Don't abandon him

You're happy with your all-female gang and don't really want to add another male, even though Erwin is not exactly competition considering he isn't interested in women.

But, when you turn to him to let him know he's on his own, he's staring at you with a glazed look filled with despair. All of a sudden you're overtaken with a vivid memory of Amber laughing at you. If you abandon Erwin, you're pretty sure he'll have no other option than returning to the cult. Now that he's realized his sexual orientation, he'll quickly yield to peer pressure and admit his sins... and be scorned and laughed at... at best. At worst, they might put him through some of the crazy conversion 'therapies' out there, the ones that seem designed more to break a person than to help them. You've been at the bottom before and it's no fun. If dragging Erwin along is what's necessary to save him from that, you guess you have **** but to drag him along. Who knows, maybe he'll even be helpful although, from what you've seen, that doesn't seem likely.

"Fine, Erwin," you say. "You're part of the commune now. But we've got to get a move on... your cult assholes should be here any minute and I don't want to be anywhere close when they arrive.

Your conviction that Erwin won't be much help is proven wrong when he leads you to the white church bus he and Sara used to come to your cabin, fires up the engine (after a couple of false starts... engine maintenance must be a low priority for those waiting for the imminent end of the world) and you all get aboard.

"Where to?" he asks.

It's a good question.

"Let's start with a hardware store," you say. "It won't take them long to start looking for this bus. If we can paint it, maybe make it look like a hippie thing, it might survive a quick inspection. And back to California. I suspect they'll find it easier to get the cops looking for us in places where the religious right is in control. After that... I'm open to suggestions."

Sara put her hand on your arm. "You're very strong and decisive."

Yeah, right. You just admitted you have no idea. Then again, the poor girl has been locked in a cult for years. She's probably been **** to see her cult leaders as infallible prophets rather than all-to-human men and encouraged to feed their egos at every opportunity. The one thing you don't understand is why they let her continue hanging with Erwin. If you were a cult leader, you certainly would have culled her out, dressed her in sexier outfits, and let her know that a good handmaiden is all about taking care of the prophet's needs.

Then again, it's probably just as well you decided against becoming a cult leader.

You head down the 50 toward Sacramento while Crystal and Mara work on persuading Sara to change into something more normal.

"Do I have to show Mike my body?" she asks.

"You want to, don't you?" Charlotte gives you a subtle wink.

"Uh, no one has ever seen me naked."

"I'll bet Mike would find you very pretty." Charlotte points out, as if that should matter.

"It's up to you," you tell her. "I'm glad you got yourself out of that unhealthy environment but that doesn't mean we expect you instantly to become sexually liberated. If you feel uncomfortable with others seeing your body--"

"Or touching it," Charlotte puts in.

"Uh, yeah, or that... that's perfectly fine."

"I feel so silly that I spent years waiting for Erwin. I don't want to wait any more."