After Fate Fell

31 • ELLA

Hey guys sorry it's been a while (like 5 days but it seems like forever haha). Classes are really keeping me busy now so I will probably be publishing chapters 1-2 times a week rather than 3+ times as I have been. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
-Braden

1 year, 3 months, and 16 days after it all
•ELLA•

We split into two groups for the two different cars. I took a lot of time to formulate how we'd be split up, but I finally figured out a good setup. The thing is, most people wouldn't think it would be a very big deal which car everyone would be in since they're both going to the same place, but the synergy between everyone needs to be on point. I decided to put John, Five, Six, and I in the car we rented in Francistown, and Marina, Nine, Sam, and Adam in the car Marina rented. If things aren't working out, we can change things, but we're all friends here. Things will work out. We're all here for the same reason working toward the same goal. There's no need for arguments or issues, but I'm just splitting Five and Nine up because I never know what they'll do.

We bought a set of walkie-talkies at a local store so we can easily communicate between cars in our mini "caravan", and we also stocked up on enough gasoline to drive from here to Eastern Asia if we had to. Marina, Sam, and Nine bought enough food and water to last us through at least a month and a half of desert life, so we're all good. I hope we aren't forgetting anything, because it's not like there's gonna be a convenient little grocery store out in the middle of the Namib. From what Marina heard from the locals, she says that the definition of Namibia: "land of no people" is literal. Nobody is out there to save us.

Once we're all packed up in the cars, we push out of town. I can tell we're all eager to get moving. I know we were all awaiting this moment of meeting together once again, but now that all the hugs are over, we've got to get on our way. Who knows how long this is going to take us to even find the place we're looking for, and we need to rush. Everyone else may be in a hurry, but their hurry is from the excitement of it all, something for us to fight, something for us to discover. For me though, the rushed feeling has a different reason. I haven't had a single vision, a single nightmare, anything, for the last two times I've slept, or even when I've been awake. My mind has been completely silent, except for the voice telling me to go before time runs out. And I just have to keep hoping that the clock hasn't already stopped.

I don't know what all Legacy's death would mean. Obviously, her energy would be completely gone, in both Earth and Lorien, but I feel like more would happen too. Would our Legacies quit working? Would we all become weak and useless? I don't know, so I decide to try not to think about it.

Six is driving the car that I'm in, and we're the lead vehicle. Right now, we're just getting to the outskirts of town, the houses and buildings have already thinned down quite a bit, and the view ahead looks more and more empty every passing mile. I know it doesn't just turn to desert and emptiness all at once, there's obviously going to little towns scattered for the next few miles.

We're actually on a main road going north out of Windhoek, even though we want to go west toward the coast. This is the fastest route toward where we're headed. Walvis Bay, on the coast, a town that sits just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is where we're headed. It'll be our last stop before the desert and nothing else to see for miles and miles. We're hoping that somehow, we'll know which way to go from there, up the coast or down the coast. Walvis Bay is approximately the halfway point for the desert, so we can't just make a guess, because it's basically fifty-fifty.

Before we get there though, we'll be going through the heart of the desert, though it be a well travelled path, we're still going to get a taste of what the Namib is really like. The trip to Walvis Bay is actually only supposed to take roughly four hours.

//

"Everyone alright back there?" I hear Six say, looking over her shoulder at John and I in the backseat. John looks at me confusedly, his eyes barely open, and his hair sticking up on one side. Were we both asleep? I don't even remember dozing off.

"Fine," I answer, and John nods, too groggy to speak.

Five volunteered to be the co-pilot for this portion of the trip, and John and I gave him that position willingly. It's funny how in some situations, we like to take charge, and in others, it's just nice to sit back for the ride.

We mapped out the route to the bay, which Five is holding in his lap. We found a bunch of road maps on a stand near the entrance of the park, and we just pieced a few of them together to find our route.

I hear the walkie-talkie crackling and then Nine's voice come over it.

"-l Sammy wants to know how long till we get there, he says he can't hold his little pee-pee in much longer." Five cracks a little smile. Nine never fails to make us laugh, even him sometimes.

Five looks down at the map. I can tell he's estimating times and miles in his head. I don't even know how long it's been, considering I dozed off and I don't know how long I've been out.

"Probably about fifty minutes, give or take ten minutes," Five says into the walkie-talkie, waiting for another sarcastic or vulgar response, or a combination of both.

"-e're gonna need to take a stop then," it's Sam now, he must've somehow wrestled the walkie-talkie from Nine's hands.

I can see Six roll her eyes in the rear-view mirror.

"Can't it wait? We want to get into town before we make any stops, remember?"

"Time for Nine's exclusive marriage counseling, I'm calling it," John whispers to me across the empty middle seat. I laugh, glad to see he's joining in on the fun.

"-o not really," Sam says.

There's nothing in sight, not a town or a rest stop or anything, so we just stop on the side of the road, Sam getting out to go find a place to relieve himself, and the rest of us getting out to stretch our legs. We all wanted to stop, we just didn't really want to admit it. You don't want to mess with Six's time schedule. I guess I'm glad to have her keeping us on the clock though.

I take this chance to take a look at the view around me, I haven't been paying attention too much out of the little car window, and even if I did, it wouldn't have given me much of a clear picture of what is in front of me. Beyond the road, there's a lot of grasses, flowing in the breeze. They all look so dried out and dead, yet so alive the way they flow in the breeze. Small sand dunes pile up, and I can see mountains off in the distance.

There is nothing. Nothing but sand, some grasses which I know will fade out soon, the wind, and us. This desert is our new home. And now, I'm wondering if I should have just stayed on top of that mountainside.