Savannah Tour: Chapter 10

Delta, June 4th, 10:18AM

“Mr. Ortega? Where are you?” I called out.

Sasha yelled something unintelligible, and I ran over to her. “What?”

“I can call Mr. Ortega’s phone,” she said, out of breath. She turned on her phone and called him. He answered immediately.

“We’re at the airport. We’ll meet you there.” Then he hung up.

“He said... what?” I grumbled. “The airport is 3 hours away!”

Sasha narrowed her eyes. “Then... we’re taking my car. Let’s go. Do we have any food or stuff for the 3-hour-trip?”

“Water and dried fruit, plus some crackers,” I answered. “Should be good.”

As we got to her car, I noticed the shiny tan color of the Mazda. “Nice car,” I said. I jumped in the passenger seat and turned on the AC immediately.

“Thanks.” she said. “Now, there’s a problem.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“My GPS is run down. Which way was the airport? Also, I have low gas. My house is far from the savannah, okay?”

“Then I guess we’re taking my car,” I grumbled. “Come on!” I got out and opened the door of my blue car, an ancient Pontiac that a miracle had made work.

“Wow. This looks expensive. Now, before we go, I want stuff to entertain me!” she said as she ran towards my locker in the gift shop. I took a little peek at what she was doing as she went through the door that hung a sign that said, “Employees Only”.

I pulled out an old iPod and started playing a random playlist on it. I set it down and waited for Sasha.

Sasha came out with an activity book which was supposed to go to a kid in the savannah restaurant. “Alright. Let’s go!” she yelled.

“Um... alright!” I said, slamming my foot onto the gas pedal right as she closed the door. We shot backwards and I swerved towards the exit, just barely clearing the curb. *I’m a great driver.*

*“*Hey, I don’t have anything to write with! I forgot! Give me something please Delta! Or just head back to the savannah! Unless you have something else to entertain me.” she boomed.

“I, uh. Okay! I have a pen!” I nearly shouted. I fully stopped at a stop sign to hand her one, then quickly sped up.

“Thanks. Now, what do you think Mr. Ortega is doing at the airport?”

“Flying... somewhere? Or maybe he got a new job there? I don’t know.”

“Hmm. Let’s call Mr. Ortega, Dad now. Should we?”

“Okay. Uh... I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Seriously, Sasha?” I turned back to look at her, and at the exact same time, a screeching sound erupted. I jerked my head back to the road, but just we hit the truck, sending them rolling over and sending us skidding off the road right until we hit the median barriers.

Sasha screamed. “What should we do!?”

I blinked. Repeatedly. “Get out,” I hissed, my voice an octave higher than usual. Tongues of fire clawed at the windshield. I kicked the door open. It didn’t go. I yelped.

“HEY! THIS DOOR ISN’T OPENING!”

“Open the window,” I screeched. “Go out that way!”

“And what if I'm not strong enough? Besides, we don’t have anything, except our bag full of camping supplies and food. And who’d want to break a perfectly fine window?

I pulled out a plastic knife and jammed it into the window’s edge, before gritting my teeth and sighing. “The trunk still works. It’s broken, so it swings right out.” I climbed into the back and kicked it open, ignoring the surge of pain that went up my leg.

“You! You destroyed my truck,” a familiar yet strange voice rasped. I turned around to see the tourist who had been yelling at me earlier.

“Oh yeah? Well, you destroyed my friend’s car!”

“Sasha,” I whispered. “Don’t make them angrier!”

She groaned. “Listen. We’re sorry for us destroying your truck, okay?” she muttered. “Also, we do have a job! We’re on our way to see our boss.”

“I’m calling 911,” the man shouted.

“And the reason? We apologized. What do you want us to do? Help you to take over the world?”

“Uh,” I said quietly. “Please don’t!”

“Who are you talking to Delta?” Sasha asked.

“Both of you. First, could we please just stop arguing? You should call a car repairing service.” She pulled a 50-dollar bill out of her pocket. “This will help clear the expenses. I’m terribly sorry. Have a good day.” He scoffed and walked away.

“Seriously Delta? You saw how he was acting earlier, and you gave him more money than we’ve made joint in a month!”

“Sasha, I gave him *his* money back. I kind of... uh... picked up his wallet and stole some money *just* in case he wanted money.”

“You are so smart. Now what?”

“I know I am. But... we need Uber. My car was destroyed. The engine doesn’t work. It needs to be towed.”

“Yikes. How do we get one? We have no reception, right?”

“Now we do. We got closer to a cell tower.” I pressed a few buttons on my phone, then tapped ‘Where to?’, then I tapped ‘Request’. “The wait is upward of 10 minutes,” I muttered with a frown.

“Uh... do you know what’s happening? We’re causing traffic because your car crashed in the center lane, and so’s the truck cause he’s waiting too. A bunch of police cars and vehicles are coming!

I pressed my lips together. “Well... we’ll see what happens.”

“Delta. I hear sirens.” The police cars screeched behind Delta’s car, and police officers rushed out with guns, knives, batons, and other weapons not otherwise specified. But some weirdly had unordinary ‘weapons’ like cellos and spatulas.

“You two! You are both under arrest! A man called and said you destroyed his truck. In the car, NOW!” yelled the officers.

“But... he crashed into *us..*.” I said innocently.

“Nice try. I saw your car. It’s obviously broken because you smashed it into his innocent vehicle, making an innocent man sad.”

“No! It’s broken because *he* smashed into *us!* You don’t get it! His vehicle is more damaged than ours because he had more momentum!” I shrieked in a high and clear voice.

“Listen. Us officers understand everything. Also, nice story. You could read all the criminals to sleep! IN THE CAR, NOW!”

The tourist covered his mouth, trying hard not to burst into laughter.

“*You’ve got the wrong people!*” I screamed as loud as I could. “You... liar! You lied, and that’s all you’re going to think about your whole life! That you *lied* and you put innocent people in juvenile! You think you’re funny? Well–”

“That’s enough,” an officer said, sounding serious, but they were trying extremely hard not to laugh.

“You’ll go back to a house where you’ll just think about how you lied to arrest two minors!” I yelled. Well, we were 17, but whatever.

“Hey, I'll let you go if you tell me what happened,” the officer said as he was getting a lie detector out of his trunk.

“Go on.”

“That won’t work,” I muttered.

The officer raised an eyebrow. “And you just want to be arrested without any chances? Also, this detector is remarkably high tech. If your right, then the man will be arrested, and I'll send you to a car repairer. Deal?”

“Fine,” I said sarcastically. “Go about with that lie detector of yours and hope you didn’t tweak it so it makes us lie every time.”

After setting it up, which- took a lot of time, he started to ask questions.

“Where are you going?”

“To see our manager, Mr. Ortega. He might be flying somewhere. He’s at the airport right now. That’s why we’re on the highway.”

“Correct. Where do you work?”

“The Wild Savannah Resort.”

“Correct. Last question. How did the accident happen? Tell me all the details.”

“He swerved into our lane when we were speeding up a little and crashed into us,” I said tersely.

“I see.” he said. He turned to the tourist. “Man, it’s your turn.”

“Uh... don’t call me Man. My name is-” murmured the tourist.

“Stop! I’m the officer, and I declare that you should be called Man! So, Man. Do you have any evidence that they crashed your truck on purpose?”

“They-”

“I’m not-we didn’t crash into them on purpose,” I said patiently, cutting the tourist off. “I’m just saying they crashed, and no one needs to get arrested.”

“Man is talking! Be quiet! Also, he said you did it on purpose.” shouted the officer.

“He’s rude, right?” Sasha whispered quietly.

I nodded with a roll of my eyes.

“Answer, Man.”

“Well, uh... they didn’t like me because I disturbed them during their relaxation time. Not working. They obviously didn’t have a job. Also, I believe the annoying girls don’t have any evidence that I crashed into them, which I didn’t. Do you?”

“Wrong. You’re lying. I’m disappointed, but I'm going to let them talk.

“Excuse me? We were on our way to meet our boss,” I said stiffly. “You’re calling it relaxation time? You’re obviously lying.”

“When I said, relaxation time, I meant back at the savannah when we first met. And since they don’t have a job, they’re going someplace else. Maybe to rob a bank! Arrest them! They’re criminals, right officer?”

The other officers surrounded ‘Man’. ‘Man’ screamed hysterically, trying to escape. “Wait! That lie detector is rigged! I need my lawyer! Get me...” he wheezed.

“I’m sorry, Man. I have concluded that you should be under consideration of arrest for up to 4 months in jail and driver’s license suspension after we review both cars’ damage and the recording of this interrogation. Please, get into my car.” He turned to his backup police officer. “Sir, may you take their car to the nearest car repair?”

The other officer nodded while ‘Man’ started to run away. The officer caught him and shoved him harshly into the car.

“That was amazing. He deserved it! Now I have a question. Is he going to tow your car? If yes, then should we sit in it, or go somewhere else? What about Mr. Ortega...!” Sasha said, almost shouting.

“Oh... right.”