The Cold Unknown

Chapter 8 - Seeking Shelter

I woke up to Kara gently nudging me. "Wake up." She said. "We have to go." I sleepily followed her out of the bus, my hand still in hers. But once we were outside, cold rain started falling onto my skin and clothes, sending me wide awake. I let go of Kara, and hugged myself to try and stop shivering at this sudden change in temperature. The bus drove away as Kara looked at me.

"You gonna be okay?" She asked. I nod, despite the fact that I was cold. "We'll find somewhere to spend the night." She tells me. We start walking towards the street. Kara takes my hand once again, and we cross the barren street. It looked like we were the only people out, which made sense as it was around 11 at night. Though, there were some businesses that were open. There was a small drug store, a 24-hour Laundromat, and a Motel. I sat down on a nearby bus stop bench, to cover myself from the rain.

Kara noticed I was shaking. "Alice, you're freezing cold." I shook my head slightly. "I'm okay. I'm not so cold." I lied. A garbage truck had driven down the street, and pulled over. Suddenly, the android driver of it was in front of us.

"You look lost." He said. "We have nowhere to go." Kara replied. The android held out his hand. "I know someone who can help you." Kara grasped his wrist, and closed her eyes. The other android did the same. Both of their LED's flickered yellow. The android let go, and started walking away as Kara spoke. "But that's on the other side of town. We need a place for tonight-" She opened her eyes, only to find the android had disappeared back into the truck and started driving away.

"Come on, Alice." Kara took my hand and we started walking. She saw the motel, and walked over to it. "A motel. Looks like we found somewhere to stay." Kara said to me. We were at the front door when she stopped. "We're not going in?" I asked. "We can't, Alice. They'll never give a room to an android." She responded. I looked at the door and saw a couple of different signs. One read, 'No Androids Allowed', and another said, '$40 Payment In Advance'. 40 dollars? But, we don't have any money on us. "We need to find 40 dollars," Kara continued. "And get rid of this uniform... or go somewhere else..."

Kara looked around, and we crossed the street again, into the laundromat. A wave of warm air blanketed me. Finally. I thought. "It's warm in here. You'll feel better in no time." Kara told me. I sat down on a chair. There was another man in here, but he was asleep. I looked up, and saw Kara opening the dryer. She went to grab the clothes that were in it. I was shocked. Worried that the man would wake, I walked over and started telling Kara not to do it.

"What are you doing? They're not our clothes." I whispered. Kara sighed and looked at me, shutting the dryer partly. "I know, Alice. But you need something warm, and I need to get rid of  my uniform." She said. "But that's stealing." I argued. "We can't do that!"

Kara thought about it. "You're right." She decided, closing the dryer. "We won't do it, okay?" I nodded, relieved. "Come on, let's go." Kara told me. But, it's so warm in here. I wanted to say. Still, I followed her back out into the cold... COLD rain.

We crossed the street for a third time, back to the side where we saw the android. Well, with no clothes or money, I suppose the motel is no longer an option. I realized. Kara stopped and looked up. I followed her gaze, and saw an old house on the corner of the street. It had a chain link fence around it, and... it looked scary.

"An abandoned house." Kara said. "At least we'd be out of the rain." The place gave me a weird feeling. "Kara, I don't like this place." Kara gave me a soft smile. "I know. But it's just for one night, and no one will look for us here." She insisted. I still didn't like it, but she was probably right. This seemed our best option at the moment.

We walked to the side of the house, and Kara opened a gate. We walked through and Kara closed the gate behind us. There was an abandoned car, as this was a car lot. I looked towards the house, seeing yet another fence separate us. Kara saw it too, and found a pair of wire cutters on the ground. She walked over to the fence, and cut a flap towards the bottom of it. She set the wire cutters down, lifted the flap, and crawled through. I noticed she got cut by the fence a little bit.