"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was worried that you guys wouldn't notice me." The woman laughed when she reached them.

Jackie looked at the woman in front of her, noticing the lack of supplies on her, and how her clothes were clean. "It's a good thing we noticed you, considering how dangerous this place is."

"Yeah. I never expected that I would have drunk the last of my water, lose my compass and my supplies. The desert isn't very forgiving to people walking around with no water or food." The woman chuckled morbidly.

Jackie looked at Lulu, who had an expression saying, "I told you I spotted something interesting." She also raised an eyebrow and smiled at the woman's story.

Seeing Lulu act in such a manner was frustrating, but Jackie was glad that Lulu wasn't wholly ignoring how crazy the person's story was. Even if Jackie was willing to believe that the woman had a string of bad luck, the fact that she didn't mention the modified humans and didn't appear concerned about it was giving Jackie weird vibes.

Glancing at Lacy and Amanda, Jackie saw Lacy minutely shake her head and indicating her disbelief. Amanda was just casually standing there, but her eyes were carefully observing the situation. With Amanda just joining the group, Jackie was unsure about what her thoughts were concerning everything and figured she was just assessing things until there was more information.

Jackie was trying to figure out what was the woman's angle, whether she was just a lottery-winning lucky person or someone with an agenda. Even though the odds of the woman being lucky enough to avoid the modified humans this entire time was unlikely, though being in the middle of a desert increased the odds of not interacting with the monsters, a small part of her kept thinking how much she would not be able to look at herself in the mirror knowing she abandoned a woman by herself, regardless of how suspicious the situation appeared.

"It's not safe for us to casually talk out here, though those things are likely to be hiding from us," Lulu spoke out as she looked around them. "Those sadistic freaks could be close by, and we don't even know it."

"Funny hearing you call someone else a sadistic freak," Lacy cooly responded.

Lulu tilted her head and used an index finger to poke her cheek. "At least I look cute and adorable while doing it." Seeing Jackie roll her eyes at her response made her grin.

"What are you guys talking about?" The woman asked, clearly looking confused by their exchange.

"We'll explain what we're talking about in the car. Like Lulu said, this place isn't safe for us, and we need to get moving. Before seeing you, my friends and I were on our way to someplace that may be safe, and we still have a long drive." Amanda explained, motioning to the car on the road.

Jackie was grateful for Amanda's words. Even though she had the experience of dealing with civilians in covert missions, Jackie had, briefly, forgotten about their mission and how this woman was going to impact it. They would need to take the woman with them, and this person couldn't know that they worked for Star and Moon.

Judging by how Amanda was looking at her, Jackie understood that Amanda had foreseen the thoughts going through her mind and was confirming that this was the case.

"Do you guys mind if I tag along? I don't think I'll be able to survive the situation by myself and I would really appreciate any help." The woman pointed at the abandoned cars on the road. "I feel like things may have changed and likely connected to what you guys were saying." She smiled nervously.

Taking the lead, Amanda gave a cheerful smile, saying, "Of course. Just leaving a woman by herself in the middle of the desert would be heartless of us."

"Our vehicle is a bit small, and the air condition doesn't work, so hope that doesn't bother you," Lulu grinned.

"You're going to have to deal with Lulu complaining during the entire ride," Lacy teased.

Jackie indicated for them to begin heading back to the relative safety of the vehicle. As they were walking back to the road, she was partially listening to the woman's life story, about how she got in the situation she was in.

"We were supposed to go together on this trip for our honeymoon, but he took off. So... I've been traveling around and enjoying this trip on my own. Yesterday, I just found myself laying on the ground with all of my supplies missing, aside from my two canteens." The woman explained. "Thanks to this area being flat and without obstructions, I could see you racing down the road."

It was pretty impressive how the woman stayed so cheerful in such a life-threatening situation. Jackie didn't know many who'd be able to handle being in a harsh environment, making Jackie respect the woman's fortitude.

Reaching the car, Jackie got into the car and turned the ignition. There was a sputtering noise as the engined turned over, but then it stopped. She froze looking at the steering wheel and trying not to think about the first thought trying to go through her mind.

"Just try turning the key again," Jackie thought to herself.

As everyone else was getting into the car, Jackie quickly tried to start the car again before anyone jinxed the situation. The engine turned a couple of times and before she could groan... it started back up again. She cursed the car for scaring her, but glad that they wouldn't have to try and hot-wire the other vehicles.

Reversing the car and getting back in the right direction, Jackie found herself glad to be back on track.

Breaking the silence, Lacy turned to look at the woman and said, "Since it looks like we'll be traveling together for a while, I thought it's a good time to introduce ourselves. My name is Lacy."

"It's nice to meet you, Lacy. My name is Jae-Hwa. Even though we've met briefly, I feel like I'm fortunate to meet all of you." Jae-Hwa said happily.

"I'm Lulu. You seem like an interesting person and not too serious, so I think you'll fit in with us. The one driving is Jackie, who's like an older sister to us. And the one sitting in front of me is Amanda, who we also recently met several months ago." Lulu cheerfully said.

"I'm not that much older than you guys," Jackie yelled out in mock anger, playing the part Lulu described her as. Though Lulu acted the way she did, she was actually intelligent with tremendous instincts. It was the reason why Jackie gave Lulu so much leeway during missions, though sometimes she wondered if she actually had any control over Lulu even as team lead.

"Since I'm the new person, I hope all of you will treat me well," Jae-Hwa said. She brushed back her long black hair over her shoulder. "Oh! I forgot! What were you guys talking about earlier? You made it seem like we were in danger. And what's up with all of these cars just abandoned on the highway?" Jae-Hwa clapped her hands together.

Everyone was quiet, unsure how to answer Jae-Hwa's question.

Sighing and thinking it was best that she said it, Jackie explained, "A couple of days ago, these creatures began appearing during the middle of the night. They looked like people but acted differently, especially the part about eating people. The four of us were heading back home when we saw those things when we were filling up on gas. It was thanks to several people screaming off in the distance that alerted us that something was happening."

"We've been driving ever since, trying to get to a place I've heard is likely a safe place." Amanda stepped in smoothly.

"Oh wow! That sounds crazy!" Jae-Hwa was surprised by the story, raising a hand to her mouth. "Then the people? Are the cars empty because...," she wasn't able to finish.

"Likely or were lucky enough to run away. We're pretty close to the next province, which is where our destination is at and hopefully where we can find shelter." Jackie said.

"You guys seem so knowledgeable about these things," Jae-Hwa said sounding amazed. "I remember you guys talking about how these things are likely hiding."

"Before we met you, we were traveling with another group for a short time. While we stopped to get supplies, the other group went into one of the nearby stores... We tried to run in to save them but we stopped before entering the dark interior of the store. After the screams finished, we heard a voice that sounded similar to one of the people in the group calling out for us to come in and save them from the monsters." Amanda quietly said.

Jumping on Amanda's story, Lacy added, "It was at that point when we realized that those things were crafty in how they moved, unlike the first night we saw them."

"Yeah. Those things are clever in how they can fool a person into doing something stupid." Lulu said, likely remembering what she saw that night with the soldiers.

After going over the events of that had transpired, no one wanted to talk any longer, and it was quiet, the engine noise providing a nice distraction.

-----

Jackie mainly focused on her thoughts as she drove, unable to talk to the others while Jae-Hwa was with them. Seeing something different and pulling her out of her auto-pilot driving, Jackie noticed that there was some green replacing the brown and orange landscape.

"Trees!" Lulu shouted happily.

Hearing the cheer in Lulu's voice, Jackie couldn't help smiling. Seeing trees beginning to show up around them made her feel a lot cooler, though the temperature likely hadn't changed that much.

The fact that they were seeing the start of a forest, though it was very sparse at the moment, meant they were about to cross the province border.

A couple of hours listening to Lulu talk about how much cooler it was and how happy she was to see trees was all that helped to pass the time. Jae-Hwa chimed in the excitement,

talking about woods she camped in before entering the desert.

Looking next to her, Jackie saw that Amanda was quietly sleeping. Using the rearview mirror, she could see that Lacy had joined Amanda in dreamland. It was a smart thing to grab as much sleep as possible, considering their current circumstances could change.

The thought of needing to be prepared made her look at the fuel gauge, and notice that they were getting close to empty. Fortunately, the light for low fuel hadn't turned on, so they still were safe and not under threat of hiking it to the nearest station.

"Welcome to Cherry State! Home of the best cherries in the nation!" Jackie read the sign to herself as it passed the car passed underneath it. "I still can't get used to calling these places states instead of provinces," she chuckled in her mind. It gave her a brief feeling of homesickness for a motherland, though with how things were she didn't think it was likely she would see it soon.

There was a sign off to the side of the road that let her know that there were a welcome center and gas a couple of miles away. It was at this moment that the low fuel level indicator decided to turn on, letting her know that the next exit wasn't going to be a choice.

It was only a moment when Jackie saw the exit appear, directing people to the welcome center. Unlike the highway, there were only a few abandoned cars, an indication of how popular of a tourist spot these welcome centers were. The only benefit was how the gas was cheaper than privately owned stations. This country had allowed the provinces to build their own fueling stations and set the prices, which was helpful to locations that relied on tourism.

As she slowed the car down, entering the parking area and following the signs to where she could fuel the vehicle, Amanda and Lacy slowly woke up.

"Where are we?" Lacy said groggily.

"We're at the welcome center for this province. The fuel gauge is reading low, so we needed to stop here to fill up the tank before we can continue." Jackie said.

"Perfect timing," Lacy mumbled, turning her head and looking outside.

Seeing Lacy look out of the car, Jackie knew she was referring to the sun beginning to set. Already the shadows were lengthening and reclaiming their domain.

"You know that those things will likely react to us being here and it becoming dark," Amanda pointed out.

Jackie didn't bother responding, concentrating on the image in front of her. The gas station they needed to go to was mostly dark, due to the canopy designed to protect customers from the rain. As the car approached their destination, she could see that locks were placed on the pumps to prevent people from pumping without paying. There was even a sign with a cartoonish looking attendant saying, "Please wait for an attendant. Enjoy sitting while we take care of you." This probably meant that the attendant was the one with the keys.

"If only we had a bolt cutter," Amanda joked upon seeing the locked pumps.

"Yeah," Jackie agreed.

The problem was how they did have bolt cutters, but pulling out the tool from the trunk could potentially raise questions with their new travel companion. She could picture where the equipment was hidden, though the bolt cutter was the most high-tech equipment they carried.

"Do you think we could pop the lock open with the tire iron?" Lacy asked, understanding the situation they were in.

"I doubt it," Jackie answered. "That thing is likely too big to fit and give me leverage to pop it. It looks like we're going to need to play the fun game of 'are there monsters inside?'"

Turning on while they were discussing the situation, the lights indicated that night had finally fallen.

"Where's my mommy? I'm scared." A voice of a little girl was heard coming out of the darkness.

"I guess that answers the question. Do I win a prize?" Lulu said as quietly as possible.

Jackie felt the hair on the back of her neck rise up, after hearing the call for help. "Yeah. You get to be near those things without any weapons or help." Jackie said.

"Could I change my prize to a different one?" Lacy said in a quivering voice. "I would be okay with even a revolver."

"I think we have a straw and paper somewhere and you can make yourself a spitball gun, which is just as effective," Amanda said. Though she was acting like her usual witty self, the shaking of her voice gave herself away.

With the help of the headlight, Jackie could see several shapes slowly lowering themselves down from the gas station canopy, though the number of limbs was off. "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6...," She counted off the number of limbs she was seeing. It wasn't until she saw how the two that didn't look right began to move that she understood what they were.

"Even though I enjoy reading those types of comics, I don't think I want to be in one," Jae-Hwa squeaked.

"I see that we read the same types of comics," Lulu said, clearly not enjoying the parallels being made with their current position and disturbing adult imagery.

It was at that moment that the car jerked and the engine stopped.

"You choose to stall now?!" Jackie hissed at the car. As quickly as she could, she turned the key to start the engine, though this time the engine only turned once before stopping.

"Jackie, I don't want to sound like a pest, but could you quickly get the engine started?" Lulu urgently said as Jackie continued to try and get the engine going.

"I know!" Jackie yelled, not appreciating Lulu pointing out something so obvious.

"I think Lulu is right. I don't think we have much time." Amanda agreed.

Jackie raised her head to yell at Amanda but stopped when she saw that past the window on Amanda's side, there were more of those things begin to show up. Looking in front of the car, she saw that the ones they saw were only a couple of feet away from the vehicle.