Chapter Text
The ambulance stolen from the hospital dashes along a bumpy country road.
“In three minutes I’ll slow down and you’ll get off the car”, shouts uncle Fester from the driver's seat. “I’ll put they off the scent. I'll take the car as far north as possible".
"It’s unlikely that this will help if I’m put on the federal wanted list,” Tyler notes. He has to hold on tightly to the handrail.
“He doesn’t understand much, does he?” — Fester asks his niece cheerfully.
"He's a neophyte. Give him time,” Wednesday replies.
“We got you out of Willowhill. This is psychiatric hospital for the outcasts, and they really, really don't like the government interfering in their. And even more so when someone finds out about their failures. They won't report your escape anywhere. But they will put their special team of bloodhounds on your trail", she explains for Tyler.
“Now you've calmed me down,” Tyler mutters.
“Take it,” Wednesday throws a small bag, which he catches with one hand. His fingers crush the pliable contents, and Tyler realizes from the smell that they are coffee grounds. "I adopted your recipe".
When uncle Fester slows down, Tyler and Wednesday jump out of the back doors. She immediately turns to the side of the road and disappears among the tall bushes. Tyler hurries after. They wind their way through the forest for half an hour until they reach the outskirts of some small town. A new auto is waiting for them there.
"Did you jack this car from the museum?", Tyler asks. He expected to see an inconspicuous dark-colored sedan or something like that.
In front of Tyler stands well preserved, luxurious Ford Sunliner convertible from the fifties. In the dark it is difficult to understand what color the auto body is. Looks like cherry.
“Uncle Fester loves to find unusual transport when he goes on the run,” Wednesday explains calmly. "The bag with your clothes is in the trunk. Change into".
Having found what he was looking for, Tyler is surprised to realize that these are indeed his clothes. Old clothes from home.
"Where did you get it from?" he asks and takes off hospital T-shirt over his head.
“I went to see your father before he left Jericho,” Wednesday stands leaning against the back of the convertible. “He didn’t know what to do with her. Just like with the rest of your things. They made it clear to him that you would never leave the hospital. He was completely broken".
Tyler gets goosebumps. Either from the cold night air, or from her last words.
“I didn’t want to give him hope,” Wednesday continues. “And yet I asked him to pack a small bag with things that might be useful to you.”
"So, he knows you were going to free me?". Wednesday glances at him from under her brows. "I hinted. But did not give out any details. He's clean as a whistle before the Willowhill bloodhounds".
“Thank you,” Tyler says after a short pause.He's changing in the back seat of the car when he hears Wednesday greeting someone. "There you are". He had never heard such tenderness in her voice.
Both ravens are here. One on her right shoulder, the other on her outstretched left arm.
“You know where we’re going. Stay close”, she says, stroking Howard’s neck with her free hand. Or is it Phillips. Tyler has no idea how to tell one raven from another.
One of the birds suddenly flaps its wings and flies towards Tyler's shoulder. He flinches when the raven moves its clawed paws.
“Hey, buddy,” Tyler turns his head cautiously, not sure that he won’t get hit between the eyes with a strong beak. "Thanks for keeping me company".
The raven lightly grabs his earlobe with its beak before letting out a hoarse “crrr” and flying off and disappearing into the darkness. The other raven does the same.
"It was Phillips. He likes you. But I would be wary of Howard if I were you,” Wednesday comments. They both get into the car.
You’re lucky I learned to drive a manual. So, where is the speed switch?" Tyler needs time to adjust the driver’s seat to himself and understand how everything works.
When he is ready to move, Wednesday places her mobile phone with the navigator open on the dashboard, removing the question of where he should actually go.
“Have you decided to give twenty-first century technology a chance?” Tyler asks when he's more or less comfortable behind the wheel. They had left an unnamed town and come out on to the highway.
“Xavier gave me the phone,” Wednesday says with deadly directness, looking only at the road. Tyler tightens his grip on the wheel.
“Did you...get along with him?” he's fumble for the right word.
"Are you asking in such a veiled way if we started dating? No, I dated Lucas Walker".
"Lucas?!". Tyler is so amazed that for a second he loses control of the steering and the car swerves.
"I'm kidding. You instilled in me an aversion to all kinds of romantic relationships for many years to come".
"Remember that I'm driving. And out of frustration from such jokes, I can drive the car into a tree or a bump stop", Tyler grumbles.
“What a banal death that would be”, Wednesday says boredly.
They remain silent for a long time. Tyler is unnerved by this. But he feels that it is not yet time to discuss truly important things. Such as, for example, why did she still pull him out of that bonzo place. She needs him or she needs Hyde. Has she read his medical history sheet? Has she know that the doctor dismissed the diagnosis of “split personality”?
How does Wednsday feel about him?..
"If you don't want to talk, let's at least turn on the music. Or, I don’t know, we’ll play something so I don’t fall asleep while driving", he finally says.
Wednesday looks at him gloomily and offers to play “Dead cities”. She explains that this is a game in which each participant, in turn, names a city that is empty, abandoned, or has completely disappeared due to wars, man-made and natural disasters, or economic decline. The next participant names the city with the letter that ends the name of the previous city.
"Have you ever played it with anyone else?" Tyler asks with visible amusement.
"We played with the Thing,” Wednesday replies dryly.
"Let's play your game. But you will cut me some slack. I will call an ordinary city, and you will call a dead one. Deal?" he waits for a nod and says, "New Orleans".
"Sagalassos,” Wednesday reacts with lightning speed. -"The richest city of Pisidia. An earthquake devastated it in 518".
“Springfield", Tyler says.
"Dvigrad. In the 17th century, the population of the city was wiped out by a plague epidemic. The city was depopulated and was never repopulated. The remains of the medieval castle, city gates and watchtowers can still be seen".
"Will you give explanations for each of your answers?".
"Why not. At least you'll learn something new. Your turn".
"Detroit", Tyler is beginning to enjoy.
"Tenochtitlan. "Place of thorny cacti" was a city-state that stood on the site of modern Mexico City. One of the most developed cities of its time: it had stone pyramids, temples, causeways and even a stone water supply system. The conquistadors burned and destroyed it for gold and vanilla".
"Nagasaki,” Tyler suddenly blurts out. The city that risked joining the list of those now specified by Wednesday.
“Iram,” she retorts without thinking. "Oh, this is one of my favorite stories. The fortress of Iram was one of the richest settlements in the territory of modern Oman. Trade caravans from Persia, Greece and Rome flowed into the city for incense and myrrh. According to Islamic legends, Iram was destroyed by the will of Allah, but in the 1980s, archaeologists put forward a more prosaic and terrifying version: the city fell into an underground karst sinkhole, which was the reason for the appearance of a blooming oasis in the desert. For many centuries, while the townspeople pumped water out of the ground, the sinkhole grew, until finally the ground opened up and swallowed Iram and all its inhabitants"
They play like this until it begins to get light.
"I think it’s time to make our first stop”, Wednesday glances at his watch. “You will need to take your pills and get some rest”.
"Pills?"
"You don’t want to get “withdrawal effect” by kicking the drugs you were pumped with in the hospital. We'll stay at a motel. Uncle Fester made us a fake driver's license".
Tyler doesn't say anything, but thinks about her foresight. He parks at a nearby hotel with a neon pink sign, and Wednesday hands him a plastic ID and a wad of cash.
"John George Haig, 24,” Tyler reads. "Not bad. Sounds like a name that's easy to forget. What's the name of my fake companion?"
"Laisse moi me présente. Je m’appelle Marie-Madeleine de Brinvilliers”, Wednesday says in a completely new, iridescent voice. Tyler tries to restrain himself, but a smile spreads across his face on its own.
“My God, you love to show off so much”, he says kindly and lightly tugs one of her braids. And before she can say anything or cut off a couple of his fingers, he gets out of the car and heads to the 24-hour reception.