Estranged [Completed]

Hiding the Body

They stole a car from a witness and escaped with Josh's body while his mom lay crying in the street. Josh's corpse bled out in the back, painting the seat red as Kalei and Jenna sat in the front, shaking.

"Shit." Jenna looked out the window. Kalei had no words. "Shit!" she repeated. "We need to get out of this car. There were way too many witnesses out there. We need to get the fuck out of this car!"

Kalei kept her eyes on the road as her hands twisted at the steering wheel. "And go where? Where can we go! We've got the entire fucking town after us!"

Jenna paused and bit her lip. "What about your friend? Damn, what was her name..." Kalei opened her mouth, but Jenna cut her off, jumping forward in her seat. "Lecia! I know she didn' pick up yo' calls, but if we show up at her place, then she's gotta take us in. She's all sorts a' pro-Estranged, operatin' outside the law. She'd open her doors wide open to a couple Estranged refugees!"

"And how the hell am I supposed to know where she lives?"

"She didn' tell you?"

"Fuck no. She may be stupid, but she's not that stupid. She doesn't give out her address to Estranged." Kalei cut off Jenna before she could respond. "Even old school acquaintances. Especially old school acquaintances, if you know anything about our past."

Jenna sat back in her seat and replied, "Yeah, well, I know where she lives."

Kalei looked at her sister. "What? How?"

"When you was in time-out downstairs, Terin had me tied down to camera duty. And y'know, you'd think monitoring the ear cams would be hella fun. Spyin' on the whole town, get to learn everyone's dirty secrets... fuck no! That shit was boring as hell! No dialogue? Shit, and ain't no one pointing their ears at each other so you can get a proper lip-read. Shit, and some of the stuff I did see, man, there was shit that even I didn' wanna know!" Jenna glanced at a car passing by, then continued, "Anyway, your girl Lecia made a friend that followed her home one night. Had to send a few Wardens to take care of it. Take Main Street. We'll ditch the car at that used car lot up there."

They abandoned the car, leaving Josh in the trunk. Kalei didn't want to leave a man behind, but it was Jenna who saw reason. "Terin don' have nothin' against him. He's jus' another Estranged. SWORDE will find him and take him Downtown where he'll live happily ever after."

Kalei threw the car into park and turned to her sister. "Are you kidding? Josh has been with us since we escaped Tusic. He knows where we've been, he knows how we've been avoiding them— Terin is probably going to torture him for information!"

Jenna raised an eyebrow. "If you think Terin would use torture, then you clearly don't know him."

Kalei was insistent. "Josh almost killed his mother today. Do you think Terin will go easy on that?"

"And do you think we can carry a corpse more than a mile through town and not get spotted? 'Specially with the cops houndin' our trail? Don' worry. What's the worst that can happen? So they throw Josh in a little glass tube. So what? He'll be a hell of a lot safer than either of us."

"If that's how you feel about the tubes, then why'd you help me escape?"

Jenna looked away and unlocked her door. "That's different. You wanted out."

"And Josh won't?"

Jenna looked back at Josh where he lay on the seat. "After what he's been through, locked up is the only place he'll want to be." She stepped out and walked to the back of the car.

Kalei popped the trunk before she exited the vehicle, then proceeded to pull Josh's body out of the back seat.

She had him halfway out and was getting ready to pick him up when she noticed something. "Hey," Kalei straightened up and looked at Jenna, who still stood at the trunk, moving junk around to make room for the body. "Where's his backpack? The kid never let the thing out of his sight."

Jenna wasn't interested. "Prob'ly dropped it in the fight." She finished what she was doing and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "What does it matter?" Brushing off her hands, Jenna walked over to Kalei and the body. "Let's get this over with."

"Fine."

Together, the girls pulled out his body and carried it to the trunk.