A man stands on the side of a dusty beaten dirt road, the sun 45 degrees in the sky - about to set. He wears a dark brown duster, worn from its long exposure to the wastelands. A brownish blurred silhouette appears in the distance, and as a figure becomes focused as he nears it, a man's bodily proportions can be identified.
An average heighted man, roughly 24, with a quick stride and confident mien appears. Wearing a trench-coat-
-styled-lab-coat, it gave him a stylish and elegant look. The duster donned man greets the lab-coated man
asking, "What's your name?", with a suspecting look in his eyes and a lazy grin - an easily discovered deception,
but a good one nonetheless. The lab coated man replies, "I'm known as Molar to my friends, but you can call me Mr. Lume.", with a neutral look on his face, he decides that since the duster donned man chose not to trust him,
it was best not to sound too close to him.
"Pretty brave of ye, to dress in such a costume,'specially 'round these parts", the other man replies. Mr. Lume then states, "As these are the only clothes I own, I can't dress any other way, can I?", with a waving gesture towards himself. The duster donned man slightly lowers his guard, with a snort replying, "Ha! Guessing from your lack of belongings and gadgets, you ain't him, guess I can tell you 'bout our problem, maybe you can fix it."
He then leans closer to the other man, noting a weirdly "clean" smell to him, stating, "Look here sir, ye seem like an amiable fellow, so I'll tell ya this, there's this troubling character who likes to walk 'round these here roads who has... "abilities" that would cause trouble for you if you were to meet him, they say he can turn air into water, can ye believe it?! This here desert and WATER of all things out of the air! Other say he could turn sand to solid, edible clouds, and those who tasted it said it was sweet!... Too bad they're all dead now."
The lab coated man looked stunned, he then replies, "Oh? How did they die?" The duster wearing man immediately narrows his eyes - guard back up, stating, "They were shot. Those who tasted the magics of the devil shan't be alive any longer to spread word of his 'goodness'. And why would you care?... unless you're this trouble-makin' fellow?"
Mr. Lume, recovers his composure, tauntingly says, "Yes, I'm this 'fellow'. They weren't shot. They were acidified, which falls under MY domain, which you encroached upon by doing that."
The duster wearing man suddenly puts on a shocked expression on his face.
Mr. Lume sneers and continues saying, "what's wrong? Too scared to shoot me while I was there but not scared to kill those innocent villagers? Hmm?" The duster wearing man immediately whips his revolver out from his holster, screeching, "If I were scared, would I do this?! Have at ye!" He then fires several bullets aimed at Mr. Lume.
The bullets tore out of the gun barrel , flying at speeds beyond what the naked eye could see, however they all suddenly turned into a reddish-brown powder mid-flight before scattering into the wind.
The duster donned man then screamed, now somewhat hysterical, "What are you?!" Mr. Lume replies calmly as if having bullets shot at him didn't faze him, "The name's Lume. Molar Von. Lume. 24dm^3. I'm what you might call a 'Constant'."
"YOU? A Constant?! Who's?!" The other man replies, while sounding somewhat hysterical. "Avogadro's", states Mr. Lume. The other man then sharply gasps as the puzzle pieces fell into place, then he slowly backs off before turning tail and running away from the setting sun, with his coat flapping in the wind.
Away from the dusty road.
Away from, The Chemist.
YOU ARE READING
The Scientists, a short pun story series.
FantascienzaA collection of (somewhat) short stories about a trio in a Post-apocalyptic wild west sci-fi like world. (It doesn't matter if you have no prior knowledge of science, just read, you might even enjoy it ;))
