Fall Apart (Dream Team)

Chapter 6: Trains, Planes, and an Expansive History of Nationalism

CWs: none really!  there's a brief part about the prison industrial complex/American politics, but it's marked in the text and not necessary to understand the plot.  there's also some mention of the pandemic

George's alarm went off at 4:30am, and he'd never felt worse about a decision in his life.

He'd gotten home late from dropping his pets off with his family, and had to take a train to King's Cross Station, then get on the Piccadilly line to the airport, which passed through the busiest parts on London. Since the pandemic began, he'd managed to avoid the most crowded parts, but given the location of Heatharow, he had no choice.

The underground was stressful for George— the trains always ran on time, but the swarming mass of fast walking people and often broken turnstiles stressed him out. Not to mention, the entire thing was a fire hazard beyond fire hazards. He could usually walk fast enough to keep up and he knew the escape plans, but riding the Tube with luggage was a whole other deal— he had to walk slower and stand still, pressed to the side of the escalator as people quite literally ran past. Adding a pandemic to that made the Tube sound like an absolute nightmare.

He sighed and sat up, using his arms to prop himself up. He was up too goddam early in the morning.

George dragged himself out of bed, quickly throwing on the clothes he wore yesterday as the rest of his shirts were packed, and going to brush his teeth.  There was no way he was eating before the tube even opened— he would just feel unbelievably sick for the rest of the day.  After throwing the rest of his bathroom things haphazardly in his suitcase, save his shampoo bottle for obvious reasons, he carefully filled up his water bottle a third of the way, double checked he had his keys, phone, wallet, and passport, and grabbed his things to leave. 

His house felt empty without his pets.  He was glad he at least didn't have to stay in the empty house for long, although he really would have appreciated to leave after 10 at the earliest. 

Still half asleep, George put on an N-95 mask, placed his cloth face mask in a random pocket in his backpack, and walked out the door, locking it behind him.

The tube ride was excruciatingly long and way too crowded for his comfort— he ended up standing up a couple stops in on the Piccadilly line, and his legs were sore by the time the train finally pulled up to the beginning of London Heatharow. 

Getting off at this stop, George waited for yet another train to take him to boarding, this time luckily being able to sit down for the duration of the time. 

Security at least wasn't crowded.  He didn't have to check any luggage and had his boarding pass loaded on his phone, so the only thing George had to do was pour out his water bottle in a bathroom sink and hop in the security line. 

Security and pre-boarding was uneventful— George was still mostly asleep, and didn't bother to stop anywhere to get food both for pandemic and hunger reasons.

The first flight George had was to La Guardia airport in NYC which was a full evelven hours.  He had checked beforehand and learned that airlines still served food, but given as he would be on an airplane, with a highly centralized and contained air system, with many other people during a PANDEMIC, George had resigned himself to suffering on the plane, and eating when he arrived at Karl's house.

He had about a 2 hour layover in New York which he hoped would give him time to get through customs, go back through security, and get on a two-hour flight to North Carolina where Karl would pick him up.

Dream had decided to drive himself like the Florida man he was, and said he'd meet there sometime after George got in. Usually, George would be nervous, but at the time, waiting on an uncomfortable airport chair, George was unphased.