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Stephanie was a good driver, her driving instructor and her mom had told her so. She had had a little trouble getting used to the truck but she gained control of it and soon enough she was cruising along. Grant had passed out immediately and he had been sleeping for the past couple hours. It was getting dark, around 5 and they were halfway across Iowa now. Stephanie pulled over for a second to check the map. She turned on the light to see the route Grant had mapped out.  Someone tapped on the window, I jumped. At the window was a middle-aged woman with short brown hair. I rolled down the window.
"You lost?" She asked me.
"No ma'am, I'm perfectly un-lost," Stephanie told her, Grant muttered something in his sleep.
"You two look pretty young, are you runaways?"
"Uh, no. Just on a little trip."
"Hmm, well would you like some directions?"
"Uh, sure. We're heading for California."
"Well then darlin' you need to turn next intersection to keep headin' west, here step outta the car and I'll show you."
"Umm, ok" Stephanie said and stepped out of the car. The lady walked out to the edge of the road, something was off about her walk, it was a limp. Stephanie followed her down to the stop sign. The lady looked at her and opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a low hiss. Stephanie felt her body flood with fear, something was wrong. The lady began to twitch, her skin turning green and scaly. Stephanie began to run away but a tentacle snaked out and tripped her.  I screamed as the snake lady slithered toward me.

Grant woke up in the car alone. He looked around in a sleep-induced daze for Stephanie, then he heard the scream. He opened the car door to see another one of those snake thingies advancing on Stephanie. He sprinted towards her yelling,
"Hey Ugly!!" The monster turned, hissing loudly. Stephanie stood up,
"Grant! What are you doing?" She shouted at him as the monster advanced towards Grant.
"Distracting it!" He yelled back.
"Well what are you going to do now?" She yelled back. Grant didn't know now, so he stood there, waiting. Then the strangest thing happened. There was a flash of bright light and Grant felt like he had gone deaf. Grant closed his eyes, when he opened them the monster was gone. In its place was a girl, she looked around 13. She brushed off her jeans and smiled,
"Well, that was fun," she told us.
"What was that?" Stephanie asked her as she walked over to Grant.
"That? Oh, that was me using my powers; I'm a Bleeder you see. That means I can emit a high-pitched scream to make blood vessels pop. That's why I had to make you go deaf for a second, so you wouldn't hear it and go boom." She explained.
"Oh, well thanks." Grant told the girl.
"No problem," She responded, "Anything for fellow Super-humans"
"So what's your name?" Stephanie asked her, she was standing really close to Grant. He could smell her fruity perfume.
"My name is Kyla, I'm 13 and running away from my family," She recited, like she'd scripted it carefully.
"Why?" Stephanie asked her.
"They don't like the fact that I'm a super-human, they wanted to send me away to a lab to get tested. So I ran," Kyra replied, shrugging.
"Oh my gosh, that's awful." Stephanie whispered.
"It is what it is," Kyra looked at her feet.
"You sound oddly ok about this," Grant said.
"It's something you learn to accept, I better go," Kyra began to turn away and walk towards the woods.
"Kyra, wait!" Stephanie yelled.  Kyra turned, waiting, "why don't you come with us?" She asked,
"Really?" She asked her eyes hopeful.
"Yes, come with us to California to destroy Natalia." Grant told her smiling.
"Okay! And I promise, I won't be a nuisance or get in the way or make a lot of noise," Kyra began blabbering on.  We climbed back in to the truck after Kyra retrieved her small bag of things and continued on our way.

Stephanie sat in the passenger seat, looking out at the Nebraska stars. Kyra was asleep in the back seat, her brown, curly hair covering her face. Grant was driving, looking like he might need some sleep soon. Stephanie sighed and leaned back against the seat. Grant had been silent ever since Kyra had passed out. Stephanie studied him,
"What are you thinking?" She asked.
"That it's dark," Grant responded. Stephanie laughed
"What else?" She asked him.
"About my parents," He responded,
"What about your parents?"
"About their last fight, the night before I left,"
"Oh."
"It was dumb, they always fight, I should be used to it by now."
"I'm sorry,"
"For what?"
"Your parents arguing,"
"It sucks, but you just kinda learn to ignore it after a while,"
"I'm still sorry," Stephanie said, looking at Grant. He offered her a weak smile.
"Don't be," he told me, "Hey, can you drive, I'm getting tired."
"Sure," Stephanie said and we pulled over and switched seats. I began to drive as Grant fell asleep.