"Could someone please describe to me in twenty-five words or less what the hell kind of vehicle this is?" Iggy asked, thoroughly befuddled by the shag interior of the van.

The van that they had jacked not fifteen minutes earlier.

"I think it's some sort of seventies love van," Fang offered his two cents without looking up from the road. He was driving the vehicular abomination, and normally one has to watch the road to do so.

I surveyed my flock with tired eyes. They had been through so much, especially recently.

"Uh huh..." Iggy muttered, not convinced, "If by saying 'love' you mean the 'drugs are us' van, then I think you're on to something. Or even on something. Maybe both."

Fang shrugged, "Drugs, love. Don't split hairs."

It's like a Teddy Bear van!" Nudge exclaimed suddenly from the front passenger seat. She sounded proud of herself. I knew then why she had been so silent for the past... two minutes. She had been thinking of what exactly the van reminded her of.

"Teddy Bears, love, drugs. Don't split hairs," Iggy muttered, obviously mocking Fang, "So am I gonna get to drive this rapist wagon at any point, or what?"

I sighed, "No, Iggy."

"And why ever not?"

"Three guesses," I said, quickly losing patience. It wasn't my fault I was stretched so thin. After all that had happened? Could you really blame me? Hmm? I dare you to try.

That's right, you can't.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Iggy said, "I've so totally transcended any disabilities I have."

I rolled my eyes, a completely pointless gesture here, but I tried to treat Iggy with as much similarities as I treated the others.

But not driving. Hell no. Not in a billion years.

I sighed, "Please don't play games, Iggy..."

Iggy returned my sigh, "Alright... Just trying to keep spirits up and all that."

And I totally respected that. I just wasn't in the mood, I guess... I was beyond spirit-uplifting. I just needed to shill for a few minutes, and hopefully I'd be okay... Hopefully...

"Are we there yet?" the Gasman asked inquisitively.

"Yes," Fang said evenly.

"No, were not..." Gazzy seemed let down.

"Then why'd ya ask, dude?" Iggy inquired.

"Miracles can happen," Gazzy informed his older comrade.

"Yeah..." Iggy admitted, "They can. Just not to us."

I was surprised to find myself talking, "Don't be so pessimistic," I said.

"It's not pessimism, Max, it's a fact," Iggy said, launching into a soliloquy, "And I didn't even say it was bad. Way I figure it, we're due for a couple miracles'. And if we've gotten this far without them, which it would appear we have, then if we did get a miracle, we'd really be sitting pretty."

"Amen," Fang murmured quietly.

Amen, I said silently to myself. Amen.

Maybe a miracle would happen. Soon. Someday. Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Someday... Wow, I was totally in a thought loop right there. Snap out of it Max. Why am I even having these disparaging thoughts? Why am I allowing them at all? I'm the freakin' leader here, right? Can't show the troops how freakin' demoralized I am. Then the battle (and war) are already hopelessly lost.

I sure as hell ain't giving up. Not after all that's happened. I'm gonna see it through, and drag these five kids with me. And the one dog. Him, too.

I'll put up the talking mutt as long as Angel does. Which would seem to be several potential lifetimes at this rate.

Speaking of which... Angel had been rather quiet for a bit. And so had Total, for that matter. I turned my head to see what that deal was there.

And I was pleasantly surprised, and somewhat touched.

Angel was sound asleep; her head rolled adorably to one side. Total was curled up in her lap, also asleep. My heart simply swelled with those feelings of immense affection; feelings that I imagine are similar to what a parent must feel. Angel is, for all intents and purposes, my baby. I love her to death. That's just how it is.

Sue me.

And then Nudge leaned over and laid on the horn. Again.

"Please don't do that," Fang muttered absent mindedly, as though he really didn't care if Nudge overused the horn or not, but merely saying not to as a favor the me.

Because he damn well knew that I didn't want to be driving down the highway in some hippie-van with the horn blaring.

"Oh, c'mon..." Nudge plead, "I'm just cheering things up."

"Good plan, bad execution," Iggy said.

"Seconded," I said, not being able to hide a smile.

"You guys are officially no fun. Like, at all," Nudge pouted.

"Nobody's perfect," I shrugged. Nudge pouted again.

"Are we there yet?" Gazzy was trying to jump on the 'cheering up' bandwagon once again.

But this time, I had to really try hard to suppress a smile.

"What's going on?" a sleepy voice floated to my ears, and I knew instantly that Nudge's horn antics had woken up Angel.

"Nothing, Angel," I assured her.

"Do you have to honk the horn every five minutes?" Total asked, also sleepy.

"Okey dokey, you're officially no fun, either," Nudge said, leaning over once again to blare the horn to again emphasis her somewhat flawed point of view.

But whoever said flawed wasn't amusing?

"What's in Dallas, anyway?" Gazzy asked.

"Cattle," Fang said.

"Illegal immigrants," Iggy said, nearly at the same time

I smiled, once again one hundred percent thankful for the cast of characters I had been blessed with. I turned to look back at Angel, and was happy to see that she was sleeping again.

I sighed to myself. It was going to be a long trip. Especially in this ridiculous van.

But not necessarily a bad one.

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Author's Note:

Alrighty. It occurred to me that I hadn't really described this story all that well. It'll sort of start as a parallel to the third book, with more detailed viewpoints on principle events to the main cast. There will be many other new scenes, which will flesh the story out much, much more, and of course there's the other storyline of Brium (the two stories will cross over at some point soon, and then collide every now and again) So yeah. Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Please state them. Thanks for reading!