Long Run

Chapter 8: Day One

By the break of dawn, outside Ruby's house, Ana was dressed and was carrying a backpack with Spiky hopping around her. When she walked past Nova's house, she noticed the lights were off, indicating that Nova had left. She sighed and headed towards the city gate.

They had all agreed to meet there before 6 am and just as they said, they'd already arrived when she got there. She subconsciously looked around and nodded, everyone was prepared.

"Let's go." She said and Lucas pushed the huge gates open. The cool breeze that blew in made her eyes sting. On the top of the huge gate, was written;

Goodbye Vel City.

She couldn't put into words how she felt at the moment because the words resonated well with her. She has stayed here since she was little and now she is leaving with no hope of returning.

For the last time, she looked back and she could see a vague image of the little her then, running around the lakeside while being pursued by her father. The memories came flashing before her eyes and before she knew it, she was crying. Dad, I'll miss you.

Nova was the closest to her so while others watched in a daze, she hugged Ana's arm as she comforted not only Ana but herself too. In as much as she'd miss this place, she knew better than to stay.

"We'll be late." She said, her voice cracking but they all heard. Hurriedly wiping her face, Ana turned and smiled. "Let's go." They entered Elias's car and drove off.

First day….

Somewhere before the mountains of Vel, the group of friends were resting in the car and they were all too absorbed in their sleep that no one noticed the change in the atmosphere.

Nova had her hands crossed across her chest. Her ponytailed hair rested at the base of her neck and the knot between her brows settled into a deep frown. She seemed to be having a nightmare until…

Snap!

Her eyes flung open as she jerked from her seat. "Who's there?" She looked through the window. It was dark and the night sky was moonless, she could see nothing but an assortment of dancing trees that surrounded the car.

She surveyed the surroundings for a while before resting her back and returning to sleep. Not long after, she heard a strange sound. "Just what is that?" She whispered. Looking at her side, Ana was fast asleep and there were also the others who didn't seem like they would be waking up anytime soon.

Quietly, she fumbled around, searching for something before successfully retrieving a small flashlight.

Curious, she opened the door and stepped out. "So nice." She inhaled, the night breeze was just as she remembered. Cool and refreshing.

Flashing the light across the woods, she saw nothing but peaceful trees and probably a few squirrels rushing into the tree holes.

They'd stopped the car in this place because it was the plainest area to camp at but since they hadn't packed camp equipment with them, they could only make do in the car.

She exhaled, relaxing her heavy heart. It would be deemed a lie if she said she wasn't scared.

The door creaked open and she turned to look, finding Ana standing in front of the door. "You're up?" She said, pointing the light towards the others. "They wouldn't be waking up to anything now, would they?"

"I don't think so." Ana shook her head. "Normally, you wouldn't come out late unless you are feeling troubled. Why? Can't fall asleep?" Ana said, resting against the car door as she tucked her hands into the pocket of her jacket. The noise Nova made had disrupted her sleep so she just had to check. "Kinda. I thought I heard noises coming from outside so I thought to check, but it just happened to be the squirrels running around." Nova replied, lowering her head only to realize that she wasn't wearing any extra cloth in the cold weather. She looked up and caught sight of Ana staring at her. "What?"

"Why didn't you wear a jacket?" Ana frowned as she approached Nova, her golden hair was let loose like always and Nova was attracted to the colour in varying conditions. Ana's hair will become golden under the shining sun, then wine at night but each time, there was a hint of black in them. It was surreal.

"I forgot." Ana almost forgot what she'd wanted to say in reply to Nova's matter-of-fact tone answer. "Since you've checked and there's nothing, let's go back inside," Ana said, examining Nova before opening the car door and without delay, she went into the car. She was soon followed by Nova.

Adjusting on her side of the car, Ana casually pulled on Ben's shirt. She paused to check if he was awake but he merely turned to the other side and seeing how tightly shut his eyes were, Ana sighed.

Ben had been driving the car for over eight hours before they got here. Originally, it was Elias who drove but Elias took a break and Ben had to continue driving since they were the only ones who could drive, Ben had been driving since then and he'd only gotten to rest now so it was expected to see how he didn't respond to Ana's movement for they were sitting so close to each other.

Afraid of waking him, Ana simply remained the way she was and closed her eyes to sleep yet within her head, she kept counting the number of days it would take for them to arrive at Sephora. The earlier the better.

Popping a finger to her back, she scratched a particular spot on her back. She wasn't so used to staying outside for so long. Although she didn't know why her back seemed to itch a lot since they started staying outside in the car. Perhaps it was the heat. She thought.

As if staying in a car with six people wasn't suffocating enough, they also needed to raise the windows beyond average to avoid anything from entering.

Snuggling with the sleeping Spiky in her arms, it was unknown when she dozed off and when the next morning came.

"Get up! Get up, guys!" Ana jerked up from her sleep and looked around, everyone except Carson had just woken up. More like they were startled awake. "What the heck?!" Lucas yelled, his face glued to the window in the front passenger seat. Surprised, she could only ask what was going on. "What happened? Why are you both yelling?"

"Oh…my…goodness! Look!" It was Natalie this time as she was pointing a finger at something outside through the back window. Do you need to be so loud?

It was what Ana was just about to say when she looked back at what Natalie was pointing at. "Oh my!" She was shocked at what she saw. The place they'd originally thought was deserted, was now covered with people. Crazy people to be precise. Thrashing through the woods with most of them ignoring the fact that they'd bumped their head against tree backs which were odd because they kept running straight for their car.

If Ana hadn't seen how merciless they were in ripping the unlucky jumping squirrels apart, she would have assumed that the people were being chased by something but too bad, it was more like the other way around. She and her friends were being chased instead, and to be precise, their car was being pursued.

They were being chased by aggressive people that were brutal enough not to care about the life of poor squirrels as they simply lunged forward ignoring the splattering blood on their bodies.

Luckily for them, they hadn't camped outside otherwise, they would have been torn apart by the ravishing people behind them. Ravishing? Yes, those people didn't look normal in any way with those butchered-looking heads they were carrying. "Get the hell out of here! This doesn't look good." Elias instantly stepped on the gas and managed to drive a distance away from the people behind them.

It was after they'd driven far away, leaving those people far back to even have the chance to catch up to their dust, that Nova finally recovered from her shock. "What are they? Why are they after us?"

"Don't know but whatever it is, it doesn't look good," Ben replied, solemnly.

"For now, we just need to leave here and get into town. Who knows, those people might be possessed? The town may not be aware of this so we need to hurry to Dovak and make a report." Elias calmly stated as if what he saw wasn't frightening at all. "I hope it's as you say it." Natalie shivered, hugging her knees. "Remember, if things head south, we get ourselves out of here. We didn't leave Vel to die in some unknown place. Dovak or not Dovak, we head only for Sephora." Elias instructed and everyone subconsciously nodded. It was obvious that they were still frightened but while some were still shocked, some appeared to be in deep thought.

"Those things? Possessed?" Ana murmured as they continued to drive Southeast towards Dovak. Somehow, she had a bad premonition bobbling within.