I feel a little ridiculous. I sit in the middle of the road, criss cross applesauce, with the husks of two cars behind me and four women standing in front of me, staring me down.

"Tell us the truth," Tae growls, menacingly. She has a knife in hand, as if she's going to cut us.

But Augustus knows as long as they're in my mind, none of them will lay a hand on us. Which means they're not talking.

I feel them there, sulking. They know I'm not going to skirt around it this time or let them get away with guilt tripping me out of asking. But they've kept me in the dark about this for this long. Telling me now feels like a betrayal. Like failure.

I hate knowing they feel like that, because they're guilt tripping me without saying a single thing. I know the burden they've had to carry alone for so long. I know they want to tell me. But the last time they did, their entire world was taken from them.

They don't want to lose everything again.

"You're not going to hurt us," I say, for them, with a sigh.

Tae grabs the back of my neck and yanks me forward, pushing the tip of the knife into my throat.

Amari, Miss Night, and Sasha all tense, but they don't move towards us.

Even I ease my chin back, allowing Tae better access.

Her eyes flood with tears and the knife presses deeper, drawing blood. "Why shouldn't I?" she whispers to me, both her hands trembling.

I could easily disarm her. I could stop this.

"Do you have any idea what he is to me?" she whimpers, searching my eyes. "Do you? I'm all he has and he... he makes my life worth something, Augustus. Don't you understand that? Don't you understand that I would give anything to see him smile again? I can't lose him. You think your life or Mason's life matters in any way that is equal to him? Him who I would give the world for?"

Augustus sees her through my eyes and we both soften a little. We answer her question in unison, our voices melding into a soft, "yes."

Because at some point in all this messed up fighting, Tae started to care about us. Not even just me, but Augustus too. Maybe our lives aren't equal to Tomas's for her, but she's not the kind of person that could trade someone that easy.

Tae is trembling head to toe now. When she opens her mouth, bands of saliva stretch across the opening like spiderwebs across a canyon. Her grip tightens on the knife for a moment, pressing harder. Then she pulls back. She screams into her teeth and throws the knife so it hits the metal hull of Tomas's car and bounces off, skittering across cement. She seizes my shoulders and shakes me. "He's going to die! Don't you get it!? How can you talk about saving humanity when you won't save the only person who really matters!?"

"He-." Augustus stops themself from saying Tomas doesn't matter. Instead, they tell her, "he's not going to die."

They say it so strongly, I almost believe them.

I push Augustus to the back of my mind and put my hand out to Tae. "Let me speak with August by myself. I can reason with them."

Tae looks like she wants to argue, but she just reaches out and heals the cut at my throat. She jerks her head. "Go."

Even though I don't need to, I stand and walk a few feet away. I lean against the husk of Tomas's car and gaze out at the field to my left. More debris sits there. Like someone was ripping hubcaps and fenders off and chucking them to the side. "You need to tell us what's going on."

"Why do you assume I know what's going on? Just because my wording was similar to Daisy's, doesn't mean I know anything."

"You're eons old, August. Singh's messing with your abilities. Even if you think you don't know anything, you do know something."

"I don't," they argue. I feel them pouting in my mind, like a toddler refusing vegetables at dinner.

"Look, I don't want to do this because I hate to manipulate you. But Tomas is my friend and I'm not going to let him die or worse because you want to pretend I'm never going to figure out what you're hiding. You are going to tell us what you know or I'm done with you in my mind."

Augustus's voice is small when they say, "you don't mean that."

"I really, really do, August. I'm done with the lying and the secrets. I'm done acting like this is going to change with you. I let you in my mind because I wanted to help you. But then when we get close to your so called 'mission', all you do is fight me. If you don't want to do the one thing I promised to help you with, we're done."

I want to believe I'm lying for the sake of saving Tomas. But maybe I really am sick of this. It's ironic that my problem with Tarak is the exact opposite of my problem with Augustus. Maybe I'm just tired of the people in my life not taking the time to understand what I need. Augustus thinks I won't be able to handle their secrets, so they hide them from me. Tarak thinks he can protect me from myself by telling other people my plans.

Neither is getting it right. All I need is for both of them to be honest with me about what they want.

Do they both want to keep me in the dark about things, or are we finally going to have an actual conversation and make some damned progress?

I know Augustus has been listening to my internal dialogue, because they flinch at my last internal question. "Well?" I demand.

"It's not because I don't think you can handle it," they respond.

"Then, what, August?"

"I don't know if I can handle it."

I lift my chin so we're looking up to the sky. "I'm here with you," I promise them.

They almost crack.

A sorrow builds in my chest and I reach for the first thing I can get my hands on. It happens to be the grill of Tomas's car. The metal bends under my grasp, but it makes it easier to breathe.

"Okay," they agree, "I'll tell you what I know. All of you."

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. It's hard to tell if it's August or me feeling regret. I return to the others, but grab a heavy rock off the ground before I do.

"What's that for?" Sasha asks, like she thinks I'm going to throw it at her.

I don't answer, gripping it and taking a deep breath.

"My story starts with a tree," August says, through me.

Amari stands taller, her eyes flashing. We both remember the fear that flowed through us when we thought we saw those spores.

"I woke in its branches, too young to know anything. Humans weren't alive yet. There didn't seem to be anything alive yet. Except me and the tree. For a long time, I was scared to leave it, so I became a part of it, caring for it. It wasn't until a long time later did the first humans find me. They'd already started building their civilizations in the places I never traveled. Apparently, there were stories about my tree. About me."

Now, my hand starts to tighten around the rock. It cracks under the pressure and I ease up just enough to save it.

"They believed I offered prosperity. Or magic. Or simply luck. The people that started coming started asking for things. At first, I didn't know how to give them what they wanted. As time went on, they stopped asking. But they kept coming. They kept offering me things. Some, I grew close to. I fell in love."

Nearly everyone takes a step back, imagining how a voice in my head could fall in love.

Augustus continues, "with humanity."

Tae and Diana share a skeptical look.

August grunts at them, furrowing our brows and frowning. "As my love of humanity grew deeper, I discovered I could give them what they asked for. Magic. I was full of it, or the Tree was. When they asked, if they were kind, I would give it to them."

"Then, the mutation?" Sasha asks.

The rock cracks in our hand.

Diana searches the ground and finds another good sized one. She offers it to me without a word.

We roll our jaw and run our thumb along a groove in the rock. I want to get my hands on something more satisfying to break. Like bone. "Eventually, yes," August continues. "I'd never been told to stay with the Tree, but it felt like the right thing. For thousands of years, I lived there, in its branches. Until I started longing to be a part of humanity. I wanted to know what it was like. I was tired of being their deity that only got prayed to for things in return. I wanted to know what it was like to be alive."

The new rock starts to shake in my hand, like it's about to explode into dust.

My stomach is churning and I almost want to ask August to stop. But if I look to my left, I can see Tomas's shell of a car, and I have to hope this'll be worth it. I have to hope we can find answers for what Singh wants, so maybe we can put a stop to it.

"Clearly, you're alive," Amari says, her eyes boring into mine.

"Yes, and that is a price I will never stop paying," we sigh. "When I tried to leave the Tree, I couldn't do it. I had given so much of myself to it, I had become a part of it. To leave, I would've needed to become a part of someone or something else." Augustus looks down at my body, and for the first time since we joined, I feel a bit of disgust.

But it's not theirs. It's mine.

We sigh again, one of the heavy sighs from deep in our belly. "I was a fool."

If I close my eyes, an image plays across the back of my eyelids. A woman's soft, round face. Light, brown skin and dark black eyes. Her hand reaching out for me.

August takes a shuddering breath and we squeeze the rock between both our hands. "There was a kind woman who agreed to be my host. She had always been kind to me. Never asked for powers, or money, or anything, really. Just a friend. I was happy to be that for her. I thought she was happy to do the same. But when I... when we became one, she trapped me. She took control and shoved me so far beneath the surface, I was drowning." We take a heavy breath, as if we're still drowning. "When I managed to claw my way to the surface... the mutation had already started and spread through the people I'd given magic too."

"The mutation," Tae says, her voice steady, despite everything. She steps towards us. "You mean the Infection?"

We meet her dark eyes and nod. "Some just... died. While others... became the Infected. They were hyper-intelligent. With super speed, and strength, and senses. They couldn't die, but they were constantly starving. The worst part is... they knew who they were. They knew their names, and their families, and all the reasons they shouldn't have killed them. Turned them."

"That's not how the Infected are now," Sasha rasps. "They forget everything."

"Yes," August agrees. "The original Infected... when they turned their loved ones, they weren't the same. Maybe they were weaker. Maybe it was different because the mutation was fresh in the original creatures. Whatever the case, it was too late for their families. The remaining humans... wiped them out."

"I don't understand," Diana says. "You just said the original Infected couldn't die. Are they still alive?"

The rock cracks in my hand.

"No," August says, and this time, they don't seem eager to fill in the blanks.

Yet, the ladies all wait for them to continue.

August bows their head. "My host dragged herself to the Tree when she saw the destruction she had caused. She begged the Tree to take me back. And I tried to return to it. Yet, the Tree itself had become different. It had changed as my gifts had. The spores coming off it started attacking my host and soon, she died. Suffering and in pain. It took all my strength to drag our body to the nearest human and find refuge in their mind. But the spores followed. Soon, the devastation had crippled the human city nearest. All the buildings burned and the entire world felt like it was ending."

Closing my eyes now paints this destruction across my eyelids. Fire all around a tree refusing to burn. The round faced woman ensnared in its roots, which moved like they were alive – reaching for anything with a pulse. Her skin had melted away from her bones in places, making her porous and blood-stained. Her exposed jaw tremored as she continued trying to plead for her life, even as she lay stripped of everything that made her alive.

"Yet, you survived?" Amari asks.

I open my eyes to banish the images that turn my stomach.

"There was a human that came to the Tree to beg to be saved and when the spores came for them, I entered their mind. I knew the spores would avoid the water, so I escaped into the nearest ocean and I swam. For days. Until we came upon an island. By then, my host had succumbed to the Infection the spores had caused, and I was left with another corpse. I lived in that body for a long, long time."

August closes our eyes against my will and I see the rotten skin peeling off us, as if someone had taken a cheese grater to our arms. I see us waiting on our knees for weeks at a time, only moving when rain started to melt more of our flesh off.

One day, a boat washed ashore with an unconscious man inside. He wasn't infected and even though my host and I were starving, I refused to let anything happen to him. So, I took control before he could wake, and I killed my former host, putting their corpse in the ocean."

I have to swallow bile before August can continue, though I'm not sure if it's mine or theirs.

The ladies also look nauseous, as if we collectively want to throw up.

A new face flashes in my peripherals. A man, usually smiling. Black hair, green eyes, scars marking his cheeks as if someone or something had clawed at him. I don't think August means to let me know so much, but in the time we're breathing through our nausea, I see a lifetime flashing through my mind. Strong hands gripping an axe and chopping down trees. Staggering out of a boat onto grass. Fighting. Fire. Another face floating above our own, smiling down at us.

The three of us merge into one and I can't remember who I am for a moment. Mason Crane, or Augustus, or this strong, scared man.

"My new host, obviously, thought he was infected. He tried to cast me out, but he was in too weak of a state to do so. I managed to convince him I didn't mean him harm and he agreed to let me stay. While he recovered, he told me stories of what the world had become. He told me the Infection had spread. He'd never met the original Infected, but he'd heard of them. They'd made themselves a ruling class. With all the intelligence and the powers they had, they were methodically wiping out humans. Either killing them or turning them to control them. My new host had barely escaped a hoard of Infected that invaded his village."

"How'd he survive?" Amari asks.

"His boat. The Infected, like now – like the spores –, avoid the water. I'd hoped to escape back to the mainland in his boat, but it was practically destroyed by the time he washed up on the island. I tried to make a plan but-."

"A plan for what?" It's me who asks this, which is strange considering both our voices come from the same mouth.

We drop the remainder of our rock on the ground and grip our arms in a boa constrictor hug.

"A plan to kill off the Infection. To stop the Tree and the original creatures. My plan started with my host. I was still full of magic, as I'd been born. And I'd gone years at this point without granting anyone new powers, so I had reserves of energy. The Infected had inspired me to create something more than just a power for each person. I wanted to create creatures that could stand up against those things. So, my first Hunter was made. And he survived long enough to repair his boat with the trees on the island. He survived to the mainland, and into the remains of that first city. He survived killing hundreds of Infected, without ever becoming infected himself. He was perfect. Until I remembered he was still, at heart, a human."

"We're still humans, at heart," Tae argues, clenching her fists. "You didn't change that." I imagine her seeing Tomas's face in her mind, unable to imagine a world where she doesn't love him.

"No," August says, "because I didn't want that to change. I fell for humanity, you remember. Changing you is the last thing I dreamed of. But my... my perfect Hunter fell for another. Someone scared, but still surviving in all that horror."

"You made a Protector," Sasha says, glancing around like she thinks she could be wrong.

We nod. "They weren't strong, but they weren't weak either. They had steady hands, and a good head on their shoulders. They saved my Hunter from pneumonia and Infected. All without the powers my Hunter had. I knew they would've given their life for him, if that's what was required. And he would've done the same for them. So, yes, I gave them the ability to heal all his wounds and keep him safe, so that he could keep fighting. So that he wouldn't die some miserable death for my cause."

"And you ended it, right? That's how we've gotten where we are?" Sasha grips her throat. "You killed the original Infected?"

"We did what we could," August whispers, looking at the ground. There are cracks spreading out from our feet.

I hadn't even realized we'd been pushing into the cement.

Diana hands me another rock.

I stare at it for a moment in my hands, watching my fingertips turn white as I create craters in its face.

When August continues speaking, I feel like I'm folding in on myself.

"We cleared the Infected wherever we found them. Whenever we found someone alive, I'd grant them more powers. They were never as strong as the first five to ten I did, because I'd grown weaker. I no longer had the magic of the Tree replenishing me. But I continued granting powers as much as I could. And in the end, it seemed like we'd won. We'd cornered the original Infected and we planned to lock them away until we could figure out how to kill them." They look down at our hands. "But my Hunter was just a man. A man who got scared. The Infected promised him things he couldn't pretend he didn't want. Like safety for his Protector. They promised him we would never find a way to kill them. That despite all my magic, I would never be strong enough to stop them."

"He betrayed you, didn't he?"

Instead of crushing the rock Diana gave us, our hands drop it and slide up our arms, hugging ourselves again and curling inward.

"He tried to pretend like he wasn't tempted." August shudders, despite the heat and the sweat dripping down our neck. "We kept them locked away like we planned, but I felt him wavering for days. Until one day, I awoke and it felt like I was under water. Nothing felt right. Nothing felt like him. And I discovered he'd turned on me. Turned on us all. He buried me as deep as he could get me. And I didn't resurface... until the Infected had killed him."

I look towards the sun and in the black spots it leaves, I see the man reaching his strong hand for a woman with a smile on her face like a knife had cut it open.

Tae and Diana close their eyes.

Sasha's hands fly to her mouth as tears stream down her cheeks.

For a Protector, losing your Hunter is... like death. But even death offers some relief. It's more like losing your limbs and being told to climb a mountain. Sometimes, the pain is so much, a Protector will die with their Hunter.

Amari presses her fist into her stomach like she's trying to give herself the Heimlich.

"I wanted to stay in his body and die with him," August admits in a voice like crisp, falling leaves. He takes another trembling breath and rakes a hand through our hair. "But I knew if I did, the Infected would be free. So, I entered one of their minds. The entire world became fire. Our minds clashed. Our magic clashed. It was me versus a mutation of me. A mutation that wanted nothing but to destroy every good thing I'd ever made. I had no choice but to put an end to it. And I did that, to every single one of them. Until his Protector found us and let me escape in their mind. They let me stay there for a few days while I recovered. Then, they told me they'd never forgive me for his death and they cast me out."

"And you spent the rest of your life host hopping," I offer. Because that's how I met them in that water treatment plant. Still trying to survive for longer than a few minutes to accomplish their goals. To save the world.

"Yes," August rasps. "Until now."

"Time out," Diana snaps. "That's not everything. What about the Tree?"

I shake my head. "I never found it," August says.

"What do you mean you never found it?" Tae snarls, stepping towards us. "It's a fucking tree."

"It's a magical tree," they defend. "When I returned to where it had been, it was gone. But not before infecting more people with its spores. Only by then, I was unable to muster the support I needed to wipe them out. My magic was depleted. My original group of Hunters and Protectors didn't want to fight anymore. They'd settled down. Had kids. Made lives. And they didn't trust me. Not after what happened to him. The Infection spread. And I've never been able to stop it."

"That's not good enough!" Tae stomps towards me and seizes me by the shoulders. Not in the way I've grown used to – almost maternally. She grabs me rough and angry. She shakes me, hard. "None of that helps me get Tomas back! None of that puts an end to any of this!"

Sasha touches her shoulder. "Did you expect it to?"

Tae whips her hand back, smacking Sasha's hand away.

"Hey!" Amari shouts, stepping in front of her girlfriend. "Cool it, you psycho! Sasha didn't do anything to you! Neither did August or Mason!"

Tae turns on them, red in the face. She jabs a finger at Sasha, locking eyes with Amari. "You know what it would be like to lose her, don't you? She's everything, isn't she? She's all you have."

"I have a family," Amari snarls. "You have a family."

"I know," Sasha whispers, her eyes flooded. Amari's head snaps to her, but she doesn't look away from Tae as Tae turns to look back at her. She lifts her chin. "Believe me, Tae. If it were Amari there, I'd be the same. But it's not her. So, I have to be the one to keep my head. I have to be the one to tell you not to break your friendships in your time of need. Because you are not invincible and if you try to follow Tomas wherever he's been taken, neither of you are walking out."

"So, you expect me to sit here? And do nothing? They could kill him, Sasha! They could be experimenting on him! You saw what they did to Daisy!"

Sasha steps towards her and grabs Tae's shoulders, firmly. The breeze sways through her strawberry hair and ripples her shirt. It cools the sweat on my neck and I take a breath to calm my racing heart. "I expect you to use your head, Tae. Actually listen to Augustus. They're doing what they can. Now, we have to as well."

Tae, almost like Sasha is commanding her, takes a long breath. She closes her eyes and sets her shoulders. When she turns on us, she seems like a different person. "What caused the mutation? Was it you leaving the Tree, your host betraying you? What was it?"

"I don't know," Augustus murmurs. "I searched for answers my whole life. She'd kept me buried for years. Anything could've happened in that time."

"But it hasn't happened since, to your new creations. So, we have to assume that it was caused by either her or you leaving the Tree."

"It wasn't Augustus's fault," I growl.

"I'm not saying it was," Tae says, sharply. "I'm trying to think this through, rationally." She clenches her fists. "But it doesn't even matter! Because Singh doesn't know about the Tree. How could she know the Infection was a mutation? What does becoming human have to do with it? Why is she even experimenting on them!? Why did she take-!?"

Sasha grabs her again. "Let's sit down," Sasha suggests.

"NO!" Tae shoves her hand away. "I-I can't! I have to think!" She grabs her head in her hands, digging her fingertips into her hairline. "I need to figure out what Singh's plan is so I can get Tomas back! I have to-. I-!"

Diana had walked away when August finished talking, but now she returns, frowning. "Hey, new question... How did Singh find Tomas's truck? Even we didn't know what route he'd take. We only knew the destination. And that was only us five."

Tae's eyes find me. "You'd put a tracker on Dion."

Heat flares through me at the accusation. I cross my arms and set my jaw. "I removed it before we even left the compound's premises. And I checked him and Daisy for trackers from there."

"Maybe they'd injected them," Miss Night suggests.

Tae scrambles for her back pocket. "Then-then Singh's phone must have information on it, right?"

But as we all gather around to look at the copied phone Tarak gave us; we all realize it looks surprisingly clean. Like someone scrubbed all incriminating information off it.

"She knows," Amari rasps, staring at it.

"How?" Tae's voice cracks. "The only people who know are us and the dissenters. No one had any reason to tell Singh."

The other three share a look, but I can tell none of them wants to be the one to say it.

"Tarak," I say for them.

"No," Amari snaps.

I spread my hands. "It makes the most sense."

"He wouldn't have risked everything to get this phone just to turn on us," Sasha argues.

"He told her about Daisy the first time! What would've stopped him from telling her the second it became an advantage to him!?"

"Enough!" Tae shouts at me. "It doesn't matter right now! From now on, nothing about this leaves this group, you got it? I will not risk anything happening to Tomas."

"But where do we start?" Sasha asks, her voice wavering. She'd been the one to comfort Tae, and now, that all seems pointless.

"How about with those?" Miss Night asks, pointing at tire tracks leading off into the dirt.

"The road turns to concrete again a mile up," I tell her, squinting. "It would be pointless."

"But that road isn't leading to the city. There can't be that many places outside the city that are big enough to house a lab like the one they'd need for experiments like this."

"Once we get close enough, Tae would be able to sense Tomas."

"Or, August will feel incredible amounts of pain," I reason, under my breath.

"What?" Amari frowns.

"Forget it," I mutter. "Diana, you drive again. I'll call Tarak."

Everyone's frowns deepen. "What for?"

"I'll get him to break into his mom's office and see if he can find anything about where they could be heading."

"But... if she finds him... Mason, she'll kill him."

Everyone stares at me.

I push Augustus back before they can prevent me from saying what I want to. "If he's the one who told Singh about the phone... I don't care."