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Murdoc sighed in misery as he and 2D trudged their way across the rainy English countryside. His head hurt. His back hurt. His feet hurt. He was thirsty. He would have ripped out his own heart and traded it for a ******** cigarette. He almost would have ripped his own heart out anyway, if it would have ended this nightmare. He stopped walking for just a moment to take time to wipe the sweat and rain out of his stinging eyes.

He heard the click of a gun being readied behind him and felt the barrel poke into the small of his back.

"Sorry Love," he said in a strangled voice, hurrying to catch up with 2D, who was now a few paces ahead of him. The singer didn't look over at him when Murdoc rejoined him on the old woods path. 2D had stopped talking completely a few days ago and now merely trudged along like a zombie, dully doing whatever he was told to do. He had checked out mentally, and secretly, Murdoc envied him a bit for it. Murdoc himself was still all too aware of the misery he was in and of the fact that more misery was waiting for them down the road.

Perhaps fortunately, he remembered little of the journey that had brought them here. But what little of it he could remember had been just as packed full of misery as the present was and the future would be…

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The Cyborg held him at gunpoint and forced him to take the sub to the nearest landmass, which was South America. Murdoc did so, while 2D huddled in the back of the sub and cried, clutching Noodle's cat mask to him. Murdoc wanted to tell him to shut the ******** up, because his crying was pulling at Murdoc's conscience, bringing occasional flickers of guilt to the surface that he really didn't want to have to deal with, but he also didn't want to raise his voice or make any sudden movements or breathe too deeply or even think about anything other than sunshine and lollipops while he had the muzzle of a gun against his temple.

The radio occasionally relayed a message from one of the other subs, their captains wanting to know what was going on, what the plan was now that Plastic Beach was destroyed…and if he had managed to rescue Noodle and the Cyborg. The Cyborg didn't allow Murdoc to answer any of the messages, and when they kept coming, she ordered Murdoc to "Make them go away."

He turned off the radio and forced the sub lower in the water, then made a few evasive maneuvers. Since none of the others were expecting this, he soon lost them in the dark water. As the last light from the other subs disappeared from his field of vision, Murdoc felt the last glimmer of hope in his heart disappear with it. Now they were completely cut off from anyone who might have been able to help them. Alone at the bottom of the sea with a killer robot. It sounded like the premise for some shitty sci-fi movie. But he was living it.

The only thing that brought him a bit of comfort was knowing that at least Russel would be safe.

"What now, 'Noodle?'" he asked her, figuring the safest way to keep his brains inside his skull was to play along with her delusions.

Unfortunately, 2D did not share his sentiment. He went immediately from sobbing to screaming as soon as the word "Noodle" had left Murdoc's mouth.

"Don't call her that!" the singer screamed at the top of his lungs. Murdoc didn't dare turn his head around to look at the young man, but he heard his footsteps coming toward him. "She's NOT Noodle! Noodle's dead! She's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's-"

Then he heard a smack and the singer's voice stopped. A second later he heard a thunk as 2D hit the floor. Then silence.

He felt the cyborg lower the arm she must have used to hit 2D with. "Land," she said.

And Murdoc could do nothing else but continue to head for the coast.

Once they reached it, they had to go parallel to it for a while, trying to find a town or some place with roads where they could come ashore, since Murdoc didn't want to end up getting the Stylo car stuck in some jungle or desert or whatever the hell it was that they had in South America. They finally found some pissy little village to come ashore in, and Murdoc transformed the sub back into a car and drove it out of the surf in a James Bond-style entrance that practically made the eyes of the few natives who were around to witness it fall out of their heads. But Murdoc didn't have much time to appreciate the spectacle he'd made. As soon as the car was safely onto dry land, he felt something hit the back of his head. Then there was pain, and then blackness.

He remembered little of the following days. He woke up, tied up on the floor of the car's back seat, 2D next to him. The cyborg must have been driving. He couldn't see anything but the interior of the car and a little patch of blue sky out the window. He didn't know where they were or where she was planning on taking them. He assumed they were still in South America, but he had no idea where. Sometimes he saw flashes of foliage outside the window, and for a while he felt the car moving upward, as if they were going over hills or along mountain roads. But he could see none of it, and the pain in his head made him drift in and out of consciousness, so it was impossible for him to even know how long he'd been in the car. Once or maybe twice it had been dark when he'd awoken, so he assumed it had been a day or two, but he had no way to be sure.

2D remained unconscious for most of the trip as well. Murdoc suspected that the cyborg had hit him much harder than she had hit Murdoc himself, since there was a nasty purple bruise covering much of the left side of his face. 2D occasionally mumbled something in his sleep, and once Murdoc saw him crying with his eyes closed, but most of the time the blue-haired man was silent and still.

She didn't feed them anything that he could remember, but he did remember her sticking a water bottle into his mouth a few times. And he had dim memories of the car stopping a couple of times and him being untied and allowed to get out and take a piss. The cyborg got out with him and kept that gun on him the whole time and when he was done, she tied him back up and stuffed him back into the car. He never tried to run away. He was quite sure he would regret it if he did. And the areas were always isolated, with no place to run to. He remembered her taking 2D out after he had been put back in, but he heard no sound from the singer during those times, which worried him. He didn't think the idiot could afford to lose anymore brain cells, and Murdoc knew that HE couldn't afford to lose his singer. 2D was easily the most popular member of the band, and he would not be easily replaced if he died or went back to being a vegetable. Besides, Murdoc had already learned the folly of attempting to replace his bandmates.

Noodle…oh ********, Noodle, I'm…I'm….no, she wanted to go out there. She WANTED to fight. I didn't ask her. I didn't ask her. I told her not to. None of this would be happening if she'd just left with us when I said. It's not my fault. I didn't ask her I didn't ask her I didn't ask her I DIDN'T!

Murdoc began to find that he welcomed the moments of unconsciousness when they came.

Once or twice, the car had stopped and the cyborg had gotten out alone. He didn't know why. Maybe she was refueling or getting supplies or something. He had made sure the sub had been stocked with plenty of fuel and also a supply of money, food and water, in case he'd had to flee the island in a hurry, so they had everything they needed, but it was possible they had driven far enough for the car to need more fuel. Murdoc had tried screaming for help the first time, which had resulted in him getting gagged. After that, he just stayed still and surrendered himself to whatever fate lay ahead.

After these stops, the cyborg simply sped on again, sometimes driving so fast that Murdoc became quite glad that he couldn't see out the window. He became certain that she was going to get them killed, even if she didn't kill them herself. He was certain that the roads in South America were in deplorable shape. It was a shitty Third World hole, after all. He was sure that every steep mountain road lacked a guardrail, every blind corner had some crazy fool barreling around it at 100 kilometers per hour in the opposite direction, and every low point was flooded with piranha infested swamp water. Warning signs were nonexistent, potholes were the size of moon craters, and bandits had set traps everywhere to catch the unwary. As time passed and the pain in his head made him more and more delirious, every nasty Latin American stereotype he had ever heard seemed to merge together with all the others until a horrific Death World of Communist guerilla fighters, kidnappers who sent your body parts in the mail along with their ransom notes, sadistic drug runners, organ harvesters, thieves who would slit your throat for a single coin, and jaguars and spear carrying savages in parasite infested jungles all lurked just outside the windows Murdoc thankfully couldn't see out of. I'm going to die…I'm going to die and the only questions are when and how horribly. And as he resigned himself to this fact, a part of him found it rather fitting that he was going to die at the metaphorical, if not literal, hands of the image of the woman he was responsible for killing.

NO! It isn't my fault! I didn't want this! I TOLD her not to go. I told her not to go…but I made her take the cyborg, I pissed off the Boogieman, I pissed off the pirates, my carelessness got the cyborg shot and made her malfunction, I had the metal b***h built in the first place, I put Noodle on that island and in the way of those helicopters, I didn't look for her when I told everyone I was going to…I didn't know WHERE to look, but I should have at least tried…but…but I…

I TOLD her not to go. She could have listened. I told her not to go. Everything would have worked out fine if she had just listened. It's not my fault…please…please don't have it be my fault…I didn't mean it…oh ******** didn't ******** mean it…

He didn't know how long they had driven, but eventually the cyborg began to drive more slowly, he heard the sounds of other traffic on the road, and occasionally glimpsed buildings out what little of the window he could see. They were in a city.

The cyborg finally stopped the car and got out. This time, she was gone for what seemed like hours. Murdoc began to grow worried that she had malfunctioned further and simply forgotten about them, leaving them to die in the car (Murdoc was quite thankful the day was overcast, which at least kept the vehicle from becoming dangerously hot). He tried to work free of his bonds while she was gone, but they held tight and he only succeeded in wedging himself painfully between the seatback and the floor during his struggles. Then he could do nothing but wait and hope for her return. As he waited, he realized that he could hear planes passing overhead quite regularly. Were they near an airport?

It was completely dark out when the cyborg finally returned. She opened the car door and pulled Murdoc out. He caught a glimpse of foliage and the lights from buildings off in the distance before she slipped a blindfold over his eyes. Then he felt himself picked up and slung over her shoulder.

She carried him for a long way, but he finally felt her stop, and her arms came up. Before he could even try to figure out what was happening, he felt her climbing upwards.

She only climbed for a bit before he could feel himself surrounded by the darkness of indoors. They were inside something. The sounds made by the cyborg's movements had a metallic ring to them as she scurried along. He occasionally felt her climb upwards again or stoop down and half crawl in order to fit into some tight place, and once he painfully hit his head against the wall when she turned a corner sharply, but because of the gag, all he could do was moan slightly and hope she would be more careful with him when she went around the next corner.

Finally, he felt her set him down against what felt like canvass…cushions? They were full of something and relatively soft, although they had painfully hard corners. Still, after lying on the floor of a car for a few days, Murdoc felt almost like he was lying on a feather bed. He heard the cyborg walk away, and he assumed that she was probably going to get 2D. He hoped the singer was all right. He didn't want to be responsible for any more of his bandmates…

He fell asleep before he was able to finish the thought.

When he woke up, his blindfold had been gone, and he saw that he was lying on top of a pile of suitcases in the baggage compartment of an airplane. Which was in flight, judging by the feel of things. 2D was next to him, and his eyes were open and looked alert, thankfully. Murdoc had really begun to worry that the singer had brain damage from the cyborg hitting him. But thankfully, his eyes looked clear and sentient, if a bit pained. The bruise the cyborg had given him had begun to fade, but it was possible that his head still ached from the blow. Or perhaps he had a migraine. Murdoc couldn't ask the blue-haired man, since they were both gagged. He supposed that the cyborg didn't want either of them screaming and alerting the passengers of the plane that there was someone in the baggage compartment.

The cyborg herself was sitting on top of another pile of suitcases, her guns in her lap, staring at them. Her eye still twitched, but it and her nose no longer seemed to be leaking. Maybe all of whatever fluid that had been leaking had run out by now. Maybe she would malfunction further and they could escape when the plane landed and the baggage handlers found them. Or maybe she would run out of power. He actually didn't know how long she was able to go without being recharged, since he had always made sure to recharge her every night back on Plastic Beach. He hadn't wanted to risk her running out of power if the Boogieman had attacked unexpectedly. So she had been fully charged the day she'd kidnapped them, and he didn't know how long her power supply would last. But she had to run out of power sometime. She couldn't keep running indefinitely. And when she did, they would make their escape.

He had no idea how long they were in the air. He and 2D were untied and allowed to eat and drink twice, one at a time, while the cyborg stuck one of her guns against their forehead so they wouldn't think of crying out. She had some sort of backpack with her, although he didn't know where she had gotten it, and she had some supplies that she had either stolen or gotten from the sub in it. The first time Murdoc was fed, he got a gas station turkey sandwich and a pack of stale cookies, the second time, some beef jerky and an unheated cheeseburger. He didn't didn't know what 2D got. The food wasn't much, but since he was so famished after several days of not eating, he accepted it gratefully, and soon both his and 2D's strength began to return.

When he felt the plane begin to land, the cyborg came over to him and picked him up. She stuck him in the corner behind a bunch of luggage and then brought 2D over to join him. The two of them waited there helplessly, not knowing what the cyborg had planned when the plane landed.

The plane was soon on the ground and safely stopped, and then the three of them waited for the doors to the baggage compartment to open. Once they did, Murdoc heard the sound of a very brief scuffle, then the sound of someone falling to the ground. Then the cyborg was standing over them. She seized 2D and then Murdoc heard her running away, toward the door of the baggage compartment. He heard a few voices shouting at her with what sounded like Scottish accents. Scottish accents? Are we in Scotland? It certainly seemed strange to be back in Britain after all that time in the Southern Hemisphere, but it sounded as though that was the case.

Then the cyborg was back, picking him up and slinging him over her shoulder again. She ran toward the door and Murdoc saw an unconscious baggage handler lying among the suitcases. Then they were out into the light of an overcast afternoon. The sounds of planes landing, engines idling and people shouting came from every direction, and after being confined in small and quiet spaces for so long, it all came as a sensory overload for Murdoc and he squeezed his eyes shut. Then he felt the cyborg jump and he opened his eyes just in time to see them land on one of the vehicles the airport workers used to haul baggage around. The cyborg threw him into the cab of the vehicle, where 2D was already waiting, then jumped into the driver's seat. With that, she was speeding down the runway, away from the plane and toward the airport itself.

They drove at a breakneck pace, dodging people and other cars, taking tight turns that threw 2D and himself against the inside of the cab, once even crashing through a chain link gate. Murdoc just tried to hang on and kept telling himself that someone would come after them. Airports were always crawling with security. Sooner or later, those security forces would appear and save them. He hoped they would blow that metal b***h into ******** tinsel, too. He and 2D just needed to hang on a little-

They crashed through what looked like a metal garage door and found themselves in what looked like a mechanic's garage. A silvery rental car was in the middle of it, with a man in a mechanic's uniform standing near it. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared at the three of them.

The cyborg jumped out of the baggage truck. "Keys!" she shouted at the dumbfounded man.

He just stared at her, looking like he was expecting to wake up from a particularly strange nightmare at any moment.

The cyborg raised her guns up, pointing both of them at him. "Keys!" she said again.

This time he gave a little squeak and rushed toward a board on the wall, which held several keys. He located the one for the car the cyborg wanted and took it down with shaking fingers. No sooner had he pulled it off the wall than the cyborg clubbed him with the end of one of her guns. He fell to the floor as the cyborg seized the key from his now senseless hands.

Then she rushed back to the baggage truck and pulled Murdoc out. She brought him over to the rental car and he once again found himself on the floor in the back seat. 2D was thrown in a moment later and then they were driving.

He didn't know how she got the car out of the rental car dealership and onto the road without being chased and apprehended. He couldn't see a thing out the windows from where he was, just like before. But somehow she must have been able to blend in and get out before their thievery had been discovered. Then it was back to endless driving while Murdoc lay miserably on the car's floor and wondered where the hell they were going now and what they would do when they got there.

But that rental car must have been in the shop for a reason, because soon the engine began to sputter and eventually the car must have died, because it stopped completely and he heard the cyborg get out. A moment later, she had pulled him out and hurriedly untied him.

She dragged him over to the hood of the car, which had black smoke coming from it, and pointed to it. "Fix it," she demanded.

Murdoc stared at the smoking hood helplessly. He had absolutely no idea what was wrong with it, and even if he did, he had no tools or anything like that. He didn't know how to fix it. He was no good with mechanical things. Contrary to what he'd told everyone, he hadn't actually built the cyborg himself but had contracted the job out to some shady engineers and scientists. He couldn't change a flat tire, let alone fix a car or build a cyborg.

"Doll, I'm not…I'm not good at fixing s**t," he said softly, trying to break the news to her gently so she wouldn't kill him. "I don't know how to fix it. I think it's probably as good as dead. I…I'm sorry, Love." He swallowed nervously and waited for her reaction.

To his surprise, she took the gun away from the back of his head and stomped away from him. Before he could even comprehend his temporary freedom, he heard the car door open again and then 2D yelp. A second later the cyborg was dragging him over to the hood of the car.

"Fix it!" she told the terrified 2D, pointing at the hood once again.

"H-H-HUH?" 2D stammered, looking from the car to the cyborg to Murdoc.

"FIX IT!" the cyborg shouted again. She waved her gun at the frightened singer.

Murdoc intervened before things could get any worse. "He doesn't know how to fix cars either," he told the cyborg. "You know Dullard…he's just a pretty face and a healthy set of lungs. He doesn't have any practical skills!" Murdoc forced a nervous laugh. "He and I, we're just not the mechanical type." When the cyborg's expression did not lighten, Murdoc tried to come up with an alternative plan. "We'll just have to walk, Love," he said to the cyborg. "Don't worry, 2D and I will behave ourselves, and we'll keep our eyes peeled for another car to steal. We'll get to wherever we're going." He gave her a big fake smile.

The cyborg remained silent for a minute or two, and Murdoc could hear a soft whirring in her head as she must have thought over his suggestion. Then she finally raised her gun and pointed it at the two of them. She gestured toward the south. "Walk," she said.

Murdoc and 2D walked. This quickly took them away from the road and soon they were making their way through open country, but Murdoc didn't mind so much. At least she hadn't killed them.

After about an hour of walking in silence, Murdoc risked a look over his shoulder. The cyborg was walking behind them, both guns still pointed at them, and she was smiling, much like she had been when she'd first taken them prisoner. Hoping she was in a better mood now (if robots could even have moods, anyway) Murdoc decided to ask the question that had been on his mind ever since this trip from Hell had begun.

"Love, where are we going?" he asked her.

She smiled even wider. "Home," she told him.

Home? Somewhere in Britain? Did she mean Kong? It confused him, because she's never lived at Kong. But she did think she was the real Noodle, and Noodle had lived at Kong, so maybe she was trying to recreate the old days…with her in the place of the original Noodle. He didn't know for sure, but it was his best guess. "Do you mean Kong Studios?" he asked her. "Is that where you want to go?"

She continued to smile at him. "Home," she said again.

Murdoc gave up. "'Home' it is then," he said, turning to face forward once again. "Lead the way." But if his guess was correct, then it gave him a glimmer of hope. If they were indeed in Scotland, then it would take them a long time to walk all the way to Essex. The cyborg was bound to run out of power before then.

At least, he hoped she was. Because if she didn't, and they got to Kong and she saw that it was nothing but charred ruins, there was no telling what she would do to them.

Murdoc put the thought from his mind and kept walking.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Now they were walking down some God-forsaken path in the middle of nowhere. Murdoc didn't know if they were still in Scotland or if they were now in England or if they had somehow ended up in ******** China. He knew they were headed south, so they were probably headed vaguely in the direction of Essex, but he honestly had no clue if the cyborg knew where she was going, like a dog from one of those sappy "Incredible Journey" type stories, or if she was just wandering blindly. And she showed no signs of slowing down, even if 2D and he were growing exhausted. They only took time for bathroom breaks and sleep, eating and drinking while they walked. The cyborg made them stop and "camp" for the night as soon as it got too dark to see where they were going, and she stood watch over them, silent and completely unmoving, until the sun came back up. The morning after the second night, there had actually been a tiny spider busily spinning a little web between her hair and shoulder. But while the weather the first two days was overcast but dry and reasonably warm, the weather on this day was rainy and miserable. So when they stopped for the night, Murdoc had absolutely no idea how the two of them were going to be able to get any sleep. They had no tent or sleeping bag or any kind of gear, and the ground was a puddly, muddy mess. He looked at the cyborg, wondering if it was even worth it to try and protest, then looked over at 2D, who had silently and obediently laid himself down in the soggy grass, his back to the both of them.

That settled things, and he approached the cyborg. "'Noodle,' Love," he said to her, keeping his tone as non-confrontational as possible, "it's too wet for us to be sleeping outside like this. We aren't r-" He paused. Calling her a robot was likely to piss her off. "We aren't tough like you are," he said instead. "The cold and the rain aren't good for us. We'll get sick if we sleep outside in it. 2D'll get sick," he said, gesturing toward the singer's prone form. "He's not doing so well, you know. Doesn't look very good. He could be sick already. And you don't want him to get worse, do you Noodle?" He emphasized the name, trying to appeal to any bonds of kinship she might feel for the two of them due to their relationship to the real Noodle. "You and 2D were always so close," he reminded her. "You two have a 'Zen bond,' or something like that, don't you?"

He heard that soft whirring coming from her head again as she thought this over, then a louder whir from her eyes as they scanned the woods around them. Finally, she gestured with one of her guns off to the left of the path. Murdoc looked where she was pointing but saw nothing but wet and dripping foliage. Still, he knew better than to argue with the cyborg. He went over and roused 2D, helping the wet and muddy singer to his feet and slipping one of his arms over his shoulder, helping to support him. Then he followed after the cyborg, pushing aside wet leaves and branches with his free hand as he left the path.

The ground immediately began to slope upward into a sleep hill that was lined with brittle, orangish stone. The cyborg climbed a short ways up this slope and then veered off to the left again, leading them to a sort of "wall" of this same stone. There was an opening towards the bottom of this wall, only a few feet high, but big enough for a person to crawl into. A cave.

The cyborg gestured toward this with her gun again. Murdoc stooped down and pushed 2D into the opening. "C'mon D," he said, giving 2D's behind a gentle shove to get him moving. "It'll be dry in here." Once there was room, he crawled inside after 2D.

The cave didn't go very far back, but it did open up a bit inside, allowing the two of them to lie down comfortably, and the floor, although rocky and grimy, was dry. The cyborg did not come inside after them, instead remaining at the entrance of the cave as a guard, and, although the cave was not very large, it gave them the most privacy they had had in days.

Murdoc had 2D lie down at the very end of the cave, then he lay down next to him, trying to use his body to shield the singer from any drafts that came from the entrance. 2D was shivering, and Murdoc hadn't been completely lying when he'd told the cyborg he was worried about the singer getting sick. Murdoc had never liked 2D, but he was Murdoc's only companion and confidant in this nightmare, and Murdoc needed him if he was ever to salvage what was left of his band when all this was over. And…damn it, but he didn't want any more of his bandmates to die because of his own stupid, selfish mistakes. Since he couldn't save Noodle, he would do what he could to save 2D. He would consider it some twisted form of Penance, and if it seemed strange that Murdoc Niccals, the devout Satanist, was seeking Penance for anything…well, the situation was already pretty ******** up right now as it was. What did it matter if it got a little stranger? He sighed to himself and brushed 2D's wet, blue hair out of his eyes.

2D stirred slightly, and Murdoc heard him mumble something to himself.

The young man hadn't spoken in days, so Murdoc was startled. Startled and interested in finding out just what 2D had said. He leaned closer to 2D's ear, keeping his voice low so the cyborg wouldn't hear them. "What's that, D?" he whispered.

"Go away," he heard 2D whimper.

Murdoc blinked in surprise. "Eh?" he said.

"Go away," 2D repeated. "I hate you."

The singer's words cut through any and all defenses he still had left and Murdoc felt an unfamiliar stinging in his eyes. He squeezed them shut and cleared his throat a bit, but when he spoke, there was still a bit of thickness in his voice.

"Yeah, I know D," he said softly. "I…I hate me too."

Strangely enough, the admission seemed to bring 2D a bit of comfort, and Murdoc felt him relax slightly. "I don't wanna die," he heard 2D whimper.

"You aren't going to die," Murdoc reassured him. "I won't let that happen, all right?"

When 2D spoke again, there was an uncharacteristic harshness in his soft, high voice. "You'll protect me like you protected Noodle?"

Murdoc shushed him. "Quiet D, the cyborg'll hear you." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And…and…I won't make the same mistake twice. I won't let her hurt you, D. I promise."

2D was quiet for a time. Then, Murdoc heard him say softly: "I never thought I'd see her again. And now, I never will."

Murdoc knew he was talking about Noodle. "Yeah, D, I know. I miss her a lot too. She was a hell of a girl. Never met such a talented guitarist. The cyborg is s**t compared to her. I always suspected that she was the reason our new album didn't do as well as the others."

"Yeah," 2D agreed softly. "But she was more than just a guitarist."

"I know," Murdoc said. "She was a nice girl…a fun girl…a damn lovely girl. You know, none of the rest of us ever got along that well, but with her around, we all kind of needed to, you know? 'Cause we needed to take care of her when she was younger, and then later on because we wanted to keep her happy. She was like the glue that held us all together. And she could always make all of us laugh…and, no matter how many shitty things we…I…did, she still stood by me."

2D didn't say anything in reply to that, and Murdoc closed his eyes, trying to deal with all the feelings he was quite out of practice facing. The two of them lay there silently, lost in their grief, and Murdoc in his guilt.

He didn't know how much time had passed before 2D finally spoke again. "Where is she?" the singer wanted to know.

It took Murdoc a moment to realize he was talking about the cyborg and not Noodle. "She's outside the cave entrance," he told 2D, relieved that the subject had been changed. "She's standing guard out there. In the rain. And," Murdoc chuckled slightly, "if we're lucky, all that water'll make her rust solid. We'll find her tomorrow morning, standing there helplessly like the Tin Man, mumbling 'Oil can!'"

2D laughed softly at this as well, and Murdoc patted him on the shoulder. "But even if she doesn't rust, she still isn't going to keep working much longer," Murdoc told the singer, lowering his voice to the barest of whispers and speaking directly into 2D's ear. "She hasn't been charged up in days. She'll run out of power soon, and then we can escape."

"But what if she doesn't run out until we get to Kong?" 2D wanted to know. "There're probably still zombies there, and we won't have anything to fight them off with."

"So we'll take her guns," Murdoc whispered. "Once she's out of power, she won't stop us from taking them, and we'll use the guns to blast our way through the zombie hoards and get the hell out of there. And then, I'll take you wherever you want to go. Anywhere. I'll take you to a real tropical resort where you can relax and recover, or I'll take you back home to Crawley, to your parents, or I'll take you to Vegas and we'll go cruising and get into all sorts of mischief, or I'll take you to Disneyland, or…or…anywhere you want. I know that doesn't even begin to make up for all the s**t I've done, but I'll still do what I can."

"Anywhere?" 2D asked him. "We can go anywhere?"

"Anywhere," Murdoc promised him.

"St. Johns," said 2D.

"Eh?" said Murdoc. St. Johns? Why the hell would 2D want to go there?

"And then I want us to open up a little scone shop," 2D went on.

Murdoc just managed to contain his laughter. "Swan shaped scones?" he asked the singer, grinning from ear to ear.

"Mhm," 2D said. "And you have to serve tea and make charming small talk with all the little old ladies who come into our shop."

Murdoc chuckled. "Anything you want, D. I'll even wear lace and sing 'I'm a Little Teapot' while I do it."

"And you have to have tastefully framed Bible quotes all over the walls," said 2D mischievously.

"Hey!" Murdoc gave 2D a phony smack on the arm. "I'm willing to be punished for all the s**t I've done, but that's going too bloody far!"

2D laughed softly. "You're willing, huh? I guess I'll have to think up some more ways to embarrass you then."

Murdoc laughed too. "You do that Dullard. But for now, get some sleep, all right? I don't want you to get sick. Like I said, the cyborg will run out of power one of these days, and then this will all be over. I just need you to hold on until then."

"M'kay," 2D mumbled, closing his black eyes. Murdoc waited a bit, until the singer's breathing became slow and even. When he was sure 2D was asleep, he slipped his arms around the young man's lanky body, doing his best to keep him warm against the cold, rainy night.

"'Night, D," he whispered.