Survival

Chapter 21 Mystery Devices

Edward had waited day after day, hour after hour for the week to come to an end. His efforts to talk Nate into an early release fell flat when his co-worker revealed he had plans of his own tonight. To Edward’s dismay, he would be stuck closing up the lab solo. Maybe it would be a welcomed distraction.

The last hour consisted of purposeless walks around the lab, fiddling with broken equipment and reassembling a security camera with such skill it could have been mistaken for a mailbox beaten with a baseball bat. His mind wouldn’t allow him to focus as thoughts of Olivia plagued him.

She stood there in the desert camp. The wind chased and teased her white dress to reveal her tanned thighs. A quick look around confirmed the absence of people or civilization besides the khaki tent. Her dark eyes met his and she placed her index finger in her mouth, eyes still on him. Her mouth and lips moved with remarkable skill as they captured the others moments later. Edward couldn’t unearth the effort required to look away, his desire mounted as her intensity grew. A minute passed before a smile crossed her lips and she ran those fingers through her dark hair. A quick smile, a fleeting gaze. An attempt at bashfulness, but he knew better.

“I need you,” she mouthed. The wind stole her words and carried them away.

A loud rapping sound jerked him out of his daze.  Four large rocks fell from the sky on either side of him. They stopped for a moment and allowed him to see Olivia’s thick red lips pulled into a smile. The ground shook and his shoulders rocked from side to side. The beautiful woman began to fade and the desert disappeared when his eyes flew open.

Fiery red hair clouded his vision and a youthful girl’s face took the place of Olivia’s. He lifted his head off his folded arms which rested on the worktable.

 “Hi, Mr. Drest,” she said. “Sorry to wake you up.”

Edward stretched his arms out and let out a large yawn. “That’s alright. I probably shouldn’t be sleeping on the job. You’re Nate’s daughter, right?”

“Yeah, I’m happy I caught you. I was hoping you could help me with something.”

“Only if you don’t tell your dad I was sleeping on the job,” he said with a smile.

The redhead shook her head and maintained her calm expression.

 “Alright, I’m just about done for the night, but would.” He glanced over at the clock to see how much time he could sacrifice before the agony of making Olivia wait would consume him. It certainly screamed at him right now, some areas more pronounced than others- “Ten minutes be long enough?”

The girl nodded and walked over to a shelf piled high with plastic crates. Edward followed her while he shifted his baggy work pants around and tugged at the work shirt that was too short to help his situation.

Don’t turn around kid. I’m not perving on you, I promise.

He hadn’t had a chance to work with any of the materials her hawk eyes sought out just yet. To his knowledge, they were just here for storage. Nate had never spoken of their significance before, and the girl’s knowledge surprised him to contrast his own ignorance.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“I need to find a device with this serial number,” she said and handed him a slip of paper.

He looked at the sequence of numbers and letter with a turned body. He did welcome the distraction, and could fully embrace it once his embarrassing erection subsided. Dreams like that belonged in the mind of boys closer to this girl’s age, not in his.

He looked through the labels on the exterior of the plastic crates until he found one with the same opening numbers. He lifted the container down from the high shelf and placed it on one of the work tables. They both began to go through the box, which was far less organized on the inside. People must have just tossed the devices in. They all resembled each other, handheld consoles with 3.5 inch screens.