In My Blood (Completed)

CHAPTER 17: Fight For Me

Just as it had for days past, the road stretched ahead of them in a long, unbroken line. Aside from the cracks and potholes that marred the highway from neglect and the abandoned vehicles that occasionally dotted the road on their travels, they saw few signs of actual human habitation during the day. That had largely been the case ever since they'd set out on their travels once again.

For all of its promise and privilege, Baldwin City had become just another lost opportunity in their rear view mirror. When an outbreak of some unidentified illness had begun incapacitating an increasingly large number of people around the settlement, it had forced their hand. The unforeseen circumstances had not only accelerated their timeline for leaving, it had also made the choice to bring the kids with them an obvious one. While everything about the settlement had seemed increasingly and impossibly ideal during their stay, there was no chance that they would risk leaving the children amid an outbreak like that.

The continued presence of the children understandably made it slower going on the road. Rather than camping out or taking refuge in the vehicles at night, as they undoubtedly would have done if it had been only Beca and Chloe, they made sure to seek out shelter each night as the sun began to dip below the horizon. The colder weather had well and truly set in at night too, so that was all the more reason to find shelter at night when they weren't in the fairly comfortable confines of the jeep. Despite the mission that pushed them ever onward, they never slacked on precautions where the twins were concerned. If it meant small delays along the way, then so be it. It was an acceptable compromise to make, no question about it.

They had finally run across an old, weathered sign proclaiming that they were crossing the Colorado border the day before, and as they passed into their second day of traversing the state that held their destination, progress slowed somewhat. They were traversing unfamiliar roads, but they had thankfully managed to salvage a map at one of the old gas stations they'd stopped at before.

It was during another stop to stretch their legs and replenish with a snack and some water that Chloe found herself consulting the map again. While the kids lingered nearby and entertained themselves with some game she couldn't quite overhear, she spread the map across the hood of the jeep so she could study it. She was thankful that conditions had improved as they progressed farther west, because more signs and road markers had survived that made navigation easier in conjunction with the map.

Finger tracing the road between their approximate location and where the lab was located, she glanced over towards Beca. "I think we're on the right track. We shouldn't be too far out now," she mused aloud. Her eyes squinted as she looked around to take in their surroundings in the early afternoon sunlight. "At this rate, we should be able to make it there before nightfall without a problem."

*

Try as she had to mentally prepare herself to say goodbye to those kids who wormed their way into her ice cold heart (yeah, shhh, whatever), Beca was bummed that Baldwin City didn’t work out for safety’s sake. A few days before they’d planned to leave, Beca had gotten new ink from Chip--a blackbird and a sun on her open inner forearm to represent her time with Luke and Nellie. The outbreak hit at the perfect time, in that if it happened a few days later, Beca and Chloe would’ve left the kids there not knowing of the medical emergency in the otherwise idyllic settlement. Selfishly, Beca was glad she had more time with the kids… but Jesus, it would make the rest of their journey far more dangerous than it already was, and Beca was in a near constant state of anxiety because of that as they set off across Kansas and into Colorado.

She tried to not let it show around everyone else, busying herself by entertaining the kids (reading lessons were still a thing, as were singalongs), and keeping everyone well fed with Chloe’s help. They tried to keep things as “normal” as possible for Luke and Nell, just like they had when they were back at the cabin and even during their routines they settled into Baldwin City. But the long days of travel wore on the kids, not to mention exhausted Beca from so much damn driving. But they had to do this--they had to make the final push to Denver before it got too cold.