The rhythmic hum of the RV’s engine had been the only sound for hours, a steady drone against the vast, consuming silence of the Mexican desert. Outside, the world had been reduced to the cone of your headlights cutting through the pitch black, revealing only flashes of dry scrub and the endless stretch of asphalt leading south. It was a hypnotic kind of exhaustion, the kind that settles deep in your bones after days of looking over your shoulder, but tonight, there was a strange peace to it. You weren't running from something anymore; you were driving to something. That small, white-walled house in San Cristóbal was waiting, a promise of permanence after a lifetime of sterile labs and motel rooms.

You glanced to your right. John was fast asleep in the passenger seat, his head lolling uncomfortably against the window. In the dim green glow of the dashboard, he didn't look like the most powerful weapon Vought had ever engineered; he just looked like an eighteen-year-old boy exhausted by the world. His mouth was slightly open, a strand of dark blond hair falling over those thin, dark eyebrows, and his large hands—hands capable of tearing through steel like wet paper—were resting loosely in his lap, clutching a bag of half-eaten spicy chips.

You finally spotted the turnout marked on your map, a dusty patch of land overlooking a valley that would likely be breathtaking at sunrise. You eased the heavy vehicle off the road, the gravel crunching loudly as you brought the beast to a halt. The engine died, plunging the cabin into sudden, ringing silence.

John stirred immediately, his blue eyes snapping open with a predator’s alertness before softening the moment they landed on you. He blinked, rubbing his face with the back of his hand, his voice rough with sleep. "Are we there?" he mumbled, sitting up and peering out into the darkness, though with his vision, he could probably see the lizards scuttling in the sand a mile away. "Or did the engine overheat again? I told you I could just fly us there, holding the bumper. It’d be faster."