*PRIDE*
Listening to their new "guest," Pride was finding himself more and more confused. This was all becoming too much to swallow. He had found a missing friend, crumpled up in the hall of the mall, a strange girl talking in riddles, there one minute and gone the next, and now this man, who said that he was here in the mall, but didn't even recall getting here?
Plus, he talked of being from a town called Roswell. Pride had heard of that place. It was a town in America. But they weren't in America. They were halfway across the globe in New Zealand....or what was left of it, since the virus. Roswell had been a town ripe for conspiracy theorists, and stories to entertain the masses. He had heard his share himself. With Pride, if he could see it and touch it, then it was real. He didn't entertain such fantasies. But today was making him begin to wonder.
But the man's words about tribes made him really wonder. He seemed so confused, as if he had no clue what they were talking about. He really didn't know about them?
"We're set up in a family, a community of people, in the city," Pride said. "There are several groups of such in the city, all around." Pride looked at him curiously. "But...why do I get the feeling you still aren't sure what we're meaning, however..."
*SLADE*
It was time to go. Luckily it was time for him to start the plan in motion that he had worked on for so many years; he couldn't stay in one place for too long without getting antsy anyway. Slade made his way towards the barn, throwing on his jacket and slinging the rucksack over his shoulders.
Josh. He had found him. He had found his brother. The brother that he had lost through his own screw ups, his own mistakes. Now he knew where he was. After years of searching, he had found him. The Technos. He was with the Technos. And Slade knew just how to get to him. He had to save Josh. He had to save him from himself.
Throwing open the barn doors, he walked inside, the musty hay smell filling his nostrels. He made his way over to his bike, pulling it out into the dusty roads of Liberty, and straddling it. Throwing on his helmet, he quickly kickstarted the loud ride, the machine roaring to life. He took off down the road, not looking back to Liberty. He would come back there shortly. He would need a place to stay. He would need a place to hide, to plan further. But first he had to go and catch his bait to save his brother.
The trip had only been in progress for a few minutes when suddenly, Slade could feel his head begin to spin. What on earth was going on? He hadn't had anything at the Saloon...what was this about? He was about to stop the bike, giving himself time to rest, when his vision began to blur, and just as quickly, went completely black. The bike swerved and tilted, and Slade expected to find himself falling to the dirt. But instead, in the blackness of his vision, he felt the odd sensation of his body being lifted, as if floating. Was it jus the lurching of his stomach as his body was flying through the air from a bike crash?
As he finally drifted into unconsciousness, his last thoughts were only of death.
"Ah, bloody heck...I'm gone. Josh, I'm so sorry..."
