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“We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Hey, don’t act like you weren’t against Elias as much as I was.”

“Yeah, I was against it because I don’t want him in our lives, believe it or not. I didn’t ask Beta to make him mad and then find some shady lead,” Hershey said, keeping his hands steady on the wheel as he spoke to Matrix in the backseat. “I mean the whole thing is weird.”

Beta ignored their comments and instead focused on making sure Hershey was staying on the road. They were all knocked to the side when Hershey tried to switch lanes, somehow more bruised with Hershey driving than when the Syncs attacked them.

Beta, Hershey, and Matrix were in their new car on their way to Topeka, Kansas and Beta was teaching Hershey how to drive.

It wasn’t going so well.

“I said turn left!”

“Your left or my left?”

“We’ve the same left mate!”

All the anxiety was causing an even heavier heaviness in the car, adding to the weight brought on by the search for Elias.

He wasn’t easy to track. The text message Beta got was the only lead they had, but still, Hershey was skeptical.

“Why can’t you look at this?” Hershey had asked, taking the phone from Beta.

“Because if I know, then Elias will know,” Beta explained as Matrix looked over Hershey’s shoulder.

“Beta I have to be honest this seems a bit risky,” the Nat admitted. “Are you sure we should be going this?”

“Do you have a better option?” Matrix said, surprising not only Beta but also Hershey.

“Matrix,” Hershey said, his voice lower. “Maybe you didn’t hear me before but this is dangerous.”

“No,” Matrix said, plucking the phone from Hershey. “Elias is dangerous. I am not taking any chance on him. We’re doing this.”

And that was that. Beta agreed, and Hershey still didn’t. But when Beta had looked at him, he felt as if some part of Hershey was boiling. Matrix told Beta that they had never fought before because they had no need to, but he could tell there was some new sort of tension there now.

“Beta which way am I going?” Hershey asked, snapping Beta out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, head—” As Beta’s head turned toward the street, a pedestrian immediately came into his vision. “Stop!” he yelled and Hershey’s foot slammed on the breaks.

The car behind them was able to stop in time, but the car behind that wasn’t so lucky. “Jesus Beta,” Matrix said, hitting his head on the back of his seat. But Beta ignored him, staring through the windshield at the familiar face.

His mother. Elias. Her head was bleeding, hands outstretched and red.

Beta blinked, knowing it wasn’t real but his eyes not getting the memo. “Don’t do it, Beta,” Elias said, putting his hands on the car, smearing blood on the hood. “You don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

“Beta!” Beta turned to Hershey, and suddenly a stimulating shiver ran down his spine and washed away the illusion. When his name came out of his friend’s mouth, Beta turned back to the road and saw nothing; no blood or mother in sight.

“K-Keep driving,” Beta instructed, and Hershey didn’t hesitate to go before the police came.

Beta looked out the window at the blue and grey house, waiting for a car to pass before speaking. “Is this it?” he asked.

“That’s the number, at least,” Matrix confirmed.

Hershey squinted. “I would’ve expected it to be more…ominous?”

Matrix rolled his eyes. “Like I told you,” he said. “It’s perfectly safe.”

“That is not what you said—”

“Excuse me!”

The three boys turned to a neighbor watering her flowers across the street, a sun’s ray streaming over her chest, bathing her in sunlight. “Um, are you lost?” she asked, tilting her sun hat backward.

“Oh no, we’re just making sure we have the right house,” Hershey answered.

“Oh, are you looking for Richard then?” she asked, the hose tilting and spraying the street in her distraction.

“Um…yes we are,” Beta presumed, pursing his lips.

“Well then you’ve got the right house!” she said. “Just park in the driveway, he doesn’t mind.”

“Cheers!” Beta called, and the neighbor went back to gardening, hitting the actual plants this time.

They drove into the driveway next to the house and got out of the car, shutting the doors in unison. Hershey went over and peeked into the garage’s window. Beta watched him from the back and yet again, he got that tingly feeling in the back of his neck.

Matrix watched Beta watch Hershey watch the garage and scratched his head. “What’re you doing?”

“Nothing,” Beta and Hershey said in unison. Hershey looked at Beta and Beta looked back. “Um,” Hershey went on. “There are two cars in the garage. He’s probably married, or has a partner at the least.”

“Noted,” Beta said. He turned and looked at the gate blocking off the view of part of the house. “Let’s go around front.”

They walked back around the house and its carefully cut shrubbery. Up the stressed steps, they went in a single-file line while Beta admired the two spray-painted rocking chairs facing each other on the front porch. A painting of a winter landscape hung on the wall to the right of the chipped white door. There was a doormat with a picture of autumn leaves saying: Welcome Home.

“I wished I lived here,” Beta whispered.

Matrix leaned in. “What?”

“What? Nothing. Sorry. Hey, it’s a doorbell.” Beta pressed the smooth button and they could hear the chimes singing inside the home. The three waited outside patiently, hearing footsteps on the other side. Finally, the door creaked before it opened.

A middle-aged Asian man came out, eyes so wide in fresh wonder you could get lost in them. His tight white shirt squeezed as he stretched out, grabbing onto the door’s frame with his unbelievably smooth-looking hands. They noticed the grey Rolex watch on his left wrist, time ticking away in the navy-blue ocean like time left in this moment. Eyes fell down to his waist, seeing the sharp black contrast of his lower half. The man wore a jet-black kilt with ankle-high boots, both accessorized with clean-cut silver buttons and chains that didn’t need to be there, but were because they wanted to. His hair’s darkness aligned well with the paleness of his skin, and it swooshed sideways into a structured heap on his head.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the man spoke up and showed off his kind face; the dimples threw Matrix off completely. “I thought you were the pizza guy.”

“I mean…we could…be your pizza…guy,” Matrix said with a straight face surprisingly, although he was really just trying to keep himself from staring at the skirt. Richard tilted his head, and before anything else could be said Matrix went on. “I mean you look very…nice in the…thing you’re wearing.” He scratched his neck.

Richard looked down at himself, all of a sudden shy. “I’m not married to it.” He cleared his throat. “I was trying it on for my wife—”

“Rich! Pizza?!” a voice called from within the house, and they saw another body emerge.

A middle-aged Asian woman came up now, stunning them back to speechlessness. Her glasses were thick in prescription, but once she ripped them off it was as if a whole new side of her was shown. Her eyes seemed sure about things only a small percentage of the world could be so sure about. Her sky-blue button-up’s top button popped as she stretched, giving her whole look a new vibe somehow. Her Rolex wrapped criminally around her perfectly shaped wrist, not even a hint of it slipping off over her strong and resilient hands. Eyes down to her masculine-styled trousers, the sharpness in the grey made her matching grey heels quiver with pride. Her hairline looked specially made, thousands of black strands falling carefully onto her broad shoulders.

“Oh…my God,” Matrix muttered, eyes wide open.

The woman gasped, her new smile contagious. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed, following Matrix’s example. “It’s Matrix, Beta, and Hershey! The ones I told you about!” She turned to them. “I’m Ah.”

Beta’s eyebrows rose. “Ah?”

Ah looked flattered. “Yes! That’s me! Come in come—Oh, is…is it too early for hugs?” As she held out her hands, she didn’t really give them an option to say no. She engulfed all three of them in a hug while Richard just watched. “Oh!” He maneuvered his way past them and down the steps, the actual pizza guy shutting the door to his car. “Pizza’s here!”

Beta, Hershey, and Matrix sat on bar stools at the island in their kitchen as Ah got plates for the pizza and Richard just stared at them.

“This is a very nice kitchen,” Hershey commented, looking at the hanging glass lights. He turned around to look at the neatly set dining table. Next to it, there was a glass sliding door that led to a separate living room with a fireplace and a large window that brought in all the light.

“Thank you,” Ah said, putting the plates in front of them.

“Oh. None for me, thank you,” Matrix said.

Ah paused before letting out a sigh. “Oh right, you prefer human meat, my bad.”

Hershey sucked in a breath and rubbed his eyebrow, trying not to feel awkward.

“Shall we move to the living room?” Ah suggested. Before they could respond, a whining was heard from the depths of the basement down below. Richard stopped leaning on the counter and straightened up. “I’ll go check on her.”

“Who, might I ask?” Beta asked.

“Our baby, Min,” she said. “She’s three months.”

“Cute,” Hershey said. “Can I see her?” Richard looked back at Hershey and nodded, and the two went off together to the basement.

Beta and Matrix turned back to Ah and she smiled. “Shall we?”

“It started a while ago when I was visiting my mom in Texas,” Ah started, fingering her pizza. She sat on her green couch across from the identical green couch holding Beta and Matrix. Beta took a bite of his pizza as she paused and Ah put her plate down on the glass table between them. “My car actually broke down that day.”

“Dammit,” Ah said, kicking her side door. Two seconds later she rubbed the spot she hit and apologized.

Ah turned around, hearing an oncoming car. “Hey!” she called, waving her hands.

The car started to slow and Ah breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I didn’t realize,” Ah continued. “There was another car coming from the other direction.”

Ah watched as the two cars met into the middle of the street. The car on Ah’s side of the road was a van and the other one a much smaller car.

It was the people that came out that made her hide behind a tree.

“Wait, you never saw a Sync before then?” Matrix asked.

Ah nodded. “I have to say that I was…terrified.”

“I can imagine,” Matrix said, taking a sip of his coffee.

“And the weirdest part was that no cars were coming, like at all. Although knowing Walker’s rank now, I assume she had the power to do that.”

Matrix choked in the middle of his sip, putting the mug down. “Wait, Walker as in the Vice President?”

Ah stared at them. “Wait, you guys don’t know about her?”

“She’s a Sync?” Beta asked, astonished.

“You bet,” Ah confirmed. “She didn’t get there just to ‘help the economy’ I’ll tell you that. Anyway—”

“Walker,” the 1st man from the smaller car greeted formally.

“Beema. Talon,” Walker greeted back, two guards beside her.

Talon edged himself into a smile, Beema following his example. “Come here,” Tal said, and Walker walked into their arms.

“You could hear all of that?” Beta interrupted.

“No, not at the time. But uh, you’ll understand at the end of the story,” Ah said. “So!”

“You, um,” Beema let go of Walker. “You look great.”

“I am great,” Walker responded, smiling awkwardly. “You two look…okay.”

“Oh, well in that case, you look like crap,” Talon said, and Walker chuckled.

“Side note,” Ah said, interrupting herself. “Talon’s not usually the joke type of person, which lets you know that there’s some tension between the two.”

“I’m sorry, so how do you—?” Beta started but Ah ignored him and went on.

“So…what’s going on? Why are we meeting on the side of a hilly road?” Beema asked. “Why not in your office?”

“Well—”

“Also, Beema’s usually the funny one so you double know something’s wrong,” Ah added. “Anyway…”

“—I just thought it would bring up fewer questions and publicity to meet in private.”

“…On a road?” Beema added.

“Okay Beema, that’s enough,” Talon jumped in. “We’re just happy to be here with you.”

“A-And I am too,” Walker said. “But I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything,” Talon said.

“Not anything, some things,” Beema corrected.

“…I need you to find the Cider and bring him back.”

Talon’s smile dropped. “What?”

“I need you to find him,” she said, and when they didn’t respond she went on. “I mean he was your responsibility in the 1st place all I’m asking is that you do your jobs and get him back.”

Beema opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “And, what’re you gonna do to him when you get him back?”

Walker didn’t say anything, looking down at the ground. “He will pay for what he’s done…for leaving.”

“W-Walker,” Beema said. “Please, just…reconsider—”

“Reconsider what?” Walker interrupted. “Reconsider a clear traitor to the Syncs?”

“He’s not a traitor,” Talon said. “All he did was run? Not to mention he never tried to run before with us.”

“Yes, which is why he’ll listen to you two and you two only now please—”

“You’re going to experiment on him, aren’t you?” Talon said. “Like you did Shaan.”

Walker’s nostrils flared. “Don’t you dare talk about him.” She ground her teeth. “You wanna know why I’m doing this? Because you two put me in charge! You helped me get here and now I am just trying to do everything that you couldn’t! You…You loved him.” Walker swallowed, taking a breath. “You cared for that zombie in a way that you never could with me.”

“That’s not true…Walker,” Beema said calmly. “And you know that.”

Walker sniffed. “Well if I know that…then find him and bring him to me.”

Talon’s eyes glistened first, Beema’s following. “We can’t do that…” Talon said. “I’m sorry.”

Walker’s face showed that she was struggling internally. “Gentlemen.” And at a word, the two Syncs beside her pulled out a PSS Silent Pistol; one pointed at Beema and the other at Talon.

Neither flinched because, in a way, they expected as much from their beloved. “I’m going to ask again,” Walker said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “Find…him. That’s all I ask of you.”

Beema and Talon smiled in sync, as if they were communicating silently.

“We love you very much Walker,” Beema said. “We always have.”

“…but we can’t do this for you,” Talon finished. “We couldn’t do it for anyone we lo—”

“And then she shot him,” Ah finished. “And then she shot Beema and…” Ah drifted, clearing her throat. “Sorry, what was I saying?”

“Not to be rude,” Matrix said, leaning forward despite Beta trying to lean him back. “…But again, how do you know all of this stuff?”

Ah sniffed, raising her eyebrows. “Oh! Right! Because…that would be the important part. So—”

“Oh my God!” Ah cried. “Oh…” Ah started backing away as the guards and Walker turned to her. “Oh no. Please don’t.”

They kept on. “Get the tranquilizer out,” Walker said, wiping the tears from her face. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Stop!” Ah screamed, but by the time she could pull out her phone or run away a dart hit her in the chest and she fell.

“So…yeah…” Ah sniffed again. “Then I woke up back in my car, which was fixed, and drove home…because I didn’t really know what else to do. And it wasn’t until I got home, told my husband…that I realized how much damage she had done to me.”

“How do you mean?” Beta asked.

Ah stuttered a bit before speaking. “Look, I can’t explain it…I just know it happened. Walker felt…awful about what she did the second it happened and she took that guilt out on me, I guess.” Ah cleared her throat. “The two guys she killed? They turned out to be the old leaders of the Syncs, back when they didn’t want to eradicate and ruin the humans.”

“…Alright,” Beta said, waiting for more.

Ah leaned in a little bit. “…They’re also in my head.”

Matrix pondered before asking, “Huh?”

“When Walker took me, it was because she felt so guilty about what she had done that she put their essences inside of me…to live on.”

“That’s…insane,” Beta said. “Like literally insane.”

“Imagine how I feel, every day,” Ah said. “I remember everything about their pasts…and I know all their thoughts along with mine.”

“How exactly did she do that?” Matrix asked, half skeptical and half curious.

“I don’t know, I just know she did,” Ah said. “And I wish I could give you more but…I’m sorry I just can’t. You’re gonna have to trust me when I say the Syncs aren’t the problem…Walker is.”