“Yes mom. I will be there by Monday.” He lied.
That gave him 72 hours to survive, after that it would be another 72 hours until they reported him missing.
“I just have to finish a few more things and then I be on the next flight… promise… okay, I have to go.” He said trying to hurry this up. He lifted his head out of his arms and looked across the empty bar. Nothing moved. The silence was deafening.
“I love you too mom.” He said with a crack in his voice as he placed the phone back on the bar. 72 hours and he will be dead. With a sigh he preceded outside not noticing the figure at the window.
The cold night air hit him as he stepped outside the bar. He pulled his coat tighter and started walking down the empty street. The streetlights cast an eerie glow on the pavement. He needed to get out of this town fast before they found him. But where could he go? He was running out of time and options.
As he hurried down the street, he sensed a presence behind him. He spun around, but no one was there. Could it have been his imagination playing tricks on him, he thought. Or was it? He quickened his pace. The sound of footsteps echoed behind him.
He broke into a run, his breath coming out in white puffs of vapor.
As he sprinted down the empty street, he thought of the small, dingy hotel room he had rented on the edge of town. He needed to recover the journal which contained the notes of his former Professor who had dedicated his life to tracking down the relic before mysteriously disappearing.
If he could just get to the hotel room, he could grab his gear and then journal and get out of town. But he didn’t have time to double back now. The men he knew were right behind him. He needed to lose them first.
He turned a corner into a dark alleyway. Dumpsters and debris littered the passage. The footsteps followed him in. He crouched behind a dumpster, struggling to quiet his panicked breathing as he listened to the men searching for him.
He had to find a way to escape. The maps, the journal, the hope of finding the relic – it all depended on getting out of this alive.