Someone out There Loves You

“THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA,” Mark yelled.
“YOU GOT A BETTER ONE?” Mike asked.
“I DO!” Dan said. “TRIP THEM!”
“OH THAT’S REAL GREAT DAN,” I said sarcastically. “LET’S KILL ALL OUR FANS, SHALL WE?”
“WOULD YOU RATHER THEY KILL US?”
“I’M ONLY NINETEEN,” Levi yelled. “I CANNOT GET ASS-RAPED IN PRISON FOR MURDER!”
“WHERE ARE WE RUNNING TO, ANYWAY?” Bert yelled.
“NO IDEA,” I responded.
“THERE ARE MORE OF THEMMMM.” Frank was running backwards and watching the mass grow. “I SUGGEST YOU FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.”
“OH, THIS IS ON ME NOW?!”
“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TOLD US TO START RUNNING IN THE FIRST PLACE!”
“THEN I GUESS WE HEAD FOR THE BUS.”
“ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY?” Gerard said. “THAT’S INSANE!”
“JUST… TRUST ME.”
We whipped around a corner and kept running, but this was the fastest mob ever. Rush And Ruin hadn’t been mobbed since Levi’s fiancée, the crazy bitch who stole my shoe (a piece of me vowed to find her for that, seriously).
“WAIT!” Monster called. “I HAVE AN IDEA FOR A SHORTCUT!” He pumped his legs faster to get himself in the front of the group. “FOLLOW ME.”
We did, and eventually came to a highway overpass with a bike path on the side.
“THEY’RE STILL COMING!” Bert yelled. “MONSTER, YOU BETTER BE RIGHT ABOUT THIS OR I SWEAR I WILL CUT YOU IN YOUR SLEEP.”
“IT’S BECAUSE I’M A GINGER, ISN’T IT?”
“NO, IT’D BE BECAUSE YOU COULD GET US ALL KILLED.”
“WELL IF THEY KILL US YOU CAN’T KILL ME—“
“JUST HURRY THE FUCK UP!!”
Monster finally let us to a chain link fence. A big chain link fence. “Okay…” Monster said slowly. “This is new.”
I did the most obvious thing and jumped up onto it, climbing and jumping down on the other side. “You guys coming or getting trampled like fucking Moofasa?”
Frank, Bert, Tre, Mikey, Drew, Monster, and Jeph climbed over right away. Everyone else hesitated.
“Hurry up, you guys,” Drew yelled at them. “And stop staring behind you, for God’s sake, you’ll just terrify yourselves.”
“That is a lot of people,” Levi stammered, “And this is a big fence.”
“Just climb over you pansy,” I growled. Everyone on the other side finally came; Levi almost died on his dismount, falling semi hard on the concrete. “I’m okay, I am okay.”
“That’s wonderful now RUN!”
We took off, checking behind us to see a few of the kids starting to climb the fence. “This is why,” Gerard said, “I am afraid of teenagers.”
“Thanks,” Mark said flatly. “Not like you’ve been spending two-odd months with any of them.”
“You know I don’t mean you guys.”
“You just made a general statement, Gerard, I am taking it rather personally.”
“Oh shut up.”
“DOOR!” Jeph pointed. There was an old warehouse up ahead, and there was indeed a side door. We all ran faster toward it. Mikey got there first and twisted the handle.
“Dammit,” he said, “It’s locked.”
“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Drew moaned.
“Oh fuck this.” I stormed up to the door and kicked it in, swinging it open. Everyone piled in and we slammed it behind us. It was pitch black inside, and we were all dead silent. Well, almost.
“Monster!” Mike whispered fiercely, “What the hell are you doing to me?”
“Crouching down on the floor in eminent terror and clutching onto your leg.”
“I feel invaded,” Mike said. “Knock it off.”
“I would, but Frank is sitting on me.”
“Oh, that’s who this is,” Frank said. “I thought you were Gerard.”
“Good to know you’d sit on me, dude,” Gerard commented dully.
“Gee, I grind against you during shows, I don’t think we have any boundaries at this point.”
“Shut up!” Mikey was saying. “They’re coming.”
Mikey and I pressed our ears against the door and listened. I could hear feet slamming against the pavement outside, stopping a little ways ahead.
“Where’d they go?” I heard one guy say.
“I dunno,” said another.
“Around that corner!” a girl said. “I swear I saw someone!” The running resumed as the kid’s dashed away, the sound slowly fading.
“Are they gone?” Jeph whispered.
“I think so,” I said. “I don’t hear anyone.”
“We should find another way out,” Quinn said quietly. “Just in case.” A light came on and I saw Dan taking out his cell phone to look around, heading to the left. Next came a loud metal clang. We turned to see Billie holding his nose.
“Do not go toward the center of the room,” he said, “Because a metal giant will hurt you.”
“Oh my God,” Mark said. “There’s a plane in here!”
“Pff, who cares?” Ray said. “At least there are no dead bodies or shit like that.”
“There’s a closet over here,” Dan’s voice echoed from the other side. “So I wouldn’t be too sure...”
“Can we just find a door and get out of here please?” I snapped. “This is starting to freak me out.”
Another light came from the other side of the room. “I found a window,” Mike said. “That may be as good as we get.”
“Fuck,” Jeph grumbled. “We’ll all squeeze out, then.”
It took us about ten minutes (three extra because it slammed down on Bert’s lower back and got stuck, taking forever to pull back up) but we eventually made it out.
“Clayah, are you okay?” Mikey put his hand on my back. I was hunched over and my chest really hurt. “Is it your heart?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. The last thing I wanted or needed right now was Mikey or Gerard’s worrying. “My blood pressure’s just up and I’m catching my breath.” Talking was making it worse and I prayed Mikey wouldn’t pry further.
“At least we’re alive,” Frank said. “That was fucking scary.”
“FREEZE.”
We all turned to see two rent-a-cops standing there, guns out and pointed at us.
“Holy God!” Drew said, throwing her hands up. The rest of us followed in suit.
“Put your hands behind your heads, all of you,” the short and fat cop said. “Spread your legs out and face the wall.”
“What is this for?” Gerard asked.
“Face the wall.” Gerard bit his lip and obeyed. The cops searched us all and I, personally, did not enjoy a forty-something cop checking my ass pockets for weapons.
“All of you are under arrest,” the other cop—fit and with the most Magnum P.I. mustache I’ve ever seen—told us.
“Wait wait wait,” Quinn said. “Just let us tell you what happened before you go through with that. The fat cop walked over to Quinn first and hand cuffed him. “Wait,” Quinn pleaded again.
“You have the right to remain silent…”
The cops only had two handcuffs a piece, and there were fifteen of us, so one of them grabbed his walkie-talkie-thing and called for a few black and whites.
“What exactly did we do?” Mikey asked.
“Breaking and entering and destruction of private property,” the Magnum cop said.
“Private property?” Billie said, stunned. “We were running for our lives! There are no signs.”
“Chain link fence, sir,” the fat cop said. “Kind of an obvious hint, don’t you think?”
“Well… I guess, but we were seriously being attacked! And there are like, fifty kids heading in the other direction!”
“All I heard was you.” Magnum gestured to all of us. “That’s all I’m going to deal with.”
“It’s because I’m a ginger, isn’t it?”
“Will you shut the hell up?” Dan snapped.
Five cop cars pulled up and a bunch of cops came out, handcuffing us. I was shoved in a car with Gerard and Mikey.
“My parents are gonna kill me,” I said. “And handcuffs bite.”
“Clayah, we just got arrested,” Mikey said. “I think police authority is a little scarier than parental authority.”
“You might be surprised,” Magnum grinned from the front seat.
“Officer, will you please hear our side of the story?” Gerard’s voice was rather calm for the situation. I, on the other hand, was not only panicking about my parents, but also the pain growing in my chest, amplified by having my hands cuffed behind me.
“Save it,” Magnum said, turning on the engine. “You can defend yourself down at the station.”
“You’re not… seriously… bringing us in…are you?” I bent over when a hard pang went through my chest. The Way brothers glanced at me out of the corners of their eyes.
“You bet your boots I am.” I absorbed the fact that someone who could’ve been on Miami Vice just said ‘bet your boots.’ “Now I suggest the three of you be quiet until we get downtown.”
As we were driving more shocks went through me. I had taken my meds that morning, but all the running and fear had overworked me.
“Clayah,” Gerard whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m fine,” I whispered back.
“Liar.”
“I am fine,” I said hard. “Just ignore me.”
“Quiet back there,” Magnum said. Gerard was about to say something but I nudged him and shook my head. I tried not to flinch when my chest panged again.