This Reality

11: The Journey

A/N
Hello!
I had some free time so I thought might as well get another chapter done.
Please vote/comment! Always appreciated.
Thank you for reading!
Enjoy,
Kori.

Tiger jumps up, followed by Astrid and runs out of the recreational room. They hurry up flights of stairs and along corridors. They eventually arrive at number 63, Jax and Milla's room. They knock.

"Yes?" Says Milla, "what's up, you two?"
"I have to tell you something," says Astrid hurriedly.
"Alright, come in then."
They both go into the room and Jax is lying on the bed, typing on his laptop.
There's only one bed. Interesting.

"Hey Astrid, Tiger. What's the matter?"
She wastes no time in getting to the point. "When I was in the room, there was this device. Before I was let out, it asked me who I knew. I told it that I know you three, although all I knew at the time was that you had a gun and you had a necklace and you knew the password..."
Astrid stopped, out of breath.

There is a pause.
"Oh... um, okay..." Says Milla eventually. "We are going to need to get going now. They know that you know us. They probably know that you are with us. They will know that someone is coming. We need to leave as soon as possible. We can leave tonight instead of tomorrow night. I know it's late, but if we hurry, we can get going by midnight."
Jax jumps up. "Right. I'll get the van going. Are you two done packing?"
"Almost," says Astrid.
"Go, go and finish. Meet in the reception when you're done."
Astrid and Tiger run to their rooms.

Twenty minutes later, at half past eleven, Astrid is waiting at reception. It's empty as the doorman's shift is over, but the room is still dimly lit. She sits in a plush chair, her bag on the table in front of her.
Tiger walks in a few minutes later.
"Hey, you alright?" He says quietly, sitting down next to Astrid and putting his rucksack down.
Astrid is biting her nails nervously. "Yeah. I just can't believe I forgot that I told the device about you all."
"Hey, it's okay. You were locked up in that room for ages. So much of your memory's disappeared," they reassure her.
"Yeah I guess," Astrid sighs.
Milla and Jax walk into the room.
"You guys ready to go?"

They leave the building by going up he ladder and out of the manhole cover, which Jax closes behind them.
They run out to a locked garage.
"The van's in here," whispers Milla. "Jax, do you want to drive first?"
"Yeah sure," says Jax, taking the keys and opening the garage.

By midnight they are on the road. Jax is in the driver's seat, Milla is next to him. Astrid and Tiger are in the back of the van, surrounded by the bags and the food and the equipment. They have managed to make themselves comfortable, using blankets to keep them warm and bags as pillows. They are lying on the floor of the van. It's peaceful.

"So what does it mean if Astrid knows us? Why is it a big deal if the leaders know that?" Jax asks Milla in a hushed tone.
"They will know who Astrid will have gone to after she escaped. They probably also know that we are coming for Astrid's parents. So they probably know that Astrid will be with us when we infiltrate the building."
"Hmm..." Jax thinks. "They also want Astrid back or they'll kill the parents."
"Yeah. We really need to protect Astrid. If they get a hold of her, they'll take her and there's no way we'll ever get her back. We'd probably never see her again."
"Mmm. Does she know about... us and her p-parents?" Asks Jax quietly and nervously.
"No. She doesn't. I don't think she even knows how she knows us and Tiger."
"Are you gonna tell her?"
"No," says Milla, "not yet."
What are they talking about? I can hear them. Astrid can't.

Astrid drifts in and out of sleep. Tiger doesn't sleep. They can't. They instead watch Astrid sleep. Not it a creepy way of course. They just think she looks peaceful and pretty.

Astrid wakes up after a couple of hours. She talks with Tiger for a bit before they eventually fall asleep, leaving Astrid to look out of the tinted window. She doesn't know where she is. A highway somewhere. She watches the lines of streetlights along the dark motorway and the lights of the city in the distance. She hears a voice mumbling behind her.
"No... stop... hurts..."
It's Tiger. Talking in their sleep.
Astrid remembers the nightmares they have about their parents. She sighs.
"Stop... ahh..."
She sits next to him on the floor of the van. "Shhh... it's okay... it's not real," she says quietly, smoothing out the worry lines on their face. "Don't worry yourself."

A couple of hours later, it is five o'clock in the morning. Milla has taken over driving to give Jax a chance to sleep. Tiger and Astrid are both awake and they are talking quietly in the dim light of the morning. It is peaceful.