Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

20,000 Acres Across the Ice

Day 16

Time: 3:50 PM

Location: North

The mechanical hum of the machine surrounded them, holding them gently and softly, like a cradle. The bumps of their walk over the ice with rhythmic and, at one point, jarring, but now had melted into the background, and even as a leg hit the ice below them and the machine lurched, Darius barely noticed.

The gait of the machine, and the way it drifted gently from side to side, was almost hypnotic, and all too often Darius felt his head loll to the side, and his eyelids get dangerously close. And every time they did, he woke up violently, shaking himself awake. He wasn't exactly sure why his reaction to falling asleep was so jarred and violent, but he also couldn't stop it.

Perhaps that was a good thing. Darius didn't want to fall asleep, not right now. He'd wait until dark, to make sure his sleep schedule wasn't completely screwed up.

Unfortunately, most of the people around him must not have gotten the memo. Beside him, Ai switched between increments of her head resting on her shoulder, waking up, making a face, before staying awake for at least a couple minutes before doing it all again. Behind him, Molly and Misfortune were leaning against each other, whispering. They had been doing that for nonstop since Misfortune had gotten on, and Darius was still amazed by their ability to carry on a conversation this long. How did they still have things to talk about?

On the other hand, Luca and Greg were leaning against each other, dead to the world. Greg snored, softly, and Luca also snored, but loudly. Darius was a little worried for them, but he supposed they'd stayed up late last night reading the journal, so Darius didn't bother waking them up. It was fine if they were catching up on sleep, right?

Last night was the first time Darius had heard Luca reading, or, well, paid attention to it. He had been surprised to find that Luca's reading wasn't the best, and he often stumbled over the words he was reading, or read them confidently, and very incorrectly, like he only understood a bit of the words he was reading.

Darius supposed he wasn't that good at reading out loud either, but still... Luca seemed way worse.

At least he hadn't seemed embarrassed about it. Whenever Luca came across a word he didn't know or couldn't pronounce, he did it anyway, and didn't stop until he was done.

Darius supposed that was admirable.

And the last person, Sunny... Darius wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not. He couldn't see Sunny without completely twisting around, and Darius wasn't exactly keen on doing that, especially with the keen possibility of being caught.

Sunny didn't talk to anyone, if he even could, and he didn't interact with the people around him. But sometimes, Darius felt him shuffle, or look to the side, as if spying on their friends exactly like Darius was doing. So jury was still out, and Darius supposed it didn't matter enough for him to really be worried about it.

In his case, Darius knew that he was starting to nod off again, head falling forward and eyelids closing in a blink that lasted a little too long. Beside him, Ai poked him, and Darius' head snapped up, blinking blearily, confused, before he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Great.

"Thanks," he whispered to Ai, and she nodded in a way she probably felt was normal, but to Darius looked as if she had fallen asleep, woken up, fallen asleep, and then woken up in quick succession.

God, they needed a distraction. In more of a desperate bid than anything, Darius flicked on his watch, clicking on the radio icon.

...Seems like they were still too far. Nothing came up, not even terrible and lonely radio stations that had seemed to crop up in the middle of nowhere at home. Darius waited for a minute, and when even that didn't yield anything, he sighed, giving up.