Chapter Text
Cooper felt like his foot never left the gas pedal. The car sped 110 in a 60 zone, vast nothing expanding around them as they traveled through flyover states.
Music blasted over the speaker, filling the car with a mixture of bass and piano and vaguely in his mind Cooper heard the others singing along. Pushing the gas pedal slightly harder with his converse, Cooper squinted as he watched dust and dirt fly from the sides of the tires.
“Hey Coop!” Cooper broke from his trance, his foot releasing as the car slowed significantly. Looking over the back of his seat, he saw the gang smiling and passing a bag of chips towards him.
“Blindfolds?” He asked, looking across them. Charlie held up his own homemade blindfold with one hand, pushing the bag of crisps towards him with more energy.
“I mean if he can see you, he can see us all.” Charlie grinned, “Want one?”
Cooper gave a faint smile, “I thought I was the only one being horribly reckless.” He plucked a potato chip from the yellow bag and popped it into his mouth. As the salty taste filled his taste buds, he realized how long it had been since he last ate.
“You’re going a million miles per hour in a cornfield, we’re all in danger anyways.” Ted laughed, handing another chip to a very obviously famished Cooper.
Awkwardly, Cooper lightened up his pressure on the gas pedal. The song they were blaring changed to a more calm one, and Cooper shook out the perspiration from his hair. Stressing wouldn’t get them there any faster.
“I almost wonder why Noah hasn’t said anything after… that.” Schlatt muttered from beside him. Cooper swiveled his head to the right to see Schlatt picking at his cuticles.
“I mean…” Travis couldn’t seem to come up with an explanation, awkwardly tapping on the seat.
However, Charlie started talking, “That was the most I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve lived with him the longest. Maybe he’s tired.”
“Tired?” Ted asked.
“Yeah, tired.” Charlie looked over at his questioner; “We all lived with him for different times. Schlatt and I probably the longest, we were the most far away. Every time he did a big thing, he chilled out a bit afterwards. Like when I went over to Cooper’s, that was a shit ton of energy, and I heard nothing until hours later.”
Schlatt nodded, “You’re right. He gets… oddly quiet after a big burst. This was an uncharacteristic amount, he’ll probably be down for a while.”
The others seemed to just accept this as a fact of Noah’s confusing powers, but Cooper found himself tapping on the steering wheel.
“So, if one of us triggered him to use a bunch of energy, he’d be silent for a ton of time.” Cooper nodded. The other’s looked at him, and Cooper felt their eyes in the back of his head.
“You aren’t thinking of-“ Travis piped in.
“I could buy us a lot of time. He won’t be silent forever.” Cooper said, mind flashing over what he could do.
“Hold on,” Ted added, “Cooper we won’t let you sacrifice yourself, who knows what he could do to you if he used that much energy.”
“How could you stop me?” Cooper said, voice uncharacteristically menacing, “Listen, I won’t unless I need to.”
The car sat in a stunned silence for a second, tension thick enough to cut through as the group waited with baited breaths to see what would follow up. Suddenly, the radio shifted from the mellow song that was playing to “Never Going To Give You Up.”
Jumping at the sudden change, both Cooper and Schlatt shoved their hands near the console to try and shut it off to little avail, with both just crashing their hands against each other.
“Watch out there Schlatt! Don’t want to ram your hand into it.” Charlie said, trying to keep a calm voice over a fit of laughter.
“You bitch. You did this.” Cooper laughed, reaching over to turn down the volume slightly.
“I might have added a few songs to the playlist.” He giggled evilly.
“You bitch!” Cooper gawked, pausing the stereo.
The car fell into silence for a minute before the song resumed at full sound, making Travis and Ted start in their seats.
“Ow!” Travis yelled in response, “What happened?”
Charlie grinned, holding up his cell phone, “You hooked up the stereo to my account.”
The group erupted in laughter, and Cooper felt himself relax as he grinned from ear to ear, his signature laugh ringing out.
As the tension dissolved Cooper regained his place on the gas pedal, pushing it down. The car accelerated, and a glance at the dashboard showed the car going 90. There wasn’t a car in sight, so Cooper sped up. This time not by stress however, but by purpose.
Cooper pushed his fingers down on all four buttons on his side door, making all the windows in the car roll down at once. There were yelps of surprise as everyone’s hair got caught in a windy frenzy.
As everyone rolled their windows back up manually, cursing the day that Cooper was born, he felt something smack against his neck.
Turning around in his seat Cooper saw Charlie welding a handful of slime, and as he touched the back of his neck, he had an idea of what hit him. Holding a hand underneath his arm he shook vigorously, water splashing onto his palm.
After gathering a sufficient amount he tossed it back at Charlie who ducked as it smacked against the seats.
“Not on the leather!” Schlatt complained, twisting around to look at the action, “I know this isn’t my car but this brings me pain.”
The day passed in a blur, with the group checking into a motel later that night. The group dressed up in jackets and hats, all covering up their new found quirks.
Ted and Travis helped lay out the blankets onto the carpeted floor, as everyone agreed that it was better than sleeping on the cigar and cum stained mattress.
Schlatt removed a blanket that smelled like blood and the group made a vow to never go to this motel again.
As they lay on the carpet, all eyes simultaneously staring at the ceiling and the busted light, Travis let out a chuckle.
“Yeah?” Cooper inquired.
“This is the place you’d go to kill someone. Out in the middle of-“ Travis paused to try and remember which nothingness state they were in.
“-bumfuck nowhere.” Ted interjected, the group settling into giggles.
“Hey, we’ll be leaving here soon, we almost to Boston.” Charlie stated. The realization hit the group like a truck. They were almost there, almost ready to face Noah, to get out of this.
“It feels like insane.” Schlatt said, voice barley a whisper, “This has been the craziest journey of my life and it’s almost over.”
The motel room fell into a lull as goodnights were said and the others drifted off into sleep.
“Not yet.” Cooper said under his breath, before too succumbing to his tiredness.