killing his
mentor and leaving behind all he knew, this was the least Seth could do. Now he
wished he had been a better student and hadn’t distracted Domenico with sex so
frequently.
”What do you want to
do?” called Dom.
“I’ll react !” Seth
yelled back. The empty road ahead would hopefully allow him to look back every
now and then. Before Dom could answer, there was something to react to.
The man on the bike behind them approached and shot. The familiar noise had
Seth’s hands briefly turning into goo, and only a quick reaction saved them
from falling over. He held on to the gun in his hand and blindly fired back.
Domenico stiffened
behind him. “Stop. Stop the fucking bike! Or get off the fucking road!”
With just a small
fraction of the road ahead well visible in the headlight, it felt as though they
were running into some kind of trap. Seconds stretched into minutes as they hit
full speed and rushed forward. It took all of Seth’s attention to move around
without falling down. Dom sitting behind his back like a live shield was
constantly on his mind.
“I’m not stopping! You fucking shoot him!” Seth yelled with another bullet flying past them. He
shuddered when Dom leaned back, and then something hard and long brushed Seth’s
spine. The grasp of Domenico’s hand on his stomach got harder, the weight
tugging Seth back and forcing him to practically lie down on the motorbike for
balance. There were hundreds of horrific scenarios storming through his head as
he rushed along the open road. Domenico’s helmet exploding into a million
pieces after a bullet hit him in the head being one of them. Seth would pray
for it not to happen if he weren’t too busy keeping the bike upright.
Then came the noise Seth
already knew so well, and this time it was comforting like a song you knew from
your high school disco. Domenico shot, and then his arm was back where it
belonged, repeating the move from seconds ago, only on rewind. He put the gun
back under his coat.
The rattle and crash of
the bike behind them was music to Seth’s ears, and only an explosion could have
made it better. He exhaled, feeling safe in Dom’s embrace even if Dom’s hands
were there just to keep warm.
“Still got your
reflexes,” Seth yelled with a stupid grin under his helmet.
“He’s still alive, I
think,” Dom said without even a bit of remorse. “We need to go off the radar.”
“Fuck,” was all Seth had
to say about that, but he sped up and after riding a few miles farther, he
turned into a smaller road among trees, which later changed into a forest
trail. Darkness swallowed them up like in an episode of the X-Files , but
despite the cold, despite not knowing where to go, being alone with Dom felt
safer than hiding in the hornet’s nest called New York City. Domenico had just
shot a guy while they were on a bike. This meant something. His brain would get
better soon, and he’d know what to do. Dom had their escape planned in detail.
Seth slowed down as they
dove deeper and deeper into the woods. He wondered what strategy he should opt
for - going into the woods and risking freezing to death or just speeding ahead
to eventually find shelter in some nondescript building. For now he still
wasn’t sure, and he didn’t know what the normal Dom would think. He pulled into
another tiny asphalt road and continued along, hoping it would take them
somewhere near civilization.
This strategy was good
for a while, but Seth’s blood went cold when he began running low on gas. This
was the last thing he needed.
“Come on, you fucking
thing,” he moaned, cursing every deity known to man. Please, not when there was
no trace of a person within a few miles. Were they to find shelter with a
family of boars?
“What is it?” Domenico asked,
squeezing him harder.
“We’re almost out of
gas.” Seth was embarrassed to admit it, but there was no way around that.
Domenico hit the front
of his helmet against Seth’s back.
Matt Christopher, Stephanie Peters