The Meme Life

Chapter 12

When I woke up the next morning, pain shot through my neck. I was slumped against the wall in the shed.

Or so I thought.

What I thought was the wall of my shed was really the side of some SUV-type-thing. My hands were tied together and resting in my lap, and my legs were shackled. I was in the very back of the vehicle. Four people sat in the car, excluding me. There was a girl dressed in a green shirt and jeans back here with me, and she looked familiar...

Arianna!

I used my shackled foot to gently nudge her. When she opened her eyes, I signaled to be quiet. With that, her eyes bulged and she jerked her head to the right and saw the people in the car.

"What the hell is happening?" I whispered.

"I have no fucking idea," she whispered back. "Why are we tied?"

"I don't know. These people, I don't recognize them."

"Neither do I." Arianna looked frightened.

"Can you tell where we are?" I asked. Arianna was slumped higher than I was, so she could probably see out of the window better.

She slightly straightened her posture and stretched her neck up. She slunk back down a moment later.

"We passed a Lathrop sign," she said.

Lathrop is the armpit of the world, or at least California. There is nothing there besides houses, a few chain restaurants and stores (stores are almost nonexsistent), and a gas station or two. I don't think they even have their own police department. Lathrop is a dead meme: still trying to be seen, but making slow progress.

Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Lathrop. But I'm more of a semi-big city guy. I am not a fan of huge cities, but I like smaller ones even less. They're just not my cup of tea.

"Where do you think we're going?" Ari asks.

"Well, I think the bay area is this way. I think." I honestly have no idea if the Bay is this way. I don't get to go there very often.

"The Bay? But why there?" I can see that Arianna is trying to put puzzle pieces together in her mind. The answer seems perfectly obvious to me.

"Think about it," I start to whisper. "There are big cities, thousands of people, thousands of places to go and hide people. While it probably is the most obvious place, it's so much harder to a needle in a twelve mile haystack than a needle in a pile outback."

Arianna slowly nods her head. My explanation makes sense to her, until we start to pull off the freeway.

"What the fuck, Cena!" She whispered this a little too loudly. One of the passengers turns around and sees us awake.

"Hey! They're awake," he cried.

It goes dark again.

Fuck.

+ + +

When I open my eyes again, I'm in a room with Arianna. There is a skylight, but no windows, a toilet and sink, three chairs (including the two that our legs are cuffed to), and one door. The only light comes from the skylight above, and the walls are a creamy white. There are two sandwiches and a bottle of mustard in the center of the room.

I glance over at Ari and she just looks empty. I scoot myself over to her.

"Hey," I say. No response. "Hey?"

Still nothing. I reach my hand out to put it on her shoulder, but she quickly slaps my arm away.

"Don't touch me," she says.