Journey of the Angels

Rocks and boulders fell all around the two, dust caked the air as they attempted to make it out of the cave. Slade followed behind Gear as they made a dash for the opening in the distant part of the cave.

Gear took a worried glance behind him, he saw the same strange creature in his ragged apparel staring off at them. His wolf was behind him as well. The boulders appeared to just bounce off of the biped as he walked towards them in a slow leisurely pace.

“We’ve got to go faster!” Gearshift yelled through the thick dust and sounds of rocks hitting rocks.

Slade looked up in time to see a small group of rocks start falling straight atop him. He jumped and rolled out of the way, merely scratching his foot against the jagged stones. With a cry of pain, he attempted to keep his running sprint going, trying to ignore the pain.

Jumping, the two managed to just make it out of there as the entrance collapsed and crumbled into a fine dusty rock wall, no sign of it ever being there.

Slade fell to his knees, gasping for air as Gearshift collapsed into the warm sand, doing the same.

After a few minutes Slade started chuckling a bit, to which Gear quickly followed. They laughed at how lucky they were, they laughed at their chance meeting, they laugh and laughed about everything that happened in such a short span of time.

Eventually, the laughter died down and the two got up.

Slade was the first to speak up. “So... heheh....This your usual day, Geary?” He grinned from ear to ear as the final bouts of laughter died and emptied out of his lungs.

“Nah, it’s just......just a helluva day.....” Gearshift finally caught his breath and started to gain a grimace of sorts.

Slade spoke up. “So, what do we do now?”

“Let’s get a camp going for starters. After we get some rest, we can figure things out in the morning.”

“Fine, whatever.”

In truth, Gearshift was in an inner battle of the ages about what to do with Slade. He didn’t know how smart it would be to bring a creature like Slade back, and the similar looking one with a wolf for a pet seemed to make Gear even more nervous about just being around the human. He decided tomorrow he would start asking Slade questions so he could get a better grip on the human. As well as make sure he wasn’t too dangerous to take back. It would be a three week travel all the way back out of the badlands so that should give Gearshift the time he needed.

“So, why were you in that ‘egg thing’ back there?” Gear asked.

“Don’t know. Last thing I remember is turning into a bunch of tiny lights before blacking out.” Slade stated bluntly.

“By who?”

“I’m not sure. Some crazy chick with an oversized pet.” Sighing, Slade made for a dramatic pause before speaking up again, “nothing out of the usual for me.”

Gear raised an eyebrow at this but let it fall back down a second later, remembering that he was talking to an ‘alien’.

“So, is a pet that is such a size..” Gear paused, thinking of the right words to use. “...common?”

“No.”

After that it got silent between the two. They didn’t talk as much outside of ‘small talk’ and neither showed to break the pattern. That is, until slade’s stomach rumbled with hunger and silent disdain towards the two.

“Here, eat this.” Gear hoofed a small nutrition bar to Slade, who caught it and nearly let it fall into the sand.

He munched down in a very uncouth manner and bits of the bar flew in different directions.

“So it seems you were hungrier than I thought....” Gear smiled indifferently. His internal debate was slowly edging over to the side of trusting Slade, but it was still jam packed with different complaints and arguments, far too many to end the inner struggle.

They finished their meals and slept on the itchy sand covered ground. Slade managed to fall asleep with strange ease, but Gearshift was different, he had a tough time and little to ease it with due to his endless battle within his subconscious. Eventually though, his mind grew weary enough for him to drowse into a restless sleep.

Up on a small incline, just a barely in sight, stood the bandage covered bipedal, watching with indifference. No longer was his companion wolf at his side right then, the ferocious beast had to feed so as not to go hungry.

The bipedal looked upon the two for a long amounted time, then finally, the bandaged man started to unwrap his left hands bandages. This revealed a number of stitches and scars, as well as a few runes covering the scar and stitch work. The runes started to glow a faint black aura. They took shape as a holographic watch look and a screen lighted above it, like a floating video screen of light. The screen itself was not on but the faintest sign of someone on the other side of it told different. The man spoke up in an old and raspy voice. “682, report.”

“The object in question has reached a civilian, orders?” 682 responded with a youthful and lively voice.

“Just observe 682. Your orders don’t change until the object has a reaction, is that understood?” the raspy voice kept its cold and indistinct tone.

“Understood, thank you.”

The glow faded as the runes went back to their original place of stay. 682 reattached the bandages and took another look at the two sleeping figures from his distance.

“Well.” 682 paused, sighing. “There’s a long road ahead of me.”

682 laid down and stared up at the stars, devoid of thoughts that did not pertain Slade.

‘Why does he want you so bad, and so specific a time?’ He thought as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.