Periscope

Chapter Six

K23 feverishly sorted through his belongings. What was necessary for this trip? He had never gone farther than the boundaries of this town, at least not since he first arrived. Normally all he needed was his satchel. He did put things in his bag, but felt as though there was more required. He didn't want to leave anything behind that might be useful. He spotted his tool kit and rolled it up, placing it in the satchel as well. That was definitely useful.

He looked inside of his satchel and tried to think. He had his tool kit, some miscellaneous parts that he and Runner may need, and the photo of the humans he had found. Perhaps a couple oil cans? He nodded briefly, slinging his bag over his shoulder and leaving his room. As he closed the door, he turned to look at his room. He felt a twinge of something, something he couldn't explain. He shook it off and closed the door.

K23 made his way to the storage room, looking across each shelf as he hurriedly walked along the aisles. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Maki. It was sitting quietly in the dark. At first, he thought it might've been shut down for a second. Maki did have a tendency of running it's battery thin. However, he noticed it's lights were on, indicating that it was on. He walked over to it and kneeled down.

"You alright, Maki?" K23 asked softly. Maki turned away from him, no noise being made aside from the soft whir of it's wheels. "I'll come back, Maki, I promise. I'll only be gone until I find what I'm looking for, and then it's right back to you." Maki turned slowly to face him, making an inquisitive beep. "I could never leave my favorite little bot for too long." Maki made a happy trill, then spun around briefly before zipping out of the room. What an easy to please little machine, K23 thought. He laughed and shook his head, and turned around to resume his search of the oil cans. He found them atop some old crates and placed them strategically at the bottom of the satchel, pushing through his other things. He sighed contentedly and left the storage room, making his way to the work floor. As he entered, he saw Runner, who was already there. He had a large sack over his shoulder, as well as his satchel.

"You ready to hit the road?" Runner asked, adjusting the sack on his shoulder. K23 nodded, taking a step forward, but then paused and turned to A-5H.

"I hope you didn't think you could leave without saying goodbye," she said with a faked anger, crossing her arms and emoting a stern face before switching to a smiling one, releasing her arms. K23 ran over and hugged her base, listening to the loud turning of her cogs. A-5H leaned down and, as gently as she could, patted K23 on his back. He took a step back and looked up at her. 

"I hope you can manage without us," K23 laughed. A-5H harrumphed.

"Of course I can, it's my job after all!" she laughed at the end of her statement, and then waved at him. K23 turned and made his way over to Runner.

"Aren't you going to say bye, too?" K23 asked. Runner groaned jokingly, and waved passively at A-5H.

"Bye 'mom'," he said, laughing uproariously afterwards, and A-5H emoted a face with it's eyes looking up, the mouth line flat, then back to a smiling one.

"Be safe, boys, and come back to us in... Well, in the pieces you got, I guess!" A-5H yelled out, with K23 and Runner headed to the door. K23 looked back at his friends, watching Maki glide back and forth and Elo and A-5H wave them off. He turned the shop's sign to closed and shut the door behind him. He looked up at the sky briefly, then hurried over to Runner, who was already quite a few steps away from him.

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 "So d'ya know where we're headed? We don't exactly have ourselves a map," Runner asked, looking around at the broken down stores and buildings. They were already much farther than they had ever gone before, to the old city part of this town.

"Not really, I just know what it looks like," K23 said, looking around as well. He was hoping to find a train station, or an old airport. Back before the storm, they had Intelli-Maps, an interactive screen that could give you directions if you lost your way. If he could find one, then hopefully they could find out some information.

"Do you hear that?" Runner asked, stopping in his tracks. K23 stopped as well, attempting to listen to what Runner was listening for. He heard a crackling behind him, like the crunch of leaves and small rocks, and it seemed that Runner heard it as well, because they both turned to look in the direction of the sound. To their surprise, it was Elo, who was trying to carefully navigate the discarded items on the ground.

"Elo?" K23 asked, mostly out of surprise. Elo beeped, scurrying over to them. "Did you... Follow us?" Elo nodded, producing another beep. "Did you want to come with us?" It nodded excitedly.

K23 and Runner looked at each other, with looks of confusion being exchanged between them, before Runner simply shrugged.

"Why not? It'd be boring with just this lump of gears with me," he said, laughing loudly, pointing his thumb in K23's direction. K23 smiled, happy to have another addition to the travel group.

"Keep your eyes out for an Intelli-Map, or someplace that might have one. If we can find one, I want to hook up my data cord to it so it can try finding out where we have to go," K23 said to the both of them, and they both nodded, immediately searching around. After a short while, Elo made a short trill and pointed, showing K23 and Runner what was once a gas station.

"Yeah, that might have one. Good job, Elo," K23 patted it on the shoulder, and the three of them made their way to the building. They walked in, and sure enough, there was an Intelli-Map stall near the counter. K23 took his satchel off and placed it on the counter and lifted his arm closer to his chest, digging his thumb up against his forearm until he unlatched a small door that opened it up. Inside was the data cord, which he pulled on gently and fed into the port on the side of the Intelli-Map's base. He then used his free hand to turn the machine on, and at first, it didn't boot up. Thankfully though, the machine began buzzing shortly after and the screen lit up. He clicked on the welcome menu until he found the option for "Read USB" and waited as it analyzed his data. He turned to look at Elo and Runner, with Elo standing behind him, patiently waiting, and Runner walking through the aisles, looking at all of the now seriously expired food items that were left on the shelves. He picked up a bag of Digi-Nutri's and shook it.

"You feeling hungry?" he asked K23 jokingly, before tossing it back onto the shelf and resuming his slow walk around the store. K23 shook his head, laughing softly to himself before hearing a ping. He turned to the screen and saw that it was finished analyzing his data. He tapped the screen again for more options, and chose the option for analyzing any photos or videos he may have that showed a location. He chose the memory he had recently of the night sky. Intelli-Maps weren't just called that because of any old reason. They had the processing power to micro-analyze anything in a photo or video to give you an accurate location, which K23 hoped this one might be able to do. With incredible speed, it began scrubbing the video for any landmarks or specific landscapes. Before he knew it, another ping played. On the screen, he saw his destination. Barely able to contain himself, K23 excitedly tapped the screen for the option to download directions, waiting impatiently as the machine gathered the info and sent it through his data cord. With a final ping, it let him know the directions were sent to him and wished him a great day. He unhooked his data cord, letting it reel itself back into his arm and closed the latch.

"I found out where we have to go," K23 said to Elo and Runner, who were both looking at a drink machine with the side open, presumably searching for parts, before they looked at him. "We're going to Marion, Kansas."