nothing rhymes with 'circus'. chapter 10 part 2.

[xonthefloor]

The following day, they are on the road again.

Dave didn’t get to see Kurt awake again, so he actually changed his bandages when he was asleep.

He drives Kurt’s trailer again, as they head to Marion. They are two days away from the city but it seems promising; the City Manager was actually in the show in Ashland and invited them to do two performances.

Dave continues in this weird mood, like a limbo where he feels trapped into. Nothing has changed; this is the third day after Kurt’s visions and Dave feels that the anxiety in him is growing more intense, and while he does his best to remain calm, it’s incredibly exhausting.

They drive most part of the morning, stopping to have lunch and then they continue driving until they decide to camp around afternoon, and they do it in the middle of an open field.

For some reason, Dave starts feeling uneasy as soon as he finishes parking his trailer next to Kurt’s. He looks at his surroundings and it’s a nice place; there’s a small portion of woods near by, and some miles away, back to them, there’s a farm or at least it seems so, with a large sown field and a couple of windmills.

It’s almost relaxing and Dave would relax if it wasn’t feeling so inexplicably uncomfortable; as if his body itched all over.

Rachel takes him to training, and he doesn’t know how he does it, but he gets to unblock Rachel again, just for a second. He doesn’t get excited though; he’s feeling really upset. There’s a knot in his stomach, like a bad feeling he can’t shake it off that keeps on lingering ever since they set the camp.

“Davey, you’ve been away most of the time,” Brittany points out, just when Dave was about to head to Kurt’s trailer. “Why don’t you sit around with us for a little while?”

If someone else was asking, Dave would probably decline the invitation. Yet, he has a soft spot for Brittany, since she’s probably the most adorable girl he has ever met. She’s always so kind, almost in a naïve way and Dave doesn’t have the heart to say no to her.

So he nods at Brittany; his friends are gathered around in the empty dining table as Rachel decides to cook dinner. No one seems pleased about it, and Dave smiles for the first time in the day.

“You better don’t ruin it!” Mike tells her, and turns to Dave. “It’s the last meat we have until we get to Marion.”

Dave smiles and then he frowns; he’s having a huge déjà vu. He shakes his head quickly, and he frowns again when Al Bowlly’s Goodnight Sweetheart starts playing in the background. Sebastian, Noah, Tina and Brittany are sitting around him, about to play cards and cheer at the music.

“It’s been long since we’ve listened to this record,” Tina says. “I love it.”

Artie approaches to them, wheeling himself in his chair wearing a happy grin. “I knew you’d like my music choice. The very best of Al Bowlly’s collection. You don’t like him, Dave? You’re frowning.”

“Oh, sorry,” Dave apologizes, since he actually likes Al Bowlly. “I was just thinking; I enjoy his music a lot though. You sure we haven’t listened to him lately?”

Dave has the feeling he heard about the guy not long ago.

“You want to play?” Noah asks him, pointing at the cards in Sebastian’s hand.

“Hum, no. I think I’ll pass,” Dave tells him, and he looks at his surroundings until his eyes fall upon the windmills.

Two windmills, Dave notices. He fidgets on his place, as the bad feeling starts growing inside him. He can’t explain what’s going on, but he frowns yet again as he stares at them, with an urgent feeling of having experienced this at some point.

The itching is back, and so is the uneasiness. There’s something going on, and he can’t really explain what is it; maybe he’s about to go down with a flu or something.

“Look guys! I found some paint in the equipment trailer,” Finn walks by, looking incredible excited. He’s holding a small can of red paint and Dave’s blood turns cold.

Finn’s holding a freaking can of red paint.

“I think I’ll change my trailer’s look,” Finn continues, with a proud grin.

“Shit,” Dave mumbles, as his chest constricts in a painful way and his heart starts beating incredibly fast. He would start trembling, if he wasn’t frozen in panic.

There’s a reason why Dave believes this happened already and it’s because Kurt told him about this.

This is how it starts.

Dave gets on his feet and starts speeding towards Kurt’s trailer, ignoring his friends who are calling for him, obviously startled at Dave’s sudden weird behavior. He needs to talk with Kurt, and hell, he’ll slap him awake if he needs to, but they must talk; urgently. Only Kurt can confirm Dave’s worst fears, and he really doesn’t think that there’s nothing to confirm since he’s aware that Kurt is incredibly accurate about the future, but Dave hopes that the Dalton people are not really coming right now.

Much to his surprise, when he storms inside Kurt’s trailer, the boy is not asleep. He looks sleepy though, and he doesn’t even flinch when Dave gets inside his trailer. Kurt is simply sitting in his bed, leant against the wall and peeking outside his window through its curtains.

“It’s starting,” Kurt mumbles, sounding completely wretched.

Dave’s heart sinks; he feels dizzy and the desperation starts devouring his guts. “Kurt,” he says, not really knowing what to say. The boy looks up to him, and the back to the window.

“I’ve never seen windmills,” Kurt whispers. “Not for real though. They are pretty.”

Dave is not sure if he wants to cry, or start yelling or just simply take Kurt away from this place. He approaches to the boy, and sits on the bed in front of him. “We’ll fix this,” he states, trying to believe his own words.

Kurt looks at him again, giving him an almost pity smile. “No one did anything to change the future, David. It’s too late. They’re coming in awhile.”

Dave tries to remain calm, not letting the fear overpower him. “You know when they are coming?”

The boy shrugs, and leans back to his mattress. “The sun is going down. When they arrived, it was dark already but I don’t know how late it was.”

Shit. It could be in half an hour, or in five hours. Dave does his best to think straight and he can’t come up with any solution.

“Do you mind if I take a nap?” Kurt asks faintly. “I took some pills; I don’t want to be awake when this happens.”

Dave holds Kurt’s hand, and much to his surprise, Kurt squeezes it tightly. In spite of his obviously drowsy state, given for the pills he’s already taken, he’s as scared as he is.

“I won’t let them take you,” Dave swears to him. He doesn’t know where that came from, and he’s aware that his first instinct is lately to protect Kurt, but he actually means it.

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t feel anything this way,” the boy says, with a sleepy voice. “I won’t have to hear my friends suffering outside, unable to do something. I won’t feel the future taking me away; next time I wake up, I’ll be lost in the future.”

“No, you won’t. I’ll fix this, I promise,” Dave says firmly. “Sleep now. You won’t wake up in the future.”

Kurt nods, not really believing him and the he shuts his eyes. Dave doesn’t wait for him to fall asleep, since they don’t have much time. Instead, Dave runs back to the camp and this time, he won’t let his friends believe that they can somehow fight the Dalton people. They need to do something, other than waiting for these guys.

Everyone is giving him weird looks, and it doesn’t surprise Dave; he’s running from one place to the other, and when he reaches the camp he’s almost out of breath.

“Are you alright David? Is Kurt alright?” Sebastian is the first one asking.

Dave shakes his head no, trying to regain some air. “They’re coming; this is how it starts; the windmills, the red paint, Al Bowlly-”

“You know more about the future,” Mercedes states.

His friends have a moment of fear, showing scared faces. But then Santana shrugs. “So? We’ll kick their asses.”

“No, we won’t kick their asses! They’ll kick ours,” Dave tells them, almost enraged. “We have to leave this place.”

William and Rachel show up from behind the trailers; Rachel looking embarrassed and William frowns when he sees all of them together. “Kids, I need to head to the town. Rachel-”

“Mixed sugar with salt and ruined the meat,” Dave finishes his words; everyone looks at him with wary eyes, even William.

“Yes…” The elder man says quietly. “I was about to ask you if you wanted to come with me, so we can catch up. Rachel told me about your training, I’m sorry I haven’t been-”

“This is why you’re not in the future; you’re in town,” Dave cuts him off, realizing that. “And why I’m not either… I went with you. That’s why everyone could use their abilities.”

“What’s going on?” Rachel enquires.

“Dave says the Dalton guys are coming,” Finn tells her gloomily. Just like with his friends, Rachel and William look scared at first, but then their faces ease.

“Then… if I stay-”

“No, we can’t stay here!” Dave yells at them. “William, you won’t talk them out of this! And you can’t fight against them! They outnumber us!”

It’s different now, because it’s like they are all scared but trying to act like they’re not. Even the ones who look defiant, they show worried eyes every now and then.

“David, please calm down,” William tells him, and he doesn’t sound very calm himself.

Dave groans in frustration and decides to go for it. “They’re going to take Rachel,” he says quietly; Rachel fidgets in her place, and they exchange alarmed glances. “They also hurt Sam pretty badly, if not kill him,” Mercedes gasps. “And for sure, they kill Lily,” Santana wraps her arms around Brittany.

This does scare him for real, and Dave feels a little achieved. “They’re violent; they only fight to us, they’re coming to take you in the bad way, since you didn’t want to join you before, so it’s not like things went out of control, William,” he says, and he starts growing anxious since they’re wasting precious time. “And you cannot fight them; I know for sure it doesn’t turn out well, and that’s because there’s too many of them.”

There’s a second of silence, and then there’s almost like an explosion of concern, since all his friends start bombing William with questions about what they’re going to do.

Dave takes a sit, letting out a relieved sighs as he hears all his friends discussing and talking out loud. He let it out; all of it and he hates himself, since maybe, if he had told everything on the first place, his friends would have been forced to plan something else than ‘kicking the Dalton boys’ asses.’

It’s something though, and Dave looks at the sunset, fidgeting in his place almost fearing the night time.

“Kids! Kids! Please, quiet!” William cuts them all off, looking exasperated. “David, do you know when they are coming?”

Dave shakes his head. “Kurt said it was night,” he says, and it doesn’t help much.

William nods, and paces around, obviously trying to figure out something. At least he’s not thinking about talking with the Dalton people out of their attack. No one says nothing, as if they’re letting the older man think.

After a few minutes of silence, William speaks up. “We need to split.”

“What?” everyone asks at the same time.

“We’re stronger than them, but they outnumber us,” William says hurriedly. “If we split, we force them to split and if they try to do something, we’ll fight them back.”

Dave frowns, not sure about this. “Divide and conquer? We’ll grow weaker if we split!”

“No, they grow weaker if they split,” William replies, as he already starts packing the table. “Kids, you need to pack everything now!”

In one second, everyone is going from one place to the other, cleaning the camp. Dave is already nervous again, following William. “William, we can’t-”

“David, you have to take Kurt with you,” William stays in his place, staring at him with a serious face. Rachel, Sebastian and Noah were passing by, and stop in their places.

“What?”

“We’ll split strategically, and it doesn’t matter to you right now,” William continues. “But you need to take Kurt with you, now.”

“We’re in freaking Kansas! Where am I supposed to take him?”

“Away. You must take him away. Noah, go grab some of Artie’s clothes and pack some stuff for Kurt, those will fit him. He can’t wear his own clothes, they are too striking,” William tells Noah, and the guy nods, already running to his and Artie’s trailer. “David, you take your truck, and take Kurt with you. You’re the only one that Kurt can be out in public.”

“In public?!” Dave asks, taken aback. “William, what the hell-”

“They won’t go anywhere near you if there’s people around,” Sebastian intercedes, talking in the same urgent way than William is talking to him. “Just like us, they won’t use their abilities in public.”

“Kurt can’t be in public!”

“It will be worse if he’s with the Dalton people,” William tells him. “He’ll be scared, but David you must take him to crowded places and keep the lowest profile you can, until we figure this out. Now go pack your stuff, quick and meet me by Kurt’s trailer. Go, David!”

Dave does what William says, and as everyone is packing the camp in record time, David runs to his trailer, grabbing some clothes and other stuff he could need, out of his nervousness since the rational part of his brain is against this plan. What will he win by taking Kurt away? Kurt gets pretty bad when he sees more than three people together; what the hell is going to do with Kurt in a crowded place?! And how they’re supposed to keep a low profile if Kurt acts all crazy when they’re with people?!

He doesn’t want to stay all by himself with Kurt; he’s not sure if he can deal with what that means.

Dave puts all he can gather in the back of his truck, and he sees William and Rachel approaching to his trailer, that’s right next to Kurt’s. William is carrying a stuffed sailor bag, the one that puts in the back of Dave truck’s as well.

“Now, David, this is what you’ll do,” William says, writing something in a notepad. “You take Kurt now, and try to head to the east coast. There are bigger cities over there; never stay in the same place more for more than three days. If the Dalton people are out in the hunt, they might be after us for awhile. Until we know different, that’s what you’ll do. Every time you reach a phone, call here,” he says, handing the notepad to Dave and he sees a phone number written down. “You’ll contact Emma, and you’ll tell her where you are, and how you’re doing. She’ll give you news about us.”

Dave nods, since apparently he’s really doing this.

“Here, have this,” Rachel says, handing a wallet filled with money.

“What?! This is-”

“That’s most of our savings,” William cuts Dave off. “We’ll be able to get some money, but neither of you will. It’s almost around a hundred and fifty dollars, so you can afford gas, food and hotel rooms. We don’t know for how long we’ll have to be this way, hopefully not for long but just in case, take it all.”

Dave nods again, trying to absorb all the instructions.

“It’s dangerous, William. I don’t think I can do this with Kurt.”

“It will be hard for Kurt, but he’ll be safest with you,” Rachel tells him, and Dave can’t believe she’s telling him that. That she’s actually agreeing to put Kurt in the open; she’s the one who’s more overprotective towards the boy. Hell, everyone is incredible overprotective towards Kurt. How can they consider this a good idea? “Asides Jesse and Blaine, none of the Dalton boys know even how Kurt looks like. And they don’t know about your existence either. We can’t take him with us, or we’ll drag the Dalton boy’s attention towards him, just like we can’t isolate him if we’re running away. You can keep him away from people’s future.”

Dave realizes that he’s really screwed. They have a good point, but it’s a huge responsibility. He doesn’t even know Kurt that much, and now they’ll be forced to stay together, away and in public. How is this even going to work?!

“I’m aware that this is too much,” William tells him, obviously figuring out Dave’s worries. “But I wouldn’t ask you this, if I thought you can’t do it.”

Dave swallows hard. “What about you all?”

William offers him a kind smile. “We’ll be fine, you don’t worry about us. Call Emma, and you’ll have news about us. Now go and pick Kurt, you leave first and don’t look back, alright?”

Dave nods again, and gets inside Kurt’s trailer. The boy is deeply asleep; before picking Kurt up, he takes Kurt’s record player and some records. Kurt might like it, if they get to spend some time in hotel rooms; Dave also takes some sleeping pills and the chloroform, knowing how Kurt relies on them. Dave is only thinking about what will make Kurt feel more comfortable, knowing that the boy will be deeply upset once they find themselves on the road. He puts the player, the records and the pills in his truck and gets inside the trailer again, this time picking the boy in his arms.

Kurt doesn’t even flinch, unable to realize that he’s being taken away from the comfort zone that his trailer means to him. Dave understands why Kurt knocked himself out; instead of Dave, the Dalton boys could be the ones dragging Kurt out, just like he’s doing. Hopefully, when Kurt wakes up, he’ll be at least relieved about not having woken up in the future.

Rachel and William are waiting for him outside; William opens the passenger door of his truck, giving him room to put Kurt inside.

“Take care of him, please?” Rachel tells him, and Dave nods.

“I’ll keep him safe,” Dave promises.

She gives him a tight hug, and so does William. “Now go. And remember what I said: call Emma, don’t stay in the same place for more than three days, pick large towns and cities. Low profile, David.”

“Got it,” Dave says, getting on his truck. He turns the engine and the sun is almost down.

He fears for himself and for Kurt; he fears for his friends. Dave drives through the almost deserted camp; his friends are around, but everything is packed. All of them nod, smile and wave their hands to him, as if they’re all wishing him luck. Dave smiles back at them and once he passes the camp, he speeds towards the road, leaving the circus behind and hoping they’ll be safe and that they’ll all meet again soon.

As he hits the road, he feels completely alone and lost. Kurt is sleeping by his side, on the passenger seat and Dave doesn’t even know where to drive. He quickly decides to take the same route they took while heading to Marion, as if he’s going back to Ashland. They’re in the Midwest, there are not a lot of big cities; instead, there are plenty of deserted routes and small towns.

He’s not very sure about the roads he should take either, in order to head to the East coast and there are plenty of days of driving to reach the East coast; for how long are they going to run away?

Dave looks at Kurt’s sleeping figure and he doesn’t dare yet to feel achieved for being able to keep him away from the Dalton boys. They’ve just left the camp; they could run into them at any minute.

The sun goes down completely, and the route is almost dark. Dave tries to figure out what to do next; for a second he thinks about going back to Ashland, but he quickly abandons that idea since people in Ashland has seen him, and he’s a circus member. That could call people’s attention and no one is supposed to know he’s part of a circus; the Dalton people would figure out.

There’s a very small town about an hour from where they camped; probably where William wanted to go with him to get more meat to replace the one that Rachel ruined. Kurt is knocked out, Dave must use that in his advantage. The boy will have a major freak out when he wakes up somewhere not his bed, and his trailer.

They passed several small towns since they left Ashland. Dave should buy some food, and find a hotel while Kurt’s asleep.

Dave drives for over and hour until he arrives to Greensburg; he’s driving for its main road trying to find some groceries’ store that might be open, and thankfully he finds one. He parks in front of the store, and it’s hard for him to leave Kurt alone, but he can’t take the boy with him.

He quickly gets out from his car, always glancing at the car, even once he gets into the store. Being as fast as he can, Dave grabs canned orange juice, pet evaporated milk, some Campbell’s chicken noodle and cream of mushroom soups, Ritz Crackers, a few Mars bars, Pepperidge Farm bread, Frito corn chips, Wonder Bread, and most of these are not the healthiest things to eat, but it’s something considering they can’t cook, and that Dave just can’t take Kurt to some dinner.

Dave also buys a couple of Tootsie Pops, just to have something to eat while driving. He’d kill for a couple of smokes though.

“Do you know where could I find a hotel to spend the night?” Dave asks to the clerk, as he’s paying for his stuff.

“Around forty minutes from here, you’ll find Pratt. It’s a pretty big city, I’m sure you’ll find something there.”

Big city; that sounds good.

“Thank you. Have a good night,” Dave says, leaving the store.

Just when he’s walking in the sidewalk towards his car, he sees a convoy of very expensive cars, driving by in front of him. Dave starts trembling, and while he was about to run back to his truck and drive away, he keeps his pace, walking slowly towards his vehicle, not to raise suspicions. No one is watching after all.

Dave counts six cars, going one after the other, with at least four people inside and he’s sure that those are the Dalton people. All the cars looked incredibly expensive, and it’s not just coincidence that a bunch of rich people are driving on the main road of a small town in south Kansas.

Dave gets into his truck, watching the convoy of flashy cars driving away from them, and Kurt is still there, with him, asleep. The anxiety makes him tremble, and he hopes that his friends will be alright.

It took him more than an hour to drive here to Greensburg, and that means that there’s at least another hour until the Dalton people get to the camp; if the camp is still there. Hopefully, his friends have left the camp and they won’t run into the Dalton guys.

Dave turns the engine on, and drives in the opposite direction to where the Dalton people just drove. He starts growing tired, but he only has to drive for another forty minutes; he’ll reach a bigger city and they’ll be safer there.

Dave could really use some sleep, even if he’s not sure if he should wait until Kurt wakes up. He doesn’t want to think about the moment when Kurt wakes up.

Just as the clerk told him, Dave arrives to Pratt around forty minutes later. The city is quiet, probably because it’s night time, and he’s driving on a residential part of the city, but he sees plenty of people around when he reaches the downtown. He stops to ask for directions towards some hotel, and some citizens politely give him directions.

Five minutes later, Dave finds himself parked in front of a very fancy hotel and he’s not sure about getting a room in there. Not only because it looks expensive -seriously, that people didn’t see the state of his truck? Why did they think he would be able to afford such a fancy hotel?- but also because it’s somewhere where the Dalton people might stay.

The Dalton guys won’t spend the night just anywhere, either their plan goes wrong or right; being them so fancy, rich and elegant, and being this the biggest city near to New Direction’s camp, they could come here later.

So Dave drives away from that hotel, taking random streets, looking for a better place to stay, and he’s almost reaching the city borders when he finds another hotel that looks much better for them. It’s a motel, for starters; the reception is dethatched from the rooms and Dave will be able to get Kurt into a room without looking suspicious.

Once again, it makes him uncomfortable to leave Kurt alone but he has to, so Dave rushes to the motel’s reception. An old lady comes out from behind the counter.

“May I help you, young man?”

Dave smiles at her. “Yes, ‘mam. I was wondering if you have a room to spend the night?”

“Sure thing my boy. Is just for you?”

“No. I’m… with a friend,” he says, pointing at the truck. From the window of the reception, he can see Kurt in the passenger seat. “He had… a few drinks. First time in his life, he can’t hold his alcohol,” he lies, since he’ll have to drag Kurt inside the room and saying that he passed out from alcohol is something much more normal than saying that his friend took lots of sleeping pills.

The old lady chuckles. “These boys nowadays. A double bed then.”

“That would be it, yes.”

She turns around, picking one of the keys hanging on the wall. There are several of them taken, and knowing that there’s going to be people around relaxes Dave.

“Here. Room 14,” she says, handing him the key. “It would be 3,30 dollars the night. You’re not from here, aren’t you?”

Dave takes the wallet that William gave to him, and pays the lady. “No, ‘mam. Me and my friend are heading to Oklahoma,” he lies again, just in case. “We both have family over there.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Well, I hope you both have a good night.”

“Night to you too, and thank you.”

Dave leaves the reception, getting into his truck just to park it in front of the room 14, which is just a few feet away. After turning the engine off, Dave grabs some of his clothes and the sailor bag that Rachel gave him. Kurt is still on his pajamas, and he’ll have to use normal clothes tomorrow. A boy wearing his pajamas on public would attract a lot attention.

He checks on his room, placing the clothes and the food he bought inside; then he returns to his truck, and gets Kurt in his arms. The boy remains deeply asleep, and Dave has no issues taking the boy inside the room.

Dave carefully places Kurt in one of the beds, covering him with the blankets. He sighs, feeling incredible tired. He looks around, and he smiles when he finds a bathroom; it’s been so long since he’s been on a real bathroom, not the small one he has in his trailer. He walks towards it, and he smiles even wider when he sees the faucets since it’s good to have plumbing after so much time.

He washes his face and his teeth before returning to the room; feeling sleepy, Dave proceeds to lock the doors and the windows, closing the curtains. Just in case, Dave takes the flowers of a decorative vase, and places the empty vase on the handle of the door. If someone tries to open the door, he’ll quickly notice as soon as the vase falls to the grown and breaks.

Dave changes his clothes, and he gets into his bed. After glancing at Kurt one last time, Dave turns the lights off.

He has his head filled with thoughts; he wonders how his friends are doing, and if they got away on time. He wonders what was the Dalton people’s reaction at finding a -maybe- deserted camp, or even at not finding Kurt, in case they found the circus people. And then, Dave wonders how the hell Kurt is going to cope with the sudden twist of their fates; surely it won’t be pretty.

In spite of the overwhelming thoughts, Dave sighs and starts falling asleep. He can use some rest. After all, this is going to be a very difficult trip.