Now eleven years have passed since I was being chased by an angry mob. Over the years I’ve been able to stay low under the radar by not staying in one place for too long, but every time I move I feel even more like an outcast. Luckily over the years I have been making myself busy, I have been collecting useful items that people have forgotten about, like a black leather jacket, a pair of sunglasses, and even a jeep.

When I turned sixteen I was scavenging around a junkyard, full of different things from the past fifty years, I had found a dirty gray two door 2012 jeep wrangler. At first when I found it I thought that it was my chance to get away from this place, but when I opened up the hood of the vehicle there was no engine. After looking around the junkyard some more I found an engine, a badly damaged engine, but an engine never the less. After using some other scrapes from the junkyard I was able to get the jeep started over time.

I’m getting off topic now as I was saying; eleven years have passed since I had been chased into that manhole cover. I stand in a bathroom staring at myself through the mirror, after I had just took a shower, looking at my wet dark brown hair, my eyes had lost their color they looked brown instead of bright red, and my sharp teeth but they weren’t as sharp as they use to be, even my craving for raw meat had vanished, all seemed to died down except for my hearing. Remembering what happened eleven years ago about the mob chasing me, and that boy who called me a demon. Ever since then two questions kept popping up in my head that could not be answered, how was I, and why…why am I so different from everyone else?
The more I thought about it the more it worried me, and then I heard someone call me “Spade” he yelled “can you come down here?” a man said, but with my super hearing it sounded normal to me.
I put on a pair of pants and a red t-shirt that were hanging up next a towel I came out of the bathroom and into a small room with a twin bed with nothing hanging white painted walls this is my room I had been staying here for a while. I headed out another door that lead to a hallway with the same color walls as in my room; next to my room is a pair of stairs I began to head down the stairs before I saw a man and a kid talking to each other. The kid has short black hair with little strands of purple, the kid wore an orange t-shirt and overalls, the kid looked like he was nine, the kid is C.J. Hector, C.J. stood for Catherine Jane from a distance you would not be able to tell she was a girl until you were face to face. The man has gray hair and beard he looked like he was in his eighties, he wore a white t-shirt and tan shorts with grease spots on his cloths, that man is Richard Stein, but everyone called him Steady for his steady hands, and by everyone I mean me and C.J.. Steady owned a garage his motto “we fix it all or we fail miserably” great catch phrase hah, Steady found me when I was ten roaming the streets alone to stay alive, C.J. however had a more tragic story her parents abandon her when she was a baby since she was four she has been trying to see the outside world. But Steady would not allow it.
“Steady, C.J. what’s going on?” I asked.
They immediately stopped talking and looked up at me “nothing” C.J. said she looked like she had just started crying.
“Happy Birthday” she said the nice way she could trying to not sound upset and stormed off.
“Don’t worry about her she just needs to blow off some stem” Steady said, “now get down here your gift is not going to unwrap its self.”
I continued down the stairs, I completely forgot it was my birthday today March 12, when I reached the bottom of the stairs Steady was standing next to a sheet covering over a large object the sheet was ordinary no color, no designs, not even a sign that says happy birthday present.
“What is that?” I asked him because obviously it was not a gift.
“This is your special eighteenth birthday present” pointing to the sheet.
Great hope the present itself is better than the wrapping paper; I walked over and removed the sheet. What was under it I could not believe the gray jeep wrangler that I found a few years ago was under the sheet. The jeep was way different than how I found it instead of it being a dirty gray color it shined bright silver; the jeep had a complete makeover since last I saw it. I did not realize it but my mouth was wide open from the amazement.
“That’s not the only thing you’ll think is cool” Steady said, he popped open the hood.
When he opened it the engine that had been made of scrape was recreated into a high torque diesel engine, I was stunned to see a better engine for the jeep.
“This is amazing” I told Steady.
“Me and C.J. built it for you.”
My surprise went away I figured what C.J. was mad about was I could leave and go see the world and stuff, and she couldn’t.
“What happened?” I tried not to think about it but I could not help but ask what had happened.
Steady looked uneasy, “she believes it’s not right that I’m letting you go but not her.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t go.”
“No…you still have a life to live this place, this is my life” he told me “C.J. will get her chance one day just not today.”
“It just doesn’t seem right.”
“Look I followed my own path and its time you found yours….it’s time to find your own way.”
I wasn’t sure what to do but I did know one thing, Steady was right it was time for me to follow my own path.
“I’ll go get packed.”
And headed upstairs to my room, I grabbed a suitcase out of my closet and put it on my bed and began to pack my belongings up starting with the pants, shirts, socks, etc. When I went to go get a jacket hanging on a coat rack behind me I saw my black jacket being held by C.J.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“I’m going with you.”
“No you’re not.”
“And why not…because Steady says I can’t, because I’m too young.”
The last thing I wanted to do right now was get in an argument with her, I’ve known C.J. for so long that she was like a sister to me.
“You are too young” making an excuse.
“That’s not the real reason is it you guys still think I’m a little girl. You guys don’t even care about me.”
She scampered out of the room throwing my jacket to the floor, I wanted to go after her but I might just make things worse. I walked over to my jacket that she through to the ground and picked it up; C.J. was wrong thinking that we did not care about her. The truth is that when I first meet Steady and C.J. was almost eight years ago, and Steady told me what happened to her being abandon, but Steady never told her, the thing about keeping a secret this long is that it usually comes back to haunt you.
After I finished packing, and putting my jacket on, I find Steady downstairs waiting for me in his hands is a green bag.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Just a going away present.”
He hands the bag to me, and I open it to find some wrapped in a green plastic bag up food and a canteen three quarters empty of water.
“Sorry about the water we are low on it for today, which is strange because we had enough left” he says.
I push the food and canteen away, under them is a rolled up piece of paper. I unroll the paper to find a map covering LA all the way to Washington D.C. the map was digital; when I clicked on LA the map zoomed in.
“This map may come in handy if you lose your way or anything” Steady tells me.
I put the map back in the green bag, with the food, and water. But I could not help, but notice C.J. was not down stairs.
“Where’s C.J.?”
“I’m not sure” he says just realizing she was not here.
I put the green bag and my suitcase in the back seat of the jeep.
“Well tell her I’ll see you guys soon.”
“Will do, oh and Spade be careful while you’re out there there’s all ways danger in different forms you can count on it.”
It sounded like he was trying to warn me about something, but I could not tell about what. I got in the driver’s seat of the car and drove out the garage; the outside of the building was dark green of a two a story building. As I drove thru the street of apartments I remembered how I use to hide and stay alive doing anything that was necessary to stay alive. When I reached the outskirts of the city, the sky not covering the city wasn’t covered with black clouds the sky was sunny and blue with white clouds. This had been my second time seeing the sky like that I recall seeing it when I was younger, but I could not remember when. As I headed out into the world covered by the sunny blue sky, I entered a desert outside the city. The air in the city was cool and moist, however the air in the desert immediately turned warm and dry I felt could feel myself sweating. I was on my own now following my own path.