||Series Removed|| OTB

4 - A Cup Of Tea

4

"Perfect... Just perfect." Making sure that my annoyance as clear as the sunny day, Alisha and I pushed relentlessly against the front of the car as Tomás sat in the front seat with a wide grin, acting like we were his private servants.

"C'mon, chop-chop! Master has to be back at the mansion by seven for the grand ball." Our ride had already clocked out on us barely an hour along the road; it seemed as though the Fenrirs had done more damage than I'd realised, and now we were stranded.

The 'mansion' that Tomás was referring to happened to be an old villa we'd passed less than five minutes ago.

We weren't sure how long we had left out in the sun, and it looked as though the place we were heading towards had a garage with tools we could use in an attempt to fix whatever was wrong with our shiny new car.

"Tom... this was mostly your fault, not ours. Why aren't you pushing with us? At least stop weighing the damn thing down..."

"Are you calling me fat, filthy peasant?!"

"...Of course not, master."

Grinding my teeth for only a second, I couldn't help give up with a sigh and a light chuckle under my breath. Tomás continued to spout nonsensical rich-man banter about his mansion while Alisha turned to me with a concerned look.

"That Swedish man we met back there... What exactly did he mean, about heading to a place called Patch? Something about 'putting the Route behind them'...?"

Considering it myself, I shook off any tempting thoughts before they could take hold. "It... doesn't matter. It sounds like some kind of safe zone, right? Anyway, I don't plan on getting comfortable there, or anywhere along this damn Route. Not until I find the others, or at least get in touch with Lizzie."

We'd been pushing the red car along the road for what seemed like forever, until finally we arrived at the place that looked to be some rich guy's holiday home.

The entire orange-brick complex was fenced off, and there wasn't a Lost in sight. It seemed as though the dead despised the wasteland's scorching sun even more than we did.

Fanning our faces, we decided to simply climb over the metal gate rather than risk breaking it open. While the whole area was deadly quiet, we didn't want to risk a random horde sweeping through only to find our sanctuary's entrance busted open.

The front garden was almost tropical, it was hard to tell whether it was overgrown or designed to be like a small oasis. It felt like we were intruding on someone's peaceful haven, despite the absence of intelligent life anywhere in the tranquil home.

"Man, I'm thirsty... Hope there's some water in there somewhere..." Alisha had to stop Tomás from barging in with his dry tongue hanging loose, instead instructing me to take out my pistol and perpared herself in front of the door.

"Not so fast... There's no telling whether one of them might be trapped in there. We'll check the rooms first, and then go looking for supplies. Don't get distracted until we know it's safe, and then you can act like total idiots. Understand?"

"Yes, Miss..." Tomás and I muttered in an equally-lacklustre fashion. However, it appeared as though the entire endeavour was redundant as the door clicked open of its own volition.

Spiralling around in bewilderment, Alisha dodged back a couple of paces and grabbed at the assault rifle strung across her back. "W-Who's there?! Show yourself!"

Creaking the door open a little more, we all relaxed a little when we saw a brittle old lady peering through at us. Glossing over our firearms, for some reason she wasn't as startled as most elderly folk would be if armed strangers busted through their porch without permission.