On the Run

On the Run is the third chapter of Mind of Ezra. It marks the appearance of a new villain.

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As the big white van drove off, Adrien took his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. Waiting for the call to be answered, he had a weird smirk on his face. He was now much closer to his goal, and although he had not succeeded in getting Ezra abducted, the death of one of his fathers enemies was still a very agreaable alternative. He had always liked death, and being a master killer, life was much more enjoyable than it had been before. Like Achilles, he too was very gifted at ending lives, and the fact that he was now about to have his revenge on his very own Hector was to make this one of the best days of his whole life. As he had been in thought for a few moments, the person he was calling picked up the phone.

„Hello.“ said a man with a low, emotionless voice. „I'm in position. What are your orders?“

„Get the boy.“ Adrien said, „I will arrive to pick him up in half an hour.“ He paused for a moment to think. He knew for certain that Dane was amongst those trapped in the same room as Ezra. What a foolish boy he had been, thinking that Adrien was his friend, while he himself had merely been a puppet, a way to get to Ezra! The stupidity of that foolish red haired boy almost made him laugh. What weak and useless opponents he had!

„Kill the others.“ Adrien continued. „They have no use to me.“

„Consider it done.“ the man responded and ended the call.

A few minutes after the call, a tall man with straight black hair and misty gray eyes walked towards the dormitory. The street was empty, as it was still morning and the students were all inside the building. Carrying with him a black rifle, the man quietly entered the building. This was to be a bloody morning, a new Virginia Tech and a dark mark on the face of America.

Inside the building Ezra and his friends were starting to panic more as moments passed. Ezra, trying to be as calm as possible, was much more worried about Dane than himself. Although he did not have ashtma like his mother had, he still tended to have some breathing problems in certain situations. Ezra remembered how they once had been stuck in the elevator for an hour with a group of people. Although Dane hadn't passed out then, he wasn't far from it as well. And now that they had been stuck in this room for more than an hour, he was feeling sicker by the minute.

Desperate to get out of the room, Ezra had tried everything, using both his knife, the chair, the table and various other things to break the windows. Nothing worked.

Sitting on the floor next to Dane, he had no other choice but to wait. As Muhammad had been abducted, he wasn't exactly sure what would happen to him and the others. Would they be abducted too like he was? Where was he now and was he even still alive?

Ezra hoped he was. Although he had thought of him as his greatest enemy last year, he had become good friends with him when he found out Muhammad was really one of the good guys. The thought of how much things had changed over the last year mad him feel a bit funny.

But he didn't have much time to think. Soon after that, his train of thought was broken as a few gunshots were heard in the distance. As moments passed, they came closer to the room where they were trapped.

„We must do something!“ Sarah whispered, her eyes clearly showing she was getting scared. „We can't just wait here to die!“

„Well, I would very much like to hear what you think will help us get out of here!“ Ezra responded. „Because I'm pretty sure we tried everything.“

„We haven't tried shooting at the window.“ mrs. Tanen said and took out a silver handgun. „Step aside.“ A moment later she aimed it at the window and shot a couple of times, breaking most of the first layer of the window. As she continued shooting, she broke the second layer as well, and a breeze of fresh air came into the room.

„Now let's get out of here!“ mrs. Tanen ordered as she opened the frames of the windows. „We don't have much time!“ She climbed out of the window, and Sarah along with Dane and Ezra followed her. A few minutes after that, the shooter entered the room, only to find it empty. He screamed of rage and climbed out of the window as well. At the same moment, his phone rang. It was Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and the caller was Adrien. The man frowned.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„Yes!“ he yelled as he had made it out of the room.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„I'm almost at the dorms.“ said Adrien. „Have you got the boy with you?“

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„They had a gun and managed to break out.“ the man responded.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„SEBASTIEN LOKER!!!“ Adrien yelled at the top of his lungs a moment later. „I hope for your sake that you will find him before I get there, or it will be your head that will be served on the platter!“ Having said that, he ended the call. Putting his phone inside his pocket, Sebastien noticed a group of four people running in the distance and ran after them.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Running as fast as they possibly could, the group was slowed down more than once because of Dane who was still feeling sick. With his hand around Ezra's neck, he was able to move a bit faster, although they still had to take pauses from time to time. As they stopped for another moment, Ezra looked at the dormitory in the distance and saw a man in black sprinting towards them. He also noticed that he carried a rifle with him.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„We must run!“ he screamed. „The shooter is after us!“

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">But as they turned towards the forest they had been running to, they noticed Adrien, with a big smile on his face and a gun in his hand, walking towards them. Ezra couldn't believe it was the same Adrien he had met a year ago. Then a good looking boy with brown locks and green eyes, he now had long and straight hair and looked more like a living skull than the vital person he had been before.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„Ezra, Dane.“ he said, his voice still the same as it had been a year ago, „It's great to see you again, my friends.“

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Mrs. Tanen aimed her gun at him.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„It's no use.“ Adrien said. „You can't win. Sebastien will be here in a minute and he is the best shooter I have at my side.“ He laughed. „So it looks like you have no choice but to surrender. And die.“

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">At the same time, Muhammad was walking on the streets, seriously injured.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„What are you looking at!“ he yelled at a couple of people who were looking at him and whispering something. He knew he must've looked absolutely dreadful, but he was alive and that was what mattered. He had never cared much of the opinion of others, and he wasn't about to start doing that now. All he really cared about right now was getting back at the dormitory, as he was more than sure his friends were in big danger.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">After a few moments his phone rang.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„Hello.“ Muhammad said, his voice husky and a bit tired.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">„There has been a shooting at the dormitory. Many students are dead.“ a familiar voice said. „You must get there at once! Tell us where you are and we will pick you up.“

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">As Muhammad told the caller his location and ended the call, he was horrified. He was now more that sure that his friends had not survived. How could this have happened? How could they have broken into the dormitory, the most protected building of the whole university so easily? The agency had gone to such measures to make it as safe as humanly possible. Yet it had taken less than a day for their enemies to break in! And now that many students were dead, Muhammad knew that this was now a national issue, as the other school shootings had been. How could this day have gotten so messed up?, he thought to himself.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">As he thought those thoughts he knew that as injured as he was, he had to do something. To avenge the deaths of his friends, to finally get rid of Adrien! And as he was handed a gun and got into the car, he knew that it was not his life that mattered, it was the goal.

Characters

 * Adrien Walden
 * Sebastien Loker
 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Miss Tanen
 * Sarah Scarlet
 * Muhammad Praveen
 * Lois Young (mentioned)

Trivia

 * In this chapter it is revealed that Dane has some ashtmatic tendencies.
 * The chapter was named after the song "On the Run" by the estonian pop artist Kali Briis.