The Sketch Survivors: The Enemy Among Us

Signs of Civilization

Soal and Isabel journeyed towards the source of her roaming, according to her, for three days. On the morning after these three days had passed, a hungry Isabel, who had survived with Soal on nothing more than berries and filtered stream water, began to whine for safety. But she trusted Soal as blindly as would anyone of her same age. Soal regained his loneliness, too, despite the fact that he was traveling with Isabel sitting on his left shoulder.

That morning would also be a turning point. All this time, Soal had been following the course of persistent stream, to see if it would lead to a bridge, or expand into a river. As he (literally) turned a rounded corner on its banks, past some irritatingly placed trees, only to face a small bridge over the creek. He wiped his eyes to see if it was really there, and it was. It looked to be the end of some sort of hiking trail, abruptly closing at this bridge. Or, perhaps this was the start. There was only one way to find out.

Soal, worried about reentering civilization, followed the trail to another abrupt closure, this one meeting a mundane road placed in the center of this forest. A teal-colored road sign stood erect on the other side of the road.

It was a simple road, but a kind that Soal had never seen in person. It was composed of tough, black asphalt with painted yellow lines flowing down the center. He had seen this type of road in old photographs at the boarding school.

All of a sudden, Isabel became bouncy. "Get-ing hot," she told him, thinking they were playing a game of hot and cold. It mustn't be far from here, then, Soal thought.

A navy blue-hued truck, probably an F-150, zoomed down on the closer side of the road to Soal and Isabel, but it definitely noticed them standing there at the edge of the trail, because within the next minute, it was visible returning on the other side of the painted line. The driver seat's window retracted, and a burly man in a park ranger uniform was sitting inside.

He proceeded to exit his vehicle, slamming the door shut, as it would not be closed without some force involved. "Good morning," the man greeted with a strange expression. Perhaps he was estranged by Soal's armored, helmet-less appearance. "By any chance, you are lost, are you not? We have been searching for this lost girl for some time now, and we're glad to be returning her to her family." Isabel, with a smile, was lifted up by the ranger, and he helped bring her to his shoulder instead of Soal's.

"And, mister, it seems best that we take you with us, too. You look tired," the ranger accounted for Soal. "Care for a ride?"

"Sure," Soal was glad to accept the kindness of this ranger, but he was concerned about how he would be treated by the rest of civilization, the pre-Lint Corp government in particular. Irene was another worry. Isabel's safety was now under the ranger's control, but he had to be especially careful. In 2094, the world had been out to kill him. In 2019, he would be an oddity.