My sleep was fitful.

If it was because the truck driver kept hitting every pothole, or if I subconsciously felt awful about telling Celestia to go fuck herself, I didn't know.

Regardless, it felt like every few minutes after that something would wake me up. Often, I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep again. But with nothing to otherwise do, I kept at trying to grab some sleep despite its poor quality. Even sitting with your eyes closed was better than tossing and turning with wide, open eyes.

Thanks Mythbusters.

Eventually though, even sitting quietly began to grate on my nerves. Or namely, the growling of my stomach kept distracting me. Which honestly, wasn't surprising at all. The last thing I ate was... What? A fruit roll-up at the abandoned house? God knew how long ago that actually was.

Ugh, fucking feds.

I got up and stretched like a cat. I needed to somehow acquire food. But how? I made my way towards the trailer's doors, and took a peek outside the gaps between the slats.

It was at least morning, since the landscape was illuminated by sunlight. Other than that though there was little difference in the topography as compared to last night. Maybe a few more leafy bushes, but it was still desert. Was this the Southwestern United States? Was it seriously Area 51 that I escaped? If that was the case it would probably be best to at least stay in the trailer for now. My stomach was growling, but the thought of eating dusty leaves on the side of the road with no water on hand made my stomach churn just thinking about it.

I'd wait on the trailer until the truck at least reached civilization. After that I'd improvise.

But how long would it take to reach civilization? Assuming that the military base was smack dab in the middle of no-where, let's call it Area 52 for now, then the truck had to have been at least halfway done with its journey. How long did it take to drive across the Southwest? Like 6-7 hours to cross a single state right? How many states were down there? Texas, New Mexico, Arizona... Nevada? Shit how did they all fit together again?

Damn the defunded education system for not teaching the important things properly.

Seven times five... Fourteen, twenty one, twenty eight, thirty five. Thirty five hours for a truck to cross the desert. About halfway through when I hopped on... Seventeen and a half hours? How long had I been asleep again?

Gurgle.

And for that matter, when was the driver going to stop for the end of their shift?!

Wasn't it turbo illegal for a trucking company to force their drivers to drive absurdly long shifts? Or at least illegal enough that said companies hated it when drivers drove off the clock?!

I glanced to the front of the trailer, and was mildly surprised to see the not-light pale outline of the driver.

He was nervous about the truck breaking down.

Great... That would probably get annoying.

Just at that moment I happened to blink.

The not-light was gone.

Well... Um...

Uh... Kinda?

I blinked with the express intent to turn the sight back on.

It worked.

Of course that's your reason.

Blink. Off.

"Of course that's your reason." I groaned in annoyance as I turned and walked away, going back to where I had slept.

I was too hungry to sleep, but with nothing better to do, I laid back down and began to preen again. Not so much that I thought I still needed it, but more so my mouth was busy doing something other than wish for food.

And so I waited.

At some point I must've drifted off, because the next thing I knew was the trailer jerking to a stop with a loud HSSSSCHJK! I jolted to alertness, taken by surprise at the turn of events. SSSSCH! The trailer jerked again, but finally fell still, like a muscle untensing after a long workout.

After so long of having a moving trailer underneath my hooves, it felt weird now that it had fallen still.

I decided not to answer. Mostly because I didn't know where we were, and it was possible someone was about to poke their head inside the trailer. So in preparation, I cast the shadow spell and coalesced myself into the shadows of the pallets, and waited.

The sounds of footsteps scraping on blacktop passed by outside.

"Howdy boss. How're doin'?"

"Can't complain. You?"

Another set of footsteps approached the trailer.

"Well 'nuff. Didn' break down in the middle of the Mojave so there's that."

Both pairs of feet walked down the length of the trailer towards the doors.

"Small blessings. Wanna take your lock off?"

Both of the voices were at the far end of the trailer near the door, only audible because of the poor condition of the trailer itself.

"Boy do I? Crossing that fucking parking lot of sand sucks ass through a straw. Can't wait to drop this trailer and park over yonder at the truck stop for the night."

"Amen."

Someone began to fiddle with something on the door. Through the door I could make out two men, both wearing grimy high visibility vests.

"Ah-kay then... Seals good."

One of the men pushed upward on the handle, causing steel bars inside the trailer to retract from holes inside the floor and ceiling so the doors could swing freely.

Crrrk.

One of the men swung the door open, its hinges creaking with dust. Daylight streamed into the trailer, which suddenly seemed a lot darker in contrast. The man who had opened the door, whom I could now see was wearing a navy blue uniform under his vest, put a hand over his eyes and peered into the trailer, glancing around briefly.

"Yup looks good." he said after a moment, reaching over with practiced ease and slammed the door shut. "Gotcher driver's and paperwork?"

"License is in the cab."

"Go get it, I'll check you in over by the shack, getcha into a dock and send you on your way."

"Awesome boss."

The blacktop crunched as both men went their separate ways, one walking along the side of the trailer and the other disappearing into the distance. The vibrations of a car door opening wobbled through the trailer, followed very soon by the rattle of the same door slamming shut. The set of footsteps that had been near the door faded away into the distance.

Was this my chance?

I flowed by the pallets towards the now unsecured door, wincing slightly as the sunlight that streamed through the cracks seemed brighter than I was used to. Not quite willing to take this gamble, I peered through the cracks.

While I hadn't seen too much of the outside from when the two men opened the door, the little slice I could see revealed cracked and sunbaked blacktop. On the right I could see what looked like the bumpers of cars, on the left another semi truck sat with a trailer, the backend of said trailer disappeared out of sight. Straight ahead I could see a poorly maintained road, and a flat, arid landscape beyond that.

But it didn't seem like anything was close enough to the trailer to make an easy escape into the shadows.

If there was a parking lot off to the right I could hide under the cars, which would also provide cover from any cameras. Which would undoubtedly be present if this was some sort of chemical factory. The problem though, was that if there was a decently sized parking lot, it seemed just the tiniest bit too far away for me to risk rushing across as a shadow in broad daylight.

The left side seemed even less hospitable for a shadow to cross.

You could at least try to sound apologetic.

Instead of replying, I resolved to wait. To be ready in case an opportunity revealed itself or if I needed just a few seconds warning if someone was coming.

It wouldn't be very stealthy of me if someone opened the door to find a dark cloud hovering just over the door now would it?

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. The driver must've finished his business with the official because the connected truck suddenly roared back to life, causing the trailer to rattle almost violently.

Shut up.

The trailer jerked again as the driver shifted out of park, beginning to roll forward across the blacktop. The view outside the ill fitted door shifted to the right as the truck driver started pressing his gas pedal. I was right, there was a parking lot over there. Decently full enough to hide in too. But it was even farther away than I expected.

The truck stopped briefly before it could seriously began to pick up speed. Something made of metal rattled outside, when it stopped, the trailer began to move again. A tiny guard hut slid into view on the left side, followed very soon by a chain-link gate, which rattled closed as the trailer cleared it.

A shadow fell across the trailer door.

Now! Go go go!

I pushed myself out into the shadow, doing my best to space my cloud out so there wasn't just a pitch black blob hanging out under the admittedly meager shadow, but still trying to go fast enough to get me out of the trailer while I could.

The shadow I had decided to utilize was the shade cast by a three story tall square building, windowless and painted white.

I instantly regretted taking this opportunity. But it was too late to go back to the trailer, it had already left the shadow behind and rumbled away, disappearing around a corner.

I kept myself spread thin and close to the ground, hoping any color discrepancy I displayed could be written off as a compression glitch or trick of the light.

I waited with the gas cloud equivalent of baited breath, dreading that some worker would suddenly appear, screaming and pointing so the agents on his heels knew where I was.

The thought was ridiculous of course. But I guess that was a good indicator of how my mental health was.

Paranoid.

It's paranoia if I expect enemies around every corner.

If I was corporeal, I probably would've growled. But if I could make sound as a shadow, I didn't know how. So I opted to ignore the Other.

When I was certain I hadn't raised some sort of alarm, I slowly drew myself up the side of the building whose shadow I had come to inhabit. The roof ended up being home to just a few humming air units and exposed pipes, but otherwise there wasn't even an obvious way a maintenance worker to get up here. It was also high enough that passerby wouldn't see anything on the roof unless I was standing on the edge. And only a fool would point a security camera up towards the sky.

Despite the glaring sun up above, I resolidified back into an Alicorn and breathed a sigh of relief. It was possible I could get sunstroke up here, but it was likely the safest location I would find while the sun was still out. Forget about finding food; If even one camera saw me in broad daylight I'd have agents slamming down on my location within the day. Of course my stomach protested, but it didn't feel like I was dying quite yet.

So I curled up under the slim shadow cast by an air conditioner, doing my best to stay out of the bright sunlight. I closed my eyes and pretended I was ok.

Next Chapter: Chapter 31 The Station Estimated time remaining: 15 Hours, 10 Minutes