𝚁𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛

|| 14 ||

A few minutes later a voice broke me out of my daydream.

"Hey River!"

It was Zhenzhen.

"Hey, Zhenzhen. I see the boys are taking forever." I laughed.

"Yeah." she laughed too.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes until Alex and Gabriel walked up.

"Hey, guys! Where's Dariush?" I asked.

Alex shrugged.

"Okay then."

We all sat down again and not even two minutes later Dariush walked up.

"About time." Gabriel huffed as we all got up.

"Shut up." Dariush shot back.

All the boys started fighting, while Zhenzhen and I stood there getting more and more annoyed by the second.

Suddenly Zhenzhen slapped them. They stood there looking at us in shock.

"What we do in life echos in eternity," she started, "Hold the line! Stay with me. If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled for you are in Elysium, and you are already dead." she finished.

I didn't understand what she was talking about but her speech was very inspiring.

"Did she just quote Gladiator?" Dariush asked.

"Since when does she speak English?" Gabriel asked sounding slightly impressed.

"Since when does she speak?" Dariush asked.

I frowned and we headed into the storage shed. Gabriel squatted down to unlock the bikes as Alex read out the combination. He wasn't getting it right and Dariush was yelling at him, which obviously wasn't helpful, so I squatted down, gently took the lock away from him, and put in the combination.

I stood back up letting the lock fall to the ground. He gave me a small smile as he walked past me to grab his bike. I turned and grabbed mine as well.

After we all had our bikes we went outside.

"So who knows how to get to JPL?" Alex asked.

"Wait, we're actually going there!" Dariush sounded surprised.

As Zhenzhen, Alex, and Gabriel started to talk about how to get there I answer Dariush.

"Yes, why do you think we got the bikes and the supplies," I said.

Dariush rolled his eyes at me. "It's over 70 miles away!"

"You can stay here by yourself then."

"No way!"

"Then stop complaining about it!"

I listened to the last bit of Zhenzhen, Alex, and Gabriel's conversation. Then Gabriel spoke up.

"Alright is everyone ready to go."

We all said yes and went to walk to the road. Alex stood still.

"Um, guys," he spoke up.

We all stopped and turned around

"I don't know how to ride a bike."

"How do you not know how to ride a bike?" Dariush asked, condescendingly.

"I just never learned I guess." Alex shrugged.

"Well, we can teach you as we go then." Gabriel offered.

"No, it's fine you can leave me here," Alex said sadly, looking down at the ground.

"We're not leaving you here Alex. We'll teach you now come on," I spoke.

He looked up and nodded. We all walked down to the road and got on our bikes.