Among Us.

Donovan nodded slowly when the clerk joked about not being a creep or showing up uninvited. Made the man want to lock the place up tight when he left for work. There wasn't much that would be worth stealing. However, he didn't really need to see this guy randomly showing up at his place either. At least Josh had the decency to hurry along. Having an uninvited guest was slightly annoying and Donovan wanted to lay down and rest. Maybe smear a little more cream over his arm that was beginning to throb by now.

As badly as he wanted to refuse the Vodka it seemed that Josh was going to make sure he got to keep it no matter what. Carefully setting the bottle aside on the counter he sighed. "Alright." Donovan walked with his guest to the door. The two of them shook hands and then he closed the door behind the clerk.

This was not comfortable in the least. By the end of the first week Donovan had to go back to the store and the bruising on his arm had turned from a horrible dark purple to a sickening yellow. Setting a basket of the same groceries he always bought onto the counter he peered at the clerk. "Slow week?"
 
Josh got up from his chair and shook Donovan's hand and answered:''As usual, you know.''
He began to to scan the groceries but noticed how swollen and disgusting Don's wound had gotten. It was hidden behind bandages but Josh could still see through wtih the lighting and his customer's arm had indeed gotten much worst.

''Wow man, is your arm okay ? What'd that doctor of yours gave you to smear on that wound, mayonaise ? Yeesh.''
Josh tried to keep his gaze away from the freakish bruise on his client's arm.

The clerk eventually got done scanning and storing the groceries into the plastic bag he then handed to Donovan's.
His customer took what he had brought and Josh asked him: ''Got anything planned for tonight ? If not my uncle's got his new bar opened in Vegas and he said drinks were free for family.'' ''Now i know you're not much of a drinker and not much family either but it could still be some fun.'' ''And say, you're not gonna spend 2 whole weeks home alone without getting out are you ?''

Josh had this insistant look on his face. He didn't want Don to be alone for 2 weeks, felt bad for the guy.
 
Shaking his head a little Donovan smirked. "Yah goofy shit. I got shot. What do you expect? Of course its gonna look ugly for a few weeks and it still hurts. Stuff the doctor gave me is supposed to help numb it." For the most part the cream worked well on his arm and it was doing exactly what the doctor said it would. She'd told him that these things always looked worse before they got better and the swelling was something had begun to develop with just the first few days after he got hit. By now it was starting to go down again, but it still made moving his arm much somewhat painful.

After he paid for his groceries Donovan was about ready to leave and then Josh was asking him about going out to Vegas. The man shrugged. "I don't drive much right now." He knew it wasn't a good enough excuse and then he shrugged. "This is it man. If you go creepy on me..." Shaking his head slightly he smirked. "Seriously. I try to stay out of trouble. A drink or two at Vegas would be great." Reluctantly he took a piece of paper and wrote his number down. "Go ahead and send me a text when your ready to head out."
 
Josh was surprised that Don acepted so quickly. Surprised but happy.

''Haha, don't worry man, it's gonna be a fun night out, plus i know Vegas like the back of my hand so don't worry we ain't going into some shady stuff.''
Josh took the piece of paper and said the following:
''Expect a text at around 9 Pm. I'll come pick you up and take the wheel if you're not feeling like it.''
''You'll see man, you won't regret it, my uncle's place is straight fire"

The clerk handed his groceries to to Donovan and and saluted him as he was leaving the store.
He later started to pack up his things and clean up the place.
It had been a long time since the fat clerk had a night out with someone, so he was rather excited.

At least he wasn't gonna be alone in the dark tonight.
 
Was the guy really so insecure that he would talk on and on about what the night wouldn't and would be? Donovan shook his head lightly. "Just say it will be great and leave it there man." He couldn't help chuckling some and he walked out the door. At home he stared at the bills and his non-existent pay check. It just meant that when he went back to work he would have to try and pick up any extra time that he could. Hopefully it wouldn't bother the muscle in his arm too much.

Flopping out on his couch with a blanket and a book he let his legs hang off one end and his head rested on the arm rest at the other end of the couch. Leaning back into the cushions he flipped through the pages as he continued to read. Eventually he fell asleep with the book laid across his chest. He didn't have any tv to watch and Donovan didn't find most of it his time. If he really wanted to watch something he would get his computer out and look it up on youtube or something. A bleep came through on his phone and Donovan sat up. Gingerly he reached for his phone and tapped on the screen.

Looked like a random text from someone saying that they were outside. For a moment he couldn't think of who it might be and then he remembered Josh. Getting off the couch he folded the blanket and flopped it over the edge of the one arm on his couch and then walked out the front door. Locking it behind himself he started down the stairs. His pupils widened slightly in the dark making the purple look more like an outer rim on his eyes.

Opening the passenger door on Josh's car he slipped into the seat and managed to duck far enough down he wouldn't hit his head. "What time yah plan on being back tonight?"
 
Josh shook Don's hand as he got in the car.
''We come back when they kick us out dude.'' Joked the clerk as he started reving his old Cadillac.
He slammed his foot on the gas pedal and powered out of the parking lot twice as fast as he got in it. Josh was a pretty wreckless driver but he took good care of his car.

The fat clerk turned on the radio and asked: ''So you go to Vegas often ?''
Josh spent nearly as much time in the big city as he did in Henderson. Not only did he have most of his family there but it's not like there was much to do in his native town compared to the neon city.

Josh was driving pretty fast in the city but when he got on the highway, the clerk destroyed the speed limit, as he usually did, getting his passenger pretty stressed out.
But he wasn't going to slow down for that much.

The distant lights of Vegas begun to shine ahead, indicating that the two were getting close to the big city.
 
Donovan's one good hand almost instantly started to grab for anything that was available. He ended up settling for the dashboard of the car. "Hey man, you don't have to drive like that." If they were going to be having a safe calm night this was not how to do it. Aside from the case that they might get pulled over the man was starting feel like his life could be in peril. Alien, or not he would likely suffer severe injuries and if he didn't get to his own special doctor his identity would be blown wide open. Might end up in some weird case and then he would have to get a hold of the organization to get him moved again.

As if things couldn't get worse Josh turned the radio on and then began to talk as if this were some casual outing. "No, I avoid it if possible." Donovan was starting to think if they went anywhere again he should be the one driving. The highway wasn't any better and the clerk drove faster than before and again decided not to pay attention to the speed limit.

It wasn't long till Vegas was glimmering in the distance and Donovan managed to get out a small warning. "I think their's a cop ahead. Might want to slow down a lot before we get there." Chances were the cop could still gauge them where they were at, but hopefully not. Donovan really didn't want anything to do with the police. He was supposed to be staying under the radar not drawing attention to himself.
 
''Don't worry man. Cops here are as concerned about speed limits as we both are.'' Josh dismissed Don's advice but how wrongly so.
In the car's dirty rear-view mirror Josh spotted blue and red lights flashing as a siren sound made itself heard.
''Shit !" moaned the clerk slowing down and gesturing the officer behind him that he was pulling up.

The fat man pulled up on the side of the road and grabbed the car's papers from the glovebox.''Don't worry i've got this.'' Said Josh to his understandably worried passenger.
Josh's father was a policeman, therefore he had good relations with members of the state police force. Hoping he could wit his way out of the situation, Josh put on his sun glasses (even though it was nearly night time) and lowered his window when the officer knocked on it.

''Hello sir, do you have any idea why i pulled you over ?'' Said the officer through a thick southern accent.
The policeman a was a large dark skinned man who seemed to be even taller than Josh's passenger but it was hard to tell from inside of the car.
After the officer asked the obligatory question, the clerk answered ''Cause i blew past that wussy speed limi..''

Josh cut his sentence short and his head tilted slightly while looking at the cop. After a couple of seconds staring at the officer Josh's face got decorated by a bright smile going from ear to ear, he then said: ''Was it cause i went fast 'nuff to go back in time ? By god is that Will Phillips from ITT ?''
Turns out Josh knew the officer, they both used to be dormmates in college.

''Josh Baptist ? You've gotta be kidding me !'' Said the police officer as Josh opened the door of his rusty car to embrace the big guy.

The two men embraced and talked together for a minute or two until Josh said the following: ''Me and my buddy Donnovan are heading to the city to grab a couple of drink's at the old man Bill's new bar before it bankrupts. You won't be interested in joining would' ya ?''
The officer put his bike helmet back on before replying ''My shift's off in 10 minutes. I'll join you there man.''
The two men embraced ounce again as Josh got back in the car and saluted the cop as he departed. Josh was so excited to catch up the time lost that he almost forgot his passenger who'd been getting pretty noticeably bored after a while.

''Sorry man, that guy is a man of gold and we used to be dormmates in college. I think you two would get along quite well. Talking bout what gyms you hittin and stuff.
You'll see his a great guy.''

Josh turned the engine back on and slammed back on the gas ready to have a good night with good beer, good music and good friends.

Finally.
 
It was just their luck to get pulled over. Donovan glowered at the clerk for a moment. "And you said they don't care." At least that was the jist of what he'd understood from the clerk. If the police hadn't been parked right behind them the man would have gotten out and walked down the road here and now. Instead he watched with some disbelief and then boredom as the other seemed to disregard any sense of respect for the officer.

When they were finally on their way again he instinctively braced as the clerk blasted them off toward the city again. Donovan was hardly feeling up to a party by the time they reached Las Vegas, but he did need a drink. "How about a Irish Cream on the rocks." Sliding into a seat at the bar he waited for the bartender to give him the drink at the counter. Donovan looked over at the clerk several times and then he decided to just stay quiet for the time. Obviously this was how some humans thought they were supposed to show someone a good time.

By the end of the second drink he was ready go to home and go back to bed. Instead his friend was only seemingly getting started. "Wait, what was that you just said?" Donovan looked at Josh. "You say something about aliens?" A chuckle rose in his chest. He had to play a cynic if he was going to be doing even a half way decent job at maintaining his cover.
 
The clerk and his friend finnaly got to the bar. Josh took a sit next to Don and after cheering to themselves the clerk begun to empty beer after beer. Eventualy Josh's old dormmate and fortunate encounter joined the two men and had a sit next to the clerk.
After sometime exchanging stories on how they use to play pranks on the university's football team's captain, hide in the lockers to take picturess of the cheerleaders and a few more recent stories about eachother, Will started talking about a project he had been appart of for a long time now. A project involving research on extraterrestrial life.

The two college buddies were huge fan of science fiction growing up so it didn't surprise Josh to know that his friend was involved with this type of research.
Will pulled his phone out and showed a really proffesional looking website to his friend. The home page showed many different pictures of men and women accompanied by a page long descriptions full of diplomas and titles from university the clerk had never even heard about.
All these people had fancy titles like ''Doctor'' or ''Proffesor''. It looked like some serious stuff.

Will then explained to his friend that these people were all part of a research group called ''The Homomimetic Lifeform Investigation Foundation''.
The association's primary objective is to locate different lifeforms who use memetic evolution to assimilate into human civilisation.
At first said group was focused on silly things like vampires and werewolves, which didn't give them anykind of credibility.
But recently this foundation acquired a reckognisable amount credibilty due to it's many investigation on an unknown, possibly extraterrestrial lifeform, who had started to use these Homomimetic strategies to hide amongst humans.
While no concrete documented proof had been released about the existence of said lifeform, the research group was taken very seriously by some but completely discredited by others.
Will was appart of what he called the ''Intervention Raid Force'', a unit who's active role was to conduct monthly raids who were organised when an individual was highly suspected of being an ''Hidden Agent'' as they are reffered as by the foundation. Said ''Agents'' were abducted and sent off to unknowed locations to be experimented on by several doctors, cryptozoologist or regular zoologist. And acording to Will, over 20 000 raid victims turned out to infact be non-human and extraterrestrial beings.

Lots of words, lots of mistery but above that, lots of alchool going through Josh's system at the moment.
He paid attention enough to understand the subject but not enough to see how serious his friend was about it.
''My man Willy. With that creative brain of yours how come you never started pitching your stuff to the Hollys ? I'm telling you that they'd love your alien stuff.''

Donovan, who seemed to have paid has much attention to Will's tale as Josh had and only heard the last sentence, asked his question.
William, being certain that the man at the otherside of the counter had paid full attention, replied with tale of a raid that occured in Vegas earlier this week.

''We had gotten reports of a Doctor that had a cabinet here in the ol' bright city. After some research we found that no medical certificate was printed with her name on it.
The big brains up there called us up and we busted in there. Repoed all the medical material, which didn't look very humanlike to me, just sayin, sent her and the nurses to the delivery boys. Hope she didn't have any appointments this week HA!''

Will started laughing as he begun sipping his beer and so did Josh.
''See Don, i told ya, this guy, heart of the party. To yer mad man self Willy''
The two men shocked there beers and started chuggin.

The story was the same for all three men.
The way it was heard, wasn't.
 
Donovan got silent and he became slightly more serious when Josh's friend Will had continued with the story about the doctor. His brow lowered into a frown and he took a deep breath. Obviously this clerk had gotten him close to someone that could prove to be the end of his freedom or possibly could help him save a few more of his fellow kind. Doubtless they would have it all staked out for whoever had appointments with the doctor and Donovan figured he could just as well send a text to his case handler and let them send further notification from there.

Taking another sip of the drink he'd been working on all night Donovan looked at Will. "Sounds like a doctor that was just practicing without license. Honestly you can't believe in that alien stuff. This is an age old argument and I think there's too many people that are just crazy to make a name for themselves with aliens as their claim to fame." It didn't seem that either of the other two were really listening to his nay saying of the alien folk.

Since they were not paying attention Donovan decided to go ahead and sip a little more at his drink. He was already regretting coming to Las Vegas. While he didn't have to get up in the morning he was starting to feel a little more nervous about driving home with Josh. They were supposed to be going home and Donovan left all the cream at home too. His arm was starting to ache again and he leaned back in his seat. "Don't suppose you're up for driving home are you?" Donovan hated the idea of staying overnight here, but at the same time he was glad that he'd come. Turned out his friend just might be a good connection to make sure he steered clear of the organizations that would gladly do what they could to experiment on him.

Josh wasn't quite in condition to drive home that night so Donovan ended up sharing a room in the upstairs hotel room part of the joint. Inside there were two full sized beds. It was slightly smaller than the one that Donovan slept on at home, but he couldn't complain. It was better than getting pulled over by another police officer. Donovan took his shoes off and pulled the blankets down on his bed before crawling under the covers.

The arm was hurting badly enough that he had a hard time getting to sleep. Pulling his phone out he sent a text to his handler. "Doctor is out of office as is all the staff. Will need an appointment with another doctor. Arm is still bothering me." He could only think of a few reasons that his arm would hurt this badly. Some of the aliens had said that hunters would coat their bullets and it would start rounds of infections that would eventually either kill the alien or put them into a doctor's office so often that they would start making busts on their physicians here on earth. If that was the case it would seem that perhaps one of the kids was set up by a hunter to shoot him and now they were tracing his movements to see if he would lead them to more aliens.
 
Josh kept on drinking as Donovan confronted Will about the legitimesy of his story.
Neither men really cared about what Donovan had to say. Eventually, Will headed out. He shook hands with his old dormate and exchanged contact info.
Don was also ready to leave but Josh was way too drunk to drive them home safely and, with Donnovan himself being injured, it would be a better idea to sleep upstairs.
Thankfully they didn't pay for the room since Josh knew the owner of the place. The clerk tumbled around in the stairway before arriving to the room him and his friend will share for the night.
Josh collapsed on his bed and immediately fell asleep.

The clerk was waken up by Donnovan at around 10am. The poor man felt very hungover from too much drinking the night before.
After a nice cup of coffee the two decided to head home. The clerck got in his car which was parked right in front of the bar and Donovan did his best to fit inside.
The fat man turned the engine on and began to drive off.
''Told you it was gonna be fun. More fun than staying home alone am i right ?'' Josh chuckled turning the radio on.

After an hour of driving through slow traffic Josh dropped off Donovan at his place. The two shook hands and the clerk said ''We need to that more often man. I'll see you around.''
Josh saluted to his friend as he drove back home, were his brother was lying dead asleep on the sofa and the house clearly hadn't been cleaned up for a pretty long time.
The clerk shook his head in disbelief putting the blanket back on his brother and picking up the empty beer bottles all around the living room.
It reminded the clerk that he hadn't checked his phone in a while now.
''14 unread messages from Sky.'' Was what was to be read on Josh's phone. 14 messages in 2 days was pretty worrying coming from the same person. It made the clerk feet like something bad might have happened.

When he opened the texts they were all unreadable messes that looked like they were typed with half a brain. Barely understanding what was the context of said messages he was able to make out that his friend was panicking over being ''Hunted''. A word that was common to all 14 messages.
The man was understandably worried and decided to call his friend to make sure she was alright.
But no one picked up. He kept calling and calling all morning long but he had gotten no responces and was almost sure that something bad happened to his friend.

The fat clerk ran out of the house and drove off to his friend's house. Worry turned into legitimate fear. Who knows what might have happened to his friend.
When he got to her house, Josh was horrified to find at least 5 police cars blocking off the entrance as well as many officers both inside and outside the place.
Barricade tape was all around the house, all over the windows and the kicked down doorway.
The clerk asked to a bystanding officer what happened.

''The neighbors found the door kicked down and the windows broken. The house was empty and the girl who lived here just got reported missing.''
Said the cop with a cold voice reading a report.
Josh walked back to his car and fell down due to the shock. He sat down in front of his vehicle before putting his head in his hands in disbelief.

He was already imagining the worst scenarios possible for his friend's disapearence.
 
More fun than staying at home alone? Donovan wasn't so sure about that. If he was going to have fun usually it was something a little more thrilling. Perhaps along the lines of skydiving or hiking. Something where he got to do something and see new things. Drinking in a bar was much the same no matter what he chose to do or where he chose to do it. The bartender just gave you a drink after you paid for it and you sat at a counter or table and sipped at a drink all night long. It was far too dangerous to get drunk as the clerk had done.

Since it wasn't polite to say that he would have rather stayed at home the alien just smiled. "Eh, you could debate that. Might have had a roaring party at my place." Both of them knew it was doubtful, but he thought it might have passed as a joke. He was slightly concerned about the fact that Josh was still hung over and he was going to be driving them home. At least they didn't have anything to try and pack up. The only downside to not having a change of clothes was simply that Josh smelled like he'd had too much to drink. Carefully the man followed the clerk out of the room and down the stairs. His tanned skin had a gray'ish tint to it and he didn't feel particularly well, but he figured a little rest would do quite a bit for him.

When they finally reached the house Donovan nodded to Josh. "Thanks. Think I'm gonna try and get some rest." Wandering up the steps to his apartment he glanced back to see that Josh was pulling out. More than likely his friend was going to be heading home. In retrospect it really wasn't so bad. Felt somewhat stressful at the time and Donovan had been more than nervous about the entire ordeal. What was important was that he finally had some kind of idea who it was that was tracking the aliens down, though he only knew of a man that maybe worked for them and maybe was an enthusiast. Either way it was real and he needed to be on his guard now, more than ever before. Unlocking his door he wandered inside and grabbed the tub of cream. Unwrapping his arm he saw the massive welt around the wound and the extensive bruising. Wincing a little he rubbed the cream onto his arm and he felt the medicine start to take effect. It felt so good to have his arm numbed that he almost wanted to go lay down and have a nap right away.

First he got changed into something a little more comfortable and then he grabbed his pillow and went to the couch with his phone. Laying the phone on his chest he pulled the blanket up to his chin and he laid back on the couch. Donovan was awakened suddenly by knocking on his door and he could only assume that it was Josh. Nobody else had ever come to visit.

With a groan he pushed the blanket back and he shuffled over to the door. Why couldn't the clerk leave him alone for a few hours? Pushing the door open he found himself faced with a stranger and the man lunged for him. Donovan side stepped and caught the man by the arm. Whipping him around with full force he threw the intruder over the railing. They were onto him and now it didn't matter how his cover was blown. He had to get out and try to start over. It seemed that from here on out he would have to be hoofing it on his own.

There was a swarm of men pouring out of cars below and one of them remained in the car. Looking over the papers he smiled. They'd cracked the code and accessed all the files from the doctor's office. Now the only thing they had to do was find all her patients and this one was surely one of them. He had the extreme strength and the size.

Donovan Rushed back into the apartment and he slipped into his shoes. Lacing them up as quickly as he could he ran into his room and shoved the bed to the side. Pulling a hatch open he could see the downstairs neighbors laundry room and he dropped inside. He would have to slip into the hall and try to wait till the men were all in his apartment scanning the area. Above himself he could hear the clumping of boots and then it grew silent. They had to have discovered the little escape hatch and the place where he broke through the sheet rock to get into the neighbors apartment.

Darting for the doorway on the front of the apartment he burst through the door and ran for the fields outside. They would be insane to pursue him there. Everyone that hunted the aliens knew better than to take them on open ground. Now all he needed was to get out of here with a car that the didn't know. Only way he could think of getting that car was to go find Josh.
 
The situation wasn't really evolving, until eventually a bone chilling sight was witnessed by Josh who was still sitting nearby.
Four men in white uniforms, who appeared to be paramedics, came out of the house pushing out a stretcher which seemed to be carrying a body.
Josh experienced the equivalent of apanic attack when he looked over the barricade tape and the four men lifted the small drape lying on top of the corpse.
But when the clerk was certain he was about to see his friend's face appear from under the drape, he was shocked and morbidly relieved to see an unknowed man wearing heavy combat gear.

This sight, while somewhat relieving, made Josh even more confused than he was before. What could a man ,with near military grade equipment, be doing lying dead in his friend's house ?
The fat man sat back down on the floor and pulled out a fancy whiskey flask he was gifted by his uncle. It had Josh's initials carved in it and harbored a black leather finish on the front. The clerk started drinking his confusion away.

Hours went by as more and more cops arrived in front of Skylar's house.
Josh was just sitting down in front of his car, drinking.
''Im sorry sir but you're going to have to leave the area. This place now is a reported crime scene." Said an officer helping Josh up.
The clerk got back in his car and drove down a couple of blocks back to the store he worked at. He pulled up in the parking lot, put his heand in his hands and started to ask himslef what in the world was going on.

The first thing that came to his mind was how Skylar reacted when she saw Donovan at the store the past week. Could Donovan have something to do with what happened to his friend ? Surely not, the two of them were together when Josh's friend presumably disapeared.
But still it was a curious encounter.
The clerk started going through different scenarios, each one crazier than the other.
It couldn't be a simple kidnapping. Sky didn't have any enemies that would want to attack her or wealthy loved ones that might make her a target for this type of attack.
Could it be a murder ? The thought alone made Josh uncofortable. He didn't want to think about his friend being cold bloodedly killed.
Could the attacker be this mysterious man who was found dead ? Could there have been multiple attackers ?
Who was this weird man and how did he found his way into his friend's house ? And more importantly, what happened to him ?
Something nefarious had to have happened.

While he was in the middle of his own thoughts, Josh's phone rang. It was Donovan.
Josh thinking that his friend might have forgotten something in the car picked and answered with the trembly voice that was a side effect of hours of drinking and crying.

"What's up ?"
 
(Sorry I am a little slower responding right now. A little hectic as I have just arrived home after 6 weeks and preparing now to leave again for another 6 weeks.)

Donovan remained crouched in the fields for nearly half an hour and crawled along to make his way out. If it was possible he wanted badly to just take Josh's car and go. It would be tough for the clerk, but it would be far worse if he actually got him involved. His friend was messy enough that for the most part Donovan was pretty sure that he could remember the address off an older envelope that was left sitting in the glove box.

Cradling an arm he started to run down the road until he reached the address only to find an apartment building that was perhaps less desirable than his own and nobody answered the door even after several knocks. Jogging back down the street he made his way to the store and Josh still wasn't there. Anytime now the agents would be coming and he was starting to get desperate. The car wouldn't be that easy to find since Donovan didn't know the clerk well enough to know where he was at. If he wasn't at the address from the envelope and he wasn't at work then there wasn't anywhere else that he could think of.

Dialing the phone number he waited for an answer while he glanced around the general area. It looked like at least 2 cars were headed toward the store. They were making it difficult to get out. "Hey..." Donovan heard the voice on the other end. Sounded like Josh had been drinking again. That was the last thing that Donovan wanted to know. "I really need you to pick me up. How about that little dirt road behind the store."
 
(No probleme man.)

''Okay, im right there.'' Josh hung up his phone and drove toward the little dirt road.
There he saw Donovan looking around in the middle of the road. He looked slightly panicked as he got into the car.
''You alright man ?'' Josh asked knowing that the answer was going to be a pretty obvious no, but the clerk wasn't thinking quite straight either.

Josh looked in the distance and saw several armored cars speeding down the road going towards the south of the city where, Don lived.
"The fuck is happening in this city ?!" The clerk's confusion and wearyness turned into drunk anger about all the crazy events that occured right as he got back in town after a mere 2 days away.

Josh slammed the door of his old Caddilac and sat down.
Trouble was ahead of them and Josh wasn't ready to face them.
 
Donovan had barely made it into the field and to the road when he saw the old Cadillac rolling toward him. Scrambling out of the ditch Donovan stood in the middle of the road. He really needed this car to stop and he knew that Josh was in it. If there was a way to simply take the car and go he would. However, it was doubtful that the clerk would let him do that.

Walking as quickly as he could to the passenger side of the car Donovan slid into the seat. Following the clerk's gaze it wasn't hard to guess that the fat man wasn't prepared or even sure what to do with something like this. "Look I don't think these guy would take no for an answer. Let me drive. I don't know what they want. They just showed up at my place and tried to stick me with a needle." The last thing he needed was for Josh to call his cop friend Will. If anything the friend would try to turn him in and Donovan couldn't let that happen. Shoving the passenger door open again Donovan raced to the clerk's side of the car and forced the door open before shoving the other man over to the passenger seat.

Sliding into the driver's seat Donovan slammed the door and he put the car into drive. "You can get out now and say I stole the car, or you can sit in here with me."
 
Josh was obviously confused about what had just happened. But the mixture of alchool, anger and adrenaline made the clerk react pretty fast.
''I ain't letting you take my car anywhere whithout me. Either i come or you get out !''And so the two men were off.
At first they were driving at a resonable pace not to get noticed too obviously. At least three more armored van sped past them going towards Don's house.
"So what's the deal ?'' Josh asked to the driver who seemed more focused on the road than on answering his question.
Once they got out of the town and onto the highway it was going to be floor it or lose it. Granted Josh's car showed it's age but still could go quick enough to leave nothing but dust in the mirror.

The pair drove on for about 2 hours without stops, but the car needed a gas fill up. Eventually the two men found a small gas station.
The place was empty and delapidated but it was the only place to get gas before the next town.
Due to the age of the place the gas pumps had to be operated by an employee. The two looked around and saw no one at first but Josh wandered behind the building and found an old man sleeping in a pick up truck.
The Clerk knocked on the truck's door, waking up the man who looked quite grumpy about being waken up from his nap.

Eventually, the man got out of his old truck and confronted Josh ''The hell d'ye want ?''
The old man was short or at least seemed short due to the way he stood with his back bent. He wore used overall, a baseball cap and had a more than respectable grey beard. But the feature that jumped at Josh the most was that the man had bright purple eyes. Exactly like Sky and Donovan.

Josh felt slightly puzzled and tilted his head in confusion. ''Uuuhh. We just need a fill up sir.''
The man waddled around the building grumbling swears and undistinguishable insults.
The man got to the car and has he started unlocking the pump to do his job his stare and Don's locked.

Josh looked on at the two men from a distance.
 
Since the clerk wanted to be in the car Donovan nodded. "Alright then." It wasn't what he wanted, but at least he got some kind of answer and now he'd make sure Josh stuck with it. Couldn't afford for the man to run out and do something stupid. Not that it would be a stupid move for the human, but it would be a bad thing for Donovan and that would make it stupid.

Despite his heart pounding he made the choice to drive slowly as if they were in no big hurry. That was until they hit the road. This time Donovan didn't care if he was speeding or not. They were barreling down the road at nearly 90mph when the gas light came on. "Damn it." Grumbling under his breath the man blinked to pull the car over at the nearest gas station. Looked like the place had seen better days and he could only hope it wasn't abandoned. If it was he was still going to have to walk and that was all there was to it. No particular reason for the clerk to need to go wherever he did. Stepping out of the car he looked around himself and the car before calling in the general direction of the store. "Hey anyone here?" A second time he called, "Hey!" Still there wasn't any answer and he lowered his head to think for just a moment. The desert wasn't his ideal run away spot.

Wherever Josh had disappeared to he didn't know and Donovan was sorely tempted to run right now. Instead an old man came toddling out from behind the building with Josh and Donovan almost instantly recognized him as a fellow alien. The two of them locked gazes for what felt like eternity. Finally the old man broke the silence. "You in trouble? I know that look, seen plenty of that look on this old road."

Carefully Donovan nodded. "Yeah, I don't know what I did. Got all these guys after me."

Chuckling a little the old man shook his head. "You know how many times I've heard that story?" After a second he quieted himself and then looked at Donovan again. "I believe you. Go down that way and there's a little cabin. No cell phones and the car is old enough there isn't anything to trace on it. Just settle in there for a few days. Nobody will bother yah. Be sure when you leave its looks better than when you arrived."

Grateful for some kind of help Donovan nodded to the old man. "Yes sir." Almost immediately after the tank was filled he got back into the car. "Josh you coming or not?"
 
As Josh observed the exchange between the old man and his friend, he felt like there was an odd conection between the two.
Once the car was ready to go, Donovan asked josh if he was going to follow him into hiding.
''I mean, i ain't gon' walk back home." Joked the clerk before shaking the old man's hand and getting in his car.

After a couple of minutes driving, Josh asked to the driver ''You knew that old guy back there ?"
Josh knew that Don wasn't the biggest fan of being questionned but in this scenario, the clerk was more than rightfull to ask away about what was going on.
Eventually the pair arrived in front of an old house in the middle of the desert. Josh walked out of the car and took a look around. The place looked like an old oregon trail inn that got desterted. An outhouse, a well and what looked like an old stable were surrounding the building.

The clerk opened the main building's door revealing a old but cozy place. The first thing he saw opening the door was the living room, which had two very comfortable looking chairs in front of a fire place, a small dinner table and a what seemed to be an authentic buffalo skin carpet.
The rooms weren't separated on the first floor as the main living room gave access to a large but rudimentary kitchen which was equipped with nothing but an old heating pad and an ancient fire oven.
On the other side of the building he also saw a small room full of booksheleves with a nice chair in the center of it.

Josh was surprised by how nice this place looked. He was expecting a crappy shack with nothing but sleeping bags and a flashlight.
The clerk climbed up the stairs to take a look at the rooms. The sun was going down and the man was feeling really tired after this stressfull day.
He opened the door to one of the 4 rooms upstairs and was pleasently surprised to find a comfy looking old bed as well as a few books and even window which gave him a nice view on the middle of nowhere.

''Well, i found my room!'' Yelled the clerk to make sure his now roommate will hear.
Josh fell on his bed and decided to cut the first day short.

He was going to need all the rest he could get.
 
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