Nia sat in the car in between her father and grandfather, the people in life who she was closest to. Her mom had left when she was about 2 years old and had not been back since. She had learned from listening to conversations between her father and grandfather that her mother had hated her father's job and had asked him numerous times to quit. Evidently it all became too much and eventually she left.

Nia's grandparents on her mother's side had died years before, shortly after her mom had left, in a car accident. So Nia had no real memories of them either. Her father had told her a number of times that they had loved Nia deeply and even had shared the responsibility of caring for Nia when Clayton left for his overseas trips for work. Clayton's mother had died a year ago of cancer, something that was deeply painful for Nia, Clayton and Nia's grandfather. They rarely talked about her anymore because it was still a biting pain, and whenever anyone brought her up they often all ended up in tears.

Nia mostly kept to herself as a result, and she was an avid reader. Her grandfather was extremely supportive and she loved him deeply, he was the person she spent the most time with of anyone. He often read the books she was reading so they could have a discussion about them. Nia did have a few good friends but outside of them she rarely interacted with anyone else.

Now Nia was being rushed away from the only home she had ever known rapidly, and she was oddly OK with it, since she at least had the two people she trusted and loved most on Earth with her. As Nia looked out the window she noticed the lines on the road seemingly whipping by and the drones in the sky buzzing about delivering packages and people. Suddenly her gaze fell upon a bright object on the dashboard of the car.

"What is that thing on the dashboard Ms. ummmm..." Nia said to the mysterious woman in the car.

"Qi Lian is my name young lady. And that object on the dashboard is keeping us safe. It fools the drone cameras into believing they are seeing an elderly couple riding in this car. "

"I suppose we should all introduce ourselves as it seems we will be together for a while. My name is Qi Wei and I am Lian's brother." The man said.

"My name is Nia Johnson" Nia offered, eager to break the silence that had persisted in the car for half an hour.

"I am Darnell Johnson, Clayton here is my son and Nia is my granddaughter." Nia's grandfather responded.

Clayton remained silent, taking in the whole situation. He had never been too talkative as it was, he often kept things to himself. He could see that he had rubbed off some on Nia since she had kept to herself for so long. He didn't necessarily think that was a good thing, but what he had seen in his job made it hard for him to change.

"You need to know that the world that you know is about to change in a very dramatic manner soon. We are hoping that we can prevent the worst of the events which are about to come." Qi Lian said.

"What is the program?" Clayton asked, needing an answer to a question that had plagued him for the past 16 years.

"I promise I am going to fill you in on all of the details soon. We are going to have a long ride, but first we have to get rid of this car." Lian said.

"Dump the car for what?" Clayton asked.

"The people who are after us are part of that program and they are extremely dangerous. We will not be able to fool them for long, in fact I wouldn't be shocked if they already know this is our car. That is why we are going to be getting out in a minute. They will be after me and my sister with certainty." Qi Wei answered.

"How do you know?"

"We were part of the program." The siblings answered in unison.

"You see we were part of the program, but we left as soon as a more brutal member began threatening to take control of it. " Lian said.

Clayton thought back to when he had met Qi Lian. He then remembered something that he had seen, or at least that he thought he had seen just before she saved his life. Something had flashed before his eyes, moving faster than a human into the building.

"Does the program involve some sort of robots? Whatever I saw moved faster than any human could." Clayton inquired.

Qi Lian and Qi Wei looked at each other and let out a genuine laugh.

"Oh thank you Clayton, we have not had a good laugh in a long long time. I think your culture has become quite scarred by movies like the Terminator, and it has limited your imagination a bit. Though in some ways what you saw is worse than a robot." Wei answered.

Worse than a robot? What on Earth could this program have done? Clayton thought to himself. He had been imagining Terminators in his head, coming to take over the Earth, but this was somehow worse?

"What are you talking about, please just tell me what the program is."

"When we are safely away from this car we will give you your answer. Not before." Qi Lian told Clayton.

Just then the car pulled off the road and headed toward a wooded area. As the engine was cut off the passengers looked around. Nia noticed the tall white pine trees that had clearly been battered by wind. She thought these looked quite beautiful, and it was a nice change from looking up and only seeing drones and buildings.

Clayton examined the wooded area and thought how secluded the area was. He thought it was a perfect area to hide. But just then a horrifying thought entered his mind. What if these two people were still involved in the program? What if they thought he had found out more about the program than he actually knew? What if they felt they needed to eliminate the threat of both him and his family?

Clayton quickly grabbed his sniper rifle from the trunk of the car, he also checked to make sure his sidearm was still attached to his hip. He was glad to feel it still there. He also checked for the backup pistol he carried at his ankle and again he found it to be present. This put him a bit more at ease.

Clayton grabbed his father and his daughter by their respective shirt collars and gently pulled them back closer to him.

"Stay close by me OK?" Clayton whispered to the pair.

Nia and Darnell nodded their heads letting Clayton know they understood.

After they had gotten all of their stuff out of the car, Qi Lian and Qi Wei emerged from the vehicle with two bags full of all sorts of military gear. Clayton caught sight of a bit more explosive material before the bags were closed up as well.

Qi Lian pointed to the woods and said:

"Head that way."

Clayton was still feeling uneasy but he took the lead as instructed. However he felt the need to frequently check over his shoulder to see what their "companions" were doing.

After they had walked a bit into the woods Clayton looked back and saw the car moving toward the creek. He quickly realized that Qi Lian was pushing the vehicle by herself!

"Uh, umm, uh can I help you with that?" Clayton asked.

Qi Lian looked up and shook her head in the negative.

"No I am fine."

Clayton looked at her puzzled, it didn't seem like Lian was struggling at all. She must have really been packing some muscles underneath all that garb he thought to himself.

"Now for your question about the program..."