Human

45.

Derrek led me away from the road and into the woods.

We weaved through the darkness until we came out to a highway on the other side. "What time is it?" I asked him while I looked off into the horizon. The sky was starting to lighten and the stars were slowly disappearing.

He looked down to the watch on his wrist and groaned. "It's already 4:30am and we've still got an hour ahead of us before we get to The Order."

"That's an hour drive, and we don't have a car." I pointed out.

Derrek looked up and down the highway with his eyes squinted. "That way." He said pointing to the right. "There's a couple gas stations up ahead and we can nab a car."

"You want to steal a car?" I asked him surprised.

"You have a better plan?" He challenged me.

"No." I admitted after giving it a minutes thought. "How do you think we are going to do this exactly?" I asked as we started trekking that way.

He smiled while he walked. "Well, you're going to use your little mind tricks to unlock us a car, and I'm going to use one of my little tricks to get it going." He laughed.

"Don't tell me you know how to hotwire a car?" I said with a questioning glare. He just smiled and kept on walking. "Derrek?" I said his name loudly.

He turned to look at me, flipping his blonde locks out of his eyes. "What? You told me not to tell you." He joked. "I learned back in Cali one summer from my cousin, Jeff."

"Jeff sounds like a stand up guy." I muttered sarcastically.

Derrek laughed but didn't disagree. We walked the rest of the mile and a half in comfortable silence. As much as I love my converse, they were not the best shoes for long distance walking. Their flat bottoms and lack of support was really starting to make my feet ache. Again I thought about how this is not the way I wanted my confrontation with The Order to go. Now I'm going to be alone, well with the exception of a half-blood Potente, and I am going to already be exhausted before I even get there.

I was beyond grateful when I saw the gas station sign.

We walked up from the back of the building and looked around at the few cars that were there at this time.

"How about this one?" I asked when I noticed an old Acura that had dirt and dust all over it. "It doesn't look like anyone would be missing this one. Seems to have been here a while."

Derrek didn't look too excited about it. "There might be a reason for that." He told me but after a quick peak under the hood he nodded.

I looked around making sure no one was watching, then I flipped the locks all up. "Tada." I whispered to him.

I hopped into the passenger seat and had to crank the window down quickly. It smelled like stale cigarettes and mold. Derrek coughed his head off when he sat down, then rolled his window down too. "You sure know how to pick them." He said through his shirt that he had pulled up to cover his mouth and nose. He leaned down into the floorboard and started pulling wires out and mixing them around the way he wanted. It took him a few tries, but finally the engine gurgled to life. "Tada." He laughed closing his door and slowly pulling away from the lot.

Derrek hopped on the interstate and we headed for Swanford.

Once all of the windows were down the smell was hardly noticeable. I leaned my head back on the headrest and tried to ease my mind and mentally prepare for what was coming. I know there are only two possible outcomes, and I want to be ready for either.