I’d hit people in sparing practice before, but this was my first time striking someone in anger. The shock it sent up my arm hurt more than I expected, but I gritted my teeth against the discomfort and kept my fists up and ready for the fight that was sure to follow.
The two handlers had been posing as a pair of parents, so there was one man and one woman. Just a few minutes ago, they’d looked like any ordinary couple, but now that the act had dropped, it was clear that these were no ordinary people. My punch barely fazed the man. He stumbled but didn’t fall, catching his balance on a nearby pylon and almost immediately regaining his feet.
His partner was only a step behind, and as soon as she saw the man stumble, she was instantly on guard and came at me swinging.
The fact that we were in an airport was probably my only saving grace. If the pair had been armed, I probably would have died right then and there. Thankfully, guns were too much of a hassle to sneak through security, even for these practiced criminals. Such lethal weapons weren’t needed for keeping children in line and would only draw unnecessary attention.
So, neither of the handlers were armed, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still deadly. This pair could probably kill me a dozen different ways with just their bare hands.
Luckily, I didn’t need to beat them. I just needed to survive long enough for Jordy and the boy to get away and report what was going on to security.
Making a quick decision, I turned around and ran. Jordy and the boy had gone left once they entered the construction area, so I made sure to go right.
Just as I’d hoped, the pair of handlers followed me. Since they’d been behind me the entire time, they must not have seen exactly which way Jordy and the boy went, and probably assumed I was trying to catch up with them.
That worked for me. The longer I could keep them chasing me, the better.
I brushed a hanging tarp out of my way as I darted under another scaffolding structure. It was hard to tell what the area was supposed to be since everything was still in disrepair, but from what I could see, we seemed to be in some sort of tunnel connecting one part of the airport to another. The floor angled slightly downward, and my shoes echoed on the plywood walkway that lined the floor. Even with so many hiding places around me, there was no way for me to hide. The sound of my footsteps would immediately give away my position.
That gave me an idea.
I rounded another corner and pressed myself against the wall, which was made out of a chain-link fence covered in a tarp.However, even though I’d stopped running, I kept moving my feet, imitating the sound of running footsteps.
My pursuer’s shadow rounded the corner before they did, giving me a split second’s warning to prepare myself. This time, I was ready for the feeling of my fist hitting flesh and was able to put more power into my punch. I hit the female handler square in the face, hard enough to break her nose. I heard the crunch of bone and felt the warmth of her blood as it spurted from her nose over my knuckles. The sensation made me shiver in disgust, while at the same time, I also cheered in victory when she shouted in pain.
“Bastard,” she mumbled as she staggered back, clutching her broken nose as more blood dripped between her fingers. “Just wait. When I catch you, I’m gonna?—”
I didn’t wait around to hear what she planned to do to me. Just as the other handler also rounded the corner, I grabbed a stack of nearby crates and toppled them right onto the pair. Judging by the sound of clanging metal, the crates held some kind of tools, so they fell with a resounding crash that knocked both of the handlers off their feet, letting me slip away once again.
Behind me, I could hear them shouting curses as I disappeared further into the chaos of the construction zone.
There weren’t even recognizable hallways anymore. This part of the airport seemed like it was still being built. Several areas were completely open to the sky, with massive scaffolding towers climbing all the way up to the ceiling.
It was hard to know where to go. Everything was a mess. I turned one corner, only to be met by a wall of concrete tubes. The tubes were large enough for a person to crawl through, and there was no time for me to turn around, so I grabbed the edge of one tube and slid inside. By my guess, the whole tube was about twenty feet long. I army crawled from one end to the other,scrapping my elbows and bumping my head several times on the rough surface. The concrete material acted as good insulation, blocking off outside noises, so I couldn’t tell if the handlers were still following me.
Assuming they still were, I pressed on. The moment I reached the end of the tube, and my feet touched the floor, I kept running.
My efforts didn’t last much longer.
Not far from the stack of tubes, I ran into a brick wall. This time, it was a proper wall that reached all the way up to the ceiling and was probably part of the foundation of the new structure. There was still scaffolding erected around it, so I wondered if maybe I could climb my way to a new area.
I’d just taken hold of the nearest scaffolding ladder to start climbing when a blinding pain erupted across my shoulder. I dropped to my knees, hitting my head against one of the rungs of the ladder in the process. For one terrifying moment, I thought my arm had been severed from my body, the scorching pain was so bad. However, when I clutched my shoulder, I found that the limb was still there. It wasn’t even bleeding, but something wasn’t right. My shoulder sat at a strange angle compared to the rest of my body.
I tried to move my arm and yelled when more white-hot pain spread from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips and even spearing into my lungs like I’d been electrocuted.
A pair of boots stepped into my line of view. Looking up, I found the male handler standing over me, wielding a two-foot-long piece of rebar.
“Is that it?” he laughed as he tapped the rebar against the palm of his hand like he was a strict schoolteacher ready to discipline a student. “After giving us such a runaround, I thought you’d be tougher than that. One little hit is all it takes to bring you down? Huh. I’m almost disappointed.”
My whole body shook with the effort to keep from crying out in pain as I shifted to lean back against the ladder behind me. The handlers must have caught up to me without me noticing, and since they didn’t have their guns, they’d made do with whatever weapon they could find. Judging by the grinding I could feel every time my shoulder moved, the man must have struck me with the rebar from behind and dislocated the joint.
Not the worst injury in the world, better than a bullet at least, but also not doing me any favors right now. Without the use of my arm, climbing the scaffolding out of this area was no longer an option.
The female handler stepped up beside the man. She made for a ghastly sight, with the bottom half of her face still covered in oozing blood, especially when she sneered down at me.
“Stop blabbering on. Ask him where the boy is.”
I looked up at her with all the innocence I could muster while also grimacing in pain.
