Mansion in the Forest

You Robbed A Dead Person?

If the teenagers have documentaries of their lives, people would know that this moment will be the fastest move they've ever made in their entire existence. The table was abandoned with just a blink of an eye after the moment they saw the ramen guy's head dropped on the table and his blood flowed out from the bullet wound.

The wheels are screeching and leaving a mark on the asphalt as they sped away.

"You really have time to bring that with you?" Jisu asked Siena, who's hugging two plastic of buns in her chest and a piece between her teeth.

"Reflexes, I guess?" Siena replied, almost murmuring because she couldn't spit out the bun in her mouth.

"That was so f*****g close, my gosh. Who would kill an innocent guy like him? He was so nice!" Jazen exclaimed, pointing at the place where they left the dead body.

"Who do you think did it between the government or Sakura?" Blake chuckled dryly. Even if he doesn't want to admit it, he felt sorry for the nice guy who helped them.

"They are getting worse, there are already a lot of lives affected just because they want to kill us." Lexi said as she clenched her fists on her lap.

"I may sound insensitive but I would prefer them dying than us." Iris shrugged her shoulders.

"It feels so wrong to agree but I couldn't disagree more." Denver sighed deeply as he focused back his eyes on the road, but he didn't even know how he ended up behind the steering wheel. As soon as they fled away from the scene, he opened the first door he got into and it was the driver's seat so he started the engine and stepped on the gas.

"Let's just be practical here, we have to save ourselves before others, so please, you can feel as bad as you can, but never let that get in your head because our lives are more important than theirs." Trevor told them. And he's right. If they want to survive, they need to think about themselves first before others.

"Where are we going now? It's not like we can stay on the road forever." Chantelle asked as she looked at Lexi.

"Don't worry, we're sticking to our plan so we have to be at the airport so we can leave." Lexi said, checking the address of the airport where the private plane is waiting for them.

"We're not going to ride that plane, Lexi." Jisu said, her eyes were dark and pierced at Herlie's shoulder, where a mark was more visible than she first saw it before. It was not just a normal birth mark. It is more like the skin of a monster. She is indeed Sakura's sister because they saw the same mark as Sakura's hand while she was pointing the gun at Lexi.

"But why?" Lexi asked, furrowed eyebrows.

"Come to think of it. Sakura won't let us go that easily, so it might be a trap."

"She's right, Sakura is the last person I want to trust right now, Lex." Trevor agreed to Jisu. They have the same thought about the too good to be true escape goat.

Lexi became silent for a moment, then she let out a sigh. "You're right, sorry. I must have been too excited to leave this country and never had a thought about that."

"So what now?" Siena asked, already done with her buns but of course, she shared some with Herlie.

"We could just rent some boat and let's cross the country with that." Denver suggested, earning different reactions from everyone, some agreed to his idea and some think that it was ridiculous. "We could go in Toronto Canada."

"How about the coast guard? Do you really think they wouldn't find us out in the ocean?" Iris snorted.

"Then let's rent a fishing vessel, they don't have to—."

"Or we could just use this car and keep driving till we reach Rochester then cross the Mississauga then boom, we're in Toronto!" Blake said, air quoting the last words with his hands.

"That'll be an 8 hours drive from here!" Siena exclaimed in excitement.

"How about the checkpoints?" Jisu asked.

"Let's not think about that because all we need is to find a gasoline station." Denver said as he noticed the fuel gauge is running empty.

"We have to find money first." Trevor chuckled.

"Oops, I might have accidentally stolen this." Chantelle pulled out a wallet in her back and they all looked at her in disbelief.

"Where did you get that?" Jisu asked, wide eyed.

"From that ramen guy."

"You robbed a dead person?" Jazen was amusedly looking at the blonde girl.

"I didn't!" Chantelle denied even if it's already obvious, so when she saw the meaningful look she was receiving from them, she sighed in defeat. "Fine, I robbed him, but let's not focus on that, let's look at the brighter side of my habit."

"This will be the last time you'll do your bad habit!" Jisu scolded her, slapping her leg. Herlie found the whole conversation so entertaining so she just kept giggling at them.

Their whole ride was filled with random conversation, bickering and bantering, then laughter, as if their lives weren't in danger.

After two hours of driving, they were along the lower Manhattan road and they were about to enter the Holland tunnel, an underground tunnel under Hudson river. They wouldn't have a problem as they could cross that tunnel, but they don't know if there's a checkpoint awaiting them at the end of it.

And they still need to find a gasoline station that has no other people filling their car. So they drove slower than usual to find one empty gas station.

"There." Lexi pointed at the old and seemed about to collapse the gas station.

"It looks abandoned to me." Jazen laughed softly.

"But there's a person inside that store." Trevor pointed out so Denver pulled at the pump, Lexi asked the wallet to Chantelle and she got out of the car, she wear a cap that she found in the backseat and pulled it down further to hide her face, Trevor followed her inside the small convenience store wearing the same cap of Williamsburg revolution 12U team.

"Hi, welcome." A man in his 20s greeted the two.

"Uh, is it okay to pay on the counter for the gas?" Lexi asked as she kept her head down, not daring to look at the man's eyes.

"Sure, no problem. You can fill your car now and just pay it here."

"Thank you, here's my card." Lexi handed a credit card to the guy, who's not even bother to look if the woman in front of her was the owner of the card. He used to encounter lot of people like Lexi, a pickpocket kids.

Lexi walked back to the door and she signalled Denver to fill the car with gas and then she walked back to Trevor.

"Go grab some snacks that we could eat on our way."

"I felt bad for doing this." He said with slumped shoulders.

"You're the one who says that we can't take it in our heads." Lexi chuckled and slapped Trevor's playfully.

While the two were grabbing food as much as they could take, the guy was watching them from the counter and somewhat had a glimpse of Lexi's face when she threw her head back and laughed. The guy's eyes widened and he shifted his gaze at the tabloid on the side of the register and he saw the picture of Lexi in it.

Enemies of the state.

So he quickly grabbed the landline and was about to call the police but the landline didn't have a dial tone. When he turned to his side, he saw Blake, glaring at him with Iris on his side, looking for some expensive cigarettes inside the counter.

"You guys are wanted!" The guy yelled, which caught Lexi and Trevor's attention.

"We know, and you're about to call the cops on Lexi." Blake said, shrugging his shoulders as he went behind the counter and pushed the guy in his shoulder to the side before he forcibly opened the register and took the money from it.

"What are you doing?" Lexi asked astonishingly.

"Don't get mad at Blake, you're lucky we arrived before he called the cops on you." Iris said while opening a pack of cigarettes and took one, nipped in her chapped lips and light it up.

"No smoking inside the store, are you blind?" The guy said while pointing at the sign.

"Oh come on, I've killed so many monsters and this is my reward for that." Iris sneered at him. She put the stick between her lips, taking a deep breath. Her lungs filled with smoke and she held it there for a second, then she blew the grayish cloud upwards, dissipating in the air.

"Look, I'm really sorry for all of this— Blake put back the money— but we really need your help, we don't want to hurt you or anyone in general." Lexi said she walked around the counter and took the money from Blake's hands and put it back at the register. "Let's go."

"But how about this?" Trevor asked, referring to all the snacks in his hands.

"Bring it to the car."

"Okay." The guy shrugged his shoulders and smiled at the clerk before running off.

"I'll take four packs of this." Iris said as she grabbed some packs of cigarettes and ran out too.

Blake still took the money, because he thinks that they might need it somewhere so f**k Lexi's being a nice person in this kind of situation then after that, he also took a pack of cigar then ran off.

"You really took the money huh?" Lexi scoffed but Blake just spared her a glance then he got inside the car. "Is it done?"

"Yeah." Denver replied while locking the gas cap. "Let's go, everybody get it, we're leaving!"

As soon as they left the gasoline station, they didn't see what happened to the guy. He was shot dead and the gunman left his body on the floor, drowning in a pool of his own blood.

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