Side B Squad

“A’right, Devon. Ya gotta clue us in. What’re we waitin’’ for?”

The voice pierced the silence of the dusty old van. A head of long kinky hair twisted and turned over the driver’s seat, staring at the small boy who was sitting on the floor near the side door. He was perked up, his legs folded over one another neatly, and his round (but sharp) grey eyes were out the window, focused very far away. He was a slight kid, short and thin the way that young boys often are. His mop of curly red hair was unruly and was in desperate need of a cut. Long brown ears, not unlike a donkey’s, poked from the hair and jutted forward in attention, occasionally twitching, as if in anticipation.

Edie groaned when she didn’t receive the answer, slumping back into the driver seat. She felt the back of the seat slump with her and she silently cursed the car once again. It had been gifted to them months prior, and it was a wonder that it was still on wheels. The thing was OLD- A Volkswagen Westfalia monster that was a relic of some forgotten decade. The yellow body was deemed the color of sunshine by Devon, but Edie had to agree with Penny when she called it the ‘Cheesemobile’, It had three bench seats in the back, a tiny much-need-of-an-update kitchen set, and crusty orange carpet lining it’s can like body. There were dents and discoloration, and random lights that flickered on and off at the worst times. It smelled like the 70s, and Edie could not believe that the mechanic that they got it from got it running at all.

But they had done their best to make it their own.

The first thing they had done was string up fairy lights, the next was pile as many blankets and pillows that they could fit. With the four of them, they had figured out how to make seats comfortable beds out of those bench seats. Well, Penny’s brother’s friends engineered it. The backs of the seats could be loosened and reclined to a giant bed that would accommodate for them. They also fixed (somehow) the small fridge, engine, and the pop-up roof that turned into another loft-type bed for the little ones. Lastly, Edie had figured out a way to store totes of books and activities for the kiddos beneath the seats. This led to a chaotic day where Devon and Joy painted the exterior with swirly blue flowers and wavy green vines, somehow transforming the ‘Cheesemobile’ into something much more colorful and beautiful. One day, she vowed to tear out the goddamn carrot orange carpet and replace it with something better.

One day.

But at the moment, she was tired of waiting. It was already frustrating that Devon had led them into the hustling downtown of whatever city they were in. The buildings all close together, the fast moving pedestrians haphazardly their paths to wherever, the lack of any foliage… And, most importantly, the lack of an easy exit if things went south.

Which they often did.

Edie scratched her scalp, her thick fingers weaving and catching on her curly dark brown hair. She was also in a dire need of a cut- the thick curls now hit the small of her back and began to creep to her hips. It was heavy, Lord was it heavy, but Edie didn’t mind it too much. Heavy just made her stronger, that’s how she rationalized the choice of even having long frizzy hair. Heck, that mindset also explained the backpack that was double the size of Devon which sat in the passenger seat. Edie liked to be prepared for anything, snakes, rats, low food, rain, drought, anything in between. And she kept the things that would prepare her for those situations in the giant backpack. But when Devon got like this, it always put Edie off kilter. She didn’t know how to prepare for a spooky premonition from the donkey haired wunderkind.

The other two were doin’ much better than the tall, broad, frizzy hair wreck at the wheel. Penny and Joy had acclimated to the weirdness of their new lives in their own way. Joy was hiding in the trunk, and popping up, scaring pedestrians on their way to work. Everytime she made a hurried business man or a mommy jogger jump, she fell over, cackling in laughter before getting into position again. Penny decided to take the extra time to pick off the dried nail polish she had spilled the night before on the counter top. Her face was set in stone, part from her expression, the other to her heavy eyeliner and black lipstick. She barely looked up from Joy’s nonsense, being used to the younger ones' antics. Edie envied Penny’s hardened attitude, as if she didn’t care about what was happening. She was pretty badass for a literal 13 year old.

Edie’s booted foot began to tap restlessly in front of the gas pedal. She was eager to leave, eager to get back on the open road and put the windows down and feel the wind on her skin. Passing by plains to mountains to deserts to forests, it was all fascinating to her. Much better than some dingy, cluttered city with air that smelt like sweat and piss.

But Devon said something good was this way.

So they wait.

.
.
.
.

FWING!

Edie jolted up and turned to Devon, who finally made a move. Hand on the van door, he had swung the door wide open. HIs ears were rigged and straight up, twitching every couple of moments, but his eyes stayed fixed on the street right outside the door.

Everyone reacted. Penny finally looked up from the nail polish, leaning forward in her seat, her too-bright blue eyes narrowing at Devon. There is a soft clink as she moves, the chains from her slightly too big black cargo pants moving with her. Her face changed ever so slightly, one that her friends could interpret into interest and intrigue. After the month or two that they had spent together, they considered themselves experts of reading Penny’s micro expressions.

Joy crawled and tumbled out of the trunk. She smiled widely at Edie, ready for action, ready for a fight. She had lost her front tooth two weeks ago, the gap adding to her general tomboy-ness. Hair pulled back into loose pigtail braids that frayed at each twist and cat like eyes that twinkled with excitement. The over all hyperactiveness even reached to her arms, the quills upon them only moments from snapping up and ready to launch themselves at any bad guy that might come her way. Penny had tried to tell Joy that they probably won’t see too many ‘bad guys’ while on their little trip, but that didn’t stop the small girl from preparing.

No one said anything, but had their eyes on Devon for their signal to move. To run. To fight.

It was silence.

And then….

It’s not long before they find out.


With a clatter, something throws itself inside the old van. Blankets and pillows are thrown aside while the whole vehicle shakes as whatever it was urfurls itself into something vaguely resembling a human man. Dark brown curly hair that looks as if it’s been hastily cut short by something that shouldn’t have been used to cut hair, dark skin weathered by time spent in the sun and under dirt, dark brown eyes dark enough that the pupils get lost in them; those same eyes dart around the van and flick over each of them in turn. He’s bigger than them, but not by much. Older too, but any sort of guess at an age seems nebulous at best. He wears a t shirt with some sort of strange graphic that looks to be the most expensive item of clothing on him, An old baggy cardigan that looks like it was stolen off the rack from a basement thrift store sags off his shoulders, jeans with holes worn deep into the knees, and a pair of sturdy but worn pair of leather boots (Stolen. The previous owner hadn’t needed them much when he had taken them.).

His fingers grab for the space next to him to eventually curl around a large messenger bag that looks like the finest choice from a garbage heap. The strap is taped together in several place with the telltale silver of duct tape while several paper poke from between the bag itself and the flap trying to keep it all in. He glares at themas he gathers the bag closer to himself, his chipped nails digging into the canvas fabric.


“Well? You just gonna stare or are you gonna fucking drive?” He asks, voice low. “Cause I’d really prefer if you would fucking drive.”


His eyes dart to the street outside the open door. Two cops are advancing on the van, one yelling into his walkie. They can catch snippets of it inside the van, little bits like “10-29f,” and “requesting backup” and “suspect fleeing”, things that don’t really carry much meaning without the original context. Context that he isn’t going to be providing anytime soon. It had been a hell of a month in this beat up old city, a hell of a time with his makeshift roommates in that crater of an abandoned storefront. He suspects it might have been a pharmacy once, one of those old timey things. Didn’t really matter though. What it currently was was a haven for the abused, the addicted, the vagabonds like him who just had a deisre to fuck and smoke their way across the country. He’d been doing a hell of a job at it too until johnny 5-0 found him on a fucking stop and frisk.

Had to give ‘em some credit though. They did spot the fake id when he gave it to them. Granted, after like ten such incidents, he had to have a file somewhere with some sorta list of ‘em.

He’d find out soon if these kids didn’t move this damn van. (God they were kids, weren’t they? Oldest had to be driving, none of em looked past sixteen. The one holding the door open with the … weird ears… looked like a god damn baby.)


“Hey. I know I’m pretty. But the fuzz are getting pretty close, and i ain’t going to jail today. If you could just maybe, i dunno, drive?”

.

As soon as the guy landed, Devon slammed the door, and promptly went to stand over the pile of blankets and pillows, tilting is head and watching expectantly. He blinked as the pile moved, and a growing smile once the curly haired hooligan revealed.

Penny immediately knew she was going to have a hard time liking this kid. He was scruffy and smelly and had the look of someone who had done some shit for a pack of smokes. She immediately turned back to her nail polish, but the flashing blue and red caught her attention quickly. And the guy yelling at them to drive.

“Shit…” Penny mumbled, pulling Devon and Joy to the back seats, strating the process of buckling them in “Shit shit shit shit…”

“HELL YEAH” Joy’s fist pumped in the air as she did her best to squirm from Penny’s grip, trying to get a better look at the cops “COP CHASE LETS DO THIS!”

Edie whirled back around to the steering wheel, hand on the gear shift with an iron strong grasp. She whacked it into reverse and slid themselves out of their curbside parking before thrusting it into drive and speeding away down the street. She whizzed and dodged past other drivers, missing them by a hair. After running the first light, her dusty brown eyes looked up at Devon, who was chewing his lip and whimpering ever so quietly.

No screaming.

Just whimpering.

Good sign.

“Devon, get us out of here.” Edie’s low voice was rough, hiding any ounce of anxiety that was gripping at her stomach like a vise. Devon’s eyes flew up at stared back through the mirror, very wide. He was silent for a moment. And then-

“Two lefts and a right. First exit on the roundabout. Then a right. If you are quick enough, we’ll lose em.”

Edie grunted a thanks a followed the directions to a tea, swerving and curving around bikes, cars, and runners. The cops stayed behind them up until the roundabout. Edie gave it a sharp turn, horns blaring at her for the jackass move that she pulled. Which caused a slight pile up, leaving the cops in her dust for the time being. But she knew that they would take backroads. They knew the city better than her. So she continued following Devon’s advice, whizzing down the boulevard to the next intersection, before drifting a turn. The engine heaved under the hood, but Edie knew they would make it. The kid would tell her if they weren’t.

Right?

Meanwhile, Devon watched as the quick turns made the new man tumble back and forth. He pondered for a moment, wishing he had a second to explain to the new group member how they sometimes operated. It was often fast and loud and chaotic and a mess, but Devon was used it, being the youngest of six. And Devon could tell that the new man was used to it too, at least a little bit.

Devon never could describe how his powers worked. But everyone and everything around him emitted this… energy. Aura. Vibe. And he could discern what was good and what was bad. Generally, situationally, personally. For example if three apples were placed infront of him, two of which were rotten, he would be able to grab the one that was good before even registering that they were apples.

And he could tell that this man was very good.

It was as if a missing piece was found right before packing the whole puzzle away. And Devon couldn’t really tell why. But he knew. So he met the man’s eyes, his gap-tooth smile growing even more

“Hello there! My name is Devon! Do you need some water? Sometimes it helps me when the driving gets crazy. But you might want to keep your head down for about…..” He paused, looking away and thinking for a second “An hour and sixteen minutes. By then, we shouldn’t be around any fuzz.”

Penny groaned and rolled her eyes, putting her focus back on the cop cars in the distance. Joy, on the other hand, turned and looked the new dude up and down, lips scrunched forward and eyes squinted, trying to glean the same energy that Devon had so naturally. When it didn’t work, she kept her eyes focused on him to hear his response.