.

“
That’s alright. I have a
few friends that will be joining me later. They have some
droid-horses they can spare for you to ride to Launceston.” The man
dismounted elegantly, his boots barely raising a puff of dirt from
the ground.

Chelsa raised an eyebrow but made no comment
about their unwanted companion. Kristi swallowed her apprehension
and allowed Creepy Guy to walk beside her.

chapter
fifteen

[ Kristi ]

They traveled in silence
for the next half mile until Creepy Guy
shattered the quietness. “My friends should be here soon,” he
said, raising his voice towards the end of the sentence.

Ambush!
Kristi’s brain barely had time to register the
thought when several bandits hidden around the bend sprung on
them.

A woman with studs glimmering in her
eyebrows swung down from an overhead branch, knocking the breath
out of Kristi. She landed hard, sprawling on her back. Then she
rolled over and jumped to her feet, doubling over and clutching her
guts.