“Remind me again why we’re meeting with Myra,” Deen said as the car slowed to a stop in front of a National Guard checkpoint.

Before we left Deen's house to go to Cindy's Fastfood Place where Myra would be waiting for us, we mapped our route to pass through as few checkpoints as possible. It took a bit of snooping around the internet, but social media came to the rescue. Snippet was full of posts of people complaining about the heavy traffic caused by the new checkpoints, mentioning their locations and even posting pictures, giving us enough information to pick the streets that didn't have those mobile testing trucks whatever where they pick random passersby to test.

Technically, people had the right to refuse those tests. It was the subject of a famous constitutional case that went all the way up to the Supreme Court—the ruling was that it didn’t violate the protection of the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, but it did encroach on the right to privacy that the American people cherished so much.

Now, while people could refuse without explaining themselves, it’d be pretty suspicious if someone did. They'd probably be placed on a suspects list or something, which was why we just avoided those places.

The checkpoint up ahead comprised of just a few Guardsmen passing mirrors below cars, rummaging through trunks, and a dog sniffing around for I had no idea what. They were probably looking for weapons because the 2Ms were heavily armed. I was kinda sure dogs couldn't smell an Adumbrae...or could they?

"You saw it on the news yesterday," I said while observing a black Labrador outside the window. "All the roads leading out of La Esperanza have testing sites set up. Assuming we don't get randomly selected, the BID had placed those huge scanners over the roads. I don't know how those things work, but they might detect us. If not you...definitely me. We need to ask Myra for Suppressors to leave the city safely. You already have one, would be great to have more."

"Are you any good at swimming?” said Deen.

“Wha—huh? Swimming? Like you plan to swim across the river instead of passing over the bridge? You can’t be serious.”

“Have I told you I used to be a varsity swimmer in high school?”

“No…” I replied, wondering if she had gone insane. “And I suck at swimming, so there's that.”

“I think I can pull you along with super strength"

"There are patrol boats. Even if we successfully get to the other side, we won't have our stuff, like clothes and all that. "

"We'll manage," Deen said with a shrug. "How about we put our things in a backpack, wrap it with plastic, and then—"

"We also won't have a car. Unless you plan to make an exodus to Las Vegas on foot?"

"Stealing a car is an option."

"Deen..." I evenly said. "I can't believe we're talking about stealing a car with soldiers around."

The Guardsman in front of our car stepped aside and gave us a thumbs up. Well, not exactly 'us', more like to Deen. She flashed her perfect smile at the stupidly grinning guy, giving him a wave to remember her by. He saluted her, which I think, was the appropriate reaction to Deen's beauty. As for me, I waved at the dog. It excitedly wagged its tail, drool dripping from its lolling tongue.

"Okay then," said Deen. "We're going to drive out of the city and we'll need Suppressors. Sooo...going back to my original question, why Myra? How about you tell me the real reason we're meeting with her?"

I raised my brow at her question, realizing that I forgot that she was really smart—after all, she did get into Cresthorne Law. Modifying my earlier plan, I switched to rattled, panicky Erind. "Wha-what do you mean? I, uh, we're going to ask her for Suppressors, that’s all. There’s nothing—"

"We should've asked Dario for that then," she sternly retorted. Shaking her head, she sighed and continued in a softer tone, "Erind, you know you can trust me. I won't get angry with you if you tell me the truth. Why are we meeting with Myra? If you want to talk about it later with her around, that's also fine with me."

"I...I'll tell you," I said, acting like I was forcing myself to admit a secret. I initially wanted to be the one to start this conversation, but now that Deen confronted me about it, I could tell she had sensed something didn’t add up. There was no point stretching this any longer. "Remember when I mentioned I was practicing fighting in my room?"

"Did you ask Myra to teach you how to fight?" Deen gave me a sidelong glance. "Was that why you went with her that time I attended the event at city hall?"

"Er, yes..." I replied. Impressive that she had quickly put two-and-two together. Wait, were her grades higher than mine? I’m going to be annoyed if they were. "I did. And I—"

"That means she knows that you're an...she knows about your secret."

"Deen, please don't take this the wrong way," I hastily said. And I truly hoped Deen’s feelings didn't get hurt that Myra knew I was an Adumbrae before she did—I hated dealing with people who were emotionally offended. This was why I wanted to be the one to open this topic, but here we were. I gave her a watered down version of the attack on my condo, explaining that Myra and Johann discovered I could quickly regenerate as we fought our way through the hordes of parasite monsters.

“So, that’s what happened while you guys were escaping.”

"I got injured and I couldn't hide my super healing," I said. "And I couldn't just stand by and pretend I was a normal human. I had to join in the fighting or they would've died. We all would've died."

She continued facing forward as she drove. Her face was neutral and her voice was relaxed so I couldn't tell if she was angry or not. "She knows you're Blanchette." It wasn't a question.

I nodded. "Like I told you, my powers activate as sort of a defense mechanism. I was gravely injured, and the...the...Adumbrae, um, I think I can say it sort of took over. I can't really recall much of what happened. But we managed to get out of that place alive because of my transformation."

"I see."

"I guess your next question is why I haven’t told you that Myra and Johann already knew about my secret?”

"I’m not asking that. I get why you didn't want to tell me, so I’m going to say right now, I’m not angry. And it’s your business who to tell that you're, um, how do I say...”

"An Adumbrae," I said, chuckling a bit. Deen gave me a quizzical stare. "What? No need to skirt around the topic. I'm an Adumbrae. That's it."

She scrunched her nose at me. "I'm just being considerate, you know?"

“My plan was to tell you later about it when we get to Cindy’s. I just wanted Myra to be there to help explain what happened during our escape from my condominium building.” I gave Deen an apologetic grin. “And I was sort of going to hide behind her if you did get angry at me.”

“Is she your mom?” Deen snickered as we turned into the street lined on both sides with restaurants. Cindy’s was a couple of blocks further.

“No, you are!” And we both laughed at that. Everything was handled perfectly. Moving on to buttering up Deen a smidgen. I wanted her to feel I really needed her. It wasn't like I absolutely did, but knowing her personality she'd be more committed to helping me if she thought I was heavily relying on her—'reliance', there it is again. Ugh. "So now, you, Myra, and Johann know about my secret…know that I'm dealt with a fate worse than death—"

"Erind, don't be like that."

"—but a silver lining in all this doom and gloom is that you're helping me keep my secret. Yes, Myra and Johann are like a big help, especially Johann during the tests at the police station. I'm sure you've figured out by now why we were panicking a bit back then with me taking a Suppressor. He also did some hocus pocus on that sensor thingy so it won't detect anything wrong with me. However, having you, my best friend, on my side, is something I'll never trade for anything in the world."

“How about a cure?” She muttered as turned left into Cindy’s parking. I questioningly tilted my head. She gave me a melancholic expression. “A cure for your condition as an…Adumbrae. You said you’ll never trade me for anything. I’m saying you can trade me for a cure.”

“There’s no cure though?” I weakly smiled. I wasn’t sure if this was an attempt at a joke to make the situation lighthearted, but it was getting awkward.

Deen reached out for my hand resting on the side of my seat. I pulled it out of the way, and she grabbed air. As she turned to me with a surprised face, I poked the side of her stomach. She yelped, jerking the steering wheel. “Erind! My god, I nearly scraped that van’s bumper.”

“Sorry! I’m really so sorry. I thought your Guardian Angel would tell you something.”

“It did tell me to drive straight,” she said. “And I was wondering why. I didn’t imagine you’d nearly cause us to crash.”

“Really sorry,” I repeated. “Everything got so serious and—and you were about to touch me again! I always tell you I’m not a touchy-feely person. Poking back is my defense mechanism against touching.”

Deen expertly fit the car into a rare empty parking space in one try. It reminded me of my hatred for parking—both for finding an empty spot in the busy downtown and the actual parking itself which I sucked at. She unbuckled her seat belt and opened her door. “I just thought you’d eventually get used to me if I kept doing it.”

“Are you training me like a dog?” I got out of the car and continued, “What was that again? Pavlov something? An experiment that had something to do with training a dog? Eh, whatever. I see Myra’s blue hair.”

I assumed there'd be many customers because the parking area was a bit packed and we wouldn’t be able to find a nice free spot to chat. It turned out that because it was freakin' humid and hot outside, everyone was inside the restaurant, basking in the cool air conditioning.

Myra, Deen, and I were protected from the sun by a red patio umbrella, but it still felt a bit stuffy with my clothes slowly sticking to my body because of perspiration. Pristine Deen didn't mention anything even though I spotted stray beads of sweat on the side of her neck. If she wasn't complaining, I wouldn't either.

Thankfully, Myra had ordered the Ice Cream Extravaganza on Cindy's menu—three gigantic scoops of different flavors covered with assorted sweet toppings. She bought it so the three of us could share while we suffered from the heat.

Three girls eating a giant bowl of ice cream? Nothing sketchy here, people. I suppose it was a tad bit suspicious a plain girl like me was hanging out with someone like Deen. If circumstances were otherwise, I wasn't sure if we'd become close—approximately friendly close.

"And I told Deen how I became an Adumbrae," I said after I caught Myra up to speed about Deen saving me last Saturday and everything that happened since, including our plan to go to Las Vegas. Myra's eyes widened. She opened her mouth, but I headed her off, talking with a raised voice, "Someday, when I find out the identity of the guy who attacked me at Sanders, I'll beat him up. Right, Deen?" I jokingly added. "Do I sound tough?" Deen chuckled in response.

Myra visibly relaxed when she comprehended I hadn't told Deen it was her who attacked me. "Whoever that guy was", she said. "It's going to be hard to find him with the 2Ms going into hiding. Dario's last message was for all of us to chill out and wait until he gets new information on what to do from the Professor. It does sound like good news that they're stopping their operations in this city with all the BID guys around, but it's actually not good at all since we have no idea where those bastards will go next."

"Speaking of Dario," I said. "You haven't told him that we're meeting?"

"Of course not."

"What'll be our story to Dario to ask for more Suppressors?" Deen asked. "Something that won't make him suspect we're using them to hide an actual..." She hesitantly glanced at me. I rolled my eyes. "Hide an actual Adumbrae," she completed.

I breathed a sigh of relief that Deen didn't try to argue for some bullshit like we should tell Dario—or Everett and Reo, for that matter—the truth and ask for his help. This was what assured me she was committed to being my full-fledged partner-in-crime.

"Oh, that's a piece of cake," Myra answered Deen. "We'll just say we need a few vials to move around the city. Maybe you have something to do at city hall." She snapped her fingers and triumphantly pointed at Deen. "Right, you can just make up a story you'd need to attend some important shizz at city hall again. Lots of BID guys are there, so you'll need Suppressors since it's a long event. He'll buy that explanation."

“That’ll work I guess," said Deen as she gingerly scooped a clump of ice cream. "How fast do you think we'll get it?"

"Not sure. I don't even know where Dario is right now, and how fast he'll be able to give you some. It's kind of my fault that he only left us with one vial each to use in case of emergency. You remember when I gave you all the extra Suppressors we had back at Melchor? Might take a few days to get extra vials from him."

"We're leaving for Vegas in a couple of days,” I said. “Very early morning of Wednesday to hopefully avoid the super heavy traffic."

"Then I don't think you'll be able to get some in time."

Deen put her hand to her mouth. “Oh no.”

"It's okay, Deen,” I said. “I wasn't planning for you or Myra to ask Dario for more blue vials for our trip. I was actually going to ask Myra for her Suppressor to safely get through the checkpoint when we leave La Esperanza. We’ll only need one each, and, Deen, you already have yours.”

“Yeah, sure. That works,” said Myra with a shrug. “I’ll just ask Dario for a replacement.”

“Don’t tell him you gave your Suppressor to me. Actually, don’t tell anyone, even Everett and Reo, anything about me and Deen until we’ve gone to Vegas, or longer than that if possible. I guess you can tell Johann if you want to since he’s with us, but I really don’t want Dario knowing about my movements.”

“Huh?” Myra paused mid-scoop. She let go of her spoon and leaned forward, speaking in a whisper. “Why? Is there something I should know?”

“It’s time to tell Deen about all the sketchy stuff you and Johann discovered regarding Dario, then I’ll share my concern with you.”