Out Running the Alpha

A Star Wars Rerun

It took me the rest of the morning to find the cemetery and the sun was rising as I walked through the gates. The cemetery was small but surprisingly nice. I wandered around running my fingers over the rows of marble tombstone. Surprisingly it seemed like this was a family cemetery with a majority of the last names on the tombstones being Baudin. I racked my brain for anyone I might have known with that last name, but I was drawing a blank. I figured I must have gotten the cemetery name wrong when I came across a large marble tombstone with angles engraved on it. The name read Jamie-Lynn Wardell, loving mother now lies with the angles. I laughed out loud at that. Whoever had paid for the tombstone and burial clearly hadn't known her very well. I was surprised to see fresh flowers laid on the grave.

"Hey who are you?" a voice called from behind me "What are you doing here?".

I stood up clutching my bag. A tall handsome man in his mid to late thirties was standing behind me.

"I... I'm sorry" I stammered edging away from him, "I thought my mom was buried here, but I guess I was wrong".

"Jamie-Lynn was your mom?" He asked his face softening. I nodded as he relaxed. Before he could say or do anything I ran as fast as I could. Something about that man set me on edge. Besides I didn't want to leave a trail this close Bran. I didn't want to give Bran a chance to catch up with me. If he tried to change my mind I wasn't sure I wouldn't go back with him.

Unfortunately, I'd run out the back of the cemetery and was now lost in the dense woods behind them. I was tempted to just turn back around but wanted to avoid the man that I'd seen before. If I went back towards the cemetery he still might be there. Instead, I choose to head parallel to the road for a mile or so and then what I hoped was back towards it.

I briefly wished that Bran was here with me. I'd never been the best at finding my way around. Bran had normally been the navigator when we went on the run. I'd been the one who was good at getting us free things like a sandwich, a ride, some change or some water from a kind stranger. It was easy since I was already small and fragile looking. All I had to do was play up the helpless teenager and we got pretty much whatever we needed at the moment. It had always been him and me against the world. And now it was just me.

Sniffling I headed back towards where I thought a road might have been and thankfully I was able to get out from the trees and into an open field where I could see a small winding road. I smiled and wiped some sweat off my brow. It was closer to midday now and the hot Virginia sun was now beating down in full force.

I was surprised at how long my excursion really had taken. I really had wanted to be much farther away from here by now but I guess I would just have to try and get as far as I could the rest of the day. I was going to try and head to California. As far west as west goes was what Bran used to tell me when we were running away. We'd actually made it pretty close to California before Mr. Liddell had found us in Colorado.

I ran my hand along the long grass that was growing on the side of the highway. I wasn't positive, but I thought I was headed west based on where the sun was. I stopped to put the sweatshirt I'd thrown on last night in my bag. I'd forgotten how miserable this part could be. It had never been fun trekking alongside a highway when we couldn't find a ride. It wasn't fun in the rain or cold, but I'd always hated the heat the most. You could strip off as much clothing as you wanted to, but there was no way to escape it. When I was with Bran at least I had someone to talk to, to distract from the discomfort. Now it was just me and my thoughts. At least until a cop car pulled up behind me.

"Excuse me, Miss," An officer said as the car cruised even with me "I'm going to need you to get in the car".

"What?" I asked confused. I stopped to look at the man and he stopped the car "Why? I haven't done anything wrong".