Runner

[Aardvark]

With enough practice, one can run through a crowd at full speed without even touching another person. Or one can run wide-eyed, screaming "They're after me, they're after me", and watch the puzzled public stand aside. He'd chosen the latter. Effective, if not subtle. When you think you're being chased and your life is in danger, subtlety goes right out the window.

 

Like all good paranoid delusionists, he believed invisible men were after him, trying to steal his thoughts. And now that their cover had been blown, they had to kill him before he told anyone. That's the message he'd left on the answering machines and voice mails of all his family and friends. All were mysteriously out. To them, they were at their jobs, leading their normal lives. To him, it was the conspiracy at work, cutting him off from those he could trust. The messages were the usual, tell the media if he disappears, because they're after him.

 

Darting from the crowded street into a side alley, he tried another number. An old aunt. He knew she was senile and probably asleep at this hour, but hopefully one of her nurses would pick up the phone and at least take a message. That would be enough. Any form of communication to make the public aware of it. He hadn't stopped running and was soon back on another road, trying to lose himself in another crowd. This one he took with a little more tact, slowing down and trying to mingle. Being rather short, he had a height advantage.

 

For years, they'd been working on him, observing him, recording his phonecalls, keeping track of his patterns and introducing various stimuli into his world, just to gauge his reaction. Sure, that bluebird LOOKS like an ordinary regular bluebird to any ordinary person....

 

He tried not to look behind him, praying he'd lost them. But they were clever, they wouldn't give up so easily. Taking it easy through this crowd, he mingled with a large mass crossing at a large intersection. This was one of the ones where all traffic at the intersection is halted and people are allowed to walk anywhere. Options, that's how he'd lose them. They couldn't only have so many people after him, he had to force them to choose right or wrong paths to cut their numbers down. And like all good paranoid delusionists, he'd armed himself, just incase one of the invisible men ever showed themselves.

 

His vehicle was close. Parked in an underground lot underneath a shopping centre. He took the front entrance to the centre, keeping in the middle of a large group of people. Then he took a gamble, broke off and headed for the stairs. He always took the stairs. There is something soothing about a loud echo that reveals all but the stealthiest of the stealthy that is comforting to someone who believes invisible men are out to get him. And being paranoid, he'd taken it upon himself to become one of the stealthiest men alive. Which was how he wanted to stay.

 

When he reached his level, he peered out. His eyes went from one vehicle to the next, checking for the telltale signs of a surveillance team. No black vans in view of his car, mostly smaller cars, all locked, none with tinted windows. He flitted by each one, checking inside, just in case.

 

He owned many vehicles, all fairly old, but all common models and generic colours, all with several sets of plates. He had them all parked in various places around his home and would move a few of them around each night. He believed he was blocking off the most convenient places to park surveillance vans around his house. The police wouldn't see it that way, as none of his cars came up on the registry computers. But he drove defensively, almost mindnumbingly, so no policeman had ever troubled him. More than once, he'd had a car towed, which was another reason he moved his cars around every now and then.

 

As he got near his cars, he started to breathe easy. They hadn't found him. He fished around in his pocket for his keys, found them, then unlocked his car. One day more alive. But they were closing in. He could feel it. He started his car and slowly made his way to the exit. Those invisible men, they could be anywhere...

 

He slammed on the brakes, drew his pistol, turned around and looked in the back seat. None of the seats had impressions that one would expect if an invisible man were occupying them. He prodded the air with his weapon, just to make sure. Satisfied, he turned back and buckled his seat belt.

 

---

 

The newspaper had been tossed into the alley by a random vagrant. It would probably end up being used as a blanket for a homeless person, but for now was lying there, inoffensively. The crossword had been filled in already, but no one had spoiled the brainteaser. A gust of wind blew the paper back a few pages, skipping the funnies, but stopping on a small story on the left hand side of page six, half way down. An explosion in an underground parking lot. No one reported injured, but tyre marks from a speeding car were found heading out. No attendants had been available to make statements, as they'd all fallen ill from a bad coffee brew earlier, leaving the parking lot in the capable hands of the machines.

 

A careful ear may have heard a muttered curse in this empty alley.

 

Had there been a careful ear around, the keen eyes attached to those ears may have seen a muddy bootprint form in the middle of the page, then another one two feet away, followed by a third one in a shallow puddle...

[Madoka]

Yowza, invisible boogeymen!!

 

As always, I liked your story, Aardy! You write your stories from a different point of view, and it is always refreshing to see how something ordinary looks so... extraordinary from another view.

 

Great story!

 

Madoka.

[Hot Soup]

I loved it. That was a cool story. Have a follow up please.

[Yuki Kokoro]

This was great! You do such a wonderful job with the details and the whole concept is just spiffy.

 

That last section especially came out as a clear visual, I liked how it changed the interpretation of the rest of the story. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you after all.