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gnilrad nwod elttes

Settle Down Darling

"WAKE UP!"

Beta woke up with a start, the voices in his head ceasing, except this time he had no recollection of what they had said. He looked up to see a drenched head-to-toe Matrix shaking him. Drops of water landing on his already wet face. "Man, you sleep like the dead," the wet Stak said, leaning back up.

"Where are we?" Beta asked, no emotion in his voice.

"America! We actually made it! How the hell did we make it?" He began to chant. "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!"

"Stop that," Hershey's voice bit as he sat on the sand. Luckily, his horns were still sunken into his skull somewhere. Suddenly, all thought came back to Beta and he rubbed his forehead. He remembered the sea creature carrying them from the boat, and then he remembered them sneaking onto another boat. He also remembered getting caught on said boat and the whale having followed them, ready to try somewhere else. He remembered a lot of whale and a lot of boats, also a vague pie memory, but he wasn't sure how it fit in.

"Where's the orca?" Beta muttered, standing up on the sand and feeling woozy from the lack of food on their journey and the ache of being on the constant edge of catching hypothermia.

"She went back into the ocean. Pretty sure she's okay." Matrix pulled Beta farther from the water, the tide coming in just then and hitting Beta's freezing legs. It was cold still. "Alright, I've got legs," the independent Perna argued, getting to his feet. As he did, his eyes adjusted to the bright sun and—

Beta looked around at all of the vacationers on the beach, split into those trying to ignore them or those showing their open concern. Either way, it felt like they were all staring. Matrix was still smiling when Beta pulled him to the side. "Where exactly are we?" Beta asked, paranoia boiling in his blood and warming his frozen limbs.

"Uh..." Matrix looked around too, blinking a drop of water out of his eye. He turned back to Beta and shrugged. "A beach?"

Beta squinted at him like he was idiotic and shook his damp head. "I'm going to...find...something," Beta announced. He walked away from the shoreline, cringing at how hot the sand was. Beta wandered over to the beach-side restaurant, a whole patio stretching over the shore. There were wooden planks holding it up—ones Beta leaned on—and a wooden fence that separated the beach below it from the restaurant's open patio space. He grabbed on to the fence, standing on his tippy toes and calling out.

"Hey." Beta acknowledged the woman just walking away from a table. She turned to him and Beta could see the initial shock on her face.

"Wow, nice contacts. Is it hard to see in there?" the woman asked, pretending to look deep into his eyes as she walked over. Beta raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?" He was openly confused, which made her confused. He touched the skin under his eyes and then remembered the color stained there. Unlike heartbeats and need for food, Beta's big, sienna brown eyes had not been restored. "Oh, right. Uh, yeah, a real pain. It's a daily struggle. Anyway, are there any good hotels that we could stay in near here?"

"Uh, yeah. There's one on the edge of Regional street, it's about a mile from here. There are places closer but most likely they're full or crowded. Here." She flipped to a new page on her pad and started writing. After she was done, she ripped the sheet off and handed it to him. "That's the address." The woman smiled.

"Cheers. Um, another thing. Where am I...exactly?" Beta asked.

"Um, you mean what beach?"

"No, I mean what state."