We traveled several more blocks, skirting around groups of crashed cars, piles of splintered wood and chunks of plaster. Sirens wailed in the distance, getting louder, heading for the city center. Thank God, at least some help was on the way. 

More than once I wanted to stop and help someone. People digging frantically through the rubble for a missing family member and one kid trying to help his friend limp down the street with a broken ankle, but Aden pulled me onward despite my protests, saying it would give Sloan time to catch up with us. I was torn between wanting to help, and wanting to avoid the man trying to kill me.

"Here!" Aden's voice was excited. She was peering into the dirty window of a pickup truck. "The keys are still in this one."

I looked at it doubtfully. It was an old red Toyota, ancient and rusted. On top of that it had run into the side of a big black truck that looked like it ate smaller trucks for breakfast. "Are you sure this thing still runs? It looks pretty busted up."

"We'll see, get in." Aden yanked on the driver's side door, and it grated open. I came around the other side and tugged on the door handle. It opened, and I slid my butt onto the ripped vinyl seat. Aden twisted the keys in the ignition and the truck jerked and sputtered in protest.

"Not going to work." I turned and peered out the back window, wondering if the owner of the pickup would come bolting around the corner any minute. In spite of the dire circumstances it still felt like we were stealing.

"Put your seat belt on," Aden snapped. She twisted the key again, and the truck gave another pathetic cough. I looked at her pointedly, and she glared at me. "It'll work."

I sighed and grabbed the worn out seat-belt. Aden gave another hard twist, and to my surprise the truck sputtered, coughed once more and then roared to life. She shot me a triumphant look, which I ignored, and then we were lurching forward and I was glad I'd put my seat belt on. The road was uneven and full of deep cracks and rubble. I gripped the edges of my seat and clenched my teeth hard, as Aden navigated around wrecked cars and huge piles of debris. It was almost funny how slow we were going.

"We should have just kept walking," I gritted out through my teeth at her.

 Aden glared at me. "This will come in handy when we get onto a clearer road."

"Maybe the roads are all like this," I muttered, and then jumped when someone appeared on the road in front of us. "Watch out!"

Aden hit the brakes with a curse. The man was sifting through a pile of rubble in the middle of the street. His face was bloody and covered in dirt. He didn't even look up at us.

"He's in shock," I said. "Didn't even notice us. Drive around."

The truck shuddered as she took it up onto the sidewalk for a few meters, and I grunted as we thumped back down onto the road. We began to put on a little bit of speed, and I looked back to see the man behind us. He was standing upright now, his face slack, a blank mask as he stared at the man approaching him. An immaculately dressed man, his neat suit and styled hair looking bizarre against the ruined backdrop.

Sloan.

"Oh shit! He's behind us!"

Aden's eyes snapped to the rear view mirror and she cursed loudly. "How long has he been following us? We didn't lose him at all!"

I stared at Sloan as we drove away, his figure growing smaller. He waved.

"Asshole," I growled, and Aden said, "He's playing with us."

"We have a truck now," I said. "He can't get us now, right? He's only on foot and like you said, he's human. No supernatural speed or anything, right?"

"Right," Aden gripped the steering wheel tightly. "Right, we're fine." She grimaced as she took the car through another disastrous obstacle course, trying to avoid broken glass and anything else that would puncture our tires.

I tried to loosen my white-knuckled grip on the edge of the seat. I remembered the look on the man's face back there when Sloan had approached him. It was probably just shock, and surprise at seeing someone in a shiny clean suit in the aftermath of the earth quake, but it reminded me of something.

"I've been meaning to ask you something. Is it possible, before Sloan became human, to posses a human being and make them do things?"

Aden shot me a curious look. "If the human invites it, yes."

"What do you mean, invites it?"

"You'd have to be into weird shit, you know, Ouija boards and stuff."

"Oh." I was quiet for a moment, trying to imagine the bald, fat guy in his bathrobe playing with an Ouija board. Maybe he was into other weird stuff though. I didn't want to know.

"Why?" Aden said. She was looking at me with interest. "People attacked you?"

"Yup." I slid down in the seat a bit. My stomach felt strange knowing those people had been possessed when they did what they did. The bus driver had died. Sloan had possessed them to try to get to me.

"So he can't possess anyone though." I said nervously.

"No, definitely not." Aden's lips were a thin line. "Yuck, he's such a scum ball. He'll do anything he can to get what he wants. Possessing people is thought of as really bad form."

"No shit," I muttered, and then yelped in surprise as the truck lurched to a sharp stop, smacking my head on the back window. I was about to complain when I realized we'd stopped in front of a major pile up. Five or six cars and trucks had rammed into one another, and a telephone pole had toppled across the road, crushing a blue minivan, tangling everything in electrical wires. I could see someone, a man, lying face down in the road. He was facing away from us, but judging by the fact that both his shoes were missing, it was a good guess he'd tried to pass the cars and stepped in one of the electrically charged puddles.

"Shit!" Aden pounded the steering wheel with one hand. "We can't get through here."

More coming soon!  Thanks for reading guys! For updates, news and awesome contests, check out the E. Latimer Fan Page!