The Silk Moth Dream (Season 1 Complete)

EPISODE 15: HOUSE IN THE WOODS

The brown sedan has been tailing them since Wyoming.

Granted, there's only one highway from Boulder to Sacramento. Most of the routes have been crippled by various natural disasters, assuming it wasn't already destroyed by the war, so Fiona tries to assure herself that the sedan's also heading to the capitol for an unrelated, irrelevant reason. But no matter how much she speeds up or slows down, the brown car keeps pace and never makes any moves to pass.

Abin, who has only recently learned the concept of a car, is oblivious. He's supposed to be feeding her directions but instead, he's zoomed out of Utah and staring at the world map. No doubt noticing the blank spot of ocean over where Asia's supposed to be.

In all of her paranoia, Fiona doesn't realize that she's gripping the steering wheel and her foot is pushing on the pedal just a bit too hard. She's way over the speed limit and her heart drops to her toes when the brown sedan's lights start to flash — the sign of an undercover Compliance Order troop.

"What's wrong?" Abin asks, noticing the rove of lights.

Fiona debates speeding away, but it's not an option at all. Again, there's only one route to Sacramento and it's the only place where they can truly hide from LB. "Just stay calm," she says, more for herself than him.

She pulls over to the edge of the highway and the sedan follows. A cloned troop strides to her window languidly, the mark of a junior trooper with too much delight in his power. She reluctantly passes Abin a low-grade oxygen mask for the air toxicity. Fiona rolls her window down with dread, smiling as innocently as possible through the mask. "I'm sorry about the speeding, Officer. Lost track of the speed limit. I think we might need to take a break from driving."

Thankfully, the officer cracks a smile behind his mechsuit. "You've been driving for a while. What's the final destination?"

"Sacramento."

"And what's the reason for the trip?"

"My husband and I—" Fiona reaches for Abin's hand and laces her fingers through his. "—we're thinking of moving to the city. Wanted to scope it out." Abin's thumb strokes her palm reassuringly but it does little to assuage her nerves. She smiles despite everything. "You've been driving a long time as well. Don't they ever give you a break around here?"

The officer shakes his head with a laugh and for the first time, Fiona feels hope that they can make their way out of this unscathed. That is, until he shrugs and says, "They're being extra strict with ID'ing people with all the recent terrorist activity. So that being said, can I see some ID?"

Fiona's gripping onto Abin's hand for dear life. While she doesn't have a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted like Shailene and Ragnar do, her last name is sure to raise a few flags in the system. Plus, there's the fact that Abin time traveled from 16th century Korea which means the DMV never issued him a state license. "I'm not sure we have those on us." She smiles sheepishly, hoping for a miracle.

"We take digital scans, too," he says, genuinely trying to be helpful.

"Of course," Fiona says. She pulls the tablet from Abin and pulls up her records, pretending to be lost in her immaculately sorted files.

"Any luck, miss?"

"I'm just so bad with technology," Fiona giggles, and the high-pitched noise hurts her own ears. "Just one minute more."

"Alright," the officer says gruffly. He's no longer smiling. "It's just mandatory that we check everyone for ID."

"I totally understand," Fiona says, still swiping through nothing in particular. She racks her brain for a plan, anything at all, but she comes up empty.