Girls & Guns.

Jade's POV:8 Hours Earlier:

I was cleaning out the truck, somewhere out in the middle of nowhere of Nevada. I had insisted that we stop by Area 51 to look around the place. Right now, Amber, or Cherry, was digging through her purse for a piece of gum. I swear, that thing was a black hole, no joke. She was even hiding her sawed-off shotgun in there. Meanwhile, I was pulling fast food wrappers and old maps out of her truck. We were on the outskirts of Area 51 and I was freaking out. I was at the place where UFOs were spotted, aliens were confined and the place the government denied it's existence. I was finally here! ... And so were three gunmen who, I think, had their sights set on me. I just then remembered why I'd never been here before. I let out a nervous chuckle, then said, "Um... Amber, I need to tell you something... I'm on the FBI's watch list for hacking into one of Area 51's mainframes..."

She glanced over the seats at me, "Mainframes?..."

Thank God, she's a ditz. "Never mind, we gotta go!"

"Go? But we just got here!"

"Let's go!" I got in, reached over and pulled her into the truck. She gave me a crazy look, then drove to the Little A'Le Inn. Once we got there I went running toward the owner, who I'd met on their website. Yes, I'm a hardcore conspiracy theorist. I introduced myself, and then got into a deep conversation with her. I didn't pay much attention to Amber walking in, but knew she was standing inside the door, looking around the place.

After about 15 or 20 minutes, I glanced over to where I thought Amber was standing, but she wasn't there. I frantically looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. I knew what had happened... "THE ALIENS GOT HER! AHH! CHERRY!"

Cherry's POV:

This place was weird... If Jade wasn't my friend, I would've never come here. After a few minutes of being stared down by all the weird Alien things in the room, I spotted a gift shop. I figured I could make this stop useful, at least, and get some maps.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for me to get freaked out inside this new room. There were plushy aliens, and not the cute green kind. They were the scary monster-looking ones that definitely didn't look like E.T. I tried to ignore them and looked around for the maps, finding them next to the soda coolers and magazines. I grabbed a few of them.

It was then that I heard screaming. At first, I figured it was just some poor bloke who got scared by an idiot friend jumping out at him or something. As it turns out, it was my idiot friend. Oh, geez. She was screaming about an alien invasion and how the aliens took somebody and how she needed to rescue her... Oh wait, is she talking about me? Fuck... I walked out the door of the gift shop, with my maps, to see Jade running around. She resembled a chicken with it's head cut off. Ever seen one of those? I have; not pretty. I took a few steps into the lobby and stood there with my head cocked and eyebrow raised, kind of like a confused puppy-dog. She didn't notice me, so I tried to get her attention. "Jade..." She was still acting like a chicken. "Jade!" I was a little louder that time, but still no response. "JADE!" I yelled this time, and she finally stopped running around.

She quickly spins towards me and gasps. I watched as a huge smile spread across her face, then she started running in my direction. "CHERRY!" She's yelling my name over and over, like a really loud chant, as she tackled me to the floor in a hug. "Oh Cherry, thank God! Don't you ever go off on your own like that again! I thought you were abducted by aliens! I was so worried! No more Arbies for you! Bad Ambie, bad!" During all of this she was checking me over for bruises or wierd alien markings. I was trying not to giggle, but I was becoming chagrined.

"You're embarrassing me, let's go!" I whispered.

"But we've only been here a few minutes!"

"Oh, well! We need to get going and everyone is staring. It's creeper-ish in this place and I'm beginning to feel like I really was abducted by aliens."

She stared at me like I was crazy. "How are we friends again?" I just rolled my eyes.

Jade's POV:

After we left the Extraterrestrial Highway and had been on the road a while, we entered California. "Jade, get the maps," said Amber. She was driving and changing the radio while I was slurping down my third mint chocolate malt shake. I looked around. I knew I threw out some of the maps from the other states we've been through... And Cherry said she bought some new ones... So why can't I fucking find them!?

"Dude! I can't fucking find them!" I basically torn through the back seat and glove box. It seems that the only maps I had were the Nevada ones!

Cherry looked over and pointed to the clump of maps I was holding. "It's those ones. Duh. Dammit, I lost the station." She finished with a mutter and went back to trying to find a station. I looked down at the mass of maps in my hands. Really? These were the ones she bought?

"These are fricking Nevada maps, dumb-ass!"

"Ohh..."

"I can't believe you got the wrong maps!" I then proceeded to throw them at her. Hopefully aiming for her face. This was gonna be a longgg day.

Cherry's POV:

After getting ourselves lost in Death Valley and finally finding the right maps and driving for couple more hours, we made it to our destination. Finally... and the way things had been going, it might have been our final destination.

"Okay, go East. No, East! Not West, East! Ugh, right! Your other right!" Okay, we we're driving through traffic trying to find the right neighborhood. My sidekick, aka Jade, in the passenger seat was giving me directions. Jade, being the "computer savvy" one of us, had somehow found the guys' addresses. Now we just had to get there alive. "CAR!"

"I know, Jade! Now shut up, I need to concentrate!" Geez... She went quiet then, so I stopped talking, too, so as not to cause another outpouring from her mouth. Suddenly, Jade started bouncing up and down in her seat while pointing towards a street sign. I turned there, assuming that was the one we needed. I figured by now she was probably about to burst, so I broke the silence by asking the question I'd wanted to ask from the beginning. "Um, Jade? How did you get those addresses again?"

She gave me a long look. "Don't laugh, okay? I tried on the internet and all I got was a bunch of addresses that weren't the same, so... I started calling people from around Huntington Beach. At first I got nothing. But then this nice old man named Mr. Carson gave them to me. He seemed really willing." She ended with a smile.

I blinked and then looked ahead. "Who is this Mr. Carson guy?"

"I don't know. I think he owns a store... A grocery store!"

"Oh, hmm." I decided to drop that subject. "Now where?"

"Well, that's the thing..." She hesitated, "He wouldn't give the addresses to me until we came and met with him; he claimed he'd have to do it in person. So, go to the store. But first, we need to change."

"Why would we need to change?"

"Um, I kinda told him we were reporters..."

"Whatever. We'll stop at a gas station so you can change."

"You have to change, too!"

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"You look like a whore!" I sighed. That argument would have been a waste of time.

After stopping to change, with a small fight from me over the new outfits, we made our way to the grocery store. It was surprisingly easy to find. It was even more surprising how easy it was to find Johnny...

When we walked to Mr. Carson's office in the back of the store, he was gruff and crabby. He was also old, balding and slightly creepy. Once he knew we were the "reporters," he became really nice and led us into his office, offering us seats. "Now, I understand you would like to have the addresses of Avenged Sevenfold?"

"That's correct. We would like to do a special on them for our newspaper," Jade said, sounding all professional-like. Boy, she can act. More importantly, she's a really good liar. Only to strangers, though. For some reason, she can't lie to her friends. At least, that's what she told me...

Before he could reply, Mr. Carson was interrupted. "AH SHIT!"

"Dude, abandon ship! Abandon ship!" And then a crash.

Mr. Carson quickly stood up, muttered an apology, then ran out. "Was it just me, or did those voices sound really familiar?" I asked when Jade's eyes met mine. Knowing smirks spread across both our faces before we snuck out after the red-faced Mr. Carson.