Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Dawn to Dust

Day 24

Time: 3:30AM

Location: The Basement, Death-Tastin Desert

"Hey, that's great, it's..." here, Darius paused, unsure what to say. It was a key card, obviously, but for what? He decided to not say anything at all. "We should go show the others.

"What?" Ben squawked, narrowing his eyes at Darius. "Why would we do that? We haven't gotten anything yet."

Darius frowned at the card, and Ben rolled his eyes.

"We can't eat this," Ben told him, waving the card in the air before slipping it into his pocket. Then, he turned. "C'mon, let's search another room. There's nothing in this one."

"How long are we going to keep searching?" Darius asked, following him out.

"Until we find something useful, preferably something to eat."

Darius blinked. "And if we don't find anything? That message was from a really long time ago. Even the most nonperishable food will be pretty perishable now, I think."

"That's the funny thing about the wasteland," Ben said, chuckling. He nodded to the next door, and Darius sighed, taking his rock out of his satchel. "You'll never know what's waiting around, begging you to find it."

There wasn't anything in that room. Nor the next. Or even the one after that. Luckily, since the rooms were so small and compact, they didn't take long to search, but it was a boring, tedious job of checking under beds, tables, and in cabinets in each and every carbon copy of a room, and finding only personal knick knacks that must not have been personal enough for them to be brought along to wherever everyone went.

Eventually, Darius gave up, flicking up his watch and pressing the button on the radio. Ben jumped at the sudden sound of music, and Darius wondered if he should start warning his friend. For now, though, he only (metaphorically) leaned back, and let the soft, gentle jazz wash over him.

StarSpeaker didn't seem to be around as song after song played from his watch, but Darius found that he didn't mind too much, even when the songs jarring shifted from soft jazz, to high energy hip hop, to a low, mournful, soul shaking opera song. It seemed the songs had been queued up with little to no thought to how they would sound together. It seemed StarSpeaker was in a hurry when he put all this together. Was he organizing the rescue for Rime 12? Was it going well, or was this a bad sign? Was it already too late...?

Okay, well, at least that was one question he could answer. From what he saw of Rime 12, he knew those people were tough, far tougher than him. They would survive for a long time, even with no hope of rescue. They'd be fine. Still, Darius hoped the rescue was soon.

StarSpeaker didn't tell him anything, though, and as the minutes clicked by and the songs played, Darius felt the questions spilling around in his head were too much. He lifted up his watch and clicked the radio off, moving to the call button instead.

It rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. But just when Darius was about to give up, the line clicked, and Engine's gruff voice rang out through the (still empty) room.

"Kid, I swear to god, you have the worst timing of any one I've ever met," Engine growled, and Darius winced.

"Are you... busy?" he asked, before berating himself when he heard the gunshots. "I can call you back."

"Might be a good idea," Engine replied sardonically. Her voice was strained, like she was lifting something. "Was this just a social call or what?"

"I had some questions..."