earbuds

sixteen

George was awake once again and typing away at his laptop. Clay and I were making small talk until George shouted out. "I got his trail."

"How much longer?" Clay reacted fast, looking around and preparing for whatever is about to happen. He pulls out a couple masks, those you'd use for a disease or what a doctor uses. They're black and made of a cotton fabric or sorts. "Hoodies on as well both of you." He instructs and I put mine on. He pulls out some pairs of sunglasses next. "Don't wanna risk it."

"An hour. Probably less." George states, taking the laptop off of his lap to put a hoodie on and the mask that Clay gave him.

"Good to know. Tell me when to get off the highway." Clay looked into the rearview mirror at George and he nods. "We'll get some food on our way in as well. Fast food probably. Anything you want?" He looks at me.

"Uh, can I think about it?" I asked and he nodded, turning his attention to George. He told Clay what he wanted and Clay took a mental note about it.

George was back on his laptop. "He just changed course, it's the next exit."

"Shit." He drove over to the farthest lane closest to the exit. "We find him first and then we'll get food. Knowing him, he might even cook food. Don't know where he's staying yet."

I nodded, pulling up my hoodie hood and pulling the mask over my face, holding off on putting the sunglasses on. This has changed drastically, we were pretty chill and then we got sights on another convict. We gotta chill out here before we get into more trouble, or worse.

"There should be a building about 10 minutes to the left off the exit." George said as Clay took the exit as fast as he could without looking weird. "It's unnoticeable at first. It's supposed to be."

He nods to his computer friend and turns back to me. "You good?" I only nod, unsure of what to tell him. This entire journey from start to finish has been weird. I haven't gotten any phone calls either, which is weird, but haven't questioned it since those people weren't really my friends. I just hope they still haven't been busted.

"There." George points to an old building, run down and abandoned like most things around. "Park around back." He instructs, putting on his glasses as do I. The building says "day care" and the colors are unsaturated. Paintings of kids playing worn down heavily. "We'll enter through the back."

Clay unlocked the car door and I immediately got out, glad I could stretch. Clay just laughed, closing the door behind him. "I know being in a car sucks ass." I nod, scared to talk. I wasn't sure whether I could trust this guy or not. Even though I was told that I should.

We all finish grabbing our things out of the car and head up to the backdoor. George grabs something from a pot and unlocks the door, tossing the key thing back into the pot and opens the door at the same time. We all enter, as it was kind of dangerous for all of us to just stand there in the outside.

Clay walks up ahead, opening another door that leads to a basement. The stairs are long and the "bunker" thing is deep. "He didn't build this, a friend of his in the category that they do things in did." He looks at George who agrees with that statement.

We quickly and quietly made our way to the bottom, coming across of a door and knocking on it. We heard a few things, rustling front he other side, and it opened. The door was a heavy metal one, quite like a vault.

"Clay? George? A girl?" The man before us spoke. He was taller than me but shorter than Clay. He had a somewhat scruffy beard, his hair short, his eyes a pale blue. "Right! Come in, of course." He moved so that we could walk in. And we did, and he shut the door behind us, locking it.

"Nick, you know why we're here, yeah?" Clay spoke up first, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He glanced at me, smiles, then turns back to the person identified as Nick.

"Of course my man, but y'all have driven a long ways so please take a break. I've got takeout on the counter. It's still hot, I just got it." He says, ushering us to the kitchen.

The room isn't that big, quite like George's set up almost. The kitchen and "living space" are connected, no wall. It's only the living space and the kitchen. The only thing that decides the two is a counter with chairs, quite like an island counter with high chairs.

Nick started making small talk with the boys to catch up and I wandered off and around the rooms. The living space had a couch facing a VHS television. That's super old, before I was born old. I think VHS is ancient and DVDs are before I was born old as well. There are a few VHS tapes laying around on the table. I make a mental note to look through them later.

"(Y/n)! Come here and talk to Nick some." Clay shouts at me.

"Y'all will be sleeping in here. I only have two inflatable mattresses. One of them is a large one and one is a smaller one. I usually sleep on the couch." Nick speaks up. I walk over so that I could be involved in their conversation.
"It's all I got, sleep wise. Sorry." He shrugged and George immediately called the smaller mattress. Which means I'm stuck with Clay on the big one. Cliché ending, to be honest.

"So you're (Y/n)? Only heard good things, but then again, I only think the two know very little about you." I get knocked out of my thinking and turn to the voice. It was Nick. George had ran off to the couch, guessing to look at movies or get himself relaxed. One of the two.

"Yeah. I'm the earbud scientist's daughter. Probably the only bad thing about me that they know about." I mention, ending up in a conversation about what the past few days were like. The past week or so even.

Nick and I ended up talking everyone into tiredness, Clay would occasionally rest his hand on the small of my back which would send shivers up my spine. He would do it to point something out about me that I would mention, putting his own into the conversation.

It's been a long day so Nick understood that we wanted sleep as soon as those conversations died down. Tomorrow we'd talk about the plans, which is understandable. We all need the rest. While Nick was pulling out and blowing up the mattresses, Clay turned to me in the kitchen. Nick and George were busy chatting so they were distracted. "You fine with us sleeping in the same bed?"

"It's just for a night, right?" I shrug it off, trying to not make it a big deal.

"I just don't want you to be uncomfortable, ya know? Lookin' out for you and all." He mumbled, getting up and taking a stretch.

"If it bothers you, we can put something between us but I think it'll be fine. I'm not really worried. We're not fucking." I laughed and Clay looked away, red dusting his cheeks.

"Okay." He mumbled again and I got up to follow him to the blow up mattress.