The others agreed and split up. Quincy got in the van and left the property. Daniel went to the main house, having Jack come along to grab some chairs for himself, Matt, Ryan, and Eric, who stayed in the guest house. It took a bit of time and multiple trips for Jack, but the four of them soon sat playing Minecraft Dungeons, a game that bore some resemblance to their quests. Each player had a character, armor, weapons, special items, a bunch of zombies and other “mobs” to kill, and needed to work together to survive, get treasure, and complete a level. The similarly caused a brief conversation about whether they should play a game father removed from reality, but all expressed interest, remarking that it might give them ideas. “Splitting the difference,” Eric called it, between all playing and all thinking about their situation.
Hours later, Daniel returned with pizza and new cell phones and numbers, having raided two local stores to get them all set up ASAP. They finished connecting the devices, adding emails and each other as phone contacts. They had a spare for Anna, and Daniel had gotten another for himself and Jack.
Then it was time to deal with their parents. By then, Quincy had already contacted all of them except Anna’s, leaving her folks out of it for now. They aimed for brevity and even doing parts of the call together, Jack and Daniel staying silent and off camera. They didn’t mention quests or other worlds, and they purposely kept the swords and other gear around them out of sight.
Matt’s call went first, Eric and Ryan making a show of agreeing with his account and being supportive so that the parents didn’t think their kid was going through this alone, with the police, media, and other stuff. Matt apologized again for taking the car, but his father was fine with it. His older brother and sister lived in Charlottesville, Virginia and Manhattan, and weren’t on the call, but had been asking about him. He promised to call them but wouldn’t anytime soon. The fewer people he had to lie to, the better.
Eric went second, and his was easier, shorter, and done alone, the others again off camera but in the room, no one opting for privacy. He knew nothing about his birth parents, had no siblings, and had been raised by foster parents he kept in touch with, albeit infrequently. As a result, they didn’t really know who his friends were until the Stonehenge disappearance. Now they knew their names, so when Matt and Anna vanished, they once again suspected Eric had, too. And then the police had arrived with his car and belongings after this last quest, as he still listed them as an emergency contact. They offered to help him in any way they could, but he just told them not to talk to the media.
Ryan was up next, but they handled it differently. He and Daniel went to the main house alone, because they wanted to hide the others and the use of the guest house. Their parents argued at length for him to use the GPS tracking features of one thing or another so they could help when this happened or he returned, but he said the FBI and others would just follow him, even with Quincy running interference. They didn’t agree, as Ryan evaded the subject with his brother’s help. He told them Jack was helping Quincy with anything they needed, like using his car so the media wouldn’t know to follow, and asked them to cooperate with him. They didn’t want him to leave, however, and he realized there was no going back to the guest house for now.
But then Quincy did a conference call with all the boys at once, Ryan and Daniel in their rooms to escape from parental hovering. They reached a decision. The guys wanted to be free to move around the world, at least incognito with hats and sunglasses, rather than feeling imprisoned at the guest house. And Ryan’s parents were already smothering him, worse than the media presence outside. Quincy arranged for a hotel suite on his corporate credit card for Ryan, Eric, and Matt. He would get Matt’s father’s car brought there for them to use. Jack would help as needed, and Daniel would assist from afar, not tagging along. The wheelchair just made him too conspicuous. Things like clothes would await them there, though Ryan was bringing a stuffed duffel bag. They would take things one day at a time.
In late afternoon, Daniel distracted the parents while Ryan and Jack carried a ladder from the garage down past the guest house and to a distant corner of the property, Eric and Matt joining them. Both houses were far enough back from the road, and enough trees stood in between that the media did not know. Leaning it against the wall, they climbed up and over, dropping onto the neighbor’s yard before tipping the ladder back onto the grass out of sight. Daniel would get a gardener or someone else to deal with it later. Some estates in Potomac, Maryland had decent acreage, and they could stick to the distant rear of properties, most of which were not as walled off. A half mile passed before they turned in between two houses and headed for the street, where Quincy picked them up and soon dropped them at the hotel, giving them the room keys. Jack left to get his car, visit Anna once more, and return later with Chinese food and beer.
For only the second time since returning to Earth, the boys felt like they could relax a little. Matt had wisely brought the Nintendo Switch, controllers, and the box and cables to hook it to the TV, and they
