Please let me know if this chapter sucks, cos I'm taking morphine right now for a kidney infection, so my brain's not working as well as it could be...

There was the sound of scuffling and voices above us, off to the left.

"See 'em?" A man yelled.

"Nah, think they rolled over the edge." Came a hoarse response closer to us. "Strip the bodies once day comes; I ain't risking following 'em over."

I heard the sound of loose earth and rock sliding towards us as our pursuer climbed away from us. The sound faded into nothing until all I could hear was the pounding of my heart and my and Nux's subdued breathing. As danger faded, I became more and more aware of how scraped up I was; my legs and arms were a mass of stinging pain.

Nux moved his hand from my mouth until he cupped my ear, and I felt hot breath as he whispered, "Gotta keep moving; follow me - slowly." In the darkness I reddened with embarrassment at this oblique reference to my earlier clumsiness. His hand travelled down my arm until he was clasping my hand, and I saw the outline of his bald head darkening the entrance to our hideout as he led me out. We half-crawled, half-slid down the slope, with Nux stopping to listen every time we dislodged any scree. My legs felt on the verge of giving way when he finally halted on the edge of some precipice.

Looking past him I could see the blue-violet darkness of the land, the bright stars above. It was hard to tell how high up we still were. Nux was leaning over the edge, bracing himself with his arms, his head twisting as he scanned below. He rocked back on his heels and turned towards me, beckoning me forward. Cautiously, I crept towards the edge, and looked over in the direction he was pointing. It didn't help much; all I could see were overlapping rectangles of blackness, useless for gauging depth.

He leant close to me, his lips touching my ear as he whispered, "Me first, lower yourself down after. I'll catch you."

Without waiting for a response, he lowered himself slowly over the edge, until he was hanging by his fingertips. His pale skull caught the moonlight and glinted for a second before he let go completely. My mouth was dry with fear; I had no idea how long of a drop he was risking, and I wasn't convinced he had any idea either. To my relief, it seemed no more than about 9 or 10 feet, his head not much out of reach from my outstretched arm. My arms were shaking with continued effort as much as fear while I lowered myself until I also was hanging by my fingertips. The strain on them was intolerable, and I knew I couldn't hold on for long. Thankfully I felt his hands grip my calves, and as soon as I let go, those hands slid up my body, guiding me down. The contact was intimate as I passed through the circle of his arms, my nightshirt riding up so that my bare thighs slid over his chest. But it didn't linger, for he set me down on the ground and then turned away immediately, searching for the next step in our path.

In this slow and painstaking way we made our way down to where the foothills met the rising flat of the desert. Grey light was replacing darkness, and we made quicker progress as the ground became more and more distinct. Weariness and pain were taking their toll on me, but fear of being caught in the open drove us both, and I stumbled along silently behind Nux. He kept scanning the surroundings, obviously looking for a place we could hide during daylight. Finally he found what he was searching for, and drew me over to a large rent in the ground, partially overhung by a large flat outcropping of rock. Into this inadequate refuge we crept, huddling at the bottom. I leant back against one side of the rift gratefully while Nux flung himself down beside me. He sighed, and stretched his long legs out in front of him, shooting me a weary smile.

"Should be ok now." He whispered, fishing his milk flask and some of the dried meat out of one rent cargo pocket. I accepted it numbly, almost too tired to eat. I was asleep almost before I'd finished chewing.

The sun shining in my eyes woke me; it was riding high in the noon sky, and a stray shaft speared down to dazzle me. Squinting, I shaded my eyes with my hand and shifted further down in the shallow trench. Averting my eyes brought Nux into view, and I saw that he was awake, watching me with those intense blue eyes of his. My shifting had brought us shoulder to shoulder; feeling awkward about the proximity I braced my arm so that I stopped within an inch of him, so close that I could feel the hairs on his arm brushing my skin.

"Sorry," I whispered through parched lips. "Didn't mean to wake you."

A slightly raised eyebrow was his only response, and then to my surprise he slowly reached out one arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, until my shoulder nestled under his arm pit. Some part of me was sending warning signals to my rational brain, but I was so exhausted and miserable, and it felt so comforting, that I couldn't resist. With a sigh, I let my head droop to his chest, and closed my eyes again. I drifted off to sleep with the sensation of his scars under my cheek.

Waking was agony; I thought the earth was shaking under me, but it was only my head being dislodged as Nux sat up. Everything hurt, from the sunburn under my matted hair to the tattered remains of my foot bindings. The stench of stale sweat hung over me like a pall and my scrapes and burns stung with throbbing intensity.

Thirst clove my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I took the milk flash from him with shaking hands, dribbling the last of it between my burned and flaking lips.

He looked slightly the worse for wear too; dark stubble was beginning to shade his head, but the scratches that started there before continuing down his face and body were very visible. Most of the white body paint was gone, although he was still very pale. I couldn't tell if the dark circles around his eyes were the remnants of makeup, or just plain exhaustion. He returned my appraising gaze with another of those lop-sided grins.

"You look pretty shredded yourself." He said, using a hand on the rift wall to steady himself as he stood up. The low angle of the setting sun turned his skin fiery red, the blue of his eyes echoed in the darkening blue of the sky.

Shading his eyes with his hand, he stared off into the distance while I crouched there waiting. After a few minutes he ducked down again and said, "Ok, reckon I've got our bearings. Strike out to the west until we hit the Fury Road, then its just a short run north to the citadel." He offered his hand to me as he stood up again.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't think I can, man. I don't know how you do it, I'm just totally shattered."

I heard his wry chuckle as he took my hands, dragging me reluctantly to my feet. At first I thought he was being dismissive of my self-pity, but when I opened my eyes and took in his sad expression, eyes large with some remembered trauma, I realised his reaction probably had less to do with me than I'd thought.

"Spent so long running on empty as a half-life, this is all chrome compared." He said seriously, and then transfixed me with a pure puppy-dog look in his eyes. "Since you brought me back, I know what its like to be full-life, super-charged and high octane." He guided my hand to his left shoulder, just where the neck met the collar bone. "See? Even Larry and Barry are gone."

"Stop saying that." I jerked my hand away, nettled, not sure what my fingers were supposed to have found other than skin and the flow of bone and muscle beneath. "I don't know what happened, but whatever, it was an accident." As I said these words, my inner voice was clamoring that it was not a good idea to disillusion him, since I was pretty reliant on his goodwill.

He looked at me thoughtfully for an instant, then shrugged and took my hand again.

"Not leaving you here anyway; start walking."

Accepting the finality in his voice, I followed him as we clambered out of the rift and set off. Ahead of us the sun dipped below the horizon, letting the first stars of night spring out overhead.