Hayley ran after Ryan, while Josh and Tyler trailed behind.

"How did they know to come here?" Josh asked out loud. "We knew they were following us, but they didn't know where we were going. How did they get ahead?"

"They probably suspected after going to your house that we were warning our families. If they haven't gotten to my siblings and Hayley's family yet, they will soon," Tyler replied.

"So we need to move faster."

"Lightspeed wouldn't be fast enough."

When they made it to the first floor of the apartment complex, Hayley was explaining the situation to George, who looked pale from fright. Outside of the building, Ryan busied himself in beating the ever loving hell out of their borrowed Corolla with a tire iron.

A man sat slumped against one of the tires, unconscious if not dead looking worse than the passenger side doors. His face was bloody and swollen, a string of dark spittle running from his bruised lips down into his lap. He wore the same dark suit that their attackers wore. Josh could only assume he met the bloody end of the tire iron. 

"What the hell is he doing?" Josh asked as he walked up to Hayley.

"Getting his anger out," she said simply. "George called the cops, said it was a robbery gone wrong. So we need to leave before they get here."

Tyler pointed to the beaten up man. "And who's our extra guest?"

"A prisoner." She thanked George and turned to them. "We need to get answers and he's the only goon left alive. I thought we'd have a better chance at evading Heaven's Templar if we can get him to talk."

Waving them to the car, which now had two dented doors, Hayley got into the passenger seat.

"Rock, paper, scissors," Josh said, holding his hands out.

Tyler cocked his head to the side and did the same. "What's that?"

"You seriously don't know what that is? Ugh, if we survive this crusade, I have so much to teach you."

"I have the highest IQ since Hawking, what can you teach me?"

"Being human. Who's driving?"

"I will," Tyler said. "You guys need rest. Where we headed, Hayley?"

The mentioned woman hesitated, sucking air between her teeth. "Why don't we just find a place to rest for the night?"

"Can we afford to do rest?" Josh asked.

"Your family at the highest risk right now, we should try to get them as quickly as possible," his lover added. "If they're coming after our surviving family, then we should already be wherever you're from."

She waved her hands to shut Tyler up. "I know, alright? But do we look in the right state to do so?"

Hayley thrust her thumb in Ryan's direction. He was on the ground beside their new prisoner, sobbing. His glasses lie in the rubble, the lenses shattered and the metal bent beyond recognition.

"He doesn't look fit for anything right now," Josh conceded.

Tyler rolled his eyes but gave in. "Fine. Hotel, but we're gone before daylight."

"Deal."

--

They find a shitty Motel 8 outside of Brooklyn and get one room for all four of them. At this point, their money was running out and they couldn't afford the luxury of comfort. The men forced Hayley to sleep on the bed, even though she fought that she didn't need it. Tyler and Josh slept in the pullout couch while Ryan got the stiff, non pullout couch. 

Josh couldn't sleep, however. He could only stare at the back of Tyler's neck, at the already healed cut where they found the chip. If the Templar was tracking them, then what's the chance of more than one of them having a chip?

Turns out, he wasn't the only paranoid one. He walked into the bathroom in the middle of the night and found Hayley on the ground behind the towel, one hand empty and bloody and the other holding a knife. Only god knows where she got it. She looked up at him with red eyes and down at the knife.

"I don't have a chip." Hayley tossed the knife to his feet. "So it's either you or Ryan."

He sat down and picked the bloody blade up. "How'd they chip us?"

"Who knows. Tyler makes sense, we just broke him out of their control, but the rest of us were cleared by VESSEL."

"Do you trust us?" He asked.

Hayley tensed, obviously shocked. "Do I have a choice?"

"I don't know much about you, and I can trust you I'm not the trusting type, but I know you have my back."

"Well, you shouldn't. You barely know me."

He scooted closer to her. "Then let me get to know you."

She looked up at him, and deflated when she saw he was being sincere. "What do you wanna know?"

"What was your life like before you joined Heaven's Templar?"

"First issue, I didn't join," she corrected him. "I, uh, I was a volleyball star. Varsity, college scholarship, the whole deal. All A's, no boyfriends before 16, I never even drank underage. I was literally the perfect kid. But then I went to college, I trusted the wrong person, and I got stolen."

"The templar got you," Josh said.

She nodded. "I was thrown right into the depths of sex trafficking. And it was so weird too, it wasn't the regular type of sex trafficking, like what you see in Taken. They don't sell you off all drugged up or make you buy your freedom. I mean, they did that too, but that wasn't what fucked me up the most. These guys were sick, more demented than any man I'd ever seen. They got off on watching us fight each other. We'd fight, and if we won we'd get certain privileges. If we lost-Hayley put a gun to her head and mimicked shooting herself."

"Jesus, that's awful," Josh said. "How'd you get out?"

"Being stuck there fucked me up so bad that I would attack anyone who got close to me. Girls, our handlers, so called customers, everyone. I'd kill anything I got my hands on. I guess the Way's saw that as valuable. I was nineteen when they took me."

"How old are you now?"

"I... I don't know. Twenty five? I didn't count the days."

Josh grabbed her hand, squeezing it softly. She sighed and let her hand drop against the wall.

"Clean up and get some sleep if you can," he said, kissing her cheek and standing up. "We'll celebrate your birthday tomorrow."

She laughed and watched him while he left. "Thanks, Josh."

"No problem, Hayl."

He shut the door and listened as Hayley began to cry. Josh didn't go back in.