a totally normal road trip

part 3- jack loses his mind at a dinosaur

"I would say that that encounter went well." Said Jack

It was after sunrise then and Ryan was driving. Adam is sleeping in the back seat. They had just past a sign that said 'Welcome to Indiana: the Crossroads of America'

"Hey," said Jack, seeming to have just realized something "did you know that the author of this fanfiction was born here?"

"What fanfiction?" Ryan asked.

"The one we're in silly." Jack said, rolling his eyes as if it were obvious. "We aren't the real Adam, Jack, and Ryan. We're just what the author thinks we are like superimposed upon their imagination."

"Jack," Ryan glanced at his brother in the rearview mirror. "get some sleep."

The rest of the next few hours of the trip was relatively soundless if you just ignore the sounds of Adam and Jack breathing.

~•~

Indiana was quite uneventful. Other than Jack's revelation, exactly nothing happened. After driving across the whole state with nothing, they eventually made it to Illinois. Chicago was their next stop before the real fun began.

"Hey look!" Jack said, pointing wildly at a sign that said 'Chicago in 10 miles' "Chicago is in 10 miles!!!"

"Jack, we're in standstill traffic." Adam sighed.

"Welp, I'm going to still be excited anyway!" Jack smiled.

The traffic was so bad that the three of them had taken to playing Uno. The game ended when Jack and Adam called fraud on Ryan for having won 3 times in a row. Ryan denied everything. Eventually they mutually agreed that they were tired of just sitting in traffic and decided to take the nearest exit. They managed to find an inn with vacancies and just took the rest of the day to just relax.

~•~

The next day, they headed for Chicago. Ryan remembered his bad feeling that he had when they started this trip. He had been ignoring it this entire time but it seems to get stronger as they head further west. He still haven't told his brothers yet and he himself doesn't really believe it but he can't seem to push that feeling away. To him, it's starting to feel a bit more than just paranoia.

Jack was pretty excited about Chicago. He specifically wanted to see the Bean, 'cause, ya know, it's a Bean.

Eventually, they got to the Windy City. They parked their car somewhere and started walking. They got tired pretty quickly and saw the L train. They figured that taking the train would be far better than walking around aimlessly, so they did the normal train things and got on the train. Due to the fact they'd been on the road for almost 12 hours at this point, they were all pretty tired, and fell asleep on the train.

Jack was the first one to wake up. He blinked, then with a jolt realized that they had missed their stop.

He aggressively tried to wake his brothers, but by the time they woke up, they were hopelessly lost.

"Ryan!" Jack yelled frustratedly, as they were getting off the train, "I thought you knew where we were going!"

"I'm sorry!" Ryan said back, equal parts apologetic and frustrated. "I went to sleep on Adam, and due to the transitive property on knowledge, Adam should know!"

"That doesn't exist." Adam said, mostly just tired.

"It does now." Ryan crossed his arms to prove his point .

They wandered around for a bit, because Ryan's phone had died while they were on the train and he did not bring his 'whimsical flamingo power bank' like Adam had suggested. They continued wandering around the city until they happened to stumble across the Field Museum.

Upon realizing that the people working there probably knew their way around the city, had some sort of map, or had a charger for Ryan's phone at the very least, they went inside to ask for directions.

And then Jack saw the T-Rex skeleton.

Jack, being a child in an adult body, suddenly and desperately wanted to see the dinosaur. After some begging, Adam gave in and paid the 80 dollars for admission for the three of them.

Jack proceeded to lose his mind over the giant dead lizard, named Sue, while Adam and Ryan read as many signs and plaques as they could find. They wandered around the museum for a while, exploring as much as they could to make up for the 80 dollars they'd spent, and Jack was not disappointed in the amount of dinosaur skeletons the museum held.

Eventually, after several hours wandering around the museum at random, they had absorbed as much as they could from the museum. And of course Jack insisted that they go to the gift shop. Ryan also wanted to look around to see if they had a charger for his phone.

Adam sighed. "Fine. I'm not going to buy you anything though." he warned, and Jack nodded excitedly.

"Okay!" He smiled, before starting his exploration of the gift shop.

Ryan quickly found a power bank to charge his phone with and got in line to check out. Jack, however, was not as reasonable.

Jack somehow had stumbled upon a plush pigeon, and due to pigeons being his greatest fear he instantly started crying like a little child, and even through all the weird looks he got from strangers, he wouldn't stop.

Adam groaned. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Jack sniffed. "I-it scared me..."

"What scared you?" Adam asked aggressively, absolutely not ready to deal with Jack's bullshit.

Jack pointed at the stuffed pigeon, and Adam turned on him. "That's a stuffed animal. It's not a real pigeon." He said, harshly. "Plus you live in New York. They are not uncommon."

Despite this, Jack refused to cooperate until Adam promised to buy him a stuffed t-rex. As soon as he did that, Jack stopped and smiled.

Contemplating all of his life decisions, Adam got in line to buy the toy.

"That will be $32.63." The cashier said, with a smile.

Adam handed over his credit card, as he glared at Jack, who gave him two thumbs up.

Now that Jack was satiated with his new toy, they started heading for the Bean.

The Bean was, well, an interesting experience. It started when Ryan's phone finally had enough charge to pull up google maps. When they finally found the Bean these two girls ran up to them and started screaming. After some communication through incomprehensible sounds that no one could fully understand, they asked Adam, Jack, and Ryan for a selfie.

"Who said that 'we're not famous' now, Ryan?" Jack said, while putting his hands on his hips in triumph.

"Literally you did." Ryan rolled his eyes.

Jack then proceeded take approximately 237 pictures of the Bean.

Upon the completion of Jack's brief obsession, the trio set out on their mission to find their car. It took them half an hour and a lot of walking, but as it turned out, they left their car a few blocks away from the Bean and they had walked right past it several times when they were wandering around looking for it. Adam and Jack no longer wanted Ryan to be their navigator.