imperfect (32 page)

“
I want to stay
here.”

Kristi dipped her head. “I respect your
choice, but all the same, your company will be sorely missed. Are
you still angry at Chelsa?” She asked before she could help
herself.

Storm clouds rolled onto his face. “Not so
much angry as hurt. I can’t believe she’s been playing us along the
whole time.”

“
Chelsa’s changed her
loyalties.”

“
That’s what you
think.”

Kristi decided to keep her mouth shut to
prevent herself from infuriating this touchy topic.

“
Love is like an onion,”
Jaiden said.

Kristi wasn’t sure how to reply to this
random statement, so she said the first thing that popped into her
mind, “I don’t see the connection.”

“
A person, like an onion,
is made up of multiple layers. When you love a person, you get to
take away all their layers and truly see what they’re like on the
inside. You may cry as you peel away each layer and discover not
all of them are sweet.”

chapter
thirty-one

[ Troop ]

“
I think the driver Dr.
Hanson promised us is here,” Finn said,
looking out the living room window.

He had barely finished his sentence when the
sound of a car’s horn was heard.

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.

chapter
thirty-two

[ Kristi ]

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.

The branches overhead rustled in response.
It turned out to be only two squirrels bickering.

“
Maybe he’s not here,”
Finn said.

“
There’s no reason why he
would leave this place.” Chelsa shaded her eyes, swinging her head
from side to side. “Stevey! Are you around?”

“
Yes.”

They jumped at Stevey’s
voice. Stevey came lurching out from his cabin.
I guess he was in his cabin the whole time after
all
, Kristi thought.

He had cleaned up a bit since she last saw
him. At least his plaid shirt didn’t have any mysterious stains on
it this time. His hair, however, was as untamed as ever.

“
Stevey has visitors!” he
slurred happily.

He stumbled toward them in an alarming
manner. Kristi suspected he had been drinking from his
uncoordinated walk. Her suspicions were confirmed when he came
closer and the odor of alcohol wafted off him.

“
We should probably sober
him up a bit,” she said. “I highly doubt he’s in any condition to
answer any questions we have for him.”

Stevey tripped over a rock and stayed on the
ground. He attempted to push himself up, but must have decided the
effort was too much because he hazily looked at Kristi through
bloodshot eyes.

“
Troop, can you help me
carry Stevey inside his cabin?” Kristi asked.

“
Sure.”

Troop grabbed Stevey from underneath one
armpit and Kristi the other. Together, they half carried, half
hauled Stevey inside. Meanwhile, Chelsa got a fire going in the
fireplace and turned on the dim lights. Finn held the door open for
Troop and Kristi dragging Stevey up the ramshackle stairs and onto
the threadbare couch.

“
How much did you drink?”
Kristi demanded.

“
Stevey didn’t drink,” he
garbled.

He had hardly finished his sentence when he
spewed up some vomit. Luckily, Chelsa was prepared for this and had
a bucket on hand. Stevey let out a groan and lay back down. Threads
of spittle trailed down his cheeks.

“
Finn, can you go find if
there’s a first aid kit somewhere? There might be some
detoxification pills,” Chelsa said.

“
Onto it.”

“
You better hope Dr.
Hanson isn’t watching this,” Kristi said, forgetting Stevey
probably didn’t know there were cameras installed in his cabin for
his own safety.

Stevey let out a giggle, “Dr. Hanson doesn’t
know. Dr. Hanson doesn’t know many things. You don’t know many
things. Did you know cats sleep for two thirds of the day? Did you
know 98% of your body’s atoms are replaced annually? Did you—” His
stream of facts was cut off as he heaved up another bout of
vomit.

Kristi opened some of the windows to get rid
of the revolting smell and tried to coax the ceiling fan to life in
vain.

“
Found some detoxification
pills,” Finn said, holdinga small white container.

Troop took the container from Finn and read
the label. “These expired last year. Do you think we should still
use them?”

“
Normally, I would
say
no
,” Chelsa
said. “But I think we can make an exception in this case. We’re
rather short on time and the faster Stevey flushes the alcohol out
of his body the faster we can be on our way.”

Troop unscrewed the cap and dumped a small,
red pill into his palm and knelt down beside Stevey’s head.
“Stevey, can you do us a favor and swallow this? You’ll feel much
better later on if you do.”

Stevey squinted at the detoxification pill.
Then he threw up some more, causing Troop to jump back and Chelsa
to leap forward with the bucket.