2. In the beginning (2)

“Momma, where are we going?”, Mikael asked from the back seat.

Lisa closed her eyes tightly to stop the pool of tears that was threatening to flow out, her heart very heavy and not being able to respond to her son. She brought a hand to her mouth to suppress the cry that wanted to escape her lips.

Johan saw his wife struggling to reply, “we are going to see the Lion guard, you love it right?, it’s your favorite”, he replied staring at his son through the rear mirror. The boy looked excited at the mention of his favorite movie.

“Yay!” , Mikael squealed clapping his hands in excitement.

Johan’s lips curved upwards in a sad smile. For the sake of his son and his pregnant wife, he prayed that they were safe.

They drove for minutes in silence and he thought that Mikael was already asleep until he heard the boy’s voice.

“when are we getting there daddy?”, Mikael enquired.

They have been driving for long and it takes a lesser time to get to the movies, his son knew that and that was why he was asking the question, squirming in his seat.

Mikael was too intelligent for his age. With an IQ of 230, nothing seems to escape his sights. At first when his son started showing a certain level of maturity in his speech, pronouncing words that were too big for his age and reading books that even Johan himself couldn’t read, he thought it was good genes until he conducted an IQ test on his son and found out that his son  had a very high IQ.

Johan sighed,  “very soon Mikael, very soon… we took a different route because the road to the movies was blocked”. Johan lied to his son.

“Why not take a book from the bag beside you and read…”, he added.

Mikael nodded, opening the bag as he took out one of the story books to read. At least that would keep his mind occupied till they left the city. He turned to his wife and saw that she was sleeping. She needed the sleep. The stress of packing and  the reality that they were leaving behind their home overwhelmed her.

His phone beeped beside him. He checked it to see that it was Karl who was calling. Karl was a fellow scientist and they have been co-workers and friends for over six years. He trusted Karl with his life. Over the years that they have been working together, they have been able to develop a sort of brotherhood. Their sons attended the same kindergarten and their wives knew each other,  and were friends with each other.

He answered the call. “Karl, hey Buddy what’s up?”, he asked.

There was a shuffle on the other end of the line before Karl responded, “hey, i am okay. Where are you guys?, i'm at your house and no one is answering the door”, Karl asked.

Johan thought it strange that Karl was at his place by this time of the night so he decided to tell him the same thing that he told his son.

“We are going to the movies to see Mikael’s favorite cartoon”, he told Karl.

“oh yeah?, Run away Lisa?”, Karl asked.

Run away Lisa?, Karl knew Mikael’s favorite movie because his son was also watching the same thing. The two boys were obsessed with the cartoon. For Karl not to know, then there was a problem.

“Is everything alright Karl?”, He asked worried that mouse was probably after his friend too.

“Yes Jo, my wife chased me out of the house this night and I was hoping to crash at your place”, Karl confessed.

My wife chased me out of the house was a code word for there’s trouble, run away Lisa meant that he needed to take his family as far away as possible. They had talked about code words when they noticed that their experiments were getting dangerous.

Johan released a bated breath,  “Well,  you’d have to wait for us to get back from the movies or sleep on the front porch buddy”, he replied meaning they were headed far away.

The line ended and Johan was wondering what he had just listened to. He hoped that Karl and his family members were okay and that mouse was not after them too.

Johan stepped on the gas increasing the car speed,  he checked the speedometer. He noticed a red light signal beeping on the car control system. He checked it and cursed, “shit!”.

“Daddy that’s not a good word. Bad word”, Mikael scolded.

Right now, good or bad word wasn’t his problem, they would run out of fuel in the next ten minutes if he does not refill the tank. Where was he going to see a gas station by this time of the night.

He kept on driving until fortunately, he saw a gas station. Lisa woke up when he was driving into the station.

She looked around, “Where are we?”, she whispered to him so that their son would not hear her.

“Twenty minutes from the next border and then we are in Gothenburg”, he told his wife.

He parked his car closer to the meter and stepped out to fill the tank. When he was done, he told his wife to be on the look out and went to pay inside.

After that, he drove for almost fifteen minutes without stopping. Having filled up the tank, the car was going to carry them into Gothenburg without stopping on the way.

He looked at the rear mirror only to see a car’s headlights behind him. His heart started racing. Did the System follow him?, Were they tailing him?, He thought.

He stepped on the gas causing Lisa to look at him and the direction he was looking at.

“Don’t tell me…”, she asked shocked and not finishing the sentence, looking behind them.

“I don’t know, but it’s been tailing us for a while now”, he told her.

Driving at a high speed, he didn’t see the truck coming from the other side of the T junction until it honked it’s horn and collided into them from his wife’s side door.

They all screamed and everything happened in slow motion. One second he was driving away from his pursuers and then the next, their car was tumbling after getting knocked out by a truck.

Johan was the first to recover  consciousness after the accident,  he looked over to his wife’s side and saw that she was unconscious’ and bleeding, perhaps a wound to the head but in her condition, it was critical.

He coughed turning to check his son. The boy was okay thanks to the car seat he was strapped in. His forehead had a small gash by the side where blood was dripping from. Aside that, there was no other physical signs of discomfort and injury 

He had to get them to safety and to a hospital immediately.