Symbiosis

Chapter 24

Alex kept on giving uncertain glances out of his window as he drove along the county road heading away from the suburbs of the Austin area, not at all recognizing the road he was driving on. "Are you sure it's out here? Seems like there's a lot of ranches and campsites for there to be enough space for something like that," Alex asked, still glancing back and forth from his left to directly in front of him.

"Yup, totally sure," a female voice from behind Alex responded, "It pretty much is just another campsite. Just one that we've uh... modified to suit our numbers and needs. It's out of the way though, so no one's gonna find it."

Alex glanced back at the shorter red haired girl who had introduced herself as Sierra sitting in the back of his car, lazily resting her elbow against the car door and staring out of the window. Alex spared her a skeptical glance before continuing to pay attention to the road. "Seems like something as big as you're describing would eventually fall apart just from the wrong person finding out."

"Well again, it's pretty out of the way. So even if someone knew to look for us, our camp isn't really connected to any path. And we're pretty quiet for the most part, so uh, yea good luck finding us," Sierra responded cheekily.

Alex cracked a smile at the girl's confidence and was about to respond before she said something else that caught Alex by surprise.

"It also helps a bit that the land manager is a pokemon too."

Alex's eyes lit up in mild surprise, still idly scanning the road for any landmarks that may point to an entry point for the pokemon camp. "Huh, guess that would help a quite a bit. Even if you were caught, you'd have an easier time getting outsiders to look the other way."

"Exactly!"

Eli, after several moments of curiously listening from the passenger side seat, finally let out a thoughtful hum. "I'm a little curious how this even started. Like... how did any one of you know to find him?"

"Oh he was actually the one who prepped the land for us weeks ago." Sierra stated as a matter of factly.

"No kidding?" Alex asked. As they continued to talk, Alex noticed they were just then passing an entrance to a public camp ground. 'Huh, I wonder if that was it.'

Alex glanced at the girl in the back seat again to see if she noticed, but the girl kept on talking, completely unbothered by Alex passing the only landmark for a few miles. "Yup. I wasn't there at the start, so I dunno for sure. But I think it went something like as soon as he was able to get all the basic camp equipment for a few dozen pokemon, he personally invited a handful of us to set up and basically live on the campsite if we wanted to, as well as give an open invite to any pokemon who wanted to join. Especially ones who looked like they needed it," Sierra explained, still idly staring outside her window, looking entirely uninterested in any of the scenery, "I guess he knew some problem like what's on now would come up and wanted to do something about it ahead of time."

Alex nodded in understanding. "Pretty good foresight of him," he muttered in agreement. Alex kept taking quick glances in the back seat as Sierra and Eli continued to carry the conversation, attempting to pick up on some sort of body language that told him they were close to their destination, but the girl just continued talking with Eli, completely relaxed as Alex drove along. Alex just let out a sigh and decided to just tune out the conversation as he tried to get his bearings right. He narrowed his eyes in mild irritation at the prospect of searching for something he didn't even know the appearance of. Very quickly, Alex decided that he really needed the girl's guidance so they didn't miss their destination. He leaned his head back to address their newest companion while still keeping his eyes on the road. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but are we almost there yet? I've been driving on this road for like half an hour, and I'm pretty sure we just passed the campground that you said the pokemon haven was near."