It hadn’t been wishful thinking, within an hour the sky lightened and the sun would soon rise. William and Nicolas both sighed with relief and continued to walk along the side walk. They were walking into the rising light to the east but other than that they had no real idea where they were going. Unfortunately, there was no place that looked even remotely helpful as far as a map went. He could never remember a time when finding a gas station had been so difficult.
The sky brightened and the sun peeked over the horizon, or what they could see of the horizon, a vertical sliver of space between tightly crammed buildings and humanity. They were safe from their pursuers but they both knew that safety had a time limit.
They went into a coffee shop along the street. The person there was unhelpful to say the least. The guy behind the counter was slim and tall. His sandy blonde hair was well kept and he had a perpetual smile.
“What can I do for you two today?” He said warmly.
Nicolas sighed loudly and William glanced at the counter. “We were wondering if you had a map.”
The guy frowned but soon recovered, “Ah, no we don’t sell maps here, just coffee. You guys don’t have a smart phone or anything?”
William glanced at Nicolas who shook his head, “Look, if we had a smart phone do you think we would be asking directions?”
The guy behind the counter leaned against the counter looking upwards in a thoughtful pose, seeming to have missed completely Nicolas’s tone.
“There is a gas station about three miles down the street, that way,” he said and pointed eastward. “If they don’t have a map I don’t know who would.”
He looked at two young men, “Where are you guys headed?”
William replied, “Just out to see the sights. Thanks.”
They both turned around and walked out of the coffee shop. Maybe it was something that Nick had said, or something he knew to be true, but the fact that the guy pointed out smart phones as if everyone had one made his flesh crawl. If that guy was with the vampires that detail would be about as obvious as a flare on a moonless night. They had to get to the gas station and as far away from the coffee shop, and the gas station, as fast as possible.
They got to the gas station fairly quickly and ducked inside the brick and glass building. The place was spacious and pretty nice. There was a wide space filled with shelves of junk food, a soft drink station and even a small pizza outlet station with small two seat tables. Underneath the central counter were a few road maps and some atlases.
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William picked up one and Nick picked up one of the atlases and they sat down at one of the tables. William unfolded the map and looked at the maze of black and grey lines. The colors were muted pinks, greens, and blues showing the different districts of Central and Eastern Los Angeles.
They had to ask the girl behind the counter where they were and even then, it took them a while to find it on the map. Once they did, they traced a path East through the city and out into what they assumed would be the desert. They intentionally added some north and south back tracks to elude any followers they might have picked up. Since they didn’t have any money to buy the map they had to write directions down on a paper napkin with a pen from the girl behind the counter.
From where they were, the Eastern border was about thirty five miles away, with all their back tracks and detours it would be closer to forty five miles, a distance that they would not be able to cover easily before dark, if at all. The other problem was food. That was something that they were going to have figure out on the way. William refolded the map and put it, along with the atlas, back underneath the counter. He returned the cashier’s smile warmly and followed Nicolas back out onto the street. The air was warm and the sun was bright, a nice day for a walk. The two turned toward the still rising sun and began their long trek to what they hoped would be some semblance of safety.
* * * * *
As the night drew to a close, Kenneth looked out over his back yard. His house was quite pleasant and today had been a good day; it allowed him to fully appreciate all it was that he had and everything that he was working for. He turned around to the pair of slaves that were kneeling before him. Joshua and Susan both had the most exquisite blonde hair he had ever seen in either a male or female. Susan was a brilliant IT technician and she had found some amazing ways for him to reach out to…clients online that had as yet garnered no notice from either, Alessandro or any of the other House heads.
Joshua was a fitness jock. He was beautiful by some standards, steel grey eyes, and well cared for, although a bit long for liking, blond hair. His neck alone was worth keeping him around for; he had a perfect “v” for a back going from broad shoulders to a trim thirty two inch waist. The man was physically intimidating. Unfortunately, he had no brain. Even his influence could not drum up even a basic drive to understand the most basic concepts of science or technology. Sometimes he found himself wondering if mankind had de-evolved since he had been turned to the perpetual night.
“Susan, what was she looking for?”
The girl kept her head and eyes toward the ground as she answered, “Instructor, as far as I can tell she was going through archives and federal databases in a very clumsy ‘search all’, data sifter to find out about a person named Kenneth.”
She paused briefly, “With the search parameters in place I can only deduce that she was trying to find out about you, Instructor.”
She stopped speaking and remained faced down, kneeling on the floor. She was a well-trained slave. He turned to Joshua, “And you, Joshua, did you or any from your team happen to track down the other two that were with her?”
The man also refrained from looking up from the ground, “Naw, Instructor. See, what had happened was, when you sent us off after those other two by the time we got to where we seen ‘em last, they was gone. There was no smell or nothing. They was just gone.”
Kenneth grimaced at the language of the man. He could have driven out the man’s mind entirely to better suit his needs. However, he had elarned when dealing with fire in a burning building, sometimes it was better to kneel down and breathe shallowly, instead of trying to mold the choking smoke.