Wolf/Start/Home
You put them in the big bed where you normally sleep and fold down a single for yourself. There is a bit of whispering at first but it soon dies away and the sun is up before a small hand nervously touches your shoulder to wake you.
Breakfast is cereal with cold milk and for you, hot coffee. Once things are put away, you tell the children that they have to hide in the bed as you have no idea who might be on the lookout for them. You show them how to get into the space underneath, where you keep your bike in case anyone gets nosy.
After a couple of hours driving south, and safely past the pub where you had bought them, you let them out. The motorway is still fairly smooth and Josh surprises you by using the machine to make you a coffee while you are rolling along on autopilot. They squeeze together on the passenger seat and you point out the occasional landmark.
Eventually, Scarlett, your AI tells you, "Right turn in 300 metres." The bus slows to a near stop and you take over manual control as you turn into a minor road. It's narrow enough that it would be a squeeze if you met anything wide coming the other way. Then you take the turn into lane that is little more than a cart track. The electric motors whine a little and the air bags hiss as you let Scarlett take over again to guide you along the rutted track. You press a switch to raise the suspension as a precaution.
A mile further on, you come to a stop by a steel gate with a big sign "BEWARE OF THE BULL", (there is no bull but it deters picnickers) and you get out to open the padlock and open the gate. After closing and locking it, you drive down the side of a meadow. The hedge on your right is tall and thick, but the grassy field on your left is alive with insects, buzzing around the flowers, some of which you could even name.
The meadow slopes down and then back up. Just over the brow of the hill you come to a stop beside some old stone buildings, partly overgrown by ivy. "We're there," you say. "Hop out and have a look round at your new home."
Still hesitant, they make their way forward to the front, looking around all the time. "Where are we," Josh says, reminding you that they need to lose the accent before you can take them out in public.
"We are nearly there. Why don't you hop out and have a run around. I just have a couple of things to do," you say, getting out and holding the door so that they can scramble out after you. Josh insists on jumping down, but Sam allows you to lift her. "She weighs nothing," you think as you put her down carefully. Her arms legs are stick thin and you are scared you might break her. They are hesitant at first, but then Sam is racing off through the grass in pursuit of a gorgeous butterfly.
There is a small manhole cover in the hedge and you use a tool to open it and then use it to empty your sewage tank. You go inside to flush a few gallons down the toilet and then put everything away and go round to find the children. As you watch them running around in the sunshine, relieved to be free after being cooped up in the back of your van, you reflect on how you had come this far.