kicks ✓ || namgi || k.th

026: panic

chapter 26: panic
location: baltimore, maryland, day 1

The car landed, hard, in what was thankfully a parking lot. Namjoon was shaking so hard that he couldn't let go of the wheel, but he stopped the car before they could wreck into anybody in the parking lot. "Where are we? Hoseok, Ho -- Hobi, where are we?"

Hoseok had been too scared to look. He finally looked up. "Not Oklahoma." He started crying. "We're not in Oklahoma!"

"Where are we, though," Namjoon said as he put it in park.

"Are we -- are we okay?" Jimin asked, still sobbing.

"I think we are," Jin whispered, "but let's wait to hear, okay? There's no police cars."

Yoongi popped his head out of the back seat. "No clue?"

"Wait." Taehyung looked out his window. "That shop over there. Does that sign say what I think it says?"

"Baltimore's Finest Clam Chowder!" Hoseok said with a smile. "We're definitely not in Oklahoma! We're...wait, wait, wait." He unfolded the map. "Like a thousand miles away! They can't reach us!"

Yoongi started crying. So did Seokjin, leaning on Jimin's head. Taehyung exhaled and flopped back in his seat. "What was that?"

They got out of the van, shaky but okay. They then went to the back to inspect the damage that had happened to their van. There were two long scratches on the bumper, but nothing else visible. The van was so old that it didn't have safety features like airbags, though the backseat did have some seatbelts.

"I wish we could go back to that one mechanic in Cheese City," Seokjin thought out loud as Jungkook got on the ground.

"Undercarriage looks fine. Looks like she just tapped you. The entire body is metal, though, so we could hammer it out, or I just wouldn't worry too hard about it." He sat up. "This van is not the safest thing in the world to drive."

"Yeah, but safety's not an option for us." Namjoon sighed. "Let's get back in and find a hotel and relax for the night. We need one with a computer in the lobby. Taehyung, I need for you to get on the Internet and check your email. See if Sara has emailed you back. Also check all of the main news outlets' Web sites, see if they're reporting on us. If it's national news, then everybody's going to be looking for us again."

Taehyung saluted. "You can count on me, hyung."

They all got back in and cautiously drove down the road. Hoseok told Namjoon to stick to side streets, and they took the interstate away from the main city center. Thankfully they were already on the western edge of town. They found a Holiday Inn seemingly in the middle of nowhere and parked the van out back, where nobody could see it.

Namjoon and Taehyung went in and grabbed the keys while Jungkook parked the van and got everybody else in the back door. They used the hotel room phone to order pizza. Namjoon flipped through the cable TV stations, but did not see anything about their escapade. Not only had they abandoned the site of an accident, they were driving without insurance and registration. If the police pulled them over and Namjoon couldn't poof them away, they were done. Especially if someone figured it out, that the old purple van in Rochester was the same purple van in St. Louis was the same purple van in Arizona.

They had to lay low.

Taehyung logged onto the World Wide Web downstairs in the lobby, at a public computer for use by hotel guests only. It was dial up, but he didn't mind a bit. He first loaded his email, but there was no reply from Sara. He needed to go back upstairs and talk to Namjoon after this. He had never heard the name LaPostale before, but if it was a big American company, maybe Namjoon knew about it.

Then, he searched online. CNN had a website, and he also checked Yahoo! News. Neither website had any news articles about a purple van. The Tulsa World didn't have anything, either, and it might be a couple of days before they posted about it. None of the TV stations had posted about it either. He would have to check tomorrow to see if they had made the 11 o'clock news.

Now he needed to go upstairs and talk to Namjoon about Sara and LaPostale. But when he got up there, Namjoon was already asleep, as well as Jimin and Yoongi. The others were in the second room, watching late night TV and finishing the pizza.

Taehyung grabbed a slice. "Hey, Jungkook."

Jungkook had been writing in his Duke Blue notebook. "Mmhmm?"

"There's nothing online about us yet. I think if we stay quiet for a few days, it will blow over. Can you write that down in your notebook? I want to make sure Namjoon knows."

Jungkook scribbled it down. "Got it! I will let him know in the morning."