An hour later. Murdoc steps from the bank, carrying a sports bag. He walks to the Geep, lighting a cigarette, and tosses the sports bag into the back seat. Pulling his mobile from his pocket, he checks the time.
"Right ya bastard! It's 9:32am, and I've got about one hour to find you." he snarls and climbing into the drivers seat. The Bassist kicks the car to life, and screams the car out of it's parking space. Tearing a path up the road. "And when I find you. I'm gunna drive this car, right up yer arse!" he adds, pressing down hard on the accelerator and turning down a side street.
In an old abandoned warehouse, with it's windows boarded up. 2D wakes up tied to a chair. A little battered and bruised, but not too worse for wear. He blinks hard and tries to shake off the mental fog from his mind. Feeling a little better, he tries to stand up, but finds he can't and looks down. It suddenly dawns on the young man, that he's tied up. And he begins to struggle.
"Aww. That's not right? Help!" he calls out. "I'm stuck." he complains and tries to move his legs.
"Nice ta see yer finally awake." says a gruff voice from the dark. 2D stops struggling and looks up. Squinting into the shadows, he tries vainly to force his black hole eyes to see. A figure steps forwards, and walks slowly towards him. 2D leans forwards as far as he can, still unable to bring the image clear.
"Who are ya? Lemme go?" he complains, as the figure squats down directly in front of him. 2D leans back as the mans features come clear. For a moment, 2D is struck by a very odd thought. The man in front of him, looks very familiar, but in an odd sort of way.
"Nah. I think I like ya like this." says the man, checking the ropes, making sure they're nice and secure. 2D tilts his head to one side and squints hard, trying to work out why the man looks so familiar.
"Do I know you?" he asks, wrinkling his nose at the strange man in front of him. The man smiles and taps 2D on the knee with the muzzle of a hand gun.
"You? No, but yer little green friend does." he laughs. 2Ds eye holes grow wide as he stares at the gun. The man stands up and walks away, disappearing back into the shadows. 2D struggles again, trying to get free of the ropes. Suddenly the lights come on, dazzling the Keyboardist for a moment. He cringes and turns his face to his shoulder. Thinking he's about to be shot, he shuts his eyes tightly. But after a nothing happens for a while, he opens one eye hole and slightly turns his head back.
The lights burn dimly. Bathing the large, mostly empty room, in dirty yellowish light. 2D looks around as far as he can turn his head, trying to find the man. In front of him he sees a wooden crate, turned on it's side to form a make-shift table. Behind it, is an old battered lounge. Leaning against one arm of the chair, is a semi-automatic rifle. 2D stares long and hard at the gun. His mind trying to get the message across, that something terrible was going to happen. But given that it's 2Ds mind, the message falls short of being received. On the table is a bottle of Scotch, a glass, a mobile phone, and a few empty fast food containers.
"Allo? Where did ya go?" 2D asks nervously, the idea of being shot unaware s, making the young man shudder deep inside.
"Not far." the man answers, stepping from behind a large pillar a short distance away from him. 2D breathes a sigh of relief. The man leans his shoulder heavily against the pillar, and crosses his ankles. He folds his arms over his chest, and taps the gun against his arm. 2Ds fear quickly returns. He swallows hard and studies the man carefully.
The man is tall and thin. With thinning, untidy, greying hair. That is balding at the front, to about the top of his head. His fingernails are long and filthy, and his eyes are dark. His clothes are as shabby and as dirty, as his fingernails. And it looks as though he has been sleeping rough, for quite some time. The dirty yellow light, casts eerie shadows across the mans face, making it look sharp and angular. Almost like a skull. The man rubs the muzzle of the gun against his unshaven chin, and presses himself away from the pillar. He walks back to the armchair and drops heavily into it, sliding down and far back into the chair. Lifting his foot and dropping it heavily onto the make-shift table with a dull thump. 2D raises his eyebrow at the sight, as it suddenly hits him who this man reminds him of.
"Murdoc?" he whispers. The man lifts his gaze sharply back up to the Keyboardist. Causing 2D to pull back and shut his mouth sharply. Fearing perhaps he just said something he shouldn't of.
"Yeah him, he knows me." the man says, taking his foot from the table, and sliding his buttocks back in the chair. He leans forwards, gazing at the floor and resting his forearms on his knees, toying with the gun in his hand. 2D relaxes again, glad that the man had not gotten angry, about the suggestion he had just made.
"Is he a, Umm, friend?" 2D asks. The man lifts his gaze from the floor, and looks up at the bound young man. Staring quietly for a second, he suddenly begins to laugh. Quietly at first, then slowly building to a roaring gale of uncontrollable laughter. The man slaps his thigh and flops back into the tattered lounge, coughing and wiping away a tear. He limply points at 2D and sits forwards again.
"I like you. Yer funny." He gasps. 2D grins, showing the gap in his front teeth, this makes the man smile back and he pours 2D a shot of Scotch. "Want one?" he asks nodding towards it. 2D nods back, and the man stands up, bringing the glass to him. He places it against 2Ds lips, and pours some of the liquid into the young mans mouth. The Keyboardist swallows and thanks him, then strains against the ropes again. Making them rasp noisily against one another, as they stretch. He looks up at the man standing next to him and smiles, hoping he'd pleased the man enough, to be set free.
"Ya know? It'd be easier if ya untied me?" he asks, hoping the man would agree. But his captor, shakes his head and pats him on the shoulder, with a sigh.
"Oh no. I fink yer fine, juuust where ya are." he drawls with a chuckle, and walks back to the lounge. 2D slumps in the chair and takes another look around the room. The man lights up a cigarette, blowing a smoke ring in 2Ds direction. 2D blinks at it, and can't help but think just how much this guy reminds him of Murdoc.
"So Muds ain'cha friend?" 2D inquires, hoping the question doesn't make the man angry. The man lays back in the chair, and silently shakes his head, but shrugs as well.
"Nope! I reckon he owes me though." he answers, leaning forwards again, to grab the bottle from the table. 2D squints at him in confusion, as the man swigs from the bottle.
"Owes ya? For wot?" the Keyboardist presses, searching for more information. The man butts out the cigarette on the side of his shabby boot, and slumps back in his seat. Dangling the bottle precariously by it's neck, between his forefinger and thumb. It lazily swings it back and forth between his fingers, in an almost hypnotic fashion. Distracting 2D for a moment. He eyes the Keyboardist quietly, and at first doesn't answer. But, as though deciding that conversation is better than nothing, he sits up again and takes another swig from the bottle.
"Being alive." he mutters, smacking his lips. 2D snaps back to attention, and slumps back in the chair. Gazing down at his lap. None the wiser for the answer he was given. He flexes his toes in his boots and sighs.
"Dats the sort of fing Muds would say, he ain't too helpful either." the Keyboardist moans. The man looks quietly at 2D and chuckles.
"Weeeell." he drawls in the same drawn out way Murdoc does, making the hair on the back of 2Ds neck raise up on end. "Lets just say that his success, made me think twice on the directions my own life had taken me. But I woz in no position to do anyfink about it. To change wot had happened. Now that I can. I'm lookin' fer a fresh start. Two fings are gunna bring that to me. One. A lot of the freaks money. And two..." the man pauses and eyes the young man, deciding to leave that point unanswered. Instead he takes another swig from the bottle. 2D tilts his head to his shoulder.
"Two?" he asks, pressing the man to answer. The man looks at the remaining liquid in the bottle and shakes his head.
"Nah. Ain't important." he gruffly replies and stands up. He gives the Keyboardist another shot from the bottle, and watches as 2D sits back licking his lips.
"Ya sound like ya don't like him much?" 2D says, watching the man place the bottle back on the table.
"I don't. But ya come to expect that in,... err... certain situations." he answers, vaguely waving the gun around. This just makes 2D more curious, and he mentally scratches his head.
"Situations?" he presses. The man lets out a frustrated breath and looks hard at 2D. The look smashes the young man in the face, and 2D quickly imagines more hair on the man. With a thicker fringe that covers his eyebrows. He sits back and shakes the image loose. "You don't half look like him ya know?" 2D mutters. The man rolls his eyes and waving him off, walks over to the boarded up windows.
"Ya fink?!" he snaps sarcastically. 2D sighs and decides not to push the man any further. Instead he imagines a nice place full of kittens, and zones into it.
"Heh, heh. Kittens." he grins. The man turns and looks sharply at the young man But seeing the zoned out look on his face, leaves him to it. He looks through a crack in the boards out the window, to the landscape outside. Knowing Murdoc just has to be on the way.
Driving like a maniac through the streets, Murdoc swears under his breath and weaves in and out of the traffic. His rage made worse by slow drivers, he punches the horn and screams at the traffic.
"Git the fuck, out of the way!!!" he roars. He sees a building up ahead, with an alley running along side of it. And turns sharply into it. Racing down the alley, he sees a wire fence, just up ahead and turns the Geep sharply again. It's bumper just misses the fence, and the Bassist tears his way along the back of the buildings. In his mind, Murdoc tracks his position with his mental map. The building he is suppose to deliver the money to, is in the industrial estate. Murdoc decides that from now on, he'll stick to the short cuts. He crosses a busy road, just missing hitting a small car, and shoots down a walking track, behind a row of houses. Heading straight for the old warehouses.
"Rip yer head off..." he mutters angrily. "Shove it sooo far up yer arse..." he continues angrily, as he speeds along.