Thermophile

Sixteen: Remembrance 3.0

We still weren't able to see people and were still in the desert. Discovering that Nathan couldn't function without food nor water nor rest, Elliot made several detours to get him food—namely a cactus and water—from an unknown source.

"Something's not right." Elliot's smooth face frowned.

My guard was automatically up, my eyes searching for anything moving. "What?"

"I've been hearing a warning ping ever since we got out." He looked behind us.

Nathan was sleeping on his back.

"What ping?"

"A bomb ping, my system is warning me that I am close to a bomb. I checked several times if we were being followed but I got none...unless." He eyed me sharply.

What? I looked back at him.

"T, may I inspect you?"

I nodded. "Sure?" Dang, a bomb was planted in me?

He stopped talking and proceeded to just stare at me.

How was he going to do that?

Elliot was so still that I thought he shut down but after a while his eyes blinked. "Don't freak out, okay?"

Okay? I stared and waited for his next words.

"You got a mini bomb in your nape and I think it started its detonation time when you left the facility."

I was not freaking out, not even an ounce nerve-wrecked but I continued to stare at my friend.

"And you got fifteen minutes left before it separates your head from the rest of your body."

"Can you do anything about it?" Will this be able to kill me this time?

Might, might not.

"Yes, my friend, I hold every recorded intelligence in the planet so there's no need to worry. We just have to find a suitable place and nice, sharp knives to operate you with. Fast." He said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"News flash, we're in the middle of nowhere." I looked up and the blue sky began to harbor orange tinges and pink clouds.

He nodded and his face contemplating. "Uh-huh?"

"So, where Elliot?"

"If we run, fast will this kid's skin come off?"

I frowned. "I don't think so. I think."

And so we did. We ran as fast as we could hoping to find civilization before I get decapitated.

Nathan probably woke up because I heard screaming in the middle of the run, right at Elliot's direction.

I saw lights just ahead and had to signal my friend to slow down.

There was a road! And right across it was a lone house..? I couldn't tell what it was at the distance we were in but it had a roof, so probably a house.

As we got closer, Nathan was gagging, I got a clearer view of the building. It was like one of those in the dreams that they projected.

"A convenience store?" I asked Elliot, looking at him and his carry.

"Yes." He continued to trudge on to the black—asphalted—road.

"You never saw a convenience store before?" Nathan asked as they passed by me, he was looking pale, like he was drained of blood.

"I have." Just not the real thing, just felt like one.

I followed them, the hard leveled path was a foreign feeling under my feet because of the sand I had walked on for hours.