General Lee's Revenge--Knightmares

Chapter Three: No Rest for the Wicked

(My sincere apologies for General in the second section of this chapter, I have no control over him...)

Thunder and Christine drove through the better half of the day. They visited Osage but got nothing from Stallion. In fact, it seemed as though no Defect in the Tri-County region knew anything about the hearse, or even Thunder's constitution, by that matter. By late afternoon, they'd stopped to rest on a hill overlooking Choctaw, where Thunder was the first to speak.

"What's on your mind?" he asked.

Christine scoffed. "I should be asking the same thing about you."

"That so?"

A brief moment of silence washed over them.

"Look, Thunder, I know something's been eating you, all of us can see it. I guess I just... wish you'd be more open about it."

Thunder paused for a moment. "D'you talk to General like that too?"

"General's not an emotional wreck, Thunder."

Thunder looked at her.

"N-no offense."

Thunder sighed. "I'm goin' through some kinda existential crisis, if that even makes any sense. I don't know what I want, Christine, hell I wasn't even convinced I was alive for the longest time. I never expected my life to amount to nothin', nothin' at all. But... then I met you guys and everythin' just sorta turned bass-ackwards." Thunder scoffed. "I know, I know, you think I'm a fricken nut case."

Christine shook herself. "Nah, you're pretty valid by my standards."

"When I say I never expected my life to amount to a whole hell of a lot, I mean it with my whole heart. I ain't sure you even wanna hear this, but here goes everythin'. I was stolen from the ranch after the Dreamer went missin'. Damn bandits tore me apart, engine first. The second I got put back together, I ran like hell to the next state over, and so on." Thunder drew in a shaky breath. "I didn't want to live anymore. If livin' meant goin' through pain like that, then I didn't want it, so I gave up. All I did was run. Run from people, from Defects... from myself. And... that's when I met you guys. The crazy cars who gave me life, which is more than what I can say for the lightnin'."

Christine was quiet for a moment, still processing this. "And you repaid the favor twice over for Stripes and Trigger, whether or not they deserved it."

Thunder nodded. "They deserved it, Christine, they deserved it."

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General woke to the hearse sitting in the corner of the dark room. Its headlights glowed softly. General looked around the room. There were no windows, just a roll-up door, like a storage unit of some kind.

General pushed himself up on his suspension, chains connected to his push-bar rattling. He studied his dented hood and the black marks made by the hearse's tire.

General revved his engine at the hearse, vying for its attention. "Hey, ugly, you got a name?"

The hearse's headlights flickered. "Tank."

General scoffed. "Alright, fittin'." He looked around once more. "What kinda dump did you stash me in?"

"I can't tell you, that'd be cheatin'," Tank growled.

"Cheatin'? This some kinda game I'm supposed to play or is that a metaphor?"

"Whatever floats your fricken boat."