Zoey woke with an excited flutter in her chest, a surprising but welcome change from the anxiety that had pervaded her since leaving the cabin. There was plenty of uncertainty ahead — they were going to leave Earth! She didn’t know what awaited her in space, didn’t know what awaited on his planet, didn’t know if his people would accept her.

But she knew without a doubt that she could face anything with Rendash at her side.

They left before the sun had fully risen. The day was overcast and dreary, and the wet roads meant she had to use the windshield washer fluid constantly to wipe away the dirty mist kicked up by other cars. Zoey refused to let the weather bring her down.

Ren guided her northeast, following the inner sense that linked him to his ship; he thought they were close enough to arrive before nightfall, if they were lucky.

She enjoyed the conversation and the scenery. The country seemed increasingly forested the farther east they traveled, and it was unlike anywhere else she’d been. She’d spent most of her childhood in Midwestern farmland, where everything was green, brown, and gold, carefully ordered and cultivated. So much of this area seemed so wild, so primal.

Their route took them through northern Ohio, across the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, and finally into New York. It was nothing like she’d imagined — any mention of New York usually conjured images of a city that made Los Angeles look tame in comparison, with towering concrete on all sides, millions of taxis, and people who’d sooner trample you than give you the time of day. She knew at heart those images were myths, at least to some degree, but it was so ingrained into American culture that it was hard to shake.

This part of New York state was dense forestland that appeared unbroken for huge expanses. She wondered what it looked like when everything was green and alive, bathed in the sunlight, or when the autumn chill turned the leaves orange, red, and yellow.

The drive was strangely relaxing, even if she kept checking the mirrors and oncoming traffic for signs of government agents in pursuit.

I-90 took them along Lake Erie — which, to her disappointment, she didn’t get many good looks at along the way. They stopped for food somewhere south of Buffalo, and, despite the danger, she considered following the signs to Niagara Falls. It was an opportunity she’d never get again.

Instead, she picked up a New York State highway map and spread it across the middle of the dashboard so she and Ren could look it over together.

They used the SUV’s onboard compass to determine what direction they were facing, guessed at their current location, and tried to piece together some sort of plan.

“It is somewhere around here,” Ren said, tapping his finger over a large, forested area on the map near the Adirondack Mountains.

“That’s a pretty big search area. How do you know for sure it’s there?”

He lifted another hand and waved to the northeast. “Because it is that way.” Then he moved his finger to Buffalo and slid it northeast, ending up in roughly the same place he’d originally indicated. “As we get closer, I am better able to pinpoint its location.”

“I believe you. It’s just that, at least on this map, it doesn’t look like there’s much in the way of roads over there. Even if we get close to your ship, we may have to travel part of the way on foot, and that’s going to slow us down.”

“I will carry you if it comes to that.” He smiled at her. “We are close, kun’ia. This long journey is nearly at its end.”

“Yeah, it is,” she said, returning the smile.

They continued their drive under a bleak gray sky, and Ren seemed to grow increasingly impatient as the miles passed. They saw another small convoy of black SUVs before they moved off the four-lane interstate, and not long after spied helicopters in the distance, neither of which eased their nerves. At various points on the two-lane highways, they were caught behind vehicles driving well under the speed limit, which almost pushed Rendash to fury.

“I can get out and push them faster than they are driving!” he growled.

“Control,” Zoey whispered to him, unable to keep from smirking.

He snapped his head aside to look at her with low brows, but his expression crumbled after he opened his mouth and seemed to be unable to find any words. He shook his head and chuckled.

His frustration was compounded again when it seemed that none of the roads led the right way.

“We’re so close!” He thumped his fist on the dashboard. “This road is going to take us too far in the wrong direction.”

Zoey reached across the space separating them, caught his chin, and turned his face toward her. “We’ll make it. Ren. Patience. You’ve been around humans too long.” Despite her best efforts to hold it back, her smirk had returned.

“You’re the only human who’s influenced these changes in me, kun’ia,” he replied. He smiled, but the expression was strained.

It was dark by the time they neared the small town of Lowville.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stop for the night?” Zoey asked as she held the button to spray the windshield for the thousandth time. The wet roads were likely to freeze over as the temperature continued to drop. “We could wait until it’s light out to search for the ship.”

And I could have one more night with you before we leave for the unknown.

“We have to keep going,” he said, turning his gleaming gaze toward her. “We’re close, but so are they. Any delay gives them that much more time to find us.”

“Okay…but we do need to stop for some gas. We’re almost running on empty.”

The tightness in his expression gave her the impression, for a moment, that he was going to refuse. Instead, his features softened. “Do you feel well enough to continue, Zoey? If you are tired, or need rest, we can stop for a while.” He settled a hand on her thigh and squeezed gently.

Zoey placed her hand on top his. “I’m fine. I’ll just grab some coffee while we fill up.”

A few minutes later — and with Ren cloaked — they pulled into a gas station on the western edge of town, lured by the out-of-place lights at the end of a dark residential street.

Zoey opened her door and hesitated as she climbed out, frowning to herself. “Do you think they can track it when you hack the gas pumps?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “They may be able to detect some anomaly in the computers.”

Biting her lip, Zoey nodded. “I’m just going to prepay with cash this time. Just in case. We have the money, and it’s not worth the risk after how far we’ve come. Do you need to get out to use the restroom or anything?”

“No. I’ll be fine, Zoey.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.” She closed the door and crossed the parking lot toward the convenience store.

A bell over the door jingled as she entered the store. Music played overhead — Christmas music; how had she forgotten that was right around the corner? — but it was otherwise quiet inside. Zoey returned the cashier’s friendly smile before walking to the coffee machines in the back of the store. She selected the largest available cup and filled it with the best-sounding flavor, closing her eyes for a moment to enjoy the rich aroma. The smell of brewing coffee behind the counter at Bud’s Diner remained a pleasant memory, despite everything.

The bell jingled again, but she paid it no mind. Once her cup was three-fourths full, she added enough creamer and sugar that the mix couldn’t legally be called coffee anymore, plucked a lid out of the dispenser, and pressed it on.

Did they have anything like coffee on Ren’s planet?

She still couldn’t believe this was happening. They would be leaving Earth. That was a slightly more significant move than Des Moines to California and back again.

Zoey turned, and her smile faded when she noticed a man standing nearby. Her coffee nearly slipped from her fingers. Not just a man, but a police officer, dressed in a heavy coat, staring at her through his sunglasses.

Who the hell wore sunglasses at night apart from fugitives?

Recognition hit her; she knew his face. Officer Asswipe. His uniform was different, but it was the same cop she’d spoken to the night she left Santa Barbara, the cop at the roadblock on the California-Nevada border. Why was he here?

He’s not really a cop. He’s one of them.

Ice filled Zoey’s veins, but she somehow plastered a smile back on her face. “Evening, officer.”

He nodded slightly. “Ma’am. Cold night tonight. Where are you headed?”

“Just visiting some family.” She stepped past him and placed her coffee on the counter in front of the cashier. “Twenty on pump two, please.”

She fished the money out of her coat pocket as the cashier rang it up. “Keep the change,” she said. “Merry Christmas.”

The cashier smiled widely. “Thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too.”

Zoey grabbed her coffee and walked toward the door, fighting the instinct to run. No way he’d recognized her, right? There’d been hundreds of people going through the checkpoint that night. She’d been just one of many faces.

“Ma’am,” Officer Asswipe called as her fingers touched the door handle. She froze, heart leaping into her throat, and turned to face him as his boots thumped over the tile floor.

“Yes, officer?” She stared up at his sunglasses and swore she saw a tiny flash of light behind them, gone as quickly as it had come.

“We’ve had reports of strange occurrences in the area tonight. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?”

“Nope. I haven’t seen anything. But I really am in a hurry. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” She pulled on the door.

He stuck an arm out and stopped the door from opening more than a few inches. The gust of cold air that flowed in was nothing compared to the ice in her veins in that moment.

Officer Asswipe leaned down, face close to hers. “I’m going to need you to come with me, Miss Weston.”

Zoey’s eyes widened, and her heart stopped. “I-I don’t know who you’ve mistaken me for but—”

He turned his head slightly, as though looking at someone else. “We’ve got her. Gas station on State,” he said.

She pulled on the door again. “Let me go.”

The man closed his free hand around her wrist and tugged her away from the door. “This’ll be much easier if you cooperate.”

He bent her arm, causing intense pain through her elbow. She cried out and did the only thing she could think to do — she swung her coffee cup, squeezing the sides so the lid popped off, and splashed the scalding liquid in his face.

Officer Asswipe flinched back, releasing her as he shouted in pain. Zoey threw open the door and ran out.

“Ren!” she yelled.

He appeared in front of her an instant later and caught her in his arms. She started, gaze darting up at him before sweeping around the parking lot. There, on the other side of the building, was one of the black SUVs. Its driver’s door opened and a man in a black uniform climbed out.

“They’re here,” she rasped.

“I know,” Ren replied, lifting her off her feet and running to their car. From somewhere in the distance — but not nearly far enough away — came the sound of screeching tires and revving engines.

Their vehicle shook as they both jumped inside. Ren sparked the engine to life and Zoey wasted no time throwing it into drive.

“How did they find us so fast?” she asked as the car bounced hard over the curb and back onto the road.

She screamed as several popping sounds went off behind them, accompanied by an equal number of objects hitting their car with metallic thumps.

“They’re shooting at us?” she screamed.

“That way,” Ren commanded.

Their tires wailed as she slowed to take the sharp turn. Fortunately, the road he’d directed her onto was fairly straight, and she floored the accelerator.

Ren twisted to look behind them. “I don’t know how they found us. You may be correct about them tracking my interference with electronics. I think Stantz also knew my ship was somewhere in this area. He implied that they’d detected its impact but had been unable to locate it. He might not have known all along, but our path might have led him directly to it.”

Headlights appeared in the rearview mirror. They grew from pinpricks of illumination to terrifying, unblinking eyes of fire in the darkness.

“Oh shit. They’re coming, Ren.”

“Drive faster, Zoey.”

She squeezed the wheel as she lurched into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. The headlights of an oncoming car glared at her, but she swerved back into the right lane before causing an accident.

She followed the road around a curve, pressing the pedal down once it straightened out again. Fear and adrenaline sped her pounding heart. The homes that lined either side of the road rapidly thinned, until Zoey and Ren were left on a pitch-black country highway, zipping past snowy fields and copses of leafless trees.

A huge pool of light swung out from one of the fields and came toward them. Zoey leaned forward and gazed up to see a low-flying helicopter silhouetted against the dark clouds.

“Oh, my God,” Zoey said. She sat back and looked in the mirror. The vehicles behind them had fanned out to drive in both lanes, the SUV in front taking the center with two more flanking it. “Ren, what do we do?”

“We drive as far as we can, and when we stop, we go on foot.”

“They have helicopters!”

“We’ll figure it out, Zoey. Trust me.”

“How can you be so calm about this?”

She chanced a glance at him. His eyes were on her, gleaming with a strange, deep sadness. “This is all I knew for my entire life. Before you.”

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

She screamed as a burst of bullets hit the road in front of them, kicking up chunks of asphalt.

“We aren’t going to die, kun’ia,” Ren shouted over her scream. “They want me alive. They won’t risk it, especially if they think I’m leading them to—”

Another burst of gunfire struck the road, panged on the hood of their car, and punched through the roof. There was a loud pop as something heavy struck Zoey’s thigh. She inhaled sharply, and warmth spread over her leg. The front end of the SUV bounced viciously.

They blew out a tire, and I’ve been shot, she thought dazedly. Always figured it would hurt more…

Then the SUV decided it had had enough of driving straight and swerved wildly to the side. The slick road offered no traction. She could almost hear its voice in her delirious mind — guess you shouldn’t’ve been driving so fast, huh? — just before the SUV flipped.

“Zoey!” Ren shouted.

Zoey was weightless for a split second. Ren wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against him as the SUV landed on its roof and continued tumbling. Strangely, she felt no pain. Ren’s body jolted with the impact, and her head struck something beside her — the window, or maybe the door. The sound was the worst part, all crunching steel and shattering glass and tons of machinery protesting at such harsh treatment.

The SUV came down on the driver’s side. She felt a strange pinch in her arm, and then the rolling continued. When the world finally stilled, and the tension in Ren’s body eased slightly, Zoey peeked past his arms to see that the vehicle had landed — rather lopsidedly — on its wheels.

Nailed it.

She might’ve laughed at any other time, but she couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t fill her lungs.

Her ears rang, and her vision dimmed to black.

Zoey.

The voice in her head sounded a lot like Ren, if he were calling her underwater, or through a stack of pillows.

There was so much pain now, pain everywhere.

Zoey!

She struggled against the darkness. Ren needed her. He was calling her!

But she was tired. So, so tired. She just needed a little rest…