Life's Little Teardrops

36. WhiteTrash Headquarters

We all eat one Twinkie and decide it's time to go. We stumble through the piles of mixed nuts and potato chips on our way to the car.

Everything outside is exactly the same as we'd left it accept the house across the street. It's a small shack-like house with a tiny yard in the front and two windows on the second story. The house looks like it's made of wood planks and seems to be quite rickety. It looks like every other house on the street but it has a light on in the second story room on the left. I can see the walls are white and beat up inside but other than that all I see is a telescope pointed directly at us. No one is behind it but it wasn't there when we went in and I suddenly get the feeling I'm being watched.

"There." I say pointing to the window as Luna exhales slowly. We all seem to be frozen and as I look around the street, my body unmoving, I notice little differences from before. The cat is gone from the house down the street, a window of another house is fully open with the curtains half drawn.

As I asses the differences I hear Terra's foot move against the crumbling pavement as she moves only slightly towards me. "We're not in an ambush, they would have attacked already." She tilts her head down over my shoulder.

Jona is quite. "The old red truck in the alley. Look in the back." He says changing his sight towards the gas pump. I glance carefully towards the red beat up Chevy in the alley between the house with the telescope and the house with the cat. There is a string trailing from the window of the cat house to the truck bed. There also is something moving in the back aswell as a strange scuffing sound.

"We need to go and act normal." I say to them in a quiet whisper.

We walk quietly to the Volvo trying to look natural and I glance over to the house across the street while getting into the driver's seat. For a second I see a hint of movement in the right window which is empty completely.

After driving remotely fast up the road I notice we're driving into an area Luna marked as unsafe. "Luna," I say interrupting her and Terra's bickering about Alternative VS Rock music.

"Ya." She says glancing up from the iPad I packed.

"Why is this area marked like that?" I ask turning down the radio which recently filled with static.

"Oh. That's where the high school is and I've heard from the loop that a security team is set up there. Something about wanting to protect their town from scavengers." She says looking out the window of a slightly more maintained looking area.

"Like anyone would want to scavenge this trash pit." Jona says cracking his neck which makes a disgusting noise like when you pop bubble rap.

"DONT DO THAT!" Terra yells waving her hands through the air with great irritation. She's usually happy, I guess knuckle popping is her trigger. "Sheesh. Someone's a little bipolar." Jona says with raised eyebrows.

I look out the window to where I see a small tennis court and a group of large red-painted buildings. My school was read, too. I miss my school a little bit now.

"That's the school isn't it?" I ask pulling to a stop in the middle of the cracked and littered pavement.

Luna makes a strange facial movement and nods. Terra glances over the map whispering slightly to herself with her eyes scanning the map. Jona is lounging in the backseat listening to music as Luna leans over the console to converse with Terra and I see his eyes narrow in on her ass.

"Eyes on the prize Jona." I say returning my glance to the map. Luna looks over her shoulder at him briefly and he bites his lip awkwardly making me laugh. Terra is smiling too.

"We can either go further this way and come out of the area right by the store or we can turn over there and drive around." Terra says with one nail between her teeth. Luna seems to know what choice is the right one but tilts her head towards Terra and asks. "Which one do you think?" Terra glances at Luna and at the map and at the road.