MOTHERS

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Though super-soiled on the outside, and with old leather stickiness on the inside, the van was, to Lorelai's surprise, one of the upgraded self-driving cars. And it was scheduled to leave exactly when Jacob had said it was—just as the women were done piling in, the thing turned on, choked up a few clouds of thick gray smoke, and the doors sealed them in. The vehicle departed, pulling out of Lorelai's driveway as Jacob settled in the front seat, behind the wheel that he'd only need to touch in case of an emergency.

So weird.

There were no windows in the back; wherever they were going, they wouldn't know which turn they'd be taking next. From where Lorelai sat—first row of back-seats—she could see out the front window, but the glass was tinted, and her visibility was lowered.

Jacob turned to her as the van glided onto the main road out of the neighborhood. "You all made the right choice," he said, adjusting the air-conditioning. It was a hot day out there—which explained Esme's choice of a sundress—and the leather seats were heating up, becoming uncomfortable to sit in after only a few minutes inside.

Lorelai leaned forward, eyes focused on the street—a street she hadn't taken since she'd been dropped off in the neighborhood by Dr. Price's staff. A street she'd been under the impression she wouldn't have to see again in a very, very long time. On that day, she'd been blindfolded, but had been able to peek underneath the cloth, needing to visualize the place she was being driven to. And it had remained imprinted in her mind, forever; a stone archway leading into the block of houses, a flurry of big berry bushes, lined pavement and large sidewalks on either side of the gated entrance.

The gate was open, and the van flew out without question.

"You're really okay with us barging in there and demanding answers?" Lorelai gulped. "That wasn't part of your directions, was it? We're going to get you in trouble."

Jacob was also concentrated on the street. He might have been used to the older cars that one had drive oneself, as he had that nervous demeanor of someone about to grab the wheel to redirect it himself. Lorelai had figured he wasn't much older than her, and when she was fourteen, she'd learned to drive on a regular automatic car. Surely, he had too.

"It's a risk I had to take," he said, voice lowered, scanning the car's ceiling, then refixing onto the road. The highway was eerily deserted, which made no sense for a San Francisco suburb on a weekday. Lorelai wanted to question it, but she also wanted Jacob to keep talking, to give her more insight on why he was betraying the company he signed on to protect. "You, the others—you need to be there. We need you there. Those kids—"

"—yeah, our kids," said Tegan, squeezing closer. She'd chosen to sit next to Lorelai, and had taken off her seatbelt while glancing at the passenger seat. "Tell us more, hm? What exactly did you mean by them being all violent and stuff?"

Lorelai caught Jacob's nostrils wrinkling as she angled back and looked at him in the rearview mirror. "I can't get into details, and I swear there's a reason for that. My colleagues... if they're missing, there's a chance we're all being watched, and I'm your last chance of actually getting to the lab."

"Watched by who?" Tegan gripped the driver's seat with one hand, the passenger seat with her other. "By protesters? By opposers to Dictator D's government? Dr. Price? This is too confusing and I don't like it."

Lorelai sensed her tension, and felt that she needed to calm down. Jacob wasn't the type to talk when pressured, when questioned, that much had been obvious back at her house. He did talk when addressed calmly, though, and that was what Lorelai had been aiming for.

"I don't know," he said, voice growing softer, so soft Lorelai could barely hear it without having to lean forward again. "That's what scares me. But Dr. Price was already on edge before I left, and I'm not sure what's going on. Your kids—" he winced, his hands hovering over the wheel as the vehicle suddenly picked up speed, "—all I can tell you is that something is wrong with them. It's turning them hyper violent, and we're worried. The experiment... the reason you signed them over to us... it's not working."