Thermophile

Fourteen: Remembrance

"Hi," He smiled and probably thought it was a friendly one, but it was not. It was scary.

He squatted. "Do you want to go outside?"

I stared at him. He was dressed just like them but he looked different.

"Or I could carry you, because your little legs won't be able to keep up when we need to go running." His smile was still there and his teeth looked like they were growing every second.

He reached out his hand but I didn't take it. Why would I, he was scary.

"Okay, carry it is."

He proceeded to do what he said and lifted me. I didn't cry-I wanted to-but I didn't want to be put inside the water and be put to sleep like they always do when I cry.

A scary man was carrying me, bouncing from all his running to somewhere, and I couldn't do anything, even ask for help. Because I knew none of the people here were my friends.

When Elliot first came to me and told me that he wanted to get away, I didn't know what to answer him. What could a mere three and a half year-old child, who knew nothing about the existence of a real world, say to that? A nod of agreement, maybe?

Having no plan whatsoever, we were caught right then and there, Elliot was punished and I was...left within the corners-if it had any-of the white room I knew my life in.
But he kept trying-for some reason-every time my conditioning broke, he was there mere seconds after I regained consciousness. He will then lead me to corridors and stairs, until we were eventually running, running from nothing but then we would somehow be captured and sent back.

This became a routine until those scientists deemed that it could become one of the post-conditioning tests because they, in some way thought that the A.I. was just testing me on his own as he was curious about me.

Elliot was serious though, until I became too. At eight, I have memorized the ins and outs of the laboratory and with the help of the A.I. friend, he could monitor the presence of people in it though the surveillance devices deployed all over the place and prevent us from being caught.

For the first time in all of our attempts, we got out and came out of a rock. A weird rock looking rock because it was orange and when we got out of its shade, it felt like the high temperature would melt my skin-it felt like it. That was the very first time I felt the sun's rays on my body, the heat licking my forehead, making it sweat was a foreign experience but somehow felt familiar.

Elliot's body at that time was full of holes and he was shorting and sparking as he took some bullets from the guards, but it didn't hinder his drive to escape, so we ran on the dusty, dry land with no particular direction in mind-just away from that place.

As we walked farther, my body slowly adjusted to the temperature. My sweating stopped, the parch in my throat eased-it was as if I wasn't hating the hot weather, albeit loving it. We took quick stops in the shades of huge orange rocks for my A.I. friend to fix a bit of himself and then we would go again when he was feeling a bit okay.

He didn't talk, so did I and just followed behind him. We came across a few stray horses-as I'd known them through the 'brain projections' of my conditioning-but never attempted to ride one. We just walked pass them.

When, maybe, Elliot thought that we'd walked far enough, he proceeded to look for somewhere to rest as the day was ending anyways. Of course, wherever he went I trailed after him.

He found a cave deep enough to probably hide us temporarily. It was dark at first but eventually my eyesight adjusted and everything brightened.

I stared in amazement as sparks shot from the rocks he picked up and rubbed together. He asked me to sit beside him but not too close.