11 Episode 3.4

Freckle trudged along the highway in the dying light of the day. He became aware of a pitiful little motor sound coming up behind him. Joe cruised up in a covered golf cart.

"Hi! I didn't know if I'd find you again. I'm glad I did though!"

Freckle stopped walking and tipped his head toward the sky.

"What's wrong? Oh wait--" Joe took the notebook out of his backpack and handed it to him. "There. Now you can tell me."

Freckle stared at the notebook.

"Oh! Almost forgot!" He handed him a pen.

Freckle slowly and deliberately took the pen, opened the notebook, and wrote, staring Joe in the eyes the whole time. "Are you absolutely certain that you want me along?"

"Um--I think that's a weird question. Why would I not?"

"I sort of caused a whole debacle back there. Almost ate a child."

"You didn't. I had the situation under control the whole time."

"Did you? Did you really?"

"Well--I did have to improvise."

The paper crumpled as Freckle's hands balled into fists.

"I want you to come with me. I'm certain of it. We'll just have to be a bit more careful from now on."

Freckle sighed and loosened his grip on the paper.

"I can scout ahead to look for humans. You can carry the mask yourself, or just wear it all the time."

"Me coming along puts you in danger. I can't go with you." Freckle snapped the notebook closed, stuck it in his backpack, and started to walk again.

"Ah--wait!" Joe clumsily shifted into drive and started to follow. "Where are you going to go, then?"

Freckle stared at his feet.

"I don't know what else to say. I know this is a big deal, and you're shaken up about the whole situation. But I can't just go off on my own! I lived on my own for years and look where that got me!"

Freckle paused.

"I get it. I get that I'm not fun to be around. I get that I'm useless at everything. I get that the only useful thing I had was a truck, that I stole, and that our whole bond was formed out of an obligation which has since evaporated. I get that if I was literally any other person we would be mortal enemies, and would probably kill each other on sight--" Joe clenched his teeth. "But you're the only friend I've had in years and I think we can really, really help each other."

Freckle raised an eyebrow and slowly wrote, "How?"

"I can help you find your family. I can go into places you can't. Places with humans in them."

"And?"

"And you can help me learn how to function in the real world. How to talk to people. How to not make an enemy out of everybody I meet."

Freckle looked out into the sparse trees along the highway, deep in thought. Joe stuck his hands in his pockets and felt the plastic shards in there--as if he needed any more reminders of what had transpired at the Walmart.

Freckle looked back and nodded.

"You'll come with me?"

He nodded again, more decisively this time.

"Yes! YES!" Joe pumped his fist excitedly, then composed himself. "Ok. Yes. This'll be great. Thank you."

Freckle scribbled down: "I never really wanted to leave. I just thought you would want me gone."

Joe beamed from ear to ear. Freckle climbed into the passenger seat of the Golf Cart.

"Where did you get this?" Freckle wrote.

"Oh. I found it in a ditch alongside the highway." He patted the dashboard. "Pretty sweet, eh?"

"Can it go any faster?"

The cart sputtered and coughed as Joe pressed the accelerator. "Nope!" he said cheerfully.

Freckle sighed. "We need to fix the truck."

"Yeah. We should find a mechanic. Maybe at a settlement. Hey." Joe awkwardly took the plastic pieces out of his pocket as he drove. "Do you know what this is?"

Freckle looked at the pieces closely, arranging them with the tip of his finger. He squinted, then pocketed the pieces and wrote. "Looks like Lotus Corp. That's the place that Mary kept sending people, to try and break in. The people she sent never came back."

"Do you know why?"

Freckle shrugged. "It's not like they told me, the feral zombie."

Joe frowned. Every time he learned something new about Lotus Corp, it became more sinister.

Elsewhere, Mary, Grayson, and Gatorman trudged along that same highway, in the opposite direction. Their duffel bags were stuffed full of deer meat from a successful hunting trip.

"I told you we shouldn't have left that golf cart alone," Grayson mumbled.

Mary fumed. "We haven't seen any signs of a settlement for miles! I have no idea who could've stolen it!"

"We have more deer meat dis vay," Gatorman said. "Tree hunters are better dan two."

"And one golf cart is better than none," Grayson snapped.

Mary stopped, blinked, smiled, and pointed up ahead. On the side of the road sat a large red truck, abandoned.

"YES!" Grayson sprinted up to the truck and collapsed against the front grill, seemingly giving it a bear hug. "THE TRUCK IS BACK!"

Mary rummaged around in her duffel bag, then pulled out a spare key. She unlocked the doors, climbed into the seat, and attempted to start the car.

Grayson and Gatorman nervously glanced at each other as the car sputtered and didn't catch.

"Of course. Of course!" Mary threw her hands up into the air. "They wouldn't just randomly abandon it. Of course it's broken."

"Pop the hood," Grayson said, and Mary did so. Grayson busily buried herself in the engine. "Ok. Good news: give it an oil change and it'll probably be right as rain. Bad news: we don't have any oil."

"I know vere ve can get some," Gatorman said. "I did not vant to go back to dis place, but now, ve must."

Mary's eyes widened. "No. No no no, Gatorman. You've told us stories about how bad it was back there, we can't go."

"Are you sure about this?" Grayson asked.

"Ve have no choice." Gatorman soberly looked into the distance. "Ve must go to Disney World."