The ambulance flew off the ground and flipped over sideways so when it landed, it was upside down in a ditch off to the side of the road that had been rigged with an explosive. They had just turned onto Paulie’s long private drive.
Alik’s head was throbbing. He was suspended by his seatbelt upside down. In his right hand he still held the brown paper bag with Meg’s medicine, except now his arms were hanging so the bag was resting on the ceiling of the ambulance cab.
Moaning softly, he forced his arms to reach back to release his seatbelt. They were numb and as useful with the belt’s clasp as a mannequin arms would be. Somehow he managed to push the release button and his entire body fell the two feet to the floor (the ceiling) with a sickening thwump.
Feeling the blood rush from his pounding head made it clear they had been upside down for at least ten minutes. Ignoring his disorientation, he reached out to Creed who was also suspended by his seatbelt upside down.
“Creed,” Alik whispered not sure if Farrow was nearby.
“Creed, come on! Wake up!”
Ignoring the silence, Alik reached around Creed’s body and found the seatbelt release button with fingers that were tingling as they regained normal blood flow. He braced himself to catch his friend as soon as he hit the button.
“Oooph,” Creed moaned when he landed on top of Alik.
Trying not to get squished under the two-hundred-fifty-pound guy, Alik shook him even harder, “Dude! Creed. Wake up! We gotta get the hell out of here!”
Alik was already thinking through his options if he couldn’t get Creed to wake up. He could run up to the house with the medicine and get help to come retrieve Creed, but what if Farrow swooped in just then and finished off what the road bomb didn’t. No, he couldn’t leave him, but…Meg would die if she didn’t have this medicine.
“Oh, my God. What do I do?” Alik whispered his desperate prayer.
“Well, you could start by helping me open one of these doors so we can get out of here,” Creed whispered back, scaring the heck out of Alik.
“Creed, thank God you’re awake!” Alik grinned despite his startled nerves. “Check your door and see if it’ll open, ‘cause mine’s not budging without a fight.” Alik pulled the handle and pushed on the door with no results.
Creed tried his door and felt it give a bit then caught it before it slammed open. He slipped out of the overturned cab easily despite his injuries then stopped to help Alik out, too.
“Got the bag?”
“Yeah, let’s get moving before my mom tries to come to our rescue,” Alik wiped his brow with his shoulder. “And I think we should avoid the road in case Farrow left us any other surprises.”
“Agreed. Can you run?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay right on my heels. Let’s go.” Creed lead the way as Alik watched their backs and held on tightly to the bag containing his sister’s medicine.
Darkness enveloped their feet, but they kept walking toward the lights of the house visible through the thick foliage.
Snap!
The boys stopped, crouched and listened. That was definitely a twig or branch being stepped on, but the question was, by whom?
They exchanged worried looks and continued waiting, but the noise didn’t repeat itself.
Hesitantly, they began moving again this time walking as quietly as possible.
Then they heard another noise. This time it sounded like a thump and a voice let out a noisy breath.
“Oomph.”
The boys looked at each other confused and shrugged. This didn’t sound like the stealth meta soldier they believed was stalking them. This sounded more like—
“Dr. Andrews?” Alik whispered toward the sounds.
“Who’s there?” a scared, but familiar voice called back.
The boys grinned and moved toward the voice saying, “It’s just us—Alik and Creed.”
“Oh thank God,” Dr. Andrews sighed, obviously relieved. “Your mother heard an explosion and was insisting she was coming out here to check on things, but I talked her into letting me come instead so she could stay with Meg.”
Alik looked smugly over at Creed and whispered, “Did I call it?”
“Yeah, you called it.”
“Called what?” Dr. Andrews asked as he patted his sweaty forehead with the sleeve of his white lab coat.
“Never mind,” Alik whispered, grinning.
“What was that explosion?” Dr. Andrews asked as they turned toward the house and picked up the pace. Theo was cleaning off his glasses with a tissue from his pocket. The poor man had ripped a hole in the knee of his dress pants and had leaves sticking out of his hair. He was definitely not meant for this kind of work.
“Farrow left us a welcome home gift on the road. Let’s just say the ambulance company may be sending us a bill.” Alik glanced behind them anxiously. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. Someone was watching them.
Creed must not have noticed because he just kept talking softly. “You’re lucky you didn’t run into Farrow instead of us.”
“Yeah, I know. I wonder why she hasn’t jumped out of the bushes. We haven’t heard a peep out of our friendly neighborhood stalker since you all first came back with Meg,” Theo explained.