"*Today is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards..." Bond Part 3

So it's after twelve thirty am as we take off running. I'm exhausted, and figure I'll get caught anyways. Tyler and I were two of the last to dash off and so I call after him, "Wanta go another way?" "Yes!" he says. I tell him to make a right, and we hide in the bushes in front of the free sports stadium by the library. Ty does this so I can rest for a few minutes before we head out again, and from our spot in the bushes we see the cars go down the same street everyone else did, the one we had all taken before. Then we stick to the side of the stadium, behind bushes, as we go this different way. It's considerably longer, but I figured we would still have the upper hand by going an unanticipated route. More cars go by, so we have to duck and hide behind more bushes, signs and tress, uncertain as to whether or not they could be part of the game. We get to a point where we can cross the street so we dash across into the parking lot of some building. There are a bunch of bushes around it so we keep low behind them as a bunch of cars go by. When it's finally clear we go down, Tyler telling me to wait behind a tree as he checks the underpass to see if it's safe. He looks both ways and then runs past it before calling me. I run after him, when suddenly a car starts going our way. Tyler runs up into the bushes of his side of the underpass and I jump into the short weeds and try and wiggle my way into the bushes by my side. As the car gets closer I realize it's a police car, and pale as it goes by. I start to come out when more cars come so I get a better spot, although my shoes are showing. Finally it's safe again, so I get out an we both continue on our way. We're by more residential areas now so we stick to the cars, not wanting to go in front yards unless we have to. When another car goes by we have to hide behind this scanty bush, as a car slows to a stop. We wait, wondering if this is when we're going to get caught, huddled together. Then the car slowly drives around the corner. We realize there's a stop sign where the car had stopped, so we keep going by cars. When a car goes by, I drop, feeling more exhausted than I ever have before. I know that I'm pushing my body past anything I have done and I feel slightly crazy for it. I just keep hoping that I won't faint. Tyler remarks that I dropped next to him like a spy, and I am pleased. He just tells me not to hit my head. I concur.

We're almost to a Denny's parking lot which crosses onto the street that leads to our checkpoint. Tyler and I agreed that if we went straight past, we could cut back through my neighborhood to that wall that was the shortcut to the store parking lot checkpoint. I hid behind a big truck as he ran and pushed the button, and then I came out when it was time to go across. We walked casually across as a police car was at the red light. We knew we were right in the open, that anyone who was looking for us right there would see us, but we also knew they would've had to know where to look. We crossed over, walked past a gas station and when we knew we were out of the police car's line of sight we stuck back to the bushes again until it was time to cross and go into my neighborhood. We took the first, less commonly used one, and walked down until a car turned down and so we dove behind a truck in someone's driveway. The car slows and we freeze. Then it finally drives off and we wait a minute before we get out. "What were you doing in my neighbor's yard?" a voice asks from across the street. We look and see an older annoyed woman, sitting on her porch smoking. "We're playing a game," Tyler explains as we begin to go on our way. "Well, you shouldn't do that," she begins. We both say "sorry" as quickly as possible and run off. Then we turn and we're going down my street. The wall is just ahead. I remind Tyler that this is where the others got caught last time, so we are extra cautious as we get closer. We notice a car parked oddly away from the curb, in the dark. We freeze. "Is it them?" I ask him. "I don't know.." he says. "Why aren't they getting out?" I ask again in a whisper. "They may be waiting for us to get closer," he whispers back. "Let's go a bit farther and prepare to run." We walk slowly closer, my stomach in a knot, and then we see that the car is empty. We quickly then move on to the end of the street, looking both ways, and crossing to the wall. Tyler helps me up onto a littler wall and then I go over the bigger wall, my feet landing onto a propped up cart from neighborhood kids. I'm afraid of it's stability and let him know so, so Tyler, now on the littler wall holds onto my hands and helps me get get down. He then hops the wall with ease and we both run across the grass until we reach the lot. We had made it! And with about five minutes to spare. We walk over and see some guys sitting on a bench who had apparently been tagged with a full car and had to walk back. We told them about our other path and they were impressed. Then everyone arrived, and by now it was one thirty. "So, who's up for one more round?" Nathan asked. I looked at Tyler. He told me he had a 2 am curfew so he was going home. My parents didn't really give me a curfew, they just trusted I was safe with Tyler. He said I could get a ride with him to Nathan's and then he could give me a ride back. We were so close to my house that I said I could just walk home, but then I suddenly had a ton of offers from all of Nathan's friends for rides. Tired and amusingly overwhelmed I said, "Uh, I'll go home with anyone." People laughed, with a couple of snickers from the two guys from earlier. I gave them a look and said evenly, "That's not what I meant." They grinned. So they had me get in the back of a car with Jeff and some others, and Tyler came over patted the car door and said goodbye, and took off back towards Nathan's. I shook my head as we drove off around the corner and into my neighborhood. As we pulled up into my driveway I thanked them for the ride, and they said that it was no problem and that I should come to the next Bond event. "Totally!" I agreed. And I said goodbye to them all as I walked up my driveway and into my house. When I sat down I felt my whole body throb and knew that it was probably a good thing that I didn't play that last round. It took me a while to get to sleep, it was past two, possibly three, when I finally did reach dreamland but it was worth it.

Bond was quite the experience, and my whole body has been sore since. I've been walking like an old lady, and yet Tyler has seemed completely unaffected, swimming and dancing at the jr high and high school grad party Saturday, and jumping up and down at worship at church on Sunday. The jerk. In the jacuzzi on Saturday, Ty did ask me if I honestly had had fun at Bond. And I did. I know three things: One, that I really need to get into shape. Two, that I really enjoy exciting games and can do a lot on adrenaline alone. And three, that it wouldn't have been as fun without having people there with me, especially Tyler.

P.S.
I've had several people including Nathan's sister Leah, Tyler's dad, and some people at church come up to me since the event and go, "I heard you had a good time at Bond" in a knowing way. Just great. Well at least my side of the story is out now. Lauren, secret agent in training, signing out.

"Seein' Everything, Time is Going, Tickin' On and On, Everybody's Rushin'.. " Bond Part 2

Everybody took off fast again, I couldn't tell who was who anymore, but I saw Jeff up ahead waiting for me. Grinning, we ran together, crossing the street. The thing about this checkpoint was that it's a straight shot down from the store's checkpoint the to the library's one. This meant we had to stick to one side of the street and try and find creative ways to get there. We were on the right side of the street, the same side I use to walk to the library often from my house, as I pushed the walk button. Nearly everyone ran even though it wasn't time to go, including Jeff who looked behind him as he ran realizing I wasn't with him anymore. Tyler stood with me, waiting for the signal to cross and then we did. Tyler was way faster than me so I slowed down to a walk, as I saw everyone turn into the parking lot of a dental office to try and hide behind the building and find another way. I understood, the chasers would be coming now. I sped up a little more as I saw Jeff standing by the office waiting for me. We all stood behind the building for a minute, and then half of the group took off back around it and down the street, leaving Tyler, Jeff and I. Tyler ran over to a wall at the end of the parking lot and hopped over it, and Jeff and I followed. Jeff gave me a boost and I slid over the wall, causing Tyler to remark that I was better at climbing walls than tress. Hardly. I had help. We continued on in this back way, Jeff helping me over any walls we got to. Then we got to a street with a series of apartments. We couldn't go through the apartments so we were going to have to go back out to the main road. Suddenly, a car turned into the street. We all dashed for cover. Five minutes went by. Ten. Finally, Tyler and I came out and realized that Jeff was gone. Had he been caught? Or had he simply taken off again?

We called for him for a bit, and wondered if we were being set up for a trap. Either way we had to move, so we made our way back to the main street. We ran from bush, to building, to empty parking lot, and etc. Tyler now helped me over any walls we got to, including a chain link one. The second chain link fence we crossed had tiny barbs at the top. They were spaced out however, and didn't look too dangerous. Not wanting to chicken out I said I could handle it so Tyler helped boost me up on top. My jacket got caught right away, as did my pants. Figuring the best way to get uncaught would be to make a sudden move over the edge, I did my best to pull away and go over the side. As I pulled away, I felt my pants get uncaught, but my jacket didn't. My feet hung just above the ground on the other side as I held on to the top of the fence. The friction of my turtle neck against the jacket caused the two to be stuck together, and both were pulled up to just below my bra-line. I was held there comically,my midriff showing right in front of a shocked Tyler, who covered his mouth to hide the fact that he was laughing. I'm sure I turned very red as I tried my best to free my jacket from the fence. When I finally did, I dropped to the ground, got up and immediately pulled my shirt and jacket down as Tyler hopped the fence, trying to make me feel better by saying that it was a difficult fence. Indeed.

We continued our way, hiding in bushes and behind buildings whenever we heard a car, until we got to the railroad crossing. There were walls all along the wide sides of the track, so I followed Tyler as we tried to find a sneakier way to get to our destination. The track was on a sort of little hill over here, surrounded by pebbles and rocks that led down into tall grass and weeds. We got down to the bottom of the ditch going in our direction and saw that the wall was much taller than we had anticipated from on top of the little hill. We climbed back up the hill. Tyler ran on the side of it in the shadows, but knowing my clumsiness I stayed on top. Unfortunately, I was directly in the light when we heard a girl yell, "There they are!" Headlights down on the main street were parked, and a girl was getting out of the passenger side. Tyler ran like heck back the way we had just came and I ran down the hill and dove off into the tall wheat-like weeds.

"Were they there?" another female voice asked. "Yeah, but, I don't want to go down there alone," the original one said. I realized that they had nowhere to park, and it was a pretty sketchy place for a girl to go alone. Did this mean that they would leave? Was it a trap? If it was, I figured I should just get out and say that Tyler hopped a wall and that I couldn't follow. At least then he would make it. But I waited. As nervous as I felt there, it was actually kinda beautiful in the grass in it's own way. The lights made it look blue, green, gold and purple. I wished I could paint or take a picture of it. I lost track of time. I wanted to text Tyler but I was afraid he would believe I was tricking him or leading him into a trap. It was probably only around ten-twenty minutes when I heard rustling coming from the direction Tyler had ran off to. He called me in a whisper and asked if I was alone. I said I was and caught up with him. We walked down the track in the direction he had run off to but never found a good spot to hop over. Too many tall walls, security cameras and construction. Defeated, we walked back, knowing we only had about ten minutes left to get to the library. The tracks were pretty close actually, and we dove from bush to bush as we ran to the corner. Tyler told me to hide in the bushes as he pushed the button for the crosswalk. Then the walkman appeared and we both ran across the street, hardly believing we had got that far. We went behind these huge bushes to the right side of the the street leading up to the library parking lot until they to too thick to hide behind. We were now mere feet away. The parking lot was within sight. There was a group of people waiting for us, and a car. We froze. Two people got out of the car along with Jeff. Nathan, the two guys from earlier, and others however were cheering us on. Tyler took off like a bullet and made it, I ran, tiredly, waiting to be tagged, but then the two guys jumped in front of Jeff and the others and played keep away as I crossed the line of the parking lot. Everybody cheered. It was pretty amazing. High fives all around. During that last run to the parking lot I had felt and heard my cell phone fall out of my pocket but had kept going anyway. Laughing, Nathan and a couple others helped me find it, and I put it back together and back in my pocket. Everyone laughed and stood around for a few minutes until Nathan said it was time for the next round. He asked if I wanted to be a passenger. I hesitated. Tyler then said I didn't have to be if I didn't want to since I had been caught so quickly in the first round. Nathan agreed with Tyler and before I knew it, before we had another minute to rest, we were off again.