Restless

The Mega Mover

Aaron told me of a sandman camp at an old house with the address 5974 Hawks point. Otherwise known as a mini school bus that the sandman turned into a indestructible supply carrier. Aaron explained to me that a while back he had left me a paper with the address on it. His plan was to have us find him earlier but they kept moving where they stayed.

"If we could get our hands on that, we could move everything, no problem." I said to Aaron.

"There's only one problem. The minute we take that thing, we're going to have half the sandmen in Missouri on our backs." Aaron pointed out.

"What if we had me, you, and someone else go steal the mover, speed over here, pack our stuff, and be out of here before the sandmen knew what hit em?" I explained.

"We need to tell the group to be ready to go and have everything they can't fit in the trucks sitting in front of the driveway so when we get back we can just pack and go." Aaron added. After a few more minutes of discussion of the mission we agreed to take Nick with us. He was a cop and was the tallest man I knew. If we got into any trouble he would get us out of it. After we came to an agreement, we split up. Aaron spread the word and I convinced Nick to come with us. We would have to walk to draw less attention so I grabbed my backpack and my revolver. Aaron grabbed his staff and a pistol for Nick and we set off towards the Mover.

As we walked, Aaron never let his eyes off of the tree line.

"What you looking at kiddo?" Nick asked from behind Aaron. He sighed and grasped his staff.

"Just... Nothing. I guess I'm just a bit paranoid. I keep thinking I see something. Like it's following us.." Aaron answered, keeping his eyes on the trees.

"I'm sure it's nothing, just keep moving." I assured him. He nodded and we kept walking. "So, Aaron, were there any other kid soldiers?"

"Two others... One tried to escape and got caught. They.. They cut off his fingers and smashed his kneecaps.." Aaron said, looking like a war veteran having a horrible flashback.

"Christ.. These men are crazy. Did they tell you why they did this?" Nick asked gesturing to the endless sleeping world we were walking through.

"No.. The only words that were said to us were orders." Aaron whimpered. " Nick, you had to go through a boot camp to become a officer?"

"Of course. That was the hardest part of my life." Nick said back.

"That's how they trained us. But if you failed you were shot.. They shot Hayden through the hand.. After that, he never screwed up again. He was the best out of all of us teens." Aaron explained. We had been walking for a while and Aaron told us we were getting close. In the distance, we could hear radio chatter and men shouting orders. We knelt down to hide behind the bushes but Nick was too tall.

"Nick, here take this and lay flat." Aaron said handing him a pistol. Nick did as Aaron said and laid down behind the bush. on the opposite side of the camp sat the Mover. It was just like Aaron described. The short school bus had been re enforced with bulletproof metal and had large wheels. It looked like a mini tank.

"Imagine riding that to school." I joked, but Aaron ignored me. "So, how are we going to do this?"

"There's twelve guards in that main tent, there's three over there by that truck, and there's two guarding the mover. If this mover is like the others,the keys should be on the troop leader of the camp. The leaders always wear a red patch on their arm.. " Aaron scanned the camp in only a few seconds.

"How'd you do that?" I asked, impressed.

"Do what?" Aaron asked back.

"How'd you know how many soldiers there are, where the keys are, and who has them?" I asked him. He looked at me and simply answered.

"Instinct." He whispered. I just chuckled.

"Use that instinct to scope out the troop lead-"

"Done." He interrupted, pointing at a soldier with a red patch on his shoulder. He was slim and had a funny looking mustache. He looked like a bad guy from an old western movie. I wanted to laugh but we were running out of time, so I held it in.

"I'll take the shot." I said grabbing my revolver. Aaron quickly pushed my hand down.

"No. Too loud. I learned something when they trained me." Aaron smirked. He grabbed his weapon and squeezed down on a indent in the front. A blade slid out the top and turned it into a small knife.

"We need to get closer." I said quietly.

"Got it, let's move." He replied. Aaron flanked left while I took the right. I moved silently through the brush. Then I heard a noise that made my heart stop. A hiss. I looked down in front of me and saw a long, light brown snake. I knew instantly what kind of snake it was. It was a deadly Copperhead. If I learned anything from the Discovery channel, it was the snake was more afraid of me than I was of it.

"Easy, fella. I won't hurt you." I whispered. The snake hissed again and I got an idea. I could use the snake as a distraction. I slowly turned and grabbed a long, sturdy stick. I was close to the tent filled with soldiers so I put the end of the stock towards the snake and quickly pinned its head down. It's body wiggled and jerked but I held the stick firmly on the ground. I reached down and with my thumb and index finger, grabbed the back of the snake's head so it couldn't turn to bite me. I dropped the stick and held up the copper head. I looked at it's fangs and looked back up at the tent. The opening was a clear shot. I stood up and with one good swing, I hurled the angry Copperhead into the tent. After a loud crash, soldiers started to yell kill it. As this was happening, Aaron had snuck up behind the Troop leader and had pick pocketed the Mover keys out of his pocket. Then he heard the noise coming from the tent.

"What's going on?!" he asked in an Irish accent. Him and the other soldiers rushed into the tent to help. When they were all in the tent, Nick, Aaron, and me bolted for the Mover. My heart pounded as I ran towards the vehicle. We all jumped in and Aaron started the mover. The engine started and rumbled. The engine was loud enough to get the attention of a few guards. Before they could get out of the tent, Aaron hit the gas. We sped off towards the road home. I laughed and patted Aaron's shoulder. I looked back into the back of the bus and noticed there were no seats. Nothing was in the mover except a black bag.

"Hey, what's in that bag?" I asked Nick. He moved over and opened the bag. Then the strangest thing happened. A short person jumped out onto Nick and started hitting his chest. The person was so small Nick didn't even try to hurt him he just picked him up by the back of his shirt. He squirmed and growled.

"Let go of me, you big ape!!" He yelled. He had the voice of a young man but the height of a child. All of a sudden, Aaron hit the brakes and turned around in his seat.

"Hayden?" Aaron asked the person. He stopped fighting and looked at Aaron.

"Aaron? What are you doing here? I thought you were killed when your squad was shot." The short guy said.

"No time to explain. This is Drayton and Nick. We're the sleepwalker rebellion in Hillsboro. We're leaving the state. You can come if you want." Aaron told Hayden.

"Woah, hold on. We can't just invite people to come with us." Nick argued.

"He's friendly, I promise. He can help us." Aaron said, almost upset.

"Please, sir. I've been trying to escape for months. I'll do anything." Hayden begged. Hayden was small with short blonde hair. He had braces and looked like a scared little kid. I felt sorry for him so I told nick to put him down and that he could come.

"Let's go, it's almost sundown, Aaron. We have to get the others before they try to follow us." I said to Aaron.

"Don't worry about them following us, I slashed their tires." Hayden giggled. Let's just get going."

"They better be ready to go." I said to myself as we got closer to my house.