Purple Prey: The Case of the Filthy Baboon

Chapter 13: Twenty and Eligible

I woke up many weeks later, to find myself surrounded by the wreckage of our ship. My three companions were sitting on a bench nearby, laughing and chatting whilst eating some nachos. I groaned as I sat up, expecting to be weak and in pain but, actually, I felt fine! All of the glass in my body had dislodged and my wounds had been cauterised. Had my colleagues tended to me after the crash?? I stood up and frolicked towards them, tears of joy springing from my eyes.

The bench at which my mates were seated was across a road and so I was forced to jaystroll to get to them. They looked up at me as I approached with a mixture of concern, relief, and slight indifference in their eyes (less indifference than usual, I should note).

"We thought you were dead!!!" Cosmic cried out, tears of joy also streaming down his face! My pace faltered for a moment as I wondered why they would've just left my supposed corpse laying there. They clearly didn't once approach my body to determine if I still had a pulse so they definitely weren't tending to my many wounds. I stopped and looked back to the crash site. I see, the sudden collision had dislodged the glass and the red hot sheets of metal had cauterised my open wounds, simultaneously knocking me out for weeks which left me enough time to rest and regenerate plasma.

"So you three have just been sitting here for weeks doing what exactly?" I asked.

Elly spoke up: "Well, we were in intensive care for about a week or so but once we were cleared to leave the hospital we came back here to see what was going on with you and you were exactly as we left you so we decided to just hang out here for a bit. You seemed pretty dead so Venus suggested we put sunglasses on you and carry you around so Cosmic wouldn't be so sad. We were actually discussing it just now haha."

"I'm so glad you're alive, Obsidian!" Cosmic spoke up "i would've been *real* scared if we had to carry a friend's dead body around... 😟"

I had a lot of mixed feelings at this point. I stared each of my "friends" down in turn; first Cosmic, then Elly, but I faltered when my eyes met Venus'. I just couldn't stay mad at him when he looked like that.

It was just then that I remembered Avian Dust and her generous gift of a good time in Los Angeles. It had been weeks since our call, surely we had missed our reservations that I had never told anyone about. I began spinning in a circle, squawking, as I tried to geolocate our location. Unfortunately, I was no GPS.

It was then I heard coughing and spluttering in the rubble. Oh god... someone was hit!!!! I started to rummage through the debris to look for the victim. As I pushed aside the hunks of metal I still found nothing!!!

"Marco!" I called out desperately, hoping for a response. I strained my ears to listen out for the response. That's when I heard a small "polo" crackle out of the broken stereo system by my feet. AmFrederik... He looked hurt...

I knelt down and scooped up the speaker with both of my hands.

"Hello... Captain *cough cough*" he tried to say electronically " I am... AmFrederik *cough*. I am... was... the A.I. companion of this... ship.. *cough sputter*" He choked on his words, clinging to his remaining battery.

"AmFredrick..." I grit my teeth solemnly "We have reservations at a nearby hotel. Could you check the files of some in the area and give us the directions?"

"It's... it's so.. Cold!" He breathed shakily. I said nothing while I waited for the directions I had already asked for. After a heavy silence he coughed "t-take a right at th.. the next intersection,.. Continue straight and *cough splutter* ... You'll find it on your *cough* left..."

"Ok... well, thank you," I started to put him back on the floor when he started to cry.

"Please! m-my captain! *cough wheeze* You can't leave me, I... I don't want to be alone *cough cough cough*" He wirelessly wept. I faltered, since this was a very human moment, even for the most advanced artificial intelligence. The headmaster's face flashed before my eyes for a few moments and I realised I couldn't leave AmFrederik to face his demise on his own.