A loud knock woke me up.

  My head, slightly in pain from some drinks I had last night, shot upwards and looked around. The familiar bedroom of my RV greeted me like an old friend as the morning sunlight poured through the partially closed blinds. My dull mind started to wander about what was going on before another series of knocks jump-started my brain. A quick turn of my head allowed me to look outside.

  And see the mall parking lot that I definitely wasn’t supposed to be parked in.

  “Shit!”

  I hissed out the words as a third round of knocks came from the door to the RV. Allowing myself a second to sigh, I quickly swung out of bed and started looking around for something to wear. My bedroom was slightly messy, a result of driving late and not having the energy to clean, which allowed me to find a discarded shirt and shorts. I gathered them in my arms before opening the door to the rest of the RV.

  “Give me a minute! Just woke up and I need to put on some clothes!”

  When I heard a muffled response from the door, I knew that my words had been heard. With a minute or two bought for myself, I started to throw on my slightly dirty clothing and then went to the bathroom. The door to it was right next to the door to my bedroom, and it led to a small room with a sink, mirror, toilet, and a shower, along with enough room for one person to stand comfortably in it. Two if one was willing to stand in the shower.

  I looked into the mirror, trying my best to make myself look presentable. I saw a man in his mid-20s with messy shoulder-length light brown hair and a short and somewhat scraggly beard and mustache combo. Dark lines were slightly visible below my eyes, a result of sleeping trouble that sleep meds barely helped with. Combine all that with a slim face that ended in a slightly pointed chin, and you have the person that was me.

  Edgar Corvus.

  Taking a moment to fix my hair, an endeavor that was doomed to fail from the start, I was finally satisfied with how I looked and made my way out of the bathroom. Taking a moment to look around the main room of the RV, I saw a somewhat confined space. There was a small kitchen area along with a booth-style table next to it that was also beside a window with closed blinds. A small TV was on a corner table next to a storage area, next to where the car portion of the RV began.

  It wasn’t fancy or anything, but it had served me well for the past two years after I had been forced to sell my dad’s home. When the housing crisis cropped up, I just didn’t have a choice, not when Dad’s life insurance was also running out. And as a college dropout with no job prospects, it was pretty much the only option, even if I had hated it at the time. At least selling had given me plenty of money to buy this RV, along with some other stuff to become self-sufficient for the most part.

  Taking a moment to make sure nothing that shouldn’t be seen was seen, I was finally satisfied and sent to open the door. It opened to a man around my age, if not younger, in a light grey security uniform who paused as his arm was in mid-knock motion. To my slight amusement, I realized I had opened it just as he was about to start knocking again.

  I gave the man a smile before speaking, “Morning sir. Is everything alright?”

  The man seemed to get a bit flustered as I started the conversation. He took a moment to steady himself, going as far as to straighten his tie and everything, before responding. “Well, um…sir you're not allowed to be parked here with an RV. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask you to leave right now before we have to call the police.”

  His tone was nervous, and he seemed unsure about his words. With a raised eyebrow, I leaned out of the door a little and looked towards the mall entrance. The sun was just rising above the horizon as the morning was just beginning. In the light of the new day, I saw that there was another man in a light grey security uniform standing by the nearby mall entrance.

  He was older than the man talking to me, probably in his late 40s if I had to guess. Unlike the man who had oh so rudely awakened me, he had far more confidence in his stance as he glared over in my RV’s general direction with crossed arms. It didn’t take much guesswork to assume that he was the boss and had probably made his little underling come over to get me to leave.

  In truth, I was pretty sure I was fine in a legal sense to be parking here. Short-term parking was fine but overnight tended to require some permission. But at the same time, the few times that someone had confronted me about said overnight parking, nothing had come of it. Still didn’t mean that I could stick around as long as I wanted though, and I knew that staying for more than one night was just asking for trouble.

  I turned back to the younger of the two mall security guards, whose confidence I noted was wavering as he waited for my response. I once more flashed him a smile, “Of course, I’ll be off soon, especially after being woken up so nicely. Just give me an hour to get everything ready sir and I’ll be out of your hair.”

  The young man paused as he considered my words, looking back between me and his presumed boss. He bit his lip for a few seconds before giving me his full attention once more and started speaking. “I don’t think my boss will give you an hour dude- I mean sir! Once I leave, he said he would call them if you're not gone in like five minutes.”

  For a second, I was unable to stop a frown from putting itself on my face. It wasn’t impossible for me to be out of here in a few minutes, but I would prefer some time to eat and make travel plans. I had gotten into some…trouble in the last town I had been in and had to leave without sticking to my travel plans. I knew I was in some town called Fernsland but that was about it and I hated traveling without a route planned out.

  Not that I had any big goal or destination, at this point I was just traveling around America and seeing the sights. I had started this little journey planning on finding a place to settle down and find a job, but as the months passed, I kinda just stopped looking. I found myself enjoying life on the road. There was a certain freedom and organized chaos to the lifestyle that I just loved.

  It wasn’t perfect by any means; the little situation from yesterday and the current events were proof of that.

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I looked back toward the older man who was tapping his foot. I knew the type of man he was just from one look, aka someone that was more trouble than they were worth to deal with. But as I thought about the younger man’s words, an idea popped into my head.

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  “You said he was planning to call the police when you went back to him right?”

  The man before me blinked in surprise at my words before his eyes shifted nervously.

  “Y-yesss?”

  I nodded my head at the info as I felt my stomach rumble a little, even letting out a growl. The sound was clearly heard by the younger mall security guard, who jumped a little at the sound. I let out a chuckle at the reaction and rubbed my belly a little.

  “Then how about you come inside and I can cook up something for breakfast for both of us. I got some prepared food that won’t take long to heat up. Then, while we’re eating, I can get a little route planned out and be out of your hair. It’ll take about 15 minutes, 20 tops.”

  The guy’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked back at his boss and then at me unsure. Probably thinking about what his boss would do if he did take me up on my offer. To be fair, I wasn’t sure myself how the old guy would react, but it would at least direct his anger at his minion rather than me.

  After a few seconds, the security guard seemed to make up his mind and opened his mouth to speak, only to pause as another growl erupted from nowhere. Only this time it definitely didn’t come from me and if the redness I saw blooming on the younger man’s face was any indication, he knew that as well. He suddenly looked less certain of himself before finding his voice.

  “Umm…ok maybe I can get a bite to eat. But no more than 15 minutes! You got that dude?”

  I chuckled once more and stood to the side to let my new breakfast friend in.

  I quickly got two of the specially prepared breakfast containers, aka store-bought frozen meals, and set them in the microwave as my new friend awkwardly sat down in the booth and nervously looked around. I thought about saying something, but knew I had a limited amount of time and instantly went to the driver's portion of the RV and opened up the glove box. Inside, I found what I was looking for and pulled out the Road Atlas I kept in there.

  With a few swift steps, I was standing by the microwave as it hummed a pleasant little noise while it radiated the cold food within. Setting the collection of road maps on the counter, I flipped through until I found the general area I was in and started looking at possible routes I could take. Nothing of interest stood out to me and I found myself struggling to find a direction I wanted to head out towards.

  My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the loud beep of the microwave signal that the food within was sufficiently heated. Opening the door, I grabbed both of them and ignored the heat as I sat both of them on the booth table. They were both the same, a messy collection of eggs, cheese, ham bits, and cut-up potatoes. Not the most appealing, but they were cheap and filling.

  Taking a moment to grab the Road Atlas and put it next to my food, I quickly consumed every bit of it while not taking my eyes off the detailed collection of maps. Sadly, by the time I was done eating, I still wasn’t sure about my destination as I was starting to get rather annoyed with the situation as a whole. I hated being put on a time limit.

  My eyes wandered off the maps and towards my guest, who was slowly eating his meal. He seemed to enjoy the food for the most part, or maybe he was too polite to complain, as he had finished up about half of it. I looked at him for a few seconds before an idea came to me.

  “So, any interesting places to visit around here?”

  He jumped a little at my words and even spilled some of the eggs and potatoes he’d been bringing to his mouth. I ignored the embarrassed apology as he cleaned up the spilled food, my eyes still looking at him questioningly as I waited for him to respond. It didn't take long for him to notice my look and not a second later, he seemed to remember my question.

  “Oh! Ummm, there's not really anything around Fernsland. Kinda quiet town to be honest, last time something big happened was when Walmart opened up like a year or two ago.”

  I kept in a sigh at the uselessness of the young mall security guard as my eyes once more wandered back towards the Road Atlas. I had only a few seconds before I heard my guest let out a sound of surprise. Upon turning my eyes back towards him, he had a look that seemed to say that he had an idea, though it could also just be the urge to use the bathroom.

  Both of them looked similar on the guy’s face.

  “Actually, now that I think about it, there was one place not too far from her that was fun to go to when I was younger. It was like an hour or two away from here. God, I can’t remember what it was called but it was like this National Forest that had a camping area and some other attractions you could go see. Like a zoo and a little train ride or something. Man, I just can’t remember what it was called.”

  I hadn’t been paying the man much attention until he mentioned that it was a National Forest. For a second, a few memories seemed to rapidly flash through my mind. I remembered a younger me smiling excitedly as I hiked along a forest trail as I looked around the woods in wonder. My Father was not too far ahead of me as he talked about the local wildlife.

  Another memory popped up, this of a darkening campsite as my father calmly told me how to start a fire. The noise of the wildlife around us was being drowned out by his deep and steady voice. I still remember the joy as I was able to get a decently sized fire going before he pulled out some hot dogs to cook up.

  Several of these memories flashed here and there in my head. Going out into the wild had been a running theme of my younger life, now that I thought about it. I suppose when one’s Father was a Wildlife Ranger that he would try to get his kid interested in nature. Not to say that I didn’t love all those times he had taken me out and taught. It's just…hard to remember that stuff without thinking about his pale face in a casket.

  It had been so sudden too. One day, I was talking to him over the phone, discussing my plans for Thanksgiving, then the next, I got a call telling me he had a heart attack while at a Ranger Station. Things had only seemed to fall apart more after that.

  Did I want to bring back more of these memories by camping out at a National Forest? On one hand, it would be a nice change of space from the industrial settings I had often found myself in nowadays. And I still had all those survival lessons that Father had taught me over the years; it would be a shame to let them go to waste.

  But that didn’t stop the sour feeling I felt in the back of my mind. The same kind I usually got when I got a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. Though in this case, I was pretty sure it was just from the thought of bringing back some once-found memories that had turned slightly rotten.

  Maybe it was time to try and make some new memories out in those old woods…

  “You ah…you ok dude?”

  The young security guard's voice snapped me out of my thoughts as I turned to look once more at him. “Oh, I’m fine just…lost in some memories, I suppose. Now you said this place was a National Forest? Do you at least remember what direction it was?”

  “Oh, it’s down the highway towards the state border. I think there was a college nearby, but I'm not sure what the college is called either.”

  I absentmindedly nodded my head as my eyes turned to look at the Road Atlas, and I once more started to flip through some maps. It didn’t take me too long to find the area he was talking about, and soon after, I found the National Forest.

  Houndsmith National Forest.

  It wasn’t too far away either, probably a little over two hours' drive. At first, I wasn't sure about visiting, the sour feeling still lingering in the back of my mind, but once more my mind flashed to those younger days with my Father and I made a decision. Some fresh air would do me wonders.

  My guest finished up his food not too long after and I informed him that I was ready to head out. This seemed to finally calm the man’s nerves a little as he stood and headed out of my RV. I also followed him so I could pick up a few of the items that I usually left outside to keep the vehicle stable at night.

  It seemed like my assumption that the younger guard following me inside my RV was correct. When he made his way back to his boss, who apparently had nothing better to do but stand at the mall entrance and look grumpy, started yelling at him with enough volume that I could hear a few words here and there. I kinda felt bad, but at the same time I fully support my decision, better him than me and all that.

  Also, apparently the younger mall security guard was named Rick, or at least I assumed it was with since that was what the older guard was calling him.

  Probably should have asked when I let him in the RV.

  Oh well, too late.

  Within a minute or so, I had gathered the orange plastic holders that I put on the RV’s wheels for the night. Checked the bike I had strapped and locked to the back of the vehicle was still secure. I had turned off the charging mode for the small array of solar panels I had put on top of the RV. The last one was a rather nice investment; it had saved me a lot of trouble with power, even if it had cost a pretty penny to install.

  I put all the stuff back inside where it belonged and grabbed the Atlas along with the directions I had written out for myself. After putting the stuff in the passenger seat, I was about to get into the driver's seat before pausing and then quickly walking to the refrigerator and grabbing a sugar and caffeine-filled soda from the inside. I needed the energy to deal with the trip. Also, it tasted good.

  Supplies ready and route made, I turned on my home on wheels and started to make my way out of this rather annoying mall parking lot.