What Goes Around

6 - AND FOUND

On the furthest point of the horizon as she drove out of Jersey City, Tuesday caught a blurry glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Fitting. The image of the woman stabbing the sky with her torch burned itself on the back of her eyelids even when it was miles and miles away in the rearview mirror.

She'd cross two more bridges past the one out of the city before the road curved away from the water. Then swaths of green and brown barrenness was all she saw for hours, interspersed with a shabby gas station or motel now and then. But mostly it was farmland, a whole lot of nothing for two hours before she stopped to stretch her legs and massage her sore fingers, which had been whiteknuckling the wheel the whole time. Another two hour stretch brought her to a convenience store half an hour outside of Philadelphia. She checked her phone with trepidation but saw nothing to have an aneurysm over; it's not like Mary would have any clue yet what was up, considering she wasn't nearly as aggro as her parents had been about tracking her every move. There were no required check ins, no privacy invasion apps installed. She probably thought Tuesday was just being sociable with her new peers.

What a thought.

Her eyes were already bleary when she reentered the highway, sloping towards the Delaware river but not quite close enough to see it. After a quick glance at the map, she groaned and flexed her stranglehold on the wheel; she was just under halfway there. She didn't want to find herself in some seedy motel though. The next pitstop she made she picked up a few bottles of Five Hour Energy, downing one and chasing it with Dr. Pepper before she could regurgitate the stuff. The name was a lie and upon reaching her sixth hour in the car, she noticed the tiredness vignetting her vision again. Verona, Virginia. She hadn't even noticed crossing yet another state's boundary lines. Here she filled up the tank and, shooting a narrow-eyed glance at the deepening-ruby/clementine sky, got back on the road for the second half of the trip. She didn't want to stop for the night, even if the trek she was making was ridiculous. Didn't want a chance to think about being in the middle of (even) god (doesn't) knows where.

She passed right by Roanoke, which led her down a brief respite/internet detective rabbit hole in a random parking lot only to find the city was not the same thing as the island, the latter being where the settlers had disappeared eras ago. Four hours left to go then. She thought she'd be able to make it–home stretch!–when the lanes stretched into blurry oblivion before her, diving into just one second of blackness before the rumbling of alert strips beneath the tires jostled her awake again. She jerked the wheel, cursing, suddenly wide awake again and thanking whatever mysterious deity did exist out there that the only casualty was a blaring horn and raised middle finger quickly vanishing in her rearview.

Still, the truth was suddenly unavoidable: she had to stop.

Grumbling under her breath, she caught signs for a rest stop two miles ahead. She shifted her gaze left and right, left and right, carefully keeping herself ever-busy until she could exit the expressway. A few blinking, dim lights marked the way, the only evidence of civilization in view; the night devoured most everything else. There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot she pulled into, and she shot it multiple glances as she steered her own car as far from as was possible while also remaining near the building under a halo of a streetlamp. It buzzed at her–welcome or warning?–as she stepped out and worked the aches out of her fingers, hips, feet. She couldn't tell if anyone was in the other vehicle, only made out vague shadows inside the unlit cab. After getting all the cooped-up for hours kinks out she got back in, locked the doors, set a twenty minute timer, and reclined her seat. She expected her nerves to keep her clinging to consciousness but the harsh ring of the timer jolted her out of a dreamless haze all too soon.

Tuesday scanned the lot as she readjusted her seat. The car from earlier was gone, but she still wasn't the only person there; another that had pulled up beside her was backing out just then, and she nodded at the other woman driving it before that car pulled away. Tuesday sighed, unsure if there was actual shock bubbling up at the fact she'd slept unscathed.Still wasn't quite ready to go though; she shifted her keys so they pointed out from her fist like barbed brass knuckles and hightailed it to the restrooms. To her right was the deserted lot and to her left, a copse of trees that could have given nearly anything perfect shelter from her view in the encroaching dark. A shudder wracked her spine and spurred her steps even quicker, and then she was inside and enveloped in light. She latched a stall door, immediately feeling that it was a useless move given the space beneath it.