Page 16 of Orange Town
If the air is so strong now, the heat was appalling. “You mean the dead guy back there?”
“Huh?” he briefly glanced at me but went back to work again. “The dead’s name is not a guy.”
“No, I mean I wasn’t referring to the name of the guy. I mean person. What I mean is, he’s probably dead for a long time?”
He nodded. “Yeah, we only bury our dead after a fortnight.”
“How can anybody withstand that smell?” I nearly shouted at him because the bangs and clangs of the vehicle were getting worse. I don’t know if he designed it so that this vehicle is all clunky and looked banged up even before we reached the town. Were we travelling with all that sound behind us?
Roqs just sighed even while his arms trembled as I saw his arms muscles tightened. “I told you little one, nothing to be done there. You must know we make use of compounds that will lessen the smell of the dead. But they don’t have it. I am confident thought that they did at least – “
A loud snap at the back that made me jerk and look back. A loud puff of white smoke was emitted.
“- they put something to clean the body. It’s the least they can do to respect their dead. Nobody cares about the smell on these parts of the planet!” he shouted at the end.
“Got it. Should you be worried about that smoke?” I shouted back.
“Nothing to worry about!”
But I wasn’t convinced and let him do his job without bothering him. The loud sound did not happen again. He pressed some more buttons and maneuvered the control properly as we violently swayed to the left.
Good thing I was holding onto the metal frame in front of me otherwise I would have knocked off a few of my front teeth.
One thing about Roqs is that he is cool as a cucumber as he took control of the vehicle. I wonder now if he stole this or he’s not a good driver? I doubt I can drive this thing if we need to get away.
Chapter Four
Brynn
Contrero, South Sector
We entered the town in a loud bang. There were only a few people out and about. Probably because it’s just a little hour past noon. Strange how I can now tell time by the position of the suns.
I saw different shades of coloring in this town. Shades of yellow, blue, red and orange. And I noticed only a few had the same coloring as Zirc and Roqs. Seems like most of them were indoors because it’s so hot and humid.
Rows of one-story and two-story buildings made of light orange wood lined up the streets. And it’s eerie because it looks and feels like the Old Western movies my roommate likes to watch. But here, instead of guns, I see long swords decorating their hips. Some have holsters on their boots. Something shiny like a crystal protrudes from their holsters. Maybe crystals because they seem to have power on this planet. No wonder Roqs reacted strongly - more scandalized, when I fashioned the crystal Zirc gave me to a knife. To cut a jerky.
In my defense, nobody told me how to use it! Who knew it can generate power and it’s not just a piece of rock?
White smoke belched out of the vehicle again and I got worried because it happened in front of us. When it reached my face, there was nothing rotten or polluted that I smelled. Still, my instincts told me to fan away the smoke from my face using my hand.
How Roqs can still see beyond the smoke is beyond me. He made a left turn and moved onwards. I can see the sides of two buildings on both sides. This is an alley of some sort. Good thing our vehicle fit through. He made another left turn. Instead of a building, we came into a shed. The smoke is thinning out.
When the vehicle died down, it felt like it released a huge sigh of relief. Complete with white smoke that came from its belly.
Roqs hopped down and I decided to hop down as well. Taking my small bag with me. Roqs took a bound black leather book at the side panel of the vehicle. He input something on it and all at once the vehicle was covered from head to toe with a black cloth.
I looked up and Roqs smiled at me. “We don’t want to be robbed of your precious water, little one.”
I was about to retort when I heard a shout from further inside the shed. I looked at the front. No other vehicles in sight except for the big lump of human rocks heading our way. I stayed at the side of our vehicle hoping it would camouflage me from him. It looks as if I shouldn’t have bothered. He is headed straight at Roqs.
He was talking too fast. My translator can’t keep up.
“You- go -away….” Then gibberish.
Roqs was saying something. By the tone of his voice, he is trying to pacify the big guy who resembled the Thing in Fantastic Four. This guy stands about 9 to possibly 10 feet tall. His width is massive. About 3x the size of Zirc. Yet the earth did not shake when he stomped towards us. He looked human enough with one head, two arms and two legs. But all around he is made up of rocks. The brown kind of rocks.
Fancy meeting another alien on this planet.
