"What the...?"

"Shit." Carter slid behind one of the cars lined on the side of the road, bringing Maddy back on her feet in the speed of light and making her sit down on the asphalt next to him, the tarmac still wet from the morning rain.

"Why are the cops outside my house?" Whether it was from the shock or her inability to comprehend what was going on, she didn't know, but her whispering voice was shaking.

"You tell me."

She stopped for a moment to think. The first person that came to mind made her heart sink.

My mum.

"I need to get closer," she said without thinking.

"What? Are you mad?" Carter whisper-shouted at her, but she didn't let him finish off his sentence: she had already sneaked out of their hiding spot, crawling past the parked cars, knees bent so she could stay low.

Until a large, cold hand gripped her wrist and pulled her back again, behind another car. Her back slammed onto the back of the parked car as he tightened his hold around her shoulders, almost hurting her.

"What do you think you're doing? Have you lost your mind?" he asked in a low voice.

"I have to find out what's going on! My mum..." Maddy tried to explain. "What if someone broke into the house? My mum might have been hurt, and... and..."

And as if she knew, her mum spoke from somewhere behind them, her mellow voice overflowing with honest concern and panic.

"Where is she now? Did she get hurt?"

"Not as far as we know, Ma'am. According to our source, she ran out of the school building along with four other students," answered a police officer in a cold, formal tone.

"But my daughter would never do that!" Her mother burst into sobs. "Why would she ever do such a thing?"

"The school informed us she refused to get vaccinated, just like the other four. That's a violation of the new law, Mrs. Wesley. The nurse has already submitted her report. Your daughter jumped out of the window and-"

"She did WHAT?!"

Maddy shifted uncomfortably in their hiding spot, gulping down her shame. She didn't know why she felt ashamed, but, with the eyes of her imagination, she could see her mother's shocked expression of disapproval.

"... The man that FROST delegated to the school ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw, caused by one of the students."

Carter scoffed next to her.

FROST? Maddy didn't understand a thing, confused as ever.

"My daughter would never get involved in such a scandal! There must be some mistake!" Maddy's mother screeched.

"There's no mistake. The police are already looking for all five of them. You should get a lawyer, Ma'am." Maddy could almost hear the pity in the officer's voice as he watched her mother lose her mind.

A lawyer?

"A lawyer?" her mum called out, voicing her own thought. "But officer, there-"

"Orders are orders, Ma'am. Your daughter will be arrested, just like her friends. It's against the law to remain unvaccinated."

"Dear God!" Maddy's mother cried out in terror.

"As long as we vaccinate her, she will be free to go, but the Federation of Remedial Organisations and Scientific Testing will have to run some tests on her, as you have already been informed by the school, I assume. Actually, the Assistant Director of FROST, Harper Max, has asked to speak to you in person about your daughter and..."

Maddy's blurry mind began to clear, the loose ends of her thoughts interweaving with each other on their own, like an elaborate, yet invisible thread.

Federation of Remedial Organisations and Scientific Testing... FROST...

The Assistant Director Harper Max... wants to speak with my mum? About... me?

Shit. Just how deep does this all go?

So things were way worse than she had expected. Maddy cowered back.

"We have to go. Now." There was no question mark in Carter's voice. This wasn't a suggestion. It was an order.

But when Maddy looked at his face, she came up against a pair of doe wary black eyes. She just nodded, and he stuck his head out to check whether the territory was clear.

With a move of his two fingers, he gave her a signal to follow him.

"Stay low," he whispered to her, and she obeyed, although she could feel a pinch of annoyance at the simple prospect of being ordered around by the one person she despised the most.

It just hurt her pride, or whatever was left of it.

When they had finally covered a distance long enough for them to straighten up, heading back towards where they came from, Maddy heard it.

"That's her! That's my daughter! Maddy!" her mother called out her name.

Maddy stopped dead in her tracks, the echo of her mum's voice drifting to her eardrums in a haze. She turned around slowly, and, for a moment, it felt like time had stopped.

She was standing helplessly there, right at the corner of the street, eyes meeting those of her overprotective mother, about fifty meters away.

Then it all happened in slow motion. Her mother exhaling deeply, looking relieved. Her mother smiling at her, nailed down at the end of the street, her inner worry still too fresh for her to move. A man in a police uniform coming inside Maddy's line of vision next to her mum, his eyes connecting with hers and then widening, as if saying: "Gotcha." Then another man. And another one.

Running straight towards where she was standing.

She could see the first man's mouth snap open and close, giving orders to the rest of his men, but his voice was a blur to her. Just like the sound of someone's steps as they run towards you, and of their worried sick voice calling your name as you're lying half-conscious on the floor, right before you black out.

"We gotta go, we gotta go!" Carter's voice snapped her out of her trance with a twitch, his large hand squeezing her arm.

Last thing she saw was her mother's smile melting away from her face, confusion and worry setting in once more.

She spared her a last glance with pleading eyes that whispered: "I'm sorry, mum."

She took a step back, unable to break the eye contact.

And then that large hand pulled her right, across the corner and into the next road.

She started running again.

Raspy male voices were calling behind them: "Stop right there, kids!"

But they didn't stop. Quite the opposite, actually, because they ran even faster.

They ran on and on, taking turn after turn. They turned right, then left, down a long street. They rounded another corner. Right again. Then two lefts.

Maddy's blistered heels were crying for her to quit running, but she ran on, pushing her body beyond her limits. The sounds of pursuit from behind didn't relent or fade -they were ringing through her ears instead-, but the two of them weren't losing ground, either.

"We have... to call... the others," gasped Carter.

Is he serious? We're being chased down by the police and he's in the mood for making calls?

"We have to make sure they lose us first, you idiot," she spat in one breath, the cry of exhaustion throughout her whole body suffocating her voice.

When his large hand reached out and yanked her into the adjoining street at the last moment, she almost screamed, her heart leaping into her throat.

"What-"

"Shut up and run!" he yelled at her.

"I am running!" she yelled back, wishing she could just hand him over to the cops and have him arrested for being the ass he was.

"Well then run faster!" he barked.

Maddy didn't waste her breath anymore - it was too precious to her at that point. Sucking heaves of breath and trying to get some oxygen inside her lungs, she kept running, following a stupid black-haired boy she didn't even trust in the first place. But she didn't really have much choice now, did she?

His legs still doing their job, Carter dug his hand inside the pocket of his black sweatpants, fishing his phone out. Running his long fingers on the screen with the steadiness of a surgeon's hand, he dialled a number and pressed the device on his ear, still sprinting.

"Come on, pick up the god damn phone..." he mumbled in an unsteady gasp. Then his eyes lit up with a flash. "Logan," he panted. "Are you home?"

Pause.

"No! Don't go home. Listen to me, I need you to get to the car. Now."

Maddy frowned, but kept her mouth shut; there was no time for questions.

"I will explain later, just get the fucking car!"

Another pause.

"Make it quick."

And Carter hung up, throwing the phone back inside his pocket.

So he does have a plan after all...

Sounds of pursuit followed closer behind now, but Maddy didn't dare look back. Transforming her aching feet into rockets, she pushed forward.

Between heaving breaths, she attempted to speak. "Carter..."

"Turn left! Now!"

Maddy barely had time to think as she planted her right foot and dove to the left, almost hitting the ground from the suddenness and the speed of her turn. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted forward, following the black-headed boy in front of her.

Unlike her, he seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Or did he?

Because, when they rounded the next corner, Maddy skidded with a halt at the sight in front of her.

They were up against a brick wall.