Chapter 38 - SUN

Ouch! brodah', brodah', how hot... 

I feel my breath dry... 

I can't stand the clothes, 

the wait, or the seat.

Fernando Delgadillo

 

 

I got out of the vehicle when the solar batteries ran out, I know there was no one around me, but I didn't want to extend and install the solar sail. It was very dangerous... or I was very cowardly, but finally the lights went out; The oxygen signal dropped dangerously close to 75%, at the first sign of excess carbon dioxide I prepared to leave.

 

The computer claims (if it is possible for a computer to claim) that the outside air is breathable. I release the seals from the cabin and go armed with my poison sword (the blade sheath is overflowing with the poison captured days ago), my suit will protect me a little at least (it is an emergency suit with no particular augmentations, it only filters and has moisture absorption capacity), the backpack carries my solid food tablets and a computer terminal in the suit, since I don't have more important things I go out and receive warm, dry air.

 

If I pay attention to this thing I am less than 40 km away. of an urban center, the maps that say it must date back dozens, if not hundreds of years, but indicate that there is a category three hospital, out of five in importance; Those hospitals are built with the same materials as the teaching center, so I must continue standing, I don't know why but I am optimistic; I travel the kilometers with the calm and serenity of someone who is alone and surrounded. I advance, but every ten meters I stop to check the surroundings, the computer insists that there is no one for at least two hundred meters... but after the fiasco of my war machine I do not plan to trust it again.

 

The sun is something new, although in military training there was a lot of heat in the special rooms, it is very different, even though it was good, those training sessions do not prepare you for the sandy terrain, nor for the fact of feeling hot from all sides. pores of the skin, all the rooms contain plants, one can seek refuge in them, here I can only feel how the dust mocks me and moves away, leaving a light and heat that hits directly on my black suit...

 

Why did it not occur to any military idiot that we might need a less absorbent color? But no, there they sit, cool in their battle suits while I have to walk in an environment radiated by this heat oven.

 

I sincerely suspect that my GPS (global positioning) must be broken, since I went out at dawn and walked all day and it indicates that I have only advanced twenty kilometers, and that is not possible, I did stop a lot but it should not be like that; The weather cools down very quickly and soon I must get into my personal tent, made of the same material as the protection of my robot; It resists a lot, energy fields give it the necessary hardness so that it does not move or be taken away.

 

I slept pretty badly and it's very late when I sit up; My suit processed the water all night, but it's just a couple of gulps and it's over; Once again the battle against the sun is horrendous, my head feels a little strange, like heavy. This day I don't stop, I run and stumble, I have to get to the hospital, I have a fever (I think), I don't have to allow myself to die at this point in my life. Finally at noon I manage to see a huge silhouette that stands out among the surrounding emptiness, I don't really know what it is but I head there.

 

I think the one with the wrong compass is me: I have been walking for two hours (according to the meter I am less than ten kilometers away) but at times it seems that the silhouette is seen to the right, after a while it is seen more to the left , it's either that or I've been stumbling for a while. I take off my mask because of the feeling of suffocation; I breathe directly the air of a dead world, my mouth stops tasting salty from sweat and dries like everything around me, I look for my water reserve and find it empty; I look for my salvation and I find it far away... I look for the floor and at least he comes to my face.

 

Recording 003

 

"The guy known by the name of Joshua is currently leaking fluid in the desert, five miles away (the idiot didn't change the army unit of measurement to his own), I have already issued a recommendation that emergency suits can be include some type of cooling system. I trusted my machine too much, I hope it can come to its senses... I have to admit that part of this is my fault, I gave it too much adrenaline and various cocktails to increase its concentration on the first day and I didn't take into account the need for liquids that my actions would trigger, if someone finds it, I hope it will be soon, I wouldn't like to see it drying out little by little. It's my ticket to get out of here."

 

Save Delete