Chapter 130 The Unexpected

The chance which now seems lost,may represent itself at the last moment.

-Around the World in Eighty Days

Burns

There's eight of us this time. Nate isn't taking any chances. He's given clear instructions. Lie low. Don't take risks. Do as you're told.

We've taken the van and the car, and a weapon for everyone that's coming, except me. I still can't stand the feel of it. I can barely tolerate being near one.

Rob is driving the car. Tom, Kim and Rachel are with him. I'm driving the van with Blake in the passenger seat. Nate and Evan are in the back.

I begged Emma to sit this one out. I'm not quite over what happened last time. Nate's not the only one not willing to take chances.

We've picked a small town, less people to worry about. It's not a town we've been to before. Especially in smaller towns like this, strangers get noticed and since we use different names every time, we don't want to be caught in a lie in case someone recognizes us from earlier visits.

I park the van in the parking lot of the store. Rob stops the car he's driving in a side street. They're close enough to us to come to our aid if necessary, but out of the public eye. As long as we can still see each other we're safe.

"Ready?" Blake asks me.

I nod. "Ready when you are." The story we're going with is that we're having family over for a barbeque. We'll need a lot of food.

Blake covers the gun he is carrying and gets out of the van. I follow after him and we enter the store.

Bags of potatoes, crates with soda, bottles with water, a box filled with bread and bread rolls, vegetables, meat, cheese and butter, eggs, chips in every flavor they invented, milk, cereal, fresh fruit. "And gummi worms," Blake throws two bags of the candy on top of our other groceries. "I promised Finn to bring him some."

I nod my agreement and eye the mountain of food. I feel strangely guilty for taking so much, even if it will feed twenty-two people. "I think we have all we need."

Blake chuckles. "I suppose so." He checks his list. "We can get towels and clothes on our next stop." He glances at me. "And we need toothpaste, soap and shampoo."

I sigh. "I guess we can still add that to the pile."

The boy behind the counter smiles brightly when he signs out our goods. "That's going to be some party," he grins.

"Yeah," I smile back, "big family."

"Well, have fun!" He waves at us.

I wave back and together with Blake we walk back to the van. As soon as we've loaded all the goods, we drive towards the next town. Rob follows closely behind.

Evan packs away all the meat in the coolers we brought. He shakes his head. "I still can't believe how easy it is to get food now," he says, "if it hadn't been for you, Burns, we'd still be struggling."

I sigh. "I just wish I could do more."

Nate pats my shoulder. "You're doing more than enough, Burns. There's no need to feel guilty."

"Thanks, Nate," I say. They may be grateful I help them get supplies, but it's the least I can do. I'm the one that's grateful they let me be part of their community.

When we find a clothing store, we are accompanied by the girls. While Rachel and Kim search the women's section, Blake and I shop for the men. We make sure to stay in each other's line of vision at all times.

"We should get Finn some clothes too," Blake muses.

I nod. He's right. The problem is that Finn's the only child in our group. We can't try on any clothes for size.

"What are you two sighing about?" Rachel's voice sounds at our shoulder. I turn around to see she and Kim have already finished their shopping.

"We're trying to find clothes for Finn," I say, "but we don't know his size."

Rachel sighs and rolls her eyes. "Men," she mutters, "just leave it to me." She walks towards the kid section and comes back with a stack of shirts and pants and two pairs of shoes. She pushes them in my arms. "Here we go. Let's leave. "

The four of us head up to the register and I hand the clothes to the girl behind the counter. She smiles at our group and scans every item. Because there's so many of us, it takes a long time and I can sense the others getting restless.

The girl divides the clothes over several paper bags and hands them to me. "There you go. Enjoy your new clothes. Please come back."

I smile at her warmly. "Thank you, Blossom," I read her nametag, "we will."

Blake takes half of the bags from me and we leave the store as quick as we can without raising suspicion.

Outside, Rachel lets out a sigh of relief. "I've found new respect for Emma. How does she do this all the time? I thought I was going to die when we had to check out."

"Tell me about it," Kim mutters, "I'll be glad to be back home."

"Well, we've got everything on our list," Blake says while studying the paper in his hand, "so I guess we can return."

"Sounds good to me," I say. They aren't the only ones to prefer the hide-out over the outside world.

"You just want to go back to Emma," Blake smirks.

"Yes," I say calmly. Admitting that doesn't leave me embarrassed anymore.

He chuckles and heads towards the van where the others are waiting.

"You okay?" Rob asks when we arrive, "you were inside a long time."

"We got a lot of clothes," Kim answers, "and there was a line."

"Everything went well," I say, "we can go home now."

Nate nods. "Good plan. No point staying out longer than we need to. We'll have to drive throughout the night. I really don't want to lodge anywhere with the size of our group."

"You want the same setting as before?" Rob asks and Nate nods.

"We'll stay close behind you," he tells Rob, "keep us in your mirror at all times. If we're pulled over, you know what to do."

Rob gives a serious nod. "Let's hope it's not necessary."

We watch as the girls climb in the back of the car. Nate slaps my arm. "Another job well done. Let's get home."

...

We make good progress and I keep my eyes closely on Rob's taillights as darkness sets in.

It's near Tucson that the trouble begins.

"What's he doing?" Nate mutters when the car in front of us starts veering across the road. Such dangerous behavior is bound to attract unwanted attention. Rob knows better than that. So do the others.

Something must be wrong.

The car stops at the side of the road and I park the van behind it. I check my mirrors, but there's no other traffic at the moment. Nate and I exchange glances and he nods.

"Keep your guns ready," Nate tells Blake and Evan, "Burns and I are going to check on them."

I take a deep breath and follow Nate towards the car. The others have already climbed out and are waiting for us. Rob is cursing.

"What's going on?" Nate asks.

"Flat tire," Tom answers with a sigh, "it was only a matter of time before that happened, seeing how old the car is. It has never been high on our priority list."

"Great," Nate growls, "we're in the middle of nowhere. There may not be any traffic at the moment, but that will change soon enough."

"Well, there's not much we can do now," Rob says, "and we won't all fit into the van either, especially with all we have raided."

"Then what are we going to do?" Rachel throws up her hands, "you can't expect us to walk all the way home. That'll take days. We'd be taking a huge risk."

I clear my throat. Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to get out of sight. "I think it's best we hide the car. We can come up with a plan once we're off the road."

"He's right," Kim says, "we can argue later."

Nate nods. "Alright. Let's take care of that first." He scans the area. All there is, is gravel and rocks. "We'll push the car that way." He points in the direction of some rocks in the distance. "Maybe there's someplace we can at least hide it from direct view."

"There's nothing there, Nate," Rob comments.

"At least we'll be off the road," Nate answered, "do you have a better idea?"

"No," Rob sighs.

"I'll let Blake and Evan know and tell them to follow us with the van."

"Make sure they turn off the lights," Rob calls after him. He and Tom start pushing the car down the gravel and I quickly join them while the girls trail after us.

The wheels of the car and the van make a loud grinding noise in the quiet desert air. We can barely see where we're going.

Finally we maneuver the van behind some sort of gathering of rocks and dried out bushes.

The van however will prove to be a bigger problem. Blake sighs once he and Evan have joined us. He runs a hand through his hair. "It's not going to hold up for long," he says, "we couldn't spot the car from the road, but if they fly over..."

"I know," Nate says, "but there isn't much we can do right now. We'll figure it out come morning. What are wo gonna do with the van?"

Blake shrugs. "I can drive it further down this dirt path, but there aren't many places to hide it out here. We'll have to drive it out of here when it gets light. I don't know how visible it will be during the day and I'd rather not find out."

"Hmmm," Nate muses, "we'll cover the car as much as we can and then follow after you." He turns to Rob. "Take everything from the car with you. We won't go far. I still want to be able to keep an eye on it."

There isn't much to unload. Most of our things are in the van and we follow after it while Blake slowly drives it further from the highway. We are careful not to leave any traces for Souls to find.

We end up parking the van behind a stack of large boulders where the ground slightly dips in a small slope.

"So now what?" Rachel asks.

Evan shrugs. "We find some place to spend the night."

"You want to leave the van?" Tom asks.

"We won't go far," Nate says and looks at me, "how likely is it the Souls will come here and find it?"

I shake my head. "They won't just leave the road if they have no reason to investigate. As long as they can't see us from the highway we'll be good for the night."

"Good enough for me," Blake says, "let's find a place to sleep."

We walk for a while until we come across a rockslide. Rachel lets out a sigh. "Can we please stop here? I'm tired. We can use the rocks as a shield."

Blake chuckles. "You were never one for sports, were you?"

She narrows her eyes. "Shut up Blake."

Evan rolls his eyes. "Can you two please go through one day without bickering, please?" He goes to lean against the rocks, but gives a yelp when he falls right through it.

We all stare in shock at the space that has appeared. It was cleverly hidden to make it blend into the landscape.

"Nate, check this out," Evan calls from the ground. He is staring into the cave like space that has now been revealed.

Wedged in between the rocks are a big moving truck and a van, similar to ours.

Nate whistles impressed. "Clever," he says.

"You think there's another group hiding nearby?" Tom asks.

I blink. More humans?

"Let's find out," Nate smirks, "they're bound to come here at some point. Let's wait and introduce ourselves."