Adriana ran after Garett. When she reached him, he gave her a nod of approval and they picked up their pace. They snuck through the dark streets and paused at the corner of a main street. They could see the jailhouse right in front of them. Garett whistled a loud twitter. A head appeared behind the bars of a window and they heard another whistle. This one sounded like a cat call.
“Ok, you go all the way around front and make some fuss. When you hear the blast, run back towards the way we came. We’ll be right in front of you.” Garret told her.
Adriana nodded and headed around the building. She paused at the corner, still hidden in the dark, to calm her beating heart. Then she walked into the light. There were three men on a front porch discussing local gossip.
“Excuse me, could you gentlemen help me?” Adriana asked in her most modest voice.
“What can we do for you, ma’am?” One of them grumbled.
“Is this the police station? I’m just travelling through and I’ve lost my little brother.” Adriana said.
The men were starting to walk down the stairs towards her. “Well, what does he look like ma’am?”
Adriana caught a glimpse of a poster with her likeness on it. Her voice cracked, “Well he is this tall.” She held her hand up just above her waist. He has dark hair and goes by the name…”
The men were getting very close to her now. She wanted to run.
“What was his name?” The fattest gentleman touched her arm. “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll take down all the information.”
She watched as the taller man glanced at the poster, then looked at her.
“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother. I was just hoping he might be here. We always planned to meet at the local police station if we were separated.” She backed away a step and then another. “I’ll keep looking, no need to fret.”
The fat man looked up at the tall one and he motioned toward the poster. The fat one nodded and turned toward Adriana.
She couldn’t stall any longer. She began running, not toward the back but away down another road. She heard someone shout, “Get her.” Then the lovely noise of an explosion filled the air. Adriana turned around. No one was following her. The three men were on the ground covering their heads.
She saw the two dark figures going up the quiet road. She couldn’t get there without leading the police there. So she darted past the men on the ground and ran up the next road over from the one she wanted. There were people starting to gather outside and the street she was running down started filling with people out of the local saloon.
She ran through them only knocking into a couple of people. She almost fell but a fellow caught her and she sputtered a thank you before rushing into the darkness. She saw the stable and ran right through it to the other side. One or two of the horses reared and neighed in surprise. Once through she met up with the Garett and Harden on the trail and they headed into the woods.
Garret explained to Harden what he’d promised Adriana.
“That seems more than fair.” Harden looked at Adriana. “Thank you for helping us out. So are you sticking around? You are more than welcome to join us in the train business.”
“Thank you. But no, I think I will try finding something that doesn’t involves jails and dynamite.” Adriana answered.
The men took her to a small cave and pulled out a little chest. There was jewelry and money overflowing out of it.
“As pretty as all the sparkly stuff is, it is much easier to spend the money.” Harden said handing Adriana a bunch of large bills.
“That should get you to where ever you want to go.” Garret smiled at her.
Since they needed to move away from Middletown for a while, they walked with her through the woods to the next town, Strandington. The guys hugged her goodbye and snuck her onto a westward train.
Hello Strange World 
2 thoughts on “The Plan”