Midnight Auto Supply

Chapter 5: The Sharing Circle

Bro whenever I get a nice comment on this story my heart explodes with joy and my due assignments are pushed back at least two (2) days. 

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"Erm, are we gonna stop for food?" George asked from the back seat. 

The CD had just faded out, and after a 10 second silence, it was confirmed that there was no track coming after. The little tray ejected itself, and the CD waited patiently to be put back into the container. 

"Yeah, I second. 'Am hungry," John added from the back.

"Yeah, sure. Are you hungry for anything, or just... first place I see?" I looked at them in the rearview mirror. I still wasn't hungry, but I could feel the coffee that I drank earlier do somersaults in my stomach. 

"First place. I'll find somethin'," George closed his eyes and nodded his head back, as if he was dreaming of all of the food he could be eating right now. 

"Okie doke. I'll let you know when I find an exit or something," I didn't add that that may be a while. Let's hope that whatever it was was at least real food. My nausea would not be helped by the scent of greasy fries and fake cheese, as delicious as it was to eat. 

"Kim," Ringo paused, like it was awkward to say my name, "can I ask a question?" 

"Sure, you don't have to like, as permission or anything. Just shoot," I'd never had someone be that timid around me before. I didn't like it. 

"What exactly happened last night that made you come back?" The question rang unanswered as the van hummed along with the highway. It was very bright outside, but it was cool in here. 

"Whaddya mean?" 

"Well, like, you said it really quickly last night, but like, what actually happened?"

"Yeah, I'm actually curious," Paul leaned in my direction, giving me a curious glance, "don't spare any detail." 

"Um... well, okay, I guess I'll start after I got you guys taken in. Sorry about that, by the way," John grunted in disapproval, "The officer said that I should go and check through my car to see if I was missing anything, so I was rifling through my stuff and I heard these people talking outside. I didn't listen until I heard them say, well, 'Beatles,' and then I was eavesdropping. They were talking about something called a temporal shift, and about how it went back to the sixties, and how it was a crazy coincidence that you all came together. They didn't think that it was a coincidence. And then they mentioned me, but obviously they didn't see me, and they were talking about how they were going to drug me so I wouldn't remember anything. And then they said that they were going to do it so that I wouldn't spill when they took you back to their place, and uh, killed you, I think? That part wasn't clear but it was threatening." 

I read the room really briefly to see if I should continue. George had opened his eyes with morbid curiosity. I figured that if I had gotten him to loose his cool, it must've been bad. Paul was running his hand through his hair, looking like he was about to faint. 

"Then what happened?" Ringo bluntly cut through the silence.

"Um, well, they said that they were going to hang back at the fast food joint across the street. I decided that I didn't wanna be drugged and I didn't want you to die, so I scribbled that dumbass little note and started the car, and uh, you know the rest." 

"Holy shit," I heard John murmur under his breath. Paul ran another hand through his hair. 

"We're gonna die," he said plainly. George's eyes remained dead. Ringo just look confused, not at the information, but about why the hell this was happening to him.