Lysergic Oldham entered Slicer’s room. She looked under the bed and quickly discovered what she was seeking. The safe.
She took another glance at the paper Braincase had given her, just before he died, which contained the combination. She bent down and began twirling the dial.
16 Right. 23 Left. 42 Right. Click! The safe was open.
Lysergic glanced in. There was no Gold, nor Jewelry, nor Drugs, so she continued to scrounge around, until…...
“Hello!” she mumbled to herself, “what do we have here?!”
Lysergic had discovered, stacked under some envelope, rolls of cash, lots of rolls! All neatly stacked at the back of the safe.
Lysergic took the rolls out.
“Now this is interesting,” she said, “very interesting.”
She unrolled the bills and started counting. It was a very rough estimate but Lysergic figured it was over $25,000.
Braincase had advised her to take what was in the safe and run.
“Damn straight I’m going to take this and run!” she announced to herself.
Since there were more rolls of cash than could fit into her arm pouch, Lysergic went back out into the warehouse to look for some type of container. She found an old leather bag with some science books inside. Obviously the bag had belonged to Braincase. Lysergic dumped the bag and went back into the room and filled it with the cash then zipped it shut. As she started to leave, curiosity got the better of her and she took out the envelope and opened it. Inside, she found some photographs. Rare photographs in an age of digitization.
Lysergic looked them over. The tears then began to form in her eyes, as the memories came flooding back into her mind.
The photos were of her and Slicer from a few years back. In a time that now seemed so special and simple. She remembered Slicer had bought this old camera off some guy in the street, just for kicks. So, whenever they went out, Slicer would bring that relic along and they would end up taking pictures of each other, or would enlist some other Groog to snap a picture of them together.
So in one picture, there she was, her arms around Slicer at one of the many rages they had attended. In another, she was sticking out her tongue while flashing the “peace sign”. Then there was Slicer, with his enigmatic, sexy smile. They were hugging each other in front of their home, an old shed under the Pomonga freeway exit.*
Lysergic had forgotten all about those snapshots from another time, not that long ago, and was surprised, considering all that they had been through, that they had survived and that Slicer still had them. The fact that he had kept them in a safe told Lysergic they were very precious to him, just as Slicer had been so precious to her.
She wiped away the tears and placed all the photos back into the envelope, unzipped the bag, then placed the envelope gently in.
The found money was valuable, but no more to valuable to Lysergic than the found photos of her and her only love, Slicer.
She went back out into the warehouse and started to head out, when she suddenly remembered something. Binary!
Lysergic considered just leaving her.
‘I can’t be responsible for some girl who’s almost a mute,’ she thought, ‘she’ll only slow me down and would be nothing but trouble sooner or later!’
Lysergic thought those thoughts, but for only a moment.
“Aw, hell!” she finally said, “I can’t leave her!”
Lysergic turned around and headed into the copy room. Binary was still under the table cowering but her whimpering had stopped.
“Binary! You okay?!” Lysergic asked.
“Yes,” Binary replied, stoically as usual.
“Have you been injured?” Lysergic wondered.
“No,” Binary replied.
“Look,” Lysergic began, “we’ve got to get out of here, okay?!”
Binary slowly glanced up and made eye contact with Lysergic for the first time. Lysergic noted the look of helplessness, along with a touch of sadness, within this young girl’s eyes.
“Are you ready?!” Lysergic asked.
“Yes,” Binary answered, as she got out from under the table.
“Then lets rock!!” Lysergic said, as she took a hold of Binary’s hand and led her out the back warehouse door and on towards the railway tracks, where Lysergic had hidden her Thunderbolt 923 Street Bike in a boxcar.
When they arrived at the boxcar, Lysergic was relieved to see the Bike was still there and still intact.
She placed the bag of cash and the photos in a saddle bag on the back of the bike, then had Binary jump up onto the cycle’s rear riding seat.
Lysergic hopped on and kick started the bike, which quickly roared alive.
“BINARY!!!” Lysergic yelled back, over the Thunderbolt’s low roar, “HANG ON TO ME, OKAY?!”
“YES!” Binary yelled back.
Lysergic slowly rolled down the boxcar ramp, then kicked the bike into gear, as they sped off into the night!
Lysergic didn’t know where they would go first, probably try to find a safe hotel and a room for the night. However, first thing in the morning, Lysergic was going to do something she had wanted to do for some time. She was going to go visit Bradley and Annie Linus.
Next: Chap. Forty “Epilogue”