Pilot (13/?)
It was getting very hard for Dave to ignore the pain. His once-blue tie was now very purple. He thought it was awfully resourceful of him to avoid bleeding out with it, but he was pretty sure he was on the verge of fainting from the heat alone if he didn't find somewhere to nurse this injury soon.
And it was going to have to be cheap. Dave wasn't sure he could foot the bill for a gunshot wound with his pay, especially since he would undoubtedly still need to pay someone or something for a ride back to Earth.
He had asked a passerby for directions. A tall, crimson-colored cat had thought for a second - maybe not a local - and had pointed him down a side road. He hadn't noticed the wound, seeming distracted. Or maybe he had and didn't want to ask.
He was walking fast, as if speeding up would distract him from the wound. At the very least, it would get him to help that much faster.
Although he didn't know it, Dave was blazing a slightly different trail down Mercury than Kara had. He now found himself in what he could only have described as the suburbs of urban Mercury. The dust-free street signs and sidewalks almost seemed out of place, and although the streets were still packed, something about this part of the city seemed cleaner, like a clock.
He looked to his left. Across the street was a sprawling lawn, tinted tan by the sand carried on the winds, but a lawn all the same. In the center was a giant church, nearly a cathedral. White arches like a giant whale's ribs hung over the roof. Inscribed above the door was Sᴀʟ ᴇᴛ Lᴜx. It was a picture of luxury hung up on a desert wall.
Then his arm stung again and he forgot it. He had been walking for this long and he still hadn't seen even the sketchiest of hospitals. He was almost willing to run into any nearby building and get help. Then he saw it - the building he'd been referred to.
It was named Julia's. Dave had assumed he was being pointed towards a hospital, but he was seriously doubting it now. A neon saxophone decoration hung above the entrance, and he was pretty sure hospitals didnt deal in saxes. Exactly what kind of a place had he been pointed to?
