Ad Astra Per Aspera

Chapter 13

"We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized they are inside us."

Astralea's POV

'An antique piano for sale, was played at the Efatnas Opera in 1923. For other information call (844)747-6472'

Mira.

I was hoping that those men would tell reporters about me. Getting Mira's attention to newspapers is much harder if she doesn't know that I'm alive.

Thank God for all of those codes we created as kids. When I got my first flip phone I realized that you can code a whole message with numbers. Each number represents 3 letters. Mira and I started coding everything.

After a while we came up with a few set code ideas. 8447 47 6472. This is Mira.

Efatnas backwards is Santa Fe.

1923. 19 is the date. I think. Which would mean 23 is a time.

Unless it's visa versa.

Since today is the 17s I'm going to assume that's a date. She is giving me 2 days to get to the opera house in New Mexico.

Sounds manageable enough.

I just need to steal a car and drive across the country while not getting anyone's attention. Why not.

.......

You know who are the best people to steal a car from? Drunk teenagers.

First of all, they won't even notice that the car is gone until the morning. Then, in the morning, they will question whether they imagined bringing their car to the beach at all. Then, they will call friends to see who knows what. And hours later, when it's obvious that the car has been stolen, they still won't call the cops because they have to tell their parents about underage drinking at the beach with a bunch of strangers.

Hours will pass by the time cops will be notified. Cops will firstly question friends, put APB in the city, state max, and that's basically it.

So if I stole a car at 1am, that means I got about 12 hours of free driving before anyone would even consider looking.

Thank you drunk horny teenagers for providing me with this great Toyota camry. And a pack of skittles.

However my plan had a flaw, I don't have a phone. So no Google. So no Google maps and directions.

The issue with phones is that people put passcodes on them and I don't have Selene to just unlock any for me. I stole 4 phones at this point. For fucking nothing.

I even said fuck it and stole some grandma's phone, and even she had a code. I tried 0000 and any other basic combination, but it's probably her grandkids birthday.

Oh and wallets, got 5, barely any cash. And debit cards? I don't know the pin, or might be asked for an ID or it simply would be locked.

Needless to say, the trip isn't going according to plan.

I had to buy a map at the gas station with coins!

I don't know how to read maps...

Oh and the radio has the same 20 songs playing over and over. Like cmon, make it at least 50.

I swear to God if I meet with Mira and she tells me that the safe house is somewhere near where I was dropped off, I'll be PISSED.

She wouldn't do that to me.

Would she?

Well at least this ride made me think about a lot of things. Like whether or not I should kill Enzo.