InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Demonic Virus ❯ Scene One: Hitchhiker ( Chapter 2 )

The sun was blazing hot, beating down onto the dry desert along the stretch of highway. It was one of those highways you never really see when you go on trips, but they're always there in the movies.

 

A young man lay back on the pink padding of his red trench coat and stretched in the cool shade of a billboard sign. His sweater was carelessly shoved into his backpack along with a worn hand-woven afghan given to him. A large tube of sun block poked out of a side pocket and he reached to zip the backpack up, his shoulder length white hair flowing about him in the cool breeze. He couldn't afford to be out in the sun without his sun block.

 

Locking over his shoulder he saw an image wavering under the intense heat. As it approached within a miles distance he realized it was a diesel truck. Quickly throwing on his heavy coat and grabbing his backpack he ran out from under the sign and jumped the three-foot barbwire, racing over to the side of the miles-long black pavement with his thumb out. He would have preferred to stay in the shade, but a vehicle hadn't passed by in hours and he wasn't going to let this opportunity pass.

 

The diesel squealed to a stop, a streak of black smoke slivered out from the top pipe and the boy reached to open up the door. Wincing as the hot metal connected with his fleshy palm. Sucking air into his lunges through gritted teeth he pulled open the heavy metal door.

 

“Hey where ya headed to boy.” He asked as the kid climbed up into the cab of his diesel.

 

“Anywhere but here.”

 

“I here that! Ain't much out here for miles. What ya doin now?” The guy asked, turning his radio down as the news broadcast came on.

 

“I'm going to find my brother.” The boy replied. He pulled something out of his trench coat pocket and handed it to the driver “His name is Sesshoumaru.”

 

The driver looked at the picture for a moment before returning his gaze towards the rode. “Never hear of `im.”

 

“Oh well, didn't expect you to. It's been eleven years since I saw him last.” He placed the picture back into his inner coat pocket and leaned back, stretching until he felt a painful, but relaxing pop.

 

“So what's a kid like you doing out all alone? You a runaway?”

 

He turned his head and pulled his arms down, placing his hands in his lap.

 

“Yup, five years on the street now.”

 

“Five years…eleven since you saw your brother, but you don't look old enough to be out from under your mama's shadow.”

 

“Well, I'm nineteen so your don't have to worry.” He frowned.

 

“Really? But five years…That's a long time ta be alone. Ya look pretty well kept to be on the streets so long.”

 

“My home was worse than the city alleys, I know how to survive.”

 

“No doubt. So, what happened to your family that landed ya on the street?”

 

“Hu?”

 

“Well, after your brother left. Did something happen to your family?”

 

“It's been almost ten years since I last saw my mother and Father.”

 

“But…Ya just said ya been on the streets five years.”

 

“I wasn't homeless, I was houseless. I had a place I belonged…but it didn't last long.”

 

“Somethin go wrong with your foster?”

 

“They were old…” He turned to stare out the window and the driver didn't push.

 

`Kaede…Totosia…' Five years alone still hadn't hardened over the tender bruise on his heart when the died.

 

He clutched his backpack to his chest, the image of the afghan neatly folded inside projected itself onto the inside of his eyelids, and the events of his past scrolled by like a silent movie. Slowly he drifted to sleep, his forehead resting against the cool glass of the window.

 

~*~*~*~*

 

He woke up to the sound of the breaks squealing and the diesel turning of the black pavement into the desert gravel beside the road. The sun had set recently because the sky was a mixture of purple and dark blue. He lifted his sunglasses to see more clearly in the darkened vehicle.

 

“Hey, why we stopping, you need to piss or something?” The he asked as the driver-person reached behind the seat for what looked like a water bottle. He never did ask him his name.

 

“Nope.” The man said, clasping a moist cloth over his mouth. It took only a few seconds of breathing before the young man passed out.

 

~*~*~*~*

 

So? What do you all think? I know it should be longer, but I want to start the next chapter off with the next scene. Kola will be in charge of writing the third chapter so it will probably be a while before that's up.

 

I know I said Monday…But I couldn't help it! And Kedo said I could do the first chapter, since she was supposed to do it but her computers being rebellious again.

 

-Rin