||Series Removed|| OTB

26 - Tough Love

26

"No... No, don't... No!!" My head hit the roof, striking my brain with enough force to put me straight back into whatever coma I'd finally crawled out of.

Shimmying my hands around like a blind man, I didn't even question how I was still alive. The metal edges of this place... I was in the boot of a car? The darkened trunk was popped open, and I could see the familiar dusty tarmac that accompanied Route 66. A most welcome sight, if only for what it represented; moving on from the road already travelled.

"So, who was it this time?"

Her voice. I scanned my eyes around from my blanketed trunk, smoothing over the bruise on my forehead as I made sure I wasn't hearing things. Sure enough, the sight of her comforting blonde hair dancing in the nearby campfire's light was enough of a hint that we were safe. For now.

"Bless... You're awake already?"

"Well, I should hope so. You're been sleeping for three days, Daniel. We weren't sure if you were going to make it..." She dragged herself over the couple of paces, and sat cross-legged below my temporary sickbed. "You wake up every couple of hours, scream out a random name and fall right back into another nightmare. You don't remember anything?"

"N-No... Whose name?"

"Let's see... The time before, it was something like 'Leo'. Then a few hours ago, you kept calling Charlotte 'Millie' and almost clobbered her father to death before passing out."

"M-Mils? Why would I-" Shaking my headache lightly, I almost stumbled over the most crucial piece of news. 

"What?! Talmadge, he's alive? How did he escape the town?" Desperately trying to get up out of the cramped space, I tumbled onto the ground and felt every inch of my body roar in agony. I let out a chorus of pained winces and eventually managed to sit myself upright to fully observe the roadside campfire.

Charlotte and the mayor were busy failing to cook some kind of stew in a steel pot, whilst Tanner tinkered with the hood of the dusty-green sedan I had just flopped out of. I'd lost days of precious time, and it was starting to take its toll on my memory.

Blessing placed her freezing-cold palm on my shoulder, and only then could I get a decent look at her face; there was a small dimple from where Elizabeth had blown her head wide open like a casket, almost looking like it never even happened.

"Daniel, stay calm... From what she told me, Charlotte's father saved us from the evacuation squad. He picked us up with one of the trading trucks, and we outran the TMD patrols from outside the city limits. We've made sure to change vehicles every so often, just in case the Telos satellite managed to tail us. It's unlikely, but best to stay safe."

I leaned my head in close, still feeling a little delirious from the low fall I took. Staring her dead in the eyes, it took more sincerity than I could muster to ask her the question.

"Can we trust that man? After what he did to Patch, to Tanner's parents... to Charlotte? He was beating her, for Christ's sake!"

"I'm... not entirely certain. He seems genuinely repentant, but no one's really said a word to him since he picked us up. I don't know much about these family interactions, but I think there's still a little tension around here."

Glancing over to the pot once more, the mayor caught my eyes and gave an overly-pleasant grunt. Seems he was just grateful that I didn't shoot him down in that basement, more than anything.

"Ah, you're awake! Come and grab a bowl, my son... Dinner's almost ready!" Uneasily, I nodded and shakily climbed to my feet. Only then did I notice that my foot had been bandaged carefully, with much more stability than before.