Night of the Alphas

Chapter 13

Zaria shivered. "Can't we stop and sleep? I'm tired of walking."

We had been walking for several hours, so we couldn't see the city anymore. But the drizzle had turned into a heavy downpour, which was very uncomfortable to walk in. To make matters worse, the wind was blowing freezing air straight at us.

Miranda sneezed. "Yeah, Adrian. If we stay out here much longer, I'll catch a cold. Or hypothermia. Or something like that."

"C'mon guys! Just a few more miles! You can do it," I encouraged.

"It's almost midnight," Charity groaned. "And we've walked... 10 miles? I think we'll be good for the night. Let's just find a place to rest and we'll keep going in the morning."

I sighed. "Fine. But we'll be behind schedule tomorrow."

"Wait, you have a schedule?" Zaria said. "What's on it?"

I thought for a moment. "Well, tomorrow we have to find someone willing to pick up 5 hitchhikers. But other than that, we've got nothing planned."

"There!" Miranda shouted. "That place is safe. I think."

I followed her gaze. She was pointing at a dumpster behind a closed building. I shivered. "Seriously? Can't we find another spot?"

"Everywhere else is too exposed. This is really our only option." She ran towards it and jumped inside. "Come on! It's empty!"

The rest of us exchanged nervous glances and then followed her in. It was a little tight and smelly, but at least we were safe from the rain. I wasn't self-conscious about sleeping there. At that point, I had given up my last shred of dignity anyway. Charity jumped in behind me and shut the lid, leaving us in complete darkness. Whoever was beside me began ruffling through their bag. After a few seconds, the whole dumpster lit up. Zane had a flashlight in his hand, which he set on the floor.

We sat in silence for a while, listening to the rain tap on the lid of the dumpster. It may have been dry there, but it wasn't any warmer than outside. Eventually, all five of us were huddled under one blanket, trying to stay warm.

"So," Zaria said, her teeth chattering, "Weird day, huh?"

"I'd say it went pretty well," I responded.

"We almost died," Zane said. "Multiple times."

"Other than that," I told him. Thunder rumbled outside.

"So you think someone will just pick up five filthy, disheveled, dumpster-scented kids and drive them all the way to Lebanon?" Miranda interjected.

"I would."

She pulled the blanket down and showed me the AFM logo on her shirt. "Would you?"

"That's an easy fix. We can just turn your shirt inside out."

"In front of him?" She gestured towards Zane.

"I'm sitting right here," He said.

I rolled my eyes. "If worse comes to worse, I have $25 we can spend on a taxi. It'll only get us a few miles, but it's better than walking."

"Didn't you spend your money in that cosplay shop?" Zane asked.

I stared at him. Dang it. I forgot about that. I took the ears off of my head and tossed them to the other end of the dumpster. "Stupid ears. Anyone else got money?"

Miranda, Zaria, Zane and I dug through our pockets and rustled through the bags. We came up with $3.46.

"That's not enough to get us anywhere," Zaria grumbled. "Charity, do you have any money?"