Chapter 15

Bluescreen's P.O.V

I looked out at the terrain through the one way view window beside me. We were up in the mountains now. The road was bumpy and every so often the truck would jolt. The sun was high in the sky, but it made no difference to the low temperature. I remained curled up in my corner, trying to keep my body heat from disappearing.

Beside me, Gradient sat silently staring off into the distance. He hadn't said much since the small incident with Sage. I was grateful for him protecting me, but I hadn't said it. I wanted to, though. I really did. I couldn't bring myself to speak. It seemed like every time I spoke, something bad would happen to me. I was too scared. I held my hand in front of me, examining it. It trembled, just like it always did. I'm still scared.

Gradient spoke. "Bluescreen?"

I looked at Gradient.

"Have you ever, even once, known a friendly touch?"

I tilted my head.

"You know...a hug? Maybe a handshake?"

I shook my head.

"You know that not all physical contact is painful, right?"

I looked down, shaking my head again. Whenever someone has touched me, it has always resulted in pain. It hurt so much, and I screamed so loud, but they just kept going. I thought that was normal for a long time. A part of me still thinks it's normal.

"Do you want to try something?" Gradient asked.

I looked at him questioningly.

"You don't have to, of course. But..." Gradient held out one finger. "I want to show you what a friendly touch feels like. Just one finger at a time."

For a long while, I did nothing. What do I do? Do I obey? Will I be hurt if I don't obey? I raised my hand, holding up one finger. But I stopped. My hand, it was trembling so much, like there was an earthquake in my body. Panic rose in my chest. Don't touch him, don't do it. He'll hurt you. Gradient wouldn't hurt me...But what if he did? I closed my eye sockets, holding my breath to stop myself from making a sound. It will hurt. It always hurts. He will use you just like they did.

"Bluescreen."

I opened by eyes. Gradient wore a calm expression and there was a comforting shine in his eyes.

"I promise you, it won't hurt. But I'm not going to force you into doing something you don't want to do. Just shake your head if you don't want to do it." he said.

He wouldn't hurt me. He would never hurt me. He's...my friend. My first real friend. I took a deep breath, calming the fear in me. Very slowly, I let the tip of my finger touch the tip of Gradient's. No pain. Just the feeling of something very gently pressing against my finger.

"Is this alright?" Gradient asked.

I nodded. My arm still trembled, but not nearly as much as before.

"We'll take this slowly, OK? Just shake your head if you want to stop."

I nodded again. Gradient raised a second finger. I did the same and our fingers made contact. A spike of panic rushed through my body, but I quickly calmed myself down. One finger at a time, eventually all five fingers on both our hands were touching.

"Are you still OK?" Gradient asked.

I nodded, smiling slightly.

"I'm going to try something, OK? Just pull your hand away if you want to stop."

I nodded again. Very gently and slowly, Gradient adjusted the way our hands made contact. His fingers slid down my hand and curled around it. He was now holding my hand. A jolt of fear, this time much bigger then the other sudden jolts, brought me to silent tears.

"Too much..." I whispered, almost completely silent.

Gradient seemed surprised that I spoke, but he acted immediately. Rather then holding my whole hand, he just gently held my fingers. The fear went down and the tears faded.

"I'm sorry if that scared you." Gradient apologised.

"It's OK..." I whispered.

Gradient gave me a soft smile. "You did well. I'll be honest, I didn't think we'd get this far."

I smiled back. It feels nice. His hand feels nice.

There was a sudden, harsh jolt of the truck that made almost everyone fall out of their seats. There was a loud creak and then everything seemed to go at an angle. I grabbed tightly onto my seat to stop myself from falling off, Gradient stood and leaned on the seat in front of him.

"What's going on?" Blueprint asked.

"I dunno, brah!" Fresh answered, trying his best to stay upright.

I looked out the window beside me. We were in the air, something big was holding us in the air and we were going higher. Eventually we were at eye level. A massive, dead, reptilian eye stared at us.

"There's a massive lizard outside and it has us in it's claws!" Desire yelled.

Fresh let himself slide down to the door of the truck trailer and he kicked it open. "Everyone out!"

Mostly everyone slide down the truck and jumped out the door, the majority of them having a rough landing. Sprinkle refused to jump, saying that it was too high, but Desire scooped him up in his arms and then jumped. Moon grabbed onto one of the open doors with a goopy hand and lowered himself down smoothly, then Sage slid down Moon's arm.

I was close to jumping out, but when I saw how high we had gotten, I froze. I was the only one left in the truck.

"Bluescreen, you need to jump!" Blueprint urged.

I shook my head quickly. It's too high. It's too high to jump.

Gradient stepped forward, holding his arms out. "I'll catch you! Come on, jump!"

The sound of rotting jaws crushing through the metal truck trailer shrieked behind me. I looked back and saw yellow decaying teeth sticking out from the roof.

"Bluescreen!"

I looked back at Gradient.

Gradient wore a soft, reassuring smile. "It won't hurt. I promise I'll catch you."

Jump, jump now! And I jumped just as the jaws completely crushed the truck. Gradient caught me in his arms. I felt a burst of panic and my body began glitching uncontrollably. Tears ran down my face and I couldn't concentrate on what was happening around me. Too much! Let go! Put me down, it's too much! My vision was clouded by error signs, my whole body felt fuzzy and weird. Then I crashed.

I hated crashing. Everything seemed to freeze, like I was stuck in one moment of time and couldn't move. I had to reboot, but that took time and how long it took differed. I could only wait...

Reboot complete.

My eyes flew open and I sat up straight. Under quick examination, I saw that I was in a hollow in the ground. Light shone in from the small entrance. I could hear the sound of yelling and the massive stomping feet of the zombie lizard, as well as the occasional explosion.

"Blue...screen..."

I looked behind me and my eye sockets widened with horror. Gradient laid on the ground, a deep bite in his chest that bled out. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and tears flowed from his eye sockets.

"I'm...sorry..." he said weakly. "I should've...let go..."

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I took hold of Gradient's hand with my own, ignoring the panic in me. I then curled up, squeezing his hand and crying silently.