The Guadeloupe Squadeloupe

Chapter XXXXI: Alice

"You have torn it all apart, I am watching it burn."- Burn // Hamilton the Musical

Is there any food in this stupid van? It's the only thought I can put in my head in place of Perry.

My sister's hand rests on the stick shift, no longer twitching with anxiety. Glancing to her face, I see her blank eyes flicker from the mirror to the road just like our Driver's Ed teacher taught us in Wyoming.

Both of the Californians seem to be asleep, Bob and Guad occupied by their own dark thoughts.

The bag of fruit the owner of this car left behind doesn't look particularly appetizing, so I open the glove box.

The second it's pulled open I remember all the times in recent weeks where I've had hope that my life could be normal again. And all those hopes slowly fall to the ground once again.

A thick and folded piece of paper falls out of the glove box onto my lap. "Gee I wonder who this could be from," I snide.

With nervous interest, Guad, Bob, and Janis suddenly begin to pay attention to what I have to say.

Unfolding the piece of paper, I quickly find it's a large map with a highlighted route from Bogota, Colombia to San Diego, California.

"Well I guess we're not asking for directions," I say, holding it out in front of me. From what I can tell in the next 15 minutes from signs out on the road and the map together, we are on the right highway.

In the bottom right hand corner of the map the insignia is stamped, just along the coast of Brazil.

And of course, along with it is a message.

"Stole this from an HQ before they caught onto me," I read. "Yes they know about Wallace. Don't listen to whatever they tell you. Just get to America. Hope this map will help you. See you at the ball game." Below it in fancy calligraphy is an embellished "A."

Before saying anything, we all glance to the Whites. We were right. We shouldn't have listened to Delgato's men.

Part of me wants to wake Perry up just to yell, "I told you so! Look where we'd be now if we'd listened to you!"

But another part of me wants to comfort because now we know that the largest chance lies in his parents being dead.

With these two parts of my mind dominating for control, another part of me, a small one, reminds me this is the only boy I've ever kissed. I can't let him go through my anger or his own grief. For now he needs to sleep.

No one wants to be woken up and told their parents are dead. I certainly didn't.

"Is Ashton okay?" Janis is the first to make any comment. Outside the window, the stars still shine, but I know that the sun has to rise in a few hours.

"Who knows at this point?" I sigh. folding the map and shoving it in my backpack.

"You should," Janis points out, answering my rhetorical question. "You and Perry heard him in that building. On your... date."

Bob snorts behind us at how uncomfortable my twin is. Is he serious? Oh wait, he's Bob of course he is.

I try to change the subject as best I can. "Well Ashton's certainly blown his cover at HEXA, he even admitted so himself. So did someone from that building he was in."

"Obviously," Guad's low voice speaks up, "he was well enough to know what car we we'd be stealing and got that map in here."

"Can we even trust Ashton though?" Janis asks the age old question, her eyes still focused on the road ahead. "I mean, he gave us a bugged car, and he's worked for HEXA for years. His tattoo is plastered on the back of his neck like a flag."