"Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it. Charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it" The lady sang along to the techno song she was currently blasting on her vehicle's speakers, nodding her head to the beat and moving in a dancing motion. Meanwhile, Wikus merely gripped at the seat tightly, feet pressed tightly against the floor to keep himself from bouncing out of his seat. She certainly wasn't a careful driver in consideration of her passengers, but despite her antics, she seemed very alert toward her surroundings outside of the car. More than once she stopped to let a non-human cross the street, accompanied with a call of "Hey dude, take care!" out the window as she passed by. But she didn't pay much attention to Wikus at first, which gave him the chance to get a good look at her. She was thin, pale and sort of frail looking, but her sprightly attitude put the message across that she was anything but weak. Her eyes were a brownish green colour and her short, beaded hair was a bright white, obviously bleached to be that snowy colour. She wore an orange tanktop, sky blue shorts and knee high white combat boots. It was odd attire, but it didn't look bad on her. He looked away quickly when she suddenly glanced at him, studying him as well.
"So, what're you doing in here all by yourself?" She said, reaching over to turn down the volume a bit in order to hear him better. Wikus silently struggled to find an answer but before he even opened his mouth to talk, he was interrupted as she spoke again.
"Hold on, let me guess. You got too drunk for your own good last night and woke up this morning covered in dirt, with no shoes, in District 9." Wikus was about to protest indignantly that he never drank that much, before he realized it was the perfect lie that he'd been unable to come up with.
"I've.. I've just.. Had a rough time lately.. A lot's been going on in my life." Well.. At least that was the truth. The lady studied him and raised an eyebrow before saying:
"I'll say.. You sure have been in the news a lot." Wikus felt cold, a sudden pang of sickening fear hitting him in the gut as if he had just been punched. He looked at her quickly, eyes wide, fear written all over his features. The lady looked back at him, slowing the vehicle's pace and smiling slightly.
"Hey now, hey now, no need to get your panties in a bunch dude. I would never turn you in, no matter how 'dangerous' they say you are. You just seem like some poor harmless bloke who figuratively stepped into a hot mess way up to his ears." As she said this, Wikus felt an amazing wave of relief wash over him and he relaxed visibly, beginning to smile very slightly as well.
"You.. Don't know how happy I am to hear you say that." He said, voice warbling just a bit. The lady chuckled and replied,
"Hey man, I'm a pacifist; and considering how much the MNU wants you as a criminal, I can only imagine what they'd do once they got you. The thought sickens me." Wikus swallowed hard, thinking, 'You're not the only one..'. There was a pause before either of them said anything. Wikus was the first to break the silence.
"Why did you pretend not to recognize me then?" He asked, vaguely accusingly. The lady chuckled again.
"Well I knew who you were right away.. And from the very first time I heard about what had happened to you in the news, I wanted to help. At first when I was coming up the road I was worried that you might panic and run away, but for whatever reason you just stayed perfectly still and I figured that was my chance to see if I could get your attention. Since I figured that just about all humans are untrustworthy in your eyes, I decided I'd take a less direct approach and work out the kinks later on when we'd sort of gotten into a more comfortable atmosphere... Not the most brilliant plan in existence, but hey, it worked." She said, shrugging. Wikus leaned back in the seat, trying to relax himself completely.
"Yes.. It did.." He mused quietly. There was another long pause before he broke the silence again with another question.
"What do you mean by 'help', anyway?" He asked, shifting in his seat to be turned toward her more. She shifted a bit as well, but more in discomfort than the want to look in his direction, and glanced at him before returning her gaze to the road. It seemed they were almost at the exit.
"Um, one minute.." Squinting and leaning forward, she frowned bitterly. "Oh fiddlesticks. You might want to get in the back.. And duck down." She said quietly. Wikus looked slightly confused before following her gaze and seeing the gate.. With a huge group of armed guards standing at it.