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Chapter 14: Hiding

I wake up to the dark night sky and people shuffling around. It's dark so I can't see who is who. One of the car lights turn on, and I have to close my eyes because it's too bright. As my eyes slowly adjust to the light, I can make out my mum and ally trying to get Brayden and Ed into the boot without accidentally squishing any of their limbs. It takes a while for them to finally do it, but at least they didn't get anything crushed. Ellen, despite the light, is still fast asleep. I can hear noises from behind the seat, probably Ed and Brayden going on about how confined the space was. Ally moves back to the central area of the car and opens her door.

"Jayden" Ally says, slightly shaking me. She mustn't know I'm awake.

"Yeah" I say.

"We're about fifteen kilometres away from Sydney".

"Okay" I say.

"We're going to need to hide everybody except your mum" she tells me.

"How are we going to do that?" I ask, "the boot is already full because Ed and Brayden are in there".

"Well" she says, partly smiling, "Your mum and I were thinking that you would hold on to the bottom of the car while we drive through the gates..." she trails off.

"Or..." I say, concerned for my safety. "couldn't we just take the foam out of the seats and hide me there?"

"That could work" she says, nodding in approval.

"We just need to ask your mum".

She gets out of the car and walks over to my mum. They talk for a while and then she walks back to me.

"She said it'll be alright". I sigh with relief. My mum walks to the side of the car and opens my door.

"Okay, you ready to pull out some foam?" she says, a smile creeping along her face.

"I guess so" I say back to her.

I get out of the car and my mum pulls out her keys and rips a hole in the side.

Then we start ripping foam out from the seats and throw it onto the side of the road. Once we finish,the seat has been completely hollowed out.

"Okay" my mum says. "Jayden, you and Ellen are going to be in here while we do the same to Ally's seat". "Then, once we e gotten past the soldiers and back to my motel room, I'll tell you that it's all clear another you can come out".

"Okay" I tell her. "Well in going to wake up Ellen".

I walk towards her side of the car and shake her awake. She awakes as if she'd had a nightmare. Her eyes are darting around the place and she's breathing heavily. She looks up at me and begins to settle down.

"Hey" I say to her.

"Hey" she says. "Where are we?"

"About ten kilometres from Sydney". I tell her.

"Oh, okay" she sounds upset.

"We'll need to hide so we took the foam out of the seat, and you and I are going to hide in it so that the soldiers don't see us".

"That's cool" she says and gets out of the car. We walk around to the other side where we took the foam out of the seat and see my mum and Ally doing the same to hers. I crawl in and lie on my back. Ellen does the same and lies on my stomach.

"You okay?" I ask.

"It's a little squishy, but apart from that I'm good".

"Cool" I say.

We hear something moving in the front of the car -probably Ally- and then a car door open and close.

"Alright" my mum says. Next stop, Sydney!"