Chapter 13

    To call their lives, the ones Derrik was searching for, boring wouldn't be a way that most people would put it. Young and rich with no commitments or concerns, people would laugh at them if they knew how much they pitied themselves. They were told they were safe, but couldn't really say why. With that, they didn't know if they were supposed to stay anonymous. To play it safe, they would stay at home as much as they could for a few days.
    That didn't help Derrik. He walked the streets with an eye taking in every face he saw. Every time he turned around to backtrack his searching, there would be one of the two guys shadowing him. From what he learned about them on the drive. He could run and they wouldn't be able to catch him as long as he kept moving. A dumb idea, but it was an option. Kind of. His first duty was to find a Kin called Katrina and deliver a message.
    That was another thing that made Derrik wonder about where he was. If they knew what Kin were, why would they let those four girls stay? What if they didn't know? He would be leading them straight to them and then what? Try to fight?
    It was all those questions, a pile of 'what ifs' that kept coming up in his mind. As far as Derrik new, he was alone, the last of his clan. He liked the way it was before, it was freedom to have somebody to give orders and only have to follow them. If something went wrong, it wasn't his fault, he was just following orders. Maybe after giving his message, he could ask that woman if he could help them. That or, spend the rest of his life trying to run. Mimyr said it was a game of survival from then on. What if they were already dead?
    There he sat, in a car that was traveling in slow motion. He put on the clothes the two guys gave him. They only stopped by making him dress as cheaply as possible, when they could have embarrassed him by making him wear something stupid. Still, for a while, every time they would look in the back seat, they would start cackling and the car would swerve back and forth on the road. If he wasn't on his last order, he would test these clowns. See if they were as hard as they thought they were.

    When they rolled up into town, Derrik could only hear the chatter they kept up in the back of his mind. They talked like the rest of them, never about anything important. A constant drone about hockey and movies, hockey and television, hockey and women, hockey and the jay-oh-bee. The car pulled off the highway onto a side road, they parked at a gas station.
    “Hey, this is the place? Right?” The driver put his beefy arm over the top of his seat to turn and look at Derrik.
    “Yeah.” Derrik nodded.
    “Where you need to go? We want to get out of here before too long, you really need those few days to leave a message?” The driver looked ready to slump back into his seat at the answer he knew he was going to get.
    “Probably.” Derrik shrugged.
    “Aw come on, f**k man, in the times of cell phones and email and instant messages, you f*****g guys still need this bullshit?” The driver did slump back into his seat.
    “Yeah.” Derrik glared into the rear view mirror into the driver's eyes. “Us f*****g guys still do.”
    The driver and the other guy looked at each other, seeming to calculate the situation then burst out laughing. The passenger got out, but before letting Derrik wander away, he had to remind Derrik.
    “Hey, twenty-four hours times four from now, buddy.”
    Derrik only nodded and turned to walk away.
    “Hey, we're going to go get some sleep over at that motel, if you need to find us, that's where we'll be.”
    Derrik nodded again.
    “Hey.”
    Derrik turned again to look at the guy, ready to start swearing.
    “Don't forget, there'll always be eyes on you. Don't step out of line.”
    The guy got in and slammed the door. He didn't even look at Derrik again as they pulled back out onto the road, they seemed to know the place since they went along the side-road back towards where the motel was. Derrik watched them get out of sight.
    The day was a mix of cloud and thin blue sky. It made the day grey, even though the sun was shining. Derrik felt those eyes on him, felt the tick of the clock, and a need starting to build. In the next few days, he would have to find his own quality. Give in to the hunger and probably die, or withstand and be lost outside in a world he no longer knew.