When the car came to an abrupt halt and Will rocked forward squishing poor Dave under his chest the little dino gave an incensed chirp, and wiggled free.

The trunk opened, Will heard Sam and Thyme talking to him, but Will just closed his eyes and shut his mind off to it. After a while they just left him alone, and he let the darkness swallow him.

His dreams as he slept were just as deranged as his situation was in real life though.

He found himself stuck in a loop, running from a car that looked like Bessie, but with gnashing teeth trying to eat him, all while a woman’s voice screamed out his name in a state of sheer euphoria.

Over and over she called to him, all while he ran down street after street of twisting alleyways with locked doors. He clawed and kicked as he saw the car getting closer, steel doors yielding only enough to give him glimpses into dark storerooms filled with writhing twisting mannequins.

He tried to reason with it, but his voice was lost, even trying to scream did nothing at all.

His back pressed up against a wall.

The car looming over him.

He closed his eyes.

Will looked around, he was still in the trunk, and he was all alone but for Dave.

“Hello?!”

Will sat up looking around.

“You’re awake,” Sam said, standing up from where he had sat out of sight.

Will looked around, “Where are we?”

They were parked in a dark room, some kind of warehouse from the pilling that stood around them and the rusty looking holes in old metal doors behind them.

“Oh, hey Sam. Great to see you too,” Sam said in a sing-song tone.

Will sighed, “Sorry I,” he looked up at the mechanical man, “Hi. Do, uh, do you have anything to drink?”

Sam’s mechanical eyes narrowed, “What, you think just because I was made out of a fridge I’d have a drink? Huh? Right away masser, I get you a drink right away, jus let me turn on my fridge powers masser.”

“Oh, god,” Will felt so ashamed, “I’m so sorry I just meant~”

“I’m just F’n with you,” the front door of his body made a click, like one of those old fridge doors, and swung open to reveal his inner workings. A few jars that appeared to house actual pulsing, live, human organs sat on the shelves hooked up by tubes and cables mixed in with all of the groceries he had stored in there.

Sam grabbed out a couple beers, handed one to Will, and then took hold of him by the collar of his coat, hoisting him out of the trunk like a bit of luggage.

He set Will down and closed the trunk, reaching down to his side and cracked the cap off the beer then changed bottles with Will giving him the crisp open one.

He cracked the second one and handed it also to Will.

“Thanks, uh, you’re not gonna drink one?”

“The other one’s for Dave, but he can’t hold the bottle.”

Will looked down to see Dave sitting patiently holding a shiny steel bowl, so Will took it, Dave giving it up with only a little tug of war, then poured about half the bottle for the little dino.

“Again, thanks. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate~”

“Dude, really, it’s no worries, it’s just a beer.”

“No, I mean for saving me, I mean, you clearly didn’t have to.”

“I mean, you’re welcome. But we really did. Time works funny like that, we were meant to hit you, even save you. I’m sure of it.”

“Fate?”

“OH, hell no. See,” he held up a stack of paperwork. “Your name’s all over this car, you’re the one who commissioned it to be built. So, without you it ceases to exist and all that jazz. We had to keep you alive so you can pay for this thing.”

“Well, okay, but you didn’t know that. So, how do you explain this all except fate?”

“I once read a thing about fate, it was scrawled on the wall over a urinal in a dive bar, and it said, “Fate, is a Joke, and the joke, is in your hands.” I liked that. Take fate and really shake it till it gives you what you want.”

Will stared, a bit torn between breaking the man’s heart and explaining the joke to have a laugh, or just agreeing to be polite.

“Did you hear me Will?”

“Sorry, I~”

“I was saying, fate is~”

“Oh Sam,” came Thyme’s voice.

She waltzed in through a side door carrying a bag filled with parts.

“Not this fate story again, please, I told you before not to tell people that bar bathroom thing. Hey Will.”

“Hey, Thyme, it’s fine.”

“See, he gets it!”

“Oh, he does, he’s also too nice to tell you~”

“So!”

He spoke maybe a bit too loudly, catching all of them off guard, even Orb who had just flown over from the door stopped suddenly, flashing different colours.

They were all looking at him.

“So, uhhh so,” he had blanked.

“Bruv, you got a screw loose?”

“Leave off him,” Thyme set down her bag of stuff, pulling up the edge of her shirt to wipe sweat off her forehead. She had her jacket tied around her waist, it must have been hot, and the bag heavy.

Will watched her, leaned over as her shirt crept up, her pale soft skin under her chest, the faint curve of her small breasts just visible under the already thin white fabric, clinging sample to her~

“Oi, bruv! Why you starin at little sis’ tits.”

Will fumbled his beer, almost dropping it as Orb got up in his face.

Thyme stood up, her shirt catching on her abs as she let it go so that it stayed up.

“Sorry, I, I, I,” he hung his head, “I have no excuse.”

She walked up, towering over him, taking his beer and leaving him with Dave’s half empty beer.

She took a long pull on it and clinked the bottle in his hand.

“Told you already,” she laughed, walking away.

Will drank what was left of Dave’s beer, and looked over at Sam.

“So, what’re we doing here?”

“Oh, yeah. We were waiting for you to get up, we have to go deal with getting some parts, but the guy we are going to see is… well…, he kinda thinks we stole this car from him.”

Will chuckled, “You said you stole it.”

“Ah,” he raised his hand, “But, we have you to say we didn’t.”

“You know that’s genius.”

Orb paused, turning to Will, “Really?”

“No, I’m not, I mean, I may be that guy. But won’t he know I’m not?”

“That’s the genius part, the car is for you, but the order came through the back channels, so he’s never met you either.” Thyme fixed her shirt, popping the hood, pulls parents a lever and going down the stairs inside. She came back up holding the tool box he had forgot.

“Wait, didn’t I have that in the hall?”

“No, you forgot it in the storage room here.”

“But then, what was that one I handed you?”

“They’re the same tool box.”

“Wow, my head is never gonna not hurt around you people.”

“Oi! Wha cha mean you people?”

“Orb leave off, he didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yeah, well, I ain’t people.”

“You’re a jerk is what you are.”

Orb flashed pick hues, “Yeah, an proud of it.”

“So, we’re going out somewhere, in some city in the future to find a place where I ordered a car from?”

“Yup, so drink up. We have lots to do.”