It was a long, grueling walk to CrudeOil City. At first, it was nice to be outside in a new spot on the other side of the canyons. B didn’t mind the heat that much, he was used to it from watching the birds all day back at home. But then it got boring for B. The desert alternated between large stacks of rock and long stretches of dirt. Sure there were some patches of greenery, or cactus, here and there, but everything went by so slow.

B was not sure who had it worse. Him, having to carry the stuff he needed to sleep and eat on his back and Lola’s stuff. Mothman, who sometimes had to carry the extra drinking water, and Lola because she was weak from all this walking. But after a while B considered who it most likely was, he figured it was Lola. She was not used to the desert and was still recovering from coming back from the dead.

As the sun hit the highest point in the sky Mothman called for a lunch break.

B unclipped himself from the makeshift backpack and dropped his and Lola’s stuff before flopping down on a rock to rest.

“My legs,” whined B.

“My feet,” complained Lola.

“My god,” said Mothman as he rolled his eyes at the two of them, “I do this all the time and you don’t hear me complaining. And I get that Nova doesn’t have a good pair of shoes, but you, B? Your town doesn’t have cars.”

“Well, our town doesn’t have gas guzzlers because everything we need is within a fairly short walking distance. Anything we needed to trade for would come to us eventually,” B replied.

Mothman passed some water around and B passed some instant meals around.

“Like those parts you wanted?” Prodded Mothman with a smirk.

B hesitated for a moment.

“Well if I knew that there was a gold mine on the other side of those canyons, I would have gladly fought off all the mountain lions in there to get them.”

Mothman spat out some food with a laugh.

“Mountain lions? Really? That’s what they told you was there?” Mothman laughed again. “When we told Henry to make up something scary but subtle, he must have known the town well because if that worked-”

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“Henry!? Henry Shobber?” B asked, surprised.

“Uh- Yeah he was our inside guy. He gave us water between shipments.” Mothman said sheepishly.

B was mortified, shocked, angered.

“You were the raiders who took our water!?” B almost yelled.

“Hey!” Lola interjected, “I have an idea. After you guys are done eating, why don’t you teach him how to throw a punch again Moth. Blow off some steam?”

“No, let’s do this now,” B said, getting up.

“Oh, so your legs don’t hurt now?” Mothman said, poking, and prodding B.

“Moth stop it,” Lola said.

“Oh, I have an even better idea. Let’s spar.” B said with a smile.

“B…” Lola covered her face with her hand. “You just learned how to punch today do you think he will spar with you?”

“Ok,” Moth replied, much to Lola’s dismay.

Mothman got up and walked to a sandy area, B in tow.

“Mothman I swear to god, he already had one concussion this week,” Lola said following them.

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach him to block first,” Mothman said, “Heck, I’ll even teach him to dodge and weave.”

Mothman was true to his word. He held up his hands and B followed his movements. It took some time to get the punching, blocking, and 'dodging and weaving’ down, but B seemed to get the basics.

“Ok ready?” B asked.

“Yeah. touch fists and we start the spar,” Mothman explained.

They bumped fists and took a step back. B had his hands up by his face and was on the balls of his feet just like Mothman trained him. Mothman was steady on his feet with his hands up by his shoulders. They circled each other for a moment. Until B decided to throw a punch. B took a step in and aimed for Moth’s head, but Moth ducked out of the way. He ducked so far down it confused B. B was stepping back into his original position with his hands up ready to block what could be coming next. Then B’s legs were kicked out from underneath him.

The air was knocked out from him as fell onto his back.

“Here’s your first major lesson in fighting,” Mothman said as he walked into B’s view and bent over him, “Don’t get cocky.”

“Right,” B coughed out.

Mothman reached out a hand and helped B back to his feet. Which B gladly accepted.

The rest of the week went something to that effect. Morning and noon Mothamn and B would practice sparring. Lots of boring walking in between with both B and Mothman keeping an eye on Lola to make sure she doesn’t get too tired. Mothman seemed to want to carry Lola the whole way, but she wouldn’t let him.

But at night the routine was different depending on what spot they decided to stay at. About the most consistent things they did was that they traveled every night to one of those big boulder clusters to take shelter, with one of them taking watch. They had these strange, reflective blankets to keep them warm at night in the intense desert cold. There was never a fire like they used on the first night because they didn’t want to attract attention to themselves.

When they arrived at the edge of CrudeOil City, it was only the beginning of not trying to attract attention to themselves.