Hollow Veins

Chapter Thirty Three; Preparation

They got up that morning, dizzy and out of it. Jasper looked more tired than the others. Alice thought he looked... sad. He kept looking around at the rest of them, studying each face in turn. There wasn't much joking around as they packed up. The slight euphoria from last night had vanished. Focus was extremely necessary if they wanted to make anymore progress towards the city. Jasper checked their coordinates, and made a slight change to direction they were headed. That was the most excitement there was in the morning. At lunch time, they talked a little about their destination but Alice was still curious about it. She started walking next to Jasper that afternoon, bent on getting some questions answered, "Hey, uh so..." Jasper looked at her, "Yeah?" "Uh I was wondering if you knew exactly what's gonna happen when we get there?" "What's gonna happen? Like where we're going once we're inside?" Alice nodded. Jasper thought for a second, "There's some refugee center. Sounds like they'll test us-" He caught her startled look and said quickly, "No not like that, Alice. Like test us for the Clentch or whatever. Make sure we don't have it." She looked down, "Oh sorry, that was slow of me." Jasper shook his head, "You're just tired. Anyways then we'll probably have to stay a few days until they get some places ready for us to stay. Answer your question?" Alice nodded, "Yeah I think so." They walked in silence for several minutes. Alice thought for a while, trying to work out her next question. She realized she didn't have as many as she'd thought, "What's... it called. The city." Jasper didn't look at her as they trudged through the woods, "New Haven." Alice looked ahead at the dozens of trees, "Hm." They continued on. She looked at him. Jasper had dark lines under his eyes. "Did you let someone else watch after you last night?" He met her gaze for a second, then shook his head. "Don't tell me you stayed up the rest of the night," Alice looked at him, concerned. He shrugged, "I couldn't sleep anways." She rubbed her forehead, catching a scab she hadn't remembered getting, "And the night before?" Jasper huffed, "I slept the night before. I'm fine." "You look..." He smiled, "Hideous?" Alice punched him lightly on the arm, "Deshevled and tired, you idiot." Jasper smirked, "Suprisingly enough, when people are tired, they look tired." She rolled her eyes, "Haha very funny. Who are you Jaden? The sarcasm is killing me." Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw Jaden narrow his eyes and sign something to do with hearing her. Jasper caught it too and called to him, "You were supposed to hear it!" Jaden ran a finger across his throat and pointed at them so everyone got the message. Alice laughed, "Well you can try..." Jasper shook his head, faking shame, "You think so little of him." They both started laughing while Jaden continued to sign threats.

Alice finally drifted away, towards Aaron. He was looking a little annoyed. "What was that all about," he whispered. Alice felt little uncomfortable. She'd just been trying to get some questions answered but Jasper's lack of sleep had concerned her. Alice looked up ahead at Jasper who was watching her and quickly looked away. "I don't know," Alice mumbled, "We were just talking." Aaron gave her a look, "Do you remember last night?" Yes she did. She remembered Jasper's panicked eyes, when he'd waken up. The way he'd counted them all. Scared they were hurt. Aaron continued, "We can't just go and throw trust around, Alice. Especially when it comes to him." Had Jasper been scared that they were hurt because he cared about them or because it would dampen his chances of getting into New Haven. She sighed, "Well as I said we were just talking. If we stopped talking to him and ignored him all together, he might suspect." What she didn't say was that doubt was creeping into her brain. Of course she'd had a feeling they might be wrong before but this seemed more head on. Aaron glared at her, "Uh huh." Alice glared back at him until he finally looked away, "Whatever. Your funeral when you're such good friends that you don't wanna leave." She folded her arms and walked away. We were just talking. Talking isn't gonna get me killed. I was just asking questions. Aaron's wrong. I'm not going to become friends with him and I will leave... if we're right.

Jasper messed around in his bag, mainly to give his fingers something to do. His brain was overloaded with information, not to mention the dozens of worries scattered across his brain. They were all sitting around a small fire, mainly because Ari wanted to study the map. Jasper felt dizzy and tired. He didn't want Alice to feel forced to side with him in everything they did. She had to, to get to the city and that was enough. He didn't want to pressure her, so he'd been trying to leave her alone. But he wanted Alice's trust so bad. Jasper so far had just tried to be nice. He missed their friendship so much it hurt. How her face would light up when he'd enter their base with supplies. Their inside jokes. How she'd make him do a workout with her everyday because they needed to keep up their strength. Jasper smiled at the memory. Prince plopped down next to him. "Bored of bothering Ari?" Prince shrugged, "Haven't tried to, yet. How's it going?" Jasper shrugged, "Just thinking." Prince smirked. Jasper frowned, "Oh great, what now?" He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in Alice's direction. "About the trip, you moron." Prince snickered, "Oh, sure." Jasper groaned, "Go away. What are you Cupid?" Prince continued giggling. "Besides she hates me, genius." Prince smirked all the wider, "I'll leave you alone, but she doesn't hate you..." He leaned close to Jasper and whispered, "She wants to hate you." Jasper batted him away, "You're insufferable." Prince left Jasper to his thoughts.

Ari stared down at the map, then at the GPS device. So we're more than halfway through the woods. A shadow fell over her and she glanced up at Prince, "What?" He shrugged and sat next to her. He leaned over the map. He had a black t-shirt and had thrown his jacket off at some point. "So where are we?" Ari focused her eyes on their location and tried to do the same with her thoughts. She didn't get why it was so difficult think straight. Ari tried not to hit herself in the head, though it might straighten her out. "We're uh... right there." She pointed. Prince put his finger on a spot a bit too far to the left. Ari moved his hand to the right spot. He looked at it a second, "So we're, what halfway?" She nodded then quickly let go of his hand, flushing slightly. Prince pointed at a dark ridge between Salem and the woods they were currently in, "What's this?" Ari looked at it, "Looks like a deep slope, big enough to put on the map." For some stupid reason, Ari felt a smile lifting the corners of her mouth. She forced it away. Prince nodded and leaned forward again, his arm lightly touching hers, "How long, do you think until we get there." She leaned over it, too. Her hair fell in her face slightly. "I'd say... well we've been traveling at maybe ten, fifteen miles an hour. So I'm thinking a week, until we reach it." Ari looked up at him, searching his face for a trace of dishonesty. Anything that would hint at something suspious about their destination. Prince was already looking at her, his eager gray green eyes stared into hers. There was nothing to confirm Aaron's suspicion. All Ari saw was an almost curious dazed look. She tried hard to not smile back. He blinked, shook his head a little and looked back down at the map, "So...uh... we're going..." She attempted to stifle the awkwardness, "Um... we
...uhhh..." Ari had absolutely no idea what to say. Thankfully, at that moment Jasper called, "Hey, Ari, I need the stuff, now." She jumped up. Prince rolled up the faded map and handed to her. She nodded in thanks and grabbed the GPS. Quickly Ari returned them to Jasper.

Jasper headed into the woods with the radio. Aaron glanced at Prince, "I'm guessing you're not gonna let us listen. Prince folded his arms, "Nope." Aaron gave an exasperated sigh, "Unless there's something to hide why can't we hear?" Prince shrugged, "He probably has a good reason." Aaron looked at him, "You trust him?" Prince raised his eyebrows, "He saved my life, mon ami. I think I trust him with it." Ari looked at him, suprised, "He saved your life? How?" Prince shrugged, "It doesn't matter. But I trust him, Aaron." There was a trace of warning in his voicem Aaron grumbled, "I bet you do." Ari felt a little frustrated at the words. It was poke in the wound of all their suspicions. I didn't see anything suspicious in Prince's expression, when I mentioned it, She thought. But he could be a good liar. What was that look he gave me earlier. Ari felt an odd tingle up her spine and she didn't like it. He made her so mad. Probably because she fumbled with her words so much around him. Prince was just obnoxious. Ari sighed, her brain was too tired for this. She needed sleep badly.