Contains parts of the Host. I do not own.

Hey sorry I decided to change the end a little.

Chapter 10

Turned

I pull into a small strip mall. A pizza place sits on the far end. Only two cars are in the parking lot.

"Cool pizza!" Kasher shouts.

"Piza" Rosie repeats. Kasher moves to open the van door.

"Wait everyone" I say. He stops and looks at me.

"Iri what is going on with you?" Ginny asks me.

"I think I know how to find Melanie" I tell her smiling. Her eyebrows come together in confusion.

"How?" she asks.

"Jared showed me a memory. They're close Gigi"

"What do you want to do?"

"I dont know"

"Do you want to find her?" she ask me. I look out the car window at the mountains.

"I know Jared does"

"I'm not asking him. I'm asking you" she then says.

"Can we eat first?" Kasher asks cutting in. I smile back at him.

"Sure but hold on" I say opening the car door.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asks me walking out.

"We need to blend in" I tell her. I open the back of the van. The kids turn to see what I am doing.

There are four bags laying on the floor. I open one and pull out a white pair of pants.

"How did you get these?" Ginny asks pulling out a smaller white shirt.

"I was a Seeker" I tell her taking a white buton down shirt and suit jacket, white of course.

"You have Seeker clothes" Portia asks looking in the bags.

"Just in case. And since i am driving a Seeker car I need to look like one. Ginny here will pretend to be one too. Don't worry I have something for you too" I look around for any sign of on lookers.

I pull off my shirt and slide on the button down. I catch Portia and Penney eyeing me and i smile at them. Even Ginny tries to hide her glances. She then takes out a pair of womens pants and undresses too. Portia and Penney turn Kasher around and cover his eyes laughing. I pull the pants on and tuck in the shirt. It is too hot to be wearing pants, long sleeved shirt and jascket but that is how Seekers dress.

I open a different bag and dig through it. I find the small silver cases i was looking for. Ginny looks around.

"How will we explain four human kids?" she asks. I smile at her.

"Don't worry we have these" I say opening one of the cases.

"Contacts" Penney says.

"Soul looking contacts" I correct her.

"How did you get your hands of soul looking contacts?" Ginny asks me. I walk over to the side of the van and open the door. Penney sits closer. I carefully open the case. I hand her the case and she tilts her head back. I gently open her eys wide and slipe the contact in. She blinks the eye and turns to Kasher. He jumps a little.

"One of few benefits of beign a Seeker. They were found on a raid of a possible rebel cell hideout. No one was there but they left these in a hurry. I snatched them after" I say as I slide the other into her eye. I reach for a flashlight I keep in the car and shine it her eyes.

"They reflect"

"Cool. Me next" Portia says coming to the front.

"You're one strange soul." Kasher tells me. I smile and place the contacts in her eyes.

"I know" I say laughing. I toss the other case to Ginny who pulls Kasher towards her. He hesitates at first but then throws his head back.

"Okay Rosie your turn"

"Eyes" she says and signs.

"Yes Rosie eyes" I tell her. She doesn't fuss as I place the contact in her eye.

"This is so cool." Portia says looking in the rearview mirror.

"Now we can eat" I say as I place the other contact in her eye. She giggles. I pick her up from the carseat and shut the doors.

"Hello Seekers"

"Hello"

"Who are your guests?"

"Well this is my hosts biological daughter. As for these three they expressed in school they wanted to be Seekers. So the teacher asked if we wouldn't mind taking them out."

"How nice"

"It got late and they were hungry" Ginny

"It would be my pleasure to serve future Seekers"

"Thank you"

We sit down for a half an hour enjoying the extra large pepperoni pizza. Kasher eats so much Ginny thought he was going to explode. After we finished I took the kids back to the car.

"No one open the door except for us" I tell Portia. She nods and locks the door after I close it. Ginny and I walk to the next building which is a small convenience store.

The electric bell rang, announcing another visitor to the convenience store. I started guiltily and ducked my head behind the shelf of goods we were examining.

Stop acting like a criminal, Jared advised.

I'm not acting, I replied tersely. Ginny sensed my nervousness.

The palms of my hands felt cold under a thin sheen of sweat, though the small room was quite hot. The wide windows let in too much sun for the loud and laboring air-conditioning unit to keep up.

Which one? I demanded.

The bigger one, he told me.

I grabbed six of the larger pack of the two available, a canvas sling that looked well able to hold more than I could carry. Then I walked around the corner to where the bottled water was shelved.

We can carry three gallons, he decided. The kids can carry their own except Rosie. That gives us three days to find them.

I took a deep breath, trying to tell myself that I wasn't going along with this. My awkward attempt to lie to myself was so pathetic that Jared didn't pay any attention to it, felt no worry at all. It must be too late for me, as the Seeker had warned.

Too late? I wish! Jared grumbled. I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. I can't even raise my hand! His thought was a moan of frustration.

I looked down at my hand, resting against my thigh rather than reaching for the water as he wanted to do so badly. I could feel his impatience, his almost desperate desire to be on the move. On the run again, just as if my existence were no more than a short interruption, a wasted season now behind him.

He gave the mental equivalent of a snort at that, and then he was back to business. C'mon, he urged me. Let's get going! It will be dark soon.

With a sigh, I pulled the largest shrink-wrapped flat of water bottles from the shelf. I pointed to the water and Ginny grabbed one too.

"You're kidding me!" she exclaimed aloud.

"Excuse me?" a short, stooped man, the other customer, asked from the end of the aisle.

"Heavier than she thought"

"Would you like some help Seeker?" he offered.

"No, no," she answered hastily. "I'll just take a smaller one."

"Okay"

Ginny struggled with the flat of water, wondering how far she could possibly be expected to carry it. I managed to get it to the front register. With great relief, I edged its weight onto the counter. I put the bag on top of the water, and then added a box of granola bars, a roll of doughnuts, and a bag of chips from the closest display.

Water is way more important than food in the desert, and we can only carry so much-

The kids will get hungry, I interrupted. And these are light.

They just ate. It's your back, I guess, he said grudgingly, and then he ordered, Get a map.

I placed the one he wanted, a topographical map of the county, on the counter with the rest. It was no more than a prop in his charade.

The cashier, a white-haired man with a ready smile, scanned the bar codes.

"Doing some hiking?" he asked pleasantly.

"The mountain is very beautiful."

"The trailhead is just up that -" he said, starting to gesture.

"I'll find it," I promised quickly, pulling the heavy, badly balanced load back off the counter.

"Head down before it gets dark, son. You don't want to get lost."

"I will."

Jared was thinking sulfurous thoughts about the kind old man.

He was being nice. He's sincerely concerned about my welfare, I reminded him.

I hate when they call me son. You're all very creepy, he told me acidly. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to talk to strangers?

I felt a deep tug of guilt as I answered. There are no strangers among my kind.

I can't get used to not paying for things, he said, changing the subject. What's the point of scanning them?

Inventory, of course. Is he supposed to remember everything we took when he needs to order more? Besides, what's the point of money when everyone is perfectly honest? I paused, feeling the guilt again so strongly that it was an actual pain. Everyone but me, of course.

Jared shied away from my feelings, worried by the depth of them, worried that I might change my mind. Instead he focused on his raging desire to be away from here, to be moving toward his objective. His anxiety leaked through to me, and I walked faster.

We carried the stacks to the car and set them on the ground beside the passenger door. Ginny nudged my side twitching her eyes to a woman staring at us. I smiled and tapped on the window of the car. Kasher jumps into the driver seat and unlocks the doors.

"What's that for?" Kasher asks seeing me and Ginny load the water.

"Jared told Iri how to find Melanie" Ginny tells him.

"And you believe him?" he then asks. I ignore his comment and point to the back seat. He huffs and jumps to the back.

I climbed into my seat and grabbed the bag of potato chips.

Look at the map, he said. Wait till she's out of sight.

No one is watching us, I promised him. But, with a sigh, I unfolded the map and ate with one hand. It was probably a good idea to have some sense of where we were headed.

Where are we headed? I asked him. We've found the starting point, so what now?

Look around, he commanded. If we can't see it here, we'll try the south side of the peak.

See what?

He placed the memorized image before me: a ragged zigzagging line, four tight switchbacks, the fifth point strangely blunt, like it was broken. Now I saw it as I should, a jagged range of four pointed mountain peaks with the broken-looking fifth...

I scanned the skyline, east to west across the northern horizon. It was so easy it felt false, as though I'd made the image up only after seeing the mountain silhouette that created the northeast line of the horizon.

That's it, Jared almost sang in his excitement. Let's go! He wanted me to be out of the car, on my feet, moving.

I shook my head, bending over the map again. The mountain ridge was so far in the distance I couldn't guess at the miles between us and it. There was no way I was walking out of this parking lot and into the empty desert unless I had no other option.

"Sips" Rosie cries out. I hand the bag to her and she giggles. Her two front teeth are missing so she can't say things with 'ch'.

Let's be rational, I suggested, tracing my finger along a thin ribbon on the map, an unnamed road that connected to the freeway a few miles east and then continued in the general direction of the range.

Sure, he agreed complacently. The faster the better.

"Can I make a suggestion here guys?" Penney asks from the back. Ginny and I look at each other then back to her. She shifts a little with the attention on her.

"What about we go home and get some sleep. We can come early in the morning. And we can pack our things, saying if we do find them"

"She's right Jared. Iri what do you think?" Ginny asks us.

I guess an early start makes sense.

"Jared thinks she is right too. An early start makes sense"

"Alright let's go home then" Ginny tells me.

I will find you Mel, I promise.

We will find her. No matter what.