Chapter 21


All in all, Shannon was kind of wishing she had not been playing the video game when Amy and Tony decided to crash the doctors building. She might have actually noticed what the 'firemen' have driven up in. She had only caught sight of them when they were rushing in the building and might not have even thought to warn her friends had it not been for all the machineguns these guys were packing. She might have also thought to look for more of these guys or, at least, seen the two who were sweeping through the parking lot. Not only were they heavily armed but, one of them had his phone in hand and it was plugged in to some weird looking antenna that was clipped to his fake fireman's coat. Somehow, that thing had led them right too Amy's car.

The only good news was that Shannon had seen them long before they saw her. She beat a hasty retreat out of the far side of the vehicle, staying as low as she could. She watched from behind a nearby vehicle as the two firemen moved in on Amy's car with their weapons raised. They were not satisfied with what they found and this left Shannon having to form yet another plan, and quickly, because they began searching in her direction. This time the guy with the crazy antenna was eyes only and it made escape all that much harder.

Shannon used the only advantage she could figure. They had not seen her yet and there was always the possibility that they might not even be sure that she really even existed. The teenager crawled around some vehicles until she saw the feet of the one of the fireman stop. Then she saw his knee hit the pavement and that sent Shannon rolling up into a ball behind a tire. The other guy was still moving and she had to think of something quick or he was going to see her!

Then Shannon formulated another new plan. She got up from behind the tire and ran for the nearest by standers. The fireman on foot began to pursue until Shannon ran up to some plump woman, in a business suit, rapped her arms around the woman, and gave her a big hug. Shannon also made sure she loudly screamed, "MOMMY!"

When Shannon peeked out from the embrace, that she had on the confused woman, she saw that the fireman guy had stopped running in her direction and then went back to searching. Then Shannon told the confused woman, "can you help me find my Mommy please?"

"Um," the woman was still confused but, she softened and told Shannon, "of course dear. I'm Eleanor and I will gladly help you find your mommy." At that point, with the fireman now looking in another direction, Shannon let got and ran off with a, "thanks lady!"

Shannon stopped next to the white cargo van that were just sitting open by the front door of the building. The nearest fireman was at the front door but, he did not seem to be looking for her. Then Shannon took out the electric car key she had lifted from Eleanor's pocket. She was not sure which car it belonged too but, it should make a sound when she hit the button. Unfortunately, the sound of an explosion and falling glass had muffled the beeping noise of whatever car had made it. The sight of firemen, including the ones that had been looking for her, rushing in Shannon's direction was enough of an incentive for her to give up on hiding in another car. She had one option left and that was the van she was behind.

The good news turned out to be that it was full of pallets and crates. They were easily opened and Shannon ducked into one that proved to be half filled with little bags of white powder. Shannon did not need to be an adult to figure out what they were. She closed the crate behind her, content that she was safe enough for now. Then the bad news became clear when she heard a multitude of men jumping in the back of the van and closing it's roll down door. She heard them yelling at each other, "come on man! The damn Krauts are almost here!"

One particular guy seemed to be taking charge. Shannon wanted to peek out of the crate and get a look at him but, when she tried, a horde of fire fighter coats began landing on the crate she was in. The vehicle was also moving now and she did the only thing she could think of. She sent Amy a text. She wanted to scream when she got no answer and then, felt a sigh of relief. She realized the damn volume was still on! Shannon quickly put it on silent and watched the screen in anticipation of some reply. When it finally came, Shannon had not even started reading it when she felt the van come to a halt, herd the back door opening, and men jumping out.

Shannon began to breath a little easier. Then she read the text, "KEEP HEAD DOWN, WE R CUMIN, STAY SAFE, LOVE AMY."

Well that did sound easy enough. Shannon figured she was good to go in the crate but, she did wonder how it was they even knew where to go! If she had to wait on Tony and Amy to figure it out, that could take a little while. Unfortunately, Shannon realized, she did not even know where she was. She could not see crap from inside the crate! Now she was wondering if, just maybe, she should have been interested when her Mom was bitching about the government being too cheap to spring for some standard GPS satellites! If they had then Shannon might have been actually able to let someone know where she was.

The teenager got a handle on things. She was safe enough for now. She was sitting on a good sum of a very expensive product, which meant the guys who owned it was not likely to dump her crate in a trash compactor or anything melodramatic like that. Since she was in a van and the stuff was in a crate, they were not likely to open it right now. All she had to do was wait! How hard was that?

The crate shook violently. Shannon almost screamed. Then it shook again and she felt it jerk upwards. Now it was moving and she had visions of the damn thing on a conveyor belt headed for a big fire! Then she dropped, without any warning, and this time Shannon could not help the yelp. She was gritting her teeth as she watched the crate door come open. She had to shield her eyes from the light that was only being blocked out by a couple of dark blobs standing in front of the source. Shannon heard what she was sure was the bolt of a gun being cocked.

With a forced smile she told the blobs, "anybody order pizza?" Shannon had been pretty sure the ruse wouldn't work. She was right yet again.