"Run."

Those were the last words my best friend had said, just after receiving a bullet in the chest. So I ran. For my life. Through the dark alleyways I sped, not daring for even a second to look back. I started to hear shouts behind: They were on to me. Panick and adrenaline filled my body and my mind just seemed to go absolutely blank. I couldn't think, I couldn't speak and I definitely couldn't stop. I felt my eyes go moist, as the first hot tears rolled down my cheeks.

I couldn't keep track of time anymore. How long had I been running? A couple of minutes? Maybe twenty? Goodness, I seemed to never get out of the horrible maze of dark, damp, thin allyways. And of course, on top of everything, it was in the middle of the night. Perfect. Just perfect.

Dodging past bins, plastic rubbish, bricks and other broken or old objects wasn't easy. Twice I almost tripped and fell to the ground. If that had happened, it would have been all over. Goodbye to my dreams. Goodbye to my future. Goodbye to my life. Those evil men would catch up and wouldn't even doubt about shooting me with those nasty-looking revolvers.

"He's over there!" shouted a voice "I can see him!"

I suddenly came back down to earth and tried with all my willpower to accelerate, but by now my bones and muscles were getting tired. 

I heard a short hissing sound behind me. And then there was another one. "Oh....no" I thought. Those sounds could only mean one thing: They were firing at me. Screaming, I kept on going. There was now a rain of bullets, only missing me by inches. Thankfully, so far I had been quite lucky. They hadn't hit me. Yet. 

Why couldn't they just stop? I hadn't even done anything to them. But, as my friend had told me, these men were criminals. I doubted very much they would take prisoners. No mercy.  I didn't deserve this! I wanted to live my own peaceful life. My friend shouldn't have got me involved into anything like this. But I couldn't blame the poor guy. He had sacrificed his life for me. To save me.

More running. More shots. More adrenaline. It never ended.

But fortunately, after some time, I started to hear sounds. At first they were quite distant, but they got louder and louder as I ran. I finally was able to distinguish them: It was the sound of cars. Cars. I had never felt so relieved in my life. There were big streets up ahead, with noise, crowds, cars, open shops,... and hopefully that would help me escape.

My heart somehow started to beat even faster, as the noise got louder and louder. I was almost there, and after a few more turns I saw it. About fifty metres away, there was an opening, were the little allyway connected with a big avenue. It was there. Right in front of me. My escape. My freedom.

With one last  final effort I lurched my body forward and ran, ran like I had never ran before. As the gap between me and the opening got smaller and smaller, I became more and more confident that I was going to make it. The bullets were whizzing past me as every second went by, but I didn't look back. 

Twenty steps away...fifteen steps....ten steps...five steps...something slammed into my back. 

Suddenly, everything just seemed to...stop. I felt a strange sensation come over my body, but I didn't like it. My five senses practically stopped working. I couldn't feel, hear or smell anything, and my sight was beginning to go blurry and colourless. Also, an awful dizziness had come into my head, and not able to keep my balance, y began to fall to the ground, helplessly. I wasn't thinking straight. Weird shapes and spots were dancing in my eyes, and bit by bit, I started to slip into black unconsiousness.