25

The monotony of the drive got to me after about an hour. I looked over to the older boy. 

"What's your name?" I asked. 

The older boy seemed startled by the question. 

"My name?" he looked confused by the sudden change, "My name is Johnathan. Mom always just called me Johnny. My little brother is Sam."

"Johnny, and Sam?" I nodded thoughtfully, "I'm Lilian. You two can call me Lily."

There was hope in their eyes, and I wanted to protect that innocent hope. I checked the trailer as I covertly scanned my eyes over all six of my passengers. Most of the rabbits had peed or pooped at least once by now, and the smell was filling the mini van. I cracked the back windows since it was pretty warm out, and the AC wasn't working that great anyways. We had a long ways to go still, and there were spots up ahead that I didn't like. 

Places where the trees overlooked both sides of the road. My line of sight would be blocked on two sides through those stretches, and the obvious widespread nature of the abyss cracks meant Darington wouldn't be excluded from the places that had been affected by monster activity. I just really hoped the online rumor about people gathering there was right. The naval base might have guns, and soldiers, but it was surrounded by deep forest, and I didn't want anything to do with that. 

"Johnny?" I looked over to my passenger, "Do you want to learn how to drive?" 

It was a simple question, but he was only fourteen. The first time behind the wheel was a scary experience for most kids his age, and he'd already been through so much in the last few days. I almost felt guilty for asking, but I wouldn't be able to take advantage of my archery skill while I was inside this mini van, and the best way for us to get anywhere intact was not to let our enemies get close. 

"Yeah," he smiled nervously. 

That smile vanished when I slowed the mini van, and pulled it to the side of the road. 

"Right now!" Johnny exclaimed. 

"Yeah," I put the car in park, and hopped out, "Right now."

I waved him over to the driver seat, and brought it as far up as I could. Making sure he could see over the steering wheel. 

"Breaks, gas, and gear shift," I pointed to each important part, "Breaks mean stop, gas means go, and shifter means stay stopped or stay going depending on which gear you're in. Right now it's in park so the car won't move. You should only need P for park or D for drive. We aren't going to be going very fast, and there's no other cars on the road so no need to worry."

I walked around, and hopped in the passenger seat. I would need to let him relax a bit before I could be outside the car while he was driving. I'd also need him to settle into driving a bit so he wouldn't jam the breaks as much. Something new drivers did often that hurt when you were buckled in let alone loose. 

"Alright," I buckled in quickly, "Press the big break pedal, and put her in drive."

He stared at me for a few long moments as he stretched his foot to reach the pedal. Then he pulled the shifter down to lock it into drive. The mini van did not move, but with the trailer full of grain on the hitch I didn't expect it to move. He pressed the gas pedal slowly, nervously, and the car revved up as it slowly started to move. I could see him hovering his other foot over the break pedal, and he wasn't looking out at the road, but we weren't going very fast either. 

"Keep your eyes on the road," I tapped his chin to get him to lift it. 

I could see him oversteering, and could feel the car lurching a little as he tried to steer it straight. Over correcting each time. 

"Relax," I reminded him, "The car wants to go straight. Just keep the yellow line in front of you, and follow it like a track. Correct as needed."

He was nervous, and we were going at a painfully slow fifteen miles an hour, but I wasn't worried about speed at the moment. I checked to make sure Sam's belt was on just in case, but focused on Johnny. Johnny was nervous, and just as likely to steer into a ditch as he was to make it to Darington. He probably felt as if he was doing something wrong as well since fourteen year old children weren't normally allowed to drive.

"Do you want to know how old I was the first time I drove?" I asked.

Trying to lighten the mood a little. 

"How old?" Johnny took his eyes off the road again to look at me only to snap them back when he realized I was pointing at the road in front of him. 

"The first time I drove on the road I was twelve," I answered truthfully, "My grandpa followed me as I drove one of his tractors back to his place. First time I drove a truck was my dad's dump truck. Can you imagine being in a massive dump truck that's twenty years older then you, and so big you need two phone books just to see out the windshield. I was trying to drive up a hill, and I killed it so many times. I was so scared because every time it died it would start rolling down the hill. My dad liked doing dumb stuff like that. I was still scared of driving when I got my permit. Especially the big trucks, but I was able to do it even though I was scared, and once I got my license I had to drive everyday to go to work. After a while it became familiar. Once it became familiar it wasn't scary anymore. It was a fact of life. If I wanted to keep the things I have then I have to make money. To make money I had to drive." I sighed, "Things will be different for you though. This might be the only chance you get to drive. If things get worse then cars like this will be a rarity so I figured you should learn now or you might not get to learn at all."