Human vehicles were nothing new to Trinitite. During her life in the Crossroads Fleet, she often saw one or two to an island, although climate and conflict had left none of them in working condition. Even from shore, destroyed cities she'd seen were littered with them, in states that ranged from seemingly untouched to crushed, burned-out hulks.

Witnessing them in motion now was one of the few rewarding parts of her experience. Not as impressive as aircraft, but interesting nonetheless. Now that she was seated inside one, Trinitite couldn't help but investigate.

The vehicle's cockpit was filled with the low buzz of a radio, loud enough Trinitite could make out the words, but said in a coded manner that she couldn't decipher. If the physical interior wasn't so interesting, it probably would have bothered her. A dark material The Abyssal didn't recognize covered the majority of the vehicle's surfaces, dull and rigid. She had to resist tapping it and drawing attention to herself.

"You know," The driver started, redirecting Trinitite's attention away from the vehicle. "It's pretty dangerous to walk alone at this time of night."

His uniform sported a bright yellow patch, a man's face, white as her own skin, surrounded by the words 'WASHINGTON STATE PATROL.' Several tools were attached to his belt, while a fabric strap secured him into his seat. The Abyssal searched for her own as she mulled over the Driver's statement.

"The woods?" She asked, remembering the screaming monster that had attacked her earlier.

"Yes, it can be dangerous out there." The man replied, confirming Trinitite's suspicions. "But around here it's not just wild animals you have to worry about."

With a click, Trinitite secured herself in the vehicle's cockpit. Like he'd been waiting for her to do so, the vehicle started moving almost immediately afterwards.

"What else is there?"

The Driver was silent for a moment, allowing the disguised Wo to focus on the road around her. The vehicle spun back to its southbound route, pushing Trinitite into her chair as it accelerated. By the time the vehicle had reached a constant speed, it was traveling at a pace that put her previous progress to shame. They must be making a solid thirty knots! Not quite as fast as she could make on the water, but unlike then, she was completely invisible to enemy aircraft! She sat, watching the trees zoom by while the driver put his thoughts together.

"Say, kid…" The Driver's voice interrupted Trinitite's strategizing. "What's your name?"

"Huh?" Trinitite jerked, yanking her eyes from the passing scenery. "Uhh…"

What should her name be? She couldn't just use Trinitite, as using a ship's name on a human might raise suspicion. What was a human name?

"Elizabeth!" She blurted out, saying it a little faster than she meant to.

"Well, Elizabeth, you ever been to a big city?"

Trinitite shook her head. That was technically a lie as well, but she doubted he'd consider the war-torn ruins of Manilla and Singapore 'cities'.

"Well, I don't know where you're from, but when you get enough people together, some of them are bound to be bad apples."

What did that mean? Trinitite stayed quiet, pretending to understand the term. Her driver must not have bought it, however, as he clarified.

"Look, with so many people you're going to see a lot of… differences in opinion." The man stated, flicking a lever before wheeling the car starboard. "Some folks, for example, think it would be okay to take advantage of an isolated women at four o-clock in the morning."

"Take advantage of?" Trinitite couldn't stop herself. That certainly sounded ominous.

"Yes." He replied, bringing the vehicle to a stop in front of some multicolored lights. "At this time of day, there's less people to see and call folks like me to help, so this is the best time for muggers, rapists, and murderers to do their deed and get away with it."

Trinitite shivered. She knew what the last term was, at least. Her thoughts drifted back to when she was changing clothes, both in the woods and the warehouse. The real Elizabeth's hands as she measured and cataloged every inch of Trinitite's body. The exposure she felt, beyond even practical concerns. Maybe she didn't really want to know what 'take advantage of' meant.

Her thoughts didn't stop there, though. Some humans just ambush random people in the street and kill them? Why? How did that get them money? It wasn't a job like fisherman or manager, was it? No, else members of this 'highway patrol' fleet wouldn't be paid to stop them. Like among the Abyssal fleets, murderer was just a term for someone, not one of these 'jobs' she'd heard about. Now that she had spent some time around humans, the opinions of other Princesses and their fleets didn't seem too accurate, but she wasn't surprised to learn that they were correct about some humans.

It wasn't a practical concern for her, though. She, as an aircraft carrier, outclassed any human in a fight, whether it came to strength, durability, or firepower, and every human she'd encountered so far knew it. Unless the Abyssal let a human strap explosives to her hull, or unless they had a way to deliver The Fire by hand, there wasn't anything one could actually do to harm her.

But The Driver didn't know she was an abyssal, and neither would an attacker. While a human would-be murderer wouldn't last long against Trinitite in a fight, if she was discovered this deep in human territory she'd be just as outmatched. She hadn't thought of herself as vulnerable, especially with uncomfortable ground under her feat instead of a long, painful drop back into the Abyss. However, by walking in darkness, alone, along a road where she didn't look like she was hiding anything, she'd drawn attention to herself by appearing to be just that. Making herself an obvious target was about as far from being inconspicuous as possible.

"Oh…" She replied weekly, followed by a more certain "Thank you."

"Just doing my job." He recited, and Trinitite had to suppress a giggle. If this 'Highway Patrol' actually knew what she was, they certainly wouldn't be giving her a ride. She hadn't even applied the human camouflage yet!

The car started moving again, turning to a ramp leading onto the larger road. Acceleration returned, shoving Trinitite further into her chair as they matched the speed of other cars on the road. The vehicle reached thirty knots. Fourty. Fifty knots, and the other vehicles were still passing them. What was this speed?

"Elizabeth?"

Of course, if one of her aircraft was moving this slow, it would fall out of the sky. She knew how fast a vehicle could move, but despite that it was her in the cockpit, this time. It was… kind of exciting. The noise of the tires on the asphalt was ever present, rising and falling as nearby vehicles came and went. The ground was a blur, passing by too quickly for Trinitite to determine its texture.

"Ma'am?"

"Huh?" Had the Driver been trying to talk to her? Trinitite's attention flipped back to the man, trying to ignore the speed they were hurling themselves at.

"It's not often I see someone who hasn't ridden on a highway before." He stated, sparing some attention from the road to cast Trinitite a questioning glance "If you don't mind me asking, Where are you from?"

Where are you from?

Where are you from?

What was she supposed to say to that? She knew that, thanks to The Fire, humans couldn't live at Bikini for more than a few months, so she couldn't just tell a half-truth and move on. However, making something up on the spot would be too obvious!

"The… Marshals?"

"Ah." Did he buy it? It was… technically true. "Forgive me for saying this, but you don't look like much of an Islander."

She didn't? What did an islander actually look like? She hadn't really seen any humans personally, before the whole battle at Bikini. Still, the Driver needed some kind of answer, so Trinitite found herself taking a risk.

"My mom's from The East Coast."

Humans had Mothers, right?

"Ah, makes sense." Apparently so, as the Driver continued. "There's a lot of people like that over there." His face went blank, and he shook his head. "Or, there was."

"Yeah." Trinitite replied flatly. Unless one of the other Princesses in the Marshalls were hiding some humans (and considering how willingly they betrayed her Mother, that felt unlikely), they were either Abyssal held or completely abandoned.

"I won't pry into how you got out when the shooting started," The Driver finally stated, interrupting a silence that had settled between the two. "But it must have been hard, especially with that skin of yours."

Trinitite seized up, her crew scrambling for their battle stations. Had the lighting had failed to conceal her skin? Was she exposed?

No. If he'd actually recognized her as an abyssal, he wouldn't have invited her aboard. Abyssal-like skin must not have been unheard of among regular humans, then. Thank the deep her crew hadn't reactivated the lights in her island in their brief panic.

"It was, but-" Trinitite stumbled, not entirely sure how to continue. "But I'm still here, right? As long as I'm alive, I can make things better." Surprisingly, saying that came… easier than Trinitite had thought.

"That's a good sentiment, but not always accurate." The driver replied, shaking his head without looking away from the road. "You can't do everything alone. When you get to Seattle, I'd suggest getting in contact with one of the refugee programs there. With the refugee crisis how it is, you might have to wait a while before anyone can help you, but any library in Seattle's got a program or two to help people find a job. The fact you took my offer makes me think you already know this, but there's no shame in accepting help here and there."

Find a job? Why would she need help doing that? The way Elizabeth described it made it seem fairly straight forward. She'd consider it further once she'd gotten a better idea of the scale of her search for her Princess, but she doubted admitting herself into any system the navy could track was a good idea. The driver's advice left another question she couldn't ignore, though.

"The Libraries? Aren't they just for books?" Between the technical manuals she'd summoned with and her loot from the warehouse, Her own library was overfilled. Trinitite wasn't sure she'd find time to read them all.

He actually laughed at that. "I don't know how to explain it." He stated, pulling the vehicle onto a pathway that lead off the road. "Just give one a look, and I think you'll understand."

She wasn't sure what to say about that. A non-committal "Hmm" seemed safe enough.

As the vehicle drove into another human town Trinitite supposed was Olympia, the Abyssal spared a glance outside. Even at this time of day, the town was highlighted by frequent lights, a far call from the dark ruins the Abyssal would occasionally spot when cruising through islands. It did pose a problem, though. The Driver had been fooled by her disguise, but although this town seemed as empty as Shelton the bright lights were going to make her unusual skin stand out more than normal. The sooner she could get that fixed, the better, but doing so in one of these 'motels' could be an issue.

"And… there's one." The driver stated, and this time Trinititie wasn't surprised. "I think this one has 24-hour check in, as well."

"Oh." She replied, feigning interest in the building before them. "It seems nice."

"Motels rarely are, but any port in a storm, right?" He stated, bringing the vehicle to a halt between several other vehicles. "Get some sleep. You've still got a lot of walking ahead of you."

"A lot less, now." Trinitite added, nodding as she undid her harness. "Again, thank you."

At his nod, The Abyssal took her leave of the vehicle, a gentle push sending the door slamming back shut. She could feel the man's eyes boring into the back of her island as she made her way to the entrance, the lights illuminated her skin perhaps too well, and she wasn't sure exactly where she was on a chart anymore, but that ride had certainly solved more problems than it had created.

"Good morning!"

Trinitite nodded to the woman that greeted her when she entered the building, but didn't actually respond. She'd be leaving once the Highway Patrol vehicle did, anyways.

"We have two rooms open… but… hello?"

Trinitite turned back to the woman, nodding to the receptionist and looking back at the parked vehicles in front of the building. It already seemed like the driver was withdrawing, leaving her alone in the motel.

"Uhh… ma'am?"

"Sorry." Trinitite said, not quite looking at the worker. "I don't have any money."

Without waiting for a reply, she opened the door to the motel again and retreated. No point in dealing with people at the moment. Now, she needed to get somewhere she could change again…

Her paint-and-chip detail needed to make up for exacerbating The Tobasco Incident. They couldn't fail at applying the human camouflage as much as they did with cleaning her clothes, right?

Well, they could, but Trinitite had brought plenty. Now, there seemed to be a fairly large grove of trees just across the road. Was it thick enough to hide in? Once again, the Abyssal walked into the night, heeding the Driver's advice by staying away from the roads, this time. Once day came, she'd finish her camouflage, figure out where in Olympia the Highway Patrol had dropped her, and make the rest of the journey to Seattle. She just had to wait.

As the Abyssal sat, city lights filtering through the trees around her, she found her eyelids starting to fall. Physically, she wasn't exhausted, but as she sat, purposefully ignoring the dangers and worries that surrounded her, she found the idea of sleep irresistible. The carrier deserved a little nap, right? She'd made it this far.

Trinitite never checked prices of motels in Olympia, Washington, but I did.

Man, motels are expensive.

Anyways, have a chapter! In some ways I had to make things shorter than I wanted (there were less radio shenanigans than I wanted, but I didn't know how to fit them in), but overall I think I have a good length. I'm no longer trying to push the story forwards, though, as by this point I can get to "Wo looking for a job" naturally, and her journey there should provide plenty of opportunities for the shenanigans I set out to write in this story.

You know, now that I think of it, I can probably point to all the CVB-44 style SIs that have been popping up on SB as one of my big inspirations for this story. Instead of a human/shipgirl trying to survive in abyssal-infested wilderness, its an abyssal trying to survive in human-infested territory. Anyways, I shouldn't ramble too much (it would be terrible if a chapter got delayed by an author's note), so I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!

Next chapter's gonna be another interlude, the nature of which should be fairly easy to guess.