Roughing it in the woods could now be crossed off of Barry's bucket list. Never again. There was a cramp in his right shoulder the size of a small animal, and his neck was stiff as hell. He couldn't even get up to stretch as Casey was still sleeping peacefully against him. Her breath was coming out in small puffs visible in the early morning air, and despite the pain Barry couldn't help but smile. She clearly was used to this whole "outdoor" thing.

Unable to move, he spent the next hour or two falling in and out of consciousness, trying to plan out the day when he wasn't dozing. He wasn't sure exactly where they were, but they had to be near the outskirts of the city, there was certainly enough traffic nearby to indicate so. The Poconos was nearly a two hour drive from Philadelphia, and going by foot would surely take longer than a day; he had no inclination of putting Casey through that.

He mulled over the idea of backtracking into the city and seeing if he could sneak into their old apartment. All his credit cards would have been deactivated by now, but Dennis always had cash hidden away in case of emergencies. Although it was a possibility that authorities had seized it all; Barry wasn't quite sure what happened when cops tore through a suspect's house. Becoming a serial killer had never been on his list of things to do, so he had never looked into the matter.

The absurdity of his thoughts made him bark out a bitter laugh, but then the reality of their situation crashed down on him again. He had tried so, so hard to give them a normal life, where had he gone wrong? He thought back to all of those werewolf movies some of the other alters loved watching. Is this what those characters felt like? Waking up one day to realize that something inside them had done something so awful, so horrible, it was impossible to live with?

Tears were beginning to well up in his eyes, and it took everything inside of him to calm himself down. He didn't want to be getting all weepy on Casey; she needed him to be strong. He couldn't fail her again.

Suddenly he felt a presence standing near the light, and instinctively knew it was Dennis. None of the others held the aura of power that radiated off of him.

"We need to talk."

"Well good morning to you too, Dennis."

"Is Casey alright?"

Good lord, this man could be infuriating. "No, sorry, she's gone. I forgot to keep an eye on her, and one of the Appalachian Mountain People grabbed her. It was pretty upsetting, actually. Sorry I forgot to tell ya."

Barry could feel Dennis fuming beneath the surface, and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to break out into a grin.

"You're not as funny as you think you are."

"And you're not as intimidating as you think you are." He shifted to pull away an errant piece of tree bark that had been digging into his side, tossing it with distaste over his shoulder. "So what did ya wanna talk about?"

It took a moment for Dennis to respond, and Barry was beginning to think the other man had left.

"I wanted to explain to you what I'd like to do, once we figure out where to go from here."

The nerve of this guy. Barry rolled his eyes."Oh man, this should be good. Thanks to your previous plans, we're now a wanted murderer on the run with no money, no job, and no home. Really, I'm just dying to know where Mr. Dennis's Wild Ride takes us next."

He regretted the words as soon as they left him; it wasn't fair to needle at Dennis when he was already filled with remorse, especially after he had shared such an intimate and wounded part of himself. He had taken responsibility for his actions, guilting him further held no benefit for either of them.

Strangely, Dennis acted like he hadn't even heard. He was back to being their unflinching rock. "Mr. Glass was insane-"

"You can say that again. He was like, Patricia-level nuts."

"Right. But a lot of what he said made sense. About people like us being the basis for all the old legends of heroes and monsters. We're like the real world Batman or somethun'."

"Yeah, but Batman has money."

"Barry-"

"And a bitchin' car."

"I don't see what -"

"And friends."

"Why? Why do I even bother trying to talk to you? I'd get more accomplished discussing things with Hedwig, or…or his mouse."

"Oh man, whatever happened to Mr. FluffyMan when the cops ransacked our place? I hope he's alright."

"He lived underneath a zoo, in a massive city! I'm. sure. he's. fine." Dennis was gritting his teeth now.

Casey was beginning to stir next to them, sobering Barry pretty quickly. It was fun to rag on Dennis and all, but deep down he hoped he had a plan for getting them back to somewhat normalcy. "Ok, I'm sorry, I'm done playing. So say we're like Batman, so what?"

"So we do like Batman does. We have power, and I have a mess as long as the damn state of Pennsylvania to clean up."

A chill began to creep down Barry's spine. This wasn't what it sounded like, was it? "You can't be serious."

"I'm always serious."

"What? No! That is the exact opposite of doing normal people things, I have had enough comic book bullshit to last me a lifetime!"

"All those girls lives, sacrificed for nothing. I want so badly to bring them back."

Barry nervously started picking at a patch of skin on his chest, an old habit left over from childhood. "I don't recall necromancy being part of our skill set, so I don't know what to tell ya." Again he felt bad about the levity, but frankly the whole thing was so absurd he didn't know how to react.

"Obviously. But maybe I can stop other families from feeling the same pain that the Horde…that I inflicted onto them."

"And how would you do that? Go out looking for trouble? Put yourself at the business end of a gun night after night? Risk exposing us?"

"I have to do this."

Barry began breathing slowly through his nose, attempting to stay calm. "You don't HAVE to do this; you are choosing to do this in an effort to make yourself feel better. Not to mention that you're putting the rest of us at risk, those of us that wanted nothing to do with your weird little murder cult!"

His shouting finally woke Casey up, and she looked up at him through bleary eyes, confused, before she remembered where she was. "What's with all the yelling? Are we ok?" A distressing thought occurred to her, and she simultaneously pressed herself deeper into Barry while looking around wildly. "Did the cops find us?"

"Nah, we're good babygirl, I'm sorry I woke you," Barry smiled down at her, pulling her tighter into himself. "Did ya sleep alright?"

She sighed into the embrace. "Better than most nights. No horrible uncles or cramped foster homes to deal with."

"Nah, just my dumb ass," Barry teased, reaching over to tickle her before dark thoughts of her uncle could pollute her mind any further.

"Oh my god, Barry, please stop! It's too early for this!" Casey begged, trying desperately to worm her way out of his embrace.

He didn't let her go immediately, her laughter warming him, and he could feel Dennis looking out at them with some amusement. "We'll finish talking later," the eldest alter promised, receding back into the deepest parts of Kevin so that Barry could concentrate on their more immediate needs-food and shelter.

"Oh good, now he's doing the whole 'mysterious vanishing' thing. That will be perfect for our vigilante act," Barry mumbled crossly to himself, releasing his grip on Casey's sides.

"Huh?" she blinked at him with sleep still in her eyes, and he shook his head while getting to his feet.

"Don't worry about it, just something Dennis and I were talking about before you woke up."

"Oh."

Barry didn't feel like discussing Dennis or his dumb ideas any further. He decided to change the subject. "You must be starving."

Casey regarded him carefully. "You're not?"

"Oh god yes, I could clean out a Wawa right about now." At the thought of food, his stomach rumbled in agreement.

"Well, if we're close to a highway, there has got to be some rest stops around. I don't think I can afford a whole store, but I can definitely get us some food," Casey smirked.

"I might be able to figure out where we are. Hold on a sec." Barry stilled for a moment, closing his eyes, only to open them a few minutes later. Only now they were black and cold, like a Great White's. The Beast had emerged.

Casey jumped back in surprise and ended up stumbling over a tree root, falling backwards. Those cold eyes looked at her with concern, and Barry walked over to help her up. "I'm sorry, I should have warned ya. I don't know if you noticed yesterday, but we've gained control over the Beast."

She had been wondering why Dennis looked so similar to the Beast, but forgot all about it up until that point. Reaching up to gently touch his face, she gazed into his eyes, in wonder. "That's amazing. How did you do manage to do that?"

Barry grinned, which looked surreal in contrast to the black void that was his eyes. "I'm not entirely sure. Before we escaped, Dennis and I had to come up with an idea to defeat the Beast, and we theorized that making him dependent on us may bring him to heel. Dennis blinded him somehow, and ta-daa! Here we are." Barry stretched out his arms like he was introducing a new exhibit at the zoo. "We get to use his powers, and he gets to share the light with us."

A sad groan punctuated Barry's words, and Casey realized the Beast was also present with them. Just…tamer, more submissive.

"Hello Beast." She kept her hand on his cheek. "Thank you for carrying us to safety yesterday."

The Beast leaned into the touch of her hand, and turned to lick her palm. "Hello, my beloved broken one."

"Oh gross, none of that!" Barry reared back, sticking his tongue out in disgust. "Sorry, we're still trying to figure all of this out."

Casey had to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, you'll probably want to get all the kinks worked out before we go food shopping."

"Nuh uh, Beastie is only here temporarily. We're going to figure out where the hell we are and sniff out some grub. Now, if you'll excuse me." With that, Barry launched himself up the nearest oak tree, clawing up the bark like he was a giant house cat.

"Can you see anything?" Casey called up the trunk, leaves obscuring him from her vision.

"Yeah. Looks like we're right next to I-476. Norristown should only be a few miles walk from here." Without warning he came crashing down, startling the hell out of Casey.

"You guys really have to stop doing that," Casey panted, putting a hand up to her chest in an effort to calm her racing heart.

"Sorry doll, the Beast likes to show off I think."

The Beast sniffed. "I move as I was created to move. It is not my fault that without me your frail body would explode from a mere 40 foot drop."

"Yeah yeah, very nice," Barry waved his hands dismissively. "What do ya think Beast, can we make it over to Norristown before wasting away from hunger?"

"Hrmph. You may waste away. I can go days without food," the Beast rumbled, obviously unimpressed with Barry.

"Ok great! Let's go then," Barry announced, bending down so that Casey could climb onto him easily. He turned to look over his left shoulder, waggling his eyebrows. "Are ya glad I've refrained from making jokes about you mounting me?"

Casey sighed into his back. "I mean, I would have been. Now do I not only feel silly, I'm self-conscious too."

A laugh tumbled out of Barry, and before she knew it they were flying across the forest floor. She had gone horseback riding on and off since her childhood, and the sensation was similar, the feeling of going so fast, for so long, that it almost felt like flying. But much sooner than she had expected, they came to an abrupt halt.

Barry let Casey climb off of him before he scurried up the nearest tree, and hummed with pleasure. "Yep, there's a Sheetz and a Target right off the next exit here." He climbed back down, much slower this time so as not to startle Casey, and then wiped his hands on his pants once he reached the bottom. "I'm going to take ya to the off ramp and that is far as I can go babygirl. Are you ok to run inside without me?"

Casey looked down at her clothing. "I mean, I look a mess, but I'll manage."

Barry wrinkled his nose. "We could probably both do with a hot shower, but at least you don't look like a half-naked feral man. I'm afraid I would draw more attention than we can afford."

"Don't lie Barry, you'd like it. I can tell already, you live for attention." She had to dodge an acorn he chucked at her, and ran behind a tree trunk, giggling. "Ok fine, I surrender! You're a very shy person and you hate being in the spotlight. I'll go in by myself."

Barry affectionately rolled his eyes and relented, instead escorting her as close as he dared to the nearby shopping center.

The plan was for Casey to pick up enough food to last a few days, and a change of clothing for each of them. He knew it would take her a while, but his nerves were getting the best of him. Despite concealing himself in the leaves of a nearby tree, he felt like he was ready to jump out of his skin at every police car or ambulance he saw fly by.

Finally he saw her emerge from Target with a backpack full of food and a few plastic bags. He bounced a foot impatiently against the branch he was reclining on, trying to calm his nerves.

"Coward," the Beast growled at him, displeased with his discomfort. "Let the police come, we will tear them to shreds!"

"No more tearing people to shreds," Barry mumbled, hoping against hope that Dennis's control over the violent alter would last. "You've put us in quite a predicament Beast, I hope ya realize that."

"WHY DO YOU DEFEND THE IMPURE?!" the Beast howled, and Barry nearly fell out of the tree in surprise. He was being so loud he could see Casey looking toward them in concern, and a few other passersby glancing around to see where the noise had come from.

"For god's sake, keep it down!" Barry scolded; frantically looking about to make sure they weren't spotted. "I swear to god I will kick your ass out of the light so fast, I don't even care that we're stuck in a tree. I'll jump without you."

"I'd like to see you try it, weakling." The Beast was calling his bluff.

Barry huffed. "Ok, I'd make Dennis do it. But still."

"Hmmph."

"Could you two be any louder?" Casey called out from the bottom of the trunk, trying to remain inconspicuous. She didn't need anyone coming over to see why she was talking to a tree.

Barry peered down at her, mischievous grin on his face. "Hey doll, have fun shopping? Wanna drag that all on up here?"

"What I want is to call a Lyft and find a motel where I can get a hot shower. I feel disgusting."

"But you look fantastic."

Casey put her hands on her hips in mock annoyance, but blushed regardless. "If you're done messing around, I'd like you to get changed so we can find a room and then rejoin civilization."

This gave Barry pause. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea babygirl. I'm sure the police are still on high alert for us. We might be able to swing a car ride to the Poconos, but a motel?"

Casey held up an Eagles cap and some cheap sunglasses. "Just put these on. So long as we can go a few hours without you cannibalizing anyone, I think you could pass as normal. Besides, if your appearance doesn't alarm anyone, your smell will."

"Har har," Barry deadpanned, climbing down the tree and swiping the bags from her hand.

He tried not to make faces as he examined the clothing, a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. Target definitely was not up to his usual standards, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice. At the very least, it would be comfortable.

Casey pulled a phone from out of her back pocket and Barry raised an eyebrow at her. "You've had a phone this entire time?"

Shrugging, she powered it up. "Well yeah, I figured it would come in handy. I mean, it doesn't have a lot of charge left, but it will be enough to find us a room and call a Lyft."

"Clever girl," the Beast grinned at her, causing Casey to involuntarily shiver, which didn't go unnoticed by Barry.

"Alright Beast, thanks for the help. I'll be handling things from here," Barry ordered. Casey half expected a struggle between the two to break out, but to her surprise, the Beast just inclined his head in submission and blinked out of the light.

"I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that," Casey admitted, nervously scratching her arm.

"Nah honey, you're good. I won't let that brute ever threaten ya again, you can count on it." Barry put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, and she let him hold her against his chest as she called for a Lyft.

"Best put your shirt on; they're meeting us out in front of Target," Casey announced, now currently browsing her phone for the nearest cheap motel.

Barry hesitated. "How are ya paying for all of this? Not gonna lie, I'm feeling super ungentlemanly here. If we could somehow get access to my bank account without alerting the cops, this would all be way easier."

Casey just smiled shyly. "Don't worry about it, Barry. What are friends for?"

Friends. Barry had not heard that word in a long time, not in relation to himself at least. Overwhelmed with emotion, he just offered Casey his arm as they walked off to catch their ride.