General Lee's Revenge--A Dark and Stormy Night

Chapter Nine: Verbatim

(A/N: Hehe new chapter go brrr.)

The rest of the night had been spent in the car, parked underneath an overpass. All of them were quiet, eating, thinking, terrified still. Cooter had been the one to insist they grab something to eat, however, half of them barely touched their food. All was quiet except for the roar of traffic overhead.

As it started to grow late, they began to drift off to sleep, exhausted from the events of the day, only to be waken up by a passing semi that caused the overpass to rumble loudly and send a few pebbles trailing concrete dust down on top of the car.

General shook off the small pieces calmly, starting to drift off as well. He didn't mind the noise, really. As a car, he'd grown quite accustomed to it. In fact, dead silence often scared him. He was so used to the rumble of other engines, the clamor of animals, the sound of a highway, the ruckus of the Boar's Nest, that he couldn't recall the last time he'd been in true silence. Even in times such as when he had been kidnapped and locked in the storage shed by the harbor had he been able to find peace in the sound of the crashing waves.

White noise, he found, was good. It was like this he knew he'd be able to sleep best, however, also knew that the others would probably struggle. The highway had been monotonous for what seemed like hours, and he could tell that they were beginning to get used to it and drift off to sleep.

When he first heard it, it sounded like a freight train, loud and rumbling, enough to shake the earth, however, the passing semi was gone in an instant. No, he knew it wasn't intentional, knew that the truck probably had a heavy load and that the overpass probably wasn't the best place to be sneaking a snooze.

Regardless, the semi was the last straw, and General rumbled as his passengers were jolted awake by the noise.

"Hey, why don't we go somewhere else?" he asked.

"In the mornin'," Luke said groggily.

General rumbled again. "C'mon, y'all ain't gonna get no sleep out here and you know it."

"We're fine, General, go to sleep."

General sighed, looking up at the sky, filled with clouds of smog and illuminated by the lights of the city. There were no stars to be seen. He sighed again, this time more despondently, before sinking on his suspension as attempting to drift off as well, however, suffered beneath a mind riddled with worry.

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That next morning, they were quickly up and on the road again, Luke explaining--as soon as everyone was up--that he had just a couple of more things to do before they could leave. The rest of them complied without question, though, Clayton seemed as though he wanted to question it, but didn't.

Luke's extra little expedition took them two hours away from the city, out to a small, rural town that sported a few rough-looking suburbs. It was nine o'clock by the time General pulled to the

curb in front of a two-story house with red siding, a waist-high chain-link fence surrounding it. The property supported an earthy smell and a small garden shed could be seen behind the house, yellow lines of police tape cordoning the shed off.

As General rolled to a stop outside the house, the four of them sent a wary glance toward it, the police tape causing them to wonder.

"Where are we, Luke?" Daisy asked.

Luke put General's gearshift into the 'park' position before answering, "534 Prairieland Drive, Allen's childhood home."

Silence fell inside the car.

"This's where it happened, ain't it? The murder?" Cooter asked.

Luke didn't reply, only offered him a solemn nod before climbing out of the car. As he walked to the sidewalk, he leaned down to the window, talking in a low voice.