The ride into Austin wasn’t as rough as they thought it was going to be at first. They made it into Waco, the half way point, within two hours, traffic was heavy in some parts but overall they started to wonder if maybe they were going to be lucky. Pedro and Sam had been pretty close growing up, but they really bonded after Sams dad died. Pedros dad was alive but bailed before Pedro could even remember what he looked like. The two cousins spent a lot of weekends playing video games and bullying each other. Pedro would make fun of Sams weight and Sam would make fun of Pedros insect like physique. The poor boy was the skinniest kid in school. Sam would have accused his aunt of child abuse had he not seen first hand the massive meals the woman prepared almost daily, she was in no small part the reason he liked to go hang out at his cousins house around dinnertime. The kid just didn’t like to eat, he ate until he was barely full and that was with his mom pushing him day and night to eat.
“Hows my aunt and Ali taking all this stuff that’s going on?” Sam asked before he took a bite of one her Tamales he was on his third one, aunt Maritza prepared food for the guys before their trip so they wouldn’t have to stop to eat.
“Mom is kinda stressed, cooking all the time to keep her mind busy, Ali is alright you know her, it takes a lot of get her worried” Pedro took a bite out of his Tamale, he was on his third bite.
“Do you have any signal yet” Pedro asked as he checked his own phone.
“Nothing yet, Im betting we get some as we hit the Capitol, otherwise we are going to have a hard time finding this place.” Mrs. Peterson kindly provided instructions to reach her sister's clinic, but neither of the guys had ever tried to find an address without the help of GPS.. Sam vaguely remembers his older sister making him print out directions on the old family computer from mapquest.com but by the time he got his license he already had a smartphone so it was just something he didn’t have to worry about.
“Well we will just have to figure it out” Pedro exclaimed, he wasn’t going to be coming back home empty handed.
Sam nodded in agreement.
About 30 minutes from the Capitol Interstate 30 was shut down, all traffic was being forced off of the highway and onto the express drives and streets. This was just a time delay at least since the last GPS update they saw still had them driving 45 minutes into the city so at least they were lost if they just moved toward Downtown. After they could see the Capital in the distance Sam spoke up.
“Lets stop at the next gas station and see if we can buy a map just in case” Pedro agreed and they exited the service road.
The streets were not completely empty but it was a definitely noticeable from what Sam could remember. They spotted a few businesses being boarded up along their trip, hopefully it was just a precaution. The presidents state of emergency was still in place. Sam checked to see if there were any updates on the diplomats right before he left for their journey. The latest reporting said that the diplomats were still in that whatever that thing was.
“This one looks good” Sam and Pedro pulled into the gas station. Luckily it looked like the inside was still open.
“Gas up and I will grab some drinks and a map for us” said Sam, he walked into the store feeling a bit uneasy. The doors were unlocked but no one was in the store, he hoped that maybe there was a lone employee in the back.
“Hello?!” he nervously yelled, not loud enough to be rude he hopes but loud enough to be heard. After a quick glance he found a few maps of the city. He grab the thickest one with an image of the University of Texas on the front and the Austin Skyline on the back and grabbed a redbull for himself and water for Pedro.
“Hello?!, I wanted to see if I could pay for this” he yelled a bit louder this time and even peeked into the restroom. It seemed to be that the store was completely empty. He was unsure of what to do next.
Sam glanced outside and saw Pedro sitting in the car looking at him, he shrugged and pointed at the register, Pedro made a quick waving notion to him to basically telling him to just come to the car with the stuff.
“fuck” he muttered to himself. Sam kept looking around as if he was going to suddenly notice the employee ducking behind some aisle playing a prank on him. That is when he noticed the camera. He held his map and his drinks toward the camera and loudly spoke.
“I WAS TRYING TO PAY FOR THIS” he shook both hands “BUT NO ONE IS HERE” he gestured to the register, “I DON’T HAVE CASH ONLY MY CARD” he grabbed his card and held it to the camera, “I AM SORRY PLEASE CALL ME AT MY CELL IF YOU CAN HEAR ME” he enunciated his phone number for the camera. “OKAY I AM LEAVING NOW” he pointed to himself and made a walking-in-place movement not sure why he just didn’t walk out instead.
“okay I tried” he said to himself.
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Just then he heard the door open to the station, he quickly turned around hoping it was the long lost employee but instead he found himself looking at about a dozen young men the oldest looked like he was 19 he thought.
“fuck you looking at fat boy” the teen said, all his little friends laughed while they spread out into the rest of the store. Sam started walking past the teen not acknowledging his insult, hes been called worse and usually would at least have a slick retort but he didn’t want to risk any escalation.
“hey! you aint gonna pay for that shit?” one of the other teens yelled out from behind the candy aisle, his hands already full of goods.
“I tried but no one is in the store and I only have my debit card” Sam paused for a second and started walking a few feet from the door now.
The first teen who insulted Sam now slammed his hand on the front of the entrance the door made a loud rattling noise, it looked like he was clutching something in his hand. “so just cause you cant pay, you think you can start stealing shit from my city now?”
Sam stopped in his tracks and didn’t say anything just looked at the man in his eyes. He continued.
“Tell you what doughboy, transfer me 200 dollars and I will pay for your shit for you” the teen said not moving his hand from the exit.
“I just got a few things and I don’t have any internet on my phone” Sam said, this time he looked at who he assumed was the ring leader right in his eyes.
“I guess we gotta beat yo ass then” as soon as the words left the ringleaders mouth Sam felt the heat in his chest, he felt it pulse through to the back of his neck. His muscle tensed, his nostrils flared and he took a single deep breath before he dropped the items in his hands, the redbull burst open and rolled away from him. He could feel his body snap into fight or flight mode and these punks made the choice easy for him. It looked like it was going to have to be fight. Sam knew that the odds were stacked if all of the teens jumped in and they most likely would once they saw how strong he actually was but it didn’t matter, the choice was made for him.
“Alright then” Sam paused.
“Im going to make sure we both remember this” he said as he started walking toward the punk who threatened him. His fists still clenched, and his chest still puffed.
Just then another teen pushed the door open in a hurry “yo the cops are here!” he ran out as quickly as he burst in. Before Sam could take another step every one of the teenagers started running out of the store with the snacks and drinks in their hands the ringleader hesitated for a second still staring at Sam before he ran off too.
“You fuckin lucky” he yelled out before scrambling away.
Sam quickly picked up the map and stepped out, he saw a police cruiser turn the corner in the direction where most of the group went.
“Jeez man, these fucking kids aren’t joking in this city” Sam said as he jumped in the car with Pedro.
“Yeah man, I was about to grab the piece and run in there as soon as I saw you post up haha” he smiled while opening the glove compartment revealing a 9mm pistol that Sam had seen a few times in the past.
“I would have taken at least 6 of them” he laughed not being too fazed by the violent altercation. In his mid-twenties he worked for a year as a bouncer, back when he was still a big dude but more muscle than fat. Sam would get into multiple altercations every weekend night, that was the kind of job that will make anyone who can stick it out immune to confrontations, almost to a fault. There were definitely a few situations that Sam had found himself in where being too brave could have cost him dearly, but he guessed that maybe he was just like the punk teen had said earlier ‘fuckin lucky’. The two cousins loaded up and went deeper into the city, they agreed not to make any more stops within the city limits. There were too many people and too many of them were on edge, understandably so.
Thankfully the GPS was kicking in and out, it worked enough for them to find the clinic, Mrs. Petersons sister met them there and provide a four-week supply of Insulin for Ali. As soon as Pedro had the vials in his hand you could see the relief wash over his face. Pedro had seen firsthand what a diabetic emergency did to his sister, and he wasn’t going to allow another one to happen on his watch, Aliens or not. He hugged the doctor deeply she was probably getting a lot of those hugs recently; just as the guys pulled away another car pulled in, they waited a few minutes to make sure everything was alright and they saw the selfless doctor provide some meds for other desperate souls.
The ride away from the capital had heavier traffic but much less eventful, they stopped once more for gas but made sure it was at one of the smaller town in between the capital and Dallas, the small towns were most likely the safest places right now, the sheriff departments are out in full force and these small town folk all carry anyway, half of them open carry so it’s a nuclear detente. No one messes with these people unless they are really prepared to take it all the way.
Once they got closer into the city the cells became a bit more stable, the cell providers probably figured that there was only soo much time that people could tolerate without their internet. Sams phone started blowing up the second it got cell signal. His mom and aunt in the background were waiting for an update they managed to locate a 2 day supply of insulin for Ali from one of the neighbors. Apparently a small community meeting was announced and nearly the entire neighborhood showed up. They traded food, medicine, information and speculated about what the Presidents Address would be about. In the last couple of hours of the cousins trip, the President announced that the Diplomats had returned and that a emergency announcement was being made tonight.
As soon as Pedro pulled into his moms driveway, he put the car in park and sat in silence for a second.
“Everything alright” Sam asked.
“Yeah” Pedro said looking down at his shoes. “Sam…” he stopped himself. “thanks for coming with me Primo” he looked at Sam in the eye, his eyes were pink and glossy.
“Anything for family cuz, you would do the same for us” Sam put his hand on Pedros shoulder. “anyway, I knew your skinny ass was going to need all the help he could get, you prolly would pass out from malnutrition before you got there”
Pedro started laughing. “Im only malnourished cause you ate all the supplies fool” The two cousins shared a laugh.