Ian drove too fast. Not that it really surprised Matt. Ian did everything too fast, but this was becoming unbearable. Matt sat in the back seat, Wallace's head slumped over on his shoulder as she slept. Beyond Wallace, Kiya dozed too, her face pressed against the window and her breath creating a cloud of condensation in front of her mouth. Charlotte was curled in a ball in the passenger seat, asleep or awake, Matt couldn't tell, but he hardly had the ability to notice as Ian slipped off the freeway heading towards the darkening north sky.
"Can you slow down a bit? I think I'm going to throw up," he grumbled.
Ian's blue gaze met his in the rear view mirror, lingering far too long off the road that began to twist and turn like a snake before them.
"Relax Desmarais," he sighed. "We'll be there soon – sooner if you stop criticising my driving".
"I'm not criticising – I am simply pointing out that the rest of us aren't as used to travelling at this speed and..."
"The others don't seem to mind," Ian grinned.
"They're asleep".
"Well then they must find my driving very soothing".
Matt exhaled and gazed out the window at the sky tinged with pink from the dying light. Stars started to appear above them. How long had they been driving? Twelve hours? Fourteen? Wallace had woken him when dawn was a grey hint on the horizon, with two cars already waiting on the forest boundary to shorten their journey north. With few breaks and barely anything to eat, everything was becoming an irritant, but Ian's driving was the easiest to latch on to.
"How long until we're there?"
"Twenty minutes... don't think you're going to like it though. The farm house - it's in a valley..." Ian paused, grinning at him. "A lot of hairpin bends to get down to it".
Matt ignored him. "Is it close to Nicholls'?" Matt didn't recognise the route they had come. However, now it was a different season. Snow no longer blanketed the ground. Night didn't yet fully shroud the sky, and Charlotte was here safe and unharmed.
Wallace groaned and tossed in the seat beside him, her arm falling across his lap. Her dark eyelashes fluttered against her brown cheek, her expression soft. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and he had to fight the urge to take her hand in his. Thoughts like that were dangerous. He couldn't let his mind betray him to Wallace, not when he didn't even know what he was thinking himself.
"Two miles from Nicholls'," Ian said, interrupting his thoughts. Matt glanced forward, the headlights illuminating the darkening road.
"Is it safe to be so close?"
Ian shrugged. "Are we ever safe? We thought the hotel was safe... we thought the warehouse was safe... the campsite... I think we just attract the wrong sort of attention".
"You think?"
"I trust Ethan. If he says it's what we're to do, then we do it," Ian continued.
Matt trusted Ethan too. Though it wasn't like he had a choice. He wanted an end to this. He wanted a guarantee that they were free, that he could return home. He needed to know that they didn't have to spend the rest of their lives hiding.
He glanced back at Wallace, her lips slightly parted, her dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail. He trusted her too. He knew she could see what Ethan was thinking and she believed it was the right choice, the right path. He suddenly wanted to touch her cheek, to trace the angle it made above her hollow cheeks. A fiery flush lit up his face as he caught his wandering thoughts again. Silly, reckless feelings like that would just make things awkward. And he didn't need that. He liked Wallace. She was easy going and approachable, where the others...
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Feared
Science Fiction'Play the game, she thought, remembering the only three words that had helped her to survive at Kingston. Only back then she had known the game, she had known what they wanted her to be, what they had wanted her to do - this man was different. She d...
