[Phase 1]
"You look like a living autopsy, Muds! Fucking shit!"
Russel's voice booms over the distant radio playing in the hospital room. "Do you know how worried Noodle is?! She cried, damn it! Fucking cried because you were being a dumbass and got yourself hurt."
"It's nothing, just a scratch. Why the fuck would you tell her I'm in hospital? You're the real dumb-arse, let me tell you!" Murdoc throws his hands up in exasperation. The IV in his arm moves slightly, causing the man to flinch involuntarily.
"Ain't nobody allowed to make my baby cry. I don't care what your excuse is. What were you thinking?!" Russel demands.
"Well, well. Story time, yeah? It all started when.."
_
"An ATV? What's that?"
Murdoc's soulfire eye flickers. He's awfully unimpressed with this salesman and his antics.
"Um. Well, sir, it stands for all-terrain-vehicle. It can drive on anything but water." The salesman has true-red hair and a pathetic excuse for a mustache; a little like 2D when he forgets to shave. "A real bargain, this one, at only ten thousand quid!" He tries, obviously attempting to hide fear at the sight of Murdoc's eye.
Murdoc, however, seems intrigued. "Tell me more; can I take it out for a little test run? Y'know, just a little go on it. After all, I can't very well decide if I want to buy it without any experience on one, yes." The man grunts after this, secretly plotting.
"Um! Yes, um. I can allow it, but just this once, and only because I trust you!"
"Dipshit." Murdoc mutters under his breath.
"Sorry?" The redhead looks at Murdoc.
"Oh, nothing, just thinking about how nice you are." The Satanist lies, swallowing back a fit of laughter. This is brilliant!
"Oh, um, thank you?" The salesman looks back at the product; a navy blue ATV next to him.
"I can give it a go, then?" Murdoc asks.
"Just for a moment, mister James." The young man smiles falsely. "You will have to sign my waiver, though. No problem, right?"
"Oh, sure, sure. Michael James, that's definitely my name." Murdoc reminds the salesperson, who appears a tad weirded out by the man. Once he's handed the waiver, Murdoc signs it 'Your God' in really large lettering, very careful to make it nearly illegible. "Here you are." He hands the clipboard to the bloke , unable to keep himself from grinning.
"Okay-okay, here's the key. Go ahead and drive to that tree and back, just for starters, okay?"
"Yes, right, yes." The green man takes the key, eye flickering. This will be fun. He strolls over to the ATV, looping the keyring around his pointer finger. Once he's next to it, he swings his leg over with a laugh. Putting the key into the ignition, he twists it, and the engine turns over immediately. Laughing, Murdoc then twists the handle all the way, causing the thing to go towards the woods at full speed. Bloody fast, that thing.
He doesn't look back as he rushes through the trees. Murdoc's dumbfounded with how damned stupid the salesman is. Then again he supposes that if the man had known who Murdoc Niccals is, he wouldn't have even tried to approach him. So now he's gotten an ATV that he doesn't need, and doesn't much know what to do with it. The petrol is at three-quarters full, another flaw in the salesperson's attempt to just let Murdoc try it out. Come on; it was like the guy was begging to be conned out of his product. Anyway, who tries to go door to door selling a bloody ATV?!
He doesn't think at all during the next thirty minutes; his first mistake. His second mistake? He's not watching his surroundings at all, only the ground ahead. So it's only natural that two hours into it, he falls off. Well, crashes into a tree. The smashed vehicle then falls into the river next to where the tree is, and Murdoc's out cold as he falls into the bank. His entire front feels raw, and the cold river water doesn't help it. Blood streams from him at an alarming rate, and it really doesn't look good for Murdoc.
The moment Noodle saw the breaking news story about a green man who stole an ATV, she screamed for Russel. Of course, she couldn't explain why Murdoc is on the news, just that she heard a description of Murdoc in the television.
It'd taken awhile for Russ to come down the stairs, just because the elevator's broken again. Apparently Murdoc had stolen the thing earlier that morning, maybe 10:00. So now it's 15:38 and they're only now reporting on it, meaning Murdoc's been gone for more than five hours without any sightings. That also means that Noodle's already fearing the worst.
"Russel! A Mu-doc in there!" Noodle yells, her finger pointed at the telly.
"What, baby?" Russel asks once he's downstairs. An alarmed expression's on his face, and it appears as if he'd run down the stairs.
"See!" There's an artist rendering of what the salesman had described of Murdoc's appearance on the screen. "A Mu-doc be gone! No Mu-doc, is no good!" Noodle exclaims, looking upset.
"Shit." Russel rubs his forehead. He doesn't have time for Murdoc's actions. "Uh, okay, hold on." He listens in on the television. Noodle shuffles over to the man's side, her eyes wide.
After hearing the news story, Russel grunts. "Welp, we'll have to go looking. Since Dee's visiting his folks, it'll have to be the two of us. Damn." He sighs, not willing to show how angry and annoyed he is by this situation. He can feel Del seething, too, which adds to the overall anxiety of it.
"Find a Mu-doc, hai. A good. A Toochee, also? Um.. Come to home?" Noodle looks pleadingly at her father figure, sticking out her lower lip.
"No, no Toochee. Not for another week, baby-girl." He shakes his head. "But we'll go find Muds before the cops do. God damn, what was he thinking?!"
The child shrugs, crossing her arms so she's mirroring Russel's standing position. "Um, uh. A stupid, yeah?" She suggests.
"Beyond stupid. He's so dumb that it's bordering suicidally idiotic, man. But, no more of this, let's go get shoes on."
_
It's been hours, now, and Murdoc's been drifting in and out of consciousness for that long. It's not good, seeing as it's roughly five minute intervals of wakefulness, and then at least twenty minutes of being unconscious. He's annoyed by this; at least he would be if he had the mindset. Luckily, during one of the periods of being awake, he'd pulled himself out of the river and his wounds are finally sealing themselves.
Murdoc knows he's lost a lot of blood. How long it's been is beside him, but that's aside the point. Right now, during his small periods of consciousness, he's trying to figure out what to do in this situation. It's not as if he can crawl, and even worse walk back. He'd been driving for hours. Then again, he literally won't get anywhere if he doesn't at least try.
So now Murdoc tries to drag himself across the ground. He gets about ten feet before he passes out again. This is going to be a long day.
Noodle and Russel have been searching through the forest for a few hours, now, to no avail. This has both intensely stressed out, Noodle nearly to the point of tears. She'd gotten tired of walking around ten minutes ago, complaining of painful feet, so Russel had picked her up and is repeating things relating to her being alright, and this does help her mood a little.
"Okay, so since we missed the cops and their investigation, that means we've still got the upper hand, so. Any minute now we'll find him, I bet. Any minute." Russel seems as if he's trying to convince himself. Really, and Noodle knows this, he's scared that they won't find him and then Murdoc will die. This is mainly driven by his past experiences with premature deaths. But, unfortunately, this fear is rubbing off on Noodle, though she's trying to hide it.
"Uhh, um. Um, Russel a okay, no scare, hai?" Noodle looks at her father figure pleadingly. She has his coat gripped tightly in her fist, waves of anxiety seeming to radiate from her.
"Don't worry, baby-girl. As long as you're safe, I ain't scared of nothing." He lies. Really, he'd never wish for Murdoc to die alone. The man's a piece of shit, but he's still part of their family.
The girl eyes Russ disbelievingly, but decides not to press the matter. After all, the more important issue is finding her Murdoc, preferably not dead. "Find a tyre?" Noodle points to a large tyre lying on the ground beside an oak tree. "See?"
"Huh, that's a bit weird. What would a tyre be doing out here?" Russel asks suspiciously. This might be what they're looking for. The thing isn't covered in leaf litter and such, so it's obviously not been there for long.
"Um. Big big." She kisses Russel's cheek before sliding down from his arms. "Noodle, uh, like a tyre."
Russ nods. "Okay, I'll look around here." He offers.
"Hai!" Noodle grins widely. She goes to sit on the tyre, humming. It's sitting by a lovely riverbank; one Russ had been following for awhile. Noodle wonders if there are fish in said river, because Stuart had told her awhile ago that fish love to swim in ripply water, and she's pretty sure that he meant moving water like this. Standing up, she steps a few yards over to the river. There's a lot of vines and such blocking the view of it, so she's careful not to get caught in any thorns.
Upon arrival to the edge, the girl notices that the bank's edge is corroded and slippery and decides to proceed with caution. After all, it'd be even worse if she fell in the water. Noodle's not even sure how well she can swim, since she'd never attempted to do so in living memory.
Her gaze wanders up the river as she bites her lower lip in concentration. It appears to go on forever, she notices, as her eyes zero in on a new detail. There's a huge chunk of metal lying over across the riverbank with three tyres matching the one she found earlier scattered about. Noodle squints her eyes a bit more against the sunlight. Is that...
"Russel! Russel!" Noodle shrieks, turning her head back towards the direction she came from.
The sound of running is heard, and soon Russ has squeezed through the vines and has made his way to the girl. "Noodle, baby, what's wrong? Are ya hurt?!"
"Up! A up for Noodle!" She begs, her eyes seemingly glued to the other side of the river.
Russel obliges quickly, though confused. "What's the problem, baby-girl?"
"Uh... Um. Is a Mu-doc? May-bee? Many a blood, yeah?" She points at a bloodied figure lying on the ground beside the hunk of metal. Noodle looks afraid, the figure isn't moving at all.
"...Shit, you might be right." Russel signs. " Hello!? Are ya okay over there?" The man calls. He then shakes his head at his own stupidity; of course whoever it is isn't okay, especially with all that blood.
There's no answer. "Hallo?! Is a Mu-doc?!" Noodle tries.
Waiting a beat, the silence fills the air before Russel says, "We're gonna have to get over there somehow."
"Uh, um. Noodle, Noodle... No swims." She looks nervous. "How a do?"
Russ glances at her a moment. "Hmm, I'll probably carry ya. There ain't no bridge anywhere near here; and I sure as hell ain't leaving you on this side by yourself."
"Good, good. We go?" Noodle suggests, resting her hand on Russel's shoulder as she turns to look back over at the figure.
"Mhm, hold on a sec." Russ lifts her back over onto his shoulders carefully. "Whatever ya do, don't let go of me, okay?" He says gently.
"Um. Hai-hai, Noodle's Russel, hold to." She confirms as Russel cautiously slides into the water after he'd taken his coat off and wrapped it around Noodle. The water's frigid, and he's not taking any chances of his kid getting hypothermia.
The swim is only around a minute long, but it feels much longer. At the end, Russel's gone numb, but he ignores it for now. Russ lifts himself from the water. He'd managed to keep missy of his shoulders from getting wet, but Noodle's legs still got drenched. So the moment he's completely out, he pulls Noodle down and pulls the coat as tightly as it'll go. "You okay? Not too cold?"
The tiny girl nods. "Um. Is okay, thank. Uh, small cold. Little." She grins widely at him.
"Good, let me know if you're too cold, aight?" Russel asks.
"Uh, hai." Sliding her hand into Russel's, she begins tugging towards the figure. "Must see!"
Russ allows Noodle to pull him, hoping that the movement will help him warm back up. "Careful, baby-girl, don't trip." He warns.
Noodle whimpers as soon as they're close to the figure. "Is... Is a Mu-doc? No, no, bad." She runs to the body, fighting back the urge to scream and cry at him. "Mu-doc, Mu-doc, uh, um, wake up. Wake up, Mu-doc." Her voice shakes with emotion.
Russel stares at the body. It's Murdoc, alright, but his entire front side is bloodied and rough, and his shirt is torn. The most distinguishing factor of it being Murdoc is his face, which is mostly intact. He's got a scrape on his left cheek and a gash across his chin. The man's skin is more clammy than usual, too.
"Mu-doc, please, Mu-doc." Noodle cries. "Word! Say it!"
There's a moment's silence before Murdoc's head moves slightly and an eye opens. "Uhn, Noods.. No yelling, it's early." He jokes despite himself. His voice is awfully weak.
Sniffling, Noodle takes his hand into hers. "Um-um, no good, Mu-doc a ouch, big. Many a bleeds." She explains.
"Oi, Lards, mind getting a bandage?" Murdoc calls, careful to keep his grip on Noodle's hand light. In all honesty, it does hurt quite a lot. Everything hurts. Damn this.
"Just you wait; we're going straight to the hospital with you. No excuses."
"I'm. Um, just. Just fine." Murdoc's voice wavers, and he's sure he's about to die. Then again, he's been sure of this for a good portion of today.
"Mu-doc, no- no die, is no good, please." Noodle begins to cry.
"All.. All water under the bridge, dove. I'm.. Uh.." The Satanist's voice trails off as his eyes close.
_
"I carried you to the hospital after all that. Couldn't leave her behind, not in her state. Poor girl was worried sick; convinced you'd gone and died." Russel finishes.
"Sweet Satan, I remember none of that. Well, her face, I do remember that part, come to think of it." Murdoc rubs his chin carefully. "Where's she gone off to?"
Russ sighs. "She's asleep in the empty hospital bed on the other side of your room. See?"
Both men's gazes shift to the opposite side of the place. Noodle's sleeping on the bed, a frown on her face. Her eyelids are reddened, meaning that she'd cried herself to sleep after being absolutely convinced that Murdoc is dead. He hadn't moved for hours since they'd been allowed in, and that's proof enough to the young child that Murdoc's not going to wake up.
"Oh, dear. She's the one who found me, then?" Murdoc asks.
"Yup. I wouldn't have seen you from where I was. It's all because of her that you're not floating 'round in Hell where you should be." Russel replies, sympathy spreading across his face at the sight of her. "She didn't stop crying at all since they took you in for surgery.. It's hard to console her when she's like that. Kinda hurts my soul when I can't fix it, ya catch? Del agrees with me on that one."
Murdoc grunts in reply. No, that is not guilt filling his mind, it's not. "Right, well. Wake her up, will you? I've, um, got some apologising to do."
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Hello, all! It's been a pretty great summer so far; I've made some new friends and reunited with some older ones. My summer league swim team season is almost over; it's bittersweet because I don't want to do the work because I'm lazy, but I still love the other people here. I've become the mum friend for the entire team, somehow. Kids are literally calling me 'mum' and I find it hilarious.
So, this chapter is probably going to be posted for me by my best mate, Lil; as I'm currently in Jamaica helping at homeless shelters and such! Hopefully I don't die; it's in the ghettos of Kingston.
This chapter? I'm not crazy about it, but it's a chapter. Hopefully it isn't as bad as I perceive it to be. Let me know! ;)
Until next time,
Liz
