Chapter 35: To The Rendezvous Point
As Zack and Cloud made their way down the stretch of highway towards a destination neither of them were sure of, they noticed that the traffic was starting to become less dense the farther away they went from the Shinra building. They knew that it was still in the middle of the night and that not many cars would have been out on the road, but there was always more than this in this busy city. The raven haired teen was also pretty sure that word of the things happening in the building have not been leaked to the general public as of yet.
With that engraved in the teen's mind, he found that the current amount of traffic on the Midgar highway was quite unusual, whether it was an hour past midnight or not. The city was not known to be a place where everybody went to sleep at night. It was known as the city of endless opportunity; a place where you would be able to find a job, both good and bad, no matter what kind of skills you had or what hour of the day the job was to take place in.
"I've never seen so little cars driving on this highway before," Cloud speculated as he turned his head around to get a better view of his blurred surroundings. "I know how it usually looks since I have a good view of it from my dorm window up on the 45th floor. There's always more of them than there is tonight. I wonder why?"
"It sounds like somebody doesn't really get a good night's sleep these days," Zack teased the blond as he changed lanes and cut off a car, earning him an angry honk from the driver. "Do you have something on your mind that you care to share with me while we're riding along this quiet highway all by ourselves here?"
"No, not really," the cadet simply stated as he held onto the SOLDIER tightly when he made another sudden lane change. "I guess I was just feeling a bit homesick at the time. It was my first month here at the time, so I think it's normal that I had trouble getting some sleep then."
"Yeah, I suppose so," the raven haired teen agreed with him with a small nod of his head. "I had that same trouble myself when I just started out as a lowly grunt in the Shinra Army a couple of years ago. It's amazing how quickly the things that happened came and went when you actually take the time to look back on it. It's almost as if your entire life has flashed before your eyes.
"Anyway, what do you think about the whole mess we just ran away from back there?" he asked as he changed the subject around. "Do you think it's all going to be alright once we regroup with the guys at wherever the Hell it is they're at? Do you think that things with us will ever go back to normal?"
"Are you seriously asking me something stupid like that, Zack? I know just as much about this as you do here. I don't know if things are ever going to get back to normal with us after we get away from here, not after the things we've seen in the building doing what it is that they do which is killing nonstop and eat us humans as if we were nothing but animals. I doubt, though, that we'll be able to sleep well for a while after were through here."
"…Heh, I guess that was a pretty stupid question for me to be asking you," the raven haired teen replied with a forced chuckle brewing in the back of his throat. "Of course you wouldn't know if things will ever be back to normal after this. I guess…I was just trying to see if you felt the same way I was right now. I guess I was just trying to find some comfort here."
"And do you really feel the same way as me on all of this?" the blond asked after giving a small sigh and thinking about what his best friend had just said to him. "Are you just as confused about all this as I am right now?"
"Yeah… Yeah, I guess I'm… No, I know that I'm in the same mindset as you are on this. I'm just as confused about this as you are, but I know one thing is for certain: things are definitely not going to be back to normal after this; not with me anyway, and I'm sure not with you either."
For a couple of seconds, both teens said nothing more to each other. They were both seemingly contemplating on the things that where just discussed between them. They were both wondering whether they could continue on as if everything was normal, or keep the demons born from the night's events in their hearts, always to frighten them with the nightmares it came with.
Finally, with a loud sigh, Zack spoke up in a soft tone, a tone that was almost drowned out by the sound of Fenrir's engine. "Sorry for asking such a stupid question and stirring up some tension here Cloud," he apologized as he shifted his shoulders around a bit. "I was just trying to find some comfort in seeing whether or not you felt the same as I was now. Sorry."
"…There's no need for you to be apologizing to me Zack," Cloud answered with a small sigh as he softened the grip he had on the SOLDIER's chest, indicating to him that he was now just giving him a friendly, comforting hug. "I'm on the same boat as you are here. If you're saying sorry to me for no good reason, then I should be doing the same to you right now. That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense when you stop and think about it. Besides, it's not like you to be feeling sorry over something like this, especially over something that you can't control."
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Humph, what's the world coming to tonight?" the SOLDIER asked with a genuinely warm chuckle escaping from his lips this time around. "Am I really being given a motivational speech by a cadet who I'm supposed to be training and practically mothering right now? That's a real twist in our roles here, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, I guess that's true," the blond replied as he laughed along with his best friend. "It is kind of funny when you think about it. Then again, Adeus always said that I always manage to come up with something to say whenever people like you are feeling down and all that stuff."
"Did Adeus really say that about you? Funny, I never would have guessed that you were capable of being a person to come to for a pep talk when I first met you on our first official training day together. To be honest with you, I thought that you were going to be the spitting image of me when I first started out as a cadet here. I was totally energetic and overconfident in my skills. All that ended up in me having my confidence deflated dramatically by Angeal when he beat me down to the ground in my first training session with him."
"Uh, I don't think anybody could ever start out like you said you did," Cloud stated as he sniggered softly at Zack's little story. "After all, you are a one-of-a-kind SOLDIER and mentor. Nobody could ever hope to mimic you in any way possible, no matter how hard they try. Although, you can rub some of your behaviors off onto your students; me being living proof of that."
"Hey, it's not necessarily a bad thing," the raven haired teen replied as he felt the blonde's arms moving around a bit during his chuckles. "You still manage to keep your own attitude intact while trying to fuse some of mine's into it. It's not like I'm asking you to become an exact copy of me or anything like that. It just means that you have great respect for me and you want to try and follow in my footsteps. That's all I'm really saying here, and I'm proud of you for that."
"Well, I guess that's one good way of looking at it. It really sounds good when it's coming out from your own mouth. Anyway, are we anywhere close to wherever it is the guys stopped?" the cadet asked as he changed the subject around to something that pertained more to their current situation.
"I really have no idea about that, spiky. All I remember hearing Rude saying on the phone just before he hung it up was 'At the end of the freeway,' or something like that. It's too short to really make much sense of it, but I can take a guess at where they went from that. Care to guess with me on this?"
"What's there to guess on this Zack? It should be obvious as to where we're supposed to meet up. They're planning on meeting Tseng at the end of the freeway. They're probably thinking on having him pick us up from there and get out of here through his helicopter."
"And do you know where the end of the freeway is?" Zack asked sarcastically, already knowing what the answer was going to be. "If you do, then please tell me so you can make both of our lives a whole lot easier here."
"Uh, if I knew where it was, I would have told you about it by now," Cloud replied in an equally sarcastic tone. "I was actually kind of hoping that you would know where it is. After all, you did spend more time here in Midgar than I have. I was thinking that you would have had the lay of the land by now."
"Unfortunately, I have no idea on where to go from here," the young SOLDIER admitted as he ignored the sarcastic answer, knowing full well he was going to be responded in such a fashion since he asked in the same way. It was funny how they were able to throw sarcastic remarks to each other and manage to know that it was all only in good fun when he thought about it. Then again, he just assumed that that was what the best of friends naturally do, fool around with each other and just naturally knowing when it was all in good faith and when it was not.
"Uh, most of the missions that were assigned to me by Director Lazard have been concentrated primarily outside of the city walls," he continued on after a pause and clearing his throat to alleviate the slight awkwardness that followed it. "I hardly ever did any of the missions that were involved with the city itself; but whenever there was one assigned to me, I rarely had to use the freeway because they were all easily accessible and taken care of by foot. There was no need for me to be on this stretch of road then."
"…Well, that's good to know," the blond replied with a sigh as he shook his head. "So basically, after giving me this entire explanation that I don't really care about, what you're telling me in the end is that we're lost, right?"
"Hey, I never said anything like that to you!" the raven haired teen argued as they past an orange sign momentarily illuminated by the motorcycle's headlights that read, "Approaching construction zone. Veer towards left lane." "All I'm saying here is that I'm not sure where the end of the freeway is."
"Which is a better way of saying that you don't know where you're going, if you stop for a moment and think about it. It doesn't matter how you phrase it; the fact of the matter is that you have no idea where to go from here."
"Alright then, do you want to try your hand at driving on this highway?" Zack asked in a serious, yet annoyed, tone he started to slow the motorcycle down a bit and pull it towards the highway curb. "Just say the word if you want to. You know I'd be more than happy to trade places with you, if that's what you really want. After all, you sure sound like you can do a Hell of a lot better than I can here. So what do you say? You want to give it a shot?"
"Uh, no, no, no! I-I'm fine!" the cadet stuttered out hastily. "I-I don't even know how to drive a motorcycle in the first place. I'd probably end up getting us killed by the traffic here before we can even find what looks to be the end of this freeway. I think it's better if you stayed behind the wheel."
"Then shut up and let me drive in peace here. I admit that I may not know much about this freeway, but I can at least drive on it better than you can right now. If you want to help me, then do so by keeping your eyes open for any signs of Angeal and the others and your mouth shut from anymore complaints."
With a small growl of dissatisfaction, Cloud complied and kept quiet while keeping an eye out for the others. A few seconds later, though, they noticed some kind of construction project going on ahead towards the right side of the freeway. A flashing portable billboard next to the area said, "End of the highway. Exit towards the left." Right next to that was a pile of wooden debris that looked as though somebody ran their car right through the construction barricade.
"I think we finally figured out where the end of the highway is buddy," Zack said as he stopped just a foot or so away from where the barricade was smashed through. "If this sign here and the smashed pile of wood isn't a clear indication of it, then I don't know what is."
"The guys are probably thinking that the empty portion of the freeway would be a good place to be picked up by the helicopter," Cloud thought out loud as he felt the motorcycle slowly ride over the wood pieces before picking up its normal speed down the desolate road, dodging the occasional orange cone that was common of a construction zone. "It would make sense as to why they chose here of all places to meet up with Tseng. There'd be more places for him to land."
"Well, there's only one way for us to find out, and that's to follow this closed-off section and see for ourselves," the SOLDIER replied as they passed all of the small cones and other barricades in front of them. "If we're lucky, then we'll see them down the road soon. If we're not, then we can always just drive back to the main road and continue on from there."
"Well, won't we feel stupid then if we end up going the wrong way," the blond stated sarcastically. "Fat chance of that actually happening here, though. I mean, what are the chances of there being two places on this highway subjected to construction within less than a mile away from each other? Pretty slim, if you ask me."
"Alright, enough of your sarcastic remarks here, Spiky. How about giving me some words of encouragement here or something along the lines of that? I could really use them right about now."
"And if I actually said something encouraging to you, you would probably say something about how unusually peppy I'm feeling right now or something along those lines. I've been your friend long enough, even though it's only been a few months at most, to know how you'll answer me if I say something."
Without saying anything, the raven haired teen simply rolled his eyes and purposely made Fenrir lurch a bit, forcing the cadet to tighten his grip on his chest out of slight fear. Inside though, he was smiling. Of course he knew he was going to say something like that if Cloud was trying to be encouraging. He was just trying to have a little fun and mess around with him while he had the chance. After all, they did just escape from the Hell on Gaia and they deserved this calming moment after surviving against killer monsters for a good chunk of the night. He could not feel any safer right at that moment than he ever did earlier in night, and he was sure Cloud was thinking the same thing as well.