Hewie’s gaze was fixed on the table in front of the couch. He could see Elie there, sitting with her feet swinging and a smile on her face. Despite having been killed. Terminated, so his creator said. Such a cold word. Such a cold room. Elie hadn’t deserved her fate. The ghost of her reached out and patted Hewie on the shoulder. He could almost feel it. Did they even have a soul? What happened to them at their death? Did they simply cease to exist? After what his creator said, nothing had a soul. The man was too rational to even believe in such a thing and after he admitted that to Hewie, the perfect experiment had begun to feel terribly sorry for the old man. To simply not believe in what he couldn’t prove or see or taste or touch seemed... stupid.

Hewie sniffed. The thought of Elie’s last moments, the fear in her pale blue gaze pleading to be helped, somehow. Maybe he could have broken through the glass. But that would have killed them all. The place had been pumped with deadly gas and one breath of it begun shutting her down. Hewie knew this because he had asked. Like a fool. He had asked how they killed her. Why, even. She simply didn’t pass the tests. Now when he slept, he couldn’t stop going back to the thoughts. The way he’d been told. So... coldly. He was almost glad that the facility had been destroyed when it was... Almost. Had he genuinely been happy, it would have made him as bad as the others.

As the vision of Elie faded into humid air, a tear managed to fall from his eye. Though he was a third metal, he could cry. When Alec spoke to him, Hewie startled, stood, and turned to the window. “No, not lost...” he assured the young man. “I’m... just thinking.” He rubbed the tear from his eye and crossed his arms. “Just thinking about when this started... is all.” An explosion of thunder shook the house and lightning flashed again, illuminating his eyes.

Alec looked at Hewie not quite sure what to say. He wanted to try and see what he was thinking about but thought it would be too intrusive, they had only been together a few hours so he didn't want to rush into things, he felt bad not saying anything, but he just had no idea what to say, he just embraced the silence of the room with the sound of the rain on the window and the crack of thunder in the distance. "So..." he said quietly breaking the silence of the room. "What was it like for you when all this started?" He went and sat back in the chair pulling the blanket back over him. "I know it's only been a few months since this all started but it just seems like it's been years, you know?"

He sneeze in the chair making him jump a little "Ugh, dust." He muttered. Alec's eyes started to droop again, his head slowly nodding as he tried to stay awake. "Oh god...Not again.." He tried to concentrate on Hewie but any attempt to do so failed miserably. He ended up falling back asleep in the chair. He knew that he would be kicking him self when he woke up in the morning.

Hewie looked around at the question. It was almost as though Alec had caught a bit of his thoughts, going back to his past. He studied Alec for a moment, considering his reply. He had been cultured not to lie. Not to twist the truth. It was best, he was told, to keep straight to the point. He went with that, though. “I didn’t know anything about the world when I was made. I spent all my time in a small room, learning by movies, documentaries, and whatever people told me. So my image of the world was formed through second opinions and tapes. I spent my days learning more intricate speech and abilities, and reading about the world as it is now and as it may be. But, that was before this happened.” He looked out the window. “I didn’t eat or sleep often, since I didn’t really need to. I still don’t. So it’s a bit of a test to learn human habits and understand them a bit easier.”

He looked around in time to see Alec fall straight to sleep. He didn’t take it as an insult, however. Hewie understood how a nightmare would render most unable to receive the full benefit of sleep, thus rendering them tired after they wake suddenly. He also took it as a lucky streak he didn’t have to recount Elie’s death. He didn’t think he’d be able to.

As he sat on the end of the couch, watching through the window as a pale grayish glow began illuminating the horizon beyond the clouds and rain, Hewie considered Alec. He was human. Not like Elie. Certainly not like Hewie. He would age. And he would die. But Hewie didn’t quite know if they would be able to help each other that long. He closed his eyes to the outside.

Dim light filtered it's way into the room, highlighting the dust floating in the air. The storm out side had died down and only a slight drizzle fell to the ground. Alec slowly awoke in the cool room, still tired and groggy, as though he had only just had an hours sleep, for all he knew he might have had just that. The light from the outside was trying make it's way in, as though it had all the good and happiness in the world at it's side trying to push and squeeze it's way though the obstruction on the window. He walked up to the covered panes and attempted to look though, he struggled to see past the boards and the only thought that occurred to him was to remove them.

He hooked his hands under the plank of wood and pulled as hard as he could. The board didn't budge, he tried and tried again, but still couldn't move it. He moved his hands to one end of the plank and pulled using his whole body weight as a lever to move free the window of it's alterations. The plank gave slightly, he kept pulling, moving it inch by inch dust billowing into the air around him, the nails squeaking in the window frame slowly letting more light though, without warning the plank came free and took Alec by surprise, he stumbled and fell flat onto his backside with the plank hanging limply from one end of the frame he looked at his handy work only to be blinded by the new amount of light entering the room. "Shhhh, that's bright." He squinted and covered his eyes slightly with his hand and got up of the hard wood floor.

He remembered that Hewie was also here as well and turned to see him, He looked straight at Alec like an alert cat as though he'd been disturbed by the noise. In all honesty Alec forgot about Hewie and felt a little bad in case he was sleeping. "Hewie, it's fine I haven't been killed." He rubbed his eye's and his face to try and wake him self a little and stretched widely. He scratched at his chest and yawned loudly. "So what are we going to do about breakfast, I think that what we got yesterday wouldn't be safe to eat now. Hmmm, what about the cupboards? Do you think there might be some tinned stuff in there?" As he said this he pointed to the kitchen with his thumb and then left Hewie in the room on his own.

As soon as he felt a change in the air, a very slight elevation in temperature and paling of the world around him, Hewie opened his eyes. Dawn was only just arriving, chasing away the stars that glanced through every now and then between cracks in the clouds. It was still dark in the house, though. Only through the half-inch crack in the boarded window could Hewie see the sky, and when he looked a bit downward, he thought he could almost see a cityscape jutting out from the rain-soaked ground. He stared at it. His eyesight was of course not acute enough to see anything specific more than a bird or two in the sky, But he considered the presence of others there. Perhaps there would be more, sane people, a village, a safe haven. It looked to be about five miles away. Maybe two hours away if they took their time.

He glanced around as Alec began to stir. As it was pounded into his head before the demolition of the science facility, Hewie didn’t speak or react until someone spoke to him. It didn’t seem Alec quite realized Hewie was even there, as he moved around to another window and struggled to take a board down. Still, he didn’t move. Alec seemed to do just fine on his own.

When he was finally noticed, Hewie blinked and stood. He hadn’t thought about breakfast. Alec no doubt would have before him, though. Considering yesterday’s happenings, he didn’t have to eat for another several days. “I didn’t see any.” He said. “But I didn’t check too carefully in the cabinets.” He went around and into the kitchen, looking around. Most of the cabinets were open, a tall cupboard open with only a few rat-nibbled bags and boxes that looked empty save a few crumbs, mold, and dust. Slowly, Hewie went around the far side of the kitchen, opening drawers that seemed stuck. A bit of wiggling freed them, but only a few spoons and forks littered the bottom of two, nothing in another, and a third, heavy, showed much more promise. A few cans, tinned foods that didn’t have labels, but when Hewie picked them up, they were heavy. “Found some.” He looked around and set them on the counter.

Alec squealed with delight at the sight of the cans, It was almost as though Hewie was a lucky charm. He picked up the can and there was definitely something in there but it could have been dog food for all he cared, it was food and it was in a tin meaning that there was a high chance that it was, but he didn't care he would eat it and get every possible bit of nutrition out of it. "Hewie, how are we going to open these?" He examined the tin to see for dents or possible holes, luckily there were none, he had heard of people getting seriously ill from eating food from damaged tins as they may not be fresh or the food may have bacteria inside.

The sky outside slowly got brighter rain still falling, Alec shook the can to see if he could identify what lied within the tin. As he shook it, it was more like a large weight with no give inside. He sighed and put the tin back on the counter. "What are we going to? We can't stay here, well we could but someone would eventually find us and probably try to kill us. But I don't know where to go? Don't you have like a GPS in your head or something?" He chuckled slightly hoping that Hewie would see the humour in his joke. He was hit buy a brain wave, his knife, he completely forgot about it. "Hewie wait here." He charged out of the room and up the stairs making loud crashing noises as he went up. He entered the room where he left it and saw it lying on the side table, the blade unfolded and glinting in the light like a god send. He closed the knife and picked it up quickly leaving the room and walking back to the kitchen. Holding the knife proudly in his hand. "I found the solution to the can problem." He beamed.

((Look at me, finally replying and such! I'm so sorry for taking so damn long!))

Hewie tilted his head at the possibility of a global positioning device within his brain. His was a human brain, but intertwined with computerized mechanisms. He hadn't been told of such a thing being implanted, but then again, he hadn't been told a lot of things. He could, however, use distant radio signals and satellites to pinpoint his location to within a few degrees; he hadn't seen a working radio in ages, and he had to doubt satellites would be of much use... He glanced around to reply to Alec, but he'd taken off, rather noisily. Moving slowly toward the doorway, he looked around in time to see Alec coming back down the stairs.

He tilted his head at the prospect. "I don't know." He said warily. "Wouldn't it dull your knife? Break the tip?" He took the can and studied it. He'd done it before... Hooking his fingers under the edge of the lid, he pulled upward. A metallic creak sounded throughout the quiet kitchen and the lid pulled apart from the rest of the can. It wasn't the cleanest finish, but it spared the knife unnecessary damage. "There." He gave it back to Alec. "I don't know what it is." He went to the window and pulled a few boards off the middle. "I don't know if you were serious about the GPS in my head, but if I can lock onto a radio signal from a nearby city, or link up to a satellite nearby, it'll be easier to avoid getting lost." He looked back at Alec. "If we can get to a populated city, it might be safer."

((Dude, just reply when you can! Like I've said about 100 times))

Alec looked at his knife nodded in agreement. "Hmm I guess you're right, but if I... Oh you've opened it." He examined the can and the contents inside, it was just sweet corn, Alec didn't care though it was food and he could eat it. He opened the can futher and opened his knife to use it like a spoon he only managed to get a small amount on the thin knife but he didn't care, it was the best thing that he'd eaten in days, if not weeks. He savoured each small mouthful that he had. He hoped that he wasn't dreaming. He stopped eating and nicked the tip of his blade on the top oh his hand. "Ahh! Okay I'm not dreaming." He continued to eat and hoped that Hewie didn't notice him partially harming himself. "So you said that you can lock onto radio signals?" He said between eating and putting more food into his mouth. "Your shitting with me right? That's like all sci-fi and stuff." He had finished of the can and threw it to on end of the kitchen, it making a loud clanging not when it had come to rest.

He thought about how Hewie could do it. Did he have antennas in his head or his arms? He didn't want to ask because it might have been rude, but he certainally was curious. "Even if that whole lock on thing is true it probably wouldn't work. There's no power so all the radios would be dead." He started to flick his knife open and shut, it clicking as it went from open to closed. Flicking it round and over his hand, like he was performing a magic trick or putting on a show, he enjoyed doing this to pass the time. Lydia always panicked when he started to get quicker and quicker. Lydia. Ever since he had the dream only a short while ago, every thing he saw, touched, did. It always linked back to Lydia. He quickly stopped flicking the blade and closed it and calmly placed it on the table. "What are we going to do Hewie? What are we going to do..." He said quietly.