“Sure. They’re body-snatchers. When they catch you, they spread themselves all over you like a second skin and sink right in. Once they’re in you, they can control you. This one probably planned to catch Justine that way and then walk her right back through the open strait. Probably just means to kill the rest of us. That’s my guess, at least.” She shrugged. “I’ve never actually seen one. You’re getting the textbook version of things.”

She turned to the front seat. “Anything to add, fuckface?”

Both men glanced back, which was pretty funny. Neither one said anything.

“So it would’ve found the nearest person with a car and taken them over, then followed us?”

“Yep. And before you ask, switching cars like we did won’t help.”

“How can we get away from it, then?”

“We can’t. We need to reach Lord Cordus or some other worker who’s strong enough to kill it.”

She settled back in her seat and shot an angry glance at the back of Williams’s head.

“All right, seeing as how I was drained, I’m going back to sleep, now.”

I tried to give her a smile, but my mouth didn’t want to make the shape. The thought of the creature hunting us through the darkness, crazed and inhuman and relentless, was horrifying.

Someone touched me, and I jerked awake. It was Williams.

“Your turn,” he said, holding out the keys.

Groggily, I got out. How long had we been driving? It was pitch black out. I checked my watch. It was after 10:00. The minivan’s GPS said we were in central Pennsylvania, so we were pretty close.

“I have to pee,” I said, embarrassed.

Williams jerked his head at the side of the road. I hesitated.

“I’ll go with,” Kara said, sliding gingerly out of her seat. “You’ll probably have to help me.”

For some reason, that made it less embarrassing.

It didn’t make it any less scary, though. As soon as I went around the cars, all I could see ahead was darkness. Which I now knew contained monsters. You might think turning my back on all that night and dropping trou would’ve been a great “up yours!” moment, but instead it just scared me.

By the time we got back, people had shuffled around. Now Williams was driving Zion’s car and Graham was riding with him. Zion had claimed shotgun in the minivan and was almost asleep already. Kara stretched out in the middle row, and I climbed into the driver’s seat. I hoped there wasn’t too much farther to go. From up here I wouldn’t be able to check on the deer.

We started up. The Porsche pulled out first, and I followed. Driving the minivan hardly felt like driving. It was more like floating along on a cloud. I had no problem hitting ninety and keeping it there.