Eniola’s eyes fluttered open and instead of a crystalline light fixture above her, it was the same neutral grey roof hanging overhead of her. She sighed and then yawned. Despite sleeping for who knows how long, she was still tired.

Eniola uncurled herself from the ball she had put herself in, but not until she felt a soft surface a top of her, pushing a woody scent into her nose. It was Jay’s hoodie. A small smile curled onto her face.

“You’re awake!” Jay exclaimed. Eniola looked up groggily at Jay, who looked to be obviously smiling through the pain. There were thick bags creased under her eyes and his skin looked pale and faded and his hair messy. How had he gone to looking so off? But somewhere he still looked beautiful.

But who had the time to worry about appearances when you were a fugitive of the law?

“Why aren’t you wearing your hoodie?” Eniola asked.

“You looked cold,” he admitted. “Don’t worry about me. You can wear it as long as you want.”

Eniola traded him a smile before sipping it over her. The sleeves didn’t fit over her arms, and it was wide, but it at least fit.

Eniola sat upright on the seat, then observed the grey landscapes of the small buildings in the smaller cities and towns passing by them in the car. Eniola didn’t realize she could take in all the details. Usually, auto-cars were much faster, but with Jay driving, they were now slower.

“Good morning!” Iris chirped, despite the desolate mood. She handed Eniola something wrapped that she registered as a breakfast burrito. Eniola didn’t realize how hungry she had been until her stomach sang out a sad song.

“Good morning,” Eniola replied, before unwrapping the food and taking a huge bite. Then another one. Then another big bite.

“Woah,” Theo says, holding a still sleeping Lucia in his arms. “You must be hungry.”

“Being framed does that to you,” Eniola told him. “How long until we leave the country?” They left Seoul late last night. Luckily, no one spotted them driving wondrously on a back road in the middle of the night. It was like asking to be found. They drove some miles before they eventually parked through the night. Luckily, the authorities didn’t ransack them.

“We have 1-2 hours,” Jay informed. “Then we get to North Korea, then hopefully China, if all goes well.”

“So far, I haven’t sensed detection,” someone suddenly said, and Eniola looked back to see Zaira popping up from the back seat. She was here too and Eniola almost forgot that.

To think of it, no one had really talked to Zaira, she’d kept to herself. Her dreadlocks spilled out of her bun and off her head, but her eyes were on the screen. “But we can never be too sure.”

“Can we access the news?” Iris asked.

“No,” Zaira said, averting eye contact. “If we want to get to China, then we can’t access the general web. It’s like asking to be tracked.”

“We should also stop for food,” a groggy voice said. Lucia opened her eyes and shifted on Theo’s arm. Iris tossed her another burrito and a chorus of good mornings came to her. Eniola smiled. Hopefully, Lucia could be upbeat enough to carry them through this trip.

“When’s the next stop?” Eniola asked.

“There’s a convenience store in a couple of miles,” Zaira explained. “I’ll go in because I’m technically dead.”

“I’ll go,” Eniola volunteered. “My legs are killing me.”

“I’ll go too,” Theo said. “To protect you guys. Everyone else should stay in the car. We can’t spread ourselves out too much.”

“You might want to take that off,” Jay says, eyeing her bracelet. “Some of these places look sketchy.”

Eniola chuckled as she slid it off and put it into his hand.

“What do you think everyone’s doing right now?” Jay asked.

“My parents are probably furious,” Eniola began. “Olu and May are probably confused as hell, and little Adeola is a baby and thinks nothing about this.”

“I don’t think she liked me when I went over,” Jay said. “Every time I held her, she cried.”

Eniola laughed.

Jay laughed into a serious tone. “I don’t know what my dad thinks. He’s probably disappointed, but it’s always been that way. And Soyeon.” He stopped for a moment. “I’m not sure. Ever since California, I haven’t seen her again.”

“Oh.”

“It’s fine,” he whispered. “I don’t know why I had such high expectations. Oh look, rest stop!”

Eniola turned to look out of the window, to see a long grey building at the side of the road with a neon sigh. The windows were clear and showed a convenience store.

Zaira slapped the door with her hand before she climbed out. Eniola slid out from behind her, and so did Theo.

Eniola’s legs wobbled, and she almost tripped over the flat ground before Theo grabbed her and levelled her on the ground. How had she already forgotten how to walk?

“Go in and out,” Jay instructed. “You know the drill. Yell cake if anything goes wrong.”

Eniola nodded as all 3 of them headed for the restaurant. ‘Cake’ had become their code word just in case anything went wrong. They had used it once, and it was a drill Theo enacted just to see if they would react. Everyone was sour at him for the rest of the day.

Eniola reached into her pocket and pulled a face mask Zaira had somehow had. It was thick and black and only showed the strip of her eyes. She pulled up the large hood on Jay’s hoodie and over her head. Zaira and Theo both wore the same thing. Eniola thought the masks would make them more suspicious, but she had said nothing.

As they all approached the entrance, the doors slid open for them and immersed them into a small convenience store with checkered tiled floors and rows of food for passing travellers in whatever this town was. Eniola peered outside to see the roadside floating above them. Yeoncheon. That’s where they were.

There was a counter nestled in the corner, where holo-screens with whatever deals were going on, and to check out customers were. Eniola could tell a human was behind it, with the way their hair covered their entire face. She raised an eyebrow. Theo nudged her to turn away.

Eniola grabbed a basket from the stand and meandered through the rows so that the cashier, with the covered face, thought nothing of them. She approached a shelf of packaged noodles and swept a bunch off the shelves and into the basket. She then went to a row of chips and snacks and swept them off, too. It was a lot, but the less they stopped, the better.

Theo had his back to her, as he swept more food off the row behind her, and Zaira was in the drinks section. Eniola slowly peered back at the hairy cashier just in case they snuck a peek at them, grabbing weird amounts of food. They were still sitting there absentmindedly. Eniola sucked in a breath.

It wasn’t until now that Eniola noticed the holo-screen wedged in the corner. It was showing a newscast, and they were, of course, their prime subjects. The sound wasn’t on, but Eniola could tell that the newscasters were once again spewing false information about them again, wondering why 5 teenagers needed foreign government data. She wondered why they hadn’t connected the dots. Eniola swallowed back a gulp as the reality dawned on her.

Eniola wanted to scream at them like she could force them to stop. She wanted to shout at the entire world that Paradox was behind it, and they wanted to do was save the world from him. But the words stayed lodged in her throat and mind as an angry thought.

“Eniola,” Eniola registered Zaira, whispering to her. “Let’s go now.”

All 3 of them walked back to the counter where the creepy cashier was, you guessed it, being creepy. They didn’t even do anything, except sit there with sweeping black hair across their face. A chill ran down Eniola’s spine.

“We’re here to buy stuff,” Theo said in a fake deep voice, as they all put their baskets on the counter.

Finally, the person moved their hands to their hand and pulled it back. Eniola’s eyes widened.

The first thing she saw were two colour-changing eyes, on the face of a Korean girl who looked very much younger than Eniola. A long slit struck her eyebrow. A small smirk curled against her lips as she saw them.

Eniola’s heart sped up in the chest, but her nervousness didn’t show. No use trying to be revealed.

“Of course,” she finally said in a quiet voice. “I will scan your things.”

She didn’t break eye contact, as she scanned the items. Her arms until her wrists were natural, but her hands were cybernetic, plated with black metal.

She was a cyborg. Eniola traded nervous eye contact with Theo. She might recognize them on a deeper level like Iris could to random people. That didn’t calm Eniola’s nerves.

“82,000 won,” she told them, holding her hand out.

Zaira immediately reached into her pocket before fumbling with ancient cash bills and handing them to her. The cashier didn’t count them. Instead, she selected the right amount from eyeballing it and shoved it into Eniola’s hand.

It didn’t take long for Theo and Zaira to leave, and Eniola ran after them in delay, cash bills still uncounted in her hand. All 3 of them dashed into the car, and immediately the engine rumbled.

“How was it?” Jay asked.

“Uneventful,” Eniola deadpanned, before setting her gaze on the cash. “Zaira, how much money did you give her?”

“About 100,000 won,” she replied.

Eniola nodded her head and set her gaze on the 1000 won cash bills, counting each one of them. There were 16 of them. Just the right amount. However, Eniola felt another slip of paper beneath them. She squinted as she brought it to the front.

It wasn’t a bill, instead of a slip of white paper in the same shape. Eniola raised an eyebrow as she turned it over. It was a thin slip of paper with thick black font.

PSEUDO

A small gasp escaped her throat. What did this mean? But that wasn’t the only thing that caught her eye. It was the P.

It’s just like the one Kain sent her.

Eniola’s gaze snapped back to the convenience store window, where the girl was out of her seat and now watching her through at the window with a piercing gaze. A chill slithered down her spine, and words, words she didn’t even know she wanted to speak, lodged in her throat. But slowly, the van pulled away.

“Is it right?” Zaira asked.

Eniola didn’t even realize she cared about the change anymore. “It’s just perfect.”

Eniola immediately shoved the paper down into her pocket and looked forward.

“So who’s hungry?” Eniola asked, before taking the bags of food and distributing them to the van. Lucia haphazardly took one and sprawled out on the seat, and she reached farther back to find Zaira and Iris. Eniola then sat back in her seat to contemplate life.

PSEUDO. What the hell did that mean, and who was the girl? How did she know they were going there?

“Jay,” Lucia asked. “What are we doing in China? You never said.”

“Remember when I told you about my disappointment, cousin?” Jay said, looking at Eniola. She nodded. “He’s doing some shady business in China. He sells identities to people running from the law and I think he can help us.”

“You have criminals in your family?” Eniola asked. There were a lot of new things she was learning about him.

“It’s not like I’m the first person to have that!” Jay defended. Then he sighed. “I know where to find him, and I think he can give us new identities, so we don’t have to hide completely.”

“Then what happens?” Eniola asked. “Say we get new identities and leave China. What do we do then?”

“We gather resources and maybe alliances and try to find Paradox and then take him down,” Theo cut in. “We track him around the world.”

“We’re just going to be on the run for an indefinite time?” Iris put in.

“It’s really not that hard,” Zaira mentioned. “I’ve been doing it for almost 2 years. It just becomes a hobby.”

It could take months or God forbid, even years before Paradox would be gone and never come back. Eniola couldn’t wait that long. Now that she had so many things to wait for.

“What if we never take Paradox down?” Eniola said with a waver in her voice. “What if we never stop being fugitives? What if we become some gang or something? Do you realize this, Jay? Our kids will be born as fugitives if Paradox gets stronger!”

“Woah!” Jay hollered, shocked. “Let’s not think that far into the future. We’ve barely been on the road for a day. And we’re not that old. We’ll be fine.”

Eniola swallowed a gulp. Maybe she got carried away. They hadn’t been together for a long time and have never even gotten to practice making kids.

Jay, for a second, reached over and ran a knuckle down her face before he delicately tucked her coiled hair behind her ears. Her heart fluttered at the gesture.

“We’re reaching the border,” Iris informed, interrupting their moment.

Jay swore under his breath. It was kind of hot. “We should’ve created a plan for how we were going to dodge them. Zaira, do you think we can use the atoms?”

“We should try to not be so reliant on them,” Zaira said.

It wasn’t long, but it probably was, when the landscape stretched into gravelly roads and distant farmlands on the sides. Eniola could practically feel the place screaming “I’m dated”. She knew what that meant. They were about to leave South Korea.

Eniola was right. A couple of miles later, they approached a huge metallic fence that stretched on for miles. Human guards, not androids, lined the fence and stood there on guard, of course. They were stoic and looked like they could fight. Eniola swallowed back a gulp and her heart kept palpitating.

“Clearly they’re not going to let us drive through,” Lucia mentioned.

Eniola turned back to her. “You think?”

Lucia gave a sly smile back. “What do we do?”

“Wait?” Jay said, before pressing a random button that does nothing for a while. Suddenly, a white shuttery platform moved from the ceiling and divided Eniola and Jay from the rest of them. Eniola widened her ears.

“What’s happening?” Zaira yelled from the other side.

“We’re hiding you,” Jay hissed, before meeting Eniola. “You’re small enough to hide under the dash. Do it now.”

Eniola followed and slipped from her seat and under the dash, almost bumping her head. This didn’t make her any more nervous. Paranoia shot at her and wrapped around her. Even if she hid, they’d find her.

The car moved forward for a little before it stopped. There were faint sounds of muffling and shuffling before she heard a window slide open.

“Do you have a permit to enter the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea?” a deep-voiced person says.

Please work, Eniola thought to herself repeatedly, as her heartbeat filled her ears erratically. She hugged her knees to her chest and pressed herself down even though she couldn’t anymore. Eniola prayed Jay would sweet-talk his way out of this.

“I have work to do and cargo to deliver,” Jay lied. “I need to do my job and make my deliveries.”

“Then show us your permit,” one of them cautioned. “Or turn back before we arrest you. Your choice. We are under oath to only allow those with a proper permit into this country, and we will not fail.”

Eniola couldn’t see, but Jay’s breathing became heavy. It wasn’t working. How was he going to stall against highly trained officers?

This was it. After this moment, Eniola’s life was officially over. She wondered what her prison cell would look like. Would they attach her toilet to the wall? Would she at least be able to share with Lucia so she wouldn’t be completely miserable?

“I don’t think using force is necessary, but I need to make a special pickup and I’m sure your leader won’t be too fond if you’ve all derailed precious cargo because I -forgot my permit one time,” he tried to convince. “I just ask that you let me inside.”

Eniola heard nothing but the loud footsteps and shuffling from outside the car. Her eyes widened in horror. It was over for them.

Then the world exploded into a glitch. Then it happened again.

But this time, an immense shock of blue light rippled and seared through the glitched air. Eniola coughed out a sigh. Wait? How was she moving in a glitch?

“Drive!” Zaira screamed from the back. Eniola sat up. She moved.

The world outside was stuck in technicolour pixels, but inside the car, they were unfrozen. They were suspended in time and Jay drove, just as ripples moved over the car like wavy air. It felt oddly calm during imminent danger.

“What’s wrong?” Lucia asked, frantically.

“I cloaked the car,” Zaira explained, as she winced. “They won’t see us.”

Theo draped his arms over her as he puffed. “Thank you!”

“No problem,” she replies. “There’s just so many things happening.”

“Well, it’s going to continue to be like that,” Jay says. “But now, hopefully, things should be seamless as we get to China.”

Eniola knew it wouldn’t be.