Once Again

Chapter Fourteen - Answers

Picture: We're Gonna Make it Through the Dark by Dreamin-8-bit

Answers

"Rogue, what's happening?" Echo asked, struggling to catch his breath. He glanced at the Raider, who was leaning against the outer wall of the amphitheater.

"Noise found our hiding place." Rogue looked out across the bleak, once beautiful and lively city. "I don't want to leave camp, but we might just have to."

"Hiding place? What are you hiding?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Rogue commented.

"That's because I still feel as confused as I did when I first got here. How long ago was that? A week?"

"Almost two. Seems like an eternity, doesn't it?" The Raider looked up at a building that managed to keep three of its four walls. Echo followed his gaze, but didn't see anything interesting. "Come on," Rogue finally said. "We need a new hiding place, and they'll never expect us to hide so close."

"In there?" Echo didn't have a hard time believing it, but he had a hard time accepting it. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life hiding from some maniac.

"Yes. Come on, I have to warn the others." The Raider sighed loudly. "The problem with having Noise as an enemy is that he can hear everything, and he can find you with his echolocation. And he's pretty violent, too."

"I noticed," Echo mumbled, rubbing his neck. He could almost feel the knife at his neck again, threatening to slit his throat and spill his blood. "What's echolocation?"

Rogue chuckled a little. "He makes little high pitched noises and uses the echoes to find where things are. It's helpful until it's against you."

Echo tried to picture Noise making high pitched sounds, but the thought was too weird to dwell on for the time being. "So we're hiding in there?" he asked, changing the subject. He pointed to the standing building and noticed that it was very tall.

"Yes. I already told you. We'll have to be careful of the Alphas, though. We can't go too far into their territory."

Rogue began to walk again, and Echo dragged himself after him. They were quiet as they walked down the empty street, and Echo studied everything he could, determined to memorize it all, and read the signs as if to keep himself company. He wasn't even alone, and already, he felt lonely. He wanted his sister back more than ever. He wanted Braken back, too, as Braken had become one of his only friends. He didn't know if he considered Rogue or Puppet or WRLD his friends. Maybe Nitro was, but he wasn't sure how he felt about him after Karma Fields was supposed to guard him. After all, he'd fixed the android.

If he couldn't have his sister right away, he at least wanted a friend. He knew he trusted people too easily, but he wanted someone to really trust, someone he could tell anything to. Braken had trusted him. He'd told the outsider something very personal, something Echo knew he'd never told anyone else about, and Echo wanted to be able to tell him anything, too. He wanted someone to feel safe around. Even if Rogue was his friend, he didn't feel safe around him. If anything, he felt in more danger around him than he did by himself.

Braken made him feel safe. He didn't know why, especially since he'd had that strange moment in which he'd tried to kill him, but something about the small Raider made him feel safe and comforted. He felt like he had someone to turn to.

"Come on, daydreamer," Rogue called, bringing him out of his thoughts. "You can hide in here."

They went inside the building, the walls cracked, the paint peeling, and the building falling apart from the inside out. It seemed as though it would collapse at any moment. It looked like it had been some sort of office building before the bombs, with desks and chairs all over. Rogue led him up the crumbling stairs and into an office room in the middle of the building. This room had miraculously stayed almost completely in tact, and Echo was glad he was here instead of in some half demolished place.