Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 7: Breaking my back just to know your name

"How is that even possible?" Hachi asked. "Is... is this not the surface?"

The rain poured down out of the sky, tinking off the top of the shipping container that Bato had found to provide him and the octoling with shelter. "The surface?" He asked.

"The... th-the surface, the... top? The..." Hachi appeared to run out of words, staring out at the rain.

Bato frowned. How could she really not know what rain was? He took a breath, and then began to explain. "Well... when water gets hot enough, it evaporates–turns into water vapor. So when water on the ground, like from rivers, oceans, and puddles from previous rainstorms evaporate; the vapor rises up into the air. When there's enough vapor in one place, the air becomes saturated; that's how clouds are formed. Eventually, the water cools down again, and once the patches become big enough, gravity takes over again and they fall back to earth as what we call rain." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's much more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea."

Hachi was staring at him, a frown on her face. "... Yeah, if you say so, coral-face."

Bato snorted, he couldn't help it. "Coral face, huh? Can't say I've heard that one before."

Hachi bared her beak, tentacles coiling up a little. "Well you wouldn't know a good insult if it bit your ass!" She sat down, back straight, and stared out at the rain. Her face was still scrunched up, looking unhappy.

Bato frowned, looking back out at the rain.

"... So where do Octarians live, if you've never seen rain before?" He asked after a moment.

Hachi was quiet for a second. "... I might as well tell you slug, th-they're going to kill me anyway... We live in domes. Un-underneath your surface, after your pathetic military defeated our army. We had to move down there so you wouldn't destroy us entirely."

"That would explain some things, I guess." Bato said, frowning. It was still hard to believe. He was talking with a supposedly extinct species. How many were there?

"Yours i-is a foul race." Hachi stammered. "Vicious octopus killers... What are you going to do with me?"

"I'm... not sure." Bato admitted. "We'll probably have to talk with the others to see what we're going to do next."

Hachi took a deep breath. "... No more running away. I will face your execution."

"It's not going to come to that." Bato reassured.

Hachi glanced toward him. "... You don't know anything about the sirens... do you?" Her tentacles began to pale in color. "The people they've killed. Slaughtered th-thousa-ands... What about you?" She pointed toward his brush, still in his hands.

Bato glanced down, light from lighting briefly highlighting it in a sinister fashion. Eerie timing. "... I'm not going to kill you." He managed. The roll of thunder matched with his phone vibrating, causing him to jump. "Ah... hang on a second." He said, pulling out his phone. Apparently Jill had texted him.

J: hey B u ok?

B: Yeah, I'm fine

B: I have Hachi with me