Sole Asylum...Part 5

I brushed myself off and began picking the shards of branches and bark that we sticking out of my skin as I looked around to try and gauge how close we came to the Asylum.

The truck had crashed into a very stout tree on the edge of a desolate looking parking lot. The pavement of the lot was cracked and marked with potholes, some of which were large enough to sport their own small trees. The other three edges of the lot were bordered by hulking, multi-story, brick buildings that gave off a distinct feeling of brooding, sullen anger. Many of windows had been broken, but almost all of them were covered by iron bars.

I waved a broken branch that I had plucked from the base of my neck towards the buildings behind the truck. “The Asylum, I presume. See? That wasn’t too bad.”

The bear that was wearing the tattered remnants of the Frau’s outfit looked up at the building and gave out a wuffling snort before the Frau’s voice came through inside my head. “Not too bad, Rusty. I don’t know how many more of your little adventures I can handle, however, I’m an old lady! Oh and I will need some help getting my luggage out. I don’t think you want me streaking around here!”

I reached out and scratched the bear behind the ears. “No problem, Frau, I’ll be glad to help you out. I see those two are a little preoccupied.”

Ravyn and Jim were standing near the driver’s front quarter panel. Jim was leaning on the truck with his right hand clenched into a tight fist, as he leaned down to allow Ravyn to dab away the blood from his face.

Jim’s lips were drawn tight as he struggled to contain his obvious rage.

As she gently wiped the blood away with a handkerchief, Ravyn was speaking to him too softly for me to hear what she was saying.

The Frau snorted again and began padding towards the woods. “Ravyn knows which bags are mine and where we need to go inside the Asylum. I’m going to take this opportunity to do some scouting.” She stopped and looked back at me. “Do you mind stripping the last of this clothing off, Dear? I don’t want to leave an unnatural trail.”

I walked up behind her and began pulling the stretched and shredded remnants of her sweatpants and sweatshirt from her fur. Before long, she was bounding off into the thick, overgrown underbrush.

After the Frau disappeared from sight, I turned to see Jim moving to the tailgate with Ravyn following close behind him.

“Hey, the Frau said she was going to scout around. Do either of you know which bags are hers?”

Jim grunted something unintelligible as he opened the tailgate and reached in to grab the briefcase that held the computer I had seen earlier and a baseball bat. Without further comment he stalked off across the parking lot towards the largest of the three buildings that were in sight, directly across the lot.

I looked to Ravyn. “What’s up with him?”

Ravyn gave me one of those looks that only women seem to be capable of. “He’s having a tough time dealing with everything that has happened in the past day. It’s also killing him that he has no idea how the rest of the group is doing—who’s been hurt or killed, and who’s still in danger.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it has been pretty eventful.”

Ravyn reached up and pulled a piece of bark from my forehead, shaking her head as she did so. “I think you’ve been dead too long if you call this day ‘pretty eventful’. Help me get some of these things inside and we can start getting settled. Getting things set up and ready for the Convocation will help Jim more than anything else right now.”