Chapter 61

Sunset, Chupacabra and I had driven about eight hours away from Las Vegas, headed south towards Mexico.

The old man insisted that he would be safe if he could get into that country, insisting that he had connections there and could find shelter from ‘Us’; although at that point I assumed the organisation understood that he had told me everything he knew about them after riding in the car with Sunset and I for so long, so we weren’t sure if they would continue to pursue him since they had already failed to take him out before it was too late.

We had formulated a plan for me and Sunset to lose them so we could try searching for one of the supply runs to the ‘Us’ base. We knew it was a flimsy idea to try conducting such a search, but at that point, we honestly had nothing else to try.

It turned out that Chupacabra still had connections in the US government, and he would be able to access a secure line to them once he reached his destination, which was necessary if our plan to lose our ‘Us’ followers was to be successful. We were now less than a half hour away from the Mexican border, discussing what we were going to do when we got there.

“No, we can’t take you across the border.” I was saying. “I don’t want our passports showing up any more than they need to.”

The old man groaned and waved me off. “I don’t even have mine…”

I looked at him in the rearview mirror for a moment before shaking my head. “You fucking guy…”

“What?” he shrugged. “I did leave town a bit unexpected there, amigo…you know, after some payaso shot at me…”

I nodded. “OK, OK.” I said. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

The old man shook his head as Sunset turned to me with bright eyes.

“I gotta admit, that was pretty a sweet catch.” she said with a smile of admiration.

I grinned back at her, then looked in the mirror again. “So how are you going to cross?…You just gonna sneak through?”

The old man snickered. “Si…that’s what everyone else does…”

“Hm.” I mumbled to myself. “Fine then.” I said as I smirked back at him. “It’s a good thing they didn’t build that fuckin wall, eh?”

Chupacabra rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t much longer before he told me to pull over to the side of the road. I did as he asked, and once we were stopped, he got out of the car and stepped up beside Sunset’s window to say a few more things.

“So, you know what to do?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Yeah. You?”

I scowled a bit and shrugged. “Of course I do, it was my idea.”

He chuckled a bit. “Alright. Just relax, hombre.”

“You sure you’ll be OK?” I asked after a small chuckle of my own. “Once I drive away, you’re on your own…”

“Yeah. I’ve got people close. Don’t worry.” he replied as he took a few steps back before pausing again. “Hey…”

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Thanks, hermano.” he said. “For saving me again.”

Sunset turned to look at me with a glint in her eye, clearly thinking the exchange between these two old, battle-hardened men was kind of sweet.

I nodded. “Well, now it’s your turn.” I said.

He nodded back. “Don’t worry, amigo. Just follow the plan, go to the place we discussed and it will work out, no problem.”

“OK then.” I said, glancing at Sunset for a second before looking back at the old Mexican to give my farewell. “See ya, scrotum-face.” I quipped.

Sunset rolled her eyes as he shook his fists at me. “It’s Chupa…ah, nevermind.” he growled, waving me off as he turned and walked off into some random bushes.

The copper-haired girl turned to me with one of her brows raised. “Where’s he gonna go?”

I shrugged. “He says he knows what he’s doing. He’ll be fine.” I said as I turned the car round and headed back the way we just came from.

We drove for about an hour before we arrived in Tucson, Arizona, then decided to take a break from travelling and got a motel room on the outskirts of town.

It was about 4:30am, and Sunset and I were glad to be out of that car again. We sighed in relief as we entered the room, shutting the door and looking at each other with exasperation, knowing that we were still a long way from finishing our rescue mission.

A few hours went by, and at about 7:30am we were about to execute our plan to lose our escorts from ‘Us’ so we could move freely without them knowing exactly where we were all the time.

She and I were standing in the motel room a few feet from the door, looking at each other as we psyched ourselves up for what we were about to do.

I took a deep breath, watching her bright green eyes glare at me with nervousness. “Are you ready?” I asked.

She nodded reluctantly. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

*****

There was indeed a nameless ‘Us’ agent watching our motel room from a store roof across the large parking lot of a strip mall. It was light out now, so he had switched off his night vision goggles and was using the daylight setting, which also had a magnify feature. It was proving to be useful at that moment since he wasn’t able to find a vantage point any closer than this where he could remain hidden.

He was watching the motel room closely for movement. It was obvious to him that this guy and his lady friend must have learned everything that the old Mexican knew about the headquarters after spending several hours travelling in the car together.

The agent sighed as he thought about his failure in Vegas. His mission was to keep HQ advised on the whereabouts of the immortal man and his partner to make sure they weren’t making any headway into finding information on the organisation.

It should have been easy. The way they were standing right out in the open with the old man on the street corner in Vegas...the agent had such a clear view through the scope of his rifle, and the shot needed to keep the Mexican silent was right at his fingertips.

He couldn’t believe how effortless it was for the man to just reach up and stop the shot with his hand. He really was a force to be reckoned with…it’s no wonder the agent was given strict orders not to engage, but to observe only.

Just as he was thinking this, he saw the motel room door open, and the targets both stepped out.

“I have movement…” he said, placing his fingertips on his earpiece.

“Understood…stay in pursuit, but as always, do not engage. Keep us advised.” the voice returned to his ear.

“Copy that.” he replied as he watched the two leave the room and head towards the car. They had their heads down in an attempt to hide their faces, but the distinctive two-tone hair of the woman gave them away quick as lightning. The man was a little more difficult to track…his short brown hair was a common thing, as well as his average build, but as long as he had the woman at his side, he was easy to keep track of.

“Why would he bring her along?” the agent wondered. “What’s so special about her?”

He also wondered why they had been so nonchalant about being tracked thus far during their trip…perhaps they knew none of ‘Us’ would have the authorisation to engage directly with him, and this agent could certainly see why such an order was given. Even so, tracking them had been a breeze…she used her phone fairly regularly, not to mention the GPS in the car they had so obviously rented for their trip as well as the one in her phone, which basically given them both homing beacons for him to zero in on, and he had been able to follow them easily since the start of his pursuit when they left Washington DC.

The pair got into the car and quickly drove off, prompting the agent to speak into his communicator again. “They’re leaving in the vehicle. I will pursue and continue to observe.”

“Understood. Keep us advised.”

“Ten four.” he confirmed as he stood up, picking up his supplies and calmly walking off toward the door to exit the roof, intending to simply follow the GPS signals to keep tabs on them while keeping a watchful eye from a distance.

*****

I listened to Sunset breathing beside me in the dark, wondering how long it had been since we had set our plan in motion.

I finally decided to whisper to her. “What do you think?” I asked.

I heard the sound of her taking a deep breath beside me. “I dunno…how long has it been?”

I shook my head. “A few hours.” I replied. “It must be about noon…”

“Do you think it worked?” she whispered.

“Hopefully…” I replied. “It’s hard to tell since they’re pretty much invisible to us, but I don’t see how they wouldn’t have bought it. They’ll be following the car and your phone anyway…they’ve gotten lazy and like to rely on technology too much. They’re not using their heads to think outside the box.”

“What about…like, thermal cameras or whatever?” she asked quietly. “Do you think they could see that there were four of us in here?”

“No.” I replied with a shake of my head. “Thermals can’t see through walls, only the heat that is being reflected off of the surfaces of whatever you’re looking at.”

She was silent for a moment.

“I’m telling you, Sunny…they followed the car. That girl got your hair colour perfect…plus, like I said, they’ll follow the car and the phone.”

She sighed. “I can’t believe I gave my jacket away…and my fucking phone. How are we supposed to contact anyone or get information?”

“We’ve got all the info we need.” I said. “Besides, those things made it too easy for them to find us. With all the electronics gone, they’ll have to rely on old-school tracking to find us.”

“What about satellites n’ stuff?” she asked.

“It’ll be tough for them without any type of signal to zero in on…it’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack.” I explained. “And when we get into the desert, we they won’t even be able to track us on foot.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because they won’t be able to survive.” I replied. “Not without vehicles to carry enough water and supplies to stay out there for days on end…all of which will make them more visible to us. That’s assuming that they even figure out that we’re in the desert at all. By the time they realize it’s not us in the rental car, we’ll be long gone.”

She paused in the darkness for a moment. “So do you think we should go now?” she asked.

I thought for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Yeah. Let’s do it. We can’t lay here forever.”

“OK.” she replied.

We crawled out from under the bed in the motel room, where we had been hiding for about four hours after the two associates of Chupacabra’s had taken our car and Sunset’s phone to lead the ‘Us’ watcher away. He had called them on the secure line that he had available to him once he’d gotten to his destination in Mexico…having such a thing was one of the perks of being a retired officer of the US government. The two people he called were waiting for Sunset and I at the motel room in Tucson, which is where we had planned to meet them during the drive to Mexico with the old man.

They spent a couple of hours dying the girl’s hair to match Sunset’s, and we discussed where they would go to lead the spy away from us while we made our escape into the desert. We gave them Sunset’s phone and our rental car, as well as a set of our clothes and her leather jacket to wear so they would look as much like us as possible.

After a few hours of planning and having them practice Sunset’s and my own body language, how we walk and move, as so on, we had them hastily go out and take off in the car, making sure it was light outside so he wouldn’t be relying on night vision…that way the colour of Sunset’s imitator’s hair would show up in the natural light.

Now four hours later, Sunset and I were ready to disappear into the desert and try our luck on finding the supply chopper…which we both knew was a major stretch, especially since they would likely keep the pickup location far away from our last known location.

This wasn’t our only plan however…traveling on foot was going to be slow going, and we had planned to find some form of older transportation that couldn’t be tracked once we crossed the Sonoran desert, which would have us emerge in California fairly close to San Diego…as long as I still had my keen sense of direction, that is.

Sunset was very apprehensive of crossing such a large area on foot with no means of navigation, but she was forgetting that she was with someone who had travelled this way for centuries, not to mention the fact that I knew how to cover our tracks to keep anyone off our trail.

We quickly picked up our stuff…or what was left of it, rather, from the motel room as we got ready to leave.

“Aw shit…” Sunset cursed, suddenly realizing something.

“What’s up?” I asked, doing another quick count of the money in the gym bag, coming up with a total of just under seventy thousand remaining.

“I left my, uh…’toy’ in the car…along with all the batteries.” she said, stopping to rub her face with both hands.

“Damn, that sucks…” I said, glancing over at her. That poor girl…she’d been through so much during the past couple of weeks, having to deal with her little sexual curse most of the time, and now she’d lost her only means of fleeting relief. I honestly did feel bad for her at this point, especially now that the main job I brought her for had already been completed, and now she was basically stuck tagging along with me…although an unkillable mind-reader is never a bad thing to have around, I suppose.

She put her hands up on either side of her head, giving it a shake in frustration. “Let’s just go.” she said shortly. “Let’s go walk across the desert for some fucking reason.”

I stopped what I was doing to watch her angrily pick up her things and pack them in her bag. Between the two of us we had a couple changes of clothes, the money, and our IDs and passports, save for the one credit card I gave our imitators to use as another part of the diversion.

“Are you OK, Sunny?” I asked with concern.

“I can’t believe we’re actually going to try to search for that supply transport. We’re never going to find it, you know that right?” she said sternly to me.

This was the first time she was putting up a real argument to my plans, but I could see why. The plan was flimsy, but until we had something better, what else were we supposed to do?

“Do you have a better idea?” I asked her back.

Sunset closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. After a pause and a long sigh, she replied. “No. I guess not. Let’s just go before we get found again…which you know is also eventually going to happen too, right?”

“I know.” I replied.

“And this little trick we just pulled isn’t going to work twice...” she continued.

“Yeah, Sunny. I get it.” I replied a little more sternly, hoping she would back off a little. This was the only problem with Sunset Shimmer…she was very strong minded, and if she didn’t agree with you or didn’t want to do something, she wasn’t going to give in very easily, and she made damn sure you knew about it.

We finished gathering up our things and hastily made our way out to the road. We walked along on the side of the pavement for about a mile outside of town, then I stopped and turned to face the desert to the right of the road.

“OK.” I said. “Here goes nothing. We’ll cross here to the other side of this desert. We’ll avoid the towns along the way, like Yuma…and when we get into California, we’ll get our hands on something old to drive.”

She stood next to me with her arms crossed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” she said, about to take a step off of the pavement into the dirt.

I reached out to stop her, causing her to look at me with confusion.

“Our tracks are hidden so far…” I explained, nodding to the pavement behind us. “And they’ll be looking for two of us.”

Sunset frowned. “So?”

“Get on my back.” I said, turning around to face away from her.

“What?” she exclaimed with a scowl. “Why?”

I sighed with frustration. “They’ll be looking for two tracks…if they send trackers after us, leaving only one foot trail will throw them off…which is also the reason I switched shoes with my imitator, because they probably know I had boots on before.”

She looked at me for a moment, chewing the inside of her cheek. Finally, she shook her head and took my bag to sling over her shoulder, then she wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind, being careful not to touch my skin with her hands, and jumped up on my back. I hooked my hands behind her knees to hold her up, then started walking off into the sweltering wilderness.

We travelled for the rest of the day, not saying very much to each other as we went. The sun eventually went down, and the cooler air started to surround us as I continued carrying the copper-haired girl through the desert.

I didn’t care for her attitude much since we left the motel. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see why she was being miserable, it was more the fact that I knew there was no use in being like this. I finally decided to say something after it was completely dark out, and the stars were shining brilliantly in the night sky. Being out in the wilderness, away from the electric lights of civilization had left the view of the universe un-obscured to me and the other-worlder on my back.

“Sunny?”

“What?” she replied flatly. She was still riding on my back, with her arms slung over my shoulders, and she had been resting the side of her head on my right shoulder for the past couple of hours.

“I know this is a shitty plan…” I continued. “But I need you to have your head in the game.”

She sighed loudly, which sounded to me like a way of saying: ‘fuck off, Golds.’

“Look,” I continued. “I know you’ve got problems of your own, and I’m really sorry about that…and I know that you and I are kind in over our heads here, but if you do nothing else, just please stay positive…because without you backing me up, it's hard for me to keep my motivation going…”

She remained silent.

“We’re not going to be doing this forever, Sunny. It’s just until we find something better. Once we have another car, things will be better.” I said.

Still no response from her.

“And…” I kept talking. “I don’t like it when you’re mad at me.”

She finally responded by lifting her head off of my shoulder, although I couldn’t see her expression.

I took the cue to keep talking. “Out here, these last couple weeks…even though I wish we weren’t out here under these circumstances…I’ve really enjoyed spending all this time with you. I like you…a lot.”

She slowly let her forehead come to rest on the back of my neck as she listened.

“I mean, it’s different than how I feel about Flutters and Rare…but still, I think of you as a great friend. You’ll do anything for us, including torturing yourself by being with me all this time to help Flutters…and I’ll never be able to express how much I appreciate that.” I paused. “You know what?”

“Mhm?” she mumbled.

“I think you’re my best friend.” I confessed. “When I’m not around my girlfriends, you’re always the first person I wanna hang out with.”

I could feel a small exhale on my back from her nostrils as she smiled a bit. “I like you, too…” she replied. “I’m not sure about best friend, cuz me and Twi have been best friends for years…but since you came around, and I’m not going to school with her anymore…I do think about you a lot, too.”

I smiled at the ground as I listened to her speak.

“Like I told you in the woods at Flutters’…” she continued quietly. “I think of you almost like a mentor, but mostly a good friend. And I like that you care about me…you watch over me and protect me when I need it.”

I nodded, satisfied by her heartfelt words.

“I know this whole thing with my magic has made things a little…weird,” she said. “but I still think of you as a friend, and that’s all. I don’t want to get in between you and the girls…I think what the three of you have together is amazing, and sweet…and I don’t want to ruin it.”

I took a couple more steps. “I know that when you come on to me it’s not really you, Sunny. Don’t worry about it.” I reassured her. “It's not weird either…I’d rather you be like that than be mad at me.”

“Of course you would.” she snickered, shaking her head. “How often does a regular friend sit on the edge of the tub and spread her pussy open for you to see?” She sighed with embarrassment. “I can’t believe I did that…I was really bad that night.”

“It’s OK.” I replied. “Actually, do you know what Rare said to me on the phone that night?”

“What?” she asked, nuzzling her nose against my neck.

“She said she wanted me to do it with you if you needed me to.” I confessed.

Sunset paused for a minute, then nodded. “She told me the same thing.” she admitted. “I guess that’s the generosity in her coming out again…”

“Yeah…” I chuckled.

I carried the copper-haired girl for a few minutes more in silence.

“I’ll try to be more positive.” she finally said. “It’s just hard…you know, with everything. I don’t wanna be out here, looking for something we’ll never find, feeling horny non-stop…and the heat is weird…like, I can feel it, but it doesn’t bother me.”

I nodded. “I know what you mean. Extreme temperatures are something you never really get used to.”

“Should we stop now that it’s night?” Sunset asked suddenly.

I shook my head in response.

“Don’t you need the sun to be able to tell where you’re going?” she asked.

“No.” I replied. “I mean, I do use it during the day to tell what time it is, and what direction I’m headed, but at night…” I craned my neck to look at the sky. “...I can use Polaris.”

She looked up into the sky with me. “You mean the North Star?”

“Yeah.” I replied. “It’s directly above the North Pole, so it doesn’t appear to move, but all the other stars rotate counter clockwise around it as the planet rotates. Just use the two stars at the cup-end of the big dipper, count their distance five times in the direction that they are oriented, and BAM! There’s Polaris, and therefore, true north.”

I pointed upwards to our right and slightly ahead of us to show her where it was.

“See it? If we keep it there, we’ll keep heading westward, and slightly to the north; although we’ll have to modify it slightly to deal with the terrain and to avoid towns.”

She nodded, but responded disparagingly. “I can’t see it, but I trust you. You’ve done this once or twice before, haven’t you?” she asked with a smirk.

“Yeah. A few times.” I replied. “Although this is the first time I’ve done it while carrying someone who keeps rubbing their snatch on my back.”

Sunset giggled. “I can’t help it. It feels kind of good. I just thi-”

She stopped talking as I suddenly turned around to look behind us for a moment. She had noticed me doing this every so often and it was starting to make her nervous.

“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked.

“What?” I asked, noticing her apprehensiveness.

“You keep turning to look behind us,” she answered. “Do you think someone's following us?”

I snorted. “No Sunny. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous,” I said, turning my head over my shoulder to her. “We’ve been going for quite a while; you can probably walk now if you want.”

“Oh…yeah, sure,” she said, sliding off my back to the ground as I let go of her thighs. Her hand accidently brushed my neck as she let herself down, and she gasped sharply in response to the surge of memories that rumbled into her mind.

I knew what had happened, and turned to hold her by the arm. “You OK?”

Sunset took a deep breath, holding her fingertips to her temple. “Yeah…actually. That wasn’t too bad…it didn’t really hurt my head they way it did before.”

“Have you read me since you turned?” I asked.

“No…” she replied, shaking her head. “That was the first time.” She looked up at me. “It’s fine. I’m OK. Don’t worry.”

I stood there for a moment, watching her to make sure she was alright, then I looked behind us again for a second before I turned and kept going. “OK.”

She started walking beside me. “If no one’s following us, then what were you looking at?”

“Oh,” I said, glancing over at her. “When travelling like this, people often get lost if they have to backtrack because the terrain looks a lot different when you’re looking at it from the opposite direction, so it’s a good idea to look back every so often and take a mental picture in your mind of what it looks like, just in case you have to go back for any reason.”

Sunset was walking beside me, looking at the ground as she stuck her bottom lip out. “Hm, that’s actually pretty smart.” she nodded.

“Nah.” I replied. “Just experience.”

*****

After travelling most of the night on foot, Sunset and I decided to take some time to sit down in time to watch the sunrise. It’s not that we were tired, we couldn’t be, but we still got mentally sick of walking and just wanted to relax for a few moments.

We sat at the base of a large boulder with a mesquite bush growing beside it, letting our heads rest against the smooth rock as we watched the horizon to the east start to change colour. I had seen sunrises like these in the past many times, but there was something different about seeing them in the desert. I was willing to bet that my companion hadn’t seen one quite like this before.

We continued to watch the colours brighten and change. I found myself wishing Rarity and Fluttershy were there to see it with me, and I wondered if maybe one day we would make a point of coming back out to do just that.

I glanced over at the copper-haired girl, watching her as she gently tapped her index finger to her bottom lip, clearly mesmerised by the sight.

At its most colourful point, she turned to look at me with a gleam in her pretty aqua eyes. “That is completely fucking gorgeous.” she said with a smile.

I smiled back as she turned away to look at the sky again.

“Yeah…” I started. “But it’s nothing compared to the Sunset I have sitting right next to me.”

She quickly snapped her head back to me, looking stunned for a moment, then she rolled her eyes. “Enough with the sunset lines…” she said with a blush on her cheeks. “And that’s not really something you say to someone you say is just your friend.”

I shrugged. “Can’t a guy tell his friend she’s hot?”

She looked off into the dark sky behind me, letting out a sigh as she smiled. “I guess…”

She turned back to watch the sunrise in silence as it finished its concert of colours. Once it was completely up and the sky was mostly blue and the heat of the day was starting to creep in on us, I was about to suggest we kept moving…but Sunset caught me off guard with an unexpected question.

“Golds?”

“Yeah?” I said, looking at her.

“Would it be OK with you if…I read you?” she asked timidly.

I blinked a couple times as I stared at her. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “After what happened earlier, I don’t think it’ll hurt me like before, and…” she paused. “I just want to see if I can learn to control it better.”

“What did you see earlier?” I asked.

“Just flashes…images…” she replied. “It was coming in too fast and I couldn’t sort out what most of it was…I wasn’t touching you long enough to have a chance.”

I bit my bottom lip as I looked at the rocks and stones around us, wondering if she might see something she wouldn’t like in there…but she wanted to do it, so I looked up at her and nodded.

“If you really want to.” I answered.

She nodded, then shifted herself closer to me, holding her hand out for me to take it. I hesitated at first…after being so used to avoiding contact with her because of how much it hurt her the first time, touching her hand now felt like some sort of taboo.

After glancing at her eyes once more and seeing the obvious curiousness in her expression, I reached up and let my fingers graze hers, starting out gently at first to try to ease her into it.

Sunset shuddered as her eyes squeezed shut, and she inadvertently pulled her hand back, her breathing increasing quickly. She gave her head a little shake before looking at me again with a shocked expression.

“Sorry…” she said with her breathing laboured. “It’s just…so much at once. Let me see if I can try to…I don’t know…’throttle’ it back.”

I nodded. “OK…just don’t hurt yourself, Sunny.”

She smirked a bit at me. “I can’t…”

“I know…” I replied.

She paused, then took a deep breath…steadying herself before she quickly reached for my hand again, this time lacing her fingers together with mine, pressing our palms firmly together.

This was the first time I ever held Sunset’s hand, and I honestly kind of liked it. He skin was soft, and her touch was warm. Her fingers felt more delicate than I would have expected, especially when the rest of her body looked so powerful by comparison, and I actually enjoyed the feel of her squeezing my hand as she took in the massive wave of thoughts from my mind.

Her eyes were shut tightly, her teeth gritted, and I couldn’t help but notice her wriggling her feet, rubbing them against each other, digging her heels into the ground as she struggled to control the flow into her brain.

It felt like an eternity, holding her hand like this, but at the same time, it was only a few seconds before she suddenly let me go, gasping loudly as her eyes popped open wide. She frantically crawled backwards away from me with her face full of emotion. It was impossible to figure out which emotions in particular she was displaying; it appeared to be all of them at once.

As soon as the tears started streaming down her face, I knew she must have seen something she didn’t like. It worried me…after all, I’ve done a few bad things in my past, some of which I told her about in the woods at Fluttershy’s…but I was purposefully vague with the details that day. Hopefully she didn’t see something that would make her hate me…

“Are you OK?” I asked.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she just covered her mouth with her hand.

I took a deep breath as I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. “Oh boy…what did she see?” I thought. I chewed my bottom lip as I stared at the ground beside me, waiting for her to tell me what terrible things she must have seen.

After a minute or two of silence, she finally spoke. “I…I’m so sorry…”

It was a response I didn’t expect, and it prompted me to look at her with surprise. “For what?” I asked.

She slowly shook her head. “You…you’ve been through so much…lost so many people who were close to you.”

I gave a small nod of confirmation. She was right.

“Like…ninety-nine percent of everyone you’ve ever known…is dead.” she said slowly.

I let my eyes fall to the ground. “Yeah.”

She brought her knees up to hug them against her chest. “A normal person’s life,” she began. “It’s like an eye blink to you; even mine, and Flutters, and the others.”

I remained silent, knowing there wasn’t much to say, so I just let her process it and say what she needed to say.

“You’ve lost so many…” she said sympathetically, then she paused for a moment. I looked at her as her expression changed to more of a look of fear. “I saw what happened, when you ruled that city long ago.”

This was what I was afraid of. All I could do was I hope she didn’t see too much.

“You were bad,” she continued. “You were a tyrant. You kept the people fearful of you. You destroyed their homes…you killed kids.”

I closed my eyes and looked away from her, feeling ashamed for the things I’d done; some of the things she was now telling me were things I’d forgotten about, and now I was starting to remember how bad I actually was because of it.

I took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say to redeem myself. “It was a long time ago.” I said. “It’s not something I like to talk about.” I turned to look at her to find her staring at me with moist eyes, and it broke my heart to see her with wet streaks down her face like this because of me and the things I’d done. “Sorry…if I upset you.”

Unexpectedly, she shook her head. “It’s not what you did that upsets me…”

I frowned a bit, confused by her statement. “Hm?”

“You told me they drove you away…” she replied. “You never told me they buried you.”

I didn’t’ tell her about that because I honestly hate admitting when I’ve been defeated, not to mention that was an extremely shitty time for me.

“I could feel it.” she continued. “It was like I was you…I could see the pitch black all around, and I could feel the weight of everything on top of you. I could feel how you felt. Angry…scared that you would be stuck there forever…and sad that no one cared that you were down there…it must have been horrible.”

I swallowed. “Yeah…” I looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath as I remembered the feeling of panic I had to endure while I was under there…and for such a long time. I continued to speak. “When you’re buried like that…in the dark…and all the weight is pressing on you from every angle, you can’t even tell which way is up…”

“How did they do it?” Sunset asked.

I looked at her. “Didn’t you see it?”

She took her head. “I couldn’t get every detail…it was too much all at once.”

I sighed. “I was in the palace, which was where I lived…and the people attacked one day…when they finally decided to get rid of me.”

I glanced at her as she listened intently.

“They used catapults, battering rams, primitive explosives…” I continued. “They hit hard all at once, and the part of the castle I was in collapsed. I was buried under tons of rubble…blocks, marble, mortar…you know…”

She nodded. “And you couldn’t get out?”

“No.“ I said with a headshake. “And they just left me there.”

Sunset shook her head. “That’s horrible.” she replied in a soft voice. “How long were you stuck there?”

“Eighty-seven years.” I said flatly.

Sunset was silent. She stared at me like I had two heads, not even breathing for a full minute.

Finally, she blinked a couple times, snapping herself out of the shock of what I just told her. “That’s...that’s…awful! I mean, that’s like…a whole lifetime, wasted in the dark…” she stammered in a voice barely above a whisper. “How did you manage to get through that?”

“Well...I didn’t.” I said as I tried to look at her, but was unable to muster up the courage to make eye contact. “It was a long fuckin time, and I was pretty upset some of the time…and other times not so much. Sometimes I was just stagnant. It was...I don't even know how to explain it, but…really, what choice did I have? I couldn’t get out, and I couldn’t die…I was just…there.”

“I would have lost my fucking mind,” she said, resting her forehead on her palms.

I shook my head. “You can’t.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking back up at me suddenly.

“Our minds are like our bodies.” I explained. “They can’t be broken…we can’t go crazy.” I took a deep breath, then kicked a small rock that was sitting near my feet. “Which is good, obviously…but sometimes it can be a bad thing, too.”

Sunset frowned. “I don’t understand…”

“Sometimes the mind blocks out traumatic events, to protect people from them…and so they don’t have to remember them...” I shook my head. “But us…we’ll always remember the bad things…that is, until enough time goes by before they finally just fade away.”

“Hm.” she mumbled, rubbing her chin before looking back at me. “So how did you get out?” she asked.

I leaned my head back against the rock we were sitting beside. “Eventually, the city was invaded by an army from another land…they came in and conquered, then started tearing the city down to rebuild it to their liking. When they cleared away the rubble from my castle, they uncovered me.”

Sunset wiped her face dry with her hand. “I bet they were surprised to find you under there…” she said with a slight smirk showing through.

“Yeah…” I replied. “It gave them quite a scare…they all thought I was a demon or something…although I didn’t stick around, so they didn't have to deal with me for too long.”

“Where did you go?” she asked.

“Asia.” I answered. “I spent many years there.”

Sunset paused for a moment, reflecting on all the things she had just learned about her friend.

“Sunny?” I asked, getting her attention. “That’s not a part of my life I like to think about…of all the things I thought you’d find in my mind, I didn’t think that would be one that you would find so quickly.”

“It’s obviously a bigger part of you than you realise,” she replied.

I put my hand up to her. “Just…I don’t think Flutters or the others would like it…I’d prefer if we kept it between us. It’s bad enough that you know about it.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Why is it bad that I know about it?” she asked. “Don’t forget, I was bad too. I tried to turn everyone in this world into a mindless zombie and use them to take over my own world…”

I sighed. “Yeah, that’s pretty bad…”

“And I got beat, too.” she continued. “So I know how you feel. I would be a pretty big hypocrite if I judged you over that.”

I nodded in agreement.

“But if you don’t want the others to know, I get that.” she said. “I promise it’ll stay between us.”

I gave her a little smile. “Thanks, Sunny.”

We paused for a moment. As we sat, I looked over at her, noticing she looked like she was thinking about something as she stared at me, chewing the inside of her cheek.

She finally spoke up. “There’s more to the story, isn’t there?”

I closed my eyes, feeling my heart wrench in my chest. I had hoped she didn’t pick up on it, but she did. “Damn it.” I thought. “I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.”

She could tell it was something big. “Come on, Golds. Something else happened in that city…what was it? You might feel better if you tell someone about it. You can tell me…” she said. “I’m your best friend, aren’t I?”

I glared sharply at her for a moment, hoping she might back down…but the opposite happened. The look of genuine care in her green eyes took hold of me and eventually, I lowered my defenses.

“Come on,” she insisted. “I know there was something else going on there…I just couldn’t pick up what it was.”

I closed my eyes as I rubbed my forehead, and I ran my fingers through my hair, then I finally looked at her.

“I had a wife.”

Her eyes got wide. “Oh…” realizing this story was going to take a dark turn, she suddenly felt regret for asking about it.

I cleared my throat, trying to muster up the strength to tell her the rest. “She was in the palace with me when the people attacked…she was right next to me when it collapsed, and I grabbed her when the floor gave out...to try and protect her.”

Sunset listened closely with wide eyes as I told her the story.

“But I couldn’t protect her.” I continued. “We were buried, and she was crushed to death…and I was still holding her in my arms from when we fell. I couldn’t move because of the weight of the debris on us, so I was trapped in place with my arms around her…and…I had to listen to her choke to death on her own blood. She died right there in front of me...in the dark.” I stopped for a moment to take a breath before I could continue. “As the days, and eventually weeks went by, she started to smell…and I was stuck holding onto her while she decomposed right next to me.”

Sunset put her hand over her mouth as fresh tears ran down her cheeks. She looked like she wanted to say something, but instead, after a moment she shuffled closer to me on her knees and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, squeezing me tightly. “That’s horrible,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry that happened.”

I looked away from her at the ground. “Well hey, it's OK...you know? I mean, I deserved it. You said it yourself: I killed kids.”

She shook her head. “Nobody deserves that. Especially the ‘you’ that I know…”

I sighed, knowing that she wasn’t going to understand the full scope of the things I actually did.

“You couldn’t have been truly bad…” she continued. “Something must have happened to make you do those things…but then you changed, didn’t you?”

I looked at Sunset as she lifted her head to look at me, her eyes only inches from mine now. “Yeah…after I got out, I realized how I made others suffer by taking away their loved ones…like I said in the woods, I learned a lot from that experience.”

“You see?” she said. “You are a good dude…even if you did bad things.”

“I don’t know…” I replied, shaking my head.

“Yes!” she insisted. “You’re a stronger person than me…When I changed my ways, it was because the Princess asked the other girls take care of me and teach me how to be a good person, and a good friend. But you…” she shook her head. “You had every reason to be angry when you were freed…you could have set this whole fucking planet on fire, but you didn’t. You took it upon yourself to learn the error of your ways…and now, you’re one of the best people I know.”

I cleared my throat, feeling slightly ‘on the spot’ after being put on such a high pedestal. “Uh…thanks.” was all I could come up with.

Sunset paused for a moment, biting her lip as she mustered up the next difficult question. “You were close to her?” she asked. “Your wife?”

I sighed, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Really close…just like with Flutters. After what happened with her, I never let myself get that close to anyone…not until I met Flutters…and the rest of you guys.”

She smiled. “And now she’s become like you…so what happened to your wife can’t happen again.”

“Yeah…” I said. “You can’t imagine how happy it made me…I thought I could never lose her…”

Sunset’s smile disappeared. “Then Cody took her…”

I nodded slowly, staring at the ground.

She sighed as she let me go from the hug and leaned back next to me on the rock. “That’s why we’re out here…looking for a random helicopter. You feel the same way about Flutters being gone as you felt when you lost your wife…and you’ll do anything to get her back. Even following a plan as unlikely as this…”

I turned my head to look at her. “Yeah…I know it’s a huge stretch, but I’m never gonna give up.”

Sunset pursed her lips as she looked up at the sky. “I’m really sorry, Golds...for how I acted earlier. I didn’t realize what this meant to you...and I never considered that what happened in your past might be driving you to do this.”

“It’s OK, Sunny. How could you know?” I replied, looking down at my feet, which were stretched out in front of me.

She turned her head towards me, staring for a moment…then she leaned over and placed a small kiss on my cheek, followed by resting her head on my shoulder. “Well…” she said softly. “I’m here for you. And no matter what you want to do, even if you want to circle the globe a hundred times, or chase Cody and Flutters around the rings of Saturn, I won’t leave your side. Ever. Not until we find her and bring her home. I promise.”

I turned to look down at her, but was only able to see the top of her head in this position. I leaned down and placed a kiss her crown and then let my cheek rest on her head, letting her wavy hair act as a cushion while I smelled her sweet candy scent drifting up in the hot sun, which was steadily getting hotter as the morning moved forward.

*****

We spent numerous days and nights walking through the desert, seeing several beautiful sunrises and sunsets, marvelling at the terrain, the plant life, the creatures…although Sunset was not really a fan of the large spiders and scorpions…and especially the snakes.

We avoided all the towns, and followed the sun and the stars until we finally made our way through a farmer’s field, noticing the surrounding desert wasn’t really a desert anymore…and we knew we had gotten through it.

But where were we?

We both felt some relief, although I was mildly disappointed that we didn’t find the supply transport. Not that I was surprised…after all, finding something that could potentially show up in an area covering five states, once every two weeks to a month was next to impossible. I knew it was, but as long as my pink-haired princess was being held in that underwater dungeon, it was going to continue searching.

As we approached the edge of the field, we could see a dirt road going across in front of us. Past that and to the left, there appeared to be an old ranch of some sort.

I glanced at Sunset, wondering what she might have been thinking when I was suddenly struck by the way her hair looked. I hadn’t noticed it until now, but after spending so much time in the intense sun of the desert, the hair on top of her head and some of the outer layers down the sides had bleached out the last bit of the dark brown dye. What remained was her natural fiery red and yellow colour layered on top of the darker copper and bronze hues where traces of the dye remained underneath.

I smirked at her. “You’re starting to look like Rainbow Dash…” I joked.

She looked back at me in confusion. “Huh?”

“Nevermind.” I shook my head. “We’ll find you a mirror sometime.”

She frowned, glancing up with her eyes, looking at the single curly lock that hung over her forehead, realizing it was a lighter colour of red than before…then something caught our attention.

It was a man yelling. The sound was coming from the ranch down the road.

We both turned to look in that direction to see a fairly old man, hobbling as quickly as he could down the long driveway towards the road, waving his hand frantically at something. He was, presumably, he owner of the ranch, but it took us a minute to see what it was that had him in such a panic.

It wasn’t us being in his field, if it even was his field…I knew from experience how anal some farmers were about their land, but this didn’t seem to be the case.

I looked further down the dirt road and noticed a large transport truck barrelling along, kicking up dust and leaving a light brown trail in its wake…then finally, I saw what the old man was freaking out about.

At the end of the driveway, there was a young kid, maybe three years old, playing on a plastic tricycle in the middle of the road. As the old man was making his way toward the kid, he continued to yell, trying to get the kid’s attention to get out of the way of the truck.

The little boy finally heard the old man calling to him, then noticed the big truck headed right for him which sent him into and panic, causing him to try to turn his tricycle around to leave the road. Instead, he fell over, tipping the bike with him, causing his legs to get tangled up in the pedals of the toy as he started screaming in panic and reaching for the old man.

“Oh damn…” I muttered as I heard Sunset gasp behind me. I took off running as fast as I could toward the road, hearing Sunset start to say something, but her voice faded quickly behind me as I sprinted towards the boy.

My heart was in my throat as I saw the truck come within only twenty feet of the helpless child, and I started to wonder if I was going to make it. By this time, the wheels had locked up on the truck as the driver hit the brakes to try to stop, which did buy me just enough time to reach down and scoop up the kid…just as the truck skidded past, clipping my trailing foot with the fender, which shattered a few pieces of the fibreglass body around the road.

I carried the kid to the end of the driveway as the truck finally came to a halt on the road behind me and the kid, leaving a gigantic cloud of dust all around us.

I knelt down as the old man finally emerged out of the dust and hobbled toward us, clearly showing signs of a bad leg from some kind of past injury as he walked.

The little boy was shaken up pretty badly. I could feel his heart beating in his chest as he looked up at me with his innocent brown eyes, wondering who I was. The rancher came up close to us, then slowed down when he saw me holding the kid, who turned and looked to see the old man standing there.

“Grampa!” he cried, reaching his hands out for his relative.

I held the boy up as the old man took him and hugged him tightly. “I wondered where you ran off to, boy…” the old rancher said, out of breath from his run. “You gave me quite a fright!”

He looked at me suddenly, then set the kid down beside him and held his hand. “Where did you come from?” he asked me. “You just came out of nowhere…”

I rubbed the back of my head. “Uh…well, I was passing through here…on foot. I saw what was happening and I came over to help…”

He looked at me for a moment, then shook his head as he gave a little sigh of relief. “Well…thanks. You saved my Grandson…”

I could tell he was normally a fairly gruff old man who usually didn’t put his emotions on display, but after seeing his young grandson almost get mangled by a truck, he was clearly a bit stirred up, not to mention I think he felt guilty for not watching the kid closely enough and letting him get into harm’s way.

I waved him off. “Don’t mention it.”

I heard another male voice off to our right. “Is everyone OK?” We turned to see the truck driver’s silhouette emerge from the dust as he ran up to us.

I nodded as the old man answered him. “Yeah, we’re all fine here.” he said.

“Are you sure?” the driver asked. “There’s some damage on the fender of the truck…”

My eyes darted from the driver to the old man, then down to the kid as I tried to think of a cover story. Then I noticed the kid’s tricycle was nowhere to be seen. “It must have been the kid’s bike…” I said.

“Really?” the trucker said. “That’s a lot of damage for a toy to cause.”

“Well you were going pretty fast…” I said, glaring at him sharply.

He cringed a bit, and backed off a few steps. “I, uh…I’m a bit behind today…I didn’t see the kid out there, honest!”

“We’re fine.” I said. “Just go.” I waved him away as I spoke.

“You sure?” he asked, taking another step back.

The old rancher nodded. “Yeah, we’ll be fine…” he said. “You better get back to it…and thanks for stopping to check on us.”

“OK then…” the trucker said, turning slowly, obviously feeling obligated to try to help after almost killing a youngster. “Be seein ya…” he said as he climbed up into his cab. The airbrakes hissed suddenly, making the kid jump, and the truck slowly started to roll away as the dust continued to clear.

I turned to face the old man, who looked at me for a moment.

He had on a pair of dirty brown pants and a plaid shirt with suspenders over his shoulders. It was obvious that he was wearing a hat at some point, as evidenced by the way his light gray hair was pressed down in a flat ring just above his ears, but it must have fallen off when he was chasing the little boy. He had brown eyes just like his grandchild, and a light gray moustache, which was well suited for his narrow, bony face.

I was about to give a small farewell to him when I noticed him frowning a bit, tipping his head to look over my shoulder. “Who the hell’s this now?”

“Huh?” I turned to see what he was looking at, and saw Sunset across the road. She had been revealed to the old man as the truck drove away and was now walking towards us. “Oh, she’s with me.” I said, turning back to him.

“Ah…” the rancher said, looking at me again. “I don’t know how to repay you, son. What you’ve done is-“

I put my hand up to stop him. “It’s fine, really.”

Sunset joined us, standing next to me, holding the smashed tricycle which she had picked up as she crossed the road. “Sorry about your bike, kid…” she said to the little boy, who timidly buried his face against the old man’s leg.

“That’s OK, ma’am…” the rancher said. “We’ll get him a new one…” he stopped to look down at the kid. “Or maybe not…how about a swing for the backyard, huh boy?”

Sunset and I smiled at each other over the old man’s levity.

“So, what are you two doing, anyway?” he asked. “Just walking along the countryside? Pretty hot out for that…how about some lemonade or something to drink?”

I shook my head. “No, we should get moving.”

“It’s the least I could do…” he insisted.

“I could go for some lemonade.” Sunset said with a smile. “My mouth is getting dry, and my…yeah.” she rubbed the back of her neck as she stopped herself.

I looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was going to say, then rolled my eyes. “OK. Fine.”

We walked up to the house with the old man and the kid, following the long driveway as it snaked around to the back door of the house. The yard surrounding the home was full of barns and old farm equipment, and there was a fenced-off pasture that had some horses and ponies in it…which I couldn’t help but notice Sunset staring intently at as we passed.

We got to the back of the house, where there was a picnic table under a large oak tree.

“Have a seat.” the rancher said, gesturing to the table as he led the kid to the back door of the house, where an old woman came out to greet them with a smile on her face…that is, until she saw him carrying the smashed up tricycle in his hand.

“Papa…what happened?” she asked in a high tone.

“He got away from me, ma…” he explained. “He got out onto the road, and a truck almost hit him…”

The old lady gasped deeply, then reached out to pull the kid inside the house. “What did I tell you about playing on the road??”

“It’s OK, ma.” the rancher said, pointing to me with his thumb. “This young fella grabbed him up…”

The old lady didn’t acknowledge me at all, but instead started bitching at the old man. “I told you, you have to keep an eye on him!”

“I’m sorry, ma. I got busy fixin that old 35 Deluxe, and before I knew it, he was gone…” they continued arguing as they went into the house and shut the door behind them.

Sunset and I sat at the table, our eyes darting around the yard awkwardly as we heard the old lady yell at the rancher for the next few minutes. Finally, the old man came back out carrying a pitcher full of pink lemonade with ice floating around in it. He set two glasses on the table and poured us each a glass. “Sorry about that, folks.”

Sunset and I shook our heads, excusing the argument as we each took a glass of the cold beverage.

We sipped the lemonade under the shade of the tree in silence for a few minutes before the old man finally spoke again.

“I really can’t thank you enough…” he said.

I shook my head. “It’s fine, really.” I said, looking back at him. “What’s the date today?”

He looked at me a little weird, then answered. “October 11th…”

Sunset and I looked at each other in surprise.

“That took six days??” she exclaimed, realizing she’d grossly miscounted how many nights had passed during our walk across the desert.

I sighed. “We missed thanksgiving…” I mumbled, staring down at the glass of lemonade.

The rancher looked confused. “Thanksgiving’s next month, folks…”

I shook my head, looking at him. “We’re from Canada.”

His eyebrows went up. “Ah…” he replied as I turned to look around the yard.

“What’s wrong with your 35?” I asked, nodding to the old red and yellow tractor parked next to the barn with tools on the ground beside it. “Won’t start?”

He glanced over at the tractor. “Oh, no…it runs fine, it just revs up like crazy…” he rubbed his chin as he gazed at the old machine. “I think something might be wrong with the governor…”

I gave him a confirming nod. “You’re right. The pin on the upper governor race wears off and misses the throttle lever. You just have to take it off and weld it up, then grind it back down to its original size.”

He furrowed his eyebrows at me. “What part is that?”

“The tapered cup that the ball weights ride in.” I said. “There’s a pin on the front that wears off…well, you’ll see what I mean when you get it apart.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “How do you know this?”

“I’ve seen it happen on those old Hercules engines…” I replied. “It’s a semi-common problem with them.”

“Oh…OK. I’ll have to look into that.” he said with a nod. “Thanks again, son.”

I smiled back and looked around the yard. Then something caught my eye. Something that I normally wouldn’t care much about, but today it was a godsend. I could almost see the beam of light coming from heaven and shining down on it, accompanied by the church choir singing its praises.

I quickly looked at the old man. “Do you still drive that old Diplomat?”

He raised his eyebrows at me for a moment, then turned slowly to look at the car parked beside a rickety old garage. “The Dodge?” he repeated. “Not too much anymore…it does a lot of sittin.”

“Are those plates still valid?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah…but I’ve been meaning to get rid of it…I just haven’t done it yet cuz the old bugger still runs like a top.”

“When did you drive it last?” I asked.

He looked up as he thought about it. “Hmm…’bout a month ago?”

My eyes got wide. “This is perfect!” I thought to myself. “You willing to sell it?”

“You wanna buy it?” he asked. “Well, sure, I guess.”

I put my finger up. “The only stipulation is that we leave your plates on it.”

“Whoa!” he said, leaning back with his hands up. “I don’t think so…”

“Come on, I saved your boy…” I insisted. “You said you wanted to thank me…this is how you’re gonna do it.”

“Yeah, but…” the old man paused, then suddenly narrowed his eyes. “You in some kind of trouble, son?”

I shook my head. “Not exactly…more like someone else is gonna be in trouble if I find him…” I explained. “Someone who kidnapped a friend of mine.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t want no part of this…I can’t afford to have some illegal shit coming back to me if the police run those plates.”

“Just listen,” I said. “The whole point of an old car is that they can’t track me like they can with the newer ones…plus your plates will throw them off even more, aside from the fact that I can’t register it here myself. The reason for me taking it with your plates is to stay hidden, not to cause trouble. And if something does happen, you can just say it was stolen.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know. I wanna help you out, son. But I don’t want to bring any trouble onto myself.”

“I promise no trouble on you, sir.” I said. “Come on, I saved your grandson, I told you how to fix your tractor…and now…” I paused, biting my lip for a second. “I’ll give you ten grand for that car, plates and all.”

He looked like he was going to have a heart attack. “Ten thousand?? The thing’s only worth two hundred…”

“OK, two hundred for the car…and ninety-eight hundred for your trouble.” I said with a smirk as I pulled out a few stacks of money from the gym bag and set them on the table.

His eyes went wide as he locked his sights on the money.

“Is that OK, or do you want fifteen?” I asked, watching him look at me again with shock.

*****

I got into the car as the rancher stood beside it, resting his arm on the roof.

“Two pumps, then start it.” he instructed.

I rolled my eyes. I knew full-well how to handle a carbureted engine, but I did what he said anyway, just to appease him. The car fired up after a few seconds of cranking and actually idled quite nicely.

“Sounds good.” I said, giving it a rev. “Three-eighteen?”

“Three-sixty.” he replied. “Lots of power.”

My eyebrows went up. “Nice…” I said with a nod.

“OK, then.” the rancher said. “I’ll let you take it with my plates for fifteen…but only cuz you saved the boy…and because I’ve got a good feeling about you, son.”

I nodded. “Don’t worry, sir. I’ll keep out of trouble with it.”

“I hope so…” he said, glancing at the house where the old lady was. “Otherwise that old bitch’ll have my ass…”

I laughed as Sunset got into the passenger seat and closed the door.

“OK, then.” I said, rolling down the window as I shut the door, then I reached out to shake his hand.

“Thanks again, son.” he said. “And good luck with your friend.”

I nodded. “Thanks. See ya around.”

I put the car in gear and drove it out of it's resting spot onto his driveway, hoping it wasn’t going to turn out to be a total piece of shit.

We pulled out onto the road and accelerated up to speed. The car actually drove quite well, which I figured it would…why else would the old guy still have it? It wasn’t worth putting money into if it was a turd.

“Nice…” Sunset said, looking around at the faded interior. She closed her eyes and slowly ran her fingers through her hair, which was continuously blowing around in the breeze with the windows down.

“It beats walking…” I said.

I looked over at her to say something else, but was surprised to see her coming towards me with her eyes closed and her mouth open.

Sunset planted her lips on the side of my neck as I struggled to keep my eyes on the road. She started licking my skin with her tongue, running her soft lips up to my ear to give it a gentle nibble while reaching down and rubbing her hand over my pants, grabbing at my manhood as it quickly started to harden in response to her touch.

She backed her face away from my neck and looked at me, biting her bottom lip with intense lust in her eyes.

“What was that for?” I asked.

She placed another wet kiss on my cheek, then panted out her response. "You…catching the bullet in Vegas…finding our way through the desert…saving the kid…getting the car…everything!” she said frantically. “I know we’re just supposed to be friends, but sometimes you are so fucking hot…”