It was only after what seemed like an eternity – but was probably merely a few minutes – that I dared to loosen my grip a little and take in the passing scenery. It was also at this point that I noticed that no strange energy transfer had taken place between me and the stranger when I'd gripped his waist. Casting the thought aside as irrelevant to my present circumstances, I returned to looking around me.

We were still in the twisting canyon, the sun now high in the cobalt sky, and beating down on us fiercely. The motorbike sent up clouds of dust behind and around us. Shifting my weight cautiously, I peeked around the stranger but could only see the canyon continuing ahead, snaking so that its crumbling walls obscured more distant vision. The dust was choking and I was dizzy from the sun, but I felt like it was time to try and communicate with my strange companion, in the hopes of figuring out what the hell was going on.

"Where are we going?" I screamed hoarsely, the wind stealing all the power out of my voice. No response. Not sure if he was ignoring me or just couldn't hear me, I moved my hands to his shoulders. I had to stand up a little to put my mouth to his ear, as he was much taller than me.

"Where are we going?" I yelled, my lips grazing his ear. He moved his head away a little and yelled something back at me, but the wind and the roar of the engines drowned most of it. All I caught was the word "Out…"

Frustrated but accepting that I was going to get no real explanation until we stopped, I transferred my hands back to his waist, feeling the muscles of his abdomen twitch as I did so. I gave myself up to numbness, and although that worked for my mind, soon my body was rebelling against the whole situation. The sun was burning me, the dust choked me, and I was becoming stiff and sore from sitting on the bike. I found myself shifting more and more, trying to relieve the pressure in my seat bones and my knees; burying my face as much as I could between his shoulder blades in order to keep the sun, wind and dust out.

So it was that I didn't even know we'd cleared the canyon until the bike started to swing round in a large arc. Risking a glance, I raised my head and saw an expanse of sand and sky which seemed to go on forever. Looking over my shoulder I could see the distant ridge of mountains we'd left behind, the canyon simply a dark blot in a larger indistinct mass of tumbled hills. Ahead was nothing more than a small dune of sand, an island in the flat sea of this red desert.

The stranger drove to the top of this and then stopped. It took me awhile to get used to the absence of motion; it felt like everything was still vibrating, and I had to cling to the frame to stop from keeling forward when he got off the bike. He produced a pair of battered binoculars from one of the bike's panniers and put them to his eyes, scanning the horizon in all directions.

Since we seemed in no immediate danger, I decided to risk getting off the bike myself, but I was so stiff, blistered and burned that the moment I stood up, my legs gave way, and I collapsed in a heap next to the bike. Feeling unspeakably frustrated and weak, I let out a sob, which quickly turned into real tears.

"You alright?" asked my strange companion. He squatted beside me and pushed my hair aside so that he could see my face.

Enraged by what I considered the stupidity of this simple question, I dashed his hand away and scowled up at him.

"No! No, I'm not bloody alright!" I yelled, heedless of the consequences. "I don't know what the fuck is going on, I don't know where I am, and who the hell are you?!"

Blinking a little at my outburst, he rocked back on his heels, resting his forearms on his thighs. He seemed quite nonplussed by all my questions, but after a moment of thought, he answered slowly.

"M'name's Nux. We're west of the Citadel, heading out to deep desert. Back there," he shrugged his head in the direction of the mountains, "that's where we shredded Immortan Joe and his war parties." Here he stopped and gave me a strange look, a glint in his blue eyes. "Thought I was dead, heading for Valhalla. Couldn't leave you for the scavs though, not after you brought me back."

Seemingly embarrassed by either this conversation or having spoken so many sentences at once, he rubbed his bald head with one hand, looking away. For my part, I sat there opening and closing my mouth like a dying fish, trying to make sense of what he'd said.

This uncomfortable conversation was making me think about things I'd been avoiding since this all started. I really had no idea how I'd gotten here, wherever here was. It had started like a dream, in situ, but my blistered skin and sore muscles argued otherwise. Things had happened which were not physically possible, without explanation. And the only point of sympathetic human contact I had in this world was someone who really seemed a little cracked.

Breaking my reverie, Nux sat down fully, legs drawn up in front of him. He flung a wiry arm out in the direction of the mountains. "Gotta go back that way." He told me conversationally. "No good trying to go round the mountains; not enough fuel for us or the bike." He flopped back on his elbows, the shadow of the bike striping his face. "Wait til dark though, hope scavs miss us." He turned on one elbow towards me. "What're you called? How'd you do it anyway; bring me back, I mean?"

I was struck by the intensity of expression in his blue eyes. I felt I'd misjudged him; he was obviously more intelligent and thoughtful than I'd considered.

"Rachel," I answered slowly, gathering my thoughts as to his second question, "I'm called Rachel." I shook my head, pursing my lip in concentration. "I really don't know. I don't know anything right now; I'm completely lost." My lip trembled as I said these last words. Lost, completely and utterly lost, in every sense of the word. The trembling spread to the rest of my body, and I clenched my fists in the sand, trying to summon up the will to be more stoic.

Nux reached over tentatively and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Rest, it'll fix you up." He motioned with his head towards the mountains again. "We get back to the Citadel, Furiosa'll help you figure it out. Reckon she's in charge now Joe's gone." He gave my shoulder a small friendly shake. "Rest now."

He motioned me to lie lengthways in the shade of the bike. Wincing slightly, I lowered myself into blessedly cool shadow. I closed my eyes, trying to sleep, but in spite of exhaustion, found myself unable to. I opened my eyes wearily; Nux was lying on his back at a right angle to me so that his head was in shadow, arms behind his head. Lying on my side I could see his interlocked fingers and bald skull, dark shapes beyond which wavered the bright heat of the desert and the deep rich blue of the sky.

My thoughts kept going over and over the same ground, and I discovered an unsettling truth; I had no recollection of how I had come to be here. Memories of my normal life seemed dim and unreal, fragmented. I could remember climbing into a soft bed, but I couldn't really remember the rest of the day. Images of faces and environments were garbled and without context. I tried to think about where I lived, but all that surfaced was an image of concrete and glass towers sandwiched between green mountains and the sea. I concentrated, hoping for further illumination, a name. Canada. That was it.

Excited as I was by this revelation, exhaustion was starting to catch up with me. My eyelids drooped, and I slipped into fitful sleep.