It wasn't like waking up, but rather like snapping from one scene to another. Tate was riding a black sea of nothing one minute, empty of any sense of consciousness, and flung into the mayhem of the backseat the next. There was no life to return to, but just another kind of death where cognition and animation held free reign. The backseat was a cumulus of blood torn limbs and shouting. The car was veering wildly across the ice. A man Tate remembered from the party -- John, right? -- was demanding the car be stopped, but a glimpse in the front seat showed a sleek - and yet somehow severe - looking woman battling for possession of the steering wheel with Jules.
Tate hoisted himself over the seat's back just as the woman neglected her hold on the steering wheel in order to deck Jules hard. There were enough polished rings on the woman's fingers that taking the hit must have been akin to a kiss of brass knuckles. Tate was blood soaked but somehow more vibrant than the others seemed to be, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed John and the unknown man from the backseat go rolling out of the car and onto the icy ground, which the car quickly left behind.
The car couldn't be stopped, the ice wouldn't let it. The Beamer fishtailed, a lost atom bomb soaring across the stratosphere, until it was T-boned by a streetlight post. The crash was jarring, all twisted metal with the lamp bulb above them exploding like a burst of golden fireworks. The velocity sent Tate flying forward against the dash, half crumpled on Jules who was started to not seem like Jules at all now that Tate was getting a good look at him. "Hey, hey.." His voice was soft as he touched Jules' shoulder and reached for the door's sterling handle. The passenger side of the car wasn't the side with the lamp post embedded in it, and from the corner of his eye, Tate could see the driver slumped (seemingly)unconscious against the wheel. Tate didn't stop to check her pulse, she'd either be fine or she wouldn't be, there wasn't time to worry about it now. He pushed Jules hard out of the car and onto the unforgiving ice. Something was wrong.. he'd missed something. Where was the Infantata? Where was the doctor? And why was Jules looking at him like that?