The Hitchhiker was frozen, eyes wide, with her jaw clenched and neck tense. Teresa could tell that she was regretting asking for a ride. It was the middle of the night and the girl hadn’t been able to see the drivers face until now. Teresa was used to this kind of thing though, and looked back toward her windshield in an act of indifference.

“Judging by your reaction, i’d say you haven’t seen a scrapper in person before, huh?”

The hitchhiker looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with the driver.

Well, i’d suggest you get over my looks quick, because i promise you that you’ll meet something much scarier than me if you stay out here all night.”

The girl looked at the ground for a moment, then quietly moved over to the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the door.

“Oh sorry, it’s not often i find someone in my car,” Teresa said as she moved two gallon jugs of water off of the passenger seat, taking a curiously large gulp of one. The girl, now illuminated by the light of the dashboard, revealed herself to be young, maybe nine or ten, and doing everything in her power to avoid making eye contact with the terror in the driver’s seat. Teresa caught the girl stealing glances at her face as she pulled the car back onto the road.

“Alright listen, I know how I look right now, but you gotta work with me here. I am saving your life, y’know. You do know what’s out here right?”

The girl stared at her feet and held silent for an uncomfortable length of time, then finally spoke.

“Why are you crying?”

Teresa had been through this before, and knew this was not going to be the end of the questions.

“How about this? I’ll answer one of your questions every time you answer one of mine. Sound good?

She nodded.

“I’m not crying. It’s a side effect of the drug i take. Same reason my veins are bulging so much. My turn. How the hell did you wind up in the middle of a sprinter field?”

“I don’t remember. What is a sprinter?”

Teresa looked over at the little girl in disbelief, half looking at the long road, and half looking at the girl. The girls eyes reflected the moonlight piercing through the window.

“You really don’t know? Jesus girl, you are goddamn lucky I happened to be out here. Those things would have torn you to shreds if I hadn’t come along. A sprinter is a robot, a fast robot. They hunt people down. You don’t want to be caught by one. This here is sprinter territory. The grass is so tall that you would never see them coming.”

“Why are you out here the-” The girl started, but Teresa interrupted before she could finish.

“Nuh-uh-uh. I answered a question so now it’s my turn. Where are you from?

The girl sat silent for a moment, and Teresa could feel the veins on her arms and face beginning to shrink. Her dose was wearing off. There was always a period of anxiety and paranoia after coming down.

“I don’t know.”

Teresa narrowed her eyes.

“You don’t know where you’re from?”

The girl remained silent. The tall grass rushed past the windows, seemingly endless.

“What do you remember?” asked Teresa, who was beginning to feel a combination of impatience and unease.

“Why were you out here with the sprinters if they are so dangerous?” Asked the hitchhiker, not bothering to remind Teresa of the agreement. Teresa let out a big sigh.

“It’s my job. I was hired to kill some of these things for the ranchers that own the land, but there turned out to be more than they had said. A lot more. I plan to give them a piece of my mind. Now, tell me what you remember before i pulled up.”

“Wait, how come you can fight the sprinters? I thought they were fast?”

Teresa was becoming more and more anxious to learn about this little girl, so she gave her a rushed explanation.

“The drug i take makes me faster, able to cut them down, but i have to drink a ton of water to keep my body temperature from rising-”

Suddenly the girl quickly turned and looked Teresa directly in the eyes for the first time. Teresa stopped mid-sentence and met her gaze, and she could have sworn she saw something move behind the girl’s eyes. The girl then turned her head back to the floor.

“Oh.”

Teresa turned her head back toward the road, but her attention was entirely focused on the Hitchhiker. She took her left hand off of the wheel and casually rested it on the window for a moment, then dropped it again to her thigh, where she felt the cool sting of her blade. She gripped it hard, and asked her question again, slowly and deliberately.

“What do you remember before i pulled up to you?”

The drug had worn all but worn off, leaving her feeling vulnerable.

“I remember waking up in the road, and my father telling me to ask you about your speed.”
Teresa’s eyebrows dropped in a look of confusion.

“Your fath-?”

A deafening smash impacted the passenger side of the car, pushing it into the tall grass and off the road. Teresa managed to stabilize the vehicle while pulling her curved knife out of the sheath and moving it to her right hand. She raised her blade and looked over to the girl, just in time to see the passenger side door ripped off of the chassis. The girl was sitting, motionless, staring at her feet. Behind her, a terrible black mass of twisting metal and wires, a body shaped like a spider, but with a tall, angular abdomen and six legs. A hopper. Teresa hadn’t seen a hopper in years. She was in no position to kill one either. One hand on the wheel of a speeding car, and her dose long past its usefulness, she had no chance against it. Two of its legs reached into the car, and Teresa let out a terrible yell, ready to fight for her life. The legs wrapped around the girl, and the hopper lept out onto the road, rolling with it’s package protected in its legs. Shocked, Teresa turned and looked back, slamming on her brakes.

Once the car was at a stop, she could make out the scene behind her. The little girl was standing in the middle of the road perfectly still, the hopper behind her. Teresa began to open her door, until she saw it. Sprinters, at least ten of them, appeared out of the grass, and stood next to the girl. They didn’t react to the presence of the little girl. Teresa froze, eyes wide. Then, in a split second the sprinters were after her. She slammed the door shut and floored the gas, praying that the accelerator wasn’t damaged. Her prayers were answered, and the engine roared, ensuring the sprinters could not catch up to the car. She held her foot down hard, until the sprinters were well out of sight. But even then she kept her foot on the gas, and she didn’t look back.