The Awake

Tyson

I didn't like the idea of leaving for a long period of time, but we had no choice. Zach was positive that Texas was the nearest possible base. Ben pulled onto the highway and looked over at Emilie who had the truck tracker in her hands. She was in charge of telling us if there were any enemy trucks. Aaron and Ben had left the tracker in the library so The enemy couldn't track us or our truck. It was 8:00 in the afternoon. The sun had just started to set. Me and Zach decided to bring the textbooks from the library with us for the ride. Aaron had taken one extra book without my knowing. It was a book titled, Sandman. I opened the book and read a few chapters. It said that The sandman is a mythical character in central and northern European folklore who puts people to sleep and brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of people while they sleep at night. I understood why the Sandmen had named their operation, "Operation Sandman".

We had been driving for only five hours when the truck was running out of gas. There was a gas station on the side of the highway that we stopped at to refill the gas tank. Zach was, somehow, able to get the gas pump to work. While he filled the tank, Emilie and I went inside and looted what we could. It was still dark so we couldn't see very well.

"I hope everything is going to work out." Emilie said filling her bag.

"It will. Don't worry about it." I assured her. We had plenty of food for the ride and we both knew it. I grabbed eight sodas for us all. Each of us would get two. I grabbed a cold coffee from one of the freezers, for Ben. He hadn't slept the entire ride. In a few hours me and him would trade off. I would drive while he got some sleep. The days that I was recovering from my wounded leg, Ben had taught me how to drive. When I said something about driving he said it would be safer to just find somewhere to sleep, during the day. He said I was okay at driving for now and still needed practice. I could see that everyone was tired and needed sleep. We drove for a few hours more until Ben had reached his limit. So we got off the highway and pulled into a subdivision. It was a small neighborhood. On the corner there was a house that was for sale. We decided to stay there until it was night again. Traveling during the day was too dangerous. The house was one story, and had a garage. Zach picked the lock on the front door and slipped inside. Moments later, the garage door opened and Ben pulled the truck in. We didn't want to let anyone see the truck so we closed the garage door behind us and went inside. There was a bathroom, Two bedrooms, a livingroom, and a kitchen. We all camped out in the living room with some blankets we had brought with us from the house. We all slept in shifts. One person would stay awake while the others slept for protection. Zach was the first to stand guard. His shift started at 4:00 in the morning and ended at 8:00. Emilie had the next shift, from 8:00 to 12:00. My shift was next. Emilie woke me up at noon and wanted to stay up with me for my shift. We sat up against the wall and talked for a while.

"I miss my Dad." Emilie said peeking out the window.

"You'll be back with him, as soon as we can figure out a cure" I said looking at her. There was something about her that always fascinated me. Whether it was her hair, or her smile, or the way her eyes shined, she was always amazing. I missed my family as well. My thoughts were interrupted by my stomach, rumbling. Me and Emilie were both hungry so we went out to the truck to grab some of the food. We both lifted the garage door to reveal the truck. I opened the trunk and grabbed my large, filled backpack. I unzipped the backpack and handed it to Emilie, so she could have first pick. She grabbed a soda and a candy bar. She handed me my backpack and walked back into the house, where Ben and Zach were sleeping. I grabbed a bottle of water and a bag of chips. Then I zipped the bag and threw it back into the trunk. I slammed the trunk shut and closed the garage. When I turned around, and was startled by something in the road. It was a small creature with orange fur and green eyes. A kitten. It was waddling around meowing softly. I looked around to see if anyone was watching, then slowly approached the little kitten. The kitten showed no fear and walked right up to my leg and rubbed its body against my pants. I could feel its body vibrate when it purred.

"I bet Emilie would like you" I said picking it up from the ground. The baby kitten was skinny, as if it hadn't eaten in days. I cradled it in my arms as it looked at me with its huge green eyes. I went back to the garage door, with the kitten in my arms, and pulled it open. I remember grabbing canned meat from the gas station a while back. I unzipped each backpack looking for it and found the little can in Ben's. With my food and the canned meat in one arm, and the baby kitten in the other, I shut the garage and walked back in the front door. Emilie was sitting on the floor next to her blanket, eating her candy bar. I shut the door with my foot and set the kitten down. It slowly made it's way over to where she was sitting and started playing with Emilie's boot lace. When she looked down to see what was touching her she gasped.

"Oh, Drayton, look!! Awe he's so cute!! I love him!!" She said snuggling with the kitten. I just leaned up against the wall and smiled, as I watched her and the kitten.

"I'll name him, Tyson." she said looking at her new kitten. "Are you hungry,Tyson?" Tyson just meowed and purred. Emilie set him down and he waddled over to Ben. It started walking on his face when he started waking up. He rolled over, away from the kitten. The kitten just walked around to the other side and rubbed it's head on Ben's face. Ben's eyes opened and he realized he was looking right into Tyson's eyes.

"Well, hi there little guy. Where did you come from?" He asked sitting up to pet Tyson.

"He was out on the street. I brought him in for Emilie to keep." I said from the other side of the room.

"What's his name?" Ben asked patting Tyson on the head.

"Tyson" Me and Emilie said almost simultaneously.

"Tyson, huh? Well, little Tyson, It's good to meet you." Ben said shaking Tyson's paw. Tyson was only several inches tall, given that he was just a baby. I opened the canned meat, I had taken from the truck,and put it into a little bowl, I had found. The meat was chunky, like dog food, but Tyson did not seem to mind. He just walked over and started eating. The three of us just sat and watched as he ate. The meat was gone after a few minutes. When he was finished, Tyson sat down and licked his paw. I took the empty bowl and set it next to my boots. We just sat around for a few hours, until sunset. I walked over to my blanket and folded it neatly. The others did the same. Zach was the only one still sleeping so we let little Tyson wake him up. After Tyson had done so, Zach picked up his blanket and shoved it into his bag. We all threw our stuff in the trunk and got in our seats. Emilie looked at the tracker, with Tyson crawling around in her lap, and told us we were only in Oklahoma. We were more than halfway there. We were almost in Texas. Ben put the truck into reverse and backed out of the garage, into the road. He put it into gear then started heading back onto the highway. On the road again.