Having only gotten a couple hours in bed, I set out before sunrise behind the wheel of my truck. It wouldn't go on autopilot until I was on the highway, so I struggled a little to stay awake as I made my way through town. The old truck had been the reason I had been dragged into Sara's Arizona plans in the first place - she was originally going to pay thousands of dollars to have all the stuff shipped by tube, as neither she nor Ava had a license. When she saw the hulking old electric beast parked behind my house, though, she had dragooned me. This, sadly, is the price of having a truck - everyone asks you to help them move.
In Sara's case, I didn't mind in the slightest. In fact, I had been looking forwards to this trip for months. I'd never been to the southwest before. Originally, we had thought it would be just me and her, and had been excited for some romantic alone time. When Ava got added to the mix, I was a little chagrined, but I figured I'd have to meet her and make nice eventually if I wanted me and Sara to last.
Truthfully, it was good to get out of Pittsburgh. The little routine I had built since I had gotten resettled a year ago - occasional shifts at the lab to make ends meet, feverish remodeling of the house to meet my government deadlines - was not quite the utopia I had thought it would be when I had been pulled from the FEMA camp. The last week and a half of... well, frankly of wielding supernatural power - it had reminded me that the house, the job, they were supposed to be means to an end, not my whole life.
So what was the end supposed to be?
Sara was certainly part of the answer to that question. Honestly, falling in love had not been the plan - after years in the swamp and then in camps, I really hadn't felt worthy of love, let alone from such a smart and beautiful woman as her. Yet when I had met Sara - or rather, when she accidentally knocked me over with her bike at a farmers market and offered to buy me coffee to make up for it - I had been immediately charmed.
And, even though I'd never actually said it out loud, I loved her. She made me feel safe, and cared for. More than anything, I wanted her to think well of me, to trust me, to feel all the quiet dedication I felt for her. To grow together. And now, with my newfound ability, I could perhaps help her be her best self - to iron out the little anxieties and insecurities that clearly held her back from loving life.
My introspection was broken by a text.
> Do you think you'd be interested in trying a BJ when you get back?
And then, of course, there was Kate. She hadn't even been my first choice to test on. God, what if Gretchen
had
been in the day I went to test on her? Experimentation certainly would have been much less gratifying. Lord knows I wouldn't be brainwashing
her
into sucking me off. Really, even if my entanglement with Kate had been unplanned, it was hard to have regrets. Beyond the sex, Kate was just... fun. The whole thing felt easy - no stakes, no stress.
Perhaps it was Kate's total lack of jealousy that was so appealing - she'd taken it as completely natural that I was involved with Sara as well. Somehow though, I doubted Sara would exhibit the same level of acceptance of my new... polyamorous tendencies. As I thought about Sara's reaction, I felt a strange sensation, a sort of hole where my shame used to be. I was soon distracted by images of the future - Kate had obliquely expressed interest in a threesome with Sara a couple nights ago. Who knew how far I'd have to push to give Sara that same interest?
Finally on the interstate, I turned on autopilot and shut my eyes, seeking to escape such fantasies, but they followed me into my dreams.
* * * * *
The drive took about twenty hours, all told. The conditions of the interstate had grown much worse since I'd last driven so far, but they were also quite empty - my only competitors for space were the hulking auto-trucks, their boxy frames thankfully restricted to the far left lane. Even these grew more sparse as I turned south, the fields of the Amish giving way to the barren, windswept plains of Indiana. I slept for as much time as I could, at first, but around the time the truck crossed the dying Mississippi basin, I didn't have any sleep left in me. After another two hours - the Missouri desert being quite boring indeed, and realizing my phone didn't have enough service to stream music - I stopped at a CVS and bought a sleeping pill to knock myself out again.
It was night again when I finally got to Sara's hometown. I lifted the driver seat from its reclined position to see ranks of solar panels extending to the horizon, looking in the dim light of the moon like the glittering purple scales of some enormous southwestern lizard. I texted ahead to say I was close as the truck took the offramp and handed control back to me. The town itself was busier than I thought it'd be. Scores of people were milling around a bar and a diner, illuminated by dim aquamarine streetlights, all of them wearing a strange sort of white jumpsuit with a power company logo on the back. Everyone was drinking and carousing, and turned to cheer in my direction as I drove past, leaving me a little nonplussed.
Ten minutes later, I was pulling up into the half-burnt subdivision that contained the address I'd been given. I parked and reached for my phone to announce my arrival, but before I could I heard a rap on my window and turned to see Sara beaming at me in the moonlight.
"Sara!!" I rolled the window down and immediately her lips were wrapped around mine. I savored the kiss for a long moment until she crossed her arms behind my neck and pulled slightly away.
"I missed you so much! How was the drive? Are you super tired?"
"Actually, I kinda slept almost the whole time."
"That's - uh, that's good. I was wondering - uh - would you like - " I spilled out of the truck while she talked, finding my legs to be wobbly after a whole day sitting. Sara caught me before I took a serious spill.
"Actually, nevermind. Why don't we go on a walk, get you some fresh air? Ava's supposed to be back soon - maybe we can avoid her."
"Sure, though I actually was kind of looking forward to meeting her."
Sara shot me a look I couldn't interpret. I was mostly interested to see if Ava was indeed the nasty little hobgoblin Sara had made her out to be on our calls over the last week, but my curiosity would keep. We took a brief trip inside the house to drop off my bags before steeping out into the cool night air.
"You can really see the stars down here." I said, looking up in wonder.
"No light pollution, I guess. Basically nobody lives here any more." She gestured to the other houses in the development. Besides the house we had just emerged from, only one other house on the cul-de-sac was intact. Most of the others had been burnt, and one seemed like it had just collapsed. The blackened walls and charred timber beams stood out against the bright backdrop of the milky way as we walked past. Even in the hot night air, I felt a shiver, and reached for Sara's hand just as she reached for mine.
"What happened?" I asked, not needing to gesture.
"Oh, I don't really know. Last time I was here, before my parents disowned me, everything was... intact." A hint of sadness crept into her voice and she paused before continuing. "Ava says they were burned down by people for the insurance money, but that feels just like her... issues talking."
"Where
is
your sister, anyway?" I asked, before I could stop myself.
"Oh, out whoring in town. She found some girl she likes who works for the utility." I could somehow feel Sara's eyes rolling in the darkness.
We walked in the quiet for a minute, hand in hand, before I was dragged off the road and up a little trail.