Headlights illuminated the store as Martin was making his way through it, he was full and hadn’t even been able to eat the last pizza, which he’d put in one of the empty cartons and stowed away in his backpack.

He stood still and tried to listen for any sound as the light abruptly disappeared but could only hear the slight humming from the appliances keeping the produce fresh.

It felt like hours, but mere seconds later he could identify the sound of doors closing.

Shit shit shit, how the fuck could I’ve been so naive, he berated himself as he ran back to the break room. He heard the distinct click of the lock opening echo through the corridor as he spun around the doorpost.

Evan let the light of his flashlight dance across the shelves as he and his colleague entered the supermarket.

I’ll check the store section if you’ll go and have a look at the employees-only section. It was more of a suggestion than an order, but Cayleigh nodded and headed towards the part of the building.

“How’s the kid? She almost had to shout for him to be able to hear. It must be hard on you not to be there?”

“She’s doing better each and every day, and yes, you have no idea how tough it is.“

“Thanks for asking and not just avoiding it, it means a lot to me!” He added as he thought of his other coworkers, who he felt had been avoiding him, or rather the topic these past weeks.

Have they figured out what’s wrong with her yet?

He was guessing she was somewhere close by the toilets now as he had to focus to make out the words. He almost teared up as he responded with a short “No”.

They had, but that wasn’t something he wanted to shout out across the whole building, somehow, weird enough, it would make it more cemented in reality and he wasn’t ready for that.

He was almost about to return to the entrance when he spotted something unusual. Emptied bottles and packaging were lying on the floor in the dairy aisle…

Martin heard the security guards as they’d been talking but he was too flustered to make out what was being said. Thoughts were going in and out of his mind blazingly fast and it was futile to even try to grab hold of one of them.

He found himself in a shit show, sure he’d scouted the store for employee routines, cameras, and so on, but not even once had it crossed his mind that there would be security personnel showing up during the night.

He also hadn’t thought about how he’d get out, he’d just assumed that there would be some way out.

Standing in the break room he heard the woman's voice getting closer and his heartbeats began to pound as her steps became more prominent. To make matters worse, breaking the door didn’t really give him any option to hide as it would be a dead giveaway that something was going on here.

He could stay and fight, that’s an option of course, but something told him that the odds weren’t in his favor.

He would most likely need a head start if he were about to outrun them, and as the boots got closer and closer he picked up a chair and threw it through the window, he then quickly pushed himself up against the wall next to the door, holding a bottle in his left hand.

“Who's there?!”, the boots were hitting the floor harder and faster as the woman yelled out, and just as she was about to enter the room Martin shut his eyes, spun around, and swung the bottle.

With his eyes closed he could only feel the impact of the bottle on what he assumed to be - due to the height - the victim's head. He opened his eyes and saw a girl of average size falling backward. With the immense release of adrenaline, it was almost as if he was looking at the scene in slow motion. She had long blonde hair and as she was falling back it was flowing all over the place and around her face. The one eye not covered by blood and hair looked at him with shock and fear, and he felt as if the contents of his soul were laid bare under her emerald gaze.

As she hit the floor she let out a scream. He snapped back, turned around, and sprinted towards the broken window. She yelled something, but Martin was too focused on his exit to register what she said. He leaped through the window, sending some of the remaining shards flying, and landed on the wet grass outside. Unable to find his footing on the uneven surface, he fell and slid through a mix of soil, grass, and glass.

The rain relentlessly whipped against his face as he tried to get back on his feet. The pain in his shoulder was worse, and now he also felt a weird warmth radiating from somewhere in his right thigh. There was no pain at all, just a weird sense of weakness, a feeling he couldn’t really describe. He looked down on his pants as he stood up, and among all the dirt that pretty much covered all of his soaking wet pants, he noticed that there was a dark red tint on his right leg.

Letting his gaze climb its way up from his knee to his thigh it became obvious, a big shard of glass was stuck in it.

He thanked human biology for the existence of adrenaline, certain that he'd be in a lot of pain if it weren’t for it as he pulled it out. The shard had been much bigger than he’d anticipated and the cut was much deeper too, resulting in dark blood starting to flow out of the cut.

Martin knew this wasn’t good, not at all, but running with a shard of glass stuck in his thigh would most likely lead to even more severe damage, having it cut deeper and sawing from side to side.

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Evan barged out of the doors and made a sharp left turn as he came out on the pavement.

It wasn’t usual for them to actually catch somebody breaking in red-handed, after all the city wasn’t that big, but this was far from his first tango.

Cayleigh insisted that she was fine and that some guy just jumped out the window. Even though Evan had never gone to check up on her, he knew she’d be furious if he’d waste time, potentially letting the guys slip away.

“Stop dammit!”, he shouted to the fleeing man as he turned the corner. He could see him running, just having entered the park across the street.

What the fuck is wrong with you man? Stop! He continued as he gave chase.

What’s this guy's deal? As far as Evan knew, there’d been no attempt to open any cash registers, the guy had just had coffee and snacks… Got to be a junkie, he thought.

Evan was gaining on his target, but not because the fleeing man was slow. In fact, Evan thought he’d have been left in the dust if the guy hadn’t been injured. He could see him dragging one of his legs just a bit, not limping, but noticeably hurt.

“You’re only going to make this harder on yourself man, just stop already!”

Martin paid no attention to the words of his pursuer, he was focused on zig-zagging through the alleyways, changing directions every now and then as he came to a junction.

He realized he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, after the burst of adrenaline started to subside the pain was now noticeable, and its presence grew stronger for every step he took.

Looking back over his shoulder he could see the security guard closing in on him. What had been a good seventy meters had become less than forty, and by the looks of it, the man would catch up to him soon and he sure as hell didn’t look forward to it.

The man looked as if he could pulverize the hood of a car without much effort, and Martin could only imagine what would happen when his face was on the receiving side of those monstrous fists.

He could hear sirens echoing between the buildings, they weren’t close by but they were an addition to the background noise for sure. Desperation started to gain its hold on him and he ran out into the street, dodging traffic left and right. This was the main road and even though it’s not Los Angeles, there’s always someone who needs to go somewhere.

He passed an oncoming truck and saw his chance. A few meters away, to the left of the road, he could just barely identify an entrance to a narrow alleyway. It was located right in the middle between two lamp posts, making it partly shrouded in darkness. If there was ever going to be a chance for him to hide, this was it.

He made a split-second decision and sprinted towards it, hoping that the microscopic window provided by the oncoming traffic - especially the truck - obscuring the view would throw his pursuer off.

As he entered, he hugged the wall and tried to catch his breath as he peered out towards the busy street. It only took a couple of seconds for the guard to get to the spot where Martin had vanished and as he did, stopped dead in his tracks and looked around for any trace of Martin.

Poor eyesight mate? Martin thought as he sneered. His thigh was beginning to hurt like hell and every second he could recuperate was a blessing, but he knew that he couldn’t linger.

Forcing himself to return to fleeing he put his right foot down in front of him. The pain hit him with full force, and as he began to fall he reached out and grabbed hold of a bin.

A loud noise could be heard from the alleyway as both Martin and the bin hit the ground, the lid rolled around and finally smashed against the wall on the other side before finally smashing loudly into the ground.

A new dose of adrenaline shot through his veins, and Martin sprung to his feet as he saw the guard turn to the alleyway and continue the chase.

He ran down the narrow path, his vision started to become blurred and his heart was beating like crazy. He could hear the guard getting closer as the boots splashed through the puddles behind him and he reckoned it’d be mere seconds before he’d get caught. With every ounce of his will, he pushed through the pain and ran out of the alleyway and onto the road.

Entering the road he was almost blinded by the headlights of a car.

He looked to his left, trying to get a glimpse of the source of the blinding light, and as he did time came to an almost complete standstill.

This is where I die. The thought shouldn’t have had the time to formalize, but somehow time didn’t function as time was supposed to. He managed to get a look at the middle-aged woman in the driver's seat of the pickup and judging by the look on her face she was screaming.

Martin would also scream, hadn’t he been preoccupied with taking in the scene in front of him.

As reality forced time to continue, the blaring of a horn almost pierced Martin's eardrums, but just as he expected to be hit by the car he heard a deafening sound behind him as metal made contact with bricks and mortar.

Something hard, but much smaller than a pickup truck hit his lower back with tremendous force and threw him to the ground.

Breathing heavily with his face against the asphalt, he felt the rain hammering down on him. He felt the water against his face as it splashed all around him. His lips were slightly spread apart and from the water finding its way into his mouth, he could taste dirt, oil, and blood.

He heard distorted and heavily muffled panicked screams from further down the road, alarms blaring from what he would guess were cars, and sirens...

Get up man… Get the fuck up, you’re not done.

Lifting and turning his head back he saw something he immediately knew would forever be etched on his retina.

The front of the pickup truck was as nonexistent as it could be as it looked to have mended with the building. The woman inside had her head leaning back to the right of the seat's headrest as blood was oozing down her forehead and into her mouth.

Looking under the car he saw intestines hanging down from where the front was supposed to be, and a leg with a boot sticking out from where the building and the vehicle fused.

He began to realize what had happened, not only had the woman been able to avoid him, but by doing that she’d hit his pursuer. Martin felt as if he was about to throw up. It felt so unreal, so unfair. all he wanted was to get some food for himself and his ragtag friends, pretty innocent if you’d ask him.

Even though he hadn’t wished for it, or had any bad intentions, two people were dead. Because of him. Sure, the guard had decided to chase him down, but it was his job… Not something he wanted to do.

Fucking hell…

The sirens were closer now, they’d be here any second.

He looked away from the deformed hunk of metal in front of him and saw the couple he assumed he’d heard screaming earlier.

They were closing in and if he didn’t want to get caught he would have to act now. Every bone in his body was aching and he felt nauseous after what he’d seen, but through sheer willpower, he mustered enough strength to get back up on his feet and then disappeared into the night.