Janus.

Chapter 1.1: A Rat, An Idiot, And A Witch

It was a regular morning for Dave. He woke up, ate some food, and went out for a drive. The mad man couldn't care less about brushing his teeth or personal hygiene, and he had tattered clothes. He was going to the abandoned highway, built in the early 21st century. Squeedo started squeaking so Dave lifted his leg from the accelerator. The car didn't have a functional speedometer but it had a rat named Squeedo.

Squeedo was Dave's best friend, but he could only talk to him after getting drunk. There were a bunch of men on horses trying their best to keep up,  while throwing spears at them" We got you! Heretic!", one screamed ,"Don't be so sure of yourself.", said another ,"SHUT UP JEFF!!"all the men hated Jeff. Nobody likes Jeff.

Dave got drunk, sped up, and outran the mediaeval idiots. "Fucking dumbasses, am I right?" Dave screamed at the top of his lungs ,"Shut the hell up and slow down you drunk maniac!!"Said Squeedo, who was definitely not enjoying the ride.

They outran the mediaeval dumbasses, who were busy blaming Jeff for their loss. Who could blame them? Fuck Jeff.

The incredibly old car broke down near a factory. Dave asked Squeedo if there was a way to repair it, but he could only hear squeaking. He put the rat in his left back pocket and marched into the factory, filled with the fear of entering an unknown environment.

"Someone! Help me! She's coming for me!" Dave heard a scream from behind a car, it was rusted and there was quite a lot of moss on it. He heard people screaming ,"Over here!","No, she's over there!" They were trying to find someone.

"Hey you! Yeah, you. Mind taking me to Nostonia? I'll pay you 1000 drebits."A girl appeared out of nowhere, she had white hair, brown eyes and was wearing a black t-shirt, which to Dave seemed like a weird shirt without buttons ,"What the hell are drebits? Pay me by fixing my car or we can't go, and also gimme that weird blue disc in your hand", The girl started smiling ,"That's a vinyl record, you can have it after we've fixed the car, wait here, I'll bring something.", she left.

Dave waited for 3 minutes, he heard screams inside the factory all over again, then he saw the girl coming out of the factory, she was smiling and her clothes were bloody ,"There's an army coming, I hope this is the right fuel for your car." she started walking towards the back of the car. The girl began to put a strange liquid in Dave's car, and sat in the passenger seat. Dave got in the car ,"what did you put in my car?", he asked. "I'll tell you if we survive, now floor it!" She was excited to be in a car for the first time in her life, and He started driving.

"This car looks like a sports coupe, how long have you been driving it?" The girl asked with curiosity," A month." Dave answered. "A month?" She was confused ,"and you haven't refueled it once? How? Just how?" Dave had no idea what fuel was, he just knew that the guy who gave him the car did some modifications ."This car has average fuel efficiency. The article I found said so, so how is that even possible? I can't wrap my head around this at all. I'm supposed to know the most about the old society's knowledge, so why can't I figure out how this is possible?" The girl seemed to mutter a bunch of words that made no sense to Dave, like 'V6' or 'fuel consumption', but she was paying him for this ride with a cool shiny disc, so he didn't mind. Squeedo bit her leg to shut her up, she screamed ,"Oh god! You have a rat infestation in your car, you're from a tribe, aren't you?" Dave was tired of her ,"The only reason I don't know much about this stuff is because I've lived outside the great four nations, but that doesn't mean I'm primitive!"

The girl laughed ,"How're you supposed to gain forbidden knowledge from the people gatekeeping it?" She kept laughing for an entire minute ,"You really don't know anything, do you? You'll have to hide your car somewhere before you enter Nostonia because they consider the old society to be cursed." She seemed pretty serious. "alright" said Dave, dismissively ,"I don't even know what is this old society that keep going on about, but alright, where do I hide it? I plan to be in Nostonia for a while. "The girl had an annoyed look ,"At least ask my name before I let you live with me." "What?" "I am literally the only person who can help you stay alive there." Dave was getting incredibly suspicious of her intentions. She killed those people in that place as self defense, right?" All you have to do is let me take your car apart and mess around with it, I promise I'll make sure it's functional in the end."Nevermind, she was just geeking out over the car.