Bleached Out Eyes

Chapter 12 - Loves Me Knot

"Well," Ghoul looked to his left, at Jet, "What do you think?"

"I think it should be okay," Jet nodded, looking back at Ghoul, "So long as you keep your nose and mouth covered."

The two of them were stood at one of the windows of the diner, looking out at the storm. There was still sand blowing through the air, shifting across the ground in waves, but at least they could see the horizon now.

Kobra had brought up the fact that they needed to go fetch his and Party's stuff from their bike, as well as see if it was worth stripping the bike parts to sell. They still needed to go and trade with anyone who might have batteries; for Ghoul, stopping by Tommy Chow Mein's was a last resort.

There was room in the garage for the bike, they just hadn't been sure if it was okay to go out in the storm; after a few minutes of staring out of the window, Jet seemed to think so.

Ghoul looked over his shoulder at Kobra, who was stood over by the bar.

"You okay to go out in that?"

"I should be. Like Jet said," he shrugged, "So long as we keep our faces covered."

"Alright then," Ghoul chirped, heading out towards the back room, "Let's grab our bandanas and get your bike moved!"

Outside, the wind was fiercer than it had looked from inside. The sand was still blowing about hard enough to make Ghoul's scalp itch, and his sunglasses really weren't doing anything to protect his eyes. Kobra was in the same situation though and didn't seem to be complaining, so Ghoul kept quiet.

The dust and dirt had piled up around the bike in small dunes and drifts, meaning Ghoul and Kobra had to dig out the wheels before they could even think about moving it anywhere. This took longer than expected; sand, when dry, has a tendency to move back into the hole that you just removed it from, so the two of them were left worn out and pissed off by the time they could actually move the machine.

Kobra took the handlebars of the bike, while Ghoul maneuvered the sidecar, and between them they managed to shunt the bike around to the other side of the building.

Knocking hard on the metal shutters of the garage, they stepped back as Jet opened up the door and let the two of them in. The direction of the wind meant that sand was skittering past the entrance, but thankfully not blowing inside. Still, somehow, they managed to leave a very clear trail of sand across the floor.

"Nice to see that you've brought so much of the outside back inside with you," Jet commented, shutting the garage door again before looking at the sand trail, hands on hips.

"Fuck off," Ghoul grumbled, "You'd be a bit sandy too if you had to excavate a fucking motorbike. Anyway," he straightened up, pulling off his bandana and setting his sunglasses on top of his head, "How did I end up doing this? You're fucking built, and you're always taking the piss out of me being so small."

Jet raised an eyebrow and leaned back on a workbench, "You've gotta make yourself useful somehow. Being an arsonist doesn't count as pulling your weight."

"That was like... Two times! And it wasn't arson, there was a point to it!"

"What did you burn down?"

Ghoul rolled his eyes, but still answered Kobra's question, "Okay, I burned down one thing, and it was a van of exterminators that had broken down in Zone Two. They were just waiting to get picked off anyway. I'd been... Experimenting with fireworks and I made a bomb. Put it through their back window and watched the whole thing go up in flames. The other time," he glared pointedly at Jet, "Was a genuine mistake. I accidentally got a firecracker mixed in with some firewood, it went off and landed on the roof of the shack we were staying at. But I put it out! It was fine, and I swear I am not an arsonist."