Adam and Timothy stopped to rest when they reached a gas station. They went inside, the blast of air conditioning hitting them when the automatic doors slid open. The place was a dump; only one of the humming florescent worked, and it was dim and blinking on and off. There was two freezers in the back filled with beer and pop, and three stands in the middle of the small room were piled with candy, snacks, and other necessary items. Besides the grungy old man sleeping behind the counter, Timothy and Adam were the only ones there. Adam immediately went over to the coolers and took out two pops.
“Grab a bag of those chips, and two chocolate bars. We need all the energy we can get. We’re up for a long walk.” He instructed Timothy as he looked around for some form of meat other than beef jerky.
“Got it! Do you prefer regular or wavy chips?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Ok, regular it is!” He dropped the food on the counter and Adam placed the two pops along with them. He had given up on finding meat.
“Excuse me, Sir. We would like to make a purchase...” Adam said quietly, but the man slept on.
“Dude! Wake up!” Timothy yelled. The man jumped up, mumbled for a moment, then glared at the two boys.
“Yea? Wadda ya want?”
“We would like to buy these things.” Adam said and gestured towards the food.
“Oh, ya got any money?”
“Yes, Sir. I am prepared to pay for these items.”
“Stop talkin’ weird kiddo- it makes me ‘ead hurt...”
“I’m sorry, how much will it all cost?”
“Huh?”
“The food. How much does it cost?”
“Oh, right. Uh...” The man grabbed a yellowed piece of paper and examined it. “Lessee, that’s a dollar a piece for the pop, twenty-five cents for the chips an’ thirty cents a piece for the candy.... so that would be..... uh.... hmmm.” The man trailed off, unable to add up the amount.
“A dollar and eighty-five cents.”
“Wha?”
“The food costs a dollar and eight-five cents.”
“Oh... right. Um... ok.”
Adam handed him the money and took the food. Timothy followed him into the parking lot.

“Ok, can you pass me those chips? They’re looking pretty appetizing to me!”
Timothy asked Adam and reached out a hand.
"No, we need to save them for when we get really hungry. We're a long way from the nearest town."
"Why didn't you just get more food then?"
"I don't have much money on me right now, I never keep more than ten dollar with me at a time."
"Why?"
"So in case I get pickpocketed or something, I won't lose much."
"Oh, ok..."

They continued walking down the road. It was a beautiful day, with a bright blue sky and the perfect temperature. Cars rarely past them, and when they did Timothy ran to the side of the road, sticking out his thumb and waving his arms. Nobody ever stopped. “So, where do you think we are?” He asked Adam.
Adam shrugged, “They had taken us pretty far away by the time we managed to escape. We could be miles from the nearest town...”
“Don’t you have a cellphone or anything with you?”
“No, I didn’t bring it with me into the room before they blew up the...” He trailed off, heartbroken at the idea of his building, his empire, being completely totaled. “I can’t believe they would actually do such a thing...”
“It’ll be OK Adam, you can rebuild it.”
Adam glared at him, his eyes shining with tears. “No, I can’t. Do you have any idea of how much information was stored inside that building? Almost everything I have ever done was in there... and now it’s all ruined. The computers are broken beyond repair, and so are all of the archives of information. I was such an idiot to keep it all in one place!”
“Yea, that was pretty stupid- I mean, everybody makes mistakes...”
“Why are you being so nice to me? I was the one that tried to keep you locked up just to run experiments on you. I didn’t even need to, all of your information was stored on my laptop... which is now completely crushed beneath tons of concrete.”
“Because... well, I don’t know. I guess because I realize that beneath that tough, mature surface there is a kid like me. I kinda understand why you did all of that to me, I’d be the same way if I had something that cool to learn about, except for the whole genius part...”
Adam smiled sadly, and they continued walking in silence for a moment.

“But at the same time,” Timothy added, “I still hate you. For as long as I’ve known you, which isn’t a very long time, you’ve been nothing but bossy and mean to me. But I’m making myself get over that and see the good in you.”
Adam glanced at him curiously and asked him what he meant.
“Well, you’re very smart... and if you weren’t here with me I would of gone crazy and try to take the gas station guy’s car... and end up crashing it in the median.”
“Yea, but you could just turn into a bird and fly away...”
“That’s the other thing... what is up with being able to change shape like that?”
“It’s a pretty long explanation. How about I tell you when we get to the next town.”
“Fine, but you’d better tell me everything then!”
Adam laughed, “Ok, I’ll do my best to keep it simple for your simple little mind!” He said in a teasing way.
“Hey! That’s not very-ok, it’s true...” Timothy grinned, and they continued on their way.