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The cat and the girl settled into the back of the vehicle, and after a confirmation of preparedness from both Nika and Cladius, Felix put the pedal down and took the truck out of town, closely followed by the cycle.

It was not a short trip, but they had not expected it to be. The roads in the desert were not often good, and though the paved road eventually appeared, even then they couldn't always ride at full speed. In total, it took about eight hours, and as they approached Thapsus the sun was setting. First they crossed through the farmlands, and as they did they encountered more and more other vehicles. Even in the fields there was an occasional tractor, and as they got closer to the city they saw more and more of the same. Thapsus itself was not the largest city in Northern Afrika, but it was certainly large enough. The entire city had been painstakingly surrounded by a twenty-foot high dirt berm, which was regularly patrolled by infantrymen. In some places guard towers looked down from this defensive emplacement, but in most it was simply a wall of dirt, topped with barbed wire.

The entirety of this work, however, was dominated by the city itself. Skyscrapers of glass and steel, hundreds of stories high, touched the clouds overhead. Some parts of the buildings were brightly illuminated by lights and neon signs, but other parts were abandoned, dark and empty and broken down. One or two of the tall buildings near the edge had collapsed completely, leaving rubble spread across a kilometer or so away from the city. In that way Thapsus was a lucky find - none of the buildings that had collapsed had fallen into the city itself, leaving most of the structures and the important services intact.

The only potential problem here was the gate. In the midst of the dirt wall was a checkpoint. Flimsy wooden poles were lifted and lowered for passing vehicles, but about ten uniformed men stood around, stopping cars as they passed. One or two were armed with MP40s, four more with rifles, and the remainder appeared to have holstered pistols. What exactly they were asking was unclear, since not a single vehicle was stopped any longer than fifteen seconds.

The "old" man took in everything through his single uncovered eye, pretending at being nonplussed. This was... this was a good place to live, once. Rich. Full of sound and smoke and flesh. The little crystals of towering glass gleamed in the setting sun, beckoning him closer. He really had entertained very few thoughts at all on the ride until now, letting them bump along through his consciousness here and there, keeping a wary eye out on instinct, and stoically refusing to contemplate. There was never a reason to.

But these buildings... this... vibrance... something to own, to clutch, to latch onto, gleaming like the purring machine under him and the lacquer next to his hound... that... that was worth considering.

It was just as well that his mind had been flicked back on. There were men with guns. They were probably on the lookout for anyone with a mind towards kidnapping, but all the same, Claudius didn't need any sort of grand scheme. He was fully prepared to drive past Felix, and did so, assuming the young man had either gotten a flat tire or wanted an excuse to work his wiles on the young lady. Whatever the case, he slowed to a crawl at a respectful distance from the gate and got in line. If said lines were moving so quickly, lying was either going to be easy or completely ineffective, and they had already missed their chance to sneak in some other way. Besides, being imprisoned was generally an excellent way to get into a city.

He met the eyes of the uniform man doing the checking with his usual, somehow both penetrating and unsettlingly bored gaze, subtly memorizing the man's appearance and clothing. "Evenin'," he muttered.

"Evening, sir," the soldier replied, moving toward the motorcycle. "What brings you... and, er, your dog, to Thapsus?"

The soldier and particularly his uniform in some way reflected Thapsus' political history. It wasn't really regular, on closer inspection; its color was slightly off, compared to the rest, and while he wore a buttoned shirt, the other soldiers were wearing undershirts or cheap shirts that looked like they belonged back in the desert cities, although it was all topped with the same combat harness.

Truth was these weren't really soldiers, they were ex-mafia thugs. The leader himself was an ex-mafia commander. That didn't really explain his behavior - he was still a head of state and that didn't sit well with his actions. The soldiers, though, weren't well-trained, weren't well-equipped, and certainly weren't terribly professional. This one, at least, was polite.

Felix was reasonably upset when Claudius brushed past them and proceeded in. Sure, the guy might be experienced and he might be right in this case, but they needed to be functioning as a cohesive unit if they wanted to survive this, and Claudius' complete disregard for anyone else around him was going to be a big problem. Felix could already tell that this was going to turn into a "Claudius-leads-and-we-follow-whether-we-want-to-or-not" type deal.

"That works for me," he said, smiling absently at Nika while his mind raged at Claudius. "Travelers it is. Are you and I just friends, or what?" He smiled mischievously at her as he pulled back into the flow of traffic and headed towards the gate. He was ready to deal with the guards.

Nika noted that it appeared as if Felix was a bit frustrated at the fact that Claudius decided to rush ahead. Well, you couldn't expect everyone to cooperate all the time. As long as they worked together when it was most crucial, they'd get through this thing alive. She scratched behind Emris' ear while she waited for a response.

Alright, her suggestion worked. She watched as he started up the truck once again, and merged back into traffic. Wait, what? She hadn't expected that question, though it didn't startle. her. Though, she did note the mischievious grin he shot her way. She raised an eyebrow. "Well...I'll let you decide that one...I came up with our excuse, you come up with our relation..."

It was only fair, and she was also interested to see what he'd say. Since the truck had started moving again, Emris put his head back down. He wasn't too fond of the truck ride and was quite ready for it to be overwith. Mainly it was due to the fact that the cat wanted to stretch his legs.