The River and The Highway part 3

I was relived when I woke up the next morning and found both Alyssa and Wheeljack out cold on the sofa, the poor lil' PIKMIN stuck in perpetual pause. I managed to get my self dressed and headed out to the kitchen intent on sneaking back down to town just due to the fact that I had been ordered to stay put and now had a sever case of cabin fever as a result. Why I thought I would be able to make it past Ratchet I had no idea but believe it or not when I got to the kitchen I found him at the table with his head down on his arms.

Now I am the original insufferable klutz, so I did my level best to sneak past him and wound up making about ten times more noise than I would have if I had just plain walked out. Still either he was a hard sleeper, or now looking back on it was playing possum to set me up. Either way I managed to get out with out him catching me. I got into the black truck and put the thing in gear then headed out and down into the town. What I planned on doing down there I had no concept. I just wanted to get out of the house so badly that I was willing to risk my neck by sneaking out.

Getting to down town was easy enough, when the festival isn't going on this is a community that shuts down at six and pulls the sidewalks in at eight. In other words it was what could be termed quiet. I stopped by the library to pick up some books to keep my self occupied for the coming internment that knew I would get the moment I returned to the house. Then I headed over to the video store just to poke around and purposefully make the clerk mad by asking for anime in a town like this.

I had been out almost an hour and basically hadn't really accomplished much, so I decided to pay a visit to the store just for the appearances of getting something that I might need. I choose milk this time. I knew to Alyssa this would be a dead give away that I was just killing time, she knows that I can't stand the stuff. Hopefully though she wouldn't go and squeal on me to the Dr. McCoy wannabe and I would at least get away with it this one time.

That was when I noticed that someone was following me, that same guy from the last few days. This time though there were three guys following him. I caught this as I pulled the 2% out of the cooler and noticed them start after me.

I will admit, right then and there, I wasn't thinking rationally. If I had been what was really going on might have occurred to me sooner. I wasn't though and for the most part I just saw four guys following me. So all the self defense training my mom had put me through as a college freshman came back to me and I went hiding from them. I did this by clutching my milk to me like a coward and ducking behind a huge stack of TP that I had just spotted. Humiliating? Hell yes. But it was better that what I thought could happen if my "stalker" got hold of me.

I stood there behind it and listened to them walk by and eves dropped on what they were saying to one another.

"You sure you saw her come this way boss?" The dark haired one asked in his nearly Cajun accent.

"Yes, she did. She must have taken off." This was the blond; he seemed to deliberately be keeping any tone out of his voice.

Some one else chimed in almost instantly and this one just kept on.

"Well what's she hiding from any how? I mean really it's not like some one's going to hurt her. Honestly after everything she's seen in the last week or so you'd think shed be a lil' more open minded about all of this." He stopped, "Hey maybe she's just scared, I be that's it. She's scared and she thinks that..."

This one was deliberately cut off by the third new guy.

"I think he may have something there. But if she's scared the most logical thing to do right now would be to back off for the moment and let her clam down."

I heard the other one open his mouth to start up again but the first blond guy stopped him.

"I think he's right, what we need to do for the moment is just let her calm down, when she realizes what's going on I think she will stop being afraid." He paused, "Lets head back."

I peeked out from my hiding place and saw them head for the front of the store. I made a point of waiting until my followers had been given plenty of time to get clear of the store, actually a lot more than I realized. Once I was satisfied that I was alone, I took my milk and headed back up to the front end my self. Taking my time and making sure that I took a different route from any of those guys.

I made it up to the front of the store and then once again ducked behind the nearest Angel sized object. There where those guys in the process of yakking to the town gossip who ran the register. This was just what I needed. Knowing my luck shed probably already told them everything about me but my blood type. I took another look around and sure enough she was talking to him, the blond, about a mile a minute and pointing in the direction of the farm. That's right Jean, go ahead and give my stalker detailed instructions on how to find me. Why I had thought I would get peace and quiet in this town was beyond me. I should have known that the townies would never let it go. And indeed she seemed determined to send this person after me.

As I watched he reached over the counter and shook her hand and obviously thanked her for what she had told him. He said something to the three men with him and they all headed out to the parking lot. I gave them time to get gone and took my rapidly warming milk up to the counter intent on chewing out this woman for what she was doing.

"JEAN!!" I snapped.

She looked up at me and had the audacity to smile.

"Hey hunny, that guy that was looking for you was just in here."

"I noticed," I thumped the milk down, "Mind telling me why you feel compelled to tell a guy that you have no idea about, or acquaintance with, all of my personal information?"

"Uhh... its just he seems so eager to find you Angel. I mean almost to the point of being desperate."

"That's just the point Jean! What if this guy was trying to kill me or some thing?"

"Oh Miss Angel, your over reacting just a bit. This fella doesn't want to hurt any one. He said he's looking for you, that he's worried about you. That you..."

I promptly cut her off.

"Tary! You know what happened! I've got some really nasty people mad at me, what if this "Nice guy" was just telling you all of this to get you to spill the beans on me so he could come and cut my head off!?"

"Miss Angel, You've been down right mean since you came back. Ryan guy assures me that he knows you. He says he's been all over Kentucky just looking for you!"

"That's just what someone out to get me would tell you!"

"I think you're over reacting. If you would just see this guy..."

"Jean, that's the problem in this town they are too willing to just go on a person's looks and appearance. The people here are just too trusting!"

I was really beginning to get irritated at this point. The woman had been giving out details about me and couldn't seem to get it through her head that I had just been through something very stressful. That I was scared and probably would be for a very long time, and that I was an emotional and physical wreck. I really was over reacting though. The stress of the situation and loss that I believed I had suffered were taking a toll on me. As a result I was going off at the very woman who had put the thing I wanted the most on the track back to me.

"Do you have any idea what some of the people I have mad at me would do to me if they found me? Killing me wouldn't be enough for them, they'd take me and dangle my life over the head of the one person that ...."

Now she cut me off, "Miss Angel, I Know your up set, and hurt. But to be honest Ryan didn't seem like he was here for any other reason than that he genuinely wanted to see a girl that he cared about."

I put my head in my hand and groaned, then looked back up at her doing the best I could to stay calm and not blow up in the poor woman's face a second time.

"Jean, I don't know any one like that. I don't know any blonds and I don't know any Ryan's" I sighed.

That was when some one walked up behind me and put their hand on my shoulder.

"Actually" He said, "It's pronounced Orion."