“Where do you want to hide it?”

“There's that abandoned warehouse on the other side of campus, the one where that fire broke out last fall. I'm sure we can find a place there that'll be good for a few days,” Derek suggested.

Glad to have a plan, Rob willingly agreed and the two of them worked to quickly place everything back in the bag. Moving towards the door, they heard footsteps coming up the wooden staircase. Rob checked his watch thinking it might be Sara, but he grew pale when he realized there were more than one set of footsteps, and it sounded like they wore heavy boots.

The boys started backing away from the door and hurried across to the fire escape in the living room, quickly opening the large window which led to the metal stairs.

Just as they were climbing out, they heard someone pounding on the apartment door, and a voice called out. “Open the door, this is the police! We have a search warrant!”

Ignoring the shouted order, they were halfway down the fire escape when they heard their apartment door being smashed in.

They both jumped the last few feet and were up and running, Derek in the lead and carrying the gym bag. They turned down the alley which dead-ended into their building and the sounds of people following them down the fire escape reached their ears.

With every step, they both searched frantically for a place to hide the bag, but nothing presented itself.

Out of desperation, Derek finally decided to throw the bag through a broken basement window in one of the old buildings they passed. Quickly checking over his shoulder to be sure he hadn't been seen, he raced to catch up to Rob.

They ran another two blocks and heard approaching sirens, coming from at least two different directions. Derek pointed down the next alley and yelled, “You go that way, meet me at the entrance to the park in twenty minutes!”

Derek knew he'd been seen as he ran from the fire escape, so he turned onto a side street and tore off his gray hooded sweatshirt, stopping long enough to shove it down a storm drain. Half a block further up, he saw a discarded baseball cap in the gutter, which he quickly grabbed and pulled the filthy orange cap onto his head.

Slowing to a walk when he reached the next intersection, he stepped out onto the main street and merged with the other pedestrian traffic.

Derek found that walking at a slow pace was extremely difficult; he desperately wanted to run, and it took all his willpower to control the urge. He was also fighting the desire to keep looking behind him. He didn't think he'd been spotted since getting rid of the sweatshirt, but he knew he had to blend in with the others on the street.