I didn’t sleep that night, and when morning rolled around I offered to take the first shift driving. They both agreed, but we encountered another problem…my car. We determined it would be best to sell both cars and buy one off of a buy here pay here lot in cash. We didn’t want to be tracked by either car, and didn’t want the guy that helped me get out of the hands of the control group.

We drove both cars to one of the most run down car lot that we could find. The sales man came out, with a slightly too tight button up shirt, with a mis-matched tweed jacket, and too short dress slacks. He put on a smile as he walked closer to us. He looked at me, then looked at the girls up and down, sizing them up and asked “What can I do for you gals?”

“We would like to trade in our two cars for one of yours. We’re going to need something with plenty of trunk space and plenty of leg room.” I said.

He turned to me and frowned for a second, but recovered pretty quickly.

“I don’t think I have anything that is going to be worth your trade in value mister…” he said. “By the way, the new law requires me to see IDs and ask if you’ve been infected by the virus. Personally I don’t care either way, but the law is the law.” he continued.

“Let’s make a deal. You don’t ask questions about us, and we will give you both cars for one of your bigger cars. We’ll call it an even trade.” I replied.

“Ahh, well that tells me what I need to know.” he said, and reached inside his tweed jacket.

I put my arm out at the girls, pushing them behind me. “Sir we don’t want to have any trouble here. As you can see, we can be out of your lot in a matter of a few minutes if you just do this deal with us. We don’t have to have any papers or anything. Hell we’ll even set these cars here like we left them here. You can then tow them, and when no one picks them up you can buy them for cheaper still.”

The man stopped for a moment and looked towards the two cars. He brought his hand out of his jacket empty, and tapped his fingers on his legs for a couple of seconds.

“You drive a good point there mister. I’m sure you guys were good people once, so I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you a mid-size car for both of yours. No paperwork, if someone shows up I’m going to tell them you put a gun to my head and stole the keys. Got it?” he said.

“No deal, we’ll go somewhere where they want these great cars that you could make thousands of dollars of profit off of just one them. Not to mention, we’ll go ahead and let it leak out that we were here and you gave us a car. Maybe that’ll let you get some attention from the people that are after us. Believe me; if they know we were here, you won’t have time to tell your fake story to them before they put a bullet through your skull. But thanks for your time man, we appreciate it.” Susan said.

I turned around and looked at Susan surprised that she was so forward. I had never heard her say something to someone in a manner like that. Jasmine was clearly as surprised as I was.

She started walking towards the car, and we followed her.

“Wait!” he yelled, “Now wait just a minute here, I never said we couldn’t change the deal!” he continued after us. He grabbed my arm and turned me around, and I growled at him.

“Whoa whoa man, listen I’ll get you my best car, and I’ll give you a couple of gas cards to help you guys out. See? I’m a good man, I want to help you guys out since you’re going to be helping me out. Just don’t tell anyone you came here, I’m begging you. I have a family at home, a wife and 3 children.” he whined.

“It’s a deal. Let’s see it.” Susan said again, and the sales man turned and walked towards the back of the lot. We followed him until he stopped and opened up the trunk to a car/suv hybrid car.

“This is her, she’s blue booked at fifteen five and worth every penny. It’s a hybrid, so with the gas cards I’m giving you she could make it all away across the country. When I took her for a test drive, she was getting about 50-60 miles per gallon. She’s got a 15 gallon tank; it’s a little small I know, but that’ll get you about 700 miles to the tank. So what do you think?” he said.

“It’s a deal. Go get the keys, and we’ll give you ours.” Susan continued.

The sales man almost ran back to the office to get the keys. I trailed him to make sure he wasn’t going to make any calls, and when I got to the door, I saw him dialing the phone. I swung the door open and stepped in. He jumped and dropped the phone, shattering it on the floor.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I questioned him. “Who, the fuck, do you think you are going to call? Did you seriously think we were going to let you come back to your office by yourself?” I continued.

He began stuttering, and I advanced towards him.

“Give me the keys, and a temp plate, if I so much as THINK you had someone following us, we’ll turn around and hunt you down like the dog you are, but not before we first get your wife and kids. Remember, we’re dangerous, and if you THINK about reaching for that gun again….let’s just say being eaten alive will be a blessing instead of what I’m going to do to you.” I said.

He opened a cabinet with shaking hands and tried to hand me the keys. I pointed to the desk and he threw them on there.

“Now, get in that room. When you hear us leave, you can come out. We’re going to cut the power to here, so tomorrow you’ll want to get that fixed.” I stuck out my hand, “Give me your gun and your phone” I said.

He reached into his pocket and I stepped towards him. He let out a little yip and quickly handed me the gun. He reached into his back pocket and got his cell phone. When he handed it over to me, I turned on the light and slammed the door shut. I grabbed a lamp and pulled out the cord from the wall. I tied it around the door handle, and tipped the lamp against the door to make him use a little muscle to get the door open.

I dug through his desk and found a stack of $100 gas cards. I took them all and dropped the keys of our cars in the desk. I ran back through the lot and yelled at the girls to get in. They had already transferred our things to the hybrid and jumped in the front seat. We squealed the tires leaving, and when I looked back, I could see the door was still shut.

Jasmine leaned forward and said, “What happened back there? I thought Susan set that guy straight. She sure in the hell had me convinced!”

“When I followed him, I saw him calling someone. I scared the shit out of him, and locked him in the closet. I was too angry to get temp plates, so we need to get plates for the car. I don’t think he’ll try to call the cops, but if he does, I left a little insurance package in there for him. I left both of our car keys in his desk as if he made a deal with us. That’ll get him some time for aiding and abetting ‘our kind'” I replied.

“So where are we going to go?” Jasmine said leaning back.

“I’m not sure yet, any suggestions?” I said.

“What about some place that no one will think of looking?” Susan said sarcastically.

“Like where?” I said.

“Chicago…” Jasmine said. “I’m sure they’ve already been there, because they had you locked up so they could come get you. We can get a place at the outskirts of town there. We’ll need to be able to find food, so the closer to town we are the better.”

I nodded, and headed east. “Off to the Windy city” Susan said, and leaned her seat back to take a nap.