The terrain was bare and neither Jack nor Nina were comfortable with being out in the open dusty land. The only advantage was that they would see anybody approaching, but given their situation and lack of fire power neither one wanted to encounter any problems, although their worries remained unspoken.
Nina was panting heavily as she hurried forwards, Jack lagging behind slightly with his hands cuffed together before him. He was sweating heavily and Nina knew something was wrong with him. When they first set off he had rushed on ahead, in better physical shape than her, although she hadn't been worried of an escape attempt due to the desert surroundings and the gun she had tucked down the waistband of her trousers. Now, a hour later and he had slowed down to the extent that she too had significantly slowed her own pace.
She paused for a moment and sat down on the flat land as she waited for Jack to catch up. When he got there he asked, "how far away did you say the town was?"
Nina growled, "Ten miles. It's gonna take a while longer at this rate."
Ignoring her dig at him Jack said, "If my hands were free-"
"Don't even try it," Nina interrupted and Jack was silent, knowing it was a feeble attempt, Nina would never free him, even though she carried their only weapon.
"Let me ask you something," Nina said, trying to rile him up, maybe it would give him more energy and she couldn't deny that she wanted to provoke a reaction for her own fun too, "are you hoping Ramon catches up with us?"
Jack shook his head and laughed slightly, "it doesn't matter, we're sitting ducks no matter where we go."
"We will hide out until CTU get to us in the town," Nina snapped, not liking his disbelief in her plan.
"We'll probably be the only Americans there," he said bluntly, "and we're both filthy and bloodied, we'll be spotted."
"Come on," Nina said, prodding him with the gun, "you've had you're pit stop, lets get going, try use your negativity to speed you up," she muttered as she set off again, Jack following behind, trying to push the stomach cramps to the back of his mind.
Two hours later they pushed onto the outskirts of civilisation and relief was gushing from the pair of them. Nina, believing the first stage of her survival plan being complete; and Jack, who had stopped twice earlier to vomit and then dry heave, in the hopes of resting and maybe finding something to "cure" him.
They kept their heads low as they moved past people and Jack, ignoring Nina's lead took shelter behind the first building they came too. Nina glared at him as he held out his hands before him expectantly. She started to shake her head when he cut in, "the cuffs will draw attention to us," he snapped, and Nina watched him a moment before making a move. Sweat still dribbled from his hair, his colour was pail from his earlier sickness and as she studied his hands she noticed the tremble in them, alongside the dried blood which coated the bandage. On top of this she knew he couldn't touch her as he still needed her for her information, so she decided to take a chance on him.
"You try anything Jack and I swear to God-"
"Just do it," he cut in, shaking his head with annoyance. Once the cuffs were off Jack took a moment to carefully rub both wrists before they headed through the quiet town and after an hour of aimless wondering they realised that even if they found a motel they had no money to pay for a room, and it would likely be the only one in the area, and so it wasn't an option. An old farm house stood on the outskirts of the area and behind it what looked to be a run down barn, derelict. The two climbed in through an empty window pane deciding it was safer to try the barn then the farm itself. The place was empty except for mouldy hay and the rotting wooden structure. Nina began to pace as Jack slid down the wall, seemingly out of it, she was now more than suspicious of his sudden "illness."
She moved over to him and after checking again through the open window that the area around them was clean she leant down and carefully stared into his face. He was asleep, or unconscious, so she grabbed his wrist to re-cuff him. As she did so Jacks bandaged fist shot out, hitting Nina on the nose and sending her sprawling to the floor. As she struggled to move through the shock Jack sprang towards her and got her into a head lock and squeezed until she passed out, careful to make sure he didn't kill her.
He cuffed her hands together and then dragged her away from the window, behind a beam and seemingly out of view. Once his task was complete he cradled his throbbing fist for a moment before climbing back out of the window and jogging back towards the most populated area of the village. He needed to find a phone, he told himself, knowing that the drug wasn't an option until he had the virus back in his possession. As he thought about how he was going to get a phone, and who he was going to call he allowed Nina to slip back into his mind. Is she woke she could easily escape, she wasn't restrained to anything in the barn. He smirked to himself as he readjusted the guns position beneath his jacket knowing she wouldn't run, she needed him as much as he needed her.