With a sudden gasp, Lilith took cover behind the towering physique of Brick. Had she known that Pandora's sand storms would intensify upon opening the vault, she would have left as soon as she had claimed her reward. Unfortunately, Mordecai had convinced her to stay, and now she regretted it more than ever.
Despite his many shortcomings, there was something about that man that drew her to him. She had always been unable to discern just what it was, but she knew for a fact that it wasn't his frail body. He looked just as feminine, if not more so than her. Lilith glanced to her side, searching for the effeminate hunter, and couldn't help but smile at the sight.
Her first thoughts were of a rag doll being blown about in the wind, but when she saw Mordecai's comic figure as he struggled to stand; she immediately pictured him as the tumble weed from the old spaghetti western flicks.
"Remind me why we're out here in the middle of nowhere!" He called out to Brick; Lilith's temporary wall.
The large man heaved his heavy shoulders in a shrug, raised one massive arm to shield his eyes from the onslaught of sand and debris, and kept walking forward.
"Later," He replied, quietly enough that only Lilith could hear it. "When we're out of this storm."
.
The storms had been raging for far too long, and Roland was tired of it all. With each passing day, he felt himself slipping into apathy. It had reached the point where he was no longer fit to lead the group. Eventually, the leadership was delegated to Brick; an unlikely choice to be sure, but he was the toughest son of a bitch that Roland had ever come to know. That was saying quite a lot, considering that he was formerly of the Crimson Lance.
'I'm going to find my sister.' Brick had told him before leaving with the others.
It had been three days since then, but Roland wasn't worried. He was bored. With an elongated sigh, he peered out the window of the bunker.
'Should've tagged along...' He thought to himself as he stared idly at the barren landscape.
.
"Collecting those, are we?" Lillith grinned at Mordecai. He could only shudder as he pulled the fourth pair of underwear from his face.
"What the hell are people leaving out here," he groaned. "And more importantly, why am I the only one having to deal with this shit?"
"Aw, I think it's a good look for you. You already have that silly mask, so why not complete the superhero look by wearing those panties on the outside?"
"And have people start referring to me as Patricia?" He pointed to the girly handwriting on the elastic. "Hey, come to think of it, this writing seems really familiar."
Lilith opened her mouth to reply, but was cut short by Brick.
"Enough. Storm's dead. Let's rest."
Without waiting for either to respond, Brick set his bag down and collapsed on the ground. Moments later, he was sound asleep.
Lillith and Mordecai, on the other hand, were denied the pleasure. It seemed as if the ground were shaking each time Brick drew breath. It was now that Mordecai remembered why they slept alone during their prior adventures. Of course, sleeping alone really meant isolating Brick in his very own room. Preferably sound proofed. Here, they had no such luxury, and Mordecai could only sit and wonder how many minutes; or seconds, of sleep he could claim as his own when Brick would wake and begin to repack his things. He cast a tired glance to Lillith, and rubbed the lenses of his goggles.
'There one second, gone the next. Fucking warlock.' He thought to himself as he studied Lillith's strange behaviour. Phasewalking, she had called it. The ability to simply disappear from whatever plane of existence the vault hunters were inhabiting. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that she had the ability to teleport. Lillith had used the ability countless times in their quest to open the vault, to varying degrees of effect. In Mordecai's opinion, the ability was good only for a quick and dirty retreat. He chuckled quietly to himself at the thought.
'Quick and dirty. How appropriate.'
It wasn't long before Lillith blinked back into reality; her position unchanged from when she had initially disappeared.
"Sometimes, I wish I were deaf," Lillith complained as she sprawled out on the ground, resting her hands behind her head. "Because having to sleep near this guy is going to make me think that I have some kind of a chronic sleeping disorder."
"We could bury him a few feet underground," Mordecai offered a wry smile as he continued. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Hell, he'd probably thank us when he wakes up. I hear that all of this dirt is packed full of those vitamins and minerals or whatever the hell you want to call them."
"He'd be thanking us with his fists, Mordy. That's gratitude that I don't need."
There it was. The pet name she had given to him so long ago. Mordecai groaned.
"I suppose you've got enough holes as is," He rose to his feet and extended a hand to Lillith. "Come on. Let's find somewhere else to sleep."
Lillith looked at the hand, then at the creepy mask that Mordecai was so fond of wearing. She stole another glance at his hand before standing up without his assistance.
