The Power Hungry (Mad Max: Fury Road Fanfiction)

17: The Alliance

FERAL

      I was rushed into the morning with a multitude of sensations. The first that I registered was my brain felt as if it was trying to crack through the confinements of my skull. I also felt a dull stinging electrifying my torso every time I sucked in a breath. I was touching bare skin, and someone was touching mine, and hot breath swept across my face. What the hell happened last night? I tried to get my tired brain to recall it, but only blurred memories of laughter and the slicing pain of a knife entered my mind's eye.

     I cracked my sticky eyes open, thanking V8 that my sleeping quarter was devoid of windows. The only thing that I wanted to do at the moment was hide in the blanket of darkness. I tried sitting up, but a weight around my shoulders and back stopped me. As my one-sided vision came into focus, I was met with a scarred chest. I was suddenly very, very aware of the fact that my own shirt was missing, leaving only the cloth wrap around my breasts to cover me. There was no throat-squeezing panic this time, but I still squirmed uncomfortably with Nux's hand lazily resting against my bare spine.

     With a grunt, I shouldered the war boy's arm off of me, rising into a sitting position. My stomach churned as my center of gravity changed, making me groan softly. My gaze traveled down to my naked belly, spotting dried blood caked onto my flesh. I raised an eyebrow, running a hand down my torso and scraping away the crust. Under it was a pattern of flames carved into my left side. A string of profanities flew from my lips, I got scars? What the fuck was in that drink?

     Nux blinked open his eyes, looking up at me through squinted eyelids. He blinked slowly at the dark red licks of fire scabbed over on my body, lifting himself up so he was leaning on one elbow.

      "When did ya get those?" He asked with a tip of his head.

     I rubbed my fingertips against my temple, hoping to force the headache to reside, "Dunno." I grumbled.

     Nux nodded with agreement, touching the side of his bare head, "Hurts too."

     I sighed, "What was in that bloody drink anyways?"  I moaned, "Feel like I've been run over by the fuckin' Gigahorse."

       Nux shrugged, "Whatever it was, not drinkin' it again." he promised to himself. He looked me up and down again, raising an eyebrow, "What happened to your shirt?"

      I through my hands up in exasperation, "Dunno! I musta lost it somehow last night." I hauled myself to my feet, dusting some strange white-gray substance off of my black pants. "I'm gonna go look for it, and ya know, ask about what the hell happened last night." 

     Nux stood up as well, "Good idea."

     We trudged through the darkened hallways, wincing at every loud voice or clang of metal on metal. Every noise assaulted my ears as if they were ten times as loud as they really were. I hoped that it would go away, because it was hard to focus with such a persistent pounding in my skull. It was a wonder that my eye patch was somehow  still attached to my head.

     We passed the weapon storage on our little search party, as my shirt or any waking person was missing from all the other caves. I spotted the familiar figure of Toast with her fingers buried in the inner workings of a shotgun. She was wearing a pair of black overalls with an off-white t-shirt underneath and boots. I always thought this look suited her much more than the flimsy white garb she wore when I met her. 

      She looked up when we passed, and her dark eyes came alive with laughter.

    "Looking for this?" she fished a bundle of dirty cloth from one of her pockets, tossing it to me.