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Alcatraz and I walked for about 12 hours after the encounter with the Rhino. The sun was merciless the entire way. My downpipes were fully open the entire time and I felt like someone had wrapped me in a blanket of white hot metal. As much of an annoyance as the heat was for me, if I overheated, I could come back from it pretty quickly, but after that business in the lab, I was worried that if Alcatraz overheated and passed out that I might not beable to wake him up. As annoyed as it made him, I forced him to keep pace with me so I could keep a very close eye on him. We stopped every so often to catch our breath and re hydrate and once or twice to procure more water from some crystal clear, icy cold lakes that my guess welled up from the Kojak. About 5PM, we had ten miles left till we made the lab, but it was getting dark and cooling off very fast.

"Hey Skyline we gotta start thinking about some kind of shelter here", Alcatraz said.

I stopped where I was standing and looked up at the sky, the sun was sinking below the horizon pretty quickly and darkness would soon envelope the forest, making it impossible to navigate, especially if Martin's creatures would be out.

"yeah", I said setting down my ruck in a hole between some roots, "what were you thinking of for a shelter?"

"Something that gets us off the ground", Alcatraz said.

I looked at the tree roots in front of me, "if we find strong enough logs we can build a platform between these giant roots, I already have an idea how it should work."

"Let's get working then", Alcatraz said.

He set down his pack and then the two of us walked around the area bit. I figured to support the both of us we'd need sticks about half to three quarters inch thick. Given that all the trees around were Jafu's, that wasn't too hard. We each picked up everything we could carry and then returned to the tree. We had enough sticks to cover the area we would need to have a comfortable night, problem was, the roots were sloped where we needed them to be level. We didn't have what we obviously needed, which was a machete, so Alcatraz, in a stroke of "genius", said we should use my Katana.

"What?", I asked, 'your crazy."

"Any other ideas?", Alcatraz asked.

"That's a seventeen hundred year old sword", I said, "you can't use it to chop a tree."

"What are we supposed to use?", he asked, 'we need a blade."

I sighed and pulled it from my back, "I don't get that back, your ass is terminated."

"In your dreams", Alcatraz said turning to the tree.

I focused on climbing one of the trees for some of the giant leaves to make a canopy for our shelter while Alcatraz ruined my sword. Once at the top of the tree, I could actually just barely see Biosphere in the distance, as well as two more missles launching into the golden evening sky.

"Alcatraz", I called through the radio.

"Yes", he answered.

"Two mores missles just launched."

There was a pause.

"You certain?"

"Looking right at them."

Another pause.

"Thanks for telling me I guess", Alcatraz sighed.

I huffed and put away the radio. I pulled out my ballistic knife and quickly collected six of the giant leaves for the canopy. I let them fall to the ground and then descended the tree. Alcatraz, now done with my blade, handed it back to me and I returned it to it's sheath. As he started laying the frame work for our platform, I sat down on another root and started stitching the leaves together. Jafu leaves have some pretty interesting properties to them. There about as flexible as your T-Shirt when you bend them slowly, but if you were to say, fall on top of one, it acts like a steel rod and won't budge in the slightest. Back when I was still in captivity, Chy had used the leaves of the tree she was hiding in as supports for her fort.

"Why couldn't they have killed us both?", I sighed aloud.

"Hmm?", Alcatraz asked looking up from his work on the platform.

"Nothing", I answered not looking up from my work on the leaves, "it was supposed to stay in a thought bubble."

"It must have been something", Alcatraz said.

I sighed. I hadn't told anyone about Chy, or about what had happened that lead to my escape. The only one I'd even come close to telling was Sarah when she and I were alone in the medical bay at the lab. Sighing again, I answered.

"My girlfriend", I said, "you weren't with us when I told the story, but when I was a year old the capital city of my home world was razed by slavers and I got caught. My Brother was executed on his knees and my Dad was burnt at the stake. I ended up getting sold to 4 guys, 3 of who tortured me for the next 16 years. The only escape I had from it was those nights when Tony wanted to play cards with me and throw back shots, usually because something bad was coming the next day, and my girlfriend Chy, who would watch the house and sneak me away when they would shoot their drugs along with bottle after bottle of booze."

"I remember you talking about Tony", Alcatraz said tying a few branches together to serve as the roof of our shelter. I quickly finished tying the leaves together and then we heaved it over the wooden frame, making a tent large enough to hold the both of us, plus beds long enough to stretch out on and all our equipment. Alcatraz dug a fire pit outside while I left camp to gather up tinder and fuel for the fire. By the time I got back to camp, it was so dark I couldn't see without my flashlight, even with natural night vision and a Telekinetic field. While I was gone, Alcatraz had built four small walls on each side of the clearing in the camp and dragged back two decent sized logs which he set in front of the fire pit.

"Jeez Al", I said setting down the tinder and starting to build the fire, "looks like some prehistoric settlement, were only staying the night."

"I'm aware", Alcatraz sighed, "I'm just trying to tire myself out so I can sleep."

"And render yourself combat ineffective should any of Martin's creatures show up", I said reaching into my bag for a bottle of my stove fuel and a blasting cap.

"Shut up and light the damn fire", he said rubbing his arms, "it's starting to get cold out here."

I shook my head and lit the fire, instantly casting an orange glow on our shelter and the nearby foliage as well as giving us both some much needed warmth.

"Crazy how the heat was trying to kill us earlier", I said as I took my vest off, airing out the baked and cracked chitin on my chest and back, "now it's getting cold. What kind of screw lose planet is this?"

"Welcome to Suck Town", Alcatraz said, "AKA Ios, population us."

I laughed as I stuck the blasting cap into the fire frame and set it off, setting the tinder aflame, 'well said brother."

Alcatraz sat up and held his hands out to the fire. I could see the skin on his palms had blistered off, my guess was the texture on the grips of his 20mm had rubbed it off. The weird thing was that they went to the bones, or more, a 3D printed, interchangeable replica of hand bones. I could see clear rubber hoses that were wound around wires. The scary thing was that they were very deep gouges, maybe about sixth of an inch down, and he didn't seem to notice.

"Hey Al", I said, "the palms of your hands are rubbed down to the bone."

Alcatraz pulled his hands away from the fire and inspected them.

"Huh", he sighed, "I didn't even notice."

"How did you not notice?", I asked, reaching into pack for some bandages, "those are holes."

He shrugged, "I guess my computer decided it wasn't important."

"Take your exo gloves and I'll fix it", I said pulling my first aid kit out of my backpack.

Alcatraz shrugged at me and took his gloves off and let me bandage his hands. I suspected, due to the look on his face and the look in his eyes, that he was only letting me do it because he knew I wouldn't leave him alone unless he let me.

"What's up Al?", I asked, "I can tell something is bothering you."

He shook his head, "nothing's bothering me Skyline, except everything. I'm tired of it."

"Tired of what?", I asked.

"Tired of living", He said.

I found myself taken aback by his words. Tired of living? What? Why?

"What makes you say that?", I asked.

He responded with a short matter-of-fact laugh.

"Everything", he said, "all of this. It's the final nail in the coffin. Ever since the Quake I've fought tooth and nail everyday with this stupid computer in my brain that runs my artificial body and keeps me alive. Do you have any idea what's like to know that your a dead man walking at 14 years old? What it feels like to be trapped within your own body?"

I shook my head, "can't say that I do."

"It wouldn't even be so bad if my friends hadn't just abandoned me after it happened", Alcatraz sighed, "the lab used to be full of other kids, Synthetics and Humans. I used to get along with the Synthetic kids just fine, the the quake happened and I got the synthetic parts, suddenly nobody wanted to talk to me anymore. I guess that no one likes a Hybrid. Only one who kept hanging around me was Nate and he was a Hybrid too. People hated him just as much as me."

"You and Matt seem to get along just fine", I noted.

"Yeah", Alcatraz said, "I guess because were both just machines."

"Machines don't think, feel or have emotions", I said, "Machines don't learn new things, machines don't care about anyone nor do they have anyone that cares about them."

"A description that fits me perfectly huh?", he asked.

"Alcatraz", I said, "I care about you. Matt cares about you. So does Allen, Jacob, Sarah, Tyler and James. Were in this till the end. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself."

'Weather I'm feeling sorry for myself or not", Alcatraz said, "the fact of the matter remains that my humanity is gone. All that's left of my body is my brain, an eye and my spine. Still want to say I'm not a machine?"

"Yes I do", I said, "your gonna sit here and tell me, someone whose been to more planets and met more people from more walks of life than he has the mental capacity to count that humanity is decided by where the parts that make up your body come from? By that logic, if I buy the kit to build a Chevy Camaro from an overseas company that it's not an American car? It's the same logic Alcatraz. You were born a human and you'll die a human. Weather your body is biological or bio-mechanical, you are still human, simple as that. Your no more a robot than I am a human and do I look human to you?"

I saw Alcatraz perk up, I could tell I had just asked to be insulted.

"No, but I should probably call and ask what the best way to get rid of a giant acid blooded beetle is", he laughed.

"Haha", I said.

"Is funny", Alcatraz said, "why you no laugh at the funnies?"

"Because your funnies are really, really dull", I said.

"Like your face?", Alcatraz asked.

"What?", I asked, "what the fuck?"

"I don't know", he yawned, "I'm going to bed."

"Night Al", I said.

He nodded to me and went inside. I stayed out, staring into the fire. Thinking. Why hadn't Martin killed me when he had the chance? He knew full well that I would. He knew I was going to come back and keep trying until I succeeded. He knew that killing my Mom meant that I would try until he killed me. It didn't make sense. I was as much a threat to his plans as he was to our survival. Maybe he thought I was only motivated by the money James had promised? I wasn't sure, but it was too much to figure out tonight.