Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Lingering sickness from the drugs kept him from moving as quickly as he wanted to, but he'd traveled in far worse shape and he refused to give up. He cut through the subdivision without knowing where he was going and thumbed through his wallet to count bills. He'd taken to carrying several hundred dollars on him at a time, preparations for the worst-case scenario of not having his binder around. He had more than enough to get back to the upstate.
Following the larger streets brought him out onto a main road at last. He only had to go a few blocks before he could flag down a taxi. It took him to the nearest gas station at his request. There was a decrepit pay phone at the edge of the parking lot. Neil pushed coins into the slot and dialed Matt's number from memory. Matt answered after a couple rings with an incoherent mumble.
Neil checked his watch. It was almost ten. "Matt, it's Neil. Did I wake you?"
"Nah, I'm up," Matt said, but Neil heard the yawn in his words. "Where've you been? I didn't hear you come back last night."
"I'm in Columbia with Andrew."
"You're—what?" Matt went from half-asleep to wide awake in a heartbeat. The alarm in his voice only made Neil feel worse. "Jesus, Neil, what the hell did you do that for? Did he—" Matt aborted that and asked again, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Neil lied.
He thought he sounded convincing, but maybe Matt wasn't really listening, because Matt said, "I'm going to fucking kill him." A girl's voice said something in the background, too muffled for Neil to understand. Neil guessed Matt turned the phone away from his ear to answer, because Matt's voice was quieter when he said, "He's in Columbia."
"Jesus Christ." That was definitely Dan, loud and furious.
Matt was back on the line in a heartbeat. "Seriously, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Neil said again, "but I need a favor. I think Andrew's going to come looking for something of mine today. If I'm not there, can you keep him out of our room? I'll owe you one."
"You won't owe me anything," Matt said. "Didn't I tell you I'm good for it?"
"Thank you," Neil said. "We should be heading back soon, I think."
"You be careful, okay?" Matt said. "We'll see you in a couple hours."
Neil hung up and went inside the gas station. He stocked up on water bottles and a map, but he ran through the conversation a couple times as he walked the aisles. Matt's reaction to Neil's whereabouts was telling. Matt had been through this already; he knew what sorts of things Andrew got up to in Columbia. This was what Matt meant when he said Andrew put him in his place last year. This was what Andrew and Abby had argued about on Neil's first day. Apparently it took the team's psychiatrist to patch Matt up after Andrew was through with him. Either Andrew listened to Abby's warning and toned Neil's party back, or Neil avoided the worst of it by getting himself knocked out.
Neil snagged a notepad and pen last and checked out. The cashier loaned him a phonebook so Neil could look up the number to a taxi service. The cab came by five minutes later and Neil took it to the nearest truck stop on Interstate 20. There were a dozen or so bigrigs parked across the giant parking lot, most of them collected around the gas pumps. Neil was comforted by the number and sat on the sidewalk to unfold his map. He found three combinations of major roads that would get him to the northwestern region of the state and tucked his map away. He swallowed against the edges of nausea and approached the nearest trucker with a smile on his face.
"Good morning. I'm a sociology major, working on my summer project. Can I ask where you're headed?"
It took four tries before Neil found a northbound driver. The rig was taking 77, which wasn't Neil's first choice, but at least it crossed I85 near Charlotte, North Carolina. That was the interstate Neil needed if he wanted to get back to Palmetto. Finding a truck was only half the problem. Convincing a driver to take a stranger along was the other.
He offered the driver his politest smile. "Would you be willing to give me a lift as far as Charlotte? I can pay you fifty dollars for the ride and for answering a couple questions about what it's like working this job."
"I'm not into taking on passengers," the driver said.
Neil accepted that without argument and moved on. None of the other five were going where he needed them to, so he waited off to one side as the twelve trucks were slowly replaced. When the set was complete, he tried again. This time he struck gold on the third try. Not only was the woman willing to take him, but she was going northwest on I-26. It was a faster route to 85. Neil only had to wait until the tank was full and then they were off.
Neil had hitchhiked like this before from New Mexico to Phoenix. Remembering the interview he'd made up was easy. He took notes on everything the driver said, careful to play the part of an interested student, and the drive passed relatively easily. She left him at a truck stop outside Spartanburg and pulled away with a honk of her horn.
It was easier to catch a ride from there. Neil went through the interview all over again. The driver had questions for him as well, and Neil made up his answers as he went. It took some work to convince the driver that yes, he was fine getting dropped off on the interstate, but Neil got what he wanted. The truck pulled off onto the shoulder a quarter-mile from Neil's exit. Neil paid him and climbed out onto the grass.
It was a little after noon by then. The queasiness had faded, but his head still ached. Neil took his exit on foot and walked to the nearest gas station. He bought a couple bottles of water, sat outside on the sidewalk to drink them, and bought a few more. While he waited for the pounding to die down he studied his map. It was about eleven miles to campus from here. The road was small enough he wouldn't likely catch a ride, but Neil was okay walking it. It'd be faster to run that far, but he wasn't feeling well enough to try it.