12

"Luke?" His supposed mum called with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?" She stared between us both, "and more importantly who is this?"

"You two are responsible for the liar gas?" He asked, a crack in his voice. He was as disappointed as he was surprised.

"Why would you say that?" His mother panicked.

I felt the heat grow from the rope around us. Luke was doing something to it but neither of them noticed.

"Why would you work with the government to ruin all our lives?!" He raised his voice angrily.

"I'm not working with them, you have this all wrong…" She tried to speak in defense. His father on the other hand was too shocked to speak.

Luke didn't let her finish, the rope was away from us. "Come on, hurry up, run!" He commanded me.

"Shit!" His father spoke for the first time. "Quick, lock the doors." He yelled into a small walkie talkie, at least, it resembled one to me, that was lying close to him on the table.

Red lights began to blink in the room, "what's happening?" I directed at Luke, scanning everywhere and the blinding lights, the fear creeping in greatly.

"Security doors activated." A robotic voice informed.

"Quick!" Luke grabbed my hand and charged towards the entrance.

"Stop them both." His mother panicked. They weren't really going to hurt their own son, were they?

The laser beam 300 landed its ray a stone throw away from me. Maybe they were.

I screamed on the top of my lungs as I dodged with my might every shot that was thrown my way.

"Don't worry, I've got you." Luke assured me. There was no way to stop worrying at the moment.

"All we have to do is get out that metal door before it closes." He yelled.

I watched the door going down at a rapid pace. It was a huge one and offered to be our only way out of here.

They got rid of the laser beam and I noticed they had replaced it with what looked like small arrows.

"Jesus, that's the Martian arrow, one touch and you go into a deep slumber." He panicked now. We were inches away from the door.

It was almost at the ground by now but there was still enough space for us both to squeeze our way through.

"Almost there…" Luke panted, dodging every arrow that flew angrily past us.

He let go of me so we could increase our paces individually.

"Luke!" I called. He was almost out of the room by my right foot was stuck in a small box trap that had been tagging behind us the whole time. It was a part of their plan.

I tried to force my foot out to no avail. Luke turned around so he could come to my aid.

He targeted a device from his case at the trap box and it was instantly deactivated. "Ariyah, watch out." He gasped, pulling me in for a tight hug and spinning us around.

He let out an agony groan as one of the Martian arrows pierced through his skin.

"Luke!" I screamed. Regardless of the pain he was in, he pulled me forward. The door was almost completely to the ground. He pushed me so I fell to the floor. With a determined force, he rolled me out of the way until I was out the door. He used the same energy to roll out as well. He was barely a second out of there when the door hit the ground. It was a ceiling to floor metal door.

"Luke, are you okay?" I sighed in relief that he was out alive.

"We have no time. There will be other staff on our track, come on, let's get out of here." He shook me hard and got to his feet. I did the same. He held and dragged me as he ran on full speed.

I noticed the army of scientists that gathered around us. Some in front of us, some behind.

"Uh-oh." I swallowed. "What are we going to do now!" I feared for our lives.

He turned to me with a smirk while the scientists slowly charged towards us as if they expected either of us to explode any second. "Have you flown before?" He winked.

He had in his hands what resembled an anchor. "Trust me and hug me." He ordered.

"Okay." As if I had a choice.

He charged the anchor like device at the ceiling. It elongated, growing a rope at its tail end.

He held on to my waist tightly and we were off the ground.

"Sorry, 'xcuse me, coming through." He chuckled as we used the heads of the scientists in front of us as a passage way.

We landed after the last of the scientists and resumed our run while the anchor device was back in his hands and rushed into the briefcase.

"Almost there." He grinned victoriously.

"Or not." He added as another sea of scientists guarded the main entrance.

"What do we do now?!" I asked in dismay.

"We pause." He smirked. Retrieving the anchor from his briefcase and grabbing the remote after him.

We were back on the ceiling and he directed the remote at their heads this time around, hitting the pause button on repeat.

We landed safely and waited while he pushed a button. "Security doors deactivated." The same automated voice from earlier on repeated.

"I can't believe we made it out of there, alive!" I chuckled as we ran like free birds towards his car.

"Hurry in." He beckoned, opening the car doors.

"We are going straight home, aren't we?" I hoped, getting into my seat belt while he started the car.

"I can't drop you off just yet. I need to go on full speed home so I can find a way to reverse the effect of the martian arrow." He informed. I'd forgotten all about that.

"It can be stopped, right?" I called in fear, speaking inaudibly.

"It can be." He addressed.

"Okay." I chose to believe his words.

"My dad invented it." He pulled out of the lab, increasing his speed faster than should be legal. "If I don't stop it soon, unless I get someone else who knows how to, I could be stuck in a sleep forever." He chuckled. I saw right past through his displayed confidence.

"You need to slow down, we could get into an accident." I worried while he sped through the path.

"Worry about an accident later, the cops are on our  trail." He said, staring into the rear view mirror.

"Shit!" I turned around to see the odd chase going on behind us. "What do we do now?" A panicked me called in worry.

"Oh this car belongs to a science freak." He smirked, flipping open a small box beside the music control.

He pushed a red button and I noticed how the street was instantly clouded by smoke, at least, it had the appearance of smoke.

"How are we supposed to see the route now?" I wondered. He rolled the windows up and turned the air conditioning on.

"With this." He had an answer to everything. He pushed the transparent button close to the red button and a screen that showed a clear view of the road ahead of us, appeared.

I sighed in relief. I should have known I'd be safe no matter what, since it involved Luke.

*

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Anoyher round of fear gripped me. Luke was acting like a mad man as we made our way to his place.

"Why am I in such a hurry?" He frowned at me. I've been stabbed with a martian arrow that's sticking out my back, have no idea when it will fully be activated in my body, how am I supposed to cope?" He groaned, shutting the door behind him.

We both continued to his science lab and I feared that we would be too late. The night sky had been activated by now.

"You'll be fine." I assured him with a nod.

"Okay, I need an absorber, geneith mix, a bag of orange seeds and two test tubes full of citric acid." He ran through his desk, scampering to find the said items.

I crossed my fingers. He gripped the table and fell to his knees, shouting through gritted teeth. I rushed to kneel by his side. "Luke! Is everything okay?"

"It's getting stronger, don't worry, I'm fine." He shook his head and gathered enough strength to stand to his feet.

I watched him carefully as he forced a lot of the items randomly into one position. He got a beaker and began to mix them all at once into it.

I could sense he was almost done but as fate would have it, he fell to his knees and gripped his chest.

"Luke!" I tried to call him back to life but it was to no avail.

In no time, he was down to the floor, eyes closed and unconscious.

I had no idea what he had or had not mixed into the beaker. They all looked the same to me.

"What do I do now?" I rhetorically demanded. I watched another one of my friend lay unconscious in my presence. It made me yank on my hair and sob.

"Why did the world come to this? Why are Luke's parents acting this way? I have so many unanswered questions." I sighed, sitting on the floor and drawing my knees to my chest, that was my favourite position to be in.

I turned to look at Luke in his unconscious state. He had been a dear friend these recent time and it would hurt to let him go in that manner.

I stood to my feet. I had to try at least. I sniffed and watched the items displayed on the table. Neither of them were labeled but since he had selected the items, all I had to do was repeat the process in a different beaker, starting all over and adding it all in the same quantity.

I nodded and began to mix as thought. Adding the final ingredient, I shook the beaker to make sure everything was mixed properly.

It gave a little fart like sound. This was it.

It was better to pull the arrow out of his skin while he was still unconscious. It would take a lot of gut though.

I knelt to pull it out, closing my eyes to prevent myself from fainting from the sight. Surprisingly, there was no blood which was my greatest worry.

I tossed him over and stood to pick the beaker. I cupped his head in my arms and filled his mouth with a sip from the mixture. It just had to work.

I waited patiently but nothing happened. I pulled him in for a hug after putting the beaker down.

I sobbed with him caressed within my grip.

"You can't go. I need you to be here so we can fix the almadate together." I sobbed continually.

"We h..have to.. fix the world." I graduated to louder sobs. "Please." I pleaded as if he were conscious enough to listen to me.

"But I'm not going anywhere." I felt his arms wrap around my waist.

"Luke!" I exclaimed, attempting to pull away but he secured me tight in his arms.

I tightened my hands around his neck. "Don't scare me like that. Never."

"I didn't mean to." He finally pulled away.

He stared at me with a smirk. I looked back in his eyes, lost in the wonder they suddenly seem to create.

I noticed how big they looked all of a sudden and how defined his eyelashes were, how green his orbs were and the thickness of his full eyebrows. He was beautiful.

"I.." I started to say but was suddenly cut off by a sudden crash against my lips.

Luke just kissed me.