"Clothes, money, essentials, books." She rattled off as she packed, nodding once she had filled each bag and bringing them out to the car. There wasn't much room in the cab of the truck, but she didn't want to leave the bags in the back without putting the topper onto the bed of the truck. That wasn't fun, but she knew she could finish it in the time she had and set to work. No doubt, once she was done with this grabbing everything else she needed to bring, was going to be rushed.
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It only took Oscar a few minutes to get sucked quite deep into the online world, and the feeling was both exciting and dreamlike. It was going great until he started reading independent blogs and social media posts—at that point his inner archive of knowledge started to get corrupted by conflicting opinions and misinformation. He could feel a headache coming on, but the raw emotion behind the online ranting was addictive, and soon he was sucked into a rabbit hole of political arguments, bad memes, and cringe culture. He completely lost track of time, forgetting that he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for Honor.
Honor grumbled and may have cursed the entire time she was getting things ready, knowing the fidgetiness and over worry about getting caught was probably stupid, but it was affecting her anyway and making focusing difficult. Finally she finished though and rushed to toss the bags in the back, along with food and both blankets and pillows for both of them. That had to be good enough, she figured and after taking one last look around her house, she locked the door and got into her truck. Now it was time to pick up Oscar.
(I may have to work all day today so I'm not sure if I'll be on much, fair warning)
The truck's radio was in the middle of broadcasting a statement by the Everett authorities, stating that the rogue Erased One they'd detected the previous day was still at large. They again recommended that the town residents avoid contact with strangers and not go anywhere alone until the threat was resolved. This time, however, they added something else—any information regarding the whereabouts of the Erased One would be rewarded if reported directly to the police station. Apparently a task force from Goldenrod had set up shop there and, the announcer reassured, would hunt down the monster in no time.
(That's alright :) )
Honor cursed and shook her head as she listened to the broadcast, already on her way back to the library with a new worry. She didn't mind her hometown, but people were nosey and had nothing better to do than snoop around for information about Oscar. Maybe some had seen where he had come from and knew that her parent's farm was down that road, and who would be more likely to offer help to a stranger than the farmer's daughter. Quickly she put her mind past that though and moved on to what was going on in the moment. Getting over to the library again didn't seem to take as long as it did before, though she knew most of the time she had been preoccupied with thoughts and not driving. "Where are you going to be, Oscar?" She asked as she shut off her truck in the parking lot and headed inside to look for him.
(turns out it was only the morning shift as usual, so I'm back now ^^)
Oscar, meanwhile, had been saved from his information deep-dive about an hour ago, when a kid had wandered over and asked him if he was going to play any games on the computer. Oscar had not known what the kid meant, and the eight-year-old boy was quite willing to explain and show him how to find something to play. The discovery of simple platforming games and digital puzzles, overseen by an opinionated, tech-savvy child, was enough to drive all thoughts of learning out of Oscar's head and send him in a completely different direction for quite a while. Most of the games were quite simple, but he enjoyed them all the same, and was soon fast friends with the boy, whose name was Ethan.
She tried not to draw attention to herself as she wandered the rows of books, searching for him and trying to guess where he was most likely going to be. The thought to check the computers didn't cross her mind until she had searched almost the whole library and was worried to no end, and even then as she headed to the computers, she wasn't terribly optimistic. Honor didn't spot Oscar at first either, having to take a double look before recognizing him and walking over, tapping him on the shoulder gently.
He was so concentrated on beating the level that at first he didn't register the touch. But then Ethan slowly turned around to appraise the newcomer and shrewdly asked, "Is this your girlfriend?"
"Huh?" Oscar looked up in confusion. "Oh. Honor! You're back! And she's not my girlfriend," he added, glancing reproachfully at Ethan. "She's showing me around 'cause I'm new here." Back to Honor. "This is my friend Ethan, he's very smart. Did you make it okay? Do we have everything we need now?"
She shook her head in response to the boy's question, listening as Oscar talked before answering herself. "Nice to meet you Ethan, and yes to answer both of your questions." Honor smiled at Ethan and motioned back towards the door with a jab of her thumb, "Ready to go? We have to leave if we want to get a safe distance away from town." She was happy that Oscar had made a friend, even if it was a little boy and they had bonded over what looked like computer games and she didn't want to leave, but they didn't have much of a choice.
Oscar sighed and stood up. "Yeah," he said reluctantly, glancing at his half-finished game. "You can keep playing if you want, Ethan."
"Doesn't work that way," Ethan said, briskly shutting down Oscar's tabs for him. "I'm actually banned from playing games here right now, heh. So are you guys on the run or something?"
"We're not on the run, we're just are going on a trip around the country," Honor said, smiling at the young boy and glancing at Oscar for a minute in a way to silently ask him if he wanted to say goodbye to his friend. "Well, we better get going, it was nice meeting you, I'm sure your mom or dad are wondering where you are right now." She was itching to get going again, though it only showed in her shifting from foot too foot and the way she messed with her keys.
Ethan raised a skeptical eyebrow at the two of them. "My mom dropped me off here, she won't pick me up 'till closing time. Do you really have to go already, Oscar? I haven't even showed you the best games yet…." He tilted his head at the computer temptingly.
Oscar sighed, but shook his head. "We gotta leave. Just….if anybody asks about us, don't tell them we were here, okay? It's important."
That got Ethan's attention. He straightened and nodded. "Deal." Before he let them go, he glanced at Honor and lowered his voice. "Honor, right? Your friend's pretty stupid….better keep a good eye on him or he'll get scammed by somebody." With a wink, he trotted off and ducked out of the room.
Honor didn't hide the frown that came to her face when Ethan finally left, just glanced at Oscar before making her way out of the building again. There was a slight sinking feeling in her chest and she wondered if it was a mistake to leave Oscar alone, something that nagged at her but she wasn't going to share. "So how long did it take for you to read all the books here too?" She asked, cracking a tiny smile as she walked to the truck and hopped into the driver's seat again.
"Not long," Oscar said, following her to the truck. Once he was outside, he realized that gathering information from the internet had a slightly nastier effect on him than reading. He felt dizzy and headachy, and was honestly glad that Honor hadn't asked him to drive again. "I started exploring the computer pretty quickly. It was really weird. I liked the games, though. Do you like computer games?"
"I don't mind them, though it really depends on the game." She replied, waiting until both of them were in and ready before starting up the truck and starting to drive off. For a minute she focused on driving, then hummed in question and drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, "Alright, there's one more place I'm going to stop quick before we decide where to head off first. It'll only take a few minutes though, and we won't even have to get out of the truck."
"Okay," Oscar said with a touch of curiosity. "What kind of place is it?"
"It's just the bank, I want to get some money for food and gas," She said, flicking on her blinker as she turned into the bank's drive-through. It wouldn't hurt to have some extra cash on herself, especially if they ended up going all over the country to explore and see the sights.
"Oh." Oscar tried to remember what banks were and ended up mentally re-reading several kid's books and a shelf full of money management manuals. "Hey, is there a way for me to get money from the bank too? Or….do I need to put money in before I can take anything out?"
Honor chuckled a little and after talking to the person at the window, turned to answer his question, "You need to put money in before you can take any out. To make money though you have to have a job and earn it." Most of her money she earned over the fall and spring, helping out at several farms with the harvest and spring planting as well as showing cattle for her parents.
Oscar nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think I could get a job somehow, when we go….wherever we're going?"
"Maybe, depends on where we end up." She turned back to talk to the person at the window and before long had an envelope slid through the opening in the wall to her. Honor smiled in thanks and tucked the envelope next to her seat before glancing over at Oscar, "Alright, ready to get on the road? Any idea where you want to go first?"
"Um….." Oscar stared out the windshield, somewhat at a loss. "I don't know….what's out there, really…..what place is farthest away from Goldenrod? Is there another farm somewhere we could hide in?"
Honor shrugged, pulling onto the highway and deciding the best way to figure out where to go was to just drive, "We're probably not going to stop at another farm to hide, and as for the farthest place away, we would either have to find somewhere on the east or west coast. That's up to you. They're very different though, just so you know."
Now that Oscar had some location names, he was able to refer to his inner library for answers. Huge amounts of helpful information flashed before his eyes, but he was distracted by a single picture he'd found in a book of photos. It was of a dense forest, huddled in the mist under a low green mountain, with black shadows below the ancient trees. Oscar was somewhat enthralled by the picture, and after a bit of investigation he found that it had been taken in a place that was much closer to the east coast than the west one.
"Let's go east," he said impulsively. "I think I like it there."
(that being said, if it's cool with you, I vote we keep them in the Midwest for a while yet, since I think the Midwest is cool and there's still plenty of opportunity for adventure closer to home xD )
(Yeah definitely lol XD, any suggestions on where they head first?)
"Alright, east coast it is then." She said, smiling and nodding before turning on the radio and focusing on driving. Depending on where he wanted to go specifically, who knew how long they would be driving. Maybe they could stop in a town a while away and try to stay there for a while, maybe take their time getting out to the east.