We are silent as we hear them talking, but I can hear Angel whimpering in fear. She already knows what will become of us. I'm too scared to make any noises. I hear the rumble of the engine as the van starts up and we're jerked as it starts in reverse. I press my ears against the wall, separating us from the rest of the van. I want to know what's going on.

"This is probably a mistake." The one I identify as Jared says. "They're probably not still alive."

"You don't know that." Kyle snaps at him.

"Since when did you care? Since Jodi turned out to not be alive?" Jared growls.

They don't say anything, and I try to make sense of the conversation, but I can't. I just stay there, leaning against the walling, not sitting back in case they started talking again. I want to know what exactly the want with us. But maybe I don't want to know at the same time. I keep my ears pressed against the wall, waiting for them to say more. But they don't and the van suddenly stops, shudders, and turns left and starts moving forward.

"Do you think they will kill us?" Angel suddenly whispers to me.

I keep my ear pressed up against the wall; there's no point in trying to look at her as it is pitch black in this van. "I don't know."

Angel whimpers. "I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared."

"I don't want to die. This is my first life."

"You chose to live here first?"

"Yes, they put me here and asked me where I wanted to go. They listed off all the available places and I chose to stay here. I shouldn't have."

I fall silent and realize we aren't whispering anymore. It doesn't matter; however, it's not likely to change their minds about us if they hear us. Their lack of conversation only makes me more suspicious.

"Well, there's not much that can be done about this situation can there?" I say then sigh. "I feel horrible though."

"Why?"

"That we've made them this desperate. I would have never chosen to come here if I knew just how dire their situation is."

"You pity them?" She sounds shocked.

"More like have sympathy for them. I want to help, especially since my host's uncle and cousin are among them. It'll never fix that I took her life away—indirectly but that's not the point—but maybe I can make things a little better." I realize how stupid I sound, realizing I can't change what's already been done. Our species has taken their world away from them. Stripped them of their belongings, and in some cases, their families. I can't do anything about that, but maybe I can help them. The desire to help overwhelms me and I have to choke back an emotional cry. I'm a little confused, as I don't see what helping them is going to do for me.

"You know that's crazy right? They'll just kill us. That's all humans do." She snaps at me.

"That's not true!" I snap back. "That's totally not true!"

"You're defending them?!"She sounds insulted and I scowl in the darkness.

"Yeah I guess I am."

We fall silent. I know that Angel is angry at me that I'm defending humans, considering the immense possibility that we'll die at the hands of these humans. I'm feeling a wave of anger at Angel, and sadness at this situation, for us and for the humans themselves. Tears well up in my eyes and spill over. I sigh internally; I still don't have a leash on these blasted emotions. I haven't had proper time to acclimate to them. Then I realize; my Healer would call to check up on me, not be able to contact me, freak out and call the Seekers. I wonder if that's happened yet. It's probably too soon.

I hear choked sounds coming from Angel and I realize she's crying brokenly, but trying to keep it to herself and barely succeeding. I can't reach out and comfort her; I can't see her. The humans remain silent, and I hear Kyle talking and another vehicle engine start and the van starts moving again. I hadn't noticed that it had stopped.

Kyle suddenly says. "Some of these Souls are strange."

"I know. That one reminds me of Wanda." Jared says in a low voice, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"She seems more sympathetic and less afraid though. When we first had Wanda, I doubt she'd defend us so easily like that one."

I pull my head away from the wall, scooting slightly away. For some reason, I do not want to hear anymore. I don't want to know if the conversation will lead to discussing our deaths, or where it will go. I sink against one of the side walls, leaning against a curving lump, which I can feel the vibration of the tire as it spins. I let my eyes slip closed…I'm exhausted…

I feel someone gripping my arm, waking me from my sleep. It's Travis, and he looks half asleep. We're camping now, as we have been doing while making our way to a city. I notice the sun is slowly starting to rise.

"We have to get moving before the sun gets too high in the sky." He tells me with a yawn. "I don't see why my dad has to have us moving twenty-four/seven."

I smile and sit up, pulling my legs out of my sleeping bag; I pull on a pair of pants over my sleeping shorts. "It's for safety reasons. I know he's a little paranoid, but I'm pretty sure paranoia is what's saved us all."

I shouldn't have said that. The atmosphere in the tiny, cramped space of the tent, slowly turning brighter and yellow with the sun, becomes tense. Travis looks away from me and mutters something, then backs out of the tent. I realize the biggest mistake of saying that; it reminds him of his mom. I remember my family too, but it is harder for Travis because he was a lot closer to his mom than anyone in the world. And now he's lost her to the parasites.

I quickly roll up my sleeping bag, stuff it into its pack and pull it out of the tent and throw it in the bed of the truck, where all of our things now are except for the tent, which Travis and Uncle Ryan are pulling down, quickly and neatly since they are now experts at this. We've been camping in a desert for some time, and I can already feel the sand under my bare feet starting to warm up. I open one of the truck doors, and pull myself in, slamming the door shut, and then I pull my shoes on. Travis jumps in next to me a few minutes later, and Ryan slides into the driver's seat. He starts the truck up and starts driving. It's silent as we drive but I prefer the silence, and relaxed driving, over his crazy, speed demon driving whenever we felt like we were threatened.

This is much better.

I'm woken up by a bright light spilling into the back of the van. I realize the doors have just been open, and Kyle, I think, tosses a bag of something into the back. He stares at us for a minute.

"Do you need to use the bathroom?" He asks bluntly.

I nod, unsure of my voice and he helps me climb out. I realize that we're in the middle of the high way, stopped at a scenic view where there are some bathrooms, luckily. I quickly hurry into the restroom, grateful that I can finally relieve myself. I'm quick about it, and I hurry back out and Kyle gets me into the back of the van quickly, and I catch a quick glance of the dark car parked behind, before the doors are slammed closed, bathing us into darkness again. I crawl back over to my spot, and just lie there, unable to fall back asleep. The van jerks and starts moving again. I feel the vibration of the tire underneath me, but it can't rock me into sleep this time. Instead, I just curl into a tight ball, and wait for another stop. It will probably be a while, and Angel is not saying anything. Either she's angry with me, or she's sleeping. I don't know, I still can't see. I crawl over to the wall of the van that I can hear the others through, and press my ear to it.

"How do you think Jeb is going to react to this? He was only expecting us to bring back one." Jared growls.

"I wasn't sure if she'd come willingly, so I brought her friend along too. Is that a problem?" Kyle snaps back.

"It could be, if she manages to escape. She didn't want to go, couldn't you tell? She could compromise our lives." Jared sounds even angrier.

"I already took that into account. I doubt she'll be able to do that." Kyle sounds so sure of himself.

"You do know what this could mean for all of us if this happens right? We'll all get implanted with those…things. And Wanda—she'll either get brainwashed or shipped to another planet. Do you want that?" Jared is yelling.

Kyle chuckles. "It's usually me getting angry. This is new."

"Don't change the subject."

"Calm yourself down. It's going to work out."

They both fall silent, and I scoot away from the wall. I don't understand what they're saying, but now I know that Angel is going to have to deal with this. If she's awake, then I'll have to tell her to be careful, I don't think she could hear that conversation, even with the yelling.

"Angel." I whisper. "Are you awake?"

There's silence for a few moments, but then she answers. "Yeah, why?"

"Whatever happens, you can't try to escape. You have to do what they say."

"Why are you saying this?"

"Because I listened to them talking." I'm keeping my voice in a whisper, so they can't hear. "You'll doom them all if you do that. And the soul that's been with them, you'll risk her too. I don't think it's a good idea."

"They're humans—all they do is kill our kind!" She spits at me, loudly this time.

"Enough of that already!" I shout, no longer caring if they hear us. "I'm sick of you saying that. I understand why you are so readily condemning them, but they deserve to live too! Don't you understand that?"

"I understand that you're insane that you're willing to defend them, when they'll probably kill us!"

"Shut up about that! They're living creatures—like us. Do you really want them dead? To have them murdered?" I am losing hold of this unbearable temper. "I don't—I know that's strange of our kind, but I don't want them dead, even if they want us dead. I understand why they feel that way. We've stolen everything they've ever had and loved from them. We've stolen their lives. We've stolen their families. I think we have to pay some sort of price—even if it means we die."

"You really believe that?" She sounds frightened and awestruck by my words.

"Yes, I do."

"I can see why you feel that way…but you aren't that well informed. How can you feel like this?"

"My host—she knew more than most hosts, I'm sure of it." I've finally got my temper under control. "She knew of this pocket of resistance, and they were trying to come here. Somehow, she didn't get there with her uncle and cousin. I have yet to see that memory. I'm still only getting little bits at a time."

"I see now. I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

We fall into silence. I don't have anything else to say, because I've run out of words, and I feel drained from that burst of anger, which I'm still unaccustomed to. And I realize that the humans probably think we're trying to trick them, but we didn't even mean to get so loud. I won't be shocked if whenever we stop again, the humans are angry at us, for our "lies". As if we need them to think that we're lying. We don't say anything more on the subject.

"I'm hungry." Angel whispers.

"Me too." I sigh. "I hope we can eat soon."

The van shudders to a stop and I hear one of the doors slam and footsteps crunching against the dirt, the doors fly open and I close my eyes against the bright light, and I hear the crackle of a bag and then the thump on the ground. I look at whoever has tossed it to us.

"Thank you." I whisper.

Jared nods, tosses a flashlight to me, then slams the doors closed and I listen to his footsteps back to the front of the van. I click the flash light on right as the van begins moving again. I shine it on the bag, which Angel quickly pulls open. There is a couple of wrapped sandwiches, and I take one. There's also a couple bottles of dark drinks labeled Powerade. And a couple of bags of chips. We break into the food, and eat and drink silently, the light on, bright enough to light both of our faces up. After we finish eating, we stuff our garbage into the bag, crumple it up, and toss it off to the side. Then we look at each other.

"I can't believe they're showing us kindness." Angel whispers, her eyes wide with surprise.

I shrug. "I can't either. But I'm grateful."

"I thought humans would always kill us, no exceptions."

"Where did you hear that?"

"From my Comforter when I asked her."

"Maybe she didn't know what to think." I shrug. "Clearly, they do make exceptions."

Angel's eyes suddenly feel with fear, and I know she still believes that we are going to die. I already know that I can't change her mind; she has no feelings about humans other than fear, unlike me. I am just a strange soul like that. If I was not like that, how would I have felt about being kidnapped? Would I have been like how Angel is now? A chill runs down my spine; I can't think of an answer. That's not something I should even be contemplating.

The road suddenly becomes extremely rough and then gets smooth. We ride in silence for a few hours, maybe more I can't tell. I've flicked the flashlight off, and the van keeps going, and then stops. It's an abrupt stop, and I don't know what's going on.

Suddenly the doors open, but I'm not blinded as it is dark outside. It's Jared again.

"You two can come sleep in the back seat. We're almost to our…place so we have no need to hide you back here." He says.

I don't move for a second, but then I do, but it's hard as my muscles cramp since I've been sitting down for a long time. Angel doesn't move after I drop out into the cold air, in the dirt. I look around. We're in some sort of desert, it's mostly flat, except for distant mountains.

"Where are we?"

Jared looks at me. "Arizona."

"How did we get here so fast?" I figure that I didn't have a good concept of time; but I didn't think I am that off.

"Um…you must have just slept well at one point? We didn't get here that fast." He raises and eyebrow.

I sigh and then look at Angel. "Are you coming?"

She shakes her head, hard. "No, you go ahead though, I'd rather sleep back here."

Jared looks frustrated but then slams the doors closed. He opens one of the back doors of the van and I crawl in. Kyle is asleep in the driver's seat. Jared climbs into the passenger seat.

"Sorry about Angel." I whisper, lying out, curling into a ball. "She's not so comfortable with humans. I'm not either…but I'm more trusting than she is."

"Why is that?" I can feel his eyes on me, but I don't look at him.

"She just is like all other Souls." It feels weird, speaking of my own species as if I'm not one of them. In reality, am I really?

"Oh." He falls silent, not saying anything more.

I roll to face the seat, and push my face against the fabric. I can smell something among the lines of peppermint and licorice. It is an interesting smell, but it actually helps me drift off into sleep.