Page 56 of Creed

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“Ah,” I said as something finally came to me. “I got it. If you have to run, then you should go up to the first adult you see that has children with them and tell them you’re lost. They should be able to then take you to the police station.”

Was that right?

I’d read it on the Internet once. It sounded right, but one never could tell with Internet advice.

The rolling door started to open. It was too late to second-guess myself now. I shoved both kids back behind the boxes as far as Icould, and placed myself right in the middle of the truck so I was the first thing the delivery drivers would see. Hopefully, they’d be so surprised by my presence that they’d completely overlook the kids.

“What the...” one of the delivery drivers gasped when they saw me. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing in there?”

“Oh, well, you know,” I stuttered and nervously scratched at the back of my head, hoping that I came off as awkwardly innocent. “I was on a camping trip and got lost out there. Then I saw this truck and I thought, hey, that should take me to a town somewhere. So, I jumped on. Sorry about bumming a free ride, but you really helped me out.”

The delivery men were not moved by my innocent act—never mind the fact that it was mostly the truth—and stared at me with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“The door into the truck was locked. How did you get on?”

Damn.

I was hoping they wouldn’t notice that. Saying I picked the lock would just make me look suspicions, and it wasn’t even true. Creed had been the one to pick the lock. I just hopped onboard.

With no other answer to give them, I just shrugged again. “I don’t know what to tell you. It wasn’t locked when I tried the door. Maybe someone forgot to lock it.”

They didn’t like this answer. Perhaps they were the ones who had been responsible for locking the door and didn’t like that I implied they’d failed at the job, because my suggestion only made them angry. One of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and yanked me off the truck. I stumbled as I jumped downfrom the raised truck bed and fell to my knees on the concrete floor.

I groaned at the pain that shot through my knee. Getting older sucked, and ever since I turned forty, it seemed like I was constantly finding new aches and pains. My knee was definitely going to bother me for a while after this.

“Who are you?” the delivery driver demanded.

I raised up my hands, trying to show them that I meant no harm.

“Well, that’s a funny story, too. See, I’m a travel writer, and I?—”

I was cut off as the driver started shaking me. “Stop your babbling and give us a straight answer.”

Almost as soon as he started shaking me, the driver’s hands suddenly disappeared from my shirt, and I fell hard on my butt.

“That’ll be enough of that,” someone said.

Rubbing at my abused tailbone, I looked up to see Brody holding the driver up by the lapels, high enough that the man’s feet didn’t quite touch the ground.

“Hey, you okay?” another person asked.

At this point, I wasn’t even surprised to see Magnus kneeling at my side.

“Yeah,” I sighed as I stood up. “Just bruised all over.”

The sudden appearance of Magnus and Brody had caused my brain to stall, but after a moment, it all suddenly returned to me. Like a delayed reaction, my calm demeanor suddenly turned to panic.

“Wait. Magnus? Brody? You’re here. Where’s Creed? Did you find him?”

The other two men shared a worried look. “No. He said to meet you here. Luckily, this truck was going in the right direction, so we could meet you halfway. Otherwise, it would have taken us a lot longer to reach you.”

I grabbed each of their arms, shaking them without actually moving either of them to emphasize my panic. “Creed just ran off. I don’t know what happened to him. If he hasn’t contacted you by now, then he must have been captured again.”

Brody dropped the man he was holding, and the delivery drivers ran off. Neither Brody nor Magnus even seemed to notice as they turned their full attention on me.

Magnus gripped my arm tightly. His hand nearly encircled my biceps, which was impressive considering I wasn’t a small man.

“Tell us everything that happened. You two went on your trip, but when your return date rolled around and we didn’t hear anything from you, we knew something must have gone wrong.”