"Yea, we understand." Ellen replied. "For now, you enjoy the view-- dirty old man." She grinned playfully, but her mind was already moving onto the next thing.

Ellen reached into her back pocket for her phone, but felt nothing, of course. She had lost track of the number of times she had reached for her phone over the last few weeks-- especially those first few days-- only to have a jarring reminder that didn't have a life like that anymore. She couldn't just idly check the time (seriously, she never would have guessed she would have craved an actual watch in her adult life) or play a game, or look through old pictures. And right now, she couldn't call or text anyone. But someone else on their team could.

Was the ragtag team really trained well-enough and comfortable enough with their powers to track down the agents who stole the medicine they needed? Did they even have the right sort of abilities for a case like this? Ellen, for one, felt unprepared for such a venture. But hey, fake it till you make it, right?

With an intensifying case of imposter syndrome bubbling beneath the surface, Ellen moved her remaining hand from the compress, pushing off the floor to stand. Her hand left a bloody print on the floor, and she needed to at least wipe off some of the excess. Looking around, her gaze settled on the sink.

Fortunately, the water turned on. It wasn't the most pleasant in color, and the pipes let out a nasty groan as some water-like liquid came trickling out. She followed up with a towel, wiping her hands as she exited the room. 

The phone was with Brooks, or Billy, or someone like that. She wondered if there was any way to get like… satellite (or magic insight) information on exactly how far away and in which direction these baddies were. Could she ask in a straight-forward manner, or did she need to use something coded? Someone else probably knew…

Ellen rounded up the others as she moved back to the billy bus, unless they chose to stay behind with the man bleeding out, or were otherwise preoccupied. Reaching the bus, she found Billy, and Abi, who already looked hurt. Had she found the agents? Since they were just sitting around, she didn't think so. "You okay?" Ellen asked her.

She gave the girl a few moments to reply before jumping into a debrief/consultation. "There is a guy inside still alive. Angeline did what she could for him but we need to reach out to Goodnight and let them know that this has all gone sideways. See if they can offer any insight for how we catch up to the supplies and get them back. Unless any of you have skills useful for tracking." 

Ellen reached out for the phone, and thought for a few moments before she began to compose the message, [I]”Will be late to the cookout. Can't find the cooler. Maybe it's in the car? Will keep looking. Any ideas?”[/I]
 
Ellen sent the message and then looked at the screen for a few more moments before Swyping another message. [I]”Oh, and the hot dogs got wrecked on the trip. I think you can save one...maybe? But gotta act fast! I'll leave it in the kitchen for you :)”[/I]

Almost immediately there came a reply.

[i]"What the fuck are you talking about?"[/i]

Maybe a coded message was a bad idea. Someone really should have asked more questions before they started this mission. Ellen looked down at the phone with a frown. Despite the danger in beating around the bush, Ellen felt more compelled than before to keep moving with the extended cookout metaphor. 

[i]”Sheesh. You don't HAVE to, I guess. He is Drowning in ketchup at this point. Hope you've got more beer, though. Cuz we're not getting any more moonshine outta this joint.”[/i]

Maybe a pronoun, an implication of heavy bleeding, plus a direct reference to the boot letter position would be enough. Of not, she couldn't be blamed for the denseness. 

[i]“R U trying 2 talk in Code?”[/i]

Fine. Screw being subtle. Ellen was TRYING to keep things on the DL, but someone at Goodnight was just being thick on purpose. [i]"Yes. The bootleggers were attacked before we got here. One is still alive and has a lot of internal bleeding. The medicine is gone but we are going after it."[/i] If they weren't being so dense, she wouldn't have had to send so many messages.

[i]"Hlyshit ok hng on, Ill see what can do to help."[/i]

About half a minute, maybe less, passed. It felt like an hour.

[i]"Move him to basement. Doctor standby. Reinforcements coming."[/i]

Ellen looked up at the group, who may or may not have been arguing about just burning or offing the man to make it easier for them to go on with their day. She hadn’t really been listening to them, since her focus had been on tapping the letters on the nokia’s old keyboard so many times to get each individual letter. She didn’t answer the last text, but instead spoke up to the group.

“Goodnight wants us to move him to the basement. I think they are sending a doctor. They said reinforcements are coming, but I am not sure if that is help for us or help for him. Either way, we can’t afford to waste too much time before we go after them. I guess… if anyone doesn’t want to, they can hang out in the basement and hitch a ride back instead.” She offered an out since things were certainly going to get more difficult. And maybe Abi wanted to return to get medical care since she managed to injure herself.