Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Fifty

Camille woke to the sensation of moving. After she cracked an eye, the daylight left her disoriented, and some moments passed before she remembered that she was in the back of Sam's borrowed SUV. Then her head popped up. The landscape around her was flat, flat as far as the eye could see.

"Jesus." It was not what a New York City girl was used to.

"You like that word, don't you?" The voice was Tommy's.

She slithered out of the back of the truck and into the passenger's seat beside him, after which he reached back and produced a weighty bag that smelled of Mexican food. There were several huge burritos inside, still warm, as well as a half dozen bottles of various juices.

"I didn't know what you liked."

She assaulted one of the burritos as if it were a lifelong rival. She'd so far only uttered her one word. "Where are we, and what time is it?" she said finally, her mouth still half full of enemy flesh.

"We're about an hour outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, and it's just a little before noon. Your friends at the hotel were up with the birds, so I thought you could use a little more shut eye."

She looked around, wondering if he'd had a change of plans. Had he driven a rental car the night before?

"You're timing is good," Tommy continued. "They're about an hour ahead of us. It looks like they stopped off in Bismarck for lunch. This's a good time for me to leave you."

She continued eating, not quite certain of what he intended. Was he going to get out of the car along the highway? At about that time, the vehicle steered to an off-ramp. There was a large gas station-convenience store complex on their right.

"Do you want anything?"

"Yes," she said shortly. Camille usually was not talkative after she first woke.

They pulled into the station, and while Tommy fueled up, she ran in, freshened up somewhat, and bought some munchies and coffee for the road. After she came out, they sipped coffee and stretched in the parking spot where he'd pulled the vehicle.

"So, you said you're leaving? What, you taking a flight out of Bismarck?"

"Nah," he said casually. "I'll show you in a minute. First, I want to thank you for what you did last night. It's a good thing one of us was thinking ... that one of us has been thinking."

She offered him a cookie from a freshly opened pack. He took one and began to nibble.

"You weren't really gonna hurt those guys, were you?" In the light of day, she thought perhaps her worries about what Tommy would've done were overblown. Her every fiber said he was a good guy.

He nibbled some cookie and seemed to think before replying. "I'm glad neither one of us had to find that out ... thanks to you."

The answer left her oddly satisfied. He finished the cookie and moved closer.

"I considered sneaking into their room last night and dropping another phone, on the off chance the battery gave out on the one you planted. I resisted the urge for the obvious reasons," he said awkwardly. "What I ended up doing was going to their car and hiding a second phone in the trunk, under the spare tire. It isn't on right now, but if you do lose the signal of Sam's phone, call Philly. She'll activate the other phone remotely. Hopefully, they won't switch vehicles for the near future. Also, I grabbed their VIN number while I was skulking about. It's a newer car, so, Phil should be able to crack into any sort of GPS system attached to it. If push comes to shove, I got a good whiff of them. I can always come back later and track them."