Project X

The End of All Things: The Final Battle

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE FINAL BATTLE

    We woke up the next day to a loud squealing sound. We stumbled out of our respective sleeping areas, and found our way to the source of the offending noise. Unsurprisingly, it was the GPS. Across the screen was blinking one message, over and over.

    WAKEY, WAKEY, BABIES! Time to do or die. I don't really care which.

    Once we had all gathered and read the message, the squealing stopped all at once and the screen shut off. After just a second of silence, it switched back on- thankfully sans sound- and scrolled a new message.

    Winnie, dear, the honor of beginning is yours.

    And then it flashed back to the bright green line on a dark green background, black dot floating patiently, waiting for us to proceed. Irwin rubbed his eye, and put his glasses on.

    "Aw, man... I don't even get breakfast first?"

    I happened to get a look at the clock on the dash, 11:10.

    "Uh... Looks closer to brunch, now, buddy." I told him.

    "Aw, man! I don't get brunch?!" Dom sighed sleepily,

    "I'll make 'brunch' before we leave, if it'll make you shut up. But we gotta hurry."

    "It will, in fact, make me shut up."

    That was good enough for her. She left the cab and started rummaging around the kitchen, and the rest of us followed, collapsing onto the pull-out beds to wait for food.

    Once we'd eaten, we got ourselves and the RV cleaned up, donned what we had determined was our best battle gear- honestly, that was mostly arbitrary, and pretty much consisted of what we each thought we looked coolest in, or what we could fight the easiest in- and then Irwin headed to the cab and we were off. Irwin's shift lasted just over two hours, and then he pulled over and exited the cab, announcing that the GPS said it was Blake's turn. He looked. Weirded out, almost.

    "What's up, buddy?" I asked him, he shrugged,

    "I don't know... It's probably nothing. Just the GPS. It gave me a message when it shut off, but it was, like, different than the type of stuff it usually says."

    "Well, what did it say?" Vi asked, large eyes boring into his soul. To be fair, she always did that, though.

    "It said... 'Prepare for the unexpected. No calling for Mommy this time. Don't explode, or you might lose your head'." Blake placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a gentle kiss to his cheek,

    "Don't think too much about it, honey." They assured him, "Emil always loved being cryptic, and most of the time it never meant anything. He's probably just messing with us again."

    He seemed somewhat reassured, but I could still see a slight troubled look in his eye. Blake disappeared into the cab and we were off again.

    The closer we got, the more my nerves rose. It felt like I was on my way to take some major test or something; and, I mean, in a way, I was. We all kind of were. Just, you know, instead of getting a bad grade, if we fail, we die. No biggie... Right?

    Yeah... No biggie at all...

    About another two-ish hours later, Blake pulled over and exited the cab.

    "GPS says it's our last chance to eat." They looked at Irwin, almost teasingly, "And no creepy, weird messages. I told you he was just messing with you!"