Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

highway.
    While we were doing everything we could to be quiet, the slavedrivers seemed almost to be doing the opposite. We could hear their rowdy guffaws and shouts coming from the other side of the road. It went on for part of the day and stopped for an extended period when the clouds began to move in as they normally did in the late afternoon.
    “Should we go now?” asked Winky.
    “No, it’s not dark enough,” I said.
    “But they’re sleeping now, right? When it’s dark they’ll get up and party.”
    I looked at the other guys to get their input.
    “It’s risky,” said Jamal. “I wouldn’t do it in the daytime if it were me. But she’s right about them being awake. That would be risky, too.”
    “I say, wait until it starts to rain.” Ronald looked up at the sky. “It’s gonna be a big storm, you can tell from how dark and heavy those clouds are.”
    I looked up where he was pointing and realized that he was probably right. They looked like they were only about a half-hour away. A loud rolling batch of thunder came from off in the distance, underscoring the accuracy of his predictions.
    “You can army-crawl through the weeds until you get close and then wait for your moment.”
    “Army-crawl. Fun,” I said sarcastically.
    “I do love me some army-crawling through the wet, smelly, snake-infested weeds,” said Winky, smiling.
    “Snake-infested?” I said, feeling a little light-headed at the idea.
    “Just kidding. Not really,” she said.
    “Not really, what? Kidding? Or about the snakes?”
    “Yeah. One of those,” she said, leaning back quickly so I couldn’t hit her.
    “I will slap you silly, Winky.”
    “You’d have to catch me first. And I’m fast.”
    “But you’ve got to sleep sometime.”
    “Okay, ladies,” said Ronald, holding up his hands, “time to behave. We have plans to make here.”
    “Yes, sir, Ronald, sir,” I said, saluting him. Then I couldn’t help but smile. “Just messing with you. I like bossy men. Tell me what I should do.”
    “Me, too. Boss away,” said Winky, looking at him expectantly.
    “I’m not bossy,” said Ronald.
    “Uh- hem ,” said his brother, clearing his throat. “Yeah, right.”
    “Traitor,” Ronald said, scowling at his brother.
    “I just call it like I see it. And you ? Are bossy. But you know I like you anyway, brother, so keep on keepin’ on.”
    “With my bad self?” he finished.
    “Yeah. Wit’ yo bad self.”
    They did a complicated hand slapping thing that had me jealous. Winky and I giggled as we tried to mimic it.
    Ronald put his hands over ours, covering them and halting our progress. “Girls. Please. You’re embarrassing yourselves.”
    Jamal snickered behind him.
    We stuck our tongues out at them.
    “They’re just jealous,” whispered Winky loudly.
    “Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ve got skills.” We did a messy high-five followed by two hip bumps that sent Winky flying into the dirt. “Oops, sorry about that,” I said.
    We both started giggling, unable to stop.
    The guys all rolled their eyes.
    Bodo spoke up from his position on the ground. “You haff to watch out for Bryn’s butt.”
    I hid my smile behind a fake scowl.
    “Girls,” said Peter, shaking his head and sighing, as he went back to his job of repacking the trailer. He’d taken everything out and was starting from scratch.
    “I’m going to take a cat nap until the rain comes,” said Winky, lying down on her back, using her backpack as a pillow.
    “Me too,” I said, doing the same, facing Winky and resting my back against Bodo’s after giving him a kiss on his thankfully cool cheek. I fell asleep looking at my friend’s beautiful profile, envying her coffee-colored skin and shiny black hair, hoping that no matter what went down later today, that she’d never lose the spunk that made her so much fun to be around.
    ***
    The rain came and brought with it plenty of thunder and lightning. The drops were so big it reminded me of the shower in Kayahatle. We were soaked in less than a minute.
    Winky and I armed up, each putting two knives and a gun in our clothes. Bodo was awake and seemed much better. He protested when he was told he couldn’t participate, but he seemed okay with me going.
    “Chust come back to me. Dat’s all I ask,” he said before giving me a bone-crushing hug.
    “You all have to be ready to haul ass when we’ve gotten those kids,” I said, pulling out of his arms. “If by some miracle we’re able to get them