Mission Voyager (Part Three A)

[soulmatecest]

Part Three
(Jared)

He’s not looking where he’s going once he leaves the house, not even bothering to close the door behind him. Jared just runs, thinking about nothing else but escaping and putting as much distance as possible between him and what used to be his home along with the thing that looks like a woman dressed in his mother’s old blue dress.

Is not until he’s crossing the street that Jared stops for a second and realizes he’s going straight to Chad’s house, his brain following the most familiar path since Jared isn’t paying attention to where he’s going. He stops running now, only walking slowly towards the white house across the street. It looks just like it has been looking for years, not a single change on the outside. The second home after what used to be Jared’s place, where Jared would always feel as safe and happy. Chad had always lived here with his father, as an only child and with his mother gone since when Chad was a kid. He was the only one who got how Jared felt after Sherri died and they moved. Coming to the Murray household to hide in Chad’s room some weeks after his mom’s funeral because he couldn’t deal to be back home with his dad and siblings always brought him comfort.

And now he’s standing right in front of it, terrified to find somebody else than Chad’s dad opening the door. Did the same thing happen already to him? What did Chad find whenever he got out of the cab and walked inside? Maybe he wasn’t as lucky as Jared. Maybe those things did see Chad.

What if they already got him?

That makes Jared climb the remaining steps to be standing in front of the door, ready to push it open and just make his way inside one way or another. He already lost his family, that’s for damn sure. Jared is not going to lose his best friend, too.

But before he can grab the knob and shove against the door, someone swings it open from the inside, making Jared gasp in surprise and step back, terrified.

“Jared.” Chad hisses, immediately grabbing him by his wrist and pulling him inside of the house, dragging his luggage along. He looks around, checking that nobody is looking in their direction before closing the door again and locking it with trembling hands.

Jared doesn’t wait for Chad to fully turn around before he’s almost jumping him, breathing heavily as he hugs the breath out of Chad. At least he’s got Chad. They didn’t take him too.

“Jared, fuck.” Chad breathes out, patting his back and letting Jared cling to him for a minute longer. “Dude, my dad…his things are gone and for the shit I found around the house I think a couple is living here. Listen, Jared. I know you think I’m fucking crazy about this but you got to come look with me and-”

“My family is gone too.”

It makes Chad stop and pull back, looking at Jared with a worried face.

There’s nothing much they can do besides quickly telling each other what happened and try to decide what’s next for them. It seems like those things took over Chad’s home too as they can’t find a thing that used to belong to Chad’s dad and his room had been turned into a studio. All his things are gone, and when Jared tells him about finding all his belongings in boxes in his own room, Chad says that’s the creepiest shit he has ever heard. Jared can’t say he disagrees.

Staying is straight up out of question. Chad doesn’t know what happens to people who gets taken either, post-abduction information isn’t part of what he has seen online because only the ones who have escaped or people who had family or friends taken away write about it. Nobody has said anything about being taken and coming back.

“Because nobody comes back.” Chad explains as they take all they can from the kitchen, putting in a large black bag. Jared says nothing, controlling his needs to throw up.

He’s still wrapping his head around the fact that all this is real. Dealing with maybe never seeing his family again or the entire world going to shit seems like too much right now, Jared needs to go one at a time. If he tries to think of any of that right now he’s going to lose his mind, and he can’t do that. Not right now. So Jared locks it somewhere in the back of his head and keeps on packing food. They need to leave. Neither of them knows where to but it doesn’t matter. The faster they leave that house, the better.

The things now living at Chad’s house at least kept what used to be the Murray’s car. Chad always carries a spare key with him, so that’s what they are using to get out. They load it with their bags, the bag of food and whatever money they can find. It’s not much but it will have to do along with whatever they are carrying in their wallets.

Rushing out of the house and knowing that when those things are back they will know someone broke in, Chad says they need to drive as far as possible from there. Drive to the other side of the city and find somewhere to spend the night. Jared nods, numb and doing whatever plan Chad has. He’s too dumbstruck to think for himself, following Chad’s orders and indications without exactly realizing what’s going on.

After feeling like Chad has been talking and driving for forever, while Jared listens with his face pressed against the window in the passenger seat without saying a word, he finally stops at a motel for them to spend the night.

They don’t talk anymore after paying for the room and not bothering to unpack, only bringing the bag of food with them so they can have something for dinner before sleep. Now that they can relax for only a moment, it feels like the truth is sinking in. Not even Chad makes a comment anymore when throwing his third bag of Doritos into the trash can and climbing over one of the queen sized beds, mumbling Jared to let the lights on as he covers himself with the blankets and turns around, facing the wall.

Jared nods but stays quiet, curled into himselfon his own bed and looking straight ahead. This is what losing your mind must feel like.

He’s never going to see his dad again. Chad’s never going to see his dad again. Did they know when it happened? Did they see it coming? It had to be at the same time, if any of them went missing before the other they would have called Jared. He looks for the phone in his pocket, unlocking it and checking his call history. The last time he spoke to one of them was four days ago. Jeff wanted to know if Jared needed him to pick him up at the airport. Chad said the same thing to his dad a week ago. Is that all it takes for those things to make someone disappear? A week. Four days. And then it’s like they never existed.

Jared rolls over, facing away from Chad and hiding his face in a pillow as he starts to cry. For a few moments he thinks Chad is too, crying, just like Jared. But they both pretend to not hear the other, not because they want to ignore it, but because they both know they need to dwell on this alone at first.

Jared doesn’t know how long he cries until he eventually falls asleep, dreaming about being back home, hiding in his room while something keeps pushing his door, trying to get in.

They spend two days locked in their motel room, not going out or opening the doors, both of them terrified of knowing that there’s something out there. Something taking humans and possibly going after them eventually. They eat from their black bag, shower and lay in their respective beds. And nothing else. They exchange words sometimes or just look at each other, both scared but relieved that they have each other. Jared would have stepped into the middle of a busy street and let a car roll over him if he was alone. They don’t talk much because there’s nothing to say, they don’t know what to do or how to handle any of this. Chad uses his computer to check the websites that talk about the morphing aliens and tries to find if there’s more people running away like them. If there are, they are probably not going to post about it online.

After the third night of crying himself to sleep, Jared looks up when Chad comes out of the bathroom, dressed in the same clothes and drying his hair with an old towel.

“I have been thinking.” he starts, nearly whispering. “That we need to get money. And we can’t stay here for too long. I think-I think staying anywhere too long could be dangerous.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Chad nods in return, leaving the towel on the floor before going to sit on Jared’s bed. “I have been thinking that too. Money and leave, dude but-I didn’t know if you…”

“I’m just as scared as you.” Jared smiles for a second. “But we have to.”

“Who said anything about being scared?” Chad jokes, shoving Jared playfully and making him laugh for a second. “Dude this shit is crazy. I don’t know how to deal with it.”

Jared sighs, watching Chad scratch and rub the back of his neck nervously.

“Yes you do.” Jared whispers and Chad snorts, rolling his eyes. “Yes you do. You’re the expert about conspiracy theories. You went to that crazy survival camp two years ago for summer and know how to survive during emergencies and all that stuff!”

“Yeah, because my dad made me go. Thought I might need it sometime.”

“Well, he was right. And we need it now.” Shaking Chad’s shoulder, Jared makes him turn to look back. “Chad, come on. I don’t know any of this, I don’t-I have no idea. But you do. Please, I need you to help us out.”

If he’s sure of one thing it’s that Chad can get them through this. He has been reading about these aliens for months, somehow knows how they behave and does truly know how to behave during emergencies like this one. Jared? He freaks out, shuts down, doesn’t know how to react. Chad is different. He was be the one defending Jared from bullies during high School, the one who was never too scared, never shied away from taking action.

“Chad, you can do this.”

Chad nibbles on his bottom lip and then smiles, clapping Jared on the back.

“We both can, Jay, e both can.”

They make a plan that night. The priority is leaving, they need to keep moving. For what Chad knows and also supposes, these things might target groups of humans at once. Locate where they live and then take them out, that’s what happened to their respective families: they got located. Chad and Jared can’t let that happen. They need to keep moving, leave this motel in the next days. But for that, they need money. That’s where more of Jared’s plan takes place: he remembers seeing his dad’s debit card in the box he opened in his room. He doesn’t like the idea but it’s all they got. They’ll go back that night, take the debit card and use it at different stops to get money. Chad’s in. They pack the few clothes they have, return the keys of the motel room and drive the car back towards Jared’s old home once again. They park some blocks away this time, knowing that the couple staying in Chad’s house would recognize the stolen car. And well, Jared and Chad don’t want to find out what would happen if they do.

They wait until is late, not knowing if the blonde woman from some days ago is around or not. If she didn’t lock the door the first time Jared got in, he figures she probably leaves it that way all the time. He’s not wrong. Sneaking in what used to be his own house feels ridiculous. They try to not make a sound as they tip-toe inside and hope that the woman-looking alien doesn’t wake up, guessing that she’s asleep from the shoes by the door but with all the lights being turned off. Jared goes back into his room quickly, in and out as fast as possible, trying to not feel tempted to bring something else or waningt to stay like some days ago when ran away. His dad’s debit card is right where Jared saw it, on top of some folded shirts. He snatches it away and leaves the room in a hurry, but just when he and Chad are about to leave, the blonde woman opens the door of what’s now her room and sees them, standing in the middle of the living room.

She lets out a gasping sound, just like any human would do if they saw intruders in her house. It’s almost ironic considering she’s the intruder and that’s Jared’s home she occupying.

But there’s no time to think about that or ask her what did she do with his family. Or perhaps just tell her to not dare to wear his mother’s dress ever again. Jared wants to, but he knows he can’t. Chad is pulling his arm and pushing him out of the house right as the woman runs for the telephone in the living room.

They are just leaving the apartment complex when a black van stops right across the street and a group of people-or at least they look like it-step out, all staring at the two of them and carrying some kind of weapon Jared has never seen in real life or movies. Chad has all kinds of ego-shooter video games with realistic looking graphics and authentic weapons and they have never seen something like that. Jared let’s out a scream that echoes through the almost empty street, almost tripping when Chad harshly pulls on the back of his shirt and yells for Jared to run.

It feels like he’s trapped in the most bizarre sci-fi movie, running down a street next to Chad as they get chased down by goddamn aliens. Just thinking about it makes Jared want to bark out a hysteric laugh, but the voices of those things chasing them, telling them to stop and to not be afraid makes it real. They are there. And if Jared and Chad dare to stop, he knows it’s the end of them. It’s a good thing this is happening in their neighborhood-or not good at all, but at least convenient-because they have walked those paths and played there all their lives, know the ways in and out, the shortcuts and especially where to hide. Chad must be thinking the exact spot Jared is, because he pulls him by his shirt once again after they turn right after a small park, going into an old apartment complex that was never finished because there wasn’t enough money to pay for the rest of the construction. It looks fine from outside, but he and Chad used to sneak in enough times when they were in school to know that it’s all basic structure and unfinished parts. Jared pushes the door open and then both him and Chad press their backs against it, holding their breaths.

The people who were running behind them go past it, talking between them and repeating that they need to find the humans, suspecting something about Jared and Chad being part of the families who used to live there.

Chad and Jared say nothing, still pressed against the door, breathing hard and looking at each other like they can’t believe what just happened. Somehow, those things calling them humans makes it all the more real. And terrifying. Not that they needed more confirmation, but now this is proof that this can’t be some group of psychopaths or something else. Those things aren’t like them, they referred to Jared and Chad as if they were something completely different.

Just for precaution, the two of them stay there at the unfinished building for almost two hours, waiting for the aliens to be gone before Chad says they should go get the car.

Before going towards the parking lot, with Jared holding his dad’s debit card for dear life and still trying to calm down his nerves, Chad says they need to make a quick stop for supplies. Jared gives him a confused look until he sees where Chad is heading, holding his breath and starting to back away.

“Jared, we need them. Just a couple.” Chad speaks in a soft voice, like he’s reasoning with a scared animal. He leaves his hand on Jared’s shoulder and brings him close so he will tag along towards the store. “I’ll carry them, just stay by my side, okay?”

“We shouldn’t-it can have an alarm, it will alert them again if they hear it go off.”

“You know my dad liked to go hunting, right?”

Jared nods nervously, looking constantly at both sides of the street.

“He used to come here for ammo. The owner was his friend, this old dude who was kind of a douchebag.” Chad shakes his head, like that detail is not important. “Said something about having trouble with his alarm system last time my dad came back, but said that he wasn’t worried because for some reason people never used to come inside his store to steal from him. Probably because they thought that the owner of a store full of guns would be armed too, right?”

“Chad, let’s just go. Come on.”

“It’ll be one second, JT. We need them.” He looks back at the store and squeezes Jared’s arm. “You know we need them.”

Swallowing loudly and feeling his lower lip tremble, Jared finally nods again, rubbing his hands together. He’ll just stand behind Chad and let him do his thing. His friend claps his back again and tells Jared to stand back, taking off the button-down he has over his shirt and wrapping it around his fist so he can break the glass door. Jared has no idea how Chad knows how to break into a store and it might not be a good moment to find out the details,. He still follows Chad inside through the broken door and stands in one corner, trying to keep his eyes on the floor as Chad moves around the store.

Logically, they don’t stay in there for too long. Just enough for Chad to fill one empty duffel bag he also takes from the store with guns and ammunitions, yet it feels like Jared has been locked in there for hours. He tries to keep his eyes closed or looks intently on the floor, breathing fast and hard, hands shaking. Jared closes his eyes and for a second he feels himself back in that closet in their parents room at their old house, hugging his knees and pressing his hands over his ears how his mom told him to, holding back tears and trying not to cry too hard. Sherri told him it was okay. She kissed his forehead and told him to hide in there and cover his eyes and ears, said to not come out until she called his name. She tried to smile but she was crying when she closed the doors of the closet, leaving Jared sitting in the dark.

“Jared!”

Chad is shaking his shoulder when Jared opens his eyes, finding himself cowering in the corner of the store, hands over his ears just likes back then, tears sliding down his cheeks.

Jared stares back at his friend, slowly removing his hands from his ears to rub his eyes, feeling like a kid for a split second.

“Jared.” Chad repeats with a whisper, leaving a hand on his shoulder before offering him another to help him get up, all the while giving him worried stares. “I’m done. We can leave now, let’s go.”

He guides Jared out of the store before they start running again, looking for the parking lot where they left Chad’s car. Jared blinks the tears away as they run, grateful that Chad doesn’t make any comment about his episode. Even in the darkness of the store, he’s sure his friend saw the tears. But Chad also knows him enough to be sure that talking about it out loud would only make it worse for Jared. He never talks about it, with anyone. Not his dad, not his siblings or friends. Like not discussing it will make the constant memory that haunts him go away.

From that night on, they start to be constantly on the move..

They take turns on driving whenever they have to and sleep in motels, not staying for more than a week at a time. They don’t go out that much, locking themselves in their rooms and not letting other people see they are living there, keeping mostly to themselves. It’s not like things are getting better, Jared still feels like he’s drowning inside of a crazy reality, crying at night thinking about his family gone forever, considering this is going to be their lives from now on, that he will never go back to college or graduate, that they will do nothing but run and hide. But at least him and Chad are talking more whenever they lock themselves up, realizing that if they don’t discuss what’s going at least between them they are going to absolutely lose it.

After some weeks, they both realize that perhaps staying in the same city for long is not a good idea. Jared doesn’t even want to stay, being in San Antonio and knowing everything he ever cared for is gone hurts too much. So leaving might do them some good. They stock their car with cheap food-being in and out of the stores as quick as possible and not talking to anyone who tries to make small talk with them-and fill the car’s tank after taking a good amount of money from Jared’s dad’s saving account before leaving San Antonio.

The drive is not too long from there to Austin, only one hour and twenty minutes of taking the I-35N, which makes them realize how stupid they were taking a main road for their trip. Chad says it doesn’t matter they are at the edge of paranoia for doing it, but perhaps they should even avoid anything that’s too packed considering they don’t know which ones are humans and which are aliens, and that includes roads too.

Jared couldn’t care less how paranoid it sounds, after being chased down that night by a group dressed in white, he’ll do anything to avoid it too.

They keep their routine of not staying too long in the same place when they arrive in Austin. Chad had never been there before while Jared knows his ways around from a couple family trips. It feels like waking up every day expecting to be taken, the constant fear of being hunted down horrible and sickening at the same time. Some days he and Chad don’t talk at all, the entire situation almost traumatizing, but they keep reminding each other they have to do it. They are barely interacting with anyone else by that point, they need to at least be around each other. Chad being so Chad is the one who keeps insisting on that, forcing Jared to keep on making conversation and not letting him drown in his own terrible thoughts.

Jared knows that Chad’s personality is what keeps him sane most of the time. Chad and his constant jokes, Chad and his ridiculous whining about not being able to smoke whenever he wants to because they can’t spend their money on cigarettes, so he has to ration them. Chad and his ideas. Sometimes Chad convinces Jared to sneak into the movies, both so they wouldn’t have to pay and so nobody would see them get in. Other times they get stupid amounts of food at McDonald’s, steal their favorite movies from stores and lock themselves in their motel room to marathon all weekend. Chad upholds the policy of doing something that made them happy at least once a week and wouldn’t take no for an answer, making sure to keep Jared in a good humor and going lengths to cheer him up when he was feeling down.

There’s a depressing part of it all though, and it’s that whenever they leave their room for food or to do one of Chad’s fun days”, it seems like there are less and less real humans out there. Weeks turn into months and soon enough Jared is sure that they are more and more surrounded by those fucking aliens. The sites about the conspiracy theory are pumping full of new sightings and evidence, social media exploding with them. It’s becoming almost an infection, appearing on TV news and becoming more real and less about internet weirdos making up shit for five minutes of fame. Police keeps on insisting it’s some kind of hoax that started online and all those testimonials about people reporting missing friends and family members are lying, commenting on how they even get people at stations asking for supposed friends that when looked up in the system don’t even appear as real. It’s all a big joke to them and they’re demanding for people to stop making shit up and let them deal with the real problems.

“Just like that secretary who magically made Osric disappear out of college records and add Brock, remember?” Chad comments as they watch TV in their room. He lets out a bitter laugh and shakes his head. “Fucking ridiculous. But when has police done anything useful at all anyway?”

Jared has known all along that going to the police would have been a terrible idea. People are being ignored and called crazy, and he guesses he gets it on some level. If he was at the other end of things he would also call them all liars and ignore the whole thing. It’s impossible to believe it until it happens to you.

The next time they catch the news is a few weeks later, when they are checking out of a different motel and the owner is right there with them at the counter. There’s a psychiatrist on the news being interviewed, talking about a mental illness called Capgras Syndrome, most commonly known in the medical field as Capgras delusion, which is a mental disorder in which a person believes that a close friend or family member has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter. He explains that many patients who suffer from Capgras delusion believed that aliens were taking over the bodies of people on Earth to live amongst them without being discovered. He concluded that anyone who believed any of this mess everyone was talking about needed to seek medical attention.

While the explanation could fit somehow, it wasn’t an exact match. Chad had already read online about the Capgras Syndrome, and it usually happened after brain injury or previously suffered with paranoid schizophrenia. But they didn’t say that on TV.

To just look at all the proof around the world at this point and make the rest believe those people were insane was an easy way out to not deal with it. To call them crazy and move on. Jared and Chad had seen it all before and knew it was real.

The owner of the motel lets out a little laugh, shaking his head before turning back to give Jared his change after paying.

“Sounds like a bunch of nutcases to me too.” He huffs, clicking his tongue like he really feels for the idiots out there who believe aliens are taking over the planet.

“Right?” Chad replies with a smirk before turning to Jared to give him a look that says zip it, you know is for the best.

For a moment Jared wants to tell the guy, tell him about what happened with Osric and Brock. Tell him about his family, his things stocked up in boxes in his old room and the group of human look-alikes chasing them down the street with weird-looking weapons. He wants to say “Run away, don’t stay. We’re all being hunted down without noticing.” But Chad is taking the money from the counter and nudging Jared so they leave before he can say a word.

Better not to bring any attention by admitting out loud they are part of this group of nutcases.

Weeks keep passing by, and before they realize it months have turned into an entire year. Time keeps passing and they keep running away, circling around Austin and seeing more and more humans disappear. They go out much less, their little happy distractions from before slowly dying down. It’s almost unreal, to feel like every time they step outside there are more of those alien things everywhere.

One time they go to a store to buy water and whatever cheap food they can get a hold of and when they are about to pay the cashier gives them a weird look, staring at Chad and Jared like they are the most strange thing she has ever seen. It rings a bell in their heads almost instantly. They get a hold of what they can before running out of the store, seeing the girl go straight to the phone. It gives Jared a small deja vú, remembering the blonde woman at his apartment also making a call after she saw them. That’s when the people in the black van appeared to chase them down. He screams for Chad to run faster. Those things are coming for them.

They try to not spend too much money after the debit card they have been using eventually stops working. Jared is sure his father’s still had money saved, only taking out small amounts whenever they needed more. It’s impossible to know exactly what happened, but hey, if those things are taking over the world is not a surprise the banks are going to shit too. There’s no more cash for food or motel rooms. So they start to sleep in the car and steal more. Chad is better at the latter, which is a surprise to neither of them.

It’s been so long since they started escaping, Jared has started to lose count of the days and has difficulties keeping track of time. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, which month. It’s always the same. Escaping and fearing, running away from being hunted. Thinking they have really lost their minds half of the time and then seeing someone get dragged away in the middle of the night by one of those weird hunting teams and getting reminded that it’s all real.

Famous people have started to gone missing by that point, and on a Tuesday afternoon they hear on the radio that the president of the United States has been kidnapped. It’s a huge deal for several weeks, the radio stations talk about nothing else, it’s the top emergency. It gives them a spark of hope, maybe now everyone will believe it’s real. Maybe the authorities will do something now that even the fucking president is gone.

And then one morning after waking up in a parking lot, Jared turns on the radio again and there’s nothing. The news about the president have abruptly died along with several stations that are simply not on air anymore. The couple they can find don’t mention the kidnapping anymore, keeping on trivial subjects that doesn’t seem to matter at all. Chad asks Jared if maybe those things finally took over the White House and the FBI. Perhaps the entire army. Jared says he has no idea. But if they did, it means there’s no salvation at all.

After that day, they don’t turn on the radio anymore.

-

The time to leave Austin just like they left San Antonio comes around soon enough, but unlike the first time, they have barely any food left and not money to pay for gas. They have to give it a shot anyway, feeling like not even staying low key in that city is safe enough. Now they have to run to a new one, just to be safe.

So they eat some of the last cans of food and leave early in the morning for Dallas.

They can’t use Chad’s laptop anymore since they don’t have anywhere to charge it nor the money to pay for internet connection. They also threw away their phones because they couldn’t pay the bills and there’s no use for them besides using wi-fi back at motel rooms. Still, Jared figures the drive should be between three to four hours.

It’s not until they are driving that Jared remembers what happened the first time. They took main roads to travel from San Antonio to Austin and Chad pointed out they needed to avoid that next time. They are already driving on I-35N once again, and just as last time, it’s so busy at that time it makes Chad tense up behind the steering wheel, his eyes staring straight ahead as he tries not to look around them. Jared takes some peeks at the other cars and feels like he’s going to have a small heart attack whenever he catches different drivers shooting them weird and suspicious looks. That can’t be paranoia, people are looking at them. Which means they are not people like Jared and Chad.

They use a map Jared took from a gas station last time they decided to steal some food to try and find an isolated exit that will put them away from so many cars, nervous to be on the spotlight after trying so hard to hide away. They take exit 337A toward US-77 after almost one hour and thirty minutes in which they felt like everyone in the other cars were observing them, which makes Jared start to think that those things have to know somehow that they are humans. Or at least they suspect it. Can they sense it somehow? They look exactly like any other person would to Jared, if he wasn’t already so far into this mess he wouldn’t even notice them in a crowd. Yet it seems like they can see that Chad and Jared are different. How, when they all look like humans? How can they not think of them as an alien too, at least from far away? Something has to be giving them away.

When they get on Bellmead Dr. it feels like they can breathe a little easier. It’s the kind of isolated area they were looking for. There are barely any cars every once in awhile and they don’t seem to pay much attention to them. Jared offers driving for a while so Chad can sleep or relax for the rest of the trip, it’s clear that he was sweating bullets back on the main road. They stop at a gas station only to trade places before they go back onto the road without making eye contact without anyone around them.

After another two hours of driving and getting closer to Dallas, they start to enjoy the green fields at each sides of the highway, feeling it’s easier to talk and drive without weird things staring at them from other cars. Chad even lights up a cigarette-one of the few he has left-and cranks the window down to smoke while staring at the nice view as they chat. It’s weird to think those are the moments they enjoy now, peaceful road trips from one city to another to keep on hiding, knowing well that soon enough they will run out of food and gas just as it happened with all the money. It’s fine, Jared guesses. They’ll take anything they can get by that point. So he relaxes behind the steering wheel and laughs at Chad’s comments about almost shitting himself back at I-35N, still glad that he at least has his best friend. There’s no way he would have survived and escaped this long without Chad.

It’s on I-45N that they break down, barely past the mile 287. Chad is in the middle of telling Jared a story of how he had once to sneak out of a house through the window at two in the morning because the parents of the girl he was messing around with heard too many noises and decided to go check, almost making Jared cry with laughter at his over exaggerated explanation and detailed story-telling when the car makes a weird noise, then just stops, right in the middle of the deserted road.

Jared stops laughing and Chad stays frozen with his arms in the air, cigarette between his lips, still in the middle of explaining how he was trying to jump out of the second floor when the car stops working. It would have been comical if they weren’t in the middle of a really huge mess.

“Is it…is it the gas?” Chad asks, leaning against Jared to take a look at the dashboard. “Did we run out?”

“N-No. We still had some, I kept checking.” Jared nibbles on his lower lip, trying to turn on the engine again. The car makes a wheezing noise once again and then dies down like before. It doesn’t even try to start after that time.

Chad and Jared share a nervous look before getting out of the car to try and check how to fix it if they can. Chad remembers some of what he learned when his father got the car and Jared studies engineering, they figure maybe they can figure it out. After horrible twenty minutes of examining the car while hoping no other car will drive by-because if they see them stranded in the middle of the road they will stop, and they will notice they are humans like they always have before, and that could be the end for the both of them-it looks like a part of the engine stopped working, probably after an entire year of driving and running away, using the car way too much without any chances to fix it. They can’t get a replacement in the middle of the road, they can’t even do it in the city since they have no money and those things are everywhere now.

“We have to leave the car here.” Chad announces after another five minutes of Jared trying to fix the broken part of the engine, getting more and more frustrated upon realizing there’s no way he can make the car work again without buying the new parts.

“What?” Jared blinks, shaking his head. “Chad, we need the car. That’s how we keep on moving, that’s where we sleep, where we have everything-”

“Jared, look around you.” Chad opens his arms, pointing at the endless road and the green fields. He walks towards a sign at the side of the road, reading Chambers Creek out loud. Jared looks at each side of the road, only just now realizing there is in fact a creek at each side and passing under the road where their car died down. “Which basically means we are in the middle of nowhere. What if a car passes, sees us and sends one of those hunters in white? We won’t have any way to escape since our car went to shit, man.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Jared sighs, leaning against the car and looking at the dirty water running down the valley and the miles and miles of threes at both sides of it. “And we can’t stay here in the car forever either. This thing is not taking us to Dallas at all.”

“So, we have two options.” Chad claps and rubs his hands together, cigarette still between his lips. He blows out the smoke and cracks his neck, ready to be on the move again. “We stay here, where we could be an easy prey-or we take the duffel bags, fill them with clothes and what we have left on food and start walking.”

“Down the road? That’s going to get us even more attention than the broken car.”

Chad clicks his tongue and shakes his head, pointing towards the creek with one hand.

“We’re going through the creek?”

“If we’re walking the rest of the time from here to Dallas, that I can calculate is about two or three days if we only walk at night so those fuckers won’t see us, I think we should do it through the forests and all the goddamn nature we can find. The more hidden we are, the better.”

Jared considers it for a moment, looking back at the creek. It’s a good idea to stay close enough to the water at least for the rest of today, and they could keep on walking tomorrow. He’s not a fan of the idea of walking through dark forests in the middle of the night, but he guesses he’s more scared of the aliens than he is of whatever they can find in a forest.

“Fine, let’s get the duffel bags.” Jared agrees, going to open the trunk. They have to keep going and staying in the middle of the road is screaming to get caught. It’s going to suck to try and survive from now on without the car, but at this point is about doing whatever they can to stay safe. At least the forest will keep them concealed.

This whole surviving thing is starting to look a lot like those scenes in The Walking Dead with the group camping in the forests and walking deserted roads; scenes that would usually make Jared wonder if he could ever be able to survive something like that. The irony is that he’s about to find out. He used to only go camping when he was a kid and that was usually with a tent, tons of provisions of food and his parents there when it got dark and Jared felt scared.

Now he’s scared all time and his parents have been long gone, no way for them to ever protect him again.

The situation gets even more like The Walking Dead when Chad takes out some guns from the back of the car and throws them in his duffel bag before he pulls out a rifle, strapping it to his shoulder before closing the trunk. Jared swallows and looks away, starting to play with his hands nervously as he repeats in his head that they need the guns if they are going to be walking now. The car made them feel protected somehow, like a barrier between them and the world. Now there’s nothing and they need to be prepared if the groups in white appear again and they have nowhere to run. So far they didn’t need the guns, but now it’s different. It’s less about hiding and more about surviving from now on.

As Chad taps the side of the car affectionately, like a little goodbye, Jared tries to not imagine if his best friend would be able to shoot and kill one of those things if needed. Assuming that human weapons could kill them of course, but would Chad really shoot them? Would Jared? He can barely be close to any firearm.

They hide in the first line of trees close to the creek for the rest of the afternoon, trying not to drink the couple of bottles of water they have left. Jared drifts in and out of sleep as the sun goes down, lying on the floor with his duffel bag as an improvised pillow. So far they have only seen insects and birds in that part of the forest, and Jared really doubts there’s going to be anything especially dangerous out there. At least he hopes so. But hey, there are spiders who can kill you so what does he know damn insect could end them if they are not careful enough. The weather is probably the worst part of being stranded in the middle of nowhere. It’s summer in Texas, and even if Jared has lived there most of his life, dealing with the high temperatures while trying to not drink the rest of the water they have is almost torture. The AC in the car had been helping them so far, but from now on, it’s going to be melting under the sun while they wait for the night to arrive so they can keep on walking.

It’s not until Jared hears Chad’s voice whispering something by his side that he realizes he did fall asleep for a while, blinking the dizziness away and rubbing his eyes when the sound of his friend’s voice wakes him up. Chad yawns, looking at the sky and calculating Jared fell asleep at least forty minutes ago.

Jared sighs and closes his eyes again, trying to pay attention to what Chad is saying. But it doesn’t sound like he’s particularly saying anything to Jared.

It takes him two seconds to understand Chad is not talking.

“Are you…?” Jared whispers, opening one eye and looking up at Chad, who’s sitting against a tree by his side, looking at the creek and smoking another cigarette. Jared lets out a little laugh before he can stop himself, suddenly amused. “Are you singing Bob Marley?”

Chad shoots him a glance, smirking before blowing out the smoke and staring back at the water, singing Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be alright louder than before, keeping the tune of the song and making Jared laugh harder this time. Chad slaps him on the shoulder and keeps on singing as Jared chuckles and turns around to lay on his shoulder, drifting back into sleep.

It’s the best he has slept in weeks, somehow relaxed as he hears Chad sing what Jared knows is his best friend’s favorite song. Jared mumbles along, whispering some of the words to himself. Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun.

All he thinks before he falls asleep is that he hopes that the lyrics could become true.

| Next |