Subjects

49 - Running Away, Again

"What was that?"

"How did you know her?"

"Are you okay?"

"She was so scary!"

"What do we do now?"

Angie keeps staring at the open door where Roa left. She never thought she'd get to meet her aunt. Sometimes she doubted Roa even existed. Her father made her sound so great, like a hero. Angie wishes she got to ask Roa if she really is all that her dad told her.

Sometimes Angie pictured Roa as her big sister. She would walk down the street holding her hand, talk with her at night. Angie's Roa wasn't afraid of anything, not even the monster Angie saw in that movie mom and dad watched. As she is staring out the doorway, Angie wonders whether Roa is that monster.

No. She can't be. Dad wouldn't lie to her.

But he did.

Not about this.

"We need to go, honey," her mom shows up beside her. "Are you ready?"

Angie nods.

The small car parked outside the house hasn't moved in months. Alice worries that it might not even work. When she turns the key in the ignition (after a second of panicked anticipation), the car roars to life. In the front sits Ben, being the best one at navigating and also the only one able to stay up the whole night. In the back, Eva, Roger, and Emily, with Angie cramped between them, already asleep.

They somehow managed to fit all the bags in the trunk, leaving a box of energy bars handy in case of a hunger emergency. Just like that, they are leaving the city again. Where to? Not clear yet. Right now they only want to put as much distance as possible between them and the last sighted alien.

They stop to fill some gas after an hour and get a spare gallon to go, just in case. They drive nearly twenty hours straight. At some point, Alice gets too tired to continue (even coffee has its limitations).

According to the man at the gas station (a reliable source by all accounts), there is a motel somewhere down the road. It is now noon. Alice is in dire need of some sleep. The rest mostly want something to eat that doesn't have 15 grams of protein in it. After some looking around, they find something that looks more or less like a motel. They enter the small structure that Ben suspects will be blown away by the first breeze that sweeps by.

Eva takes over ordering the rooms and Alice takes the key gratefully and walks with Angie to their room. Eva, Ben, Emily, and Roger are after some food. They step outside and walk a little further down the road until they get to a convenience store. Roger was never this happy in his life to see a tuna sandwich.

The lady at the counter eyes them suspiciously. She says nothing as they place half the store's products in front of her.

"Eva, do you have more of that cheese?" Ben motions at one box that is especially popular with them.

They sit in front of the girls' room. Around them are all the crackers, cheese, cans of drinks, and snacks they could carry.

Eva opens the said cheese, "sorry, we're out."

Ben instead peels open a chocolate bar and puts it between two crackers instead. The chocolate bar sandwich earns Ben a dark look from Eva.

"Emily," Roger had some interesting thoughts about their superpowers during the drive. "You said Leo taught you about science, right? Do you know about the gene we have?"

"You mean how to get rid of it?" Emily asks. "I've been thinking about it too, I know how they got it to work. This is actually really interesting, you remember those, sort of, animals we saw on the ship?"