Daughter of Death

XVI

FFKSJDH SORRY
Gah
I am so sorry, this is wayyy overdue
Anyways—
I'm not gonna say anything else

"Alright, it's done."

    Nowad tapped a claw on its would-be chin, examining the modified sat phone. Its flashlight-like thing hung out of a compartment on its side, which gave light for Cade to work on the sat phone.

    Hmm, Nowad mused, its hologram projected out of a red light on its side, are you sure this will work?

    "Wow, you're doubting me now?" Cade asked, a hint of a tease in his voice.

    It clicked its claws together. Well, you nearly got us killed the last time you tried it just five minutes ago!

    "Who was the one who set the frequency wrong and caused an earthquake that nearly brought this place down again? And I'm still not sure how a sat phone did that."

    I told you already—it's that shield thingy! It's like, absorbing the waves from the satellite phone, then projecting and amplifying it!

    He looked at the oddly-shaped shield. He didn't understand it—then again, he didn't understand most of what was going on at the moment. Such as how a tray had suddenly appeared a few hours back, with only two dry bread, two glasses of water and a small bowl of beans. (Rudely, there were no utensils, so he just dumped the beans into his mouth, because he was hungry.) After he inhaled the contents of the tray in one minute, tops, the tray flashed out of existence.

    "I still don't get it."

    Nowad made a sound that Cade had figured out—over the course of the last...day?—was its version of a sigh.

     It's a wonder you survived before you woke me. Anyway—how are you sure that this time won't just bring this place crashing down, or draw a whole army of those monsters? And even if it does only lure one here, and they somehow get the keys from the Warden without being noticed, are you sure we can get it to talk?

    "Since when did you start being a pessimist?"

    I was always the pessimist. You were just stuck in the clouds too much to notice.

    "Hush you."

    Sure, I'll stop talking.

    "You're still talking."

    I don't talk.

    Cade, in spite of the nervousness and anxiety churning around in his gut, smiled softly.

    Despite the witty and sarcastic remarks, it was nice to have a friend down here. Even a sassy robot friend who can't go two seconds without something to say. Also, that joke was getting just a bit old, but that's besides the point.

    "I know it's not a perfect plan," Cade admitted. "Nor a fool-proof one. Nor one with higher than a fifty-percent chance of success. But it beats sitting around and doing nothing for who-knows-how-long that we'll be spending down here, knowing absolutely nothing about what's going on."

    Nowad made its mechanical sigh again. Its flashlight beam followed the sat phone as Cade picked it up. He punched in a random number that consisted mostly of eights, then hovered his finger over the green button, hesitant.

    Was he sure this was going to work?

    No, absolutely not. Unlike the past few years of his life as a teenage-archaeologist, this was completely based on speculation. Whereas before, while he was looking for gold in Central America and pharaoh's tombs in Egypt, he had a team, and preparation, and a general idea of how things would work out. They had insights, leads, and logical hypotheses and explanations for them.

    This, however, was not at all logical. Nor, by the way, was it safe in the slightest.

    They were going on a whim, but that would have to be enough.

    Besides, if something went wrong, he had a very dangerous paintbrush and a wooden spoon.

    "Here goes nothing and possibly everything."

    Before he could overthink it and hesitate even more, and also receive a whack to the head from Nowad (it had done that three times already in the time they had been friends) he pressed the green button.

    Compared to the first time he pressed the button—when the cave started to shake and cracks formed all around—this was very anticlimactic. From Cade's perspective, nothing seemed to happen. His first instinctual thought was that it had failed.

    It hasn't failed, it's just...working.

    Self-assurance didn't work very well.

    What if it did fail? How are we supposed to know until someone comes knocking on the door? Do we just...sit here for who-knows-how-long until they do? What if they never do? How can we tell?

    Now that it was happening, he was starting to doubt this plan. Of course he doubted it before, but he had convinced himself that there was nothing else they could do.

    And there was nothing they could do now.

    Other than wait.

    Cade sighed. To Nowad, he said, "Guess we'll be here a while longer."

    Nowad seemed to nod, then flew up, and over. Then, before Cade could look up, he felt something small lightly drop onto his head, into his curly hair. He froze.

    "Are you trying to nest in my hair or something?"

    The red hologram text was projected in front of him.

    Yes. I need to recharge somewhere, and your hair looks so soft. You don't mind, right?

    "As a matter of fact, I do mind," Cade pointed out. He reached up, and felt something smack his hand. He retracted it. "Ow. Fine, you can stay there, whatever. Just—I don't know—don't mess up my hairdo."

    I don't see much of a hairdo. And it smells in here.

    "You are very welcome to go recharge somewhere else. Also, I'm not a battery! How are you going to recharge there?"

    From what I know of my systems, I can recharge myself in several ways.

    "'Nesting in a person's hair' is one of them?"

    Classified. Ugh. It's just in my programming I guess! I just know how to do it. But they won't even allow me to know why. Jerks.

    Cade smiled sympathetically. "It's alright, you can stay. Just be ready when anyone comes. If they come."

    I'm the pessimist. Don't you steal that title from me. Anyways, I'm entering temporary dormant mode. Don't talk to me or wake me up unless it's, like, life or death. Or preferably never.

    Cade rolled his eyes. He grabbed the shield and sat phone, then went to sit on the mattress to wait, already bored out of his mind.

---

It's short, I know
I'm so sorry—
-Lunya