The Waitress

6 - What Happened in Perth

           

Kaely slept like a rock and woke around nine o'clock. She'd been asleep for so long, but it did her good. She was more alert now, but the room was kind of dark, so she groaned slightly and sat forward, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. She let out a wide yawn and sighed, blinking heavily before looking around sleepily.

"And now she bloody wakes up," someone grumbled, and she frowned, looking around. The boys were all awake, sitting around the table with a single lamp lighting up a few pieces of paper scattered around its surface. She ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her face and brushed the covers off of her legs, slipping off the bed to trudge over to the four of them. She was curious now, as to what they were doing. If she was to be with them for a time, she wanted to know how they worked, what the process was. It might even save her one day.

"Put some damn pants on," Eliot scowled, covering his eyes. Kaely tilted her head sideways.

"Somehow," she replied, "I find it hard to believe that you haven't seen a woman's legs before. Also, I have some pants on." Eliot grumbled something else as Kaely approached, letting a small yawn escape her lips before sighing again. "What are you doing, anyway?" she asked. "The lights are all out, you're looking at a bunch of papers... what's going on?"

"We're planning our route," Leo told her, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked down at the map in his hands. "Except I've put together reports of where the police are patrolling at what times, and it doesn't go well with any routes we can take to get to Sydney in time."

Kaely paused. "What's in Sydney?" she asked, confused. No one answered her, and she bit her lip. She had started by not trusting them, but now that they seemed to be the only people that didn't want her dead, she was starting to see the sense in co-operating with them. But now it seemed they didn't trust her, and she was trying not to be offended by this. Instead, she sighed and moved closer to one of the maps. She studied it for a moment, then took it from Leo, turning around to take it back to her bed. She sat on it with her legs crossed, the map before her, and she frowned harder. She saw all the routes that had been crossed off, and there seemed to be none left to take to get to Sydney without having to sit and wait for weeks on end for a police squad to leave. Then, she realised something.

"Guys, why have you been looking at getting to Sydney in the van?" she asked. "It's definitely not small enough to be inconspicuous, and certainly not fast enough to outrun the cops. So why haven't you thought of flight routes?"

The boys exchanged glances and Dex jumped up, coming to sit beside her to look at where her finger was pointing. "If we drive from here straight to Melbourne, then we can get on a plane and fly straight to Sydney from there. I've taken that trip before; it'll be about six hours to get to Melbourne without traffic, so if you park the van somewhere safe you can get to Sydney without wasting too much time, and just come back to the van after you're business is done. The flight won't be long, so you'll get to Sydney in under eight hours if you leave tomorrow. I'll even check some flights now."

Dex looked up at Leo and Leo shrugged. "They wouldn't think we'd have money after this long," he replied. "The security at the airport won't be hard to get through. This is the best route, I think."

"Do you know ever think about the future?" Kaely asked as she searched up possible flights for the next day; around one in the afternoon which would give them enough time to drive to Melbourne from Pinnaroo if they left in the morning.

"Not really," Eliot admitted. "It's kind of just now that we think about. Anything else will make us hesitate."

Jared – who had been quiet since Kaely woke up – stood suddenly, grabbed his coat and went for the door.