“You can’t be serious!” Craven screamed at his brother as he tried to stop them. “How much money could they have there?”
Chad only shrugged, “Enough, we need some cash if we’re gonna make it all the way to Toronto before that guy leaves.”
“But…but…robbing a store! It sounds like something that should be on Cops!”
“Craven, shut up! I’m tired of you screwing everything up! Stay out here and keep and eye out for cops for us, okay?”
“No! I will not help you rob a gas station!”
“You’re not helping,” Chad growled, “You’re staying out of the way.” He grabbed Craven’s shoulder roughly and dragged him in front of the door. “Now stand here, and don’t move until we come back. No one comes in, okay?”
Craven glared at his brother.
“I mean it Craven, I could always just let Trent have his way with you.”
Craven looked over at the huge black man and gulped. “Fine, but I’m not going down for this when you get caught.”
“We won’t get caught,” Chad assured him, “Now just stand watch or we’ll dump you on the side of the road.”
Chad left Craven standing there, completely dumbfounded, as he followed his two friends into the tiny gas station store.
Craven watched through the window in horror. The old man greeted them with the same suspicious glance as he did Craven, but when he saw the gun that Gray supplied from his coat, his eyes widened in terror.
Gray demanded the money from the register, and he quickly complied, throwing all of it into a plastic bag.
A young woman was walking down the street, and Craven began to panic. He tried to come up with an excuse as she walked up to the store. “Sorry lady, but the old guy’s in a business meeting, you’ll have to come back later.”
The woman looked at him questionably before she finally said, “Oh…okay…” And continued on her way down the street.”
Craven breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
But no sooner had he congratulated himself on saving himself from getting arrested did he look inside and saw Gray grab the bag and hand it to Chad. It was then that the old man tried to be a hero, and pulled a gun from under the counter.
“Oh shit…” Craven muttered, he could almost picture what was going to happen next, and it wasn’t pretty. “No, don’t do it!” He murmured to the old man. “They’ll kill you…they will…”
It was exactly how Craven pictured it in his head. Chad saw him pull out the gun and knocked Gray into Trent, sending them both reeling out of the way. In one swift movement, he had his own gun level with the man’s head and pulled the trigger without a second thought. Pink flesh and tissue exploded against the back of the tiny store, and the three culprits dashed fro the scene, money in hand.
Trent and Gray were the first into the van, and Chad stopped a minute to snap Craven back into reality. “C’mon Craven! Let’s get outta here!” e urged, grabbing his brother’s arm and pulling him into the van. In seconds they were speeding off back towards the highway.
In the distance, Craven could hear the wail of police sirens as they came to investigate.
“Go faster…” Chad urged Gray, who was at the wheel.
“I’m going!” Gray hissed back, pressing his foot down on the gas pedal. They veered onto the highway again and gained even more speed on the flat, straight road. Craven looked back behind him, but the tiny town had already disappeared again.
“That is so fucking strange…”
“So you’re moving?” Sid blinked a few times at the petite girl whose locked sat next to hers.
Merle nodded glumly.
“Where?”
“All the way to Quebec!”
“Wow…didn’t you fail French?”
Merle nodded again. “And my dad is insistent that we go as soon as possible. It’s like someone’s trying to kill him!”
“Maybe someone is!” Sid laughed.
“Hn,” Merle grumbled, she didn’t find her fate very amusing.
“Well at least you won’t have to be here anymore.” Sid pointed out, “Anywhere’s has got to be better than here. I mean, sure in Quebec they speak French, and they’re rude and…they have nasty hookers…”
“And they’re right next to Newfoundland.” Merle finished for her.
“Yeah, beside all that, it can’t be this bad!”
The fire alarm began to go off, and Merle groaned. “No, I guess it couldn’t. But it’s one step closer to Newfoundland, and that definitely could.” They followed the stream of students outside to the field to wait to be let back in.
“I wonder what it is this time.” Merle sighed. ”Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll send us home.”
“Maybe if we’re really lucky it’ll be a real bomb threat this time, and the school will blow up.”
But, unfortunately, it was not a real bomb threat, and within twenty minutes everyone was heading back to their classes. Merle sighed and walked to math class, but was unable to concentrate on her work. She was too worried about how she would do taking math in French.
“Craven, hey Craven wake up.” Craven moaned and shifted, waving his hand in an attempt to swat away whatever had woken him up at this ungodly hour. “We’re almost there Craven! Get off your lazy ass!” It was his brother.
Craven grumbling something unintelligible under his breath and sat up straight. He rubbed his face sleepily and tried to get the imprint of the seat off his face. “Where are we?” He mumbled.
Chad grinned at him and pointed out the window. “Toronto, 100 km; we’re less than an hour away.”
review