A World of Grime

The journey begins

Oscar was shivering. He didn't really think about the temperature when he decided to walk for two days, the bag he had was already beginning to feel like a huge ice cube, and it had only been an hour. His walk slowed, and his breathing quickened. He could've sworn he heard some sort of flapping. He turned, looking all around, panicking. The flapping became louder and louder, becoming a yell, a screech. a light from behind suddenly blinded him, and he couldn't help but fall over, petrified. the figure emerged in front of him, a silhouette. a hand reached forward, and spoke. "Come on, get up." Oscar finally broke out of his petrification, tilting his head.
"Manuel?" he pointed his light up, facing Manuel, and he covered his eyes, turning off his light.
"Yeah, come on, no time to waste, I want to be home asap." He instinctively grabbed Oscar, beginning to drag him along the street.
"What about the patients-"
"Friends."
"Yeah, what about them?"
"I got a friend taking care of that." He turned around, looking at Max as he tipped his head down in an odd Goodbye nod, and Manuel returned it, before turning away with Oscar down the road ahead.
"So..." Oscar cracked his knuckles slowly, letting each crack be heard singularly, irritating the hell out of Manuel, who was already regretting his life choices, "What made you turn heel?" He turned his head to face Manuel, who had already shut off from the conversation entirely. "Wow, nothing? Jeez, you're really talkative, aren't ya?" Manuel simply scoffed.
"Listen, I'm only doing this because some time soon, you're gonna help me because I helped you. It's the way life works." Oscar's eyes pointed daggers, and Manuel had to turn away again.
"So let me get this straight, you're only doing this because of Karma?" Manuel nodded. "I cannot believe this." They continued walking into the night, in near perfect silence, only with the odd 'What time is it?' here and 'How far away are we?' there from Oscar. Manuel could plainly see that Oscar was not used to quiet of any kind, as every time there was no sound, no birds, no whirring lights, no talking, he'd fidget, pushing on a finger, or biting a lip, or cracking his knuckles. It was hilarious to Manuel, watching him struggle to cope, until he couldn't take it, and had to talk. "so Manny-" Manuel immediately turned his head, interrupting him.
"Manuel."
"Alright, Jeez, Manuel, Why didn't you just go to the capital originally?" He thought hard before he answered, shrugging. "Serious answer, I am not accepting that." Manuel sighed.

"I was going to, okay? But I got side-tracked."
"By what?"

"Why do you care anyway?" Oscar put a hand on his chest in exaggerated shock.
"I'm sorry, I thought we were friends now!" Manuel rolled his eyes, turning away. "Look, if we're going to be hanging around each other, it's better we trust each other, and aren't at each other's throats, correct?" Manuel slowly nodded, and put finger-to-brow.
"Okay fine! You wanna know so badly, huh?" Oscar nodded so vigorously it was like his head would pop off at any moment, and Manuel had to forcibly stop him from doing so. "Alright, well, 8 years ago, I arrived at the edge of this county..."