Sometimes Clarice wondered what life might have been had this all never happened.

What if life had simply… carried on, with no mutant attacks, no uprisings, no fucking apocalypse?

What then, she wondered?

Would she still be in jail, or would she still have found a way out?

Could she have taken a different path?

Lukas, Amy, and Norah were huddled up together in one seat, a tangle of arms and legs.

It had been over a month since they picked them up and the three teens (two teens and a child, really) were still violently unsure of them, distrusting, self-contained, preferring each other's company.

If all this had never happened, Clarice thought, they would still be with their families.

Happy.

Safe.

Norah whimpered in her sleep and Amy tightened her hold on her.

None of them had told them much about themselves even in five weeks beyond their names and powers. All of them seemed frightened and traumatised.

Clarice watched the aimless countryside pass by.

Life had to go on.