Rough Ride
Chapter 33
Everyone loaded up in Jed’s pickup truck. Jed and Rachel sat up front while the rest of the boys and Leoma jumped in the bed of the truck. The weight of five adults in the back made the bed dip slightly from the load. Driving to Rachel’s to drop of Galinn and Leoma, Jed kept glancing at Rachel. She kept rubbing the front of her forehead with her hand. She kept looking at the floor of the truck like she was in deep thought, or she could not focus because of the pain.
Jed was worried about her, convinced this was related to the Alp but not sure how. He just hopped that when they kill it her headaches will disappear. Most of the roads in the mountains were gravel with potholes, the county did not pay much attention to the roads so the ride to Rachel’s was a little bumpy to say the least.
Jed looked in his rear-view mirror and started laughing, Rachel looked over to him while holding on to the door armrest. “What’s funny?” with an unsteady voice, hard to talk when the truck kept hitting bumps.
“Look behind you.” Jed said while laughing.
Rachel looked behind her and saw Leoma and the four boys holding on for dear life, just at that moment Jed drove over a deep hole without slowing down and Kalisto was knocked on his back from the impact. The others held on tightly to the railing of the truck bed. She started to laugh also, watching them bounce around in the bed. The warriors looked the funniest, knowing they have never road in the back of a truck let alone a vehicle before made it more comical. Even though Rachel’s head was hurting she could not help but laugh at them. Galinn was trying to hold onto Leoma, but it was not her first rodeo. Leoma decided to just sit on the bed of the truck and lean her back on the cab.
Seeing that it was safer for Leoma to sit in that position Galinn followed her and sat beside her. Taking hold of her hand. Levi knew what Jed was doing, he was able to make his way to the back window without falling out of the truck bed and took his hand, reaching around the cab to Jed’s window that was rolled down. Levi grabbed his hair and pulled hard enough for Jed to wince. “Slow the fuck down and stop hitting the damn potholes!” Levi yelled at Jed.
Wincing but still laughing Jed yelled back at Levi “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Levi decided to let go of Jed’s hair and he made a fist and punched him in the side of the head as hard as he could without being thrown off the truck. “What the fuck Levi! Okay, okay!” Jed slowed down and tried to miss the potholes.
Everyone settled down with a sigh of relief that no one was injured from Jed’s driving. About 20 minutes later they arrived at Rachel’s home. Jed pulled into her driveway. “Wait here, I’m going to go let them in and talk for a moment, so they’ll know where everything is located.” Rachel said to Jed, and he nodded in agreement.
Getting out of the truck, Rachel waiting for Galinn and Leoma to jump off the bed. The three of them walked up to the door and Rachel unlocked it, holding the door open for the other two to walk in. Giving Leoma a tight hug, Rachel whispered in her ear “I love you girl, you know where everything is and there is food in the fridge and pantry.” Leoma shook her head with a tear running down her face. “Don’t cry Leoma, we will get through this.” With a slight smile she looked over to Galinn, his eyes turned from Leoma to her. “Please take care of her, Leoma is like a sister to me.”
“I will protect her with my life Rachel, I promise.” He put his arm around Leoma’s waist. Rachel smiled at both, “Okay then, I’m going to go help hunt down that ugly fucker, hopefully see you two soon.” She turned and walked out of the house and jumped back into the front seat of the truck. Looking over to Jed she said, “Let’s go.” Jed started the truck and they drove off.
Eventually they drove up a mountain till the gravel road turned into dirt and it dead ended. “It’s time to walk.” Levi told the other three in the back, and they jumped off the truck bed while Jed and Leoma exited the cab.
Gathering in a circle Kalisto and Alexios looked at Jed, Levi, and Rachel. “Well, this is it we will try to protect the three of you, but our main objective is the Alp. If any of you are hurt while we are trying to kill the Alp, then you will be on your own. There is a lot you do not know.” Kalisto looked at the three sternly “If we survive then the story will be told about us, the Forbidden World and more but only if we all survive.” Kalisto took his gun and looked it over to make sure everything was good; Alexios was doing the same thing.
“We know the back of these mountains like the back of our hand, if anyone will be surviving it’s the three of us.” Levi pointed to Jed, Rachel, and him.
“Hope so, lets go.” Kalisto said and all five of them started to walk up the mountain. Following a stream that flowed down the mountain. Rachel was struggling to stay with the group. She didn’t think the pain in her head would hinder her keeping up with the others. Maybe I should have stayed at Levi’s like he suggested. She started to doubt herself whether she made the right choice of coming. Something in her gut was telling her she needed to go.