Black Plague

Chapter 16:Overdrive

"Your uncle Lucas runs Galaxy bar!" Travis said taking hold of Mia's hand. She nodded as she stared at Travis.

"Why are you so excited Travis?" Rose asked.

"That bar is special because it plays a lot of locals bands from the surrounding area. They play Overdrive!" Travis said excitedly.

Oh, that makes sense. I remember when Travis first started listening to them. It was all he talked about.

Travis pulled out his phone and shared a picture of three men and a woman standing in front of some instruments. The man in front seemed vaguely familiar.

"Hey, my uncle's in that band! He's a great singer." Mia said pointing at the man in the center.

Travis snapped his eyes to Mia. He looked at the photo then to her.

"Will you be my best friend?"

"Your weird." Mia said giggling.

"Wait he's your uncle? Why were you with your grandpa if he could have taken care of you?" Jessie asked confused.

"He did take care of me for a while but my grandpa took me away. I don't know why." Mia said sadly.

Jessie looked at the others waiting for feedback. Lily stayed silent looking at the photo on Travis' phone.

"Maybe we should go and see him? Surely he knows why her grandpa took her? Maybe he knows why Plague wants her or maybe he can take care of her and keep her safe while we deal with Plague." Rose said.

"Please tell me we are gonna go see Overdrive in person! Here I even have a flyer with the bars address!" Travis said as he pulled out his wallet. He fidgeted with it until he pulled out a folded slip of paper. He showed it Jessie and beamed.

It was a flyer for the band promoting the venue. On the bottom it had some words written in red.

"Travis it says we have to be eighteen to get into the bar." Jessie said grabbing the flyer.

"Do you just carry this around with you everywhere?" Rose said as she grabbed the flyer from Jessie's outstretched hand.

"Yeah, it's a cool flyer. The whole eighteen thing is why I never tried to go. I don't really look my age." Travis said as he extended his arms dramatically.

He's right. Travis doesn't exactly scream maturity.

Travis grabbed the flyer and placed it back into his wallet carefully.

"We'll have to try, maybe if we tell them we have Mia they'll let us in." Rose said as she helped Jessie to his feet.

Jessie fixed Mia on his shoulders again and was greeted with her pulling on his hair.

"We need to keep moving towards town. Night is gonna come soon." He said as he looked up to see the sun setting in the sky.

They were in the hospital and the institute for a long time. Winter nights came fast, and so did the darkness.

"I can't believe we are gonna get to meet Overdrive! I'm so excited!" Travis said as he fixed his bag on his shoulder.

"Let's not get our hopes up too much there Travis. After all this Lucas guy could be a dick." Lily said as she stretched onto a branch.

Mia laughed and pulled on Jessie's hair again.

This is gonna be a long walk.

—————

As night settled over their quiet town, Jessie looked down the street to see the street lights flicker alive. They were downtown after an hour of hiking through the forest. He was tired and his scalp was sore.