The Nexus

Chapter 18

Emma drove the mini-van that she had stolen at a Holiday Inn in Yellowstone. This van was a little more modern than the Hyundai that had carried her and Thomas to the underground hideout, and that worried her. There could be a navigation system or another device that would allow police to trace the location of the car, if they were so motivated.

She had chosen this car because it had a car seat for Josephine, but now that they were clear of Yellowstone, she was scouting out older model cars that she could replace this one with and Montana was not looking very promising. If she got desperate she would just have to carjack someone, maybe pull this van over and flag some unsuspecting hillbilly down.

"How could you just kill people like that?" Sophia asked.

The sound of Sophia's voice actually shocked her; she had not heard it since Sophia was criticizing her for stealing the mini-van almost three hours ago. At least it was late and the van would be long gone before the family would wake up and report it missing. She was already in a new state, hopefully the police in Wyoming and Montana didn't talk to each other. A few hours more and they would be in North Dakota and even further from the scene of the crime.

"Are you listening?" Sophia insisted.

Emma rolled her eyes, "It was us or them. Are you serious about this question? Would you like your sister or Josephine to be killed?"

"If they had wanted to kill us they would have, we could've been prisoners for a bit and let go, there was no need to go to that extreme."

"Whatever you say," said Emma, "except that I know the organization and if you all ended up with no value to them, they would have killed you. It's a big gamble to take." She was very matter of fact about the whole thing.

"I'm just surprised that you could kill them without a thought, and so quickly! Did you even miss a shot?" Sophia continued.

Emma smiled a little, "Nope."

Sophia made a sound of disgust at Emma's excitement.

"What's done is done, Sophia," Isabelle said. "Maybe Emma saved us, we have to stop dwelling."

With those words, Sophia visibly relaxed in the seat next to Emma. It was the second time she had seen Sophia all worked up and then instantly calm. She liked what Isabelle said, too, because that is how she felt she lived: in the moment with no regrets.

They drove on through the deserted landscape and Emma did not spot a car that they could use. She did convince Sophia and Isabelle to keep their faces covered with scarves and hats they found in the van. Emma had a suspicion that there might be a way for the organization to recognize them. Paranoia was taking her over and the voices in her head were having spontaneous battles followed by moments of quiet. It was the quiet that she was used to, the conversations that were happening were as rare as the conversations she had in her outer life. She wasn't used to any of this.

Sophia and he sister began to talk to each other about everyday things like how Josephine was sleeping and how big she was getting; what the weather might be like in North Dakota this winter; how deserted the road was; just how insane all that stuff was that happened back at Yellowstone. Emma listened to the natural flow of the conversation between the two sisters and wondered if she would ever really be able to talk like that with someone.

She was pretty sure she didn't have a sister and even if she did, she doubted that she could ever be this close to her. It wasn't just the two sisters talking, though, it was Thomas and his friend at the breakfast table, and the people in the office where she worked. Sure, there were a few forced conversations that she witnessed, but mostly people seemed to be able to just talk about nothing and it flows. On one hand it seemed like a waste of time to her, but on the other, it seemed like a foreign object that she wished she could have.