[2] bro, chill (please)

I woke up next to my phobia.

With the sedative still slowing my senses, I saw it in an ugly haze of wrinkly blue and foamy white, like a wet painting crumpled then flattened again and put in front of my vision. A terrible salty scent crept into my nose.

Of course. Of course Location A would be near a stupid ocean. Which we'd never seen with our own eyes. Ever. (And I'd never wanted to, thanks.) Out of all the weird places we could've started in, all the coordinates in the world Epsilon conquered, he'd chosen this-

My palm was burning.

My palm was burning?

And my front. And my legs. And feet. Everything. Grunting, I shifted and glanced below me; I was lying on my stomach on scorching hot sand. Golden crystals, millions of them. So...a beach. We were on a beach. What the hell was next? A forest? All the animals that'd gone extinct pouncing at us?

"Jake? You okay?"

Scarlett's voice. I propped my torso up on an elbow and looked at her. She was stumbling for balance, still fighting the last traces of the sedative. "I'm alright," I said. I should've gotten up, but the sand distracted me. We'd never seen it either. Never touched it. So I held a fistful and let it sift through my fingers. Hot like fire, soft like silk. I smiled.

"Jake. What're you doing?" Scarlett caught me by the arm and heaved me up; I moved with the force, but I couldn't stop staring at my surroundings like an idiot. As if we'd traveled back in time, before the world coalesced into a sphere of metal. So weirdly fascinating. "Looks like what we saw in videos. In pictures. Before the Automation Era."

I nodded. Scarlett patted sand off my arm, then I cleaned the rest on my own. Subconsciously, I stayed close to her. At the shoreline a wooden bridge led to a small cabin.

Scarlett clutched my wrist. I sensed the urgency through the harsh lock of her fingers. When I looked at her, she was gazing at our left, her shoulders tense. I didn't need to ask. She must've sensed something. Then she stepped back and bumped into me, as if about to spin and run for her life.

"Jake," she said, still looking towards our left where looming trees lined the edge of the beach near the cabin, "we're gonna run now, okay? I think there's something there."

I nodded even though I wanted to check rather than run. She tugged at my wrist and took off and towed me behind. We ran. For, like, 0.48 meters. Not even half. That was when someone seized my arm, forcing me back. Scarlett crashed into me. Then we both stumbled forwards, just about tripping over each other.

"It blows my mind how stupid everyone here is." A young boy's voice. Young and furious. When I recovered from the entire shebang, I looked at Scarlett and found her standing with the boy's double-edged sword pressed onto her neck. My jaw dropped. Either because my sister was in danger, or because holy shit, the dude was holding a sword. An ancient weapon. "Are you two idiots new here? No one's told you that you don't step anywhere near my territory?"

Before I could speak or so much as move a muscle, the boy drew another identical sword (30.2 inches long, by the way) and jabbed me in the chest. I stepped back. He dug the glistening tip deeper. It pushed into my flesh. I froze, petrified. The boy's face was still tilted in Scarlett's direction, making sure she wouldn't pull a stunt, but now he finally looked at me. The sensory overload stunned me.

Skin like ours. Normal eyes like ours. Cheekbones and lips and brows-he looked like a human. Exactly like one. He couldn't be, though. Fourth class of robots, that was what he was. The exception. The androids.

The ones with emotions.

The boy snarled and frowned and looked ready to slit my throat, but then his shoulders relaxed the moment he focused on my face. He lowered the sword a little.

Then he said, "What the hell? Your eyes are different colors."

I let out a relieved breath. I should've done something extraordinary now, maybe. I should've showcased my severely nonexistent combat skills and punched him in the face or said something so clever it'd dazzle him.

All I could conjure was this: "Yeah...So...Which one do you like better?"

I heard a little smack. Pretty sure it was Scarlett face-palming.

"Neither."

"Nice." I nodded. "Me too."

"Jake...Jake, just stop talking," Scarlett said, shaking her head like I was a disappointment. Which I was right now. When she focused ahead again, her eyes were set on the boy's thick brown belt. Knives and daggers lined it. The plan sparked in her head, I knew. And I wished I could scream: nope! Bad idea!

Scarlett took a step nearer. Closer to me, closer to the boy. She positioned herself so her hand was near his waist, ready to pickpocket. With a calm voice, she said, "If you ask me, though, I like his brown eye more because it's the same color as my eyes."

Before we knew it, the boy sheathed one sword, grabbed Scarlett by the throat with his free hand and bared his teeth at her, all while also keeping a sword to my chest. The ultimate one versus two. Scarlett froze. Literally. Even her facial expression, despite the lethal grip he had on her, was stone-set in a furious frown.

"I know you're trying to steal one of my knives, you idiot," he said. He tightened his grasp on Scarlett's neck. I shifted, heart in my throat. Through my peripheral I caught the cabin again. The boy had sprung out from somewhere close to that direction. And he'd called this his territory. Logically, it made sense. Scarlett writhed under his ruthless pressure. I had to distract him, so I tried.

"Hey, if that's your house over there," I said, pointing at the cabin, "someone's trying to break in."

The boy didn't even look at me first. He shoved Scarlett away and turned, holding up both swords again. Stance altered, ready to fight: his shoulders squared and torso bent forward. Except, of course, no one was trying to break into his house. I'd made that up.

By the time he came to the realization, Scarlett had stumbled back to my side, face flushed, holding her neck and cursing him under her shortened breath. The boy turned to me and glared. Might've even killed me three times in his head already. Then he lunged, hand grasping my shoulder.

"What the hell is wrong with you? What even are you two? I bet you're some useless new Supports. As stupid as everyone else here."

Supports. My mind drifted. We knew that our five-member team had to be a composition of Assassins, Marksmen, Supports, Fighters, and Tanks. But we didn't know what Scarlett and I were, or how the hell we'd figure it out.

We needed this boy. Needed him for knowledge. Which sucked, because my brain was telling me: screw this shit, go find a corner and sleep. Only I knew I couldn't do that. Trial wasn't meant to test our evasion skills, that was for sure.

"Calm down," I said. The boy clearly didn't appreciate the command in this. So my smartass decided to soften it. "...Please? We can sort this out, I promise. We don't know which-"

"Listen." The boy tightened his grip on my shoulder, pulling me close. So close that I noticed every mole on his neck, that I could make out every individual hair forming his dirty blond brows. "Fuck off. I battled for this territory and this house. I'm done with everyone." He sighed, relaxing a bit. "I don't want to hurt you, just don't let me see your face again."

"You don't want to hurt us?" Scarlett scoffed. "You were this close to killing me." Silence for a second. No reaction. The boy frowned, but it was more confused than angry. We needed to cajole him, coax him into telling us what he knew about this world. How it worked. That would need words. Proper communication. So, naturally, it was time for me to shut up and let Scarlett do her thing. "You listen," she said. "We woke up here. We never meant to trespass on your territory. We didn't even know it's your place. We don't wanna die on our first damn day."

"Hold up, hold up." The boy straightened, his hand slipping off my shoulder. He made a half irritated and half confused expression. "What the hell are you talking about?" he said. "We're all androids here. We're robots. We don't die. I can't kill you."

It clicked. He didn't know we were humans. And it made sense, because we looked exactly alike. Except I'd thought Epsilon would've told these androids that he was throwing two humans in here. Something like that.

And apparently, it clicked for the boy too; the epiphany dawned on him, widening his eyes, slackening his jaw. "You're not androids," he said. "You're...you're humans."

I couldn't decipher the implication in his voice. So we were humans...okay...time to kill us? Cut us up limb by limb and hang them on the tree as ornaments? Worship us because, in some way, our kind created them?

Clearly not the last option, because the boy sheathed both swords but took a dagger off his belt instead. The next thing I knew, in a blur of hurry and confusion, he slashed my arm. The pain flared. Sharp and hot. Scarlett screamed, "Jake!" I groaned, holding the wound. When I recovered, he'd already done the same to her.

Scarlett looked ready to punch him. "What was that for!"

"Just making sure you're humans," the boy said, grasping my arm. He dipped a finger in the blood. Felt it too. I frowned. So he knew we were humans by blood? By its presence or by its color?

"Just ask us!" Scarlett said, her voice exasperated. "Yes, we're humans. Your precious robot leader sent us here for some dumb trial. So guess which one of us should be pissed?"

The boy didn't give a flying shit about everything anything Scarlett had just said. At first, the conclusion had made his face glow. Dark eyes momentarily bright and ecstatic, a secret he needed unraveled. But now it faded. The weight of worry forced his brows into a frown.

He looked around him, stiff and fast and urgent. As if making sure no predator was preying. No traitor was listening. His hands rested on the hilts of his swords. After the checkup finally ended, he caught our gazes again.

"You need to come with me," he said. "Before any other android sees us."

"Why would we trust you?" Scarlett grabbed my wrist, making sure I wouldn't decide on my own. "We're not going anywhere with you."

"You don't need to trust me. But you need to know that any other android would've already killed you both, and there's a whole lot of them here." The boy narrowed his eyes, focusing on Scarlett. In a mocking voice, he added, "That way, you'll die on your first damn day."

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hi everyone! hope you enjoyed? Also yess jake has complete heterochromia (each eye is a different color)! You probs figured it out lol idk why im pointing that out.

Please make sure to vote and comment your thoughts (even if it's negative!), it'd mean a lot ❤️