Dark Forest Family Roadtrip

Chapter Five

Tigerstar grit his teeth. "What do you mean we're lost?"
"We're not where we're supposed to be," Mapleshade has moved on from playing on her phone and was now filing her nails.
"Mapleshade. You said you were looking at a map,"
"I lied,"
"You've been giving me directions for the past hour and a half,"
"Yep,"
"Have you just been making this up the entire time?"
"Yep,"
"Why are you telling us now?"
"Because you asked,"
"So the only reason you're telling us this is because I asked you if we were heading the right way?"
"Yep,"
"Mapleshade, why are you like this?"
Mapleshade shrugged.
Tigerstar's face was bright red, though Hawkfrost couldn't tell if it was in embarrassment or anger. Knowing his father, probably both.
Hawkfrost looked out the window, gently nudging Ashfur out of the way. A few feet ahead of the parked van was a sign simply reading, "Rest Stop - 3 miles".
He cleared his throat, "Hey guys, they're a rest stop up ahead. Maybe we could ask for directions from there?"
Tigerstar scoffed, "We don't need to ask for help, Hawkfrost. We have phones, we can look up directions for ourselves,"
"You told me I couldn't bring my phone, and Ashfur's is broken,"
"I don't have a phone," Thistleclaw growled, "Don't need one,"
"My phone's dead and I left my charger at home," Mapleshade said. So that's why she got off of it, Hawkfrost thought to himself.
"I think I left my phone at the gas station," Darkstripe mumbled.
"I- Also didn't bring my phone," Tigerstar sighed.
"I have a phone!" said Brokenstar from the backseat. Everyone turned around to look at him. Brokenstar held up a rotary phone, the cord dangling uselessly.
Tigerstar restarted the engine, "Rest stop it is,"
—
The rest stop stood alone in the desert, covered on all sides by vast stretches of sand and shrubs. The sign was missing a few letters, making it read "et top". The walls were once a bright green, but the sun had bleached them to look sickly. Hawkfrost gave the place a suspicious look. "Oh well," he said with a sigh, "I guess it's better than being lost. You guys can stay in the car, I'll get a map,"
The inside wasn't much better. The maps were covered with dust, and the posters had long since been torn out. Tacky merchandise lined the walls, but there weren't any shelves or displays in the center of the room. There was a mold stain on the ceiling and the wall paper was peeling significantly. Nobody was at the counter. Hawkfrost shrugged. The place was probably abandoned. Wouldn't hurt to take a map, it's not like the place needed it. He reached a hand out to grab a map.
"I wouldn't recommend that,"
Hawkfrost jumped back with a yelp. He turned in the direction of the voice, now seeing a well dressed man in his thirties standing patiently at the help desk. The man had a smug look on his face, as if he was amused by Hawkfrost's reaction.
Hawkfrost collected himself, feeling embarrassed about being spooked so easily. "Sorry, I thought the place might be abandoned or something. I just need a map,"
"The door was unlocked, yes? And the sign says we're open?" Despite the polite tone the man had, something in his eyes made Hawkfrost feel as if he'd unintentionally insulted the man. Of course, Hawkfrost wasn't one to feel bad about that.
"Uh, yeah, good point. Sorry, the place just felt a little empty,"
"We're still working on decorating. What brings you here?"
"We got lost and need a map. Any recommendations?"
"Of course!" The man moved out of the desk. "Where are you planning on going?"
"Uh," Hawkfrost realized he didn't actually know. Tigerstar still was keeping that a secret from everyone but Mapleshade, who was supposed to be reading directions. "I don't know, the driver's keeping it a surprise. Want me to bring him in?"
"Yes, it would be preferred that our customers actually know where they're going,"
Hawkfrost chose to ignore that comment.
—
Tigerstar entered the store arms crossed. "This place looks like shit,"
The man's eye twitched. Hawkfrost quickly stepped between the two. "So!" he said loudly, "The maps!"
"Right. We're going to-" Tigerstar whispered something in the man's ear.
"Really? There? Sir, you're going to need more than just one map for that," the man darted off, snagging various maps off the walls, shaking the dust off. "This one is for the first route, which you're absolutely going to need, these two cover the same route, but I'd recommend buying both in order to-"
The man was now talking like a snake oil salesman. Talking about the value of each individual map and why it was essential, throwing in long and pretentious words. Was he trying to scam them? Hawkfrost looked at the man's name tag, wondering if he should report the guy to a manager. "Harry". Huh. That sounded fake. But everything about this guy seemed fake.
Tigerstar waited patiently for Harry to finish, "How much?"
"Well for each-"
"How much?"
Harry frowned and rolled his eyes, "$157.89, with tax,"
Tigerstar grabbed one of Harry's maps and opened it up. After staring for it at a moment, he crumpled it up and chucked it in Harry's face. "This is a map of London,"
"Well that's a common mistak-"
Tigerstar grabbed a few more. "Paris, Rome, Berlin, Stockholm, Budapest, and look at that. Another London. In case you haven't noticed, this isn't Europe,"
Harry was sweating now. "Uh, well you see-"
Tigerstar shoved Harry out of the way and walked towards the desk. He grabbed Harry's phone charger and walked out the door. Hawkfrost watched in stunned silence.
"Y-you're going to have to pay for that," Harry muttered. Hawkfrost punched him and ran for the van.