On the Bounty

[kindaemissary]

Letting out a big sigh, Anderson leaned back into the couch and ran his hands down the length of his face. Even the three of them had no methods to stand up against an entire military. They were practically still children when it came down to it, and even if they weren't in the eyes of the law, Kaylon was the only one of them who truly knew how to make it on his own. He had a full time job as a grad student and a full time job on the side. He paid for all his food and amenities when bills came to be due. It wasn't a plan. It wasn't laid out ahead of time. No one else took care of him.


Anderson, as much as he would like to think otherwise, had no idea how living in the real world worked. He had bought things before: textbooks, bikes, furniture. He didn't know how to rent a house, pay bills, or vote. Hell, he missed the last election on purpose so he wouldn't have to feel so old. He had no idea how he was supposed to make his way across the country without a real alternate identity. The entire thing was bonkers. How was he supposed to create an entire new life for himself? There was more on his plate than he thought.


"I woke up the morning after the floor levitating off my bed, covers still on my bod," Kaylon said. The words knocked Anderson out of his depressed stupor. When I was awake enough to realize I was floating, I crashed back down onto the mattress. It was a pretty fucked up realization. Wasn't something I was expecting." He watched as Kaylon folded his legs the other way again and cleared his throat. The idea of them all not knowing what was going on was getting to him, but Kaylon was making things a little easier just by being there.


"I can make you IDs," Kaylon said, and Anderson was about to interrupt him before he continued, "but I want to go with you. I have money. I can work something out with Vanderbilt to come back in a few years once this calms down. I'll make the three of us IDs and forge some paperwork to make us look like real people." He gave the two of them a sideways look. "I can fix your appearances so that you don't look the same people with different hair."


Anderson blushed at the comment. He knew that the dye didn't change much, but he had still hoped. Kaylon laughed. "You tried your best, but I can do better. Sigma Alpha Epsilon didn't designate me as the resident party costume creator for my time for no reason." He smirked. "It'll be a giant makeover," he said. "It'll work out."

 

[TurtlesandMonkeys]

"That's great and all... but where do we go from here? Do we just find some cabin in the woods to stay at, or do we just keep going out on the road until we can't no more?" Jaime wanted to ask, because as much as she loved traveling, she wanted to enjoy it. The idea of traveling while running for her life wasn't as appealing as she originally thought, and it wasn't enjoyable. Perhaps memorable, but not enjoyable.


Jaime liked Kaylon at the moment. He seemed to know what he was talking about, and was definitely older than her and Anderson. But even if he did have the resources and the know how to help them, that could only last for a while. There was a chance, as much as she hated it, that someone would figure out who they were and they would have to run again.


"You seem like a good guy, and if something happened, wouldn't your reputation be ruined as well if they found out your associated with us?"

 

[kindaemissary]

Kaylon knew that even if he helped both Riley and Jaime it would be really hard to keep it under wraps. If he was able to maintain some kind of secrecy, he'd be fine, but most likely that wasn't going to happen. "There's a chance it'll ruin my entire life," Kaylon said after a moment. It was true. He could lose everything just by being part of it, but that was no excuse. "Even though there's big part of the world against you right now, you have me. If all of this goes how it's supposed to, it might just help my career. If we make it not such a big deal, I could be the first medical practitioner to say that I was affected. I could become world-renowned."


Anderson glanced over towards Kaylon and then placed his hand against the side of his face. It was hard to figure out exactly what Kaylon was feeling or thinking, Anderson knew that when they met, but trying to read him now was almost impossible. They had known each other for a good amount of time and hung out together over the summer - Kaylon came up to Oregon for a long weekend and they hit up some parties - but Anderson wasn't sure why all of a sudden it was hard to figure out what was going on inside of his head.


The three of them sat in silence for a little bit after that until Kaylon moved himself around on the chair and then stood up. "It's late," he said, "and my roommates won't be back until Sunday. Why don't you guys get some real sleep and we can figure something out in the morning? A real plan. We have a guest room upstairs, and one of you can stay down here. Don't think about it too much now. Get some rest and we'll figure it out then, okay?"

 

[TurtlesandMonkeys]

"Sounds good. I'll take the room upstairs if you don't mind." Jaime stood up with a big yawn as she grabbed her bag. She climbed up the stairs and looked around for what seemed like the guest room. Finding it, she went inside and plopped down on the bed with a big sigh. The bed was a tiny bit comfy, but she could get used to it. She didn't get up for several minutes as she stared at the ceiling wondering what might happen next.


She grabbed her pajamas and headed into the bathroom to take a quick shower, wash her hair and body, brush her teeth. Since her hair was shoulder length, it dried out pretty fast so she left it down. She put her pajamas on, which was a silk nightgown. It was the girliest thing she had to wear, and it was nice and silky smooth.


She headed back to the guest room and plopped on the bed again before passing out from the long day of traveling.

 

[kindaemissary]

Anderson brushed off Kaylon's hand when he offered to help pull the sofa bed out. "Too much work," he said, and he moved some of the pillows to the other couch before sitting down at one end and propping his feet up at the other. They might not have enough time in the morning to fold everything up. Anderson's shoes were sitting at one end of the couch and he pulled his sweatshirt off over his head before making eye contact with Kaylon.


"What?" he asked, and after a second of awkwardly staring at each other Kaylon sat down on the empty chair.


"How did you get messed up with all of this to begin with?" he asked. Anderson sighed and shook his head, but Kaylon held a hand up. "I'm serious. Why were you in Alabama in the first place? What were you doing there that you even ran into her in the first place? Why were you going to Switzerland?"


It was hard to explain, Anderson thought, but that wasn't a good enough answer. At least it wouldn't be good enough for Kaylon. He took a deep breath and leaned back into the couch, grabbing a blanket from the arm and laying it out over him. "I was going to Spain," he said. "Switzerland was a lay over. Before I got to Alabama I was on a tour bus. I got on down in Sacramento after a weekend with some friends and told my parents what I was doing. They didn't know about Spain, just the bus. I stopped in Alabama so I could get to airport in Birmingham, and she happened to be at the bus station. It was all kind of coincidental."


"Why is she traveling with you?" Kaylon asked as soon as Anderson stopped talking. Their voices were forced whispers.


Anderson shrugged. "I offered. She bought her own ticket. I didn't care. Once I got to Switzerland, I wasn't planning on traveling with her further. It's just a weird turn of events, I guess. But you know the rest. We flew from Birmingham to Tampa, and then the whole thing went down. I would have stayed there if they didn't say that everyone was going to assessed individually. I'm pretty good at hiding what I can do, but if anyone in power was to find out I don't know how far they would go to understand it."


He took a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. Kaylon's questions made him realize that the older man did care, even if his ponderings did seem a little pressed. Anderson reached out and grabbed Kaylon's hand in his own. "You're worried," he said, and after he stared at his hand for a long moment he made eye contact with his old friend. "Exhausted, anxious, fearful. You're freaking the fuck out." He let go. "I know it's not going to help anything, but don't feel like you have to come with us. If you can just get us what we need, I won't come back until it's all over. And even if you can't get us anything, or won't, I won't hate you. Know that."


Kaylon nodded his head as he understood, and after a moment he shook his head with a heavy exhale. "You're in way over your head, you know that right? You're an enemy of the state. I can't help you with that."


"I know," Anderson promised. "I'm not expecting it of you. Just some IDs, maybe. Fake paperwork for the car. New plates. Literally anything you can scrap up. Don't ruin your life for me." The younger man knew that he was asking a lot from his friend, but he knew that Kaylon would try to help as much as he could in the present situation.


A long moment passed before Kaylon stood up from the couch and grabbed Anderson's hand in his own. "I am worried," he said," but don't doubt for a second that I'm too scared to help you. I'll do what I can. Count on that." He gave Anderson's hand a squeeze before letting go and heading to the kitchen. "Get some sleep," he called back before turning the lights off. "You're going to need it."


The night then set in.


-


When the sun rose between the cracks of the living room blinds, Anderson stirred from slumber and rolled awake on the surface of the mildly-comfortable couch. He heard noises coming from the kitchen - writing on a hard surface - and he pulled himself off from the couch. He grabbed his sweatshirt and yanked it on over his head as he walked down the hall into the kitchen.


Kaylon was at the kitchen table jotting some things down onto a couple different notecards. The table was scattered with a variety of objects - phones, plastic, an array of paperwork, amongst others. Anderson watched Kaylon take a sip of the black coffee sitting next to him, and before he sat down next to him he grabbed himself his own mug.


"What's all of this?" he asked, and he pulled the kitchen chair out before plopping down onto the cushion. He pulled one of the pieces of paper towards him before scanning over some of the information.


"I bought you Kentucky plates, registered them to a Bradley Hawke. They didn't cost much. I'm also going to take the car to one of my friends later today and get you a paint job. I'm thinking dark blue. It's a lot different from silver. Maybe get some new rims. It'll all depend on what I can get out of him and what he has time for."


Anderson nodded as Kaylon talked and tried to compile a list in his mind of everything his friend was saying. Car, plates, paperwork. It all seemed very official. "Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked after a moment, and Kaylon looked up.


"No," he said. "I figured you two could switch off driving tonight as we head towards St. Louis."


For a moment, Anderson was a little confused, and it took Kaylon cracking a grin for him to understand exactly what he meant by that. "Your such a dick," he said. "I'm glad your coming with us."


Kaylon nodded and smiled. "Yeah, me too. I have it all figured out. I don't want to have to go over everything twice, so when Jaime wakes up I'll explain all of it. I have a lot of things planned out. We'll be in business before you know it. Until then," Kaylon said. "How do you like your eggs?"

 

[TurtlesandMonkeys]

Jaime turned over in the bed as her eyes flitted open. The sun blinding her a bit as it shone threw the blinds. She covered her eyes with the blanket and turned over in the bed. For a few minutes she completely forgot she was in Tennessee as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. With a sigh she got out of bed and got dressed, putting a headband on to get her bangs out of her eyes for once. She didn't have much clothes with her so she just put a baggy hoodie on and some leggings. She didn't feel like getting dressed completely.


she smelled coffee downstairs and she smiled. It was just what she needed as she headed down the stair and into the kitchen. She saw Anderson and Kaylon there with a bunch of papers everywhere. "Good morning." she said as she made herself a cup of coffee. "What's all this?" She asked regarding the paperwork. Glancing at them, she kind of got the idea. Stuff to help them out as they went along. Probably new identities and the work. It would take her a bit to get used to a new name, but she felt like she could if she had to.

 

[kindaemissary]

Kaylon headed to the table with a plate of fried eggs and some pieces of toast as Jaime walked down. He smiled up at her and grabbed his coffee mug from the counter before sitting back down at the table, set with plates, but still littered with what Kaylon had been working on during the night. "Morning," he said, and he grabbed a piece of toast and set an egg on top of it. "We can talk and eat at the same time," he said. "Join us."


From the other side of the table, Anderson was reading through a manual of sorts on what to do in certain situations, who to call, and a couple little things that he hoped their journey never came to. He nodded to Jaime and grabbed some food for himself.


"Alright," Kaylon said after a few minutes of the three of them munching away in silence. "I think it's time to get down to what's going to happen. I've decided to come with you, but we're going to do it my way. Once this is over, I want to be able to go back to medical school without having to fight the government about leaving a jail cell. You feel me? Anyway-" he paused and pointed towards some of the items on the table "-we have your regular burner phones, fake passports, fake drivers licenses, fake car insurance, fake job resumes, the life manual that Riley is reading, a couple new boxes of hair dye - you guys don't look different enough - colored contact lenses, and my favorite, the keys to our brand new car!" He grinned and gestured towards Anderson with his head. "Not trying to get your hopes up. The car's not new. I'm gonna go visit a friend in an hour and give in a new paint job, got some new plates. Pretty soon we'll be out rolling."


Anderson had been watching Kaylon as he told them both about all of the things that we're going to be happening with the next couple of hours, eating his egg slowly as Kaylon talked about stuff. He told them about his roommates and how they were coming home tomorrow, and hopefully the three of them would be out before then. Kaylon had a friend in St. Louis they could crash with for a day. It would all work out, whatever it was. There was so much to be figured out, but Kaylon seemed to have so many connections. It was crazy.


"What happens after St. Louis?" Anderson asked, and Kaylon took a breath and a shrug before replying.


"To be honest," he said," I'm not sure. My friend, Max, she'll have something figured out. We've been talking before you got here and I think she has a couple ways she can help us. When we're there, we'll figure it out. When we get there, you'll have to be going as your aliases. They're on the IDs. I don't want anyone recognizing your name. After we do hair and contacts, we'll take pictures and I'll put them through the printer again. Max'll know some people, maybe one's that actually want to help us. It'll be good."