50 miles east, out of town, in a run down gas station. Few cars passed these roads this late at night, and there are no lights on in the decrepit remains of the building. Pulled up behind it and with moonlight bathing them, they were free for now, to do as they needed.

It took them a while to get out here, and all the while the metal man hadn’t made a sound or a movement. Nova had been waiting for it, on the edge of her seat the entire time she was driving. She knew that had he moved, she could’ve had to swerve out of traffic, into a mostly secluded area, then try and not get hit sky high again. That would [i]not[/i] have been fun, however necessary. Now that they were alone, the car was in park, and all immediate danger was gone… she let herself take a breath and simply collapse against the steering wheel. The horn honked until she jerked back, realizing that perhaps napping on her steering wheel wasn’t the best move. “Well… Now what?”

Liam stared at her for a solid half a minute before speaking. “You mean you drove us all the way out here without having even the faintest inkling of a plan? Lovely.” He shoved his door open and got out of the car, walking around a bit to stretch his legs whilst thinking aloud. “So here we are, middle of nowhere with the corpse of a monster. Odds are good that the police are aware of what happened, and maybe more than just the local police. Would the FBI or the CIA be the ones to deal with a man spontaneously turning into a metal beast and then being fought off by people with superhuman powers? Maybe the anti-terrorism group for all we know. Anyway, they’d probably like to talk to us and that wouldn’t be good for our health, I think.” He stopped, facing the car, and gestured to the metal man. “We need to get rid of that, somewhere nobody will find it. We should also ditch the car as soon as possible.”

Kaya slung herself out of the car, dragged the body out with her, and slammed the door shut behind her. [i]”Liam,[/i] would it kill you to be [i]nice[/i] once in a while?” 

“Probably. My lifeblood is sarcasm and snark. I wouldn’t want to test it to find out.”

“[i]Ass,[/i]” Kaya muttered under her breath. Throwing the body away from her as a testament to her overall peevedness, she kicked at the ground beneath her. Looking back at the metal remains, she pondered for a moment. “Should we… do an autopsy?”

Liam scratched his head, looking at the metal corpse as well. “I don’t know, maybe? Got anything that can cut the thing open?”

Without responding, Kaya moves off towards the gas station to look for an axe. Whether it was for the corpse or for Liam was hard to tell.

Cora climbed out of the car to join the others, her hands wrapped in what used to be the metal man’s shirt. “Everyone got what they need from the car?” she asked, wincing as she flexed her fingers.

Nova was the last out of the car. She pulled out a large backpack from the trunk, as well the first aid kit she had kept. “Yup.” Falling silent for a moment, she looked around then past the gas station, trying to see if there was anywhere to hide the body. Look at that… from child welfare worker to someone who needed to hide a body. “We should probably bury him off the property line. There’s always a chance someone could choose to rebuild here. I don’t see why an autopsy would be necessary. We can tell he’s not all metal since….” she cleared her throat and gestured to the mutilated body, “we can see bits of him.” Turning to face Liam, she fought a smile. “You mentioned you could… see things. Could you try and see where we’re supposed to go next?”

Grabbing an old napkin from the floor of the car, Cora lit it with her finger and quickly dropped it onto the scraps of shirt left on the car seat that she hadn’t used for bandaging.

Liam glanced from the burning napkin to Cora. “You realize we might still need the car, right? We’re kind of in the middle of nowhere.” He kept his voice monotone and his face blank while saying that, trusting that the message would sink in without the need of thick sarcasm, then turned his attention to Nova. “I can’t control it. If I get a vision of some kind telling us where to go, I’ll be sure to let you all know.”

Nova darted forward when she saw the napkin being dropped, brushing it out of the car. She ground the burning napkin and clothing scraps into the ground, not wanting to cause undue attention. “We should talk things through before we set things on fire. Liam actually has a point. We need some way of getting back to civilization after we… dispose of evidence.”

“Get back to civilization?” Cora scoffed, “You ever heard of security cameras? Cellphones? People just saw us beat up a sick guy, kill a security guard, destroy private property, and maybe burn down a theatre. They’ll have pictures and videos, and someone may have gotten a shot of the car.

“That means the car’s more dangerous than it’s worth, and going to a city will just get us arrested. Our parents want to talk to us?” she continued, “they can do it out in the wilderness.”

"It was hardly my idea to set anything on fire, ma'am. If someone got a shot of the car, we can..." she had to pause to fumble for the proper term, "change license plates, or whatever those television shows display. You're assuming far too much of the crowd to remember what we look like. Most of us were hidden in the crowd, by height, or by a flaming piece of upholstery. You are being far too paranoid. We need to discuss this logically, not just immediately assume the worst and take a scorched earth policy. Why can we not try to make a plan before panicking?"

“How about this for a plan?” Liam held up his right hand with just his index finger extended. “First, no burning the car just yet. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have no idea how close the nearest town or city or whatever is, aside from the one we very much want to avoid that’s about fifty miles back.” He lifted up another finger as he continued. “Second, we find somewhere where we can ditch this thing and acquire a new vehicle. Get a new ride, head out into the middle of nowhere again, torch or just abandon this one, then go on our merry way. That way we’ve always got some transportation.” Liam lifted another finger. “Third and finally, get right the hell out of here and find somewhere far away to lay low and wait for word from our divine pals or maybe for me to get a vision that points us in the right direction, whatever works.” He let his hand fall back down to his side and looked from Cora to Nova and back again as he finished his little speech. “That a sound enough plan for you two?”

“We want to avoid all towns, not just the one we left,” Cora countered, “Information travels faster than we do.” She thought for a moment before continuing, “What if we put the car in a ditch? When someone stops to see what happened, take their car and phone and [i]then[/i] find somewhere to lay low.”

“Guys,” Kaya calls out distractedly as she leaves the gas station, looking at something she’s holding her hand. She spoke softly, her voice not exceptionally noticeable amidst all their arguing.

Slung over her shoulder was an empty fire extinguisher, held by her right arm. At her belt, she had stuffed a trusty old fire axe. Her head was bowed, attentively analysing some small item she was holding in her left hand, turning it towards the moonlight, as if to better read it. It was, after all, nighttime, and there was little in the way of strong lights about them.

“Yes, because hoping for a car to happen by the abandoned gas station on a disused road is clearly the best way to handle thing.” Liam ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “It’s simple. We don’t need to ditch the car right this very moment, we just need to avoid the police. Random people on the street won’t be able to identify the car or even know what happened, so who cares if they see us. We don’t want to wreck the damned thing here either, because we don’t know how far away the next town is. Just…” Liam sighed again, shaking his head. “Just leave the planning to the people with functioning brains, okay? We’ll all be better off for it.”

Cora’s blood began to run hot, temper flaring. “Or leave the planning to someone who’s been on the run before, you rich ass?” She began grinding her teeth, “Pushing the car into a ditch isn’t going to wreck the thing. Not everything is made of glass like you. And what if we run into a speed trap? They’ll be told to keep an eye out for us. We can’t go anywhere with this car!”

Liam rolled his eyes at the outburst. “I suppose being an experienced criminal is a good thing in your mind, then? Lovely.” He gestured to the car, then to the road. “This thing doesn’t stand out very much, and we can use back roads. Nobody bothers to put speed traps on the crappy side roads that see little use, only on major roads. So long as we’re smart about it, which I understand will be a challenge for this group that will require my full attention and aid, we can avoid any danger and actually get out of here rather than sitting around hoping for a random passerby, and without walking who the hell knows how far to get to another vehicle as your utterly brilliant original plan of burning the car would have led to.” Liam turned away from Cora dismissively, fishing around in his pockets for something. “As I said, please, leave off the planning. You’re not suited to it.”

Her fist slammed into the back of Liam’s head, the burns screaming in protest. “[i]Shut up[/i], you pompous [i]ass[/s].”

Liam felt the hit coming, but too late to actually get out of the way. He stumbled forward a couple steps with his right hand coming up to clasp the back of his head. There was no blood or obvious breakage, and it only hurt as much as a normal punch should, so he figured Cora hadn’t been intending to kill him at least. Not that that changed things much. He spun back around and glared at the woman. “So you’re stupid [i]and[/i] violent? What a fucking surprise.” Liam let go of his head and pointed at Cora. “Keep your hands off me, you damned troglodyte. As distasteful as it is, we’re supposed to be working together here, not killing each other. I would think even a simpleton could understand that much.”

Nova had been too distracted by the item Kaya had brought back. She was obviously holding something else, but she couldn’t get a close enough eye on it. From what she had learned as a social worker, letting Liam and Cora bicker for a bit would probably keep them out of trouble until they either [i]required[/i] intervention due to escalation, or until they were calm enough where they would accept help. Hearing the hit, Nova winced and turned to face them both. Pursing her lips together, she strode up to both of them, grabbed each one by an ear, then began to drag them apart. She put Cora closer to the building and Liam against the car. “Shut up both of you! You’re worse than five year olds! I turned my back and one of you can’t keep your hands to yourself while the other mixes his potty mouth with a thesaurus! You both need to just calm down and grumble to yourselves until a conclusion can be reached. Don’t look at each other, don’t talk to each other. Wait ten minutes, by [i]my[/i] count, and then we can try talking again.” 

After hearing increased level of commotion, Kaya finally looked up from the thing she held in her hand at her companions. The situation having apparently escalated even further, she felt herself start to get notably annoyed again. Thankfully, she had retained control over herself during her search, and managed to keep her nuisance at just that level: minor.

“[i]Guys,[/i]” she repeated, more assertively, striding forward to meet up with them. “I found something in the gas station.” Considering the two weapons she now carried, she elaborated. “Something, uh, magical?”

“Magical?” Nova sighed, a bit done with magic for the day. “Magic that’s going to attack us, or magic that we can attack with? Or, heavens forbid, is it a nicer kind of magic?”

Liam, more amused than anything else at Nova’s intervention, decided to go ahead and leave off mocking Cora for the time being. Kaya’s magic thing would serve as a good distraction to save face, so he took the opportunity. “Magical you say? It might be just the kind of guidance we were looking for. What is it?”

”Nothing all too special,” she responded. Depositing the empty canister on the ground beside her and advancing a little closer to the others, Kaya held out her hand to show them. Nestled in her palm is a torn piece of an old newspaper. Seemingly mundane at first, if looked at more attentively, one would be able to distinguish multiple strange symbols—apparently Egyptian hieroglyphs—adorning its surface. And when turned to the moonlight, one might find these symbols to glow.

“A.. magical newspaper scrap?” Liam scratched his chin, staring at the thing. “Well, not very impressive so far as magical objects go, but better than nothing. Anyone have any idea what it says?”

“Well, I sure as hell don’t.” Kaya motioned Liam to take it from her. “I’m just a cop. Speaking of which, I’d like to get to doing that autopsy. I’ll leave the decrypting to you guys.”

Upon mention of an autopsy, Nova scowled and lunged for the axe, determined to keep anymore blood from being shed, even if the blood wasn’t running anymore. Enough was enough for one day. However, she found that instead of grabbing the axe, she overreached., allowing Kaya to grab her wrist and twist it behind Nova’s back, straining the tendons painfully. With a push of her leg, she knocked Nova to her knees beneath her.

“Do [i]not[/i] try to take a weapon from me.” She hadn’t wanted to harm the other woman, but she felt her hand forced by her actions. She had been trained to never relinquish a weapon. “I don’t know you, and I can’t trust you. If I need to protect myself from a perceived threat, and you [i]lunging for my axe[/i] certainly included, I [i]will[/i] restrain you.” That said, Kaya released Nova and stepped back, hand placed cautiously over the axe’s handle.

During this exchange, Kaya had lost hold of the piece of paper, which now floated to the ground by Liam.

Liam bent down and grabbed the paper, laughing at Nova as he did so. “Wow, I thought you might be the reasonable one of the lot after you stopped me and Cora from fighting. Turns out you’re just a different kind of stupid. I love being surrounded by idiots.” The sarcasm in his voice was thick and obvious. Liam turned his attention to the paper, turning it around different ways and trying to figure out what the hell it said, though he could find no rhyme or reason to the symbols. He could feel that there was something other than glowing symbols going on with the paper, some other kind of magic present in it, but he had no idea what that other power might be.

“This thing isn’t just paper with glowing writing. It’s got more magic to it, and I can’t figure it out. I think we need to find someone who knows about this kind of crap and get it looked at.” Liam fiddled with the paper a bit more, then pulled his left hand away with a hissing indrawn breath. “Agh, fuck, papercut. Damned magic paper.”

Nova fell to the ground with a grunt, listening to Kaya’s warning silently before jumping up and brushing herself off. Liam’s comments pushed her too far, though. Glaring at him, Nova stood taller and walked closer to him. Just after he cursed at the paper she was in his face, only her index finger in between their noses. “You will treat me with respect. Your smart mouth isn’t going to get you half as far as you think it will. The next time you part your lips, you better think about what you’re about say to me, otherwise you might find yourself swinging from the ceiling, and it won’t be because you’re swinging from a chandelier.” She kept up against him for a second longer then stepped back and turned to Kaya. “I apologize for trying to take your weapon. I just refuse to mutilate an already deceased body, especially since it was by my hand. I will not see anymore blood tonight…” she paused then glared at Liam, “Aside from what was self imposed. As for the paper, I used to take my children to an art museum over the summer. One of the officials there also works at the state university, and is an expert on hieroglyphics. They not be the best, but they know what they’re doing and they’re not too far from here. Plus, by the way one of us is acting, they won’t think anything of the wiser of me walking in.”

By this time, Kaya was starting to realize at just what level their little impromptu group was horribly put together. [i]It’s as if the Fates were [/i]trying[i] to cause problems.[/i] They had Cora, a rash and paranoid individual who seemed to think she was allowed to make the decisions of her companions for them. They had Liam, Great Lord of Snark, who couldn’t help but make all their interactions even more grating, even if he seemed to have a pretty useful head on his shoulders. Then there was Nova, who as far as Kaya could tell, seemed to consider herself the voice of reason and maturity amidst a group of children, and acted like it.

And then Kaya herself, who cared little for planning, and suffered from an easily distempered disposition. [i]There’s no way we’re ever going to accomplish anything.[/i]

“I still think it’s a good idea to find out as much as we can about that man’s transformation. I know you’ve seen things today you may not have seen before, but you may just have to be used to that.” Sticking a thumb over her shoulder to point back at the body she had thrown aside earlier, Kaya continued. “He’s dead. There’s nothing we can do to change that. Now that body is just a [i]thing[/i], and that thing may be useful. If you don’t want to watch, you don’t have to.”

Cora rubbed at her aching ear. “Do any of us even know enough about the human body to see if something’s wrong?” She asked. “I don’t have a problem with cutting it open, but why bother if we can’t figure it out anyway?”

After struggling and eventually succeeding to contain laughter at Nova’s petulant rant directed at him, Liam chimed in. “Are we really debating this? Go chop the fucking thing up, Nova can go somewhere else while you freaks play with the corpse if she finds it objectionable. This nonsense isn’t important anyway.” He held the newspaper scrap up for them all to see. “This is what we should be focusing on. Now, this hieroglyphics expert is a decent idea, but I doubt some guy who works in a museum would respond well to seeing magic glowing symbols on the paper. Whoever’s best at drawing among us ought to make a mundane copy of the symbols on some normal paper. That way we can try to get the message without drawing undue suspicion, maybe say one of us saw the symbols in an image in a book and wanted to know what they meant.” Liam lowered the paper and gestured to the axe in Kaya’s belt. “So go mangle the corpse if you want, then let’s get going. The sooner we’re off doing something else, the better it’ll be for all of us.”

When it was clear that they would do anything they damn well pleased with the body, Nova went back to her car, climbed into the driver’s seat, and locked herself in. She started the car’s electrics to turn the radio on, and pretend that she didn’t exist for the next few hours, or however long it took the body to be mangled and scrap to be replicated.

Kaya nodded her head in agreement with Liam, and turned to the body. Grabbing its arms, she dragged it over to the side of the gas station. Kaya wasn’t really certain as to what she was looking for—maybe a pod, or a trinket lodged in his body that might explain his sudden transformation. All she knew is that things were going to get messy.

Moving a short distance away from the body, she stripped off all her clothes except her undergarments and the white camisole she’d been wearing under her shirt. Hefting the axe with both hands, she swung it down into the body and began her bloody work.

The first strike nearly rebounded off of the metal with a clang, before the force had it come into with a second smaller crack, as a drumstick vibrating against its pad it was. The second full swing made the initial dent jut in more, the metal ripping from the force, a meatiness behind the blow as well, blood coming out of the wound. A third hit came hard upon it, and with this one the head of the axe made its way to hook under some of the metal skin. It was easy from there for Kaya to pry and rip the metal that was seemingly welded to the muscles and form of the corpse from it. It was sickening sight to behold, and the smell was terrible, causing everyone too close, Kaya included, to retch and lose some of the contents of their stomachs. Whatever had changed the body had left an awful, foul, ancient smell behind as well. More than the death of the body itself, this was an ancient, wrong, rotting smell within the corpse as well.

Keeping as much of the vomit and blood off of her clothes as possible, Kaya continued her gruesome search. In particular, she dissected his stomach and lungs, looking to see if there was anything decidedly unhuman amidst all the rotting flesh.

While there was not yet much rot within the flesh, the ripping and tearing of the metal from the husked form revealed many things that Kaya was able to identify as burns. Very much so, the metal was not just coating, it was as if it had been weld in place. Whatever happened, probably caused the man a great amount of pain. However, that much was apparent already, with all the screaming that preceded the transformation.

It was beginning to be clear that Kaya was likely to not find anything useful from this experience. Her stomach still in knots of discomfort and her nose filled with the putrid smells, she wiped some of the blood off absently upon some of the remaining scraps of clothing that the corpse wore. That’s when she noticed something off, an actual discovery. Rooting around for more of this blood substance, she found that it wasn’t actually blood as human blood from her understanding. It was very close, but it was refusing to be rubbed off and soaked up. It wanted to keep spilling.

While she had no clue what this blood was, it wasn’t human blood. Very likely, it was the blood of some sort of legendary being, and somehow it had gotten inside of this man. However, most questions, when, how, why, what, still escaped her. Regardless, the logical leap of this alien blood within the body was somehow responsible for the man’s sudden transformation sat upon her mind anyway. That’s when she noticed one more thing about the blood. As it remained on her form, it was seemingly active, rippling as it clung to her.

“Aww, [i]shoot[/i].” Looking at the weird blood coating her arms, Kaya decided she didn’t want to wait to see what effects it would have on her skin if left untampered.

Since nobody else had volunteered to do the copying and he had the paper in his possession anyway, Liam headed for the car when Nova did, leaving the corpse to Kaya and Cora. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat and then left the car, leaving Nova to sulk alone. The nearest decent place to sit that he could see was the ground right out front of the abandoned gas station, so he found a decently clear spot and sat down. He pulled a notebook and pencil from his bag, then set things up so he had the notebook on his leg and the paper propped up on the backpack in front of him, making it easy to see. Though he was no great artist, he figured his skills were up to the task and started copying everything from the newspaper piece he could see, just as it appeared on the paper, front and back.

Kaya could be seen rounding the edge of the gas station. Barely clothed, splatters of blood had stained her thin white camisole, her face, and her bare legs, while her arms were practically coated up to the elbows. Striding past Liam impatiently, she made her way towards the entrance to the gas station.

He looked up from his drawing and couldn’t help but laugh at the gore-spattered sight. “You look like you had fun. Remind me not to let you anywhere near my corpse.” Quip delivered, Liam returned to his drawing.

Blushing a little, she avoided looking at Liam and pushed her way inside. Seeing the newspapers where she’d left them, she grabbed a bunch and made her way to the bathrooms. Having already found the taps to no longer give water, she crouched down beside the cleanest toilet bowl, dipped the newspapers in the old water within, and began scrubbing her arms with it as best she could.

This evening was simply full of perfect timing for Nova. Glancing up from her wordsearch, she saw Kaya blushing and walking around Liam in naught but her undergarments, which evoked an image from Carrie at the prom. She shuddered and turned the radio up a little louder as she returned to her wordsearch, locking the car doors immediately afterward. She would hand the violent woman a set of clean clothes through the window if at all at this rate.

Unfortunately, the scrubbing had little effect, only succeeding in getting a little off onto the newspaper. Oddly, however, the blood seemed to be attracted to her, coming back from the newspaper onto her skin. And even more oddly, the blood was slowly making itself up her arm and beneath her camisole. In fact, her camisole was now almost entirely stain-free.

Confused, she pulled out the fabric to look at her chest, and saw that the blood had congregated around her breasts and in her armpits. [i]Interesting.[/i]

Exiting the gas station once more, she knelt down beside Liam. “There’s something special about the blood I found in that man’s body,” she muttered to him, ignoring whatever it was he’d been doing before. Showing him her now clean arms, she elaborated. “It appears to be attracted to heat.”

Liam was finished with the copying job and had just compared them side by side to make sure it was accurate. Everything looked good to him, nothing missing or hard to tell what it was supposed to be. He tucked both the copy and the real thing into a pocket as Kaya approached. “Attracted to heat? Hmm.” The answer came to him quickly. “Must be a fire giant’s blood. I don’t think normal giant blood could have caused the metallic wonder to spring forth though. Everything I know about it says it just makes a person go crazy and get stronger, nothing about metal. Someone must’ve done something to give it an extra kick.” Liam tossed his notebook and pencil back into his backpack and pushed himself up off the ground with one hand, the other holding the bag. “Oh, by the way, I hope you didn’t swallow any of the stuff. It’d probably be bad if you went berserk on us.”

“Surprising as it may seem, I’m not an idiot.” Kaya raised herself from the ground alongside Liam. Looking down at herself, she sighed. “Though I would like to get this stuff off of me at some point. We’d better get a move on, see to that note as suggested. Think we should move the body somewhere?” She didn’t know if there was much chance of anyone finding it where it was, anyways.

“Wait, it’s still on you?” Liam thought about it, considering her state of relative undress and where the blood could have gone. He grinned at her. “That must be an interesting feeling. Careful it doesn’t travel south. It might be able to do bad things even if it doesn’t get into your stomach. The body though, sure, I guess it would be best to move it. Might as well toss it into the gas station since we don’t have anything to use to dig a hole.” He swung the backpack around and put his arms through the straps. “I’ll lend a hand, I guess.”

With Liam in tow, Kaya went back around the gas station to retrieve the body. As best as she could, she replaced the man’s guts in his gutholster—yeah, let’s go with gutholster—before taking him up off the ground with Liam’s aid and bringing him into the gas station. For whatever it was worth, she threw some newspapers over him as some kind of wimpy burial. “Thanks,” she muttered sincerely to her companion. “I’m going to go get my clothes, meet you at the car with the others.” She quickly made her way back around the building, slung her abandoned clothes over her shoulder, and rejoined Cora and Nova at the car, tapping on the window to get Nova’s attention.

Liam was already at the car when she arrived, having gone that way when she went to retrieve her clothing. “So, should we get the hell out of here now?”

Nova lifted her head hearing the tap at the window, and wrinkled her nose at the mess that Kaya had made of herself. She shook her head and simply rolled the window down, folding her arms on the door to lean a little closer. “I really would prefer that blood not completely stain the inside of my car, as I assume that’s what is causing the smell. I have spare clothes in the back if you would like them. Anything to get rid of that smell.”

Kaya grinned at the suggestion. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to work. The blood’s attracted to my body heat, so I don’t think it’s coming off anytime soon.”

“Lay out across the engine. I’ll turn the car on proper and we can wait a few moments. We need to get moving soon anyhow; this should get everyone in gear.” Reflecting on what she had said, she followed the recommendation with, “And please excuse the pun.”

Her grin quickly faded, replaced with a glare of mild annoyance. “Seriously?” She shifted her gaze over to Liam, and the blush returned. “Ah, whatever,” she muttered, as she turned away from the group and moved over to the front of the car. Dropping the clothes she’d slung over her shoulders to the ground, she pried open the hood of the vehicle in order to give herself access to the engine. Finally stripping off her camisole, bra, and panties, she gingerly climbed up onto the engine and laid herself out, trying to press her breasts near the part that produced the most heat. It was rather uncomfortable, but she figured she’d be alright. Better than going berserk on them. [i]But only barely.[/i]

Having taken a few moments to calm herself down, Cora now watched the unfolding scene with a grin on her face. “The strippers are usually on top of the hood,” she called out helpfully. Kaya, helpfully, didn’t respond.

Once she saw that Kaya was settled, Nova turned the car on and politely averted her eyes, wanting to give the woman a semblance of privacy. It may not have been much, especially considering what their companions’ current remarks, and what they typically said.

Liam was not so polite, and he gave Kaya a good ogle as she got on the engine. “I didn’t expect a show, but hey, I’m not complaining.” He left off staring like a creeper and got into the car, wanting to hurry up and get on the road.

The comment left a sour taste in Nova’s mouth, leading immediately to her throwing her puzzle book at Liam’s head once he was settled in the car. “Shut up or walk.”

The book tagged him right on the forehead. “Agh, fuck.” Liam clapped a hand to his head, rubbing where he’d been hit. “I already said my piece and got into the car. I’m not a fucking comedian, I make a quip and that’s the end of it. Get used to it.”

“Definitely not a comedian,” Cora agreed as she got into the shotgun seat.

Kaya could feel the engine heating up beneath her body as Nova activated the ignition. Looking down at herself, she saw the old blood slowly become reactive again, dripping off of her flesh and onto the metal of the engine. [i]I hope this doesn’t rust out on us.[/i] Feeling her body slowly warm up, a couple beads of sweat dripped off her forehead and steamed up on contact. As soon as the last of the blood has left her body, she rolled out of the engine onto the road and brushed herself off as she rose to her feet.

Allowing the cold night breeze to blow off the remaining tendrils of steam and cool herself off, she snatched her clothes off the ground and slipped them back on. She decided not to redon her jacket, because the heat was rather stifling. She just wanted to be decent again. Kaya went back out from the vehicle for a moment, retrieving her axe and fire extinguisher from where she’d left them. She placed the tip of the axe onto the engine where she had lain before, and the blood seeped off of it into the dredges of the engine. Finally, she carefully shut and relatched the hood of the car and entered the backseats, reluctantly beside Liam. She didn’t know if he’d looked or not, but the whole situation was embarrassing as all hell, and she ended up blushing again, looking out the window to avoid eye contact. “Let’s go,” she mumbled.

Nova glanced at Kaya through the rear view mirror, but twisted around to see that she was actually beside Liam. She gave Liam a pointed glance, wanting to non-verbally remind him of the threat to walk, then turned around to move the car into drive after such a long wait. “Don’t be afraid to use the axe, Kaya.” She stated after they were on the road. She refrained from adding on a quip about how she hadn’t been afraid to use it on a corpse, and decided it was probably for the best. It took about seven minutes before the group passed another vehicle, and by then the gas station wasn’t even a spot on the horizon.