Through Their Eyes.

Slowly but surely, we made our way through traffic moving at a glacial pace into Indiana. Andrew was being unusually quiet, but I chalked it up to the irritating traffic, and focus on the road ahead of us. Seeing the stunt-like crash had been disturbing, sure, but crazy people were allowed on the road daily; I preferred not to psych myself out just yet. Around half way to our destination, Andrew's cell phone buzzed noisily against the cup holder where he had put it; the continuous sound alerting him that someone was calling.

"Who is it?" I asked him after he had picked up and examined the screen of the still vibrating device.

As he answered the call, he muttered to me, "My mom."

My eyes studied every detail of his face as he spoke, watching his movements adoringly. I found myself turning away, feeling awkward eavesdropping on his conversation. My attention completely transferred to the scenery beyond my window, tuning them out almost completely. The imagery was mostly boring. We were at the beginning edge of some small town whose name had escaped me almost immediately after looking at the water tower declaring our location. As we stopped at a light before a T-intersection, I noticed a figure walking slowly along the sidewalk, a blank look on her face as her feet shuffled across the pavement. It was as if the slender girl's feet were cement blocks too heavy to lift. The woman would have been beautiful, gorgeous even, if it were not for her almost colorlessly bleak eyes and the ugly shape her mouth made as the result of her slackened jaw, that being cement as well. I craned my head to get a clearer look at her face. As if sensing my movement, she whirled in a fluid motion revealing to me a large gaping hole in her shirt upon her shoulder, and beyond that, her skin there was torn and bloody marring the delicate pink blouse's fabric. "Oh my god," I gasped as she lunged for the car, her blonde hair flying wildly behind her. "Go, Andrew, now!" I screamed. Her fists beat heavily on my window, desperately trying to reach me as I simply stared, my face set in sheer horror. One more moment and she'll surely shatter the glass, I thought in panic.

"Oh my god!" Andrew echoed loudly, his phone dropping to his lap. His foot met the pedal hard and our good friend physics forced our heads against the seats painfully once more. The vehicle made a dangerously fast turn causing it to fishtail as it attempted to plane out. Had it not been for the sheer horror I felt, I might have joked about his driving constantly jerking us backward into the seats.

"I thought they weren't in Indiana," I whispered almost accusatively, my head dropped into my hands. I felt every bit of security I had finally began to undergo slip away in an instant. Sighing heavily and with purpose, I picked up my head to look over at Andrew; he had picked his phone back up and continued talking to his mom for a few more minutes. After assuring her that we were okay, the call was ended. "What is it?" I timidly asked.

The phone returned to the cup holder. He was quiet for a moment; a stressed look crossed his face. "We can't go to my house," he said finally in a monotonous drone. "It's not safe in Indiana anymore."

"Clearly." I said blandly, my mind instantly moving to the woman who could have easily passed for a model, if not for her apparent lunacy. "Where is safe exactly?" My tone was biting, but the stress had pushed me beyond the point of caring.

"My mom wants us to meet her in Tennessee.," he responded with a shrug, disregarding my sarcasm. His already pallid skin was practically achromatic where his knuckles gripped the steering wheel. Andrew was obviously feeling uneasy, perhaps as much so as I inwardly felt.

"Why Tennessee?" I wondered, my voice softening exponentially. He was looking around nervously before flipping in his right turn signal and turning into a gas station. My hand had returned to his knee in a feeble attempt to calm him and myself a bit.

"My aunt lives there in Bartlett," he informed me. "My mom says it's safe up there, or is it down there?"

Shrugging, I thought, he looks hopeful, good; one of us has to be. Andrew parked at a gas pump and cautiously stepped out to nourish the thirsty vehicle. From the window he cast me a smile that I could not bring myself to return. I felt too queasy. "Andrew?" I prompted once he returned. He had left the pump to do its work outside.

"Yes, Natasha?" He asked, obviously working at keeping his tone light.

"What if..." I could not even bring myself to finish my question and hoped desperately that he could catch on.

"If what?" He pressed, his face transforming into a mask of honest confusion. Clearly sensing my distress, his warm hand settled onto mine.

My eyes fell to my lap as I strived to muster up the courage to verbalize my concern. "What if... Tennessee is no different? What if it's worse?" I mumbled, unable to even look at the golden-haired boy beside me.

"It's different. My mom called my aunt; she said it's safe there. It's only our area that isn't. She also said that the issue is working to be contained." Replied Andrew, assuringly. I could not help but wonder which of us he was really trying to assure. "I won't let you get hurt, my Natasha. I'll keep you safe," he promised me.

As he pulled me into his arms, I finally began to relax a degree. I nodded into his collar bone. "I'm afraid." I admitted at last.

"So am I, baby." He told me in a soft, soothing voice as he stroked my wavy hair. I did not have the time to straighten it; the rush to get out of Illinois came before appearance.

Pulling away, I tried to smile at him. "How come we couldn't just go with them?" I asked thoughtfully. The notion had not occurred to me previously, but it seemed quite bizarre that Andrew's family had no qualms about leaving two teenagers to such dangerous circumstances. I supposed that I could have understood them not feeling much concern for me, but their own son? Somehow, it just did not add up.

It seemed that he needed a moment to think about this, but finally said, "I don't know, really. She said they had already left."

"Okay." I said slowly, drawing out the vowels for a time that was a little longer than necessary. I still felt a bit confused, but I let the particular subject drop for the time being. "How long will it take for us to get there?"

Andrew shrugged and quickly glanced at the gasoline pump. "She's supposed to be sending me the address," He began, gesturing to his phone. "It should only take around ten to twelve hours, but you've seen the traffic."

"Yeah, I have," I agreed quietly. "Okay, can we keep moving while we wait? Sitting in one spot is making me feel uneasy."

"Okay," he agreed, exiting the vehicle once more. "I'll be right back after I pay." Andrew shut the door and proceeded to remove the pump and place it back onto its holder, and then he sauntered over to the little building.

I waited, watching him approach the register, hoping he would stay safe from any of those seeming asylum escapees. I was a hawk, scoping for any signs of danger, barely relaxing even when I found none. Somehow, my body tensed even more as I heard wheels screeching against the pavement not far behind me. Reflexively, my head instantaneously whipped around in time to see a pickup truck sliding around a corner on probably very bald tired and smashing into the front of a corner pantry, which was just across the street from me. As if out of a highly improbable action flick, the car's engine spontaneously combusted. This can't be good, I thought. I had not yet realized it, but Andrew was already buckling himself in beside me.

"We have to go right now," yelped Andrew hastily.

Although I had no objections to this, I turned to locate the object of his distress finding another bloodied maniac wearing a name badge, declaring him to be "Earl" charging our car. Andrew woke the engine and slammed us into reverse, Earl clinging to the front of the vehicle with his legs dragging across the parking lot. "He's not letting go!" I hollered wildly. "Andrew, you're going to run him over!"

Putting the car into drive, he cast me a half-crazed look and between slightly clenched teeth said, "Well, then I guess we run the bastard over."

My eyes widened even more, probably making them as big as saucers from fearing such insane, callous words coming from my normally sensitive Andrew. The wheels spun in place, trying to comply with his rapid acceleration, and then the vehicle bounced roughly over the man as if he were nothing more than an annoying rock in the road. I cringed almost believing I could feel the crack of bone beneath the tires. We did not stop, Andrew sped on, leaving Earl's carcass in the street. Though I did not want to, I felt I had to take a look at what we had done. As I turned, the car whose engine had ignited exploded, blowing the remaining store windows, merchandise, and the already totaled truck to bits. "Holy fuck," I whispered in total amazement, my entire body trembling from the insane amount of adrenaline that fuelled my system at that moment. Sudden realization came crashing down on me, in that moment I knew my next words would change our lives forever. "Andrew, we just... We killed someone."

He said nothing, though his eyes still held that wild glint as he sped through the one horse town. He looked at me, his face almost completely unfamiliar to me. "Here," he said tossing his opened cell phone onto my lap. "Enter this into the GPS." That was all he had said as we left our heinous crime in the dust, probably along with our sanity.