The Furies by Mark Alpert

couple of minutes you’re gonna make a left turn. I know a place where we can stop for a few hours.”
    John was surprised. He’d assumed she wanted to get home as fast as possible. “I don’t have to stop. I’m fine.”
    â€œWe can’t make it to Haven tonight.”
    â€œHow far away is it? Seriously, I’m not tired, I can keep driving till—”
    â€œHaven’s in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, John. It’s separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan with Lake Huron. To get from the Lower Peninsula to the U.P., you have to cross the Mackinac Bridge.”
    â€œSo what’s the problem? The bridge doesn’t shut down at night, does it?”
    â€œThere’s probably a roadblock on the bridge by now. Sullivan has contacts in the FBI and the Michigan state police. He’s used them before to pursue our people when they’re on assignment outside Haven.”
    â€œOn assignment?”
    â€œSometimes our Elders ask us to perform certain tasks. For instance, every year they assign our botanical experts to go to the Amazon to collect rare medicinal plants. The experts travel with forged documents, so no one can trace them back to our community.” Ariel shifted in the backseat, grunting as she repositioned her legs. “Sullivan gives false information to the authorities, telling them that our people are drug dealers or terrorists. Over the past year three people from Haven have been killed in gun battles with the police, and two more died in prison after they were arrested. Sullivan was behind all those deaths.”
    â€œBut we changed the license plates on the car. How will the police know to stop us?”
    â€œI’m sure Sullivan told them what to look for. A tall man driving a beat-up Kia, a redhead with injured legs.”
    John slowed the car. He was wondering if they should turn around. “Is there another route we can take?”
    â€œWe could go through Wisconsin and take one of the highways running across the Upper Peninsula, but Sullivan has an outpost near Seney. His Riflemen keep watch over all the roads in that part of the U.P.”
    â€œSo what are we gonna do?”
    Ariel extended her right arm, pointing at the road ahead. “There’s the left turn. We’re going to rest for a few hours, and then we’ll figure something out.”
    She spoke in a firm, commanding voice, and John was too tired to resist. He turned left onto a country lane that rambled through pitch-black woods. Then Ariel pointed to another left turn, which put them on a narrow, rutted dirt road. After jouncing on this trail for a couple of miles they reached a clearing in the woods, a thirty-foot-wide space overhung by pine branches. “This is the place,” Ariel said. “We’ll be all right here. Even if someone comes down the trail, they won’t see the car.”
    John maneuvered the Kia into the clearing. Then he shut off the engine and headlights, and utter darkness descended upon them. “Whoa. That’s spooky.” He reached for the switch on the car’s dome light and flicked it on. “I’ll turn this off when we’re ready to go to sleep.”
    â€œI’m ready right now.” She pulled off her new sweatshirt—a simple gray thing John had purchased at the convenience store—and folded it to make a pillow, which she placed at one end of the backseat. Then she lay down and made herself as comfortable as possible.
    John sneaked a look at her. She wore a T-shirt and gym shorts, also bought at the convenience store, and her legs were wrapped in bandages, but she still looked great. He remembered, with sudden vividness, how she kissed him in the hotel room in Brooklyn last night, how she shivered in his arms and led him toward the bed. Although sex was out of the question now, for a million good reasons, he still wished he could climb into