Chương 68: Chapter 30: Zoomin

I heard the doors bang open as I turned the corner, running out through the main lobby where everyone had filed out to.

"Coming through!" I screamed as I dodged between the legs of everyone between myself and the front door. Many of them screamed in shock as I ran past, but I didn't have time to be polite, especially as I heard Sloan yelling something from the hallway as she pursued me. I burst out into the parking lot, looking side to side, trying to figure out what I could do next. The river was too large, I doubted I could hold my breath long enough to walk across the bottom.

I had no idea how to fly the transporter, so that wasn't an option. I stood there for a brief moment, my eyes scanning everything I could see, trying to find some way out. Can't climb a building, can't hide, too many people would see where I'd gone, Sloan would be able to catch me. She was faster, stronger, and didn't have to hold the node. The ship I thought to myself as I turned to run toward it. If the mechara were seeing everything that was going on, it was possible they could make it take off once I got to it.

As I approached I noticed there was someone inside.

"Stay back!" he yelled out as he pulled a familiar flashlight out of his pocket. Michael I realized as I heard his voice. Starting trouble wasn't worth it, he and Sloan had likely prepared for the encounter already, but given the fact that he wasn't turning the light on and given our last encounter, he likely didn't want anything to do with me either. The fight wasn't worth it. To either of us. I shook my head. Solutions, I need solutions I thought just as my eye caught the street.

I took off, running toward the terrified crowd as I sprinted toward them, picking a spot that had the fewest people at it and barreling through. They did their best to clear the way as I ran through, just as I heard Sloan yell something from the front doorway of the building. I couldn't focus on it, I had to run, I had to find a way out of Sloan's reach. I couldn't drive the cars myself, I'd need someone else to do it for me.

I doubted I'd find anyone within a few seconds to take me in and start driving like a maniac through the crowded streets. The subway was a possibility, as was verticality. I looked up, wondering if any of the second story windows were open. I could run through, maybe get lost in the building long enough to escape from Sloan. As I was looking up a loud high pitched beep was making its way toward me, making me snap my head to the side as someone on a moped was trying to stop in time to not hit me.

I stepped to the side just before he ran into me, but despite missing me, he still came to a full stop, a shocked expression on his face as he looked at me, his mouth agape. I looked back to the crowd, Sloan hadn't shown up yet, it was possible she didn't know which direction I'd gone.

"Sir! I'm so sorry, could I borrow this?" I asked as I ran up, tapping the seat of the moped. He slowly stepped off it as he took his helmet off, his expression unchanging as he stepped back away from me. I took that as permission as I hopped up, grabbing the handlebar and twisting it, sending me off just before a crowd of humans packed around me, all with their cell phones out. The moped was delightfully similar to my scooter, but the streets of the city were something else entirely.

It was dense, there were cars everywhere, as far as I could see there were street lights, pedestrians, large trucks, cyclists. I looked behind me to see nothing, which was good, but I needed to get lost, fully lost from Sloan. I turned the first corner to quickly realize I'd entered a one way street. The taxi in front of me blared his horn as I barely avoided hitting him as I bumped a parked car. The passageway was narrow, but I drove through it as fast as I could without running into anyone.

Next was a larger street that looked like it carried traffic in both directions. I turned right, going further away from the UN building and away from Sloan. The sun was behind me, telling me I was likely going north as I noticed the streets were going up in numbers. 47th, 48th, 49th, telling me with each passing street that Sloan was further back, hopefully unsure of where I'd gone.

The cars that pulled out into the street were honking at me as I drove by, but the ones further up ahead of me that were heading in my direction stopped. They'd recognized what I was and they all wanted to get a look. A few streets down I ran into my first roadblock. Several trucks were stopped side by side, there was no room to make it past. I slowed, starting to turn as I encountered an extremely dense pack of pedestrians crossing the road.

"Excuse me! Coming through!" I yelled out as I tried to push my way past them. There were screams, angry people yelling at me along with some curse words I'd never heard before being thrown at me, but I figured the more difficult the passage I took, the harder it would be for Sloan to follow me. The streets kept climbing as Sloan seemed further and further back, giving me a sigh of relief as I looked up to see where I was.

75th, 76th, 77th I found myself counting as I went along as I noticed a large crowd up ahead of me. I continued forward as I passed seventy eight street. Just as I was about to reach seventy ninth I saw her. Her mixed eyes, her split fur pattern, she was unmistakable as she stood there, motionless in the center of the street ahead of me, her eyes locked onto me as she ignored the crowd of people starting to gather around her.

I turned, twisting the handle of the moped as hard as it would go as I tried to accelerate around the turn. How did she do that?! I thought as I turned around. I couldn't see her behind me but my hearts were racing all over again as I tried to scan the streets around me, looking for how she might be pursuing me. Come on come on I thought as I tried pushing the scooter faster, staying vigilant of the traffic ahead of me as I tried to navigate through stopped cars and pedestrians crossing the streets.

A minute later I found myself at a strange sight. A large park was in front of me with the road I was on cutting right through it. I bit my lip, looking behind myself to see if she was following but yet again, I saw nothing. I can go through the park, turn off the road, get lost somewhere in it I thought as I revved the engine again. To my surprise, the street went down, large walls suddenly surrounded me as I started cutting through the park, taking away my option of escape.

Damn I thought as I figured it would be too dangerous to turn around. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I pressed on, driving as fast as I could through the open topped tunnel. After passing through a few small tunnels where the park bridged overhead I turned around to see if she was following me. Nothing I thought as my eyes caught something on top of the bridge.

My eyes went wide as I saw Sloan, looking down at me, standing on her gravity board with her arms crossed as she stood there, like she was waiting for me. I brought the scooter to a stop, looking behind myself as the cars around me also stopped. Sloan smiled, a smug look on her face as she reached her hand forward, gesturing for me to continue. Gripping the node tighter under my arm, I turned around, starting off once more as I raced down the street. How did she do that?

I asked myself as the road started to trend upward, getting me slowly out of the trench. With a quick glance in all directions, I couldn't see Sloan anywhere. I needed to lose her. I needed to be unpredictable. I turned left, going South down along the park, going a few streets down as I scanned around, looking for Sloan, but seeing no sights of her. After a few streets I turned right, cutting down a one way street that was thankfully empty in front of me.

At the end of the street I made another left, finding a busier street but it had an empty bike lane along its side. Perfect I thought as I sped into it, blaring the tiny horn on the scooter to tell any pedestrians that I'd be coming their way. I had to have gone at least six to eight more streets down before I chose another right turn, moving further away from the park. Suddenly I noticed a loud helicopter buzzing above me, flying fairly low as it looked down on me.

It followed me as I made another turn, going South once more. It moved in front of me so I could see it, revealing a News12 logo on its side. Oh no I thought as I realized it could give away my position. I kept one hand on the handle bars, looking up at it as I held the node in my other hand, waving it to the side, trying to tell them to move somewhere else, stop following. I huffed, looking for whatever streets would hide me from the helicopter.

Ahead of me was an underground train terminal with a big "76" above it. It was possible to go down, get lost in the subway system, find a random train car to climb onto and jump off at any point I wanted. But given how easily Sloan had found me earlier, it seemed like the tunnels would be a bad idea. I drove past it as another street seemed to be narrowing down to intersect with mine. I figured it was time to take another turn, try to lose the helicopter, try to…

My thoughts were interrupted as I saw a gravity board coming in from the side, going straight underneath the wheels of the scooter. Before I could react, the node seemed to vanish from my hand, its weight suddenly disappearing. I turned to see Sloan landing on the gravity board, the node in hand as she dipped around a car. I watched in shock and complete disbelief as she rocketted off down the street.

A scream from in front of me jerked my attention back to what I was doing as I noticed a large crowd of people directly in front of me. I jerked the handlebar to the side, trying to swerve as my sudden movement knocked me off balance, the scooter toppling over as I fell on my side. I didn't have time to stop myself, my momentum carrying me toward the crowd as I thought fast, kicking off the ground and flinging myself over the group of people as I went tumbling end over end above them.

The world was disorienting, I couldn't make out where I was as the ground and sky flipped through my vision over and over until eventually I crashed into something large, the sound of shattering glass ringing through my ears as I tumbled into a series of tables and chairs, sliding across the floor. At first I didn't know where I was as I sat there on my back, looking up at the ceiling as I tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"Are… Are you okay?" I heard someone next to me ask. I blinked, shaking as I tried to stand up despite a searing pain in the muscles on my right leg. I was surrounded by people, all staring at me as most of them had their phones out, recording me. It took me a moment to look myself over. It looked like I wasn't bleeding, which was good as I didn't want to have a repeat instance with the snake.

"I think I'm fine" I said as I tried to walk forward. A surprised gasp came from the crowd. Ah right, they don't expect me to speak English I thought.

"Are you the alien from TV?" a young boy asked me. I turned to see him, standing about the same height as me as he looked at me with an excited expression. His mom behind him seemed less enthusiastic as she tried to hold the boy back. I sighed "Probably" I said as I noticed he was holding a tablet in his hands. It looked like it had a video feed on it.

"Oh, may I see that?" I asked. The boy excitedly reached out, handing it to me as I held it up to see a live news feed coming through.

"... crashed into a nearby pizzeria" the reporter was saying as an aerial view of some city streets were being shown. I saw myself, driving down the street, waving the node in the air as I tried to get the helicopter to divert. Little did I know, Sloan was on the opposite side of the park, making her way along the street that was converging with mine.

I pulled the tablet closer as Sloan swung herself around, coming at me at a ninety degree angle and jumping off the board, flipping over me as she casually grabbed the node from my hand, landing on her board on the other side of me, zooming off so easily it was as if she'd practiced it. With a cringe I watched what happened next, seeing myself fall over, fly above the crowd of people and crash into the window of the restaurant.

Thankfully, it looked like the scooter slid to a stop outside, hitting against a curb but lying in rest on the street just outside. The news feed cut back again as the reporter continued "Okay, we thought we lost the other alien but it looks like something else is happening here" she said as the aerial feed cut back in with a 'live' logo on top.

"It appears the ship that had been parked at the United Nations is hovering out near the Hudson river" she said as the camera zoomed into the ship, looking like it was just off the shoreline, hovering a few feet above the water, "We're not sure what it's doing there yet but… Hold on, I see something" she said as a small dot went racing along the street nearby, launching up and over a fence, onto the grass. As the camera zoomed in further it was unmistakable.

Sloan jumped off the board, flinging herself up in the air and landing inside the ship, leaving the gravity board to hit onto a rock near the water's edge, bouncing up and into the river as the back gate closed behind it with the ship already starting to take off.

"Wait really? Right now?" I heard the woman say over the footage as it cut back to her studio. She seemed focused on her headset as she looked back to the camera.

"It seems there's someone on scene right now, can we change feeds?" she asked. The camera changed to a view of the inside of a pizzeria as I saw myself holding a tablet in my hand. I looked up to see someone holding a large camera standing at the window I'd crashed through, surrounded by other people. I shook my head, handing the tablet back to the kid.

"Thanks, I appreciate it but I think I have to go" I said as I turned around, heading out toward the front door. The street was crowded, but everyone tried to give me room as I walked outside. There were too many people, too many eyes on me, I needed to leave. I looked for the scooter, but through the dense crowd of people trying to get a photo of me I couldn't see it.

"Excuse me!" I yelled out over all the people. They went silent, their attention on me as they hadn't expected me to be able to speak to them.

"I'm looking for the scooter I drove over here. Did anyone see where it ended up?" I asked.

"Over here!" a few people yelled out, sounding like they were excited to talk to me. Questions started coming from the crowd, asking what happened, why I was there, what my plans were. They were all over the place, everyone seemed to have a question but it obviously wasn't the time or place to sit down and talk with these random people. Following the initial voices, I eventually found the scooter laying on its side.

I picked it up, surprised to see the engine was still running as I gave the handle a quick to give it a rev.

"Wait wait!" I heard someone yelling out as I was about to hop on. It was the camera man, pushing through the crowd as he held the camera in one hand, his other hand cupping his ear as he tried to listen to whatever he was being asked.

"Sorry, I really can't stay" I said.

"Wait wait! They're saying there's another ship coming to pick all of you up. He's saying… Hold on… He's saying they'll wait for you there!" he said, screaming over the crowd. I shook my head, "Don't bother, they can leave without me." Hopping up on the scooter, I started pushing through the crowd.

"Where are you going?" he asked from behind me "The UN is in the other direction." I stopped, turning around to look into the camera. I spoke up, loud enough for the camera to hear me, "My name is Tess Evans, and I'm going home."