Page 76 of Hunter's Hidden Camera
While we hop down two or three steps at a time, all three stories, I ask, “Where’d you get the knife?”
“Your glove compartment.”
“You went out to get it just now?”
“Nah. It’s been hiding in my underwear all night. That’s why I was acting all uncomfortable and shit when that security guard was patting me down before. I had to act all stupid, so he would stop touching me before finding the knife. It worked.”
“But why’d you bring it?”
“‘Cuz, bro. At the start of the night, when I was sober and not so horny, I knew my job was to protect you. Sorry if I fucked things up.”
“No, man,” I say. “You saved me.”
We burst out of the building and instinctually head towards my car, which is parked a couple blocks away. As we hurry down the sidewalk, jagged rocks slice into my bare feet. I feel like I’m walking on broken glass. I know I’m bleeding down there.
Suddenly, we hear a loud noise behind us. While running, we both turn our heads and see the bright lights of a menacing SUV speeding our way. But before we can even decide what to do, the vehicle smashes into both of us, causing us to fly forward, slam onto the pavement, and roll violently until we crash into a chain link fence.
33
Nikolai
Ifeel pain in just about every part of my body. Gravel pierces into the skin on my back. And I’m shivering because it’s cold out and I’m completely naked.
I turn my head, and the ache in my neck intensifies. A couple of yards away from me, I see Oscar lying on his back, in pretty much the same position that I’m in. His face points in the other direction, so I only see the back of his head, which seems to be bleeding. I squint my eyes to try to get a better look, to see if I can detect him breathing.
“Oscar,” I try to say, but nothing comes out of my mouth.
I hear a car door opening.
I turn again to face the night sky, a half-moon providing more light out here than inside Perpetual Sunset.
Someone gets out of the vehicle. The person walks toward me and stops.
I hear the beep of a cell phone.
The person, a man, speaks into the phone. He has a Russian accent. “I stopped them for you . . . Yes . . . Yes . . . Okay . . . See you in a moment.”
The man kneels down over me. He’s burly, bald, and bearded, dressed in what looks like an expensive maroon-colored suit. He holds the back of his hand to my nose to see if I’m breathing.
My eyes flutter open.
Satisfied, the man stands up and waits.
After about a minute, I hear a new set of footsteps coming towards me.
“What the fuck, Nikolai?!” yells the guy. I think it’s the same guy who was chasing me upstairs.
“What?” says Nikolai. “You told me to stop the two kids who were running out of the building. So I stopped them. With my SUV.”
“Jesus Christ,” says the guy. “You didn’t kill them, did you?”
“See for yourself,” Nikolai says. “Next time, be more specific as to what you want.”
The guy crouches down next to me. He peels off my mask.
He says, “Hunter?!”
He takes off his mask. It’s Nash.
