You...you've never met...

Zeke's hands start trembling in a drunken rage.

HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU'VE NEVER MET HER!!!

Tears begin trickling down Zeke's face as all the memories of that fateful night come rushing back. All five hours worth.

At...at least show her the common decency of not pretendin' to forget...

Zeke begins stumbling up towards the RV, swatting his right hand at where Toddy was just a second ago to get him out of the way, not noticing that Toddy had inched halfway back to the pick-up by now.

Just tell me what happened to her. JUST...TELL ME! You're her gosh-damn sister after all.

TELL ME EMILY!!!

And with that, Zeke threw open the door.

The laundromat bells chime as the deranged hillbilly rushes into the camper. Ruby scurries to her feet and tries to rush to the wooden baseball bat leaning on the inside of her closet, but the man trains the shotgun on her before she can reach it.

SISTER?! Listen, I absolutely have never had a sister, I promise you that much. My name's Ruby, it never has been and never will be Emily. I have no clue who Emily is but she most definitely is not me.

Ruby eyes the baseball bat and inches closer and closer to it each time his dazed eyes are off of her.

Startled, Zeke's finger almost slips onto the trigger when he hears the bells jingle. He momentarily turns his head to examine the handiwork.

Clever alarm system. Reminds me of the one back at the cabin.

He then turns back to Ruby, who's seemingly spewing more bullshit.

"Ruby", huh? Now I don't, I don't know about...all that...

Zeke's drunken state combined with Ruby's absolute insistence on her story left him at a bit of a loss for words.

But...but all I know is... we been followin' ya ever since you was back in Oregon. We ain't come here to hurt ya. We just want the truth.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief after hearing him drop Oregon.

This guy is either crazy or he really does think I'm someone else. These clowns were most definitely not sent by the Hatch bros..

Buddy, you did NOT follow me from Oregon. I drove up here from Rhode Island and I've been in town for a few days now. You must've mixed me up with this Emily chick somewhere along the way, I'm telling you.

..my map! Check the passenger seat, I've got a map with the route I took from Rhode Island all highlighted. Go look at it!

Sorry, but I ain't turnin' my back on you that easily.

Besides, that map could be old!

The crux of the matter is, we saw you...we saw Emily enter that laundromat for an awful long time. Then eventually she exited into this RV, according to my associate...

Zeke looked around and finally noticed Toddy was missing.

Speaking of which...where'd that sonuvabitch go?! Look, "Ruby"...I'll buy your story for now. But I think we need to hear what the villain has to say. Maybe he's the one tryin' to pull the wool over my eyes! Can I trust that you ain't gonna pull some funny business if I go grab him??

Meanwhile, Toddy realizes he fucked this up. Now they've dragged some other lady into this, and she's got some kinda miniature harpoon gun, and then there's still the psycho with the shotgun and the grudge, and now they were going to end up either killing each other or joining forces and...

Yeah. Toddy Villain has had enough of this shit.

He's going to firmly ignore that he almost tried to run to Zeke's aid, and that he nearly called him boss twice tonight. Fuck that!

He frantically searches the front seats of the pickup for the keys.

Ruby yanks down on the dangling drawstring to lift the RV blinds straight upwards. She wipes the dirty window in a circular motion and peers across the road.

Uhhh...hey man, I think the villain is about to leave you stranded..

The engine revs on, and the pickup starts to back up and out of the side of the RV.

Toddy Villain is getting the fuck out of here.

Aw, hell! He's getting away!

Zeke looks at Ruby expectantly.

Can I trust this lass? Probably not. But if she don't help me here, I'll be stranded in this damn town.

I think he's long gone, buddy.

Ruby catches Zeke not so subtly looking her over with his glazed-over eyes, clearly sussing her out.

Can I trust this hillbilly? FUCK NO! But if I don't help him here.....he'll probably murder me!

We aren't chasing him down in the RV since you...you know...destroyed it.

Listen, I'll make you a deal. You help me fix up my camper and I'll help you track down Emily or Ambuh or your hillbilly friend as long as it's within a three mile radius and I'm home in four hours.

Ruby extends a small but capable hand outwards towards Zeke and smirks.

Deal?

Toddy Villain is speeding off!

Oh...oh yeah. I did give this big ol' girl a pretty good tap now didn't I!

Zeke high-fives Ruby's extended hand and stumbles outside to assess the damage.

Zeke turns Ruby's offer of a handshake into a highfive as Ruby looks down at her extended hand, dumbfounded.

I hate this guy.

She follows Zeke as he struggles down the two RV steps and onto the side of the road. She briefly contemplates just locking the door behind him and holding out in the camper when she remembers his shotgun. She sighs and takes the final step onto the road to join him.

Everything you need to fix the tire is in the side hatch there. You're the one who busted it, you can do the heavy lifting!

Ruby's green eyes suddenly widen and panic sets across her face.

Shit. WINONA! I haven't checked on her since the crash, wait here.

She quickly retreats back inside.

Welp. It's like papa used to say: sometimes you just gotta reap what ya sow. Usually followed up by 'now fetch me a goddamned switch'.

Before pulling the toolkit out, Zeke surveyed the road ahead, noticing Toddy had already disappeared from view. In all likelihood, he was long gone by now.

Seems this lass' wheels are the only hope of trans-por-tation I got 'less I want to go hitchhikin'. If nothin' else, might as well make this thing drivable again. Least I could do, really.

Zeke yanked the toolkit out the side hatch and assessed the damage to the tire. The body had been bent around it rendering it immovable, along with a foot-long gash on the side. Short of having a spare tire available, Zeke hammered away the bent body and haphazardly rolled some duct tape all around the gash. He then stood back and admired his handiwork.

Well...it ain't gonna hold up long but it'll at least last a few miles.

Zeke walked up to the RV door to tell Ruby the 'good' news. Just before he knocked, however...he glanced through the driver window and spotted a snake crawling up Ruby's arm. Immediately, he decided to leap into action and save the damsel. He pulled his bowie knife out and hurriedly rushed into the RV.

RUBY! WATCH OUT!

Zeke held his knife out, ready to chop the beast's head clean off...but he soon realized the scene was markedly more tranquil than expected.

What in the blue hell are you doing with a green mamba in here?!

CHILL HILLBILLY! Don't stomp up the steps like that, she gets scared off by heavy vibrations.

Ruby held her arm outwards and allowed the small creature to slither its way upwards.

This is Winona! And she's not a...mamba, she's a harmless garter snake. I've had her for awhile now, she keeps me company in my palace!

Ruby took a quick step backwards and sat down on the RV's raggedy couch, crushing a few scattered trinkets and empty tv dinner trays under her feet as she did.

She ran her finger gently over the top of Winona's head and maneuvered it down her scaly body. She continued to speak to the snake in a much higher tone than her typically low speaking voice.

C'mon baby, head into your cave!

Winona made her way up Ruby's shoulder and into the lowered hood of her sweatshirt. She burrowed herself into the dark, warm space and curled into a messy spiral.

Ruby looked up at a foul faced Zeke and dropped her voice back down to normal.

Problem?