Chapter Twenty-One

Carlisle gripped Jacob's shoulder as Nikki did mine. "I'm sorry I can't help you very much, but I can offer you support." I heard Carlisle say.

"You're really strong." Nikki said to me.

"Really?"

"Definitely." She affirmed with a smile. My eyes drifted from her Eric behind her who sat hugging his knees with his head down. Nikki followed.

"He's in love with one of our best friends, Angela. Her name suited her perfectly." He and Brent were the only ones who didn't have friends in our group. Nikki had Carlisle, and I had stopped being a good friend months ago. Actually, I was never a friend; I just sat with them, and they had invited me.

"She's definitely gone."

"Oh...working as a nurse I've seen many people die, but I was desensitized earlier on when I lost my mom to cancer. I was taking care of her." She explained. "But you two? You don't have that."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Don't be. We all did our best. Since then I just focused on helping people, doing my best." She said with a smile. It wasn't curved, but straight; like she had accepted she had no control over what happened to those she helped.

"I know, and I know those people knew too." Her smile curved a bit then. I looked over her shoulder again and Eric was still staring at the truck bed.

"I know you're thinking 'it isn't fair' Eric." Nikki said.

"It's not." He responded. "Everything was going great before. Angela and I got accepted to the same college." I felt like shit then. I hadn't known, but would have if I paid attention.

"I just don't feel like she's really gone."

"She isn't." I said. "No one will ever forget her; I never will and niether will you. I'm sure she thought of you."

"Yeah."

"I'm probably a stranger now but...don't you be, okay?" He shook his head.

"I always stood up for you. I know you were dealing with your own stuff, so did Angie."

"I know. I owe you."

"Friends never owe each other anything." I half smiled.

"Thanks. We can have a funeral for her, whenever you're ready." I added after a beat.

"We can do it for everyone." Nikki chimed, gripping my hand with hers and Eric's arm.

"Angie will always be in our memories, but we can say a proper goodbye to the physical her."

"...yeah, that sounds nice." He agreed.

We stopped at the next town, a really tiny one called Deroche, so the Cullens could find another butcher shop. There had to be one nearby considering the open space. It must be brimming with blood sources. Edward stayed with us to raid the houses in town to stock up while the others scoured the town. We had barely covered a 20 meter radius around our truck when they came back.

"Fucking nothing!" Emmet growled and kicked a mail box out of the ground. Rosalie tried to comfort him but I could tell she was suffering too. She was 'angry' from thirst, not merely annoyed as she usually was.

"We did find a mini mart and general store a mile from here." Esme said.

"I saw Emmett killing a bear before it woke up. We might find a bear's den if we head to the forest right now." Alice said.

"You're not suggesting we split up now?" Quil said.

"There's isn't a choice." Jasper said. "Keep going up the road and cross the river; there should be another town next to Abbotsford. Search more there; who know's how many we'll find." He told Edward.

"We can modify a small refigeration unit to keep the blood you collect, like a blood bank." Nikki said.

"We'll do that later." Carlisle said. "We'll be gone for 12 hours maximum. Be safe." They ran off again, unable to wait.

"...won't we need electricity for the...mini fridge?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We'd only need a generator to do that, and fuel." Nikki said.

"I once saw a video about two african girls modifying one to run on urine. But I don't remember anything else." Looking at each other we knew none of us humans knew about generators, so we looked at Edward.

"I...honestly never looked into it." He looked at Eric.

"Why are you looking at me? Is it because I'm chinese?" Edward grinned and tried to recover, unsuccessfully.

"Goodness, no. I was merely wondering."

"Well I don't know anything about it."

"I know car engines and a generator's main part is one right?" Nikki gave a combination of a shrug and nod. "Maybe if I fiddled with it we could end up with something." Edward said.

We got back on Lougheed Highway and drove to the little stores Esme mentioned that were right beside it. The general store was also a deli and a few meters up the road was the mini mart attached to a gas station.

The smell of rotting lunch meat hit us in the face as soon as we opened the door. It must have been rotting in the refrigeration unit for about a week. It's been...a little over a week since we left Forks, when stores were still running.

"Hey! They're still running!" Eric cried, and pressed his hands against the glass. Edward went behind the counter and I looked around with Nikki who went into the snack aisle. I ended up in the small instant coffee section and grabbed a few jars for possible night watches.

"It's me Tanya." I heard Edward say. I immediately felt ridiculous for reacting that way.

"We're still pretty far. Is everything alright?" I heard a bag of chips open and some munching. I went back to the front to double bag my find, and couldn't help but glance at Edward as I did so.

"I am too. And you?"

"Good, keep yourselves safe. Rosalie didn't have service on her cell phone, land line phones seem to still work but I don't know for how long. I plan we'll get to Denali before they go down."

"We have an injured man. We can't leave him; we'll get there." He promised. "Did you hear of any news? From other parts of Canada, or the UK?"

"No, we'd like to avoid military. I may never tell you why. We have humans with us, so you know."

"Yes, it will be lonely to be the only vegetarian family alive." He said almost coldly. "We'll get there as soon as we can. You too."

"Coffee," I said, patting the bag when he turned around.

"This place is such a ways away, all of the junk food is still intact. Got some crackers too; they'll last about a year. We have to stock up on these, and dry beans." Nikki said, returning from the back with her arms full. I held out a bag for her to dump them in and she ran back.

"Let's finish up and head out." Edward said.

With bag fulls of instant coffee, bags of rice, beans, crackers, bottled water, sports drinks and chips, we piled into the car to hit the mini mart. There was also a pizzeria attached to it where we found more drinks. I was ecstatic at first but remembered we still needed to ration it just in case. Afterwards we continued up the road and drove past Harrison Mills, which wasn't even a neigborhood let alone town with it's mere three buildings scattered in it.

"Why did Jasper say to go down here? How does he know there's a town there?" Eric asked.

"He thought 'towns are small and grouped together in this area it seems'. " Edward explained.

"...oh, right Mind reader."

"Makes sense to me; we just passed about...four places and we're barely two hours from the border. I think." I said.

"Not even a half hour. We aren't a half hour away from the border."

"You're kidding." Quil muttered. I wanted to bang my head against the dashboard.

"Driving, I meant. We had to walk half of that distance. We'll get there." He swore.

"...so long as we stay in a car, we'll get there soon?" I asked.

"2 full days max. We'll keep moving when the others return. For now let's try to get some more useful things before nightfall."

That 'all chinese people are smart' joke is in honor of the boy whom I asked help with algebra and he laughed at me and said 'not all chinese people are smart' and went back to gambling with his friends. Sorry, not sorry dude; I genuinely thought you knew something.

There was ONE hidden 'funny', if you can find it then...something. Hopefully you do find it funny, I'm not a comedian.