Eru and Charmalina scurried to the edge of the freeway. Eru’s heart slowed down when he didn’t have to worry about getting hit by something. They jumped over a divider and leaned against it. The rain was still coming down but the thunder and lightning had stopped.

“Do you know where we are?” Eru asked Charmalina. He tried to get his bearings. There were a number of freeways around and he couldn’t see far into the distance.

“I have an idea,” she replied. “But I am not sure how to get away from here. It is sure strange how Basq just disappeared and left us unharmed.”

The divider that they leaned against blocked them from some of the rain and lowered the amount of noise from the traffic. Eru continued to talk with Charmalina, “Yeah I’m not sure how he got away so quickly once he was on the freeway. I suppose he got what he came for. I still have Brown’s possessions. How come you asked him what the password was?”

“I don’t know he just seemed not in control of himself and I thought a direct question, he might answer. I don’t know what it means though or if it was true. It must have meant something to Basq or Basq took something that we didn’t notice.” She provided Eru with some insight.

“Hmm, good points I guess we need to figure out how to get back somewhere first and then worry about him.” Eru looked at Charmalina then at himself, they were covered in mud and soaked to the bone. No taxi would pick them up. Traffic was going too fast for someone to slow down for them.

“Let’s walk for a bit away from the freeway, we should find a side street and houses somewhere nearby.” Charmalina said and got up and started walking.

Eru walked beside her. There was a dark field of some sort that they walked through. There were no lights and it was dark. The ground was muddy and clay-like, hard in some places soft in others. The water from the rain was up above their footwear. It made for slow walking and lots of slipping around.

The rain started to slow down and they could see some lights across the field. They were about halfway from the freeway and the lights that they were aiming for. The clouds were breaking up and the sun would soon be lighting up the horizon.

They made it to the lights and were in a residential neighborhood. It was quiet, there was no one up yet. No vehicles were out driving. Eru and Charmalina walked around looking for street signs. They found some and recognized the neighborhood that they were in. It was too far for them to walk back to the hotel but that wasn’t surprising.

Someone was along the sidewalk. They tried to hide. There was nowhere to hide and the person spotted them first.

“Hey there, are you OK?” The man asked them. He was walking a large dog who was at his side without a leash.

“We’re OK”, Eru replied.

“Though we could use a way to get back to our hotel,” Charmalina added. “Our rental broke down and we are lost.”

“Well how about I give you a ride back, I’m on my way out for work anyways.” The stranger replied.

Both Charmalina and Eru thought about it. “We are much too dirty for that.”

“It’s OK you can sit in the back with Joe,” he pointed to his dog. You won’t get anything dirty that he hasn’t already.

They looked at Joe, he was quite wet and muddy as well. They might not get a better offer and they were tired the sun was coming up now. Who else would take them? Charmalina saw Eru nod and agreed as well, “OK just drop us off wherever is convenient for you. We don’t want to be a hassle.”

The ride back to the hotel was relaxing. Joe sat in the middle between them smelling of wet dog and panting. They didn’t care they were just happy to be somewhere dry and sitting down. At the hotel they got out of there old clothes, showered to clean and warm up and fell asleep right away as the sun rose.