[center][h3][color=green]Juan[/color][/h3][/center]
Location: Chicago (Testing Center – Union Station)
[hr]

Marie had managed to get Juan packed and ready to go. One suit case, a couple charger packs, his laptop, and his iPad, plus clothes for a week. Everything they asked he tended to say something like, “Yeah.” Which mean he was not listening. 

They had made it to the train station only to find that because of the law, they needed to be tested to see if they were Enhanced. Marie was fine, she had not developed any powers and she had not even been sick. Juan picked up every cold, flu, and 	
Their parents had arranged for them to head for LA to stay with some family there. They were being sent to get them out of Chicago, Juan to keep him out of trouble since he had developed powers, and Marie because she had developed a different set of powers over the last six months that had nothing to do with the pandemic. This made for boy problems. The family already had their hands full with Juan and they did not need another child in the family at this crazy time. 

Marie leaned over and whispered into Juan’s ear. If they find out you have powers they are going to hurt you. That registered in Juan’s mind. He hated people hurting people and most importantly people hurting him. 

They were brought back into a little exam room where a phlebotomist grabbed a vial and drew Marie’s blood. The nurse had left their paperwork on the desk and had to step out. 

“Now”, she said. She grabbed the vial and put his label on it as he disappeared. She shoved it into the rack.  Standing in the corner, Juan froze. 
Marie pulled her sleeve down and pulled her left one up. 
The nurse came in she asked, “Where is Mr..” she looked at the paper. “Rosa” she continued. 
With hand motions and pointing, “He had to go to the bathroom after they drew his blood.”  
“Could you draw mine? We have a train to catch and traveling with Juan is hard enough,” 
Marie smiled.
The nurse did the second draw. This one would leave a bruise. She took the cotton ball and Band-Aid. 
“I always get a little lightheaded after that, can I have a moment?” she asked. 
The nurse gave her a compassionate; grow-up look and nodded taking the vials and heading out the door. “Go that way,” the nurse pointed to a different waiting area. 

After a moment and the hall was clear, Juan reappeared. They headed to the waiting area, luggage and all. Juan kept to his iPad, trying to ignore the guards with guns that were around.  Marie tried to flirt with the young ones, they were male after all. In about 15 minutes, the results of the test were in and both of them were “Negative” with their government-issued “We are not the bad guy’s” cards.  

Marie looked at Juan and said, “These are better than a driver’s license. I bet we can use them to get on the train without all the other papers.” It had her driver’s license number, social security number, and other information like the date they were tested. Juan’s read State ID Number”. They did not have to provide much information other than just showing the train eTickets she had printed offline. She figured that it was because of the heightened security in Chicago. But it bothered Marie a bit.

6:45 pm the train pulled out of Union Station. Because of Juan’s size and needs they were quickly moved to a private room with a bathroom. It might have been Juan politely asking a very nice woman if he could touch her boobs. This quickly got them moved to a private lower room with its own bathroom. They could sleep on the bench seats. 

The trip took 58 hours from Chicago to LA. Twice they stopped and got off of the train as it fueled and for some unknown reason for a couple of hours. They got a pizza delivered at a couple of stops and bought junk food from the station vending machines. 

Making it to LA they saw the news that Mayor Chen had offered sanctuary. One phone call to family and they had room to stay in San Francisco till she could get a place for them. 

Juan tried like hell to ignore all of the people at the train station.