A Human Friend (Sequel to A Pet Squishy)

Too Close

At Lana's parent's home...

The clock read 5:30 a.m. when Lana snuck into her parent's house to grab the keys for her dad's pickup. But, a habitual early riser, her father was already in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. The pepper mustachioed man put down the cup with a bewildered smile when his daughter entered.

"Lana! I didn't know you were coming to visit...and SO early." he commented, moving over to embrace her. "How are you sweetheart?"

Lana hugged him quick but immediately asked, "Yeah. Um dad, I need to borrow your truck."

"My truck? What for? Isn't your car running right?" he asked.

"Umm...no. No. I ran out of gas at Grandpa's farm." she lied, "I just need the truck to run some gas over to it."

"Well why didn't you call? I would've come."

"I...I didn't think you were up yet."

"You know me Lana, I wake with the sun." her dad grinned.

She shrugged and held out her hand for the keys.

The portly man reached into his pocket and took out the truck keys, "Ok. You can get some gas out of the big tank by the shed. I think there's a little red gas can out there you can use. Just put the truck back when you're done."

Lana snatched the keys and ran out the door with a brief, "Thanks dad!"

...

Later...

With all urgency, Lana hurried back to the hay shed with ten gallons of gas in the back. She was sorry she couldn't get more, but there were only two gas cans in the shed. When she finally arrived she ran to the hay pile where she'd buried the cube and pulled it out. She unloaded the two gas cans and poured them into the top cautiously. As the gasoline passed beyond the top edge the cube hummed loudly and the fuel was transformed into the glowing pink liquid that Thundercracker drank. But Lana was already seeing a problem. She poured ten gallons of gasoline into the cube, but it only yielded a thin layer of Energon that barely coated the bottom.

"Shit!" Lana swore.

Apparently, gas wasn't as energy-rich as Energon. She was definitely going to need more fuel. Quickly, she threw the cans in the truck and put down the tail gate. Then she hefted up the cube and slid it into the truck bed.

"Can't go around flashing this thing off..." Lana thought aloud.

She snatched up a few discarded pieces of plastic used to wrap hay bales to cover up the alien cube. Then, she jumped into the pickup and zoomed back to her parent's home to seek out more fuel.

...

Lana snuck into her dad's work shed and began searching for anything remotely fuel-like. She found five quarts of oil, twenty more gallons of gasoline, and she emptied a few small propane bottles. (Her dad was going to wonder where all of his spare fuel went.) Sadly, it only filled the large cube one third of the way. Would one third of a cube be enough for Thundercracker?

As Lana pondered where she could get more fuel, the low pulsing [Chug Chug Chug...] of an oil well caught her attention. That oil well had been built on her family's ground ages ago. It was a steady producer and the oil company sent them a regular paycheck for the ground rights. But could she TAKE that oil? Technically it belonged to her family, but if she skimmed off the top it would be stealing from the oil company and more importantly her father. She frowned, anxiety flooding her chest at the thought of stealing. What if she got caught? She could go to jail. But if she didn't get the Energon for Thundercracker he would shut down. Shut down? Did that mean die? More anxiety poured through her chest.