Page 42 of The Alpha: Part Three
He gets fifty-nine seconds and then I'm going in. One of the guys that went in after Ben comes out, his mouth drawn in a line. A few seconds later Ben comes out, followed by the other guy that got out of the SUV. Ben doesn't look at our truck, he looks at the minivan.
The guy behind him speeds up to walk beside him and I put my hand on the door handle. I watch them exchange a few words and Ben shrugs, shaking his head and walks back to the truck to pump the gas. The other guy squints his eyes at the truck for a moment, but he walks to the minivan instead of the SUV and starts pointing down the road like he's giving directions.
“Desie. When he opens the door to get back in the truck, you face away from him.” Yeah, we're paranoid, but we've got a good reason to be. We've seen and experienced what the rogues are capable of.
Ben pumps the gas and gets back in the truck, shutting the door quickly. “Let's go. We'll find a side road. That guy recognized me from The Backhouse. I tried to play it off, but I don't think he bought it.”
“No, we'll stay on the main road for a while and then take the scenic route once we know we're not being followed. We won't have to stop to fill the tank again for about three hundred miles, give or take. If we can minimize the stops we won't lose much time taking side roads.” It's going to take a lot longer, though. No matter how few times we stop.
I pull out of the parking lot and adjust the rear view mirror. Nobody follows us out onto the main roadway and I allow my shoulders to loosen a little. Seth is still a tight ball of anxiety beside me, and Desie's worry is filling up the cab of the truck.
“We can drive straight through if we take turns driving,” Ben says. “I know we're already doing that, but we had planned to stop and sleep for the night a couple times. But if we all take a turn we can just go straight through and we'll get there sooner.”
Seth nods. “That's a better plan than stopping. We've only got about two days of travel left if we do it that way.” He turns back to look at Desie. “Can you stand not stopping for the night? I know you're cramped and I hate to ask.”
“Let's just go,” Desie says, offering a smile. “I can take a turn driving, too.”
“And we might even survive it since we're not in the city,” Ben teases. “Lots of open space out here. Nothing to run into.”
Desie makes a face at him. “I'm a better driver than you are, Benjamin. I just don't like it when people cut me off or drive twenty miles under the speed limit.”
“Road rage is what it's called,” Ben continues. “But I think we'll be safe so long as traffic doesn't get heavy.”
We fall quiet. Seth even closes his eyes for a while, which is good because it’ll be his turn to drive next. It's going to be dark soon. We've lost a quarter tank of gas. We'll have to stop at night to fill up again and I'm already dreading it. I haven't left the major highway for the side roads yet. I didn't want to alarm anyone unnecessarily, but I noticed a few vehicles keeping pace with us in the distance about thirty minutes ago. I think keeping to the main roads might be safer than the side roads after all. When we were talking about it earlier, it seemed like a great idea. Keep off the main roads, keep out of sight; but now I'm seeing more of the dangers. It's a lot easier to find trouble on side roads than it is on main ones. We're going to have to re-evaluate again and soon.
After a while, Desie interrupts the silence. “Why aren't the Midlands regulated? There should be some kind of authority here, shouldn't there? There are homes here. Businesses. Hospitals. Who runs those? I've never thought about it before now.”
Seth sits up in his seat and rubs his face. “The hospitals are independently owned and run. The East Coast Council runs one, the Northern Council has one, and the Southern Council has two smaller ones. All the businesses are individually owned by packs or whoever. None of the councils have been able to agree about what fair terms are out here. It's supposed to be a neutral zone, mostly for travel purposes I guess, but it has to change. It's too dangerous to remain unregulated. That's why it's so easy for the rogue organization. All they've got to do is run through here and they're free. Marcus and Alpha Johnson have been in talks with Minos about it. They've reached out to the Northern and Southern Councils. It has to change. As immediately as possible.”
“What about Jasper?” Desie asks. “His family is supposed to be some kind of Southern territory super power. Couldn't Jasper, I don't know, throw his weight around? To get it done faster?”
Seth turns all the way around in his seat and looks at her for a long moment. “I didn't consider that. I've been too concerned about keeping him protected from all this. We all have.”
“He'd do it, Seth,” she says. “He'd do whatever he could to make things safe.”
Seth nods. “I'll ask him about it when we get back.”
We fall back into silence, with the radio playing quietly and Ben letting out an occasional snore. He's been resting with his head in Desie's lap for a while now. If it wasn't for the potential danger, I would very much be enjoying this. I have always wanted to go on a road trip with Ben and Desie. I wanted us to travel. Then too much life happened and we got pulled into the endless spiral of being adults and trying to survive and I kind of lost hope of having that with them. For a while, I didn't think we'd even end up with each other, much less go on trips or vacations.
The sun sinks below the horizon and the stars start to come out. We've got a little less than half a tank of gas when Desie interrupts the silence again.
“I've got bad news.”
I nod. It's been several hours. I'm surprised she's lasted this long.
“I'll find a spot. We don't need gas yet, but we could fill back up so we can get a little farther.”
“Will it be safe?”
I look into the rear view mirror again. The vehicles I've been watching since we left the last gas station haven't passed us. Other vehicles have gone past with normal traffic, but there are at least two in the distance who have been keeping pace. We eventually get to an exit with several fuel stations and some kind of outlet strip mall and I pull onto the ramp with dread creeping up from my stomach. I pick a gas station on the other side of the road and swing into one of the pumps nearest the door.
“I thought we were going to find her a bush?” Ben asks, his voice rough with sleep.
“It's dark. I'm going in with her. You pump the gas, Seth can scoot over behind the wheel.”
Desie pulls the hoodie she “borrowed” from Mateo over her head, keeping the hood up. I know she thinks the bagginess of the hoodie will hide her belly, but she's too far along for that. I won't be the one to tell her that her efforts at being incognito are useless, though.
“Ready?” she asks.
