For not a few moments, Alex tries to think of ways that Jack's plan is flawed or can go wrong. And there are a lot.
For instance, they don't actually know where the bridge is. Jack seems to have a general idea, but doesn't know its exact whereabouts. This alone could cause their deaths. If they take too long to find it, mindlessly searching along the Missouri River, the creature will catch them before they can jump, and that's assuming they manage to find it at all.
There's also no guarantee that they can jump onto a barge. What are the chances that a barge will travel beneath the bridge at the exact moment that Alex and Jack need to escape the creature? Furthermore, the jump itself can be dangerous. Although the bridge is low, there's a good chance that they can get injured or break a bone if they jump off it and onto a moving boat.
Not to mention, Alex's theory that the creature is averse to water is pure conjecture. There's no real evidence to prove that the creature can't just swim through the river and climb onto the barge to kill Jack and Alex.
And of course, this is all predicated on trusting Silas's suggestion. How do they know he's telling the truth? The reasons to doubt Silas far outnumber the reasons to trust him. After all, he's a nearly complete unknown. They don't know who he is, what he's a part of, or even what he wants.
What they do know is that Silas is strong, strong to the point of making the air quake. He also seems to know quite a lot about the creature and Alex's predicament, and he is probably part of some group or organization. Besides that, there's nothing much to make out from him.
He seems to be against the creature, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's with Alex. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Silas hasn't attacked Alex yet, but that might only be because he's been occupied with the creature, and Alex is also against it. How's Alex to know what Silas will do once the creature is out of the equation?
Besides, the saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" only applies when the enemy of my enemy is useful. As he is now, Alex is completely worthless to Silas except as bait. So, why would Silas team up with someone who would only hold him back? Instead, wouldn't it be easier to take advantage of the situation and trick Alex into dying in a roundabout way?
For all they know, Silas wants to kill both the creature and him. What if he set a trap by the river? Then, since Alex is useless and needs to be disposed of, he sends him directly into the trap, under the pretense of helping him escape the creature.
Alex's eyes gleam with suspicion in the dim room. Although... Silas hasn't done anything to make me distrust him either.
Of the three times Alex has met Silas, not only has the sketchy man done nothing to him, but he's actually provided a fair amount of help. He didn't really do much aside from vomit during their first meeting, but in the second, he gave Alex a highly valuable whistle in exchange for a rat. And in their third and latest meeting, he went out of his way to fend off the creature, and is still fighting it now!
So, weighing his actions and his unknown status against each other, Alex truly can't decide whether to trust Silas or not. At least at the moment, he seems to be helping them, so he'll take his advice, albeit with a grain of salt.
Besides, despite being incredibly luck-dependent and difficult, Jack's plan isn't much worse than Alex's current one. While the current plan of stealing a car to drive away sounds good on paper, it probably won't work well in reality. There are a lot of variables that could easily throw this plan into disarray.
For instance, Alex has lived on the streets since the age of ten, so he obviously doesn't know how to drive a car. And although Jack has a license, he hasn't driven in ages due to his lack of money, instead relying on public transport. So, his driving skills are rusty at best.
And they can't assume the creature will let them drive in peace. Chances are, it will try to block the road or outright attack the car to impede them. With their lackluster driving skills, there's no way Alex and Jack can fend off the creature while in a car.
Plus, law enforcement is probably heavily patrolling Northern Rifield due to the consecutive explosions and fires the creature created. If they cause a scene like a car-creature fight, it's undeniable that they'll attract the police's attention. Then what'll they do?
There are other obstacles to driving as well. Jack has lived in Rifield his entire life, and Alex has lived in it most of his life, so they both know how terrible it is to drive there.
Like many cities, Rifield is plagued by confusing street layouts, frequent traffic jams, construction work, and more. While Alex and Jack know the streets of Northern Rifield by heart, they rarely venture into Southern Rifield. Depending on the direction they drive and their luck, they could easily get trapped in traffic, letting the creature catch up to them.
And, if they barely know the roads in Rifield, how on earth would they know about traffic outside the city? The chances of driving to another city without getting lost or held up in traffic are minuscule.
In the end, the two choices of jumping on a barge or driving out of town are roughly equal in terms of plausibility. So, after some consideration, Alex smiles at Jack, "Y'know, I've always wanted to go boating. This must be fate!"
When choosing between two equal choices, go with the most well-known one! Alex knows all about the Missouri River and Rifield; he has lived there for seven years after all. But he knows next to nothing about anything outside Rifield.
Jack lights up when Alex agrees and opens his mouth to express his excitement, but as his words come out, he startles and stops midway. His eyes widen, and he quickly glances around. "The explosions stopped." He says, slightly confused.
What? Alex looks at him incredulously. "You mean the air trembling?"
Jack nods and stays silent. All three of them do.
***
It was hurt, it was badly hurt.
A distinctly four-legged animal limps along the wall in a dark alley. Its movements are accompanied by the metallic scrapes of steel against concrete and panting like metal shearing against metal.
The alley is tight, incredibly so. It's like a narrow line between two short buildings, barely large enough for a single person to walk through, although their shoulders would scrape the walls. There are also no lights in the alley, and yet a dim orange glow fills it.
The animal metallically pants in pain, restraining its voice so that the man, that despicable man, doesn't hear and find it. A feeling of rage and primeval hate surges as the memory resurfaces.
The man had tricked it and sent it to another place. This new place was filled with unfamiliar sights and noises, and it had startled the animal. That despicable man took advantage of that moment of shock and attacked without warning. His attacks were strange and unnatural, but they shook the structure of the world. He was strong, too strong to kill.
A surge of agony runs through the animal's side, as sparks and droplets of molten rock fall from the jagged gash in its flank, sizzling as they hit the ground. It had been forced to take a grievous hit, but the animal had escaped that strange place. Its focus was not on the man, but on someone else, so that was its greatest priority.
Now, it's hiding, slinking in the shadows to avoid that despicable man. But it is also searching, circling the small community where the amusing boy went to hide.
If it could just walk into that building near the center, it could finally kill the boy. It could finally feel his lifeblood boil on its skin. That would be such a satisfying end to the game.
But that man is sure to go there too. It's infuriating. The animal's injury is too severe; if it encounters the man again, it will definitely be killed. So, all it can do is circle the boy's hiding place, biding its time until the wound heals, or the despicable man makes a mistake.
The animal takes another step forward, and the dim, orange light moves with it, revealing a dirty mouse, stuck, struggling under a rusted hunk of scrap metal. A hushed laugh like screeching metal leaves the animal's snout, and it slowly lowers its paw onto the metal.
The mouse squeaks in terror as the steel slowly turns red hot and sloughs around it, burning the mouse alive as it's encased in molten metal. The animal's laughter increases as it lowers its head to look at the mouse's burnt corpse.
After admiring it for a few seconds, the animal opens its jaw wide, and in a single bite swallows the mouse and the metal whole. In an instant, its wound feels better, and it looks up, out of the narrow alley.
A heavily rusted building frame towers above the surroundings, like the remnant skeleton of an ancient behemoth.