Tainted

Chapter 55: Well at Least We Didn't See a Moose

"That was one hella good steak," Naomi lays back onto the sun chair holding her stomach.
"I think I've eaten all of Texas," Katie mutters under her breath staring at the sky that's now littered with stars.
"Oh believe me there are parts of Texas I bet the government hasn't even discovered yet," Chris muses and it seems as if everyone lets out a sigh. That's the first thing Chris has said since his miniature break down and a lot of medication. It seems he's finally came back to earth and just in time for desert too.

"Who wants s'mores!" I cheer pulling out our little basket of s'mores material.
"I think there's a little room left," Katie suddenly pops upwards at the sight of marshmallows.
"Well I think sticks will have to do for roasting," Jesse picks up a random stick on the ground before poking the tip a few times.
"Good enough for me as long as I get another food baby," Naomi butts in and snatches the bag of marshmallows from my hand, ripping them open.

Jesse hops up and grabs a marshmallow and then plops down right in front of me.
"Do you mind?" I bump his back with a smile as he suddenly turns his head to look at me.
"Sorry this is the hottest place," he speaks innocently with a devilish tint in his eyes.
"Well I am here," John suddenly slides in next to me while making the most unattractive face I've ever seen him make, and that's saying a lot considering I've seen him with a mustache.

"Such a lady killer," Jesse states.
"Yet it still took him a decade to get Naomi," I kid around causing John to hip bump me off the log I was sitting on and fall onto my butt.
"You little―" I grumble.
"Oh look a shooting star!" Katie cheers and points to the sky at the infinite amount of stars.

"You should've seen when we were younger there was a meteor shower and―" Chris starts to explain the natural phenomenon we saw when we were younger and I let out a sigh of relief as I realize Chris can finally distinguish between reality and trickery.
"He's going to be ok," Jesse's arm is suddenly slung over my shoulder as we rest our backs on the sturdy log.
"I pray so," I murmur lightly.

"Shoot!" Jesse suddenly shouts and soon is yanking his stick out of the fire as his marshmallow blazes with fire. I let out a short laugh as he viciously blows at it, "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you moved here cause it's the hottest spot," I giggle a bit as he stares at his now black marshmallow.
"Well," he begins to peel off the outer layer of black to reveal white melted marshmallow, "huh," he smirks with a nod of approval.

"You can see so many stars from here and we're not even that far from the city," Naomi remarks as her head remains tilted towards the black sky and soon we're all mimicking her position. The stars are numerous tonight and the moon refuses to come out which only adds to the amount of stars that are littered in the sky like glitter.
"You should see it when you camp out in the middle of nowhere," Jesse laughs lightly.
"Arkansas, our car broke down, we already did that," John points out causing laughter to bubble in each of us as the memories begin to flood back to us.

"I can't believe it's been three weeks already," Katie breathes out and I find myself nodding with everyone else.
"I can't believe we actually managed to do it, get from the west coast to he east coast with no cell phones, no credit cards just straight up money," Naomi laughs. Any tension that was once there is now gone and we all sit in silence with the sound of wild animals, owls, and crickets in the background singing some sort of song that only plays on the warm joyful nights.

"Hey how long are we going to be here?" Katie voices the question that I've been asking myself for what seems like the moment since we got here. Silence falls for a moment as we wait for one of the adults to answer but it seems they're both pondering the question themselves, that is until John finally speaks up.
"Not longer than a week, we have to keep moving and if your father isn't caught in that week then we'll keep moving," John answers stiffly.