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Chapter 5
No Matter Where We Go
“Join me!” Silk shouted. “Join me and my new perspective, we have so much to do!”
“No!” Eight yelled. “Come with me, we’ll leave this place behind once for all!”
Silk and Eight were on the floor, their weapons broken.
“We’re…” Eight slowly stood up, “clearly at an impasse which you won’t cross.” He picked up what remained of his mace and limped over to Silk, “I guess then, I’ll give you what you wanted before that thing interrupted our—”
A rock hit Eight on the side of his head, knocking him out..
“Finally…” Free dusted his hands. “Come up, coast’s clear.”
Silk turned to Free, using his chin to move, “Thanks for that, but I didn’t need the help! I had him right where I wanted him.”
“Wait, the other one’s still conscious—I’ll handle it,” Free picked up another rock then was stopped by Frost, who had emerged from the pit with Foxx following shortly behind.
“Do not,” Frost said.
“Alright,” Free tossed the rock aside. “Chances are he has useful info.”
Silk dragged himself over to the trio, “How are you three holding up? That fall must’ve been far.”
“I am fine,” Frost coughed up coolant; they tried their best to angle it away from Foxx’s view.
Foxx and Free didn’t answer—Silk didn’t notice, “That’s great—Anyway, thanks for the help. Especially you little guy! You saved my hide and gave me whole new perspective! I was just about ready to close up this act of mine, but then, well, I think it would’ve been lame to die after getting another chance.”
Foxx bowed.
“Considerer yourselves invited to my death party! It’s a few hundred miles east from here, starts five hours after dawn.”
“Your what party?” Free asked.
“Oh, you know, a death party, a party celebrating one’s demise.”
“Makes sense,” Free shrugged. “Can’t make it, busy, but you got any supplies to spare? Canned food, water, fuel, scrap—the works.”
“Hmm, I think there’s a cache not far from here. It’s left of the fountain on the ground floor of the mall, right under a tile marked with seventeen dots. You can’t miss it!”
“Oh, great, how convenient, that’s right where we parked… Also,” Free pointed at Foxx, “Is he one of yours?”
Foxx had wandered away from the group. He sifted through rubble with his nose, revealing Silk’s guitar. Foxx sniffed it, his ears drooped down, then he returned to the group.
“Nah, must be an Alien like you two,” Silk said.
“Free,” Frost nudged Free’s shoulder.
“What?”
“Inquire about the thing.”
“There’s no way he knows anything.”
“It would not hurt to try.”
“Why don’t you?”
“How can I? As only you know what the thing is, you have yet to it reveal to me.”
“Fine, whatever, you win, I’m too tired for this.” Free looked at Silk, “Do you know anything about where we can find the… Thing-Mi-Find.”
“Oooooo, the Thing-Mi-Find,” Silk said. “Now, my memory is not the best and it’s been a couple of years. But my old friend Seam knew a guy who was friends with this other guy named Hide. Hide had a cousin who knew the partner of a guy that lived on Hornnhealm—don’t know if she still lives there, may have moved. Anyway, that guy knew another guy, a Dracocast if I recall, with a silver helm and these big ole antlers.” Silk looked at Frost, “Like yours, but not at all.”
“I have horns, not antlers,” Frost said.
“Right—Either way, that silver-helm-guy had one, I know that for sure! Apparently, he was real proud of it, talked a lot about how it was destiny that he had it.”
“Helpful,” Free said.
“No problem!”
Free suddenly lit up, “Oh, one more thing, can you tell me what this is?” Free presented Silk the device Frost gave him, “Is it a controller, a key, a communication device… part something bigger?”
“That little thing? No, no, it’s nothing like that,” Silk chuckled. “It’s a memory game for kids, Cloth Commands I think it’s called.
“…”
“You press the middle button to start, press the light that glows, then a new round stars and a new color is added to the sequence of buttons you have to press.”
“……”
“Surprised it lasted this long, good reminder of how life keeps on keeping on!”
“………”
Silk looked at Frost, “By the way, care telling me—”
Frost collapsed face first, making a loud
splat
on impact.
“Looks like we have to cut this short,” Silk pointed at an elevator on the other side of the roof. “There’s the elevator if you didn’t know.”
Free slinged Frost over his shoulder, “Can’t use it, the door’s jammed… exactly like the one downstairs.”
“That’s because they just look like that. It’s a fancy art thing—you just have to press the center then pull up to open it.”
Free walked to the Elevator, Foxx following, and did as Silk said. The door retracted into its frame like an aperture.
“I hope you all visit again sometime! Got big plans, going to make this place look a lot nicer,” Silk waved goodbye.
“Uh-huh,” Free entered the elevator, Foxx doing the same, then pressed the ground floor button.
***
Be-be-be-ba—be-be-be—ba-doop.
Upbeat, chippy, jazzy music fizzed out of the speakers overhead, paring well with the cool wind from the air conditioning which breezed through the cramped elevator. Frost’s horns took up most of its space, Free having to stand at an uncomfortable angle as to not have them scrape against the wall or hit Foxx’s head.
“Is… Frost… ok?” Foxx’s voice was less staticky than before, but he still struggled to speak.
Free shrugged, “Eh, probably. This is the worst I’ve seen them, though most likely they just overheated and burst a pipe or few. Thankfully, I know a thing or two about repairing dumb as—butts… dumb butts.”
“What… about… you?”
“I’ll live. My shell, the bright part of me, got torn, but it repairs fast.” Free reset his hold on Frost, “After I fix up Frost, I’ll do a check up on you too. Gotta make sure you aren’t seriously damaged or somethin’.”
The two stayed silent for the rest of their descent. Not an awkward silence, a refreshing one. To Free, it felt like everything was finally calming down, there was nothing else that needed to be said. That was until they reached the ground floor, and the door opened.
It was dark, but Free could see the entire lobby was covered in guards.
“Ah sh—Foxx, book it to the right!” Free dashed out—and tripped on the gap between the floor and the elevator, tumbling into a guard.
Free quickly recovered, standing back up and finding himself… covered in soil. Frost was covered too, and a scrap of burlap hung off their horns.
What Free had tumbled into wasn’t a guard, it was a bag of soil strapped onto sticks and covered in thin flimsy plastic armor. And all other “guards,” upon a second look, where the same.
“This entire time they were—” a clump of dirt from Frost’s horns plopped onto Free’s head.
Foxx hovered out the elevator to Free’s side and tilted his head.
Free took a long, deep breath, then made sure Frost had not sustained any further injury, finding nothing new.
“Whatever, this place sucks, let’s get out of here,” Free walked out of the building with Foxx in tow.
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