Chapter 19
Different
1 week later, South of Philadelphia
Tanya
I was almost shocked by how well things were going at this point. We had gotten to Philadelphia in a day, and it wouldn't even have taken us that long if we hadn't had to stop to avoid the Seekers for a few hours.
It took us two days after that to find the right sort of place to get a car from. It was a quiet neighborhood and there was a family of worms who were taking a vacation. They had left one of their cars out in their driveway, unlocked. Aqua got into the house, which was also unlocked, found the keys hanging on a hook, raided the kitchen for nonperishable food, searched bedrooms for some clothes that wouldn't look as ratty as ours were, and made it out in less than an hour. Of course, before that we had also watched the house for a day. I drove the van and Aqua drove the stolen car and I parked three blocks north of the Liberty Bell, just like she had promised we would.
From there, we stayed another day in the city, checked on the van to make sure that it hadn't been stolen or moved or anything, and then left the city.
The last two days have been spent making short raids for the things that we needed but had left with Tyler and Gabby. We filled gallon jugs with water, found matches and medicines, and stole another hunting-type knife for me to carry, seeing as Aqua already had one and the gun. It took us a while to find that, seeing as the aliens were so anti-violence, but we managed it.
Now, we were on our way to our first stop: Albuquerque. While it seemed like a somewhat random first stop to make, and the fact that it was a good bit farther than our eventual two-month-from-now destination of San Antonio, Aqua and I had agreed that it was necessary.
Originally, she had wanted to go all the way to Phoenix, but I had advised her against it. The Seekers there were bound to be on higher alert than usual, even though it had been a few weeks since her brothers had been seen there, so we were going to avoid Arizona completely if at all possible. Of course, we didn't even know whether they would know anything about the sighting in Albuquerque, but we would find out when we got there… somehow.
For now, I was more worried about getting there. It would take us at least a week, and most likely two, since we were avoiding traveling through large cities and we were only driving at night.
And neither of us were exactly in top condition either. Physically, we were both fine, of course, although Aqua hadn't been eating or sleeping as much as she should have been, and I wasn't sleeping all that well. I was worried about Tyler and Gabby making it to Philadelphia without being caught, and Aqua seemed to be rather guilt-stricken about leaving.
It was different being with just her, though. And she was different away from Tyler and Gabby, too. Even guilty and somewhat regretful, she seemed to have more of a purpose than she ever really had had before. It was different… and to some extant inspiring. I wanted to her with this so that she could see her brothers again, but it wasn't just that. I wanted her to have something to do other than staying up for guard duty and making the occasional raid. She was somebody who needed to have a goal, and I wanted to help her achieve it.
Gabby
Tyler wasn't happy. Aqua and Tanya had been gone for a week now and while I wasn't exactly pleased about that, I wasn't exactly wallowing in misery the way that he was. We would see them again eventually. Right now, however, Tyler was staring into the fire with his arms wrapped around his knees, his dinner only half-eaten. He had bags under his eyes from not being able to sleep. When we were moving he seemed all right, though exhausted, but whenever we stopped he would sink back into this… depression.
I sat next to him and leaned my head against his shoulder. He didn't react, continuing his staring contest with the fire like his life depended on it. And maybe it did. How was I supposed to know what was really going on in his head? Maybe he wasn't actually as empty as he looked. Maybe he was angry, or terrified, or worried out of his mind about them. The thing was that I. Couldn't. Tell.
I picked up my sketchbook and flipped to a drawing of him and Aqua, huddled together under a blanket. "Tyler, just because they're gone for now doesn't mean that you'll never see them again. This isn't like what happened with Carson. They left of their own free will, not because a Seeker slapped handcuffs on them and stole away with them in the middle of the night," I whispered.
"It feels like we'll never see them again," he said gruffly, his voice hoarse.
I handed him a bottle of water and he took a long drink from it before handed it back. "We'll see them again, Tyler," I promised. "Just don't lose hope now. We've stayed free for so long that it wouldn't do to lose hope just because we've been separated for a while. It's not permanent. We'll see them again, even if it isn't for a year or more. Aqua just has something that she needs to do, and she couldn't do it with all of us tagging along."
"You're too smart for your own good," he muttered.
I smiled a bit at that and kissed his cheek before putting my sketchbook on the ground in front of him and walking away. It was my turn to do the dishes.
I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was looking at the drawing. I couldn't see his face, and I didn't think he was smiling. He may even have been crying. I didn't really care, as long as he wasn't letting emptiness consume him.
2 Months later, San Antonio, Texas
Tyler
It didn't take me very long on the final night to realize that they weren't going to show up. For the past six nights I had waited for them to show up, but it never happened and every night I had started to lose the hope that I was going to see them again.
By the last night, I was certain that they wouldn't show up. A few minutes after one in the morning, Gabby and I started the search for a house with a red door. It was a block and a half to the west on the opposite side of the street. The mailbox was big and black with the number 1652 painted neatly onto the front, surrounded at the bottom by red and yellow flowers.
My hands were shaking, so Gabby reached underneath to remove it. She handed me the folded note and looked at me expectantly. I shook my head and put it in my back pocket, intending to read it once we were safely out of town. The van was only a few blocks away and we were back on the highway within half an hour, on our way out of the city. After an hour of driving at the speed limit so as not to attract attention, I pulled off onto a small road and carefully opened the note.
Tyler and Gabby,
If you're reading this, it means that you're safe. And so are we. We went out to Albuquerque to ask some questions, but unfortunately there weren't any answers. We kept driving until we got to Flagstaff, pretending that we were two sisters who were taking a road trip across the country and asking question as we went in a way that would make somebody think that we were worried about our safety.
All we know is that there was a disappearance two or three months ago between Flagstaff and Phoenix, but that they never got any clues. I think that it must have been them.
We're doing well, we've got a car, and our ruse has held up so far. Nobody is suspicious anymore. You can walk into a store or a gas station and nobody will question you except for friendly small talk.
Anyway, the next meeting place is between the two "l's" of the Hollywood sign, three months from the last chance at meeting us at the Alamo. If we don't meet you within a week, the note will be taped as high up as you can reach on the Chinatown entry arch thing in Los Angeles. Hopefully, we'll see you then. If not, there will at least be a note.
Keep being careful. We love you both.
Aqua and Tanya.
I passed it to Gabby next and she read it quickly. "I'm sorry," she said.
"It's not your fault," I told her with a sigh. "I just wish we could have seen them, if only for a minute or two."
"Yeah, but if we had we probably would never have let them go again, and then they wouldn't be able to do what they need to do," Gabby argued.
"I know. I can't help but wish that they had been there anyway," I admitted. I had come to terms with Aqua just up and leaving in the middle of the night now. And the fact that Tanya had followed her, but that didn't make the fact that I missed them any less true. I missed the feel of waking up with Aqua in my arms, or talking to her in the middle of the night when one of us was on guard duty and the other couldn't sleep.
I missed Tanya's wit and the way that she always knew exactly how I was feeling. I even missed her constant teasing. It was just so hard to be away from them like this. Even though we'd only been with Aqua for six months before they had left, it felt almost like we'd been that way forever. And nothing was the same without them.
I'm being a good updater for now, I promise. See, it's been a week. That's good.
Anyway, I hope that you liked the chapter, and I would like to thank my three reviewers who reviewed the last one. They make me smile. Anyway, please keep reading and reviewing and feel free to tell me what you think. It doesn't even have to be about the story. For example, you could talk about your Thanksgiving plans. I'm staying home and my aunt is coming to visit. And I'm making cheesecake.
There, you could also talk about cheesecake now. Keep up the good reading (and in some cases reviewing)!