Us and Them

Death Valley

   "I don't think we're making it to the next gas station." Joe yelled above the wind noise through the open window on the rear of the cab. The fuel gauge has dropped down below empty about four miles ago and there was no sign of any gas station anywhere near where they were.

   During the last night's fire show, Pete had run off around the other side of their burning house and hopped in the Death Adder's bright red Dodge D100 she had parked in the neighbor's driveway. There was enough excitement going on around them that the three of them had managed to narrowly escape. Josh hadn't been so lucky. But Pete was sure he knew where the Vixens had taken him. And it was the one place he had refused to go after their initial run in with them.

   The truck sputtered to a halt and Pete sat behind the wheel staring at the long road ahead. Maybe he had been too rash in taking a 40 year old gas guzzling monster instead of a Prius. But last he checked, it got them far enough away from trouble that they only ran into more.

   "Now what? We have, like, two days worth of water and no food." Andy pointed out, peering into the cab. "Was the goal to become vulture food?"

   "Well, I thought you'd be thrilled if we broke down in the middle of nowhere. Maybe your little make believe army will appear and save us all." Pete snapped, shoving the door open. "We'll wait here for a semi or something to pass by. Then we'll have a way out."

   "Yeah, a semi," Andy shook his head. "We'd be better off walking. Preferably in the direction we came from. I don't care if I get caught at this point anymore. Everyone ends up in Vegas eventually. Then at least we'll be rotting in prison with air conditioning and three meals a day."

   They sat bickering with each other for a few hours, passing a water jug around every now and again to keep themselves from drying up. But as the sun began to set, they were all just itching to get some rest. Joe and Andy took the cab while Pete and Patrick settled for laying out in the bed under the stars.

                                     •••

   Patrick awoke to something wet nudging his arm, to which he blindly swatted at with his hook-hand as he was still mostly asleep. Then, that same thing nipped the skin on his arm and he bolted upright almost into the face of a painted horse's face.

   "Oh, you're alive!" The man on the back of the horse grinned. He had bright brown eyes, which glowed in contrast to the black paint around his eyes. His long, black hair blew gently in the desert breeze.

   Patrick shook Pete awake who grunted and rolled over toward him. "What?" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. When he opened them back up he looked right at what looked like a hallucination and damn near jumped out of his skin. "You have got to be shitting me."

                                          ••• 

   Josh bolted awake, nearly hitting his head on the bunk above him. He was covered in a cold sweat and his head was pounding like someone was had just got done smacking him with a frying pan.

   "Morning," a voice greeted from above him. He poked his head out and looked up, a fairly tall man was sitting with his knees pulled up to support the book he was thumbing through. "Let me guess, picked a fight you had no chance of winning?"

"Something like that." Josh winced, rolling back into his bunk and squeezing his eyes shut.

He heard the book close and the creaking of the mattress above him as the other hopped down onto the ground. Then, a chair was picked up and set by Josh. He found the curiosity outweighed the pain at the moment and looked over once again. The other man was lanky, shaggy brown hair tousled in every direction, just barely showing his blue eyes.

"Well, I'll catch you up on the answers to the questions you probably have." The other began. "I'm Dallon, I've been in here for awhile now. Nobody wants to take me back where I'm from. I know too much about certain things. So, they pay Urie up in his ivory tower to make sure I stay out of trouble."

   "So, basically this place is a hotel for criminals."

   "Eh, at least this level is. But the longer you stay, the more uncomfortable they make it. It's called the F.E.A.R incentive. I don't know who implemented it, but if nobody claims you they start turning you to the workforce. I've seen some of the most rebellious, individualistic folks turn into just shells of people who on care about meeting their quota for catches. Doesn't matter the age. Within a month most people are out there on the job. Friends turn on friends. People die."

   Their conversation was interrupted by clamor from one of the other cells, two well dressed and built guards dragged a girl with short choppy hair down the hall. She was putting up one hell of a fight, kicking and biting the entire way until they passed by. Her hands caught the doorway and she looked in at them, eyes filled with rage as she tried to resist the pull. Dallon avoided eye contact, suddenly finding the back corner of the room interesting. Josh stared at her until she lost her grip, a familiar feeling rising in his chest. It was the same feeling he'd felt watching Clancy climb the tower in DEMA. All he could do was watch and wonder.

   "I need to find a way out."

                                         •••

   Pete's feet were sore from walking on the uneven terrain across the desert. Water seemed to leave his body as soon as he drank it, his throat felt like sand. But at least their tour guide was having fun. He looked at Andy who was squinting at the undetermined path ahead.

"Gandalf better be wherever we're going or I'm gonna be pissed." He said to him hoarsely, kicking at the hot sand as he walked.

"I think you're starting to get heat stroke." Andy replied, giving him a small shit eating smile.

Just when Pete thought he was going to die, they came upon a series of caves. The mouths of them were dark and uninviting, and looked to be as if this guy was just leading them somewhere to die peacefully. Which at this point was fine with him. Patrick perked up next to him, eyes widening as they approached the first cave. There had to be hundreds of people in there, all dressed in black to blend in with their dark environment. Their guide stopped his horse and lead it inside on foot, people moving out of the way to let him by. They were also very puzzled as to why four guys on the verge of death were following him. Someone took the horse from their guide and they followed him deeper into the cave.

"Alright, here's where I let you off Tour a la CC. This is our version of isolation. Not in any negative way, but we just use theses rooms to help new folks recoup without being bothered by everyone else. There's fresh water and some food in there." CC paused and gave them a reassuring smile. "Everyone already knew to expect you, The Mystic keeps tabs on everyone who goes out on patrol. In most cases, it's me."

Once CC left, Pete immediately claimed his room, which just so happened to be first one he saw that had ice cold water within reach. Once his thirst was satisfied he looked to his friends.

"Okay, Andy, of all the things on my bingo card for this year, being rescued by KISS impersonating cave dwellers was definitely not on it."