Among Us.

The clerk reacted a bit better than Donovan had anticipated. First person that ever found out was horrified and they screamed all sort of profanities. This time he was just faced with a shocked fat man and a very mild expletive. What happened to be the most annoying was how the clerk's answer was to get drunk. It was always the answer. However, now that he was with Donovan that was going to be the last of it.

"Better enjoy it. From here on out you don't drink. You work, you lose weight, you run, you train, you hide, and you learn to defend yourself. I won't always be around to keep you safe eh?" Donovan looked at the man with a severe expression. "Now we go. We need to leave."
 
The clerk took the flask out of his mouth and gave the stronges death stare he had ever given anyone before. Josh was willing to do a lot in the current scenario, but there was one thing he wasn't ready to do for anyone, at any time and this thing was to quit drinking. With the amount of money he devoted to his alchool and drinking gear, stopping before dying from it wasn't in the clerk's plans. He got up, stared down Donovan and said. "Alright mister i give orders and setup the schedule. I know that if we want to make it work i need to get better and fighting and so on. But ! I would like to remind you that i'm in the middle of the damn desert in a crappy old house talking with a god damn alien who is chased by some weird gouvernement agency ! And you dare to tell me than im not allowed to drink through that ?! If we want to have a chance to, uhm, whatever your plan was. We need to get along first. I know only the pirates code is to not get drunk in battle. Outside of that, if i need a cold one, im going to have a cold one. Are we clear on that ?"

Donovan was obviously not the "person" to get angry with right now, but among the few things that Josh did value in life drinking was one of them.
A family's curse surely since no one from his bloodline was spared by it. But when the clerk needed it whether it was at home or while being on the run with an alien, he needed it. Even though he knew getting his drink wasn't gonna be the easiest thing in the world while on the run, he wasn't gonna give it up.
"So what's your master plan moonman ?"

Josh hadn't really been paying attention to what Donovan said earlier. He was too shook, too tired or simply, too drunk.
 
Obviously the drink was gonna be a problem and Donovan lost his patience when he was called moonman. With one big hand he knocked the flask out of Josh's hand. "Yah don't need anymore. You don't need any cool ones or whatever you call it. You never know when we're gonna end up in battle so you'd better not let me catch you drunk."

Jerking the man to his feet the alien met his gaze with an equally fierce glint to his lavender colored eyes. "I think you don't hear well. We move now." Kicking the flask under a sofa he went trudging past with the clerk in haul. Donovan didn't have time to fight so if he had to he was going to drag the fat man wherever they went. Josh was going to have to learn to go without drinks. When they got to the rendezvous point there wouldn't be any drinks and on board the ship there wouldn't be any drinks either. As for himself, Donovan wanted to get to a doctor again that could actually patch his arm up the rest of the way and then he would be fine to go again.

Every now and then when it felt like the clerk hit an especially large clump of grass the alien would look back at him. "You made your choice. I don't do it for you."
 
This had set the mood for the rest of the trip. Josh wasn't a fan of Donovan's attitude but he decided to bite the bullet for now.
But the clerk wasn't going to let himself get walked on for much longer. This all event reminded the clerk about his friend Will who talked to him about aliens and what usually happens to them.

Eventually the clerk made the conection that the men chasing them had to be somehow related to the agency his friend was appart of.
Thankfully the clerk had the phone number of his ex-doormmate. Now it wasn't really in Josh's intentions to get Donovan in more trouble than he was already in but he was glad to know that even though he couldn't physically fight Donovan, he still had a way to keep the ma from feeling too in control.

Hopefully it wouldn't have to come to this.

The two men hit the road towards the "Rendez-vous" point which Donovan gave nearly no info to Josh about, which also got him pretty crossed. "So where is it we're going ?" The clerk needed to ask since he knew so little about the whole plan.
 
Donovan pushed the clerk into the shadowy forest area. "We're just travelling here on this trail for a few days." The arm was throbbing after the fight and Donovan wanted to stop, but he couldn't very well do that without putting himself and the man in considerable risk. "I don't know where we're going yet. We meet at the rendezvous and then I'm assigned a new position." There was still quite a bit more work to be done if he wanted to get his arm back to working condition. Thankfully it wasn't nearly so bad as it would have been if he was human.

When they were past the forested area and back to the road Donovan started to hitchhike. Walking along the road for nearly 2 miles he stopped and held his thumb up and then walked further. Glancing back to Josh he shrugged. "This is the spot. I'll know my flyer when I see them."
 
After a long time walking the two men came across a small bar on roadside. Josh looked over at the place and was reminded that he hadn't had anything to drink in a pretty long time now. "Im going to crack a cold one real quick. Carry on and i'll catch up." The clerk was certain that Donovan was going to get mad and probably tell him off but Josh wasn't gonna stand quiely and followed. While he was aware that he had brought this upon himself, the clerk was getting sick of being stepped on by his friend.
First Don made Josh lose his prized flask, gave him a yelling about drinking and spent the entire trail being as vague as can be about the plan.

The clerk began to walk off towards the bar. Donovan didn't seem to have heard Josh when he told him that he was taking a break because of the noise of cars passing by.
Josh carried on regardless and got inside the small roadside establishment. The place was pretty empty for the exception of the bartender and a couple of patrons playing cards on the counter. The clerk took a seat and asked for a beer. The bartender grabbed a bottle from under the counter and slid it towards the fat man who handed him a 5-dollar bill and told him to keep the change.

Josh walked out of the bar and sat on the steps leading to the front door and began to drink.
 
It seemed that Josh was determined to drink and Donovan told him that was the last of the drinking with the flask a while back. Perhaps the man didn't understand that the alien had been serious about that particular detail in life. Since the clerk was obviously going to ignore a fairly important note Donovan decided to keep walking. He could leave the clerk to tell crazy stories. Nobody believed drunks anyway and it would just make the guy look crazy if he talked about the razor sharp protrusions that would slip through the sheath in Donovan's arms.

A mist began to form and Donovan almost had to growl to himself. Of course it was going to rain. He didn't like it when it rained at night. Made things cold. He was close to the meet point according to the directions on his watch. Wherever it was he didn't know and where they would take him he didn't know. The human was demanding all sorts of answers that even Donovan didn't have.

While he walked he would only glance behind himself from time to time to see if the clerk had decided to hustle or if he was going to be left at the bar with only a crazy story.
 
The rain began to fall as Josh saluted the batender and started walking down the road. It was getting fairly late and the rain wasn't helping. Donovan wasn't anywhere to be seen. The clerk took a look at his phone only to see that he'd been drinking for a good 30 minutes. It was doubtfull Don had stopped to wait for him or even noticed that Josh wasn't following him anymore. The clerk's drinking had gotten him into a pretty terrible situation. Barely any cars were passing. The rain eventually stopped but all the clouds were left gray and a very thick fog started to make it impossible to see past his own nose. Josh kept on walking barely being able to see ahead of himself because of the fog. Such a climate was rare in the Nevadan desert. The wind was chilling him to the bone, he wasn't ready for such weather wearing simple jeans and one of his signature Hawaiian shirts.

Josh was squinting his eyes as tight as he could to see ahead of himself. Something was wrong with the weather that was for sure. After a couple of minutes focusing on the path in front of him, he began to see what seemed like Donovan's silhouette. But the release was short lived. As Josh focused even harder on the distant shape, he was blinded by powerful white lights coming from down the road. Said lights were so powerful he had to quickly cover his eyes to avoid getting damage done to them. Could these be the "Flyers" Donovan mentioned earlier ?

Josh had many questions but he clearly wasn't going to get them answered by just standing on the side of the road. He covered his eyes from the light with his hand and started marching towards the mysterious lights.
 
(Ooook I'm still on the road for about another week, but I'm trying to get to everyone while I have a chance. Will be home and far more consistent soon.)

Since the little fat clerk was determined to be nothing more than a drunk Donovan pressed on through the rain. They weren't even that far from their target location from what it looked like on his update. Donovan stared at the little alert on his watch and he walked a few more paces. It seemed they thought it was an emergent situation considering his arm had been damaged and it wasn't the bone, it was the problem with one of the protrusions. The protrusion in his upper arm had saved his bone from suffering greater damage, but it was bent and it sliced into the muscle whenever he flexed the spikes in his arm.

Without the use of the spines in one arm he was like a sitting duck. Donovan didn't like fighting with only one useful arm. With the last few steps he found himself standing on a mostly abandoned looking road. It was obviously not well traveled and he watched the road. They never turned the signal beams on till they hit the ground.

A nearly silent hum started and Donovan tilted his head. He knew that his hearing would allow for ranges that human's didn't hear. Stepping to the side he made room for whatever it was coming down the road. More than likely it was his flyer. Within seconds the lights flashed on and he started to walk toward it. Another taller alien stood in the doorway holding out a hand. "You had to leave the human?" Donovan glanced behind himself and saw the staggering figure of the clerk. "Nah, he's coming. Gonna have to watch his drinking." Humans were so strange. They were continually trying to dull their senses. Perhaps it was because they were the dominant species? It couldn't make sense. There was always going to be a species seeking to remove the dominant and take their place.

Josh was his charge and Donovan sighed. Heading back down the roadway he stopped in front of Josh. Thrusting one hand out he offered it to Josh. "You come with me and you don't drink anymore or you can stay here, no job, no car, no money." It was probably important to set a little bit of the man's life in perspective if he was going to be coming with. "We'll show you what no man has ever been able to accomplish and teach you to be more than just a clerk."
 
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