On the Run - Rev 2.0

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At the north end of Main Street, Bob turned the borrowed blue hatchback into Oak Hill Cemetery. The gravel lane made a loop through the cemetery. In the passenger seat, Mary flipped her long blond hair out of the way as she studied the map for the next leg of their journey.

The sun waned and the red and brown leaves of the large oak trees blocked the diminishing light on the wooded cemetery making it suddenly darker. They could see little more than silhouettes of the tombstones draped in fallen leaves.

He spied a white sedan at the far end of the cemetery and his pulse quickened. Better park clear of them.

“Let's stick around these tombstones for a few minutes - acting natural. Hopefully the white sedan will leave soon.” He placed his Cleveland Indians cap over his balding head and then walked to the other side and opened the passenger door for Mary. They grabbed their backpacks from the backseat and carried them in front of them. He took her hand as they strolled to a nearby gravesite and stood mournful for a few minutes.

Mary’s eyes watered as she thought back to the spring when her dad died after a long illness. She missed him. She wondered if she’d ever be able to visit his grave again. At least she would soon be reunited with her mom.

“It’s almost seven o’clock”, he said impatiently. The car was to be picked up before sundown and they were not to be in the vicinity then. “I think we should leave now.”

“Yes, let’s go.” They walked north out of the graveyard and into a wooded lot. Every minute, he glanced back casually to make sure no one was following them. There was a risk with the other visitors still in the graveyard but they were near the exit so he didn’t expect them to pass their car before leaving.

Feeling safer, they shouldered their backpacks and hiked through the woods towards a soybean field. The field would offer no protection so they stopped a few yards into the woods and waited for darkness. The cemetery was several hundred yards behind them so no one could see them but they were afraid to speak. Sounds traveled far in the calm winds.

In a few minutes they heard the faint sound of car tires along the stone trail in the graveyard which should be the crew picking up their hatchback. It sounded like the car never stopped so he assumed they must have dropped off the passenger near the entrance and continued slowly driving through the graveyard. A minute later they heard the sound of another car, probably the hatchback leaving the graveyard. He wondered if the white sedan was still there but knew they were too far away for him to have heard them leave.

Mary laid out the map so they could both study it. A streak of sunlight shone through the trees just enough to see. They only had a few miles to the border and cornfields would provide cover once they crossed the bean field.

Bob scanned the field with his binoculars looking for any sign of danger. Satisfied, he sat on the recently fallen log next to Mary. They rested as they waited for darkness.

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Bob walked briskly through the bean field with Mary a few steps behind. The beans were green but turning brown as summer waned. Crickets provided the only sounds in the quiet night.

The field was the length of several football fields and when they were a little more than halfway across, the sound of a gunshot broke the chilling night air. Bob dove to the ground for cover and heard Mary do the same.

“Mary, you ok?”

“I’m fine, but where was that shot?”

After a couple more shots, Bob located the sound. “It’s too far away to affect us. Let’s continue.”

They stood cautiously and continued a brisk walk through the bean field. They heard a few more shots as they neared the cornfield but they sounded farther away.

The corn was six feet tall so it was a few inches over Bob’s head and almost a foot over Mary’s blond head. A few rows into the corn and they stopped to catch their breath.