The Restoration Project

4.12 - Merrick

"I need you to follow them," Lovely said, sitting in the driver's seat, her hands in her lap and the engine silent.

"Why? We don't know who that was," Merrick replied.

"Exactly! Someone is with Marybelle and we need to find out who! To make sure she's safe," Lovely explained.

"I need to get inside Frankie's. If you want to follow them, go right ahead," Merrick shot back. He raised his hand to point at the empty road ahead, except it wasn't empty. An N3 shambled out of an alleyway in front of them. Merrick ducked and motioned for Lovely to do the same. She kept her eyes glued to the windshield instead.

"Get down," Merrick said.

Lovely shook her head. "Look." She pointed out the window.

Merrick lifted his head, peering over the dash at the N3 ahead of them. It was walking away from them, toward Frankie's town. It was quickly joined by another. A loud thud behind them caused Merrick to jolt in his seat—another N3 walked into the back of the truck. It sidestepped around it and continued as if they weren't there.

"What's going on?" Merrick asked.

"Olaf activated his machine," Lovely said, her hands suddenly in motion, flicking the ignition and putting the truck in drive. "I need to get to him."

"And I need to get to Anita and Rusty." Two could play at that game.

"Marybelle can help you," Lovely said, acting as if Merrick and Marybelle had never met each other before. He only wished that was the case.

"I don't have time to check on her," Merrick said. "She'll be OK. Now either drive us closer to Frankie's or I'm getting out."

"If she's here, she's planning something. It would be best if you joined her rather than worked against her," Lovely explained.

"So you're not driving closer," Merrick said, doing his best to ignore her.

Lovely sighed and shrugged and Merrick hopped out of the cab. He stepped to the back of the truck to pull his backpack out of the bed. Once he did so, he whacked the side a couple times to signal Lovely was good to go. The engine revved. Merrick half-expected the surrounding N3s to turn on the truck and start attacking it, but whatever caused them to shuffle towards Frankie's was strong. The only disruption the truck created was a minor flinch in the N3s passing closest to it as they parted.

Lovely executed a three point turn and waved through the back window as she stepped on the gas and accelerated up the ramp to the highway. Merrick watched her until the truck passed the crest of the ramp and disappeared. Then he turned around.

The N3s they originally spotted were specks on the road now; a group that was swelling as more filtered out of alleys and side-streets on the way to Frankie's. The place would have a wall of N3s surrounding it at this rate.

He passed the door to the store Marybelle and the other woman entered. Then he pulled his gaze away. He couldn't afford the distraction. He got twenty feet up the road when voices echoed down the street ahead on his left. He slowed and peered around the corner.

"What the hell is his problem?" a voice sounded. It belonged to one of three men standing in a circle a little more than fifty feet away. He was short and squat, wearing a matching bandanna to a tall and skinny man beside him. It was black with skeletal jawbones printed over the mouth. The third man was large, with a fully grown red beard and the sleeves torn off his sweater to expose beefy arms. They surrounded a fourth man lying on the ground. He was skinnier than the others, with dark green pants and a faded vest. His arms were already covered in cuts and bruises from scraping the rough asphalt beneath him.