05 The Road to Conifer Village / A Retrieval

Previously, on Usagi Days: The stranger, Sandra, has taken the Usagi, with Violet in the passenger seat. Ruby, Anemone, and Ivy follow after the tire tracks. After a few days, they see a silhouette approach them …

- 5.1 - Reunited -

Ivy dropped the rolled-up sleeping bag she'd been carrying on her back, and sprinted toward Violet.

Violet was visibly exhausted, but waved at her friends, and with her signature chirpiness, called out: "Hey guys! What's u—"

Her last word cut short as Ivy tackled her to the ground.

Violet: "Ow! Ivy! Stop. Stop, Ivy. I can't breathe. You're choking me."

When Ruby and Anemone caught up, they stood staring at the two friends on the ground. Tangled in a one-way embrace. Ivy hugging her friend tight, Violet struggling to free herself.

Anemone: "'Sup."

Ruby, smiling: "Good to have you back."

Violet, with a strained expression, still trying to escape: "Yeah. Good to be back."

- 5.2 - Violet Explains -

Violet: "It's not like she took me on purpose. That first night she obviously just wanted to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. And after that, I just kind of … came along for the ride."

Ivy, dead-pan: "What."

Violet: "I don't mean it like that. But it's like … well, I could have just left. But then I would've just been in the middle of nowhere. Either walk back to you guys, or chase after the car on foot. Might as well just stay in the car. At least then I could look for a good opportunity to steal the car back and get away."

Ruby: "I'm guessing she didn't make that easy for you."

Violet: "No, she's pretty paranoid. More than Annie."

Anemone, ignoring the dig at her: "Why didn't she kick you out after the initial getaway?"

Violet: "I dunno. I don't think she ever considered me as much of a threat. (Which is kind of a blow to my self-esteem, if I'm being honest.) And after a while, we just started talking. I get the feeling she hasn't really talked to anyone in a long time."

Ivy, turning up her nose: "What in the world would you two possibly have to talk about?"

Violet: "Why, you jealous?"

Ivy: "Please."

Violet: "But no, seriously, I think I'm pretty good at getting people to open up to me. We talked about a lot of stuff. I told her about you guys, how we met. Where we've been. And she opened up a lot, too. She's been on the road forever. Never staying more than a few days in one place. Every time she meets a new group, she somehow always ends up alone sooner or later."

Ruby: "Gee, considering her behavior with us, I'm shocked."

Ivy: "So you really didn't try anything? What about when she slept?"

Violet: "She made me sleep outside."

Ivy: "Like a dog."

Violet: "Yes, Ivy. 'Like a dog.'"

Anemone: "How did she get in to the Usagi? I locked the door."

Violet: "Oh, she said she steals from locked cars all the time. One of the first things she learned. Can't smash the windows when you're trying to be stealthy, you know."

Anemone muttered something under her breath.

Ruby: "What, there's a lot of cars with valuables around these days?"

Violet: "You'd be surprised. I used to live among caravans. Even when cars don't work, people still use them for shelter and storing valuables. There's still plenty reason to break into them."

Ruby: "So I assume at some point a rift formed between you and Sandra. Since you're here and she's not."

Violet thought about this for a bit. "You know, I'm not really sure. I thought things between us were actually okay. We were talking like we were the last couple days. We stopped for a bathroom break. But then, when I came back, she was just … gone."

Ivy sighed, pinched her brow. "So, in other words, you annoyed her so much she left you behind.

Violet appeared like she was going to offer a rebuttal, but then stopped, shrugged, and said, "Hmm, yeah. Probably."

- 5.3 - Sandra and the Usagi -

Sandra kicked the rear tire of the Usagi.

"Piece of junk," she muttered.

For the fifth time in an hour, she walked around the vehicle, examining the damage again. Flat tire. Smoke billowing out from the hood. The front smashed in, bumper crumpled. No closer to fixing any of it. No idea how or where to even start. After all, why bother learn to fix machines in a world when they couldn't work?

She sighed, and sat on the ground. She wondered if she should just abandon the car here. She could just take all the food and supplies and leave it.

But could she really abandon the world's last working vehicle? It was much too valuable to just forget about. There had to be something she could do.

Staying here made her an easy target. If any bandit gangs came along, she was dead meat. Quite literally. The longer she did nothing, the higher the chance of being found by somebody who wanted to do bad things to her.

She kicked the car again.

She wondered how things might have turned out, if she hadn't been so rash in taking the Usagi.

When she drove off with it, she hadn't really known what to make of the girls. Sure, they'd been generous enough, sharing their food like that. But Sandra had been burned enough in the past. It's the nice ones you got to look out for. They lure you in with kindness, and next thing you know … Well. No need to dwell on the past.

The point was, Sandra wasn't about to stick around just to find out whether or not they would stab her in the back. So she did what she had to.

But things had changed now. After spending the last couple of days with Violet, it began to set in that Sandra might have actually been alright staying with them.

Because unless Violet was the world's greatest actress, Sandra really couldn't see any kind of duplicity buried underneath that level of airheadedness. And if the stories she'd told were true, then the Usagis really did seem like a decent bunch.

That being said, none of it mattered now.

She had stolen their car, their food, their belongings. She had ditched Violet because the more she yapped about the fun adventures the Usagis got to, the worse Sandra felt about her decision.

At one point, just before Sandra abandoned her, Violet had even offered, "It's not too late to turn around. I'm sure my friends will forgive you. Even Anemone, eventually … I mean, you should definitely avoid her for, hmm … at least a month, I'd say. Get this, I once stole her sugar bun and she wouldn't talk to me for like, ten whole days."

At the memory, Sandra punched the ground.

Why couldn't she just have taken the offer?

Because she was afraid. Because she was stubborn.

Because she was weak.

Sandra was in the middle of wallowing in her own self-pity, when a voice broke the silence.

"Car trouble?"

- 5.4 - Sandra is Caught Off-Guard -

Sandra was on her feet in an instant. She turned to face the voice, an arrow already nocked.

There stood Violet, alone, hands on her hips, looking rather pleased with herself in that undeserved way that only she could manage.

Sandra lowered her bow. She sighed. She supposed it was only a matter of time before Violet caught up with her.

She supposed that it made sense that Violet would follow the car instead of going back to her friends. Who knows how far back behind they were? Violet might be walking for days with no supplies if she headed back in the direction of the other girls.

Still, even though she knew that Violet was simply making the most practical decision, Sandra couldn't help but feel a little bit of warmth that Violet had chosen her. (Just a bit.)

Violet: "See? You can't even function without me. You get rid of me and the first thing you do is go and crash the Usagi straight into a tree."

Sandra: "How do I know you didn't do something? After you left the thing started driving like crazy, all over the place. And then I got a flat! And then …" She turned to the crumpled hood practically wrapped around the thick conifer. The scene spoke for itself.

Violet, turning up the smugness: "Well, I really don't know what I could have done to the car to make you such a terrible driver, but …"

Sandra: "Ugh, whatever. You—"

And that's when Sandra caught it. The briefest of glances, the tiniest movement of Violet's eyes.

Sandra spun around immediately, to see what appeared to be a large green ball moving by itself, closing in on her.

- 5.5 - Closing In On Sandra -

Sandra swore under her breath. She couldn't believe she had fallen for Violet's distraction.

She drew an arrow and fired at the rolled-up sleeping bag that was fast approaching her. The arrow pierced her target. A puff of thick down burst into the air.

From behind the sleeping bag, Anemone pushed forward, crouched low to the ground, the tip of Sandra's arrow hovering dangerously close to her eye.

The rolled-up sleeping bag had been thick enough—but just barely—to stop the arrow. But Anemone knew it wouldn't last. Another arrow or two and she was toast.

Her only hope now was for the other girls to take some of the heat off.

Sandra: "Oh, come ON!"

Anemone grinned. From the sounds of it, they were doing exactly that.

- 5.6 - Sandra's Last Stand -

Sandra spun on her heel, eyes wide with panic, desperately drawing and loosing arrows at the three (three!) sleeping bags converging on her location. Her arms were shaking. Her aim was getting worse with each shot.

Violet was watching the action unfold, hollering and hooting. ("Yeah, get her, guys!")

Sandra shot the cheering girl a side glance and clicked her tongue in annoyance. It was all she could do to not to loose an arrow into that annoying, loud, unprotected head of hers.

But she had more pressing matters. She turned from Ruby's sleeping bag to Ivy's, to Anemone's. (Not that she knew who was who.) The makeshift shields were beginning to look like mutant, overgrown hedgehogs, the arrows sticking out like quills.

It wasn't long before she was down to her last arrow.

And then she had none.

- 5.7 - Time to End Things -

Anemone closed the distance.

She tossed the sleeping bag to the ground. In the same swift motion she readied her rifle, aimed it point-blank at Sandra's face.

Sandra raised her hands in defeat.

Sandra: "You know, I never did believe, for a second, that that thing worked."

Anemone lowered the rifle.

Then, she slammed the butt of it directly into Sandra's stomach.

Sandra crumpled to the ground, groaning, doubled over in pain.

Anemone: "Works fine to me."

- 5.8 - Sandra is Tied Up -

The Usagis stood over Sandra. Her hands and feet bound with rope.

Ruby: "We could have worked together. You didn't have to be alone."

That last word seemed to strike a very specific nerve. Sandra's face contorted into a grimace. She glared at Ruby. "Alone? Oh, we're all alone. Don't make me laugh with that garbage."

Ruby shrugged. She turned and walked away, making her way to the damaged Usagi. Ivy followed without a word.

Violet smiled awkwardly. "Well … it was nice knowing you. I actually enjoyed those talks together, you know." Then she too walked away.

Which just left Anemone. She stared at the girl on the ground for a bit, but Sandra wouldn't meet her gaze.

After a while, Anemone finally spoke. "That stuff you said about Ithaca Station. Was any of it true?"

Sandra raised her head, slowly. Her mouth curved into a spiteful, venomous grin.

"… Who knows? Who can say?"

Anemone knew she wasn't going to get a straight answer. She started walking toward her friends over at the Usagi.

After a few steps, she stopped. "Oh, wait. One more thing."

She marched back to where Sandra was. She reached into her pocket, withdrew a fistful of ash, and threw it in Sandra's face.

Sandra hacked and coughed and spat. She glared up at her attacker. "Nice. Thank you. Very nice."

Anemone smiled sarcastically, and then walked away from Sandra, forever.

She rejoined her friends at the Usagi.

Ivy: "Did you really have that in your pocket the whole time?"

- 5.9 - Bringing the Usagi Back to Life -

The flat was easy to fix. The gang had done it so many times they were practically pros at it.

The bumper damage, the engine, the crumpled front, on the other hand …

Well.

Things were what they were.

Ruby sat in the driver's seat, turning the key, trying her best to coax the engine back to life. ("Come on baby … You can do it …") The engine sputtering and chugging to no avail.

Ivy watched Ruby's efforts. Tentatively, she offered a suggestion. The usual one.

Ivy: "You know, Ruby, we could … You know."

It's not like Ruby hadn't considered it. But it just wasn't feasible, under the circumstances.

Ruby: "We can't. There's no cover. And we can't just leave this thing in the open. Who knows how long it's going to take. With this much damage? Forget it."

Finally, after what seemed like the hundredth try, the engine finally roared back to life.

The other girls cheered. Ruby let out a sigh of relief, and kissed the steering wheel.

Anemone took her usual place, shotgun. Ivy and Violet in the back.

And then they were off.

Sandra, lying on her side, watched as the four of them drove off. The car growing smaller and smaller, until she couldn't see it anymore.

She was alone. Again.

Wasn't that what she wanted?

- 5.7 - Another Biome -

The landscape around them was changing. Flat lands giving way to forest. Mountains in the distance.

The Usagi was on its last legs. More than a few times it had sputtered out completely, the engine dying with an awful clunking noise.

Ruby was always able to revive it, but each attempt was taking longer than the last. She had to drive it carefully. Not too fast, not too hard. She tried to keep the revs under 2,000 RPM.

At some point Ivy excitedly pointed out a sign on the side of the road.

The letters were faded with time and barely legible, with letters missing, but they all (... okay, most of them ...) knew what it read.

Or, what it was supposed to read.

CONIFE_ V__L_GE - 10 KM

They were almost there.