An Unlikely Ally

Chapter 9 - Unexpected encounter

The creature was sitting while leaning against the left wall of the master bedroom in its house, in front of it sad all three devices it had accumulated: The chess clock, the flat CD player, and the new CD player.

After a few minutes, the creature carefully pressed the on-button, expecting it to come alive and speak, however nothing happened. Repeating the action a second time yielded the same result, causing the alien to let out a disappointed sigh, placing the CD player back on the ground and resting against the back wall, trying to think things over.

A few minutes passed where the creature simply thought over the topology of the device, before it thought it figured something out.

Oh wait. I can open the back of these, I wonder if there is anything different on this new one.

The creature picked the device back up off the ground and flipped it over, exposing the small rectangle cover of which the creature carefully tried sliding out. After a few minutes of trying to dig its claw in and pressing in different places, it gave way and slide off, exposing four shiny AAA batteries.

They are the same, however I recall the ticking-device was connected to the back with those two cords, for the first voice-maker.

Going on a hunch, the creature reached over and grabbed the chess clock and flipped it upside down, smiling as it felt a similar style cover on the bottom. Testing a similar action it used on the CD player, the cover popped off, exposing eight AA batteries.

I wager these have something to do with the first voice-maker no longer working, but what explains the second one also not working?

The creature had a closer look at the second, initially finding nothing different, however when it took in a breath with the device so close, a harsh foul taste appeared in the back of its throat, causing it to cough and quickly move the device away.

Ugh! Found out why it doesn't work, that foul smell I can even taste indicates something is definitely amiss-

Placing the burnt out CD player on the ground, the creature then started to piece things together with the new found information.

Those cylinder-things are in the back of all three devices, so they have to be important. Maybe, they come out?

The creature, unsure of itself, carefully dug its claw in the top, and started wiggling it around until one of the batteries came out. Perfect!

After a couple minutes, the creature had removed both sets of batteries from the CD players, ensuring to keep them separate, it took the batteries from the burnt out player, and delicately put them in the flat CD player, struggling initially with the orientation, but soon let out a triumphant click as they all were flush.

Carefully placing the the cover back on, and slotting it in place, it flipped the device back over and held its breath. Slowly it found the power-button and pressed it, soon feeling the whole device come to life. "Wendigo media presents: Hunger Games. Read by, Catey Jacks. Chapter 1. 'When I wake up, the other side of my bed is cold.'"
The creature let out an gleeful shrill, feeling itself overcome with relief and excitement over finally getting the device working again. It gently placed the working device down, and brushed the dead one -along with its batteries- into the corner of the room and placed the chess clock there too, before finally settling down in front of the CD player and listening to the story unfold.

Despite it not understanding most of the words, nor the context, it still did its best to distinguish the words, and found great enjoyment doing so.

John was nearly home after setting off from the fuel station, his mind was a flurry of questions, all aimed at the potential of a survivor residing in the same area as him. "I wonder how I can signal to them to have a potential meetup? Like, could we trade supplies? Would they even want to trade? How would I even signal them in the first place? Just spray paint a wall saying 'Hello survivor, want to chat?'? Oh too many questions, so few answers to them..."