Tina Chan - imperfect

Troop slung his backpack over his shoulders and headed outside.

“I still can’t believe Jaiden is ditching us,” he said.

“I don’t think he really wanted to be part of this whole fiasco in the first place,” Kristi replied. “I’m pretty sure the only reason why he came with us was because I kind of pressured him to.”

The automatic front doors swished open and they walked down the driveway to the black van idling. A nondescript man in a polo shirt and jeans came out from the driver’s side of the car.

The man checked out the group of teens and said, “I’m sent by Dr. Hanson to drive you to segment 9 of Route 56.”

“That sounds right,” Troop said.

“The drive will take around three to four days, depending on traffic and what not.” The driver opened the doors to the van and ushered them inside.

The van was made to hold nine people, so the five of them (six if counting Ghost) fit comfortably. Kristi dropped her backpack into the trunk and crawled to the backseat. Troop joined her in the back as well and thought, Not bad. I have enough room to stretch out my legs if I want and there’s a mini-fridge in this vehicle as well.

Chelsa and Finn took a seat in a separate row each. Ghost curled up in the empty seat besides Chelsa. Once everyone was settled in, the driver locked the doors and pulled out of the driveway.

“I never thought a three day drive would feel so long ,” Kristi moaned.

Troop laughed and said, “We could’ve always walked. That would’ve taken over a week.”

“Only three more hours until we arrive at your destination,” the driver informed them from up front.

“Thank goodness,” Kristi muttered good-naturedly. “My butt is so sore from sitting. What time is it anyways?”

Finn briefly consulted his watch. “A bit past three.”

“I think I’m going to take a nap to pass time. Wake me up when we arrive.” She grabbed a pillow from beneath her seat and fell asleep.

Troop watched her eyelashes slowly flutter to a standstill, like the petals of a flower stilling for the night. Her breathing slowed to a steady inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. A small smile graced her lips and she let out a soft sigh.

“Troop,” said Chelsa, “what do you say we do about Zala?”

“Did she ask for an update?”

“Not yet, but she’s bound to soon.”s

Troop grunted a noncommittal reply. Chelsa returned to her ponderings.

He removed his electro-slate from his pocket and trawled through his instafication inbox, which had reached an all-time high of two hundred and twenty messages; he’d been neglecting it. Not surprisingly, most of the instafications were from Jennifer. His mom had sent a couple messages to ask how he was doing. Darrel had messaged him several times asking where he was.

Troop gave his mom a brief but to-the-point answer, letting her know he was doing just fine and not to worry about him. For Darrel, Troop replied with a vague instafication of his whereabouts. He deleted all one hundred and thirty messages from Jennifer after reading the first one.

Troop, where are you? I swear, if you don’t show your face at school or answer my messages soon, I am going to break up with you.

He was tempted to respond Jennifer, telling her that he wasn’t aware that they had been going out in the first place. He smothered the urge to do so, though, knowing nothing good would come out of it. Instead, he blocked her off his contact list.

Kristi woke up to people quietly chatting. She squinted her eyes open and saw Troop looking at her.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice raspy from sleep.

“Nothing.” He averted his eyes to the scenery passing by outside.

She let out a yawn for good measure and took a sip of water.

Chelsa twisted around in her seat to face them. “Only half an hour left.”

Kristi felt her pulse quicken, anticipating meeting Stevey once more. Tendrils of doubt rooted themselves in a corner of her mind as she recalled the nightmare she had in which Stevey turned into a monstrous creature. She cleared her head of such thoughts.

“Stevey’s just an old, harmless guy that is a bit crazy,” she reassured herself.

Chelsa overheard Kristi and said, “Very crazy.”

“Is Stevey really as eccentric as you guys keep on making him to be?” Troop asked.

Kristi let out a small laugh. “You don’t know Stevey until you’ve met him.”

Chelsa’s electro-slate buzzed, announcing someone had sent her an instafication. She read the message and a grimace crossed over her face.

“What’s wrong?” Finn asked.

“Zala. She wants to have an update about how ‘things’ are going. I don’t know how I should respond to Officer Zala’s request.”

“Tell her we’re being uncooperative and don’t want to listen to you. Also let her know we’re planning on heading to New Anchorage,” Kristi added, thinking of the city furthest away from them as she could think of.

“Alright,” Chelsa said, typing back a reply. “But eventually she’s going to find out something’s not right. Zala’s not stupid.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Troop said.

“That should be your new motto.” Kristi kicked back her feet. “Do now, worry later.”

The van slowed and came to a stop. The driver turned off the engines.

“We’re at the rest station of segment 9 of Route 56.”

Kristi barreled out the door, clambering over Ghost and inhaled a lungful of fresh air. She walked around to get the blood circulating to her legs.

“I never knew walking in a circle could feel so good.”

“It’s all in relativity,” Troop said.

“Whatever. A lot of things are all in relativity.” She stretched out her stiff legs and let out a breath as the blood rushed to the tips of her toes.

The driver unloaded the backpacks from the van and drove away. Kristi distributed energy bars to everyone and powered on her electro-slate. Then she entered in the latitude and longitude of Stevey’s home into the GPS and they set off.

Finding Stevey’s shack wasn’t as hard as Kristi had anticipated. She had been expecting a ten-mile hike through the wilderness; in reality, Stevey’s cabin was within five miles of the rest stop. It was just buried deep inside the forest, meaning progress was slow, as they had to fight through bramble thickets, tripping roots, craggy rocks and even a swarm of wasps.

Finn had a difficult time maneuvering through the uneven terrain, but he managed to keep up.

“I think I see Stevey’s place.” He jerked his head to the right.

Kristi scanned the area and made out the wooden cabin camouflaged among the trees. “Nice spotting. I probably would’ve missed it.”

“Try not to be too demanding with your questions when you meet Stevey,” Chelsa advised. “He seems to be a bit paranoid and doesn’t like to be put under pressure. Also, don’t be alarmed by his appearance and discursiveness.”

“Alright,” Troop said. “From what I’ve heard, I’m expecting Stevey to be this bizarre man with a bad taste in clothing.”

“Sounds about right,” Kristi said.

She pushed her way through some pine branches and looked around for any signs of Stevey. Aside from his apparently empty cabin, there was no presence of any human being.

“Stevey!” she called out. “Dr. Hanson told us to find you.”

No reply. But there was a rustle from the bushes to their left. Five heads swiveled towards the source of the sound. Ghost let out a growl and pounced in the general direction. A fox burst out from the undergrowth and bounded away.

“Hello?” Chelsa called out.