Chapter 7: Crashing in the Rain

It was raining.

Nah, 'raining' was describing his situation too generously. It was pouring. He didn't care on which planet he was; there existed exactly one acceptable situation for water coming from above, and it was called 'being inside a shower'. All rain did was manage to intensify his feeling of being a sticky, greasy hobo. How was water so useful and so useless at the same time? If he left his pants now, they probably managed to stand on their own…

Sonic had spent all day heading pretty much straight north (to the best he could tell anyway), running through a just about endless region of mountains, forests, and valleys only rarely broken up by a road or river. Sunlight and crisp air had turned the weather on his way into a refreshing mix, but when the rain had come, he got off his track and to lower ground again. Now he settled on the broad branch of a tree, just high enough to be away from the soaked ground, and low enough to have as thick of a canopy above him as possible. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough to keep the odd thick drop from coming through. Sonic sighed.

Yup, this was gonna be an awesome night.

He had enough sense of distance to know that the Star Post was still about halfway to go from where he was at the moment. If the weather had kept, he probably would've made the rest of the way till nightfall. He also knew that the Star Post had to be on yet another mountain somewhere. But after spending all day running through a frickin' mountain range of all things, the idea of trying to find one particular mountain within it hadn't exactly put him in a hurry…

On a road a little ways up and behind the trees the lights of a vehicle passed by. Sonic watched their trail like he'd done with the handful of other cars that had come through before—there wasn't exactly anything else happening around here. Moments later the lights disappeared only to briefly flare up again. They seemed to jitter down through the trees, then stopped abruptly with a solid thunk.

Sonic flinched. The noise had been loud enough to be heard even over the rain's static. If the car had gone down a proper path over there, it definitely hadn't halted the way it was supposed to.

He pulled a dripping branch aside and peered into the woods. One of the car's headlights was still on and shone roughly towards him, making most of the vehicle indiscernible in the dark of the night. He pricked his ears, expecting to hear someone step out at any moment, but nothing happened. There hadn't even been another car passing by on the road in the meantime, but that probably didn't mean much—only that he now apparently wouldn't just have to sit through a needlessly wet night, but also a needlessly busy one with people coming in to help that crashed person (or persons…) over there. No way was he going to look for another spot now. Sonic let the branch slip from his fingers and sat back again, drawing his legs further in.

It was still quiet.

…And it started nagging at him.

Unless that car or person had a means to call for help, this spot was not even remotely frequented enough for anyone to show up anytime soon… The least he could do was check whether it really had been a crash.

Sonic sighed and got to his feet. He dropped onto a lower branch, still trying to stay above ground while skipping his way over and into a tall tree that the car had halted beneath.

He didn't need to get much closer to see that this trip hadn't gone as planned.

There was a roughed-up trail leading from the road towards the trunk of the tree Sonic currently perched in. It looked as if the car had first brushed something with its right front, then skidded sideways into said trunk, impacting at about the spot the driver usually sat. All in all, the damage didn't look too serious—apparently, whoever was in there had at least managed to slow the car somewhat—but he still had no idea how fragile those guys really were…

Sonic grimaced, crouching low on his branch to get a better look through the windshield.

The inside of the car was dark against the glare of the remaining headlight. After a moment though he could make out a faint glow from what had to be the instruments, and then the vague shape of a person who was slumped against the slightly bent-in driver's door became distinguishable—an unconscious person, apparently. Or they would've probably freaked out by now.

There didn't seem to be anyone else in there. Also, the car must've gone out at some point—considering the noise those things usually made around here.

Sonic sat up straight on his branch and took a breath, absently letting his ears fill with the sounds of single, heavy raindrops drumming onto the car's metal roof. For a moment he felt as if he was the only vaguely healthy person in a thousand mile radius.

…How did he always manage to get himself into these situations?

It had never been a question whether he'd go down there and see if he could help. The question had always been: when?.

Admittedly, it had also crossed his mind that, in case someone else came for help and happened to spot him on his tree in the process, he didn't want to be in a situation of becoming overwhelmed in the middle of the night, all sluggish and sleepy. If he could increase the chances of whoever was in there getting away on their own before that, all the better.

Sonic rolled his neck, then slipped down onto the damp, leaf-covered ground and quietly approached the passenger door. His hand instinctively reached for the handle, fingers wringing around it for a moment. Then he pulled the door open.

He reflexively hopped out of the way when a bottle and a bunch of packs and cans came falling towards his feet. Some lamp had lit up, too, revealing the car's interior. A bag of groceries had toppled over and thrown its contents all across the passenger seat, into the legroom, and even into the lap of the woman in the seat across. She sat there, as motionless as before, and with her head resting against the cracked but still holding window. She hadn't even so much as hitched a breath since he'd opened the door.

…She wasn't dead, was she?

Nah, they couldn't possibly be this fragile. There wasn't even any blood.

Sonic licked his lips.

He'd be way out of his depth if she was dead now.

…Of course, he'd also be way out of his depth if she wasn't. The entirety of his Mobian first aid knowledge was probably completely useless around here. And if he went up to the road to try and get the attention of anyone passing by, they'd probably panic and crash their car right next to hers the moment they saw him.

Her chest moved.

It was faint, but it was steady.

Sonic released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

She was only unconscious.

He could figure out how to deal with that.

Sonic set his foot into the frame of the open door then hesitated, gaze latching on to the stuff that had spilled out of the car before. He had no idea what he was looking at exactly, but it seemed impossible that there wasn't any food among all those packs and cans. It couldn't hurt to pick through the stuff for something edible first. Considering how long she'd been sitting there already, she probably didn't need help right away.

Also, she was probably going to wake up by herself all fine any moment now.

…Those pale sticks did look like dried noodles, didn't they?

Sonic groaned, rubbing his face. Being low on food was messing with his head.

If this was Mobius, he'd've already taken her to half a dozen hospitals and treated whatever wounds twice on the way—never mind the species. He had to at least make sure she was alright… Then he could take half her stuff and leave.

Well.

Sonic nodded to himself then picked up the stuff that had fallen towards his feet and placed it back inside on top of the seat. Then he climbed into the car's legroom and shut the door behind him, wincing from the noise and sudden darkness. He poised for a moment, hearing only the dulled out prattling of the rain outside and the occasional thud of a heavy drop hitting the car's roof.

Nothing happened. She was still out.

He fumbled for a switch to get the lights back on, wincing again when he finally found it. The woman hadn't moved. She looked almost relaxed in her pose—blonde hair still tied together at the back of her head, and her blue-ish gray hoodie only slightly askew. She also looked somewhat young to him, but since so far Sonic could only safely discern kids from… not kids, that revelation probably didn't amount to much.

Sonic clambered on top of the center console and squatted down beside her. He poked her shoulder.

"Hey."

Nothing.

Poking could be a perfectly capable and professional means to get people conscious again.

But not this time, apparently.

Considering she'd be waking up coming face-to-face with him, it was probably also better that way.

He shook his head. Nope. For all he knew it wasn't a good sign if she wasn't waking up easily. He had to get a closer look.

Sonic carefully put one foot in the space between her legs, settling in a bit closer. He reached out to lightly nudge her face then caught himself running his fingers along her cheek and jaw for much longer than what was necessary for a simple wake-up-call. But that skin was a lot more delicate and a lot… nicer than he'd expected. He never thought he'd ever think of bald skin as 'nice' of all things (instead of, that ugly one-week bald spot you got on your shin from stumbling too close to a field of rubble). He grimaced.

After a moment he realized that the fingers sticking out from his half-length gloves looked as if he'd been digging for roots all day during the past week, and he abruptly pulled his hand away. If he were forced to decide between taking soap and taking food from that pile of stuff beside him, he'd be in a real pinch.

As if he'd removed her support, her head sagged forward and away from the window, revealing a smudge of blood. It began to trail from a cut beneath her hairline down along the side of her face. The cut didn't seem all that deep, but it looked as if it was in a spot that bled easily and had only been held together because of her head resting against the remains of the window. Now her neck also bent forward in a way that made her breathing become more labored. Sonic didn't need to be an alien expert to know that he couldn't leave her sitting like this for long. There had to be a way to decline the backrest, otherwise he'd have to somehow drape her across the center console or something.

He tried a few knobs and handles, finally finding the one that moved the seat. Then he carefully held her head up with one hand and, in an act of late-night acrobatics (why did everything have to be so fricking large?), rolled the backrest down until it touched the backseat. Her breathing became quiet again, but the blood from her wound kept trailing into her hair. He needed to get some pressure onto it.

He crawled back to the other side, picking through the pile of groceries and collecting them on the seat. Among the foodstuffs he found two large bottles of water, a set of square cloths and… a toothbrush? It was packed into a slim plastic tube and looked a bit like one of those cheap giveaways made for anyone's teeth, but it was what it was: a toothbrush.

Sonic picked it up, glancing at the woman. She was still unconscious, obviously. Maybe she even had a concussion and wouldn't remember anything of tonight. She wouldn't miss that toothbrush, would she?

Chaos. Sonic shook his head. A moment ago he was fine with taking half of her food, now he worried about taking a frickin' toothbrush? He pocketed the thing before his conscience could intervene any further then grabbed the cloths and one of the bottles and pushed the door open again. Leaning out he removed his gloves, rinsed his hands, and dampened one of the cloths before drinking up most of the rest of the water. Then he climbed back to her side, stashing his gloves and letting the door fall shut again.

Some of the blood had run behind her ear and eventually down her neck onto the seat. It wasn't exactly pouring out, but the bleeding didn't look like it'd stop on its own anytime soon. Sonic balled up the damp cloth and began dabbing at the blood around her wound, carefully trying to figure out the size and shape of the cut. She stirred a couple of times, making him pause, but it wasn't enough to wake her up.

Sonic folded one of the smaller cloths and placed it carefully across the cut, pressing down on it and trying to shut the wound as seamlessly as possible. He had no idea what a scar would look like on their skin, but they obviously couldn't cover it with fur. He'd better try and do a decent job here.

After a while of putting pressure on the wound, he rolled up another cloth and tied it tightly around her head. Her breathing became stronger and more even during his treatment, as if she'd slipped from unconsciousness to regular sleep. It was a good sign, but it also meant it wouldn't be long until she woke up now.

Sonic retreated back to the other seat's legroom, sliding down with his back against the dash and his knees against the seat's padding. He crossed his arms and eyed the shoppings in front of him, mentally picking an armful of stuff. It was time to get out.

…If only it wasn't so mind-numbingly comfortable in here. Ever since entering the car, he felt as if he were under a warm blanket: No wind tugging at his fur, no dampness creeping into…everywhere—man, he wouldn't mind spending the night in here. But the best he could do was stay inside for a bit longer. If she started to wake up, there'd still be enough time to grab the things he wanted before he left. Yeah, just a bit longer…

It was about then that he dozed off.

#

Sonic snapped awake when something poked the side of his head.

The woman sat hunched over on the driver's seat, eyes narrowed. She held a wooden cooking spoon in her hand.

His mind took a moment to catch on. Woman. Awake. Still dark. Food.

Sonic awkwardly scrambled to his feet, bumping his head into the roof of the car before picking up the stuff he'd mentally filtered out before. It'd be okay. He still got this. He didn't care what she thou—

»Hey!« She smacked him to the side of his head again with her spoon.

"Ow." Sonic spun, letting go of the groceries. "What was that for?"

…Dumb question.

The woman shrank back, grimacing and apparently preparing for him to retaliate. When he didn't, the spoon lowered slightly. »Wait… You talk?« she said. It sounded like a slightly confused question. Too bad his only replies were 'yes' and 'goodbye' at this point. It was worse than gambling.

…Well, almost. For all he knew 'goodbye' was the one to use, preferably carrying an armful of stuff with him. But now apparently enough time had passed to develop second thoughts. Somehow, grabbing the odd vegetable from a random backyard felt different than swiping things while someone was looking at you.

Also, he didn't want to find out the kind of punches women could pull on this planet.

Sonic slid back into his position between dash and seat, grumbling and crossing his arms. Why the heck did he have to fall asleep again?

»…Hello?« she said, huffing after a moment when the answer seemed to take too long. »Are you gonna keep ignoring me now, or what?«

Sonic looked at her and she startled slightly, posture getting defensive again. She was still hunched over, one arm resting in her lap as if she didn't want to move it. She'd probably hurt it during the crash as well. Maybe, if there was something else he could help her with, she'd be up for a trade or something. It'd feel a lot better that way.

He got halfway out of his wedged-in position, already having her entire attention, and gestured towards his shoulder and then hers in an attempt to give his words some reference. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She blinked, reflexively looking to her shoulder. »…What?«

Sonic resisted rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I think we both noticed I'm not speaking your language."

She looked skeptical.

Sonic sighed then got up and braced his knees against the center console so he could lean over to her side. He reached for her collar to check for a bruise or something, but she blocked him off with her spoon, holding it firmly in front of his nose. »Hey! What do you think you're doing?«

Sonic raised his hands in defense, backing off. "Jeez, I know I look strange and can talk and all that jazz, but let's just figure this out, alright?"

She frowned again, holding her position. After a moment she bit her lip, then something seemed to click and her eyes lit up. Sonic let his hands drop.

»Did you do that?« she asked, pointing the finger of her spoon-wielding hand at the bandana around her head. Now it was Sonic's turn to frown. He was fairly sure it was a simple question. It'd just be nice to know which one…

»Was that you?« she tried again, this time extending her gesture to point towards him as well.

Oh.

»Yes,« he said. It was worth a try.

She blinked, arching both eyebrows. »Yes?« she repeated. »Tell me that's not all the English you know.«

»Uhm… yes?« he tried again, shrugging lightly.

Apparently, his response was worth letting go of the spoon to have her hand free to run it across her face.

»…Okay,« she said. »Guess we gotta make do with that then…«

She took a deep breath then reached for the collar of her hoodie, carefully pulling it aside. The area around what had to be her collarbone was discolored—skin taut and swollen. She grimaced when she drew the fabric back in place. »Looks great, huh?« She seemed to wait for a response.

It looked broken, actually. No wonder she didn't want to use her other arm.

»By the way,« she added. »If you weren't sitting in the way I think I would be out of the car already. Just so you know.«

Admittedly, it was nice to have someone talk to him without trying to shoo him away or hit him with something (well, almost…). But, Chaos, it was so frustrating.

"We should put your arm into a sling," he said. "'S gonna be easier for you to get out if you don't have to hold it." There, how was that for being counter-frustrating.

»…I have a feeling this was actually a helpful contribution, but—«

Sonic picked up the last of the cloths from the seat. He spread it out, folded it into a triangle and briefly hooked his arm into it. "Well?" He cocked his head. The cloth was a bit short, but he could probably make it work somehow.

She gaped but quickly collected herself. Her eyes scanned the inside of the car and eventually came to rest on the tilted back of her seat. She placed a finger on top of the backrest and let it sit there, meeting his eyes. »There should be a first aid kit under there,« she said. » It's a box. Can you get it?«

…What? Sonic felt his face knit into a frown. What did that seat have to do with a sling?

Her lips formed a line and she tried again. »A box.« She moved her hand in a vaguely rectangular pattern. »Underneath.« Another gesture, pointing downwards. It clicked.

Sonic crawled to the back of the car and reached beneath her seat, feeling around. His fingers touched some bar-shaped object and he pulled it out, recognizing it as a phone. That made sense. He handed it to her. Instead of taking it, she gestured dismissively. »No. No, not that one. That one died on me right after I woke up.«

No? Hadn't he heard that one before? If he kept up like this, he could end up with a decent vocabulary in, like, a year or so… Sonic suppressed a groan.

He dropped the phone on the backseat and reached further underneath her seat, eventually coming up with of some kind of box.

»Yes, that's the one,« she said before he could present it to her. There'd been a yes in there, alright.

Sonic held the box out for her to take but instead of taking it she backed up, looking at him down the length of her nose. »Dude, if you don't know what that is I'm not exactly confident about you helping me.«

…Okay. Did that mean he was supposed to open it now, or what? Why would she have something in her car she didn't want to open? Chaos, this could go a lot better here.

Sonic hesitantly lifted the lid of the box then opened it fully when he realized what it was: A first aid kit. Jeez, for someone so fast he could be frickin' slow sometimes.

It took him a moment to find a packaged cloth lined with instructions (among decidedly terrifying things like shears and band aids) and tore it open. There were two ways to tie the thing, one of which had the cloth go across the opposite shoulder so it wouldn't put pressure on the injury. Couldn't hurt to try that.

She shrank away when he approached, apparently needing a moment to brace herself. Sonic waited until she gave him a nod for an 'okay', then he kneeled beside her, gently lifting her bad arm. She drew a startled breath the moment he moved it then seemed to try her best to relax until he'd spread the cloth out underneath. He put one end of it on her opposite shoulder and left the other at elbow-height before climbing behind her and reaching for it. He heard her exhale softly.

»Dude, you need a bath,« she muttered.

…Why, exactly, had that sentence made him feel self-conscious all of a sudden…?

A light drew his attention to the windows. It was only another car passing by, visible through the rain and trees outside. With the bright interior of her car turning everything outside into complete blackness, he'd almost forgotten that there might be others around coming for help. Was it unfair that he wanted them to take their time now…?

»Hey,« she said softly. »You alright back there?«

Sonic grunted, finally grabbing both ends of the cloth to tie a knot behind her back. He tugged the fabric into place, then returned to the upper end of the backrest and sat down cross-legged. She took a moment to test the cloth with her free hand, then slowly rested her injured arm fully into it, visibly relaxing as she straightened her upper body for what seemed like the first time.

»Whoa. Thanks,« she said with a smile. »That's much better.«

Sonic shrugged. "You're welcome. I guess."

She shifted in her seat and began unfurling her legs, struggling to stretch them out across the center console. Sonic climbed out of the car's back door, earning a confused look. Then he opened the passenger door from the outside and extended a hand.

His eyes were drawn to the groceries again.

It probably wasn't too late.

"So, 's there any chance you wanna share some of the stuff you bought?" he asked.

Her eyes followed his gaze and she seemed to take a moment to process what he'd meant, eyes latching to one thing after the other. »I, uh—sure, take what you want, but most of it is not exactly ready-made—«

A light appeared at the corner of his eye, drawing both of their attention. Someone seemed to approach from the road, torchlight bouncing in the night. What kind of shitty timing was that? Sonic swallowed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He gave her one last look and a nod, then disappeared into the trees.

#

One guy.

One frickin' guy.

Sonic paced along a high-up branch, fists clenching.

He hadn't wanted to run into another group of them, alright, but one guy he could've dealt with. Or, at least, he could've stayed long enough to help her out of the car, and then long enough for her to give him something, anything from her stash in return. Just up to the point when the guy decided to grab him or attack him or whatever half of them thought was the best reaction when seeing a foreign species. He rolled his eyes.

Instead, the man—he was either elderly or belonged to a more wrinkly kind—had helped her out of the car, handed her his umbrella, and now collected her shoppings for her, chatting about whatever while her replies rarely went beyond a nod.

She glanced into the woods, searching.

Sonic ground his teeth. He really was the worst at goodbyes.

Only a couple of hours ago he'd been convinced that the best way he could go about getting back home was to look for other Star Posts, and then either hope that he'd find the mysterious moustachioed egg-shaped human from his vision, or that somehow something new would happen the moment he got close. Now though, he'd had two largely decent encounters with the local aliens in a single day, and the idea of finding someone to communicate with and giving his situation a bit more direction didn't seem so far-fetched anymore. Maybe moustache-guy was even actually popular or something.

The two below took some of her other things from the car's trunk—books, apparently. Then the man leaned into the car's front, fumbling for something. When he came back out, the lights had gone out and Sonic could only hear the door fall shut again. The torchlight came back on and the man handed her whatever he'd gotten from the car while she absently stared into the woods again. He ushered her to follow, and after a moment she nodded and began trudging up the slope after him.

Sonic wrung his fists.

...It'd be so easy now to follow those two.

Getting back in touch with someone who'd already encountered him did seem like a better plan than starting to pick out people at random. But then he wasn't sure how freaky he'd find it if one of them just suddenly showed up on his doorstep in the middle of the night.

Sonic sighed.

Well, at least now he had a dry spot to sit out the rain in.