How to Survive Z-Day Without Looking Like a Jerk But Still Looking Pretty Badass

FILE #11

[A/N: Aghhhh! Sorry it's been so long and the chapter is so short. I promise, I'll up my game come Christmas Break.]

Something was wrong.

Eight hours later (Dahlin was a woman, so of course we got lost quite a few times en route) we had arrived at the Little Rock shopping Mall in Little Rock, Arkansas. The mall had been closed three hours ago, leaving us a neat little inconspicous parking spot in the employee's parking lot.

It was, much to our bemusement, just the six of us. No Pip and no Lily, who were supposed to be notified of the time change. We were certain they had been notified. Why weren't they notified?

Unpleasant shivers brushed the back of my neck. Yep, something definately was wrong.

Inadverdantly I yelped as a shrill alarm went off, ending as quickly as it started.

"Haha, sorry folks! Me and my massive intellect, y'know. I kind of made my way into the surveillance room by picking the lock. Just wasn't anticipating the alarm to go off. I'm really sorry, guys." Freaking Porter! I was snapped out of my trance as his perky blonde head undulated across the parking lot.

"Great job, Port!" Ryan said, beaming. He had apparently been just as preoccupied as I was, hurriedly talking beforehand with Jett and Dahlin.

Porter beamed back at him, held the door open, and allowed us all in. 

"Okay, everyone. We have about ten minutes tops to find out what we need to know, and then get the hell out of here. Quickly." Ryan walked up to the old, dusty monitors and pressed a few buttons. The screens flicked from the vacant front parking lot to an equally vacant parking lot an hour and a half ago. Pip, lounging against a bike rack, flipped his toxic green dreadlocks as he held hands with Lily. The two of them looked very, very nervous, looking about themselves like skittish muskrats.

"This isn't going to end well. Fast forward a little," Jett instructed. Ryan obliged, watching intently as the only interesting things to happen for a few seconds were neo-mall goths making out.

Until, of course, a security guard popped out of fucking nowhere.

Now playing the video at normal speed, we saw the two of them try to play it off like they were normal teenagers, yelling, shouting profanities, all that crap. The guard literally tackled Pip to the ground as Lily screamed, and handcuffed him to the bike rack he was previously leaning against.

He coerced Lily into sitting down beside Pip and doing likewise to her, in which case Ryan fast forwarded once more. For a solid minute, nothing happened.

Suddenly, FBI agents!

Yes, something was certainly off.

Pip and Lily were gently escorted into the spiffy black van by a very pretty female agent with an equally spiffy FBI jacket. Pip was still swearing like a sailor, and Lily was attempting to bite every hand that touched her.

Ryan turned off the monitors.

"We need to get out of here. They know we're coming. Oh God, we're all going to jail and our lives are going to end." Porter squeezed Ryan's shoulder and led him to sit down again, as the guy was likely about to faint.

"Panic isn't going to get us mocha frappucinos at Starbucks, Ryan. Calm your tits." Dahlin flipped her bouncy curls with her typical sass.

Ryan stared at her for quite a while, not quite sure what to make of himself.

"...Sarcasm is a refuge for the creatively inhibited, Dahlin.  At any rate, you're right. You guys- hurry your asses back to the car. We're high-tailing it to the Oklahoma state line, at which point we drop it off somewhere obscure. From then," he seemed to be thinking as he goes, "From then, we hop a freight train to the next house after Pip's cousin's, and see what we do from there. Game?"