Theodore felt he couldn’t breathe. Crown’s cat-like way of staring him up and down was so focused that Theodore felt he had already told her everything about Eollx. She breathed a long stream of smoke out her nose, raising up to create a sinister haze around her eyes.

“So, Doctor Pillar, care to share with me what you lost and why you though it was important to call an outside source about it?” She asked sternly.

Theodore clapped his hands together and coughed, slowly feeling his tongue and the lack of saliva. He waved his hand at her respectfully.

“Doctor Crown I…well…could I perhaps trouble you for a cigarette? It seems my head is all turned around in this facility,” he said nervously.

She slowly reached into her coat and pulled a filtered cigarette, slowly handing it to him.

“It’s a Marlboro, filtered for women. I hope that is not a problem?” She said, producing a lighter as Theodore puffed on the smoke.

“No…hmf…I read a study recently that said these are safer if you don’t want the risk of lung cancer.”

Crown scoffed under her breath as she clapped her lighter lid shut.

“I think lung cancer is on your low list of worries at this point. Again, Doctor Piller, what did you lose?” She said with a rise of anger in her voice that Theodore was not expecting.

Holding the cigarette tightly in his mouth, he inhaled too quickly which in turn caused him to cough which then caused him to not be able to answer. He coughed one last puff of smoke before grinning at her.

“I left some notes…on the table…in a diner. The diner Chester and I met at. There was a map on them. The waitress made note. I was hoping to travel back to the diner and retrieve them.”

Crown ran her nails slowly across her face. The pale polish chipped slightly against her cheek as she ran her fingers up and down before quickly shoving her hands into the pockets of her lab coat.

“That is very careless Doctor Piller. Enough to have you terminated from the project. I should report you.”

“Which is why I was reluctant-”

“Shee,” she gurgled, looking around the corners.

She gripped Theodore by the arm, pulling him away from the phone to far end of the hall where there was no door access.

“I am not inclined to stick my neck out for anyone. Especially someone for whom the major members don’t care for. Please tell me what is in it for me if I let you go retrieve those notes.”

Theodore swallowed and wiped his brow.

“I will forever be in your debt.”

She shook her head, slowly grinding her teeth.

“I am going to need something a little better than your debt.”

Theodore nodded.

“How about my work? Those radiation spots I found. They move. The way they move is congruent with motions like the tunneling of an earthworm or a subway system. I haven’t been able to verify this, so I left it off the report. If I find the same pattern in Idaho Falls you can claim it as your find.”

She paced around him, slowly running her hands through her hair.

“Your integrity is fluttering away. You would honesty give me your work, so I don’t report you losing some notes?”

Theodore felt she was not convinced with his lie, but this was the path he had chosen and there was no going back, he had to sell it. He nodded, strongly, hoping his confidence was enough.

“Yes,” he said, doing all he could to mask the lie.

She growled and clutched his elbow again, leading him further down the hall. Theodore didn’t recognize the corridor she turned him down. He was quickly surprised when she pushed open a door and his Plymouth was sitting in the same spot just outside of the chain-link fence. She pushed him toward the car.

“Just make sure you are back before the plane leaves at the end of the week and we’ll pretend this didn’t happen,” she said with disdain.

Theodore nodded back at her.

“I will get you my notes on the radi-”

She wagged her finger in his face, slowly biting her lip.

“No…just fix this.”

She walked away from him, pushed back through the door. As it swung on its hinges, she turned back and caught it before it smacked into the frame.

“Promise me this has nothing to do with the Rose Project or Clinton?”

“No,” he said quickly, shaking his head.

“I hope these notes are worth it. It might be wise if they stayed lost,” she said, letting the door go before Theodore could respond, leaving him with an empty clash of the door on the frame.

He was uncertain what she meant. He didn’t want to wait for her to change her mind and got in the Plymouth. Feeling around the car, he found the keys nestled directly on the dash. He tossed the still lit cigarette out of his mouth and pulled himself into the car. He knew Eollx couldn’t have gotten far. As he turned to the key, the fence began to roll as the chain-links began to fall into a crevice in the ground. Slowly descending like a beaver was chewing away at the base. Once the last bit of chain link fence was underground, he slammed on the gas and pulled into the street, speeding away from the facility. He was only a block down the road when he realized that both Chester and Doctor Crown had been by his car, not to mention any other people working at the facility. What they could have attached to his car he didn’t want to find out. Slowing down, he figured he would inspect the Plymouth when he made it to the gas station as that would likely be the last place she would be. Coughing the last bit of smoke out of his lungs, he couldn’t help but scan the car for anything Chester might have added. Everything seemed in order, but from what he knew about Chester, it was likely just cover.

He ran through what he would say when he met up with Eollx again. She was reluctant to help him in the wasteland and that was before everything went down at the hotel, he couldn’t imagine why she would trust him after this. He thought about applying reason and understanding that he couldn’t have stayed, but that didn’t offer reassurance for the future. He thought about telling her he was kidnapped the same as she was, and she would understand. Yet, no matter what he thought, the truth was always glaring at him; he left her alone and she had to fend for herself, something he promised he wouldn’t do.

Turning back on to the main street, he could see the gas station as a small dot in the distance. He felt he had spent most of the morning in the limo with the Twillmen brothers, but it seems as if their drive was only fifteen minutes to another part of the city. He guessed his confusion with time had to do with the Twillmen’s poor hospitality. As he thought about it, his confusion continued to grow. He was certain the drive was longer than a mere fifteen minutes and that the road they were on was unkept and bumpy, unlike this road which was crisp and smooth. Just as he was sure that there were doors that weren’t there before in the facility and hallways that got longer and shorter. He tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head, hoping to make sense of it all, but the more he thought about it, the more questions arose. The gas station was growing larger. He pressed down on the pedal, trying not draw wandering eyes while still moving as quickly as he could.

He pondered where she could have gone. Her bright gray skin and towering height did not create many places where she could be inconspicuous. He hoped she would have fled to the wasteland and taken shelter in some hovel. He remembered the motorcyclist who had looked into the backseat. His heart fell into his stomach. What if the man had returned to take her, she could be tied up in on the back of a motorcycle at that very moment.

He pulled the Plymouth into the gas station. The sun was starting to set, and the attendant was closing down the pumps for the night. Theodore creaked the door open and stepped out, hoping to catch the man before he was finished. As Theodore threw his hands up to get the man’s attention, he continued to close down not even bothering to take notice.

“Sorry we’re all closed up. Come back tomorrow,” the man said sleepily

“No, sorry to bother you. But I was wondering if you had seen a young woman with dark black hair around.”

“Buddy this ain’t some bar. I’m not gonna help you if yer after some dame. This town’s got morals.”

Theodore nodded.

“She’s my niece. I got separated from her this afternoon. We last saw each other around here. We were heading out to the country.”

The attendant lifted his head.

“I remember you. You left that car at my pump for an hour! Thank god you had that other fella come get it or I would have’d towed it. You can’t just leave things, it’s rude.”

“I understand but my colleagues needed to see me right away.”

“Also, you didn’t have no girl with you…what’s your deal? This some kind of city thing? Y’all bring kids out to the country and leave them as some game?”

“Sir,t if I may-”

“Take your big city car and get off my property.”

“Sir-”

“Buddy! I ain’t gonna ask you again.”

Theodore backed up before reluctantly returning to his car. He pulled out of the lot and began his drive into the wasteland. He was concerned with the sun setting that she would be without shelter. He tapped the wheel nervously, trying to think like her. Where would she go? Knowing how much she loved the blanket in the back he guess she likely would be heading for shelter. But where? In Casper or in the wasteland? When he found her, she seemed like she couldn’t tell her right from her left. He guessed she wouldn’t like to be around people, so the wasteland was the best option. Traveling into the wasteland, he figured he would pull over when he was midway away from the city and begin hiking his way through the brush to possibly find her. In the back of his mind he was amazed that she managed to stay hidden for so long. He was nervous that if she was found, she would likely be in a twisting, mangled mess, discarded in a shallow grave.

Bright headlights flashed against his review mirrors. Theodore did his best to make out the vehicle. The lights were approaching fast, filling the entire shell of the Plymouth in a cold light. The other vehicle let out a loud screech of its horn, several blares in quick succession. Theodore quickly pulled his Plymouth to the shoulder, slamming on the brakes, surrounding the entire car in a thick gray dust. The other vehicle pulled in front of him, spinning the wheels wildly to face his Plymouth.

Theodore held his wrist up to block the light, the intense brightness made is so he could barely see the shape in front of him. Two doors opened, followed by a quick slam, and the crunch of the sage brush being crushed against the shoes as two figures approached his door. As the figures approached, Theodore only caught the size of them. One stood towering beyond what he considered to be humanly possible. He recognized the lumbering swing as that of Bill. The other was not the Widow, but a slim man dressed in a gray suit and donning a ten-gallon-hat.

The man in the gray suit tapped on the window with the center of his knuckle. Theodore slowly pushed the door open and stepped out. As he moved away from the directness of the light, he could make out more of the man in the gray suit. His hat was black with a silver band that wrapped around the entirety of the brim, leaving two tassels that fell off to the side and finished at the end with a pair of black “rattlesnake rattle” aiguillettes. His suit was gray but as Theodore stood closer, he could make out faint black lines the that crossed around the suit making it closer to plaid. His face was covered by the hat, but Theodore could still make out a small pencil thin black mustache cresting on the top of his lip. What Theodore thought was his knuckle that tapped on the window was actually a blue poker chip he had pinched into his hand so tight it was almost snapped in half. Both them glared at him as the last bit of sunlight disappeared behind the mountains.

The man tapped the chip against the Plymouth rapidly, trying to keep his balance as his whole body shook. He finally lifted his finger, still shaking, at Theodore’s face.

“Y…yo…you said the g…ggg…gas station! W…wwwhere are you off!” The man barked in stuttering tone.

“I am sorry I thought the Widow-” Theodore began.

“S…sss…she sent m….me because y.. y…you are t…too careless! to handle thhhhe…sensitive stuff! W…wwwhere’s the damn alien?”

“I don’t know. She must have run out into the wasteland when the Twillman brothers kidnapped and confiscated my car.”

The man in the gray suit began to shake again, gripping the chip tighter as he began to beat his fist against the car, screaming small curses with every hit.

“Bbb…bbbitch…bbb...bbbitch…ggggoddamn…sssshit…SHIT!” He screamed.

His legs began to fall from under him and he gripped the car for support. Bill wandered up and lifted the man to standing position. The man swung his arms carelessly around Bill who ignored the swings until the man was stable enough to stand on his two feet. The man turned back to Theodore with an angry burst.

“Yyyy…yyy...you careless…ggggoddamn….bb…bbb…BASTARD!”

“I am sorry!” Theodore screamed, not sure what to make of the man.

“The en…en…entirety of R…rrr…Reverence is looking ffff…for…for…the DAMN alien!” He stuttered, again shaking with every word.

“She’s likely hiding out into the wasteland for shelter. If we head out there, maybe we can pick up her trail. I truly am sorry. Let’s make this right,” Theodore said with confidence.

The man bobbed his head back and forth, trying to stablize himself.

“F…ff..FINE!” He yelled, “we’llll…ttttake…yor….c.cc…car!”

He seemed as if he was going to collapse again before Bill lifted him up and carried him to the passenger side door. Theodore, not thinking twice, got in beside the man as Bill crawled in the back. Theodore started the car, slowly pulling it back onto the highway. The man let out another fit of yelling. He leaned across the seat, striking Theodore in the face, causing him to drive off the road. The man continued to swing large blows against Theodore’s head, screaming with every hit. As the blows continued, Theodore held up his arm to shield against the onslaught of attacks, the blue chip’s sharp corners digging into his hand. The man’s fist met his glasses, bending the frame and cutting his temple. Theodore managed to pull his foot off the gas and slam on the brake, sending the man into the dash and himself into the steering wheel. The man continued to punch and beat at Theodore who tried to swing back. Bill leaned forward and wrapped his giant hand around the man’s mouth as the man continued to kick and scream before slowly falling asleep in the seat. Theodore brushed some of the blood out of his eye and looked back at Bill, who seemed unfazed by the frenzy.

“Dwiv,” Bill slurred.

Theodore wanted to protest, yet as he looked into Bill’s dead eyes, he knew there was nothing that he would say. He nodded and pulled the car back onto the highway.