Putz12 Plus One

TWENTY FOUR | INFECTIOUS GIGGLES AND TREE-SHAPED RIDDLES

That little glimmer of hope in those eyes. He recognized it. He raised his finger high, almost prophetically and warned her not to get any funny ideas.

"Trust me, I'm not." She was.

"Good." He put his finger down, and at the very moment the sky crackled so loudly that even he looked concerned. "Did... did I do that?" He looked at his hand.

They knew they had better read the papers before they weren't so lucky to be alone again. Putz sat down on the bare ground and so did she. He fished in his pockets until he gathered several crumpled up sheets of paper.

"Did you crinkle them?!"

"I did not!"

She snatched the papers. "These could be our only way out. Don't ruin them!" She began smoothing them down but it wasn't working. He rolled his eyes as this went on, and soon she had an idea. 

"What are you doing?!" 

"Watch and learn." She held her body weight on her elbow, planking on the things. Her face was so sure of everything, which lead him to laugh. 

"That's not gonna do anything!" He pushed her lightly with his index finger, after which she fell on her behind. 

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"Eh, you're too slow for me."

The two now stared at the papers, which seemed to be written in black ink. What felt like hours passed before they finally gave up on decrypting the thing.

"What even is this?!" His finger traced down to a symbol, which appeared to be a circle with a line through it. "This is octarded!" He couldn't take it anymore, so he lied down and hid his head in his arms, screaming. 

Assuring himself his muffling was all a part of his thought process, she took it as a sign to read into it further. While most made no sense, she recognized one vital piece of information with a gasp.

"What?!" He finally broke from his rest. 

"Ordinem!!" She read out loud, paralyzed from the confirmation. He grabbed the paper from her and read it, then put it upside down. 

"Makes no sense. Eh, it's garbage." 

He tried to rip it up but she stopped him. "What are you doing?! This could be our only hope!"

She held the papers close to her chest, frozen and face-to-face with him. His eyes had a message of forewarning to them. "Hope?" He asked and she nodded. "Hope?" He began to laugh in the most unnerving way, causing her to back up a little. "Is that what you felt when Sera had you around her finger?" 

She wasn't sure if that was a trick question, so she looked down a bit until he demanded an answer. Finally her big eyes looked at him. "Y...es. And look, it--"

"...almost got you killed." He finished for her. "Hope, Iza, is stupid. Now give me the papers." There was a pause as the sky darkened a bit. She didn't move, and it was only when he made a step forward that she finally spoke. 

"My sister is a translator at my Sector."

"Sector. Give it a rest! They're probably dead by now!"

Her eyes widened as she felt a squeeze inside her chest. It was true. They could be dead for all she knew. With this she felt even sicker, looking for a place to puke. She tucked away the papers in her jacket pockets and hunched over.

"What are you doing?! I said give me the papers."

"Please. Holding them means nothing."

"Oh yeah? They could have a tracking device implanted in them."