Page 44 of Convergence

He was facing me on the ground, and he blinked up at me, likely not quite seeing my features. “What?”

“Miranda, ourfriend. She’s missing,” I rasped again.

Nate gave a sharp intake of breath as he realized what I was saying.

“Wait, I thought there were only three of them,” one man said.

“Boss said only three. I don’t know what they’re talking about,” another guy said.

“I’ll call him,” one guy grunted and walked away from us. “Gotta let him know we got them, anyway.”

They roughly propped us against Everett’s damaged truck tire. They wedged me between Nate and Everett while the fake police met up with the guy on the phone. The fake cops were on the other side of the second cop car, on the phone with their boss. The cold water and snow from the road seeped through my jeans and felt like needles in my skin.

“They’re not police,” Everett said quietly.

“I gathered,” Nate replied.

“What are we going to do? If they aren’t police, then who are they?” I asked, my throat still dry.

“How did they get the cop cars? And the uniforms?” Nate asked.

I shifted a bit where I was sitting to get off a stone that was hurting. The handcuffs were on terribly behind me. One was super tight, and one was loose enough that I was sure I could wiggle out of it. I spent a moment trying to do so, but the cuff kept getting stuck over my thumb. “I- I need lubricant,” I huffed out.

“What?”

“Excuse me?”

“This hand,” I said, shrugging my right shoulder. “I can get it out of the cuff. Just… like spit on me or something.”

“This is not the way I imagined you saying that,” Nate groaned.

Everett scoffed, but he was on my right, so he was the one that leaned over and spit on my hand. I felt the warm liquid slide over my palm, and I wiggled my hand around to get it where I needed it.

“Why was that so hot?” Nate moaned. “We’re about to be murdered by fake police and I’m hard.”

“Is it a library boner or a sexy time boner?” I asked quietly as I successfully slid my right hand out of the cuff.

Nate chuckled quietly. “Oh man, I fucking love you guys. I’m sorry we’re about to die. We could have had an amazing threesome.”

“Nathaniel,” Everett warned halfheartedly.

“I’m sorry, too,” I said, seeing my window of opportunity nearing a close. I needed to work fast.

“For what, baby girl?” Everett asked, sensing my change in tone.

I didn’t respond before quietly getting up from my seat and running around to the first cop car where the door was still open. The guys didn’t make a sound, and I didn’t look back. But I could feel their angry and frantic eyes on my back as I slid into the driver’s seat.

I hunched over in the driver’s seat as I looked around for something to use as a weapon or maybe a handcuff key. A belt with a walkie talkie and a ring of keys was on the floor below the passenger seat. It was as if the fake police didn’t put that part of the uniform on when they got dressed. A long club that rested between the car seats caught my attention. It would not be much against the guns these men carried, but maybe I could at least be a distraction for the guys to get away. The dash camera mounted above the two front seats was visible when I looked around in the car. I wasn’t visible to it while being crouched down in the seat, but I hoped it had audio. I remembered a few viral videos featuring dashcam footage, and they had audio.

“My name is Eva Reid. I did not create a bioweapon with my partners, Nate and Everett. Someone tricked us, we’re not sure who, to do this project. We were supposed to find a cure for the bacteria. We didn’t get to finish. But burning the building destroyed the samples. Everyone issafe. Please, we’ve done nothing wrong, and we tried to leave when we got uncomfortable. Professor Hoffmann and Daisy Rossi- find them, they’re the ones behind this,” I whispered hoarsely before taking a deep breath and leaving the cop car with the key ring and nightstick. I passed in front of the car to return to my guys, and I stopped for a moment to give the dash camera a pleading look. It was a long shot that actual police would even see the footage if these guys didn’t turn it off already or would destroy it later.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Nate hissed at me as I returned to my spot between them. Crouching this time, like I was ready to pounce.

“I got the keys for the cuffs‌,” I whispered. “And a nightstick.”

“They haveguns, Eva,” Nate said like I was dense.

“I’ll be a distraction for you guys to get out of here. You have families to get back to,” I said, watching as one cop came around the other car.

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