BADLANDS

drive

PART 2: THE JOURNEY

she was leaving it all behind. her songs. the start to her 'career.' zack and the webs he spun around her, mel and her erratic nature, the military men who had held her captive against the ground.

she was leaving everything in the hope that there was something else. something better.

she takes one look at her illuminated apartment before shutting the door.

she wouldn't miss any of it.

X

"my hands, wrapped around a stick shift, swerving on the 405."

10:48 PM

it's like life has dripped into every piece of her, slowly seeping through the cracks of her pale skin and haunted eyes as the car speeds away.

she was no longer a corpse; she felt like a real human being- one of pure happiness.

they go as fast as they want, watching the lights of the badlands dim as they grow further away, the dark skyline just a dot in the distance.

they don't talk, only well up the emotions inside as their lives behind them blur away.

light bounces off every exit sign that they pass. she can't keep her eyes off of peter, his face stone and cold but blue eyes gleaming with the first happiness she had ever seen in him.

a laugh bubbles through her chest as she looks behind her. the badlands are so far away now, she can barely see them. they're only a dream, a distant memory. a hallucination.

they pass small, sparse shops and tents set up in the deserts. the sand is a mixture of rich red and pink, jagged mountains surrounding the empty, broken down highway. she knew there were small settlements around, like the one where she met the woman before, but they barely saw any.

they had made their escape only an hour before, under the cover of night. it was almost too easy to make it out.

most people just stayed because they thought there was nothing out here but desert. that the city was isolated, there was no escape out of the wild.

in the back of her mind, she knows they're right.

none of that matters though, because she's on the road, letting the wind whip through her hair and the night sky envelop the speeding car.

"so, what's the plan?" she asks, but she doesn't really care, as long as she can feel this bliss.

he laughs, a pure sound, spreading through her hollow chest. "does it really matter?" he answers. "we drive this thing until it runs out of gas. then....."

he holds a trace of a smile. this happiness, this freedom is indescribable.

the bruise on his forehead is a dark brown. she knows she's no doctor, they're both injured, but she doesn't care. she's still free.

she wants to share this feeling with him, wants to tell someone the emotion filling her.

it's weird, because she barely knows him at all. but soon he would be the only person that existed, they would be faced with the rugged desert with only the company of each other.

his eyes were on the road, hair disheveled, pale skin flushed with heat.

she wants to say something to him, but she holds her tongue.

the road becomes thinner, wildlife contorting into different shapes and colors. the only source of light is their headlights.

"no turning back now," peter voices finally, tone suddenly solemn.