The seven continued on their way. It was a very awkward car ride to say the least. They had been driving for a few hours now. Nothing really changed other than Echo had fallen asleep along the way. The tension had become thick.
Chase turned into a gas station to get some gas and to allow everyone to get out and stretch their legs, get fresh air after all of that tension.
DJ quickly got out and headed inside, looking for something to eat.
Courtney was just kind of... staring at her phone, typing, retyping, and deleting a text message to Nolan.
Caleb had gotten out the stretch and then headed in the gas station to get food.
From out behind the gas station, a familiar red head came bounding over with a red fanny pack.
Echo remained asleep in the car.
Ryker looked over at him and rolled his eyes, heading out of the car as well.
Chase got out and stretched a bit, seeing the red head he was slightly confused. "Olympia? What are you doing here?" He asked curiously.
Olympia smiled a little and ran up to him. "Hey! Astrid was freaking out cause you forgot your epipen."
DJ looked around the shelves, humming quietly to the music playing in his headphones. Narrowing his eyes, he grabbed a small bag of Doritos, then looked around some more.
Caleb had just grabbed sour cream and onion chips with a Dr Pepper and came back out to hop back in the van.
Chase blinked a few times. "Oh! Gods.. thank you so much!" He smiled. He then looked back into the car, seeing that Echo was still asleep. Chase didn't want to wake him up but he had been out for quite some time...
Olympia nodded and smiled a bit more, then looked in the back of the van. Quickly, her smile faltered a bit. "...uh... has he, been asleep for long...?"
Chase frowned a little and walked to the side door of the van. He peaked his head in at Echo. "Hey.. Echo?"
Echo didn't move or respond in any sort of way to anything Chase said or did. Chase looked at Olympia and frowned a little more. "I think he is sleeping just like the others back at camp..."
Olympia frowned a bit more and she took a deep breath. "I... can take him back to camp with me if you want? It would be better not to have someone who can't wake up with you..."
He nodded a bit. "I think that would be best, yeah.." Chase helped get Echo out of the car and with Olympia. "You have him? We can always turn back and help get him back to camp."
She shook her head. "No, no, you guys have already come so far. Besides, I can just hop through Olympus." She shrugged and carried him back toward where she came from. "Safe travels!"
Caleb walked up as Olympia dragged Echo away looking up from his phone. "Silver hair is gone?" He asked a bit confused.
Chase gave Olympia a small wave, then turned to Caleb. "Echo wouldn't wake up.." he explained. "And I forgot my epipen-" he continued, holding it up to Caleb with a small chuckle. "-So Astrid sent Olympia to give it to me. Which I'm thankful for because we can have Echo make it back to camp safely with Olympia."
"Oh," Caleb nodded. that was sketchy.. "Geez that's 5," he realized.
DJ was just kind of... wandering around the gas station.
Chase nodded a bit. "We have to keep going." He said, putting his epipen somewhere safe. Chase then got back into the car to figure out where they were heading next.
Ryker was just kinda watching all of that go down with a small smirk. He chuckled a little. Chase doesn't forget things. (With the exception of a memory wipe from the gods of course).
Ryker was laughing softly to himself as it seemed that didn't cross Chase's mind at all, must be a lot going on in that brain of his to be not paying attention to such a detail. He shrugged and looked around at everyone outside of the gas station, then looked inside the windows, narrowing his eyes a little at DJ wandering around. Ryker decided to not speak to DJ right now, he seemed to be on a mission.
Caleb had hoped back in his spot and resisted the small urge he had to fall asleep.
Leora was leaning against the side of the van. She was making a small articulated ballerina figurine for something.
DJ was looking around and he set a couple things down, but... he kept feeling like someone had their eyes on him. Carefully looking over to the counter, his eyes fell on the cashier. She was very pretty, and she was singing along to the song on the radio. DJ couldn't hear her, because he had his headphones in.
For some reason, he felt like it would be a bad idea to take them out. The girl looked over at him, and a smile spread across her face. However... DJ's eyes cut through what appeared to be a thin mist on her face. That revealed a lot.
The girls face was pale and tinted green, her eyes flashing a silver colour and returning to the blue of the ocean. Her teeth were like razors. Sharp and pointed. DJ's eyes widened a bit and he looked back forward, awkwardly turning the music on his phone up. That's not good.
Courtney was distracted by her message to Nolan. She wasn't paying attention to the fact that they had even stopped.
"Hey what's taking DJ so long? Should we go in?" Leora asked.
"He's still in there?" Caleb looked up from his phone.
DJ took a deep breath and carefully looked around, grabbing a bag of Doritos and stuffing the bag in his jacket. Awkward. He slowly headed toward the back, grabbing a drink and looking over his shoulder at the cashier. He inhaled sharply and turned back to the drinks, watching her through the reflection.
Leora put the Ballerina in her pocket. "Yeah... I'm gonna go check on him. Maybe he just needs help deciding." She said happily and went to go inside.
Courtney looked over to the building and her eyes widened. The entire thing was lit up like a Christmas tree. "WAIT NO-" she hoped out of the front seat and grabbed onto Leora's arm, pulling her back.
Caleb jumped looking over to Courtney as she yelled.
Leora paused, "hm? Why not?" She asked and frowned.
She gently pushed her back toward the van. "Get back in the car, shut the windows."
"But... DJ's still in there..." Leora said and frowned
Ryker has looked away for a moment, preparing to head back to the van. But he looked inside one more time to see that DJ was acting strange... uncomfortable? He looked over to the van, hearing Courtney's yell.
Chase's eyes widened as Courtney yelled, setting his phone down before he could really process what Astrid had said. He had been messaging her after receiving the epipen.
He looked over to the gas station, then at Courtney. "If something is in there we need to get out of here, fast." Chase said to Leora, starting the van back up.
Ryker kinda just like... walked into the store to get DJ. "Hey uh... we got to goooo..." he said holding the door open as he peaked inside.
DJ looked over to Ryker and shook his head, nodding in the direction of the cashier urgently.
Courtney nodded and got Leora back in. "We'll get him out, we won't leave without him, but if you go in there the situation could get worse."
Leora sat down and frowned, she didn't think they'd have a monster attack so early.
Ryker looked over at the cashier curiously. oh..
"Courtney, what did you see?" Chase asked as Leora got back into the van.
Caleb was confused but stayed and just looked outside the closed window.
She shut her eyes. "I... I don't know, it was just green. I couldn't see what it was coming from."
Leora was bouncing with anxiety. "We're just a great big beacon to them..." she mumbled.
DJ nodded and turned back to the drink area, sliding something into his pocket. Then, he started carefully walking toward the exit.
Ryker kinda just... watched the cashier for a moment, before slowly backing back towards the exit, glancing over at DJ.
Chase sighed. "I'll go get them out. You guys stay here and make sure nothing else happens." He suggested.
Leora nodded and frowned.
DJ cleared his throat as he walked to the door, and the sirens eyes quickly went to black when he touched the door.
"Hey, you have to pay fo-"
DJ spun around and threw down a handful of fire crackers onto her desk, then pushed Ryker out the door. "GO-"
Ryker ran out of the station on his own after DJ had pushed him. He started to run towards the van trying to just get the heck out of there, glancing back to make sure DJ was following him.
Leora lurched in her seat, "what was that???" She asked.
An ear piercing screech came from within the convenient store, and Courtney's eyes shot out of her skull. "Siren." She took a deep breath and opened the van door, quickly ushering DJ and Ryker inside.
Before DJ could get inside, the giant siren forced its way out the convenience store door, and started singing.
Courtney immediately turned to Chase. Oh no.