It was starting to get super late outside. Ethan, Arthur and Braxton were driving around the area, lost as where to really start off. They have been on the road for around 7 hours at this point, with the only lead being a prison camp somewhere in the 2nd largest country in the world. Arthur and Braxton were fully passed out in the backseat. Filled to the brim with fast food and other shit. While Ethan is surviving with 10 energy drinks down. His eyes veins were visible, making him look like a psychopath who just lured in two kids.
The night sky looked beautiful, with all the stars and galaxies being able to be observed with the naked eye. Even though Ethan couldn't really appreciate it for all its worth since he was inside the car. He hoped that it looked really pretty for anyone looking up.
Braxton's eyes start to open up again for the 10th time today. They were all crusty and droopy. He rubbed them, and was trying to remember what they were even doing on the road. He was shuffling around a little bit, having all his wrappers and other trash fall off of his body like a garbage waterfall.
"H-h-hey…" He could barely open his eyes to see what Ethan was doing up front. "W-what… are we doing again…?"
"Rise and shine!" Ethan says, still cheery and calm as ever. "We're trying to find some leads on where the A.C.P.D. or whoever, could've taken Lukas and Drew!" he leans his body to hand Braxton a drink, which he accepts gratefully. Then, Ethan hard turns right, jolting everyone wide awake and alert. This includes Arthur. "God what the fuck are you doing?!" He screams incoherently. Ethan just gives him a drink also to shut him up; which works yet again.
Braxton leans forward, sort of spilling himself near Ethan's seat. "Can you turn on some music? This whole road trip is getting mind numbingly boring…" he whines, making Ethan's face turn a neutral tone. "Yeah hold on a sec…" Ethan goes to turn on his masterpiece of a Spotify playlist, when he catches something in his peripheral vision.
"Oh darn, I gotta fill up on gas…" Ethan says. "Lemme find ourselves another gas station real quick…" Ethan takes a hard right once more, irritating Arthur a hell of a lot more. He remembers somewhere down the street he was going, that there was a Phil-Me-Up store nearby. Which would be the perfect place for the three of them to chill out, get some gas, and rethink their strategy a tiny bit.
The atmosphere of all the street lamps, and car lights being turned on. Mixed with the moon-lit night sky. It was a shame that they were going to have to enter this shitty gas station, and hang out there for a while.
"So this is… Phil-Me-up…? Are we serious…" Arthur was so done with this town.
"Yep! Head inside you two while I fill up the tank!" Ethan hops out the car instantly, which has Arthur and Braxton scurrying out hastily as well.
They both head inside with the swiftness of baby cheetahs, they still had to wait for the door to open on its own though.
The inside was really white for some reason. The walls were painted white, the floor was a darker shade of white, the shelves were white, everything besides the products were white. Kind of gave the both of them dystopian vibes when they step from inside. The worker at the check out area gave them a small wave. She looked to be around the age of Lukas and Ethan, with long blonde hair, and blue eyes. Both her and Ethan could be twins if they didn't know him.
"Hey there! You two need anything?" she asks warmly, which made Braxton feel weird in his chest.
"Yeah give us a minute…" Arthur seemed to not give two shits about her, and went on with what they came here for. Braxton catched up not long after; his brain felt foggy for a second, and he didn't know why.
They go looking around the candy aisle again for the 5th time this day. Ethan catches them red handed, and puts the candy back onto the shelf. "You guys have had enough…" Ethan sighs.
"Oh c'mon! What are you, my mom?" Braxton whines like some sort of little kid. Ethan doesn't really seem to mind the compliment at all.
Ethan has the both of them come closer to his mouth. Just to make sure that nobody else would be able to hear them, including the security camera, looming over them. It almost looked like it was giving them the I'm always watching… gesture. That kind of freaked out Ethan a bit.
"Alright. Do you guys have any idea on where in the south Lukas and Drew could've been shipped off to?" Ethan whispers.
"No, not really…" Arthur responds.
"That old lady didn't really give us much to work with besides 'near the border' and 'south'…" Braxton added on.
They decide to move away from the security camera for the remainder of their talk. The thing was just way too much for them to handle. The drink aisle is where they end up, with them seeing some middle aged guy with one arm, a couple meters away from them. They all hoped he didn't have super hearing or something.
"Maybe it could be near Niagara falls…!" Braxton gave a suggestion.
"Nah. That would be too easy to find…" Athur said. "It would have to be somewhere that no one would expect… like somewhere near Alaska…!"
"Doesn't it have to be near the border…?" Braxton reminded him.
"I didn't mean right next to Alaska. I just meant somewhere on the very left side…" Arthur clarified. "Somewhere like Aerthens, or new Berlin…!" they all thought about that, and it didn't seem like too far off of where she meant. All of them nod their heads in agreement. Ethan looks over to see what the one-handed guy was doing. And he seemed to be a lot closer than he was before. Like, suspiciously closer.
He taps the shoulders of BRaxton and Arthur, to signal where the guy was now. They both turn their entire bodies, and some imaginary sweat starts to drip downwards. Arthur walks closer, and closer towards this guy. Even with the pleas of the both of them to come back here and leave him alone. Arthur knew this guy was up to no good though.
He pokes the dudes back. Which the guy responds to by turning his whole body to face him. Up close he looked like a giant compared to Arthur, but he wouldn't back off that easily.
"Hey! You got a problem mister?" he sternly asked.