Serial Designation

Chapter 3

Carl decided to ride on top of our Pod on the ride home, since the Pod was too small for all three of us. He just whipped out his spider legs and hung on like that.

"Very nice transportation device!" He said, his voice muffled by the Pod's walls.

I gave him a nervous thumbs up through the window.

We rode for the school first, to see if we missed anyone get out safely. But it was just Eve.

Eve was a bit short for her age, but she was very slim. Her startling green eyes matched well with her always-purple wardrobe. Today she was wearing a purple crop-top sweater with a skull on the chest, and a black skirt with magenta highlights. Her wavy caramel hair always had some sort of accessory in it. Today it was a purple-and-black bow with a skull in the middle. She sat sobbing in front of her purple Pod, her head on her knees.

"What's wrong with her?" Carl said when Me and Veronix got out.

"She ran away after you— after those people back there died," Veronix said with a nervous glance at him.

I walked over to Eve and sat down. Before I could say anything to her, she started talking very fast between sobs and sniffs.

"I-I-I'm so sorry—" sniffle "—it's my fault, I ran away, I should've—" sob "—I should've stayed and helped, and now they're all dead—" then she saw Carl and a look of utter horror struck her face. "W-why is that thing here?" She started to scramble backwards.

Carl was acting odd. He looked like he was trying to remember Eve from somewhere.

"Eve, it's okay, he's fine now." I show her the chip that Veronix whacked out of Carl's head. She took it and turned it over for a minute. She looked back up.

"So he really is... fine now?" Her eyes kept flickering to Carl as she spoke. Carl still looked like he was trying to remember where he knew Eve from.

"Yeah. No worries."

Eve hesitantly got up, still keeping her distance. Carl looked he had something on the tip of his tongue he wanted to say.

"Carl, what's up?" I ask.

"I..." He very badly wants to say something, but he instead says, "N-...Nothing..."

"Hm. Okay..." I turned back to Eve. "We're going back to my house to examine that and find out what it does." I pointed to the chip in her hand, which she gave back to me.

"Good luck," she said.

"Oooo, what's this?" Carl was examining the door handle of the school's main door very closely.

"That's a door knob. We'll go into details of that later, come on." I grabbed him by his hoodie and led him back to the Pod, while he waved at Eve like she and him had known each other for years.

Me and Veronix had to drag Carl back to the Pod, and the three of us headed for our house.

Carl gasped as I turned the knob and opened the door. "Oh my goooooooosh I didn't

know these things could open!!" After me and Veronix went inside, Carl opened and closed the door repeatedly, his x eyes dilated.

"Let's, uh... leave him to this," Veronix suggested and we both went to the kitchen to grab a snack.

I got some Cheetos (yes, they are still around, why wouldn't they be?) and Veronix pulled out some popcorn. Then we sat and ate for a few minutes when mom came in and froze.