Diary From The Carrot Union

Chapter 22: #Panik!

Instead of stopping to answer, Joseph slammed the gas, and our orange car sped up as if its tail was catching fire. I tried to remain composed, but it's clear that we're getting further and further away from Moshare.

I took a small sigh and went silent, and the car gradually slowed down. Joseph quickly turned down the radio and looked towards me with an awkward dumbfounded smile, "Who's Star?"

"Who's Star? Are you kidding me, Joseph? That little girl Woofer told me I'd meet!"

"I...I thought she's your daughter!" Joseph stammered.
"N-no, I mean, yeah! Whatever, my daughter!"

Well, that leads to nothing, but my mind was too preoccupied to think normally. However, I guess my definition of normal itself reasonably qualifies to be admitted to a psych ward.

"W-well...She isn't here! Not right now!"

I suppressed the urge to rip open my two ears, instead of suppressing my rage by closing my eyes as hard as rabbitly possible. My hands trembled, urging me to strangle a million cucumbers or anything inanimate that won't put me in prison.

"Yes," I sighed, "I can see that, Joseph. Where is she?"

"I don't know! You must ask Comrade Woofer for that!"

"Didn't he at least tell you anything?"

"I cannot question superiors, Mr Leon! Not to a guy like Woofer! The Wolf Apple movement imposes this confidentiality act, and well...I just can't!"

"Oh, ha! So he's yet another one of Guava's gang of psychopaths? Oh great! I feel very safe now!"

"It's not like that, Mr Leon!"

I had enough of this snivelling brat's lies and excuses. The longer Joseph explained his rationalisation with that bubbly Yorkish accent, the more I wished to burst out and claw his face with my bare hands.

But that rage imploded into a perpetual abyss of emptiness, and suddenly, I felt that living wasn't worth it anymore.

"You know Joseph, give me one reason for me not to open this door and roll out in this high-speed cat and mouse game and kill myself!"

"Nonono! We need you, Mr Leon!"
"Need you? I thought I was the fool! The fucking fool!"

"Y-yea I mean, no! It's just..."
"Answer me or I'm rolling out!"

"Fine! Fine! What do you want to know? I'll tell you anything I know!"

The pressure on my chest suddenly disappears the moment I hear the last sentence. My rational mind took over in an instant, and I quickly exploited the chance to take control.

"That Star girl, Joseph! Where is she!"

"Look, all I know, Mr Woofer said you're going to meet her soon, right? So I mean, if we interpret it grammatically, that means there's a high chance you're going to meet her, right?"

"He didn't say how I'll meet her! In death? In pieces?"

"But you're still alive, Mr Leon! Isn't that enough reassurance?"

I thought he talked some sense, but I thought blatantly approving his rhetoric would tarnish my barely-justified sense of superiority, and so I pulled my chest up and said what's on my mind.

"Fine...You bought myself another day. Just beware, I have a broken sense of self-preservation, and I'm not afraid to kill myself!"

"Yeah! Please don't, Mr Leon! We'll get out of the woods, I promise!"

Well, I thought, at least we know Star is alive.

And so our road trip continued, upon the endless coniferous wood and foggy grasslands, with the sound of the soothing radio as a backdrop towards a relatively peaceful drive.