Joe
I’ve been lying here squashed up in this boot, trying to take my mind off the pain and what’s about to happen. I’ve been thinking about everything that led up to this, to me being here in the boot of Rabbit’s car with a hole in my bloody foot. Thinking right back to last Friday night, when we found the car and the money. Cos that’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it? That moment. The moment we picked up the bag, we sealed our fate. That’s what led us here.
But what if we hadn’t? What if we’d made different decisions? Like last Friday. If I’d decided not to go out, down the rec, none of this would have happened. I would never have gone back home through the woods, never have found the car, never have found the bag. All that would have happened is that I’d have seen the stuff on telly about the dead body in the flats and thought it was weird, that stuff like that doesn’t normally happen in places like this. But it would have had nothing to do with me. Nothing at all.
Someone else would have found the car and the bag, someone walking their dog the next morning. And I bet they’d have got straight on the phone to the police, like my gut instinct told me to. If only I’d listened to it. If only I’d had a signal on my phone.
But instead I’m here, feeling sick, scared that I might die. I’d give anything to go back in time, to change the decisions I made, to have stayed at home last Friday, to not have seen the bag, to not be here now. Anything.
I don’t know if we can make this right now. Well, I mean, I know we can’t. I’ve got a bullet hole in my foot. If I don’t die first, I’ve got to get to a hospital. And then they’ll ask all sorts of questions. We won’t be able to hide it. The best we can hope to do is to escape with our lives. And the only way we’re gonna do that is by making the right decisions from now on.
I press the button on the side of my watch and the digital screen lights up. The car’s been stopped for more than ten minutes now. And the doors have all stayed shut. They must be waiting for Ash and Rabbit.