Leaving My Little Life

     After two more days of preparation, Allen, Otis and I left home. It was really sad, but I knew it was what I wanted to do. We packed up my little car, closed up my little house, and left my little life. I let Allen drive. He wanted to feel like he had some control over the situation, which was fine. Since I wasn't giving him a choice about company, I was giving him as many other choices as I could. I asked him where we were going, and he said he had been thinking about it for awhile. He told me about all of the clues he had gone through previously, and listed them off to me to see if I could think of anything. The heart, the key, the knife with the message "Dead End Drive, Whitney Texas" on it, The flash drive with the Omega symbol, the list from the servers, the voice recorder, and the formula. We mulled it over for awhile while Allen drove aimlessly east.
     I bunched my knees up against the dashboard, and my jeans rubbed my calves unpleasantly. I'm really more of a skirt and shorts kind of girl, but I needed Allen to see me as an adventure partner, so I was in pants. I suggested that we try another family on the list, and he pointed out that he didin't have the list anymore. He didn't want to back to the bank and ask. He was ashamed of having disappeared, and didn't want to re-join the others until he had something solid to show he was worth his mettle.
     Allen turned off the freeway suddenly, and headed the other way. I asked him where we were going, and he assured me he had a plan. Two days later we were in Riverside, California. Allen had taken me to his old home, and showed it to me. It was really a nice house, but we didn't stay long. We stayed there for one night, and in the morning, Allen went to get coffee. He took my laptop with him, and was gone for about an hour. I almost thought he wasn't going to return, but when he did, he was very excited.
     We piled back into the car and drove for about a half an hour to an old house tucked out of the way. Nobody seemed to live there, and I was more than a little nervous about sneaking into a stranger's home. Allen grabbed Otis' leash, checked that his new pistol was loaded, and asked me if I was coming. We snuck through a hole in the old chain-link fence, and headed through a very tree-filled, overgrown yard. Otis' tail barely showed over the high weeds, and I was suddenly glad to be wearing jeans. We snuck around the back door, and entered the home of Gregory Faulkner.