Don't Stop Running

Chapter 3

We arrived at the Dead Pegasus to fuel up and stretch our legs, though Flame and I have done plenty of that. I stood up out of the car, my back cracking and my belly button ring gleaming in the sunlight.

I walked over to the magazine rack and grabbed the latest copy of Shiny.

Flame stood and conversed with the Mechanic who was filling the tank with fuel, Party was in the car studying maps, and it looked like Ghoul was tinkering with a bomb. Interested, I walked over to him.

"A bomb?" I asked.

Ghoul nodded. "A battery bomb."

My face lit up. "I used to work with these things all the time."

Ghoul and I dove into a conversation about battery bombs, and different ways to assemble them, even how to make them into a grenade.

Party spoke up and let us know it was time to leave so we stumbled into the car.

"Does the motel happen to have working showers?" I asked.

"Hell yeah," replied Ghoul.

I sighed in relief. It had been at least 3 weeks since I had gotten to shower. BL/Ind gives you a bed to sleep on and a toilet to shit in, no showers.

Eventually we pulled up to a motel, the sun starting to lower.

"So is this your base?"

"No, temporary. We're actually leaving tomorrow. Dr. Death had some meetings here," said Party.

We all got out of the car and Party opened the trunk so Flame and I could grab our stuff. Fun Ghoul had disappeared but was now walking back, keys in hand. He handed them to Flame and I.

"We share rooms here. If you need either of us I'm in 115, Party is in 104."

I looked at the number on the motel tag.

"109," I stated and looked at Flame.

She gave me a thumbs up and I pocketed the keys.

"Get yourself settled for now and one of us will come up and grab you for some grub," Party said.

Flame and I made our way to room 109. I unlocked and opened the door, showing two queen beds, a wardrobe, en suite, a small TV, and a couch. The beds had those ugly floral covers on them.

"You can shower first," I offered.

"Thank you."

Flame dropped her bag on the bed and took off her jacket and shoes. I placed my sunglasses on my head and pulled down my bandanna, smelling the stale air. Flame went into the bathroom and shut the door. Not too long after the shower started. I did a lap of the room, just looking at everything. A coat of dust was on basically everything, I wonder how busy this place used to be before all of this.

Flame didn't take too long in the shower, soon after it was my turn. I left my jacket and boots in the sleeping area and closed the bathroom door. The air was humid, there was hot water. I smiled slightly, at least there are still some normalcy for now.

I started the shower and stripped. I looked down at my body, the bones protruding from my skin. I winced, they hardly fed me while I was locked up, I lost a ton of weight. I stopped looking and decided to get into the shower. I watched as the dirty water swirled at my feet before going down the drain. The warm water felt amazing on my tense muscles.

I started by washing my hair, trying to comb through all the knots with my fingers. I moved on to wash my body, officially washing BLI off my body. I didn't stay in there much longer, I was hungry and ready to sleep. I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my body, drying off and then going into the room to put my other clothes on.