Planet Omega

Chapter 9

Will was excited to hear about our necessary desert adventure, but Emma was not. It took half an hour to convince her that this was a good move, especially with my name still in the headlines. Two days later, we set out.

Do we have to have a domeward net? No. We don't have to have anything.

Will it help hide us for longer, and ultimately give us an opportunity to gauge life outside of Zenon Omega? Yes. Because the entirety of the PRF isn't made up of only EMMA pawns. Other pawns have developed enough free will to understand that what was happening wasn't right, and had joined the PRF. Surely there is unrest in Tabulah Naveh as well.

I do understand Emma's trepidation of traveling to a less predictable region. Arguably, the most unpredictable. Oh, the desert got settled, all right, but there are far fewer cities out there than in any of the other regions. And more beasts that aren't recorded or known much about. Outsiders are known to turn back around and travel over the archipelago region of Asagos instead of through the desert.

As if that would ever stop me. Right now, being in the Zenon Omega region is what'll kill me, and a little bit of sand is going to feel like a warm hug.

A really fucking warm hug.

So warm, that the hoverbikes we'd fixed up and restored enough to go the distance was not, in fact, going the distance. Mateo tried everything he could think of to get them going again, but concluded that the sun mixed with sand particles was likely the reason for the malfunction. Without a way to clean them up with actual water, it was unlikely they'd want to get moving again. They were only reliable in cities, apparently.

We're far enough now that we've hit the sandy bordertowns on the Zenon Omega side, but not far enough that walking wouldn't be a problem.

"...I've never seen anything big enough to carry three people, so I can't shift into something like that," Will immediately says when all of us glance Its way.

Fuck, back to square one.

"We walk," Emma declares, getting her backpack comfortable on her back.

"It's a thirty-mile distance from the border to Artehm and we've got a good six or seven hours until the border," says Mateo, pulling out his map. I've never been more grateful that he didn't trust the hoverbikes' GPS system. "Artehm's oasis sustains a slightly bigger population than other cities out there, and has its own safety field from a lot of the harsh elements. Once we get to that safety field, we'll be okay."

"Cool, so we just have to stay alive for a day and a half in the desert before we're safe," I say sarcastically, annoyed with the situation, but it's my own damn fault. I should have known that once hoverbikes are thrown out, they're left there for a reason. We did save two hundred miles of walking due to the bikes, but damn, we'd been so close.

"Don't be so glum about it, Cal!" Will exclaims, throwing an arm around my neck. "We can actually hear each other now and talk! Plus, I'll fight whatever tries to eat us."

So extremely reassuring. But it was my idea to rally everyone to leave for Artehm so I should be the last person complaining right now.

It'll be an adventure, I said. It'll even be like a much deserved vacation, I said. Why does anyone ever listen to me? I'm the one who would start shooting into a crowded theater upon given the chance. I'm the least stable one here!

I adjust my own backpack, and take a deep breath. "Fine. But I'd like a snack, please," I say and look Emma's way. She isn't carrying any water so she offered to be the one to carry the snacks and the food in her cooking pack.

Emma walks over to me and turns so I can choose what I'd like to eat. I suppose the benefit of traveling with two pawns is that they don't need to eat or drink anything to stay alive. And like the child that I can be at times, I grab two cheese sticks and some pudding.