Anada

Traveling

"Mr.Liam just emailed me." Neil anounced from his seat at the dinning table.

I glanced up at him as he started scanning the text on his laptop screen. Alex, Westen, and Reina started gathering around him. I soon got up out of the recliner that I was in, and walked over to them.

I expected Elias to come over too, but I was only reminded of his absence.

It was yesterday morning when he left to go home.

Neil started talking again, "I'll read the email outloud."

He cleared his throat and started reading, "I have an assignment ready for you. I will not give you the exact location, but I would like for you to go to Death Valley National Park. When you arrive there I want you to contact me. Then I will give you another location to travel to."

"Why is he not telling us the actual location of the mission?" I asked them.

Neil answered, "He does this sometimes. He'll give us destinations to go to on the way to the unknown location. He does that because the situation of the mission might change. For example, the people we're supposed to stop may move or they may get caught by someone else before we arrive to stop them. If that happened then all that traveling would be useless."

That makes sense.

"When should we leave?" Westen asks Alex.

Alex replies, "Well, Mr.Liam wasn't specific about that. I think we should leave today. Bronden may be looking for us, and if we leave here we might loose him."

Everyone else agreed with him. We immediately went to our own rooms to pack.

I looked to see what time it was. Currently 8:34am.

I helped Reina pack, because I really didn't have any clothes of my own yet. I was still wearing her clothes.

As if she read my mind, Reina says, "You need some clothes of your own. We can't both wear the same stuff all the time. It's about time we buy you some too."

"When can we go shopping? How can we when we're about to leave Las Vegas?" I asked her.

"Don't worry. I know a couple of good places to go to." She said with a wink.

I continued to help pack. Then I started thinking about few questions to ask.

"Reina, where have you and the others been on missions?"

"We've been all over the United States. We have gone through almost every state, but we were mostly traveling through those states though anyway." She said.

I decided to ask her another question, "How long have you been together as a team?"

I'm always listen to their conversations about other missions, but I don't know how long they've actually known each other.

Reina thought about the question then said, "I think we've been a team... five years. Yeah, that's right. We've been a team for five years now."

She continued, "When we were first assigned together as a group we didn't like it. Mr.Liam put us together, but I'm not sure why. I remember that none of us got along. I once got in a fight with Westen, but now we're great friends."

"Really?"

"True story." She smiled at me.

We both finished our packing, and we brought the suitcases down to the parking lot. Reina put her things in the Mustang while everyone else put their belongings in the Hummer.

Alex came over to Reina to explain to her about the certain roads and interstates they would be taking. Reina reassured him by reminding him that there was a GPS in the Mustang.

We all left sometime around 11:30am. I road with Reina in the Mustang. The ride didn't feel the same with Elias not there.

Reina explained that it would take about three hours to get to Death Valley. The park is about 140 miles from Las Vegas.

I gazed out the window at the passing desert. Everything was dry. Stunted plants grew randomly around the landscape. It had a unique beauty all in itself.

Will I ever see the ocean again?

I know I'll see the ocean again, but I have no idea when. I miss swimming in the blue water and watching the fish dart out of my way.

The desert is the exact opposite of the ocean. I'm a water dragon. Why would I not miss the ocean?

After Reina and I had been riding for about three hours, we finally arrived at Death Valley National Park.

Reina called the others to make sure we were in the right place. She was only on the phone for a minute.

"They said that they were in the parking lot of the visitor center." Reina said to me.

We soon drove up into the parking lot, and Reina parked beside the Hummer.

I immediately got out to stretch my tight muscles. Then I was immediately greeted by Westen and hot desert air.

"Hey, we've been waiting for you. We're about to go into the visitor center together. I've always wanted to come here." Westen said to us.

Everyone went into the building together as a group. There were many other tourists too. I caught a few jealously looking at our vehicles.

We wandered around the visitor center. There was a gift shop, and a separate area that told about the park's history.

Westen was interested in everything there. I was too. I had never been to a place like that before.

While we continued to look around, Neil contacted Mr.Liam for our next location.

About ten minutes later, Neil gathered us together and said with a smile, "It looks like we've got more traveling to do."