Momentum (Completed)

Chapter Nineteen: Grand Theft Auto

(Nephele) 

Nothing happened for another two days and I was starting to lose hope. For all I knew, we could have been walking in circles. Imara assured me that we were somewhere new; if we weren't he'd be able to smell our old scent. Don't get me wrong, I believed him, I just couldn't see it myself... All the forest looked identical to me. 

I could hear Dimitri's men strugglig behind us; they weren't rested or experienced enough to make treks like this without feeling some sort of exhaustion. Perhaps it was time for me to tell Kassandra to return to America. I wasn't even sure if we'd hit the shoreline within the next week - and even if we did, then what? Would we swim it?

You're an idiot Nephele, I thought to myself. Drag them halfway to nowhere without so much as an idea, let alone a plan. I'd have to send Kassandra packing; she needed to be with Lexio, and more than likely he needed to be with her. With a sigh, I turned to face her.

"Kassandra," I said, pulling her to one side, "you don't need to stay with us anymore." 

The look she gave me told me that she'd been thinking about this for some time now, but had been far too loyal to her promise to ask me about it sooner. "Are you sure, Nephele?" she asked, looking up at me through her long,  platinum hair. "What if you run into trouble and-" 

"What if we don't reach Russia for months, Kassandra? What if we get there and..." my voice trailed off and became weak. "What if we get there and its too late? Do you want to be part of the group Lexio blames for being too slow? Do you want to be the one who has to tell him his sister has..." Again my words failed me; it was too horrible to think, let alone say. Lyra would be fine - she had to be. 

Kassandra was quiet for a little while before she spoke again but when she did, it was the answer I'd been half-dreading, yet half-expecting. "I'm sorry," she muttered, "I can't... I'm a leader Nephele, but I'm not you and I'm not Lyra. I couldn't handle it if, if what you said is true." 

I nodded solemnly. "I understand. You should probably-" 

"Guys, guys, guys!" Allissa's over enthusiastic voice rang out through the trees and a second later she came tumbling into the group with Conan jogging behind her. 

"What's up Allissa?" said Dimitri, greeting her with a smile. 

"I know how we can get to Russia by tomorrow!" 

Now that caught my attention. "What are you talking about, Allissa?" I asked. "How do you know we're a day's walk away from there? We haven't even reached the shoreline yet." Allissa was now excitedly jumping up and down on the spot, her insane grin not once faltering. 

"Not walking, silly, we're going to drive to Russia." When no one said anything and just kept staring at her, she finally got the point and began to explain. "See, I was helping Conan chase his dinner, cos, you know, that's fun, when I stumbled upon an Uxor pull-in and, to my surprise, it was full of trucks in need of minor repairs and hardly guarded!" 

I finally got why she was so excited and soon I had a matching grin. "Nyet, you have to be kidding?" I said, not really believing my luck could have gotten this good. 

Allissa's expression hardened and she pointed an angry finger. "I'm not a kid!" 

"No, she didn't mean-" Dimitri stepped in to back me up, but Allissa had already forgotten about it and moved onto her next point. 

"The pull-in is only a fifteen minute walk from here. If we go now, we'll have a car in the next half  hour." Allissa was already heading back in the direction she came. "we can just kill whoever is there and be done with it. Ooh," she said, touching her chin, "this will be fun."