We figured everyone would be up by now, so we headed back into the cave. Fang was handing out what looked like crushed sandwiches. Whatever it was, it smelled ok and tasted great. "So, what's our plan of action?" Moony asked. Max swallowed and wiped her mouth.
"We're going to New Jersey." There was total silence, which was broken by Nudge.
"Huuuuuuuuh?"
"I said, we're going to New Jersey. Think about it. It's close to DC and all the places we're from. It's got plenty of mountains and places where we can hide."
"And it's probably one of the last places they'd expect us to go," Avery added. "Not a bad idea. Of course, we might want to get some fresher clothes…" He had a point there. Moony, Weed, and me were dressed in dirty white t-shirts and shorts. The rest of us were better off, but just as shabby. Avery held up a thick wad of money. "I'll go get some clothes, shall I?"
An hour later, I was a totally new person. My hair had been dyed black, although they'd let me keep a streak of hair my real color. My clothes had been exchanged for a white tank top and black jeans. Amazingly, I looked almost normal. Almost.
We were a bit worried about Weed, since most of her skin is covered in that hard stuff, but we finally decided to get her a hooded sweatshirt and just keep the hood up the whole time. Avery said he'd try to find something to get the stuff to go away.
We flew (ok, the birdies flew while we tried not to hurl) for a couple hours, trying to stay near the clouds. We landed on a beach that was pretty gravelly. There was a sign that said Sandy Hooks. Sandy Hooks sure needed a cleaning crew. No one was around, except the seagulls. I looked down to see some weird, clearish blobs on the sand. The freaky thing was, it was moving. I was about to poke it when someone yelled, "STOP!"
A girl was standing a little way from us, holding a blue bucket. Max edged towards Angel, while I slowly reached for Weed. The girl had glasses and black hair, and was moving closer to us. She stopped right in front of me, frowning. I was expecting her to kill me or something, but she bent down and picked the blob up, dropping it in her bucket. "They're jellyfish," she explained. "If they stay here they'll dry out." I noticed she had dumped seawater in her bucket and there were more blobs floating inside. She swung her arms in a graceful arch, and the jellyfish went flying into the ocean.
"My name's Mitchie," she said. "What are you guys doing here?" I glanced at Fang, who shrugged. Avery stepped forward.
"DO you have a place we can stay?" he asked. Mitchie raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but nodded.
She led us into a cliff with a cave. God, I'm getting sick of caves. "I live here," she announced. "I ran away when I was 12. I've been here for about a year."
"And no one's noticed?" Iggy asked incredulously. She shrugged.
"No one cares. I help them out, they give me food. Or I just fish for some. Now then…" she glared at us. "What about you guys?" Fang shrugged.
"We're from California. We ditched after an accident."
"I see. City kids," Mitchie narrowed her eyes. I guessed she didn't approve of cities. "Whatever."
Moony walked around a bit, sniffing. Weed tapped Angel on the shoulder, and Angel whispered into Nudge's ear. Nudge whispered to Avery, who shook his head and whispered something back.
"Feel free to help yourself," Mitchie called, pointing at a little rack made of branches hanging over a tiny fire. The smell of fish began to rise. "There's plenty of it." We helped ourselves to the fish and also discovered cooked potatoes. They looked burned, but if you carefully sliced it open, it was really good inside. I sliced mine with my claws when Mitchie wasn't looking.
"So, what's our plan?" Gasman piped up, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"I think we should stay here for the night, then leave. We shouldn't stay in one place too long." Fang's statement was approved of. It was getting dark, and Mitchie'd disappeared. We weren't too worried since she seemed to know everything about the freakin' place.
I woke up around midnight to find that Angel and Nudge were both gone. I quietly tiptoed out to look for them. Lo and behold, they were just sitting on some rocks a few feet away. I jumped over, ready to yell at them. They both turned and put their finger to their lips, AKA the shhhhhh! sign. Nudge pointed at something way over by the horizon, so I squinted to see what it was. Oh, my god.