Tarin knew that the façade wasn’t going to last forever. Lee and Jacen had gotten in the car and driven off, and Tarin had half expected everything to blow up as soon as they were the magic distance away that made Jacen’s field ineffective. It hadn’t happened though, not yet. Tarin tentatively looked around, the spirit was back by his side, and powers were definitely working. Pulse just hadn’t figured it out yet. Chalk one up for stupid bad guys. The body guards from inside decided that it was time for Tarin to move though because very quickly, they’d each grabbed an arm and were moving him in a definite direction.

As they moved, Tarin didn’t fight. Lee and Jacen hadn’t had nearly enough time to get a safe distance away, and the saucy bravado that had surfaced in Colombia was worming its way back to the surface. Tarin apparently just didn’t have it in him to go along quietly. For some reason, he just wasn’t worried about what was going to happen anymore. “So you guys are the strong silent types, huh?” he asked with a smarmy grin. A smarmy grin that remained fixed on his face…

Until they got to the van.

Oh yeah, that’s what they’d called a candy van where Tarin was from. One of those big, white, windowless things that creepy Uncle Ted drove around in. Suffice it to say, Tarin’s mom and dad had never left Tarin or his brothers alone in a room with Uncle Ted. That’s where they were going, and Tarin quickly started wondering if this had been such a good idea.

They steered him towards the passenger side, which was slightly better than if they’d tried to get him into the back. In Tarin went, into the front seat, one of the big guys got into the driver’s side, and Pulse got in the back. There were noises back there, and Tarin didn’t want to look, he was actually starting to get scared now. The key turned in the ignition, though, and they were driving.

Tarin was amazed, frankly amazed that nobody had noticed that their powers were working again. This was going off far too easily. Then Pulse’s voice rang out from the back of the van.

”What the hell.” he yelled, then suddenly, Tarin’s heart was pounding. Apparently he’d figured it out. “Surprise?!” Tarin gasped, hand going to his chest at about the same time a fist from somewhere connected with his face.

”I guess I can't kill him yet.” came Pulse's fuzzy voice from the back of the van as Tarin slumped sideways in his seat, ”We need to find out where the others went. Then we can break him.”

Yup. This was definitely why you didn’t approach the people who drove the candy van. Another fist, hands in his shirt, and a solid thud as he was demoted from the passenger seat to the metal floor of the back of the van, and Tarin felt like a breathing Public Service Announcement. At least until his vision faded all together.

She was vaguely aware of shuffling, as she always was before the van started moving. But this time was different. The van started, her field was still extended loosely and the charge started to build, but they stopped. It was enough for her to blink and see that Pulse was getting out and they were throwing someone else in. Had she the energy, she'd be cursing like when they first put her in there. As it was now...

The stench of burning flesh mingled with gasoline. Burnt hair. Tiny burning stings like wasps on Lori's skin. The van stank of burning meat and sweat. Lori was on her knees in the back of the hot van. The hot made her groggy. No drugs required, just an EZ-bake like the back of the van. Her arms were pulled behind her at an angle that wasn't conducive to comfort. Her knees dug into the metal floor of the van and that was hot too. She was burning back here and no one gave a crap. In fact, it only made their job more efficient.

Lori had her hands tied, or rather wrapped, with wire. The metal strands glinted between blackened ribbons of flesh all the way from her elbow to her wrist where it separated out to cover her palm and extend down each finger separately. Her arms were so much meat, blackened along the ribbons of metallic wire until hints of white were seen. They had her down to the bone because of the resistance her skin and flesh gave. The closely coiled wires had melted her down until the electricity found the most efficient path to travel.

At the very least, her arms were pulled back up and behind her, keeping her kneeling. That way she didn't have to look at them. Just feel them. It wasn't the angle of her arms that hurt really, it was the burns were what kept her up. The wires from her fingers fed into the van's roof where they had a satellite dish they sometimes put up to project and amplified version of various member's powers. A feat not possible without a very strong and compact source of electricity readily at their disposal. When they drove, she would charge up and feed the machine. When they stopped, the wires would drain her dry and passive again.

The van started to drive again.

Her eye makeup had smeared in long, multicolored streaks like an oil slick down her cheeks. Waterproof was never tested like this. The skin of her arms was red and angry and blackened and peeling and through it all... her nose still effing hurt.

It was the smell more than anything that brought him around, the smell and the heat. How was it possible to be that hot in the back of a van that had been so cool up front? It was almost like he could taste the heat, and whatever the hell was burning. Tarin’s eyes opened, and for a second he still thought he was unconscious. It was so…dim. There was some vague light coming in from around the cracks in the doors, but it wasn’t much.

Experimentally, Tarin raised a hand to his face, groaning at the pain that brought on in his temple and right cheek. Bastards. He hadn’t been out very long, and he doubted he had a concussion or anything similar, so even with the rocking of the van Tarin pushed himself up. There was minimal head spinning, and that was helpful, but the smell was really starting to make him sick. Tarin looked around the van to try and find the source of the smell, and his eyes fell on the woman.

“Oh my god.” Tarin breathed, eyes widening in the dim light of the back of the van as he realized exactly where the smell was coming from. The woman was tied in a way that didn’t even look like it should really be possible, and her arms looked absolutely torn to pieces. Tarin couldn’t look very long before his stomach turned slightly and he pulled his eyes away.

The woman was young, blonde, and though she was bent up kind of like a pretzel, Tarin could tell she was small. She did not look like she was in very good shape. “Miss…” Tarin said, struggling to get closer to the woman, but hesitant to reach out and touch her because of the sheer amount of equipment she was hooked up to. “Are you Lori? I’m here to help.”

The farther and faster they drove, the better Lori felt. Well, the more herself she felt. The metal of the van's wheels churned through her magnetic field and fed her strength. It would last for a short while and she was grateful it was this stranger back here rather than Pulse. She would move around uncomfortably through stop lights or stop sign, but if it came down to waiting on a train or bridge, she would fade as fast as the current was funneled out of her. Luckily in Tallahassee there weren't any bridges to wait on like in New York.

She didn't look at him while he was unconscious. Not that she was afraid of being rude, but because her neck hurt from straining at the angle necessary to see him in the dimness. Just didn't seem worth it. The small sounds he made were good enough indication of when he was awake. And then there it was, the horror gasp. All in all, he was rather what she expected. Useless... until he said her name.

Her voice was the ragged hoarse of screaming and cursing until she sounded as empty and leaden and used up as she was now. It was thin with pain, but to her credit she didn't whimper or make pain sounds. She just spoke. "Don't use that name." First, he hadn't earned it. Second, if the bad guys heard, it'd be one more thing they could use against her. She was just sure they'd use it to find everything she held dear. And if these people found it, they'd destroy it. She licked her lips and tried to turn enough to see the panel of metal that separated the back of the van from the front. She was scared.

They probably didn't hear. But then again this man could be a plant, a ploy by them. It seemed a bit too smart, though, and he had her name. Her real name. That meant one of two things.

The fact that this man wasn't a clone meant that it most likely wasn't Mars out there looking for her. Which meant he'd either gotten over being head clone or he didn't have the cojones to ask for help. That left one option. Jacen. And Jacen meant showers. Glorious showers that would wash away the accumulated sweat and grime. Jacen who... had yet to find her... and so she was left with Mister Hopeful Eyes. She shifted trying to find a way to get the tingling in her lower legs and back to stop, but nothing helped. Long enough back here and he'd look a heck of a lot less positive.

"You should tell Jacen to get the f**k back to New York where the crazies aren't out to get everyone like him." She muttered something about him learning to keep things to himself too, but maybe that was just gibberish. She would find a way out... eventually. She'd never had anybody on her side before and it was a little bit uncomfortable for that to change, even if it was just temporary.

Lori's pony tail holder had migrated on to wherever the rubber bits go when you need them most and her hair fell down around her face, thick like a curtain. It was better than letting a stranger see her all vulnerable and grumpy. "Fat lot of help you are." And with only moments between the comments an uncertain question floated up from behind the curtain. "Is it bad?" She meant a million things, they'd captured one of Jacen's pals so did they have him? What did her arms look like? How many were in the van today? There were a lot of things to be afraid of suddenly. Lori sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and chewed on it. She didn't have any tears left, she'd thought. It'd be a shame to start crying in front of a stranger.

An eyebrow rose distinctly at the tone in the woman’s voice as she hissed at Tarin not to use that name. Instantly, a few other things he could call her sprang to mind…ungrateful being the nicest. He had just had his ass kicked trying to find her, after all. Tarin stared at her, lip curling slightly as his eyes narrowed, “A thank you would have been vastly preferred.” He said, keeping his voice down so they wouldn’t be heard by the assholes in the front of the van. Something occurred to Tarin and he squinted his eyes, looking around the interior of the van, “Oh thank god, you stuck with me.” He said, still whispering as his eyes fell on the spirit of the girl from the hotel.

”Of course I did, isn’t that what you said to do?” the spirit asked and Tarin nodded, “Exactly.”

Looking back at the woman, Tarin nearly choked on his tongue when she pointed out exactly what she wanted Jacen to do. He shook his head, “We’re going to have to work on your manners. Usually when someone shows up from halfway across the country to save your ass, you say thank you. Not Fuck off. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, though, and write your attitude off to the meat grinder they’ve obviously put your arms through.”

She asked if it was bad, “Your arms? They look like shit, but at least your legs probably still work…as for everything else…it’s not going exactly to plan, but we found you…and I know how to tell the others where we are. Now let’s see about getting you down.” Tarin reached out and touched the woman on the shoulder and immediately jerked his hand back with a nasty hiss.

“Electricity...figures.” Tarin said, then turned his head back to the spirit. “It won’t hurt you…can you get her down?”

The spirit nodded its head and Tarin turned to Lori…he was going to call her that in his head whether she wanted him to or not, “Don’t freak out,” He whispered, “Someone’s going to appear out of thin air in just a second and get you down…”

A thank you? A thank you? What had been bubbling insecurity turned into sheer amusement and a keening giggle. She didn't say thank you for failed rescue attempts. Or... crazy people... he wasn't talking to her was he? Great, Juuuuuuuuuust fan-freaking-tastic. He was talking to himself.

“We’re going to have to work on your manners. Usually when someone shows up from halfway across the country to save your ass, you say thank you. Not f*** off."

Oh gawd. It was too funny. Every laugh pulled at her arms and every pull made what was already a smoldering pain into something that put a slightly hysteric note in her glee. Did Jacen tell him anything? Apparently not. "Yeah, you seem to have missed the part where these guys mean business and that their business is killing Jacen. S***. He better not have brought the list." Surely he wasn't that stupid, right?

Hours of questions she mostly could not answer and the list could have solved a lot of her problems, but she'd sent it to Jacen. Not really for safe keeping, but if anyone deserved to know more about other like him, it was Jacen. Not these people. She didn't stone wall them for this long just to have someone hand it over or worse, accidentally hand it over just because they weren't taking proper precautions.

This guy really didn't know her very well if he thought it was the pain in the arms that made her a pain in the ass. She might have warned him about the touching if she'd seen it coming. But she was too bothered that he was apparently talking to his invisible, imaginary friend. He was right about her legs, though. They still worked... probably. It made her think a little bit more about him since he didn't think she had to be carried off into the sunset. Just wasn't her scene.

Geez. What kind of friends was Jacen making these days? She left for a couple weeks and he collects a whackadoodle to help him attempt a rescue? And since when did she need a rescue? She was doing... just fine... well, she'd gotten sloppy for a while there, but uh... she was learning her lesson now. Honest.

“Don’t freak out, someone’s going to appear out of thin air in just a second and get you down…”

She'd believe it when she saw it. "It'll fry the wiring. They'll come looking for answers. I don't know what you expect to happen but I don't have the energy to take on whoever's up front..." not to mention Pulse... he had a nasty habit of being a real pain. What Lori had seen of Tarin hadn't really impressed her all that much so far.

Tarin scowled when Lori brought up the list. He figured she meant the one that Tarin had stared at while trying to put two and two together in Jacen’s rental car. The folder full of stuff that Lee had worked on taping back together most of the afternoon. Lori spoke again and Tarin actually rolled his eyes at the woman. “Of course they mean business and of course they want to kill him. Why the hell do you think we’re here? Did they knock your brain out too? That’s why I’m the one in the van instead of him.”

Tarin took a deep breath and reminded himself to have patience with the reason they were here. His head was pounding, though, and the woman’s attitude was getting harder and harder to deal with by the moment. She was laughing at him now, Tarin made a mental note to congratulate Jacen later on his fine taste in women. This was definitely why he preferred brunettes.

Lori seemed nonplussed about the presence of the spirit, but she made a good point when she said that unhooking her from the wires would cause the power to be interrupted. “Shit.” Tarin muttered, running a hand through his hair. At least they weren’t alone. Pulse had apparently killed prolifically, there were several spirits besides the one Tarin had brought with him from the hotel, and he needed that one to go to Jacen and Lee. Could he trust any of the others to be helpful? That was yet to be determined.

“Alright. How do your powers work? If someone else grabs the wires can you send current through them? At least it would get your arms down, and I can provide the person.”

Tarin turned to the spirit from the hotel, “Go find Jacen and Lee. Keep in contact with me so that you can bring them to me once you’ve found them. Don’t pull enough power to go solid until then, tell them everything I send you and bring them here.” She nodded, and was gone. Tarin turned back to Lori.

“Like I said, don’t freak out.” He said, then started channeling power into the closest spirit, another woman. Soon enough she was every bit as solid as Tarin and Lori, and Tarin was getting another mental slide show of exactly what it was like to be killed by Pulse mid-coitus. “Sick bastard…” He muttered, then looked at the blond, almost begging her to be a smart-ass again.

“Will it work, or are we just going to cut you lose and hope I can get enough help from the spirits that we don’t end up dead before help shows up? The way I see it, I've got until this fan stops to be of any use to anyone, you'd be surprised what I can do to keep myself from talking, but after that, there's no going back.”

Normal people don't run toward situations where people are trying to kill them. Normal people ran away from things that were scary. Normal people wouldn't face it for a girl you threw underwear at last time you saw her. So much for wishing Jacen was normal. And wishing he could bring about some normalcy for her. That was probably the part that hurt the worst out of all of this, despite everything she told Jacen about normal, she still had to realize on her own that there was no normal. Gawd it so hot. The sweat was crawling down her skin in itchy trails.

She shut her yap and stopped herself from making another smart comment, though. After a weekend to practice silence under pain of torture, she was getting pretty good at it.

Only after he'd asked a direct question to her did she answer. "I do electricity and magnetism. They transfer like in real life, but it goes all the time." She tried to understand the man's next question. "Since I can't turn it off... you want me to shock someone on purpose?" It wasn't a question of could she do it, it was a question of if there was a better use for her measly amount of charge.

"I can try to focus on only one person, yeah... I'll blow off the back doors of the van too if it'd freaking get us some air back here." It was best, after all to go out with a bang, right? "If you can get me to a power source, I could give them hell. If not I'm as useful as a sack of angry kittens right now." She'd toss the van into the ocean if she thought it'd for sure kill them all rather than just making them angry and wet.

Jacen and Lee? A thrill of something ran up her spine. Was Lee the one more gentle and kind? Whatever. She just had to get out of the van and get a shower. Priorities. She'd throttle Lee later for being everything she could not.

Lori wasn't easily shaken but... there was nothing. And then there was a girl. She flickered into being like this guy lit her candle of existence. Whatever his power was it was... different. Blah. What did he summon women away from bad dates? She tried not to dwell on the details. They'd sort them out later after her shower. Because she was getting a shower after all this. It was a shining goal for her to look toward. Everything else didn't matter if she could just get that one last shower.

"Just do it. I'd rather take my chances and kiss pavement than be here."

Tarin listened closely as Lori described exactly what it was she could do with her powers. Electricity and magnetism, Tarin filed that away in the back of his mind. The electricity was tricky at best, but magnetism could do amazing things. Lori asked what Tarin had in mind as far as shocking a person was concerned and his eyebrow rose again. “I’m one of the good guys, how dare you.” He said with a smug little smile, “You can’t electrocute someone who’s already dead.” He turned to the spirit, “Right Janice?”

The spirit nodded, and Tarin focused his attention back on Lori as she explained that she could try and focus the energy on one person, but that she could also apparently blow the doors off the van. If she could get to an energy source. That was one big fricken if. “Well, let me just pull out the portable generator I carry around up my ass and we’ll be golden.” Tarin muttered, Lori said she was as weak as a kitten…but kittens still had claws, right? “Okay…forget I said that…sorry.” He said, “Assuming I can’t immediately get you to power source, is there anything you’re going to be able to do?”

It didn’t matter, though, she wanted to fight. Tarin had to grin, the girl had spunk. It was more than could be said for some in similar situations. To be honest, kissing pavement sounded better than whatever these guys would have in store for him. Another look at her arms confirmed that. Tarin slipped out of the suit jacket he’d put on and dropped it on the floor. “You’re going to want to put that on after we get you loose. I know it’s hot in here, but your arms are a mess, and rolling those open sores around in the dirt isn’t going to help.”

That said, Tarin clenched his jaw and got ready to go to work. The spirit was going to need everything he could give it, he took a second to find the one going for Jacen and Lee, he could still feel it, but it was getting more and more vague. Hopefully this would work. “Ready?” he said, not really listening for an answer, before sending the spirit forward, “Just snap the wires right where the end at her fingers. Be careful not to hurt her.”

Please work, please work, please work, please work….

How did he do it? He had a personality that she would have loved to walk all over and yet he managed to unnerve the hell out of her. She must really be losing her charm. Or maybe she was more scared about this whole situation than she was letting on even to herself. She wouldn't put it past herself. Her powers of self-delusion were just that good.

Of course it didn't help that he was claiming to be a good guy and using a dead person to help her down all in one sentence. "On second thought, I think I'm doing all right here. You just uh- put Janice back where she belongs." She was straining her neck to look at the nodding spirit. Spirit? It suddenly made sense. Him talking to himself and chicks materializing out of thin air. WTF! He summoned dead people! He was the freaking 6th sense kid on mutant crack! She was getting out of this van now.

Lori strained at the wires and they only pulled tighter around her arms. She grit her teeth and puled harder, spirit be damned. Janice was not going to touch her. "I used to have a portable defibrillator, but it was one use. They thought I had a heart condition and would mess up my heart rhythm by using it when I didn't need it." She pulled harder, the strain audible in her voice now. "They were wrong."

One wire popped loose, but that was it and considering there 9 more where that came from, Lori was done trying it on her own. She panted and stretched her arms upward to perhaps re slacken some of the wires despite her back's protest. It hurt. All of it, any of it. She wasn't sure what to complain about first.

“Assuming I can’t immediately get you to power source, is there anything you’re going to be able to do?”

"Walk, run, spit at them? I won't know until we try whatever it is we are trying. I could be as useless as a limp fish or maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be a lightning storm." She tried to imagine a solid earthen wall between her well of energy and everything else. If she was very careful, maybe she wouldn't hurt the dead person... Was she worried more about hurting a dead person than a live one? You bet. Despite what the guy said, she sure as heck didn't want a vindictive spirit haunting her. A live person could always be killed, but what did you do to get rid of a dead one? Seriously. She shifted nervously when Jancie was moving closer toward her upraised arms.

The guy tossed his jacket in front of her and Lori actually looked up at him with a question in her eyes. “You’re going to want to put that on after we get you loose. I know it’s hot in here, but your arms are a mess, and rolling those open sores around in the dirt isn’t going to help.”

"I guess I could put it on with my teeth." The sarcasm was thick with this one. "You know, you're not wearing a holster, so they didn't take a gun from you. So why the heck in this weather did you wear a jacket?" A sudden thought occurred to her, curling her lips into a grimaced version of a smile. "Tell me it wasn't to up your bad ass factor..." Yes. She would poke at him because she was uncomfortable and getting more uncomfortable in direct proportional relation to how close the dead girl was to her.

“Ready?”

"No?" But the girl was obeying orders already and snapping the remaining wires one by one. When one hand was free her arm flopped free and slapped thickly against her back. She turned, immediately going for the jacket with her hand... what she saw stopped her and made her look up and as away as she could. Her other arm flopped free and Lori looked at the back door to the van with eyes a little wetter than before.

The back door crumpled out like a giant fist had punched it from the inside out. Lori cursed and jumped when she felt hands on her shoulders. She was leaking charge, but the van was still moving. "The coat?" Janice complied. The van was still moving when her arms were shoved into the jacket. Lori bit her lip and closed her eyes.

And the van flipped.

Tarin rolled his eyes at Lori again, she was going to be squeamish about the spirits. In Tarin’s experience that meant one of two things, she was either ultra religious, or she had skeletons in her closet. Judging by her current situation and the attitudes she’d taken, Tarin wouldn’t have put money on religion. “Relax. She’s not going to hurt you any more than I am.” He said, frowning as Lori started to tug on her arms.

“Oh for the love…stop that…at least if you want to ever use your damn arms again.” The fact that the blond was able to pull like that with the wounds she had didn’t bode well for nerve function as it was. She soon stopped struggling, though, and Tairn let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Lori didn’t seem all together optimistic as far as her capabilities were concerned after they got her free from the wires. Tarin just nodded his head, “Well, don’t worry about it. God knows after being hooked up like a battery for…however long…you’re probably a little tired. Not that you’ll probably admit it…but that’s okay. We’ll just skip the part where you shoot your mouth off at me while I risk my damn life to get you free.”

The offered jacket was accepted with the grace and poise Tarin was starting to expect from Lori at this point, and when she suggested so earnestly that she could put it on with her teeth, Tarin flashed her a smile to match the grimace on her face, “I’d actually love to see that, especially since you’re attacking my bad ass status. The jacket was to conceal the receiver I wore so I could hear what my wife was doing while she tried to take out Pulse.” He spoke while Janice worked, hoping the details would take Lori’s mind off of what was obviously an uncomfortable situation for her, whether she was going to admit it or not.

“The handsey m’f’er found the mic, though…and that’s how we got here. Though I have to admit that this was way faster than all the leg work we were going to do to find you.”

Janice was doing a good job, and she didn’t even look phased by any electrical current that might have been running through her body. It made sense, if Tarin thought about it, when he’d been separated from his body, he hadn’t been able to feel anything either. It probably had something to do with the complete absence of nerve tissue in a spirit. This was something to look into…though Tarin couldn’t see himself purposely hurting the spirits just to see if they could feel it.

The problem with a spirit not being able to feel pain is that they were usually unconscious to the plight of others, and that definitely seemed to be the case here as Lori’s arms flopped free. Tarin reached out to help her, but pulled his hand back at the memory of the shock he’d taken the last time he’d touched her.

Tarin couldn’t help but wince when Lori looked at her arms, then away. Obviously she hadn’t known the extent of the damage. Tarin suddenly felt bad for the cavalier attitude he’d been taking with the woman. He didn’t say anything. From the snapshot he’d gotten of her so far, it probably wouldn’t have been appreciated, anyway. At least she was a little more open to Janice’s help though.

Tarin jumped when the door crumpled and his head jerked to Lori, “So much for keeping a low profile back here…” he muttered, then watched as Lori asked for help with the jacket. Tarin saw it coming before the spirit even started to help and was moving to do that when Lori’s arms were unceremoniously shoved into the sleeves.

The tires on the fan squealed and instinct kicked in for Tarin as the van started to tilt on its wheels. Three more spirits popped into existence as the world started to turn itself upside down. Around Lori and Tarin they wrapped themselves, suspending the two in space as the van spun around them. It was all a blur of noise, sparks, and twisting metal. Then, there was silence.

Tarin pulled the spirits back, oof’ing slightly as his body fell the few feet to the side of the van, which was now the floor. The same happened to Lori and Tarin winced in sympathy, asking, “Are you alright?” before working his way through the twisted metal and kicking at the already damaged door which promptly fell off its hinges. “See. Piece of cake, now let’s get out of here.” He hadn’t looked into the front of the van, but if Tarin had to put money down, they hadn’t been wearing seatbelts…and that coupled with the intensity of the accident they’d just had would be enough to keep them busy for a while.

Lori had thought she was baking before in the heat, but now in the jacket she was visibly melting under the power leakage and heat. Her and Elphaba both.

Vans are heavy sons a bitches and turning this one on it's head had it's price. The dead people holding her away from tumbling in the wash cycle did not make her feel better, but she probably would have felt worse without them. Maybe. It was possible that there was a worser way to feel than her current state. She admitted that to herself because to do anything less was to invite fate to prove her wrong.

Somewhere along the way, the van had stopped rolling and being hit by other vehicles or whatever other horrors were making the metal scream like that. The strange meh that had settled over Lori didn't subside even when she was unceremoniously dropped on her shoulder. At least she wasn't dropped on her throbbing nose. That would have been worse.

Lori made her way to her feet and it almost felt like someone had strings attached to her shoulders. It looked strangely smooth without the use of her arms even if she was by no means graceful. Okay. Maybe it just felt smooth. She wasn't even sure what part of the van she was standing on now. Side or roof? It seemed important to know that fact, but for the life of her she couldn't identify what her feet were touching.

“Are you alright?” The voice echoed dimly through the vast tunnel of metal that separated her fellow escapee and herself. She looked up and he looked very, very far away. She shook her head the faintest bit of no. She was sort of slouched in her kneeling. Hadn't she been standing a moment ago? But there wasn't room in the van... so they would get out in order to stand. Standing was very important at this point.

The back door was gone and there was little solace in the fading sunlight of outside. The air outside of the van was muggy and wrapped around them like a hot and heavy hand. She was all very heavy. Every bit of her was dragging downward and her stubbornness was what was keeping her feet moving after the back of the man who had summoned dead people. At least, she was pretty sure it was him. Well, she was walking away from the van under her own power at least. That was something.

They were out, they were free, and they were running. At least until they got somewhere they could hide until the proper authorities showed to clean up the mess. Tarin was more than several yards down the street before he realized something incredibly significant to the situation. He was alone. Shit …he gave credit to himself that he’d only cursed internally.

Lori was walking…they’d just escaped the men who had turned her arms into burnt beef jerky and she was walking, walking in a dreamlike state akin to a Robert Romero film that Tarin had seen when he was a teenager. This definitely wasn’t going to do. What had Lori said? She needed a lightning storm…Tarin couldn’t provide that, but there was a wrecked van just down the road. Tarin turned and jogged back to the woman and held his hands up, “Stop for a second, please, I’m hopefully gonna get you some energy real quick.”

Tarin was used to dealing with a lack of energy. For Lee it was easy though, some snuggling, some kissing, and they were golden. It wasn’t that easy with Lori, but she’d told Tarin what she needed. This could work. “Janice” Tarin called out, and the spirit was there, “Go get the battery out of the van. If either of them are awake and moving, get back here fast and take her away. I’ll catch up.”

Tarin held up a hand to Lori, “Don’t argue with me. You’re in no shape to run if it comes down to that, and I didn’t just put my ass on the line for them to snag you again.” He pre-empted in a tone that he hoped would broke no argument, even to Lori.

Janice nodded her head and took off. It really didn’t take long, either, and she was back, holding the battery out to the petite blond in the suit jacket. ”I think the driver was dead, necks usually don’t turn that way. The passenger was already coming around, though.”

Tarin contemplated going back and finishing the job…it was the least the bastard deserved, but that would have meant leaving Lori. He shook off the idea and turned back to Lori after thanking the spirit.

“Can you charge up while we go, or do you want Janice to help you out? Either way, we need to move.”

Stop? Stop? He wanted her to stop? But they were in the middle of running away, a feat that Lori was quite proud of despite her recent lack of food or water or energy or even restful respite. Suddenly, stopping sound better and it sounded worse all at once. Lori simply looked at the man. No emotion that she could feel or discern to the look, but apparently the look was enough.

“Don’t argue with me." Just for that she took another stubborn step. But she didn't want to get snagged again. No, no. She just wanted to sit down, maybe lay down, maybe sleep. Food would have been all kinds of wonderful, but it was the sleep she really wanted right now.

As Lori contemplated how comfortable the hot asphalt under her feet was, Janice returned. It was easier, actually to think of her as Janice rather than a dead girl. She held out something to Lori and it took her longer than it should have to recognize what it was. The blonde hungrily grabbed it with her upper arms as if the lower part of her limbs did not exist. Since Tarin's jacket was long enough to cover her blacked fingertips and only leave a few wires poking out the end, that wasn't too hard to pretend.

Whatever Janice and her rescue pal were talking about didn't matter. She turned the battery so that the battery posts were facing her upper stomach and dragged the whole thing across her skin until the protective covers rolled back and she had a good metal to skin connection.

She closed her eyes for a moment and felt it. 6 cells to drain and a total of 12 volts when all would be finished, would have been more had the battery been new or perfectly full of charge. Lori sighed and some of the tension between her shoulders relaxed.

"Yeah, let's get the heck out of here." She opened her eyes and seemed more herself and less like a mannequin. "Tiny snack." She dropped the battery and stepped over it. The grease had left small black marks on her abdomen. It was a small snack in relation to what she needed, but enough to manifest her personality correctly at least. She was now running on pretty much empty, which was better than running with the empty light flashing.

She still wasn't running, but she could manage a slight jog without feeling like too much of an idiot. And when Tarin motioned her to lean against the side of a building, she was all too glad to rest for a moment out of sight. "I guess I ought to know your name." It was only fair since he'd blurted hers out too close to enemy ears for comfort. She also hadn't missed the fact that he had said he had a wife earlier. Blue eyes made the sweep across his finger to see the band, not that she had trusted him, just that it hadn't occurred to her to check sooner. She added a few years to her estimation of him. Prejudiced Lori?

If he said move, she'd somehow muster the energy to do so. She just had to make it to that perfect, steaming shower she imagined in her head.

Lori stopped, not as quickly as Tarin would have hoped, and he felt even worse for her. The poor thing was obviously too exhausted to follow directions properly. That was alright though, Tarin was an understanding rescuer and he waited patiently as Janice brought the battery back.

It was kind of like watching a train wreck, watching Lori grab onto the proffered battery and rub it across her stomach. Tarin wouldn’t have begun to know how to help her out, so he just watched as she…charged up. The good news was that the car battery had been enough to bring Lori back from zombie land…the bad news was that it wasn’t enough to really charge her up. ‘A light snack’ the woman had called it. Fair enough, Tarin was most definitely not above running…and run they did.

Well, technically it was more of a jog, but if Tarin remembered where they were correctly, they weren’t far from the hotel. It was just a matter of getting there and back to Jacen and Lee, and hoping they could get out of the city before Pulse woke up and managed to find them.

Tarin was getting out of breath, and if he was tired he knew Lori must be, so he pulled up behind a wall and motioned for her to do the same. It was incredible after living in New York all this time to be in a city where there were actually deserted streets, but he wasn’t necessarily prepared when Lori asked him for his name. It seemed like a strange question, but it kind of rolled of Tarin like water. Looking back around the corner and not seeing anyone, Tarin leaned more fully against the wall and figured a small rest wouldn’t hurt either of them.

For a moment, he considered not telling her, or saying something smart. Lori had been less than receptive to his use of her name earlier. Then again, she’d been in a less than ideal situation.

“Tarin Brooks. I wish we could have met under different circumstances.” He said, breath already slowing to a more normal rate. “If I remember correctly, we should only be a few blocks from the hotel. Hopefully Lee and Jacen are still there…if not, we can call them from the room and have them meet us back there. So if you’re okay, we should probably take off.”