Morning came rather too early. The outlaw could have sworn he had just fallen asleep when a loud raucous bang of two tin cans being hit together sounded.

"Rise and shine!" Wolfwood beckoned, clashing the two cans to make some sort of an alarm clock.

Vash groaned and rolled over with his eyes still shut.

"Fine, I tried nicely," Wolfwood snapped, and then he proceeded to plant a hard kick into Vash's side. "Get up Needle Noggin!" He retreated his foot for another kick, but Vash quickly scrambled up, rubbing his eyes. "Now, I already put away my sleeping bag and had breakfast, I think you ought to do the same in five minutes flat. I took the liberty of bringing you a can and can opener.

"You're so kind," Vash yawned.

So with speed, the gunman worked his way to complete these tasks in a fast and sufficient manner. When they were completed, Wolfwood was already beginning to wander away. Vash rushed to his side.

The morning was still very young, the sunrise was just beginning. To the east the darkness was slowly turning into a violet shade, and stars were disappearing. Vash knew that the Priest had taken the initiative to depart as soon as the footprints in the sand were visible. Once again, hundreds of them littered the area, and this time the gunman and Priest were following them, adding their own to the collection.

A half an hour later, Vash asked, "what if we get clear off course? We don't have time to get lost, Wolfwood. We don't even have any water."

"Exactly, Spikey. If there are people here, they must have water, and more food, maybe even some decent shelter. How else would they survive out here? I'm not just following these tracks for revenge- I want some flavor-less water."

Vash couldn't argue Wolfwood's point. Nice clear water sounded very appealing, but he only hoped the bandits would be willing to give them some without a fight.

Hours passed with few words and the suns began to burn bright and hot at midday. Sweat trickled down the back of Vash's burning neck and despite the soup, his mouth was dry while his tongue seemed to enlarge. He knew they were just entering the hottest time of the day, and felt little prepared. Wolfwood showed no signs of stopping, but Vash had to agree he found little point in taking a break. Shade was nowhere in sight and the more they walked, the sooner they would get to water. The heat wave hit its peak and just as it was ending, they spotted them. A large mass of indistinguishable figures were in a great distance, and both Vash and Wolfwood became aware that those who had ventured into their camp last night were few compared to the mass that was before them now. Vash didn't dare point this out as they continued their journey near them.

Along the trail they passed a large amount of litter. These bandits obviously didn't care about the health of the land, but Vash supposed it was hard to when everything was dirt. The first item they came across was an empty donut box, which Wolfwood took the time to step on in annoyance. Empty canteens, empty lunchboxes, empty soda cans, empty alcohol bottles, empty water jugs, and some sleeping supplies like a blanket and pillow were displayed along the trail of footprints.

Two hours passed and Vash noticed something odd about the people ahead of them.

"Those aren't bandits," he pointed out. "Wolfwood, we've been robbed by thomases!"

"Nonsense! Honestly, Spikey, you're losing your mind in this dry heat. They must be the bandits' thomases, which means that the bandits are probably just behind them a little ways. Now let's hurry." Wolfwood explained, and then kicked up the speed.

Vash looked as if the Priest had just asked him to shoot himself. He was dripping with sweat and dirt, his red coat was melted together, and a sunburn was beginning to settle on his face, how dare Wolfwood ask him to run? Taking a breath, Vash quickened his pace and followed after him.

When they reached the animals, they explored the area, finding a few random items that brought the idea that they weren't the only ones to have their camp raided.

The thomases were the largest Vash and Wolfwood had ever seen, not only in stature, but in weight. The majority were surprisingly fat with oddly shaped curves across their bodies. No trail left the herd to prove that someone- some human had been near by.

"Wolfwood, I really think the thomases came into our camp," Vash finally broke the silence.

"Nonsense!" The Priest waved the idea away with a flick of his hand. The thought was ridiculous, not because it seemed impossible of the animals rummaging through their bags, but the thought that they had come all this way to find no water. Wolfwood had been so positive, and yet here he was wandering around a herd of thomases, thirstier than ever. He thought ill of himself running to get to this destination, which made not only his mouth drier, but his throat scratchy.

"Hey Wolfwood! Hurry up and hop on!"

The Priest turned around to find Vash struggling to tame a wild thomas he had sat himself on. The creature's tongue flailed madly from its mouth and a loud cry escaped it. Wolfwood recognized the noise as the same from last night and disappointment seeped into him. Not only had he led Vash on a stupid quest, but the outlaw seemed to be going delirious.

"Hurry! We'll ride it back the rest of the way and be to fresh water in no time!" Vash insisted.

Another loud cry sounded as the animal tried to shake Vash off and it would have succeeded if the outlaw hadn't suddenly flung his arms around its neck. In return, the thomas let out a screeching noise.

Wolfwood smashed his hands over his ears, and the other thomases let out several cries back, moving restlessly. Then one particularly large thomas erupted and began charging. Vash was oblivious to what was going on, being as the thomas had just knocked him to the ground, but Wolfwood was well aware of what the situation had evolved into. Several more animals were breaking into a run.

Vash, looking a little disappointed, began to brush off the dirt casually.

"Spikey, run!"

Wolfwood broke into a mad dash.

Vash turned around and let out a squeal. The thomases were stampeding! For as fat as the were, they possessed great speed.

"Wolfwood, wait up!" Vash cried, running too now. He could feel the vibrations of their powerful feet on the ground, and his heart trying to escape out through his searing chest.

"Ha! This is great, now I have two stampedes to deal with!" Wolfwood snarled.

"Hey, that's not funny!" Vash frowned.

Just as the last word left his mouth, Wolfwood seemed to have tripped over his own feet and crash landed face first in a pile of-

"Crap! Wolfwood get up, they're gaining on us!" Vash yelled. As he caught up to the Priest he quickly pulled him up. He gave the Priest a disgusted look as the dark brown substance slide thickly down his face.

The Priest ran beside Vash, trying desperately to wipe the dung out of his eyes, nose and even lips, leaving his sleeves smeared with brown. His hands fumbled for his cross when he suddenly remembered the man he was traveling with. He cursed. Vash was the last person he needed a lecture from. Even if they were going to be dead in a few hours, the outlaw would still persist on running from the animals instead of shooting them dead. For a moment Wolfwood considered ignoring the outlaw outright and planting several bullets into the beasts, but then an idea that would hopefully satisfy both of them pierced into his mind.

"Spikey, hand me those food cans," Wolfwood ordered.

"You're going to eat right now? When you have that all over your face?" Vash asked, bewildered.

"No! Just give me the cans! Give me that meat stuff!"

Vash quickly unzipped a bag and searched for the opaque gunk, when he found the stash, he thrust a can into Wolfwood's outstretched hand.

Wolfwood drew back the can and turned to face the oncoming stampede. He threw the mystery meat into the air where its surface caught the sunlight flauntingly, and then gravity directed it at a curve to hit the nearest thomas perfectly in the face. It squealed and toppled sideways.

"Bull's-eye! Spikey, give me another one," Wolfwood said, running normally again.

Vash tossed him another.

Wolfwood caught it and hurled it back to the mass of animals behind them. The can hit another thomas in the mouth, but this time it burst open, exploding clumpy gunk over several others. Some of the canned meat landed in the eyes of several thomases, they were knocked off course, crashing into several others. A few fell to the ground.

"Next," Wolfwood called.

Vash gave him another.

The Priest aimed and hit yet another spectacular blow to the head, knocking the thomas out.

After all the meat had been thrown with precise aim, most all the animals had fell into confusion, and Vash was sure they had forgotten what had caused them to charge in the first place. Wolfwood chucked one can of corn, and the last leader of the group toppled over, leaving the others still standing, looking lost and confused.

The Priest and outlaw ran several more yards, until slowing to a stop and trying to catch a much needed breath. It took nearly ten minutes before either could talk.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Vash asked, wiping sweat out of his eyes.

"I grew up an orphan, Spikey, things can get pretty dull." He answered.

"Wow," Vash blinked.

After a few more minutes of silence, Wolfwood began walking in a designated direction. Vash followed his lead slowly. More hours passed and more precious fluid precipitated from their pores. On a positive note, the air had cooled down to a burning temperature instead of the scorching one. Vash's feet ached and after another hour passed he broke the silence.

"Wolfwood, do you know where we're going?" Vash asked curiously.

"To the town- Meryl's hometown- Marington." The Priest grumbled with irritation.

Vash glanced up at the sky; in a few minutes the suns would begin setting. "I thought the city was to the east…Wolfwood, we're traveling south."

"That's because it is in the south!"

"I'm pretty sure the map said it was east."

"Spikey, it's south!"

"Oh yeah… I remember," Vash said thoughtfully, "its southeast. Marington is more of the 'L' shape than a square, it's practically both south and east…"

Wolfwood was too tired to argue. He didn't want to waste any spit particles left in his sandpaper mouth. They were going to die out here. He was going to die out here because he had been traveling with Vash the Stampede. True, he would like to say it was his biggest mistake yet, but his life was full of mistakes and this was just one to add to the collection. Even he was a mistake from the very beginning, a result of the corruption of this planet.

Vash stopped abruptly. Wolfwood could see his head turning from the corner of his eye, but the Priest continued walking, afraid that if his feet stopped, they would never start again. Silently he swore he would never speak another word until water was flooding through his body. If Vash wanted to speak to him, he would just have to learn telepathy.

Then he heard the rumbling. Before the sound had even registered, a gigantic vehicle went speeding past him. It was square- boxy like a jeep with shining red paint, and dark tinted windows. His jaw dropped as he stared at the huge rotating tires.

"HHHEEEEEYYYYY!" He yelled hoarsely, and he found a sudden burst of energy in his legs. "Wait! Wait! WAIT!"

Vash was running and yelling too. He almost dropped their bags, but caught them with superb speed.

Wolfwood had been positive the car would speed into the distance because of Vash's uncanny ability to make life difficult, but to his ecstatic surprise, it came to a halt. Both Wolfwood and Vash scrambled to it in a frantic haste.

When they reached the driver's side, they saw their reflection in the tainted window. Wolfwood became aware that he still had some brown substance on the edges of his face, and Vash's face was slightly swollen from the chaotic wrestling he had endured from the Priest. Both of them were sunburned and had peeling dry lips. Truth be told, they were thrilled when their reflection disappeared from view and was replaced with a skeptical expression. The person behind the wheel was young- a teenager with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. He raised an eyebrow at them.

"Press the gas pedal," a voice from the passenger's side suggested in a joyous voice.

Wolfwood became aware the vehicle was full of teenager boys and by the smug expression they held, they looked like trouble.

"Yeah! Do it!" Another laughed from the back. "Pedal to the metal!"

"Now hold on boys," the driver said. "These poor men need our help; they've been wandering in this heat aimlessly. And look" –he pointed to Wolfwood- "we can't go play games like that to a preacher. Our souls would be sold to the devil if we went speeding off into the distance."

"You've got that right," Wolfwood spoke. "But…" He put on his false happy face Vash had seen several times before. "If you save us now, I'll be sure to grant you eternal life in paradise and I'll even let you have a go with my portable confessional!"

"Grant eternal life? Can you do that?" Vash asked curiously.

"Shut up, Spikey, we're desperate," Wolfwood mumbled from the corner of his mouth, and gave a friendly kick in the shin to the outlaw.

The teenager looked at them with his skeptical expression again.

Wolfwood leaned over the window, staring the boy in the eyes. "So what do you say? Heaven's a pretty nice place." He said through clenched teeth.

"What else have yuh got?"

Wolfwood's eyebrow twitched. "What else do you need?"

Several silent seconds passed.

"I'll let yuh in for $$150."

"$$150!" Wolfwood exploded.

"Each," the teenager added.

"EACH?"

"Yup."

Wolfwood's shaking hand fumbled for his pocket out of habit. Biting his lips to contain the foul words running through his head, he let his finger poke idly through the hole. He hadn't had a cigarette for well over 24 hours- his head ached, and his limbs were quivering. He didn't know how far the city was, he didn't know where cigarettes were sold, and he didn't know if he would ever find any water out here in the middle of nowhere. They were going to die out here and this little punk wanted to charge him $$150?

"You are going to let us in there," Wolfwood said fiercely. "You will. It might take some bribing, but you know what? I can play this game too! See this cross? If it fits another inch of mercy it's going to explode! I might just have to make some room for you." Wolfwood was moving to unbuckle the cross and was more than ready to relieve some bullets. Just as his finger reached the strap, Vash pushed passed him and slammed $$300 on the dashboard.

"For both of us." He explained.

The teenager looked surprised, but a rapacious grin spread over his face.

"You might want to put him in the trunk," Vash whispered. "He's a cigarette addict- hasn't had one in over a day."

"A smoker, huh? Hey, how about you hop back there with him?" The teenager asked. "I don't have room up here with all of my buddies."

Within ten minutes, they vehicle was moving again. Cramped with luggage and Wolfwood's cross, Vash's legs were forced to contort into awkward positions. The only way they could both fit in with all the luggage was if every inch of their body was either being poked or punctured with objects- which made it very harmful when they began hitting bumps fluently.

"We must be getting closer." Vash said. "We're out of the flat land. Hey, you guys, how close are we?" Vash called.

"About 30 minutes." A teenager called back in a hoarse voice.

Vash tried to let out a sigh, but gave up trying because whenever his lungs reached a certain point, the corner of the cross seemed to cut off his breathing.

"Spikey… you realize that means we would be riding for an hour and a half…"

"Yeah, my legs are going to turn blue from no circulation." Vash answered.

"No Spikey! I mean, we could have walked that distance! We have to go so slow over these hills, it would probably only be a few hours difference! You spent all that money for just an hour and a half." Wolfwood explained.

"Oh…" Vash sounded disappointed. "At least we don't have to walk… and I don't know if we could make it that long without water. And in just less than an hour we can see Millie and Meryl."

"Thank goodness. I need to give Millie a good hello."

"I hope you don't intend to kiss her," Vash said with disgust.

"Why? Maybe you could catch some tips…" Wolfwood smirked.

"…not after what's been in your mouth and on your face…"

Wolfwood's eye twitched. "Good point. And speaking of kissing, Spikey, you better get going on that promise, because I gave you not only a ride on my motorcycle, but her whole life!"

Vash had grown suddenly quiet.

"The reunion is tomorrow night, that gives you about 24 hours- but like I said before, it should be no big deal, just a package of jello. I mean… since you've already been grocery shopping with her." Wolfwood pressed.

"Yeah… just jello…" Vash squeaked. But his stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought. He had never told Meryl anything about his thoughts of her. How would it be if he just kissed her in 24 hours? They were supposed to be married at the reunion, maybe he could slip one then. Vash couldn't stand to imagine the after look she would give him. No, there had to be a way around it… a flaw in the Priest's words. Somehow he would have to make Wolfwood believe he had kissed her when he hadn't… but how?

His mind drifted over useless ideas and he began to wonder how the insurance girls were doing. He was sure their ride on the Sandsteamer didn't contain explosions and destructive thomases, let alone a mad Priest. Soon enough he would ask them… and maybe slip some of himself to Meryl if he got brave enough.