Looking out the window of the truck, all that Axel could see were the trees and mountains, sometimes a small river or a lake.
The wind entering through the window and blowing in his face made him feel like he was in a different country, which carved a smile into his face, even if the air was cold he wanted to feel it. Unlike his father, who was trembling from the cold and had sneezed four times already.
Tony: "Care to close it already? It's 5ºC outside and you shouldn't be enjoying it with only a t-shirt, you'll get sick."
Axel did as his father said and closed the window while giving him a look of annoyance.
Tony: "Don't look at me like that. It's not like I asked you to stop breathing, ok? I don't know where you got that love for the wind, maybe your mother or from my father or..."
As Tony thought out loud Axel decided to follow what his father said and stopped breathing. He looked at his son, then sighed.
Tony: "You are so stupid, you know that right?"
Axel: "Yeah, I'm just better."
Axel said with a smug look as he began to breath again.
The truck they were in was big and pistachio color, it had two seats and a little bed behind them. The truck cab wasn't too big but it had enough space to move the legs while seated and it had enough space for Axel to move around while his dad was driving the truck, even if he had been told not to do that.
Axel: "Say, the town we are going to, is it big?"
Tony: "Yes, but just a bit bigger than ours."
Axel's hometown was far away from the place they were heading to, about 10 hours by car, and they had only stopped once when both of them had to go pee. After that, not even once had they stopped and more than five hours had alredy passed, which meant that they were almost at their destination.
With the sun starting to set behind the mountains and both father and son feeling tired, they had to find a place to properly rest, but Tony had already looked into that and knew there was a hotel close to the city and close to their current position. So with that in mind, they got a bit more energetic and started feeling happy to sleep on a bed after the tiring day.
***
The hotel was made of wood, it looked like a cabin but way bigger and for more than a family. It had some big rectangular windows that showed the lobby and some other smaller windows for every room of the hotel. Thanks to the light bulbs it had, the forest around it was filled with light and looked less frightening.
Entering the lobby, a big bear head could be seen on top of the reception table. With such a big impression it would be expected to overlook other parts of the lobby but somehow that wasn't the reality. After the bear head, the second most outstanding thing would be the giant chandelier hanging on top of the living room style area where two big sofas and a small table were.
The table had some magazines people could use to pass the time as they read them and for kids it had comics. Taking a closer look at the comics Axel could see they were various types, some about heroes, others about farming and a few ones about science.
While Axel looked around, his father was talking to the receptionist, a middle-age man with a pricey suit and a fine bow tie that had a leave pattern on it. On the right side of his chest, a badge could be seen and on it was the name and occupation of the man, whose name was Bosco.
Tony: "So is there any room?"
Bosco: "Yes sir. There is a room with two beds."
Luckily, they were successful on their newest mission and were able to find a room to rest in.
While Tony and Bosco finalized their talk, Axel had been looking around the place and noticed some cameras. Him and his sister had a rule, if there was a camera just wave at it and put on your biggest smile. And Axel did exactly that.
Suddenly he was called by his father, who had finished talking and was holding two keys to the room they would be staying in. One for him and the other one for his son.
Tony: "We need to go to third floor, then turn left and find the room 223."
Axel: "Got it!"
Taking the elevator they waited until it got them to the third floor where Axel got out and started looking really quickly for their room, which he found moments after.
Opening the door, they were met with two beds, a door that let to the bathroom, a window and a small and mediocre TV. There was also a closet to leave the things they could be carrying, but they were all inside the truck, the only things they had taken were their toothbrushes and pajamas.
With no hesitation, they both got into their pajamas, closed the curtain of the window, turned off the lights and jumped inside the blankets of the beds, falling asleep instantly.
***
Enjoying the morning breeze, Axel was sitted inside the truck and to his side there was his father, who was driving the truck.
They woke up early in the morning, had their breakfast and got inside the truck to get to their destination.
Axel: "I'm full! The food was really good, especially the cheese."
Tony: "It's always the cheese with you. Don't you know there are other things? You are just like your mother."
At breakfast, Axel had made two sandwiches that had more cheese than ham, to be exact it had four times more cheese than ham. And as his father said, his mother was similar, she had always loved cheese and it would seem that peculiar side of her had been given to one of their kids.
The sun couldn't be seen, it was cloudy but it didn't seem like it was going to rain at any moment, the wind was a bit strong and the landscape looked like it was taken from a movie.
The road they were had trees to one side and on the other side there was a really beautiful scenery.
To Axel, all this was the perfect atmosphere, he could watch it without getting bored, he felt relaxed just by feeling the wind and it made him feel like he belonged there, like it was home. It all was perfect and at that very moment, Axel thanked his father for taking him on their little adventure.
Tony: "Oh! That came out of nowhere, you know?"
Axel: "Well, it's fun exploring new places I've never been to. And Moly couldn't come because of a doctor's appointment but I know she would have also loved this."
Moly and his brother were similar in some aspects and what he was experiencing was something she would kill to experience as well.
Cars would pass by the truck in another direction but they were appearing more and more as time passed and Axel knew they were getting closer to the city.
Out of nowhere all sunlight was cut off and it was replaced by the lights of the truck that had been turned on to drive safely through the tunnel they had just entered.
Tony: "Lights out!"
Axel: "Fun joke, horrible clown."
Tony: "Tough audience."
While inside the tunnel, Axel started using his phone and saw some messages from his sister. The messages talked about wanting to end the doctor's life and about how lucky he was to be there.
He laughed and then got blinded thanks to the tunnel ending, blinding him for a few seconds.
They had finally arrived to the city, it was still a bit far away, about 15 minutes away from it, but nonetheless, they completed part of their task.
Axel: "Finally!! It looks so big from here."
Tony: "It is a bit bigger than our town."
Axel had looked the place up, it was bigger than their home town and had a golf course, which Axel wanted to try, but from what his father told him they were not even going to stay there for a whole day.
Getting closer and closer to the city more cars could be seen and to both of them it was refreshing as they hadn't seen a car for one whole hour.
They approached an intersection, one way let to the city and the other didn't.
Axel expected to go through the road that let to the city but his father took the other one, he was so surprised he let out a big yelp.
Tony: "What was that?"
Axel: "What was that?! That's what I should be asking! Why did you choose this direction?"
Tony: "Instead of judging first, you should check where we are going. This is the way to the warehouse."
Axel: "Oh... my bad."
After the big reveal, Axel calmed down and stared back at the road, where the trees started to diminish to let some space for a welcome sign and some streetlights.
***
Axel looked around as he walked through the street, earlier his father had dropped him off at a cafe so he could go do his job and Axel could explore this new place. Axel would need to return to the cafe before nightfall so him and his dad could go back home.
While looking around, he layed eyes upon a book store, it peaked his interest so he decided to walk over to the store and enter it.
Woman: "Welcome!"
Axel: "Thanks miss!"
After the small conversation Axel stepped deeper into the store. Many types of books were on display like nature books, philosophy books amd cooking books, which were on the first hall he had looked at.
Turning around the corner to the second hall, Axel found a two people, one looking around while the other was holding a dictionary while mumbling to himself. Axel ignored both of them and continued walking towards the end of the hall.
Turning around the corner to the third hall he looked once again and a smile appeard on his face, he had found it, books of space and physics with titles like A Brief History of Time of Stephen Hawking, The Little Book of Cosmology of Lyman Page.
Axel's eyes were shining as bright as a star and he was moving from book to book reading a bit of the content or just looking at the cover. He was having fun.
A book caught caught his eye, the name of it was what he was looking at with so much excitement, Exoplanets, our neighbours.
Since he was a kid he had always liked space and the thought of planets different from the ones we are accustom to. He would always ask for a telescope as his birthday present or chirstmas present, but never got it. He would get games and other things which he loved as much, but he yearned to be able to see the stars, a blazing feeling as he would describe it.
Lost in the book and going page by page he lost track of time, when he looked at his phone to see if someone had texted him he saw five missed calls from his father and a text from his sister, Moly. He had been reading the book for hours, his arms felt numb and he was really tired from standing, he didn't feel anything because of how absorbed he was in the book.
After placing the book in it's place and saying goodbye to the woman in the counter, Axel exited the shop and started running.
***
Running through the streets of a place unknown to him was Axel, doing better than expected and going at a pace he didn't think he could go at, the only problem was his left leg, which felt tired and heavier but he decided to ignore all of it so he could get to his father as fast as possible.
The lamps were starting to turn on as night was about to fall, he had spent reading that book for much too long and now he was paying the price of doing so.
He was still far away from were his father was waiting and even with his phone's help he was unable to traverse the town, so he switched to looking for help and started searching for someone who lived there.
Luckily for him, a man appeard on the distance and Axel decided to ask him for directions.
Axel: "Excuse me sir, do you know where Florry Street 5 is?"
The man, clothed with bright colours and a beautiful bucket hat with an brown and white stripes pattern, with the brown and white darkening bit by bit until they reached the end of the hat.
Man: "Yes I do! Look, see that bus stop? Well, wait for the bus line 14, it'll take you to Florry Street."
With a smile the man answered, signaling where the bus stop was and moving his hands in general.
Axel: "Thank you so much sir!"
Axel started running towards the bus stop and from behind he heard the man say some words.
Man: "Stay safe Axel. Don't worry your father anymore."
He froze up instantly.
Axel: "H-how does he know me and my father...?"
It was weird, he felt fear and he was freaked out, but it didn't seem like the man would turn back or start following him. Axel did tell him where he was going, so he decided to have his guard up. Maybe it was someone from his father's work, still, it was a weird encounter.
At the bus stop, Axel waited for some minutes until the bus arrived. He then sat down in an almost empty bus, in silence.
While hands in pockets, Axel thought about the bucket hat man and how it seemed he knew who Axel and his father were, he had calmed down as he thought maybe he knew his father and he had told the man about both Moly and him.
There were many answers to one question, but all thoughts stopped as soon as he felt something touching his left hand inside the pocket. As he touched, he felt something cold on his fingertips, it was a ball made of some kind of metal, he took it out and there were a series of numbers and letters.
Axel: "4A - 9A - 4A - 3A - 4A - 5B? What is this?"
Axel was confused, he didn't understand two things, what that meant and why he had the ball. How could something like that appear out of nowhere, and since when?
He kept investigating the metal ball while the bus took him to his destination and he discovered another thing about the object, it had magnetic properties, strong enough to roll up and down a pole.
Axel: "Weird..." he thought.
***
As soon as he got off the bus and looked around, he was met with the silhouette of a man he knew too well. It was Tony, his dear father.
He was under the bright full moon, some stars visible as it was not late enough for most of them to be out shining.
Then, the voice of an angry man reached his ears.
Tony: "WHERE WERE YOU?! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS!!"
Axel: "Sorry, sorry. I got distracted."
Tony: "DISTRACTED?! That's a big understatement, a REALLY big one!"
Axel: "Sorry..."
He then got scolded, for a long time, after he told his father what had happened, that made Tony even angrier.
After that, they got inside the truck and proceeded to leave the, in the eyes of Axel, strange town. It was a weird town, yes, but it had a charm that his hometown didn't.
He took out the metal ball and explained to his father how he noticed it.
Tony: "So, you didn't realize it was in your pocket until you got on the bus?"
Axel: "Well, yeah."
Tony: "I see. Keep it, it looks fancy."
Axel agreed with his father and with the ball between his fingers he looked outside the window, gazing at the dark scenery. Trees and darkness, that was all he was going to see until they got to the hotel.
At least it was a peaceful night, trees, darkness, the sound of the truck, the songs the radio was playing and the cold.
Axel then noticed something, it was cold and it was getting colder.