[Chapter 2: Roadtrip]

The day was just like yesterday, a typical London summer day, cold and rainy with dark cloudy skies. The car radio was playing various songs from new to old. Occasionally, Murdoc kept switching to other radio stations to avoid certain songs. 2-D kept commenting those skips with lines like "But I like the Whoo Hoo song…", "Aww…", "I wanted to hear that one!", "Hmm…", "Can you switch back please?" but only got nasty looks from Murdoc, a "No." or no reaction at all.

"Maybe if you'd listen to the full song you wouldn't want to skip it."

Murdoc finally snapped. "IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP FOR THE NEXT HALF HOUR I WILL THROW YOU OUT OF THE CAR AND LEAVE YOU BY THE ROADSIDE."

2-D flinched and covered his mouth. He was so frightened, that he didn't say anything for the next half hour.

But apparently, 2-D couldn't shut his mouth for long.

"You know, I really like this Blur guy they make good music."

"That Britpop shit? It all sounds the same."

"No really I think it's cool. And how they kinda battled with Oasis over who sold the most albums? That was wicked!"

"Oh yeah? Whatever."

"The singer, Damon Albarn has a nice voice… do you think I will be able to meet him one day?"

"Ya can bet your life on it! We'll be so good, we'll even be better than Blur. They are going to want to meet us!"

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I know it for sure."

Murdoc stopped by a house which 2-D thought looked familiar. "I'll be back shortly." said Murdoc and left the car. He then locked it, trapping 2-D inside and went to the house.

2-D realised that it was his home and observed how Murdoc talked with his mom and entered. Minutes went by and 2-D was bored to death. He couldn't open the door and all he could do was to sit and wait. He looked at the sky and noticed those tiny floaters dancing in front of his eyes and tried to follow the funniest looking ones. There were lots of them, more than he remembered and they almost filled his whole view. That had him entertained for a few minutes. Then he watched the raindrops slide down the windshield. He looked at his feet and dirty socks. There was no time to put on shoes and he kind of forgot. He opened the glovebox and found an empty cigarette package and dirty magazines. He looked at the magazine, but all he could make out were blurry outlines of woman, which was not really entertaining, so he put it back.

After an hour, Murdoc came back to the car, opened the door and threw a heavy bag onto 2-D."Oof."

"What's this?"

"Your stuff. Eh, she made me take it, so there you go." Murdoc didn't seem to be very happy about it.

"Wha- uh, what did you tell my mom?"

"Oh I told her... that you are now in my band and that you stay with me now. Anyways, she didn't agree at first, but I showed her my great manly body, which successfully seduced her. Nobody can resist me. Wa-a-ouw. Yeah."

"What do you mean by that?"

Murdoc sat down at the driver's seat and started the car. "I banged her kiddo."

"Bang?" 2-D took a few seconds to process his thought. "You shoot her?!" He made big eyes and panicked.

"What? No, calm down. For fucks sake. I just had sex with her okay? No biggie."

"You had sex with my mom?!" 2-D made a disgusted face.

"Well, what can I say, she's hot."

In this moment, all what 2-D wanted was to get away from Murdoc. But he had a heavy bag with stuff on his lap and they were already driving, so all he could do was to accept his fate. He rested his head on the bag and stared at the street. The fast pace of the white lines just disappearing under the car and the mirror like reflections of the wet street calmed 2-D down pretty fast, making him forget what just happened. He imagined little animals running besides the car out of boredom.

Instead of driving back home, Murdoc drove into the city making a stop at a pub. It was only evening, but the skies were so dark and cloudy that no sunlight came through and on top of that it started to rain. On their way to the pub, 2-D stepped into a puddle and stopped. "Oh no…"

"Hurry up.", said Murdoc. He entered the pub, closely followed by 2-D. The pub was mostly empty with only a few people sitting in the back and a bored barkeeper at the bar. As soon as they went in the barkeeper mocked: "Hey Murdoc, how's your music career going?"

"Quite good actually, found a singer for my new band." He smiled, showing a gnarly mouth with demonic, pointy green teeth and sat down at the bar. 2-D sat next to him, resting his face on his hand. His socks were wet and dripping on the floor.

"Oh. The comatose boy. How did you get him out of it?"

The barkeeper recognized him by his blue hair. Murdoc had dragged this young man to the pub last week to keep an eye on him. Originally, Murdoc wanted to leave him in the car, but people would start to worry about the reactionless man in the car and calling the police to get him out, which happened once and Murdoc didn't wanted it to happen again. After he dragged 2-D in, he left him lying right there on the floor, but had to move him to a bench where he didn't attract that much attention. There he sat all night, in his vegetative state, staring motionless at nothing while Murdoc got drunk and harassed women.

"Eeeh. Long story. Give me a glass of Vodka, will ya?"

The barkeeper gave Murdoc his drink and noticed 2-D's eyes, who were now both damaged and the bruise in his face. Probably from another blunt trauma induced by Murdoc. "What about you?" The barkeeper asked 2-D, but before he could say anything, Murdoc answered: "Nothing for him. Do I look like I can shit money?"

2-D looked disappointed at Murdoc and looked at his pockets to search for money, but as expected, he found none. "I dun have no money with me…" The barkeeper felt sorry for the bruised young man gave him a glass of water.

"It's on the house. How did you agree to be in Murdoc's band?"

2-D raised his head, smiling at the barkeeper. "Thank you!" Then he started answering slowly: "Oh... Murdoc said he saved my life... And I was at his home... He let me play keyboard. Uhh, a Casio I think, which was really nice. Anyways, he said I was good and I'm in his band now."

The barkeeper was surprised about his naivety. "Ok then." He asked Murdoc: "Are you sure that he's capable as singer?"

"He sounds like shit, ain't he? But trust me, his singing is great."

"This is going to be another one of your failures."

"No. Look mate. This is going to be the BEST. BAND. EVER. I'll be famous."

"You said that the last 3 times."

"It's different. Really. This time I got HIM as the frontman." Murdoc pointed at 2-D.

The barkeeper mustered 2-D again. He was tall, small torso with very thin arms, long legs and pale skin. His hair was spiky and had an unusual deep azure blue color. He had thick eyebrows and a rather round face. His nose was upturned and flat. He had thin lips, a big mouth and bad teeth. His eyes were completely pitch black, like two voids staring into space. He had a big blue bruise around his left eye and scratches on his face. Altogether he looked like an anorexic zombie.

"I can see that working.", the barkeeper said with a hint of sarcasm.

"No I'm telling you. He has this - this pretty boy look to him. The girls will love it."

"I'm sure they will."

"Heh, I'll prove you. Hey D. Get the keyboard out of the trunk!" He threw the car keys in 2-Ds direction, hitting his shoulder. "Ow." The keys fell to the floor with a loud rattling noise. 2-D stood up and picked them up. "Okay.", he said and went to the entrance without questioning. Outside, the weather had changed from slight rain to heavy downpour. He hesitated.

"What's the matter?", Murdoc asked.

"It's rainin'."

"I don't' care. Get the bloody keyboard!", Murdoc shouted from the bar, waving his fist into the air.

2-D looked at him concerned. "Ah, alright. Okay." He ran to the car, holding his thin arms over his head, but he got soaked wet in seconds. He opened the trunk, which was stuffed with various things like clothes and trash and of course - a keyboard. 2-D hesitated and looked back at the bar entrance. How was he going to get the keyboard over there without it getting all wet? He grabbed it and pressed it onto his chest and bent over to shield it with his body, then got back to the pub as fast as he could. When 2-D approached, Murdoc turned around and looked at the keyboard, then stood up and slapped 2-D in the face.

"You dumb fuck!", he screamed and ripped the keyboard out of 2-Ds wet hands. 2-D rubbed the side of his face, the painkillers he took earlier still had their effect, making it not too painful for him. "Bloody hell.", Murdoc swore. "You can't expose a damn keyboard to the bloody rain." The barkeeper didn't question anything. Since 2-D was soaking wet, Murdoc grumpily used his own sleeve to dry the keyboard and put it on a table. "I swear to hell, if it's broken, you're dead." Murdoc plugged in the keyboard and pressed a key. The keyboard worked though. "Hmpf. Good for you." Murdoc stepped aside and crossed his arms. "Now play that shit from before. And don't embarrass me."

2-D willingly sat down, looked at Murdoc and then back at the keyboard. He pressed some keys, but they didn't quite make any good sound, as he was too nervous to concentrate. Murdoc moaned. "Get your shit together."

"Maybe you should come back another day.", said the barkeeper.

"No. It's alright. He got it." Murdoc looked back at 2-D and said in a much friendlier tone: "Right 2-D? Come on, play that tune."

2-D was staring at the keyboard. He was soaking wet, his hair stuck to his face and his clothes stuck to his body. You could see his pale skin through his white shirt. He was cold and he was hungry and he felt ill. He reached into his pocket and took another shot of his painkiller to make it all better. Murdoc was tapping his foot in anticipation. 2-D closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started playing the same wonderful melody from before. There was a dead silence in the room, aside from the keyboard and when he started to sing his warbly slow melody, it felt like the whole world was listening to the sound of his voice.

The barkeeper looked surprised. "Oh, he's got talent!"

"I've got a feeling that it's pretty much the only thing he is capable off, really."

"No.", 2-D sounded offended. "I can do other things, like… uh… uhm…"

"Nothing?"

"I like zombie movies, like, Dawn of the Dead and stuff. I can tell you a lot about 'em."

"That's not a talent mate."

"Oh."

2-D looked back at the keyboard. "I need to take a wee." He stood up and walked around, stopped and got back to Murdoc. "Where is the toilet?"

"That way.", the barkeeper pointed into the direction were the bathroom was.

"Thank you!"

Murdoc went back to the bar and emptied his vodka. "Another."

"He doesn't seem to be too bright to me.", commented the barkeeper and filled his glass with new beverage.

"Yeah, I noticed. Probably got some special needs, but it doesn't matter. He'll make me famous, and that's all what counts."

"Probably because of your car accident and rough handling."

"Eh. Fair enough. But it did give him an interesting look, don't cha think?"

"Kind of, yes. Do you even like him?"

"No. I hate him. He's annoying. I can tell you, he's only been around for a day and he already pisses me off. All for the sake of world domination baybeh." He took a big gulp of alcohol, then lighted a cigarette.

"How does he stay with you so willingly? I mean, you're a dick to him."

"Hey. I'm being nice. I told him that I saved his life - I mean, yeah I DID get him out of that stupid coma I guess. It's true. So he owes me. Being on drugs might help too."

2-D came back from the toilet, looked at Murdoc and sat down with the keyboard and played whatever came into his simple, painkiller numbed mind.