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It was a little disorienting to travel again. I had gotten so used to staying in the hotel. I was already missing not being in the sun. It seemed to be brighter than I remembered. More intense.

I hated it.

But I was there with Isaac, so I couldn't complain too much. I was glad to be able to act more... friendly towards him. To be able to occasionally take his hand in mine as we walked. It helped, holding onto him. Sometimes it even felt like we were back home, walking in the halls at school. I was always shaken from those visions by Isaac pulling away. And then I was back in the desert, hot, sweating, in agony. My fur was clean when we left and within two days it's filthy again. 

The first day was hard. I was expecting the sand like we had before. But this desert was starting to look more like a dried-out lake bed. Cracked, hard ground that crumbled under the weight of my monstrous feet. The sun seemed even hotter, if that was even possible. We hadn't encountered anything which surprised me a little bit. The way Wandered talked, it seemed like we'd be encountering bandits every few feet, but thus far, we hadn't seen anyone. And Wandered didn't give us that good of directions. He more or less told us to walk until we met these guys we didn't even know what they looked like. 

I was sick of the bullshit. 

"How do we even know what they look like?" I asked Iz.

"In case you haven't noticed, we're in a desert. We don't see a lot of people here," Isaac said, turning to face me a little.

"Yeah, except the people that tried to put a hole in us and their victims. I'm just saying, they could be dead," I said.

"Wandered would know," he said firmly.

"How? How the fuck would Wandered know? He's not fucking super-man!" I shouted. I saw the look on Isaac's face and I knew I hurt him a little. I bit my lip and sighed.

"He knew where you'd be for the cabinets," Isaac said, stopping to glare at me. 

"That was just a stupid place. Why wouldn't he have put the note in a better place?"

"Why do you say it's him?"

"Because," I start, swallowing hard. "I think he's in charge of this place." 

Isaac scoffed and began walking once more. "Now you're being an idiot. Why would he be in charge of this place?"

"He gets food mysteriously, he knew I'd be looking in the cabinets, he was hiding stuff from us when we tried to ask questions. He knows more than he lets on. It seems like he's just playing us."

Isaac turned and glared at me. "You're just upset because I trusted him to lead us out of the factory, that's it, isn't it?"

"Shut up! I'm upset because he's full of shit. We can't trust what he says. He could be leading us down the wrong path. He could get off on leading kids to their deaths for all we know!"

I was furious; screaming on the off chance it'd get some pressure off my chest.

It didn't.

Isaac brought his paw up and dragged it across my face, sending blood out and wounding my cheek. He stormed off, too angry to say anything else.

I followed him. It seemed like that's all I could do at the moment. In silence, under the hot sun, I followed his footsteps. He was going fast and I heard faint muttering. I sighed and just kept going. I knew he'd just need to cool down. So I'd let him calm down for a bit. After a few minutes, he slowed down and when I caught up to him he said very simply.

"Sorry, Jase. I'm... just..." he hugged me tightly, his arms wrapping around me and squeezing me tightly. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You'd sooner defend an old man than your oldest friend... that's what hurts me the most," I said, voice quaking in anger.

Iz sighed and looked away from me then back at me. "Yeah... I know. I'm..." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I just need a break right now." 

"Need a break? How am I supposed to give you a break? You're stuck with me on this stupid quest," I said. 

He nodded and said nothing. His cheeks were red from either the heat or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. 

"Jase... I just..." He hugged me without another word and we stood there for a bit, doing nothing but holding each other. 

"Don't worry about it," I lied. He should worry about it. Truthfully, I was furious. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to punch him. He wasn't trusting me, his partner, but he would trust some crazy old man that couldn't even answer our fucking questions properly. I was frustrated and wanted to get my anger out and Iz was the only person around for miles. I thought of how easy it would be to hit him. To remind him that I was stronger than him, that I wouldn't let him take control of everything. 

But I could never hurt him. He was my friend. He was my... 

He was Iz.

And he saw through everything.

"Don't you lie to me! Fucking talk to me!" he yelled at me. He never yelled at me unless it was something big. 

I looked at him and sighed. "Iz, I want to have some pull in these decisions! You can't just agree to this crap. You should have asked me if I thou-"

"Would you have done it?" he interrupted.

"Yes, but that'-"

"So what's the big deal?"

"It's the principle of the matter! You didn't think that I would have done any differently! You didn't think that I should be consulted. That's what hurts. You didn't even consider my opinion to be worthwhile. You ignored it, and you ignored me. You bastard."

"Asshole! You always overreact about this shit!"

"I overreact? You're known for that!" I screamed.

"Fuck you!" he yelled, getting in my face.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I laughed.

"Asshole!" he screamed.

"Whatever, bitch," I turned to walk away but he grabbed my arm.

Had this been a bad Disney sitcom, we might have kissed then. But instead, he brought his fist into my jaw with all his force and then shoved his knee in my gut. I started to collapse but caught myself before that and sent a punch of my own, hitting his maw hard. He flew to the ground, and was completely motionless. My heart stopped for a second and I felt suddenly cold, even in the desert.

I ran to him, and flipped him over. He looked okay. I checked his pulse and he was still breathing. His pulse was fast though and he felt hot.

"Shit."

I grabbed him and slung him over my back, running as fast as I could. I had to get him out of the sun somehow.

In hindsight, I acknowledge that taking an unconscious person and running three miles isn't the greatest plan, but I never said to be the smartest person ever.

There was a small metallic shed-like thing sticking out of the sand. It was as tall as me and it looked like most of it was buried under the sand. The tip was tapered off and it looked familiar but I couldn't figure out why. There was a small hole that looked like it had been cause by an explosion. I went into the small opening and sighed. I could only hope this place would be acceptable cover.

Upon stepping in, I knew what this place was right away.

It was a submarine.

I'd seen enough war movies to recognize the interior. The tank was at an angle, turned on its side and tilted up. I could barely keep myself up in the slanted floor, but I managed to make my way down to an open space. It wasn't much, but it would do. 

* * *

Iz slowly opened his eyes and looked at his foreign surroundings. He brought his hand to his cheek which I could only imagine must have been aching. He coughed and dust swirled in front of his face, his eyes following it as they tried to focus. He looked over at me and furrowed his brow.

"Where are we?" he managed.

"In a submarine," I said.

"Why are we in a sub?"

"Look, Iz... I've done a lot of things here I'm not happy about. But right now I'm not at fault. ... Not entirely, I probably shouldn't have punched you, I am sorry about that, but I'm not sorry for what I said. You should have consulted me. You've been nothing but a selfish ass since we got here."

He started to open his mouth but I shot him down with a glare.

"I've accepted it until now, but I will not watch you put up this tough guy facade and act like you don't need me. I am your friend, yes, I hurt you, and I regret that more than you know, but you need to forgive me and stop thinking only of yourself. You're being far too fucking reckless and you may end up getting us both killed." I leaned back, content to have gotten so much off my chest. "Now you can talk."

"Jase..." he stopped and looked away. Back at me, then down. "I'm sorry. You're so right. I'm such an idiot. You're right. I've been... selfish," he said. He chewed on that last word like it was foreign to him. "I shouldn't... I mean... I didn't..." he struggled to find the words to say. I couldn't blame him. He had a lot to apologize for. His hand drifted from his thigh up to his cheek and I saw him blink away a tear that was forming. He coughed and I saw him shift his weight. Then... he just let it go. He stopped trying to be brave. He sobbed, loud, bitter tears that soaked into his cheeks, leaving a temporary stain. I didn't move. I didn't say a word. I just let him sit there in his pain and misery for a little bit until it was all out of his system.

I was kind of being an ass by not comforting him, but he was being an ass to me so I really didn't care. Every man has their breaking point.

His sobs stopped and his eyes mostly dry he looked up on me with a lightness in his eyes I hadn't seen since... before.

"It's been so long since I've cried like that. I needed that," he smiled a little and I suddenly saw the same little lion cub I first met, all those years ago. "Do you remember Ms. Novak, our old history teacher?"

I smiled. Of course I remembered her. She was my biggest inspiration. She was the first teacher to actually make any subject interesting for me. She was the first teacher to make me feel like I mattered. She became a close friend and she's the reason I chose to go into history... Or would have... had the accident not happened.

"Yeah, I remember her," I said.

"You... insulting Wandered is a bit like calling her a bitch. I don't know what it is, Jase, but he... I feel this connection with him. Not in a creepy way, but I feel like we're kindred spirits. Like he has so much to teach me. So you saying what you said... yeah, it pissed me off. But... I overreacted. Jase... I'm so sorry. You're my... friend. I shouldn't have hurt you," he sighed and looked down a little.

I brought his chin up and smiled. "Look, just talk to me, don't shut me out. If you want to just be alone with your thoughts... tell me that, at least. But don't think that you can just shut me out. Me, your oldest friend..." I looked down and then back into his eyes. "Your only friend."

He wrapped his arms around me and sighed, comforted in my arms.

"You never answered my question," he said.

"What question?"

"What are we doing in a sub?"

It occurred to me that I was too preoccupied with Iz to worry about the origin of the submarine. But it was a good question, and seeing that it was dusk, it was a good time to check it out. The entire thing was slanted downward, going deep into the sand. It'd be dangerous to adventure in, it was very likely that we could be crushed by tons of sand collapsing on us. But my curiosity was getting the best of me.

"Grab your flashlight, let's check it out," I said, pulling my own flashlight out of my pack. I attached it to my belt loop so it'd stay pointing ahead. Last thing I needed was to be without both my hands in case of an emergency.

Walking forward, I kept a hand on the wall, the whole thing was slanted downward at about a forty degree angle so I had to keep my balance. Iz followed behind me. I could hear him whisper something, but I couldn't make out what.

"J-Jase? Can I have your hand?" he asked.

I reached back and grabbed his hand, giving it a light squeeze. "I'm right here," I said.

"Thanks," he said.

We made our way through the labyrinth of corridors. The task was made all the more difficult by the occasional cave-ins of sand. The entire sub was quiet. It wasn't pleasant and there was a faint odor. I recognized it but didn't mention it, hoping that Iz wouldn't mention it. We came to a wall of sand and stopped.

"Damn," Iz sighed. "I was hoping we'd have an easy time travelling."

"Yeah, me too. Look, we can go back. We don't have to-"

"No! I need to know. I mean, don't you want to know why it's here? This is a submarine... in the middle of a desert."

"Yeah, let's keep going," I said. We turned around and budged the door we passed earlier. It opened with a loud creak. We saw a large room. It had broken off, this one section level. It looked like a command bridge. There was a periscope laying broken in the floor and a large table. To the right there was a communication level and to the left was nothing but sand.

"How did the hull get breached?" I asked to no one in particular. I stepped down onto the level floor and held a hand out for him. With him down, we stood in awe for a second or two, letting the space fill us so we could digest it.

I went to the table which had a map of the area spread out on it. There were a few ships lined up. I pulled one out of the table and saw a small pushpin coming from the bottom. I looked at the map closer and saw a familiar word to the south of a large lake.

"Do you recognize the name, Bannon?" I asked Isaac.

"That does sound familiar, why do you ask?" he sad, walking over to us.

"Because it's a point on this map. I'm trying to-" I suddenly remembered. "Shit... Iz, when I was looking for a way out, there was a logo I kept seeing. Bannon construction company. That factory we were in built this!" I don't know why, but I thought that was impressive.

"That's..." He shivered. "I feel cold," he said, walking off to the communication's area. Iz picked up a small piece of paper attached to a radio. "They must have written down the orders..."  Taking the piece from his hands I looked at it, recognizing it to be in another language. It read:

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"Maybe you should have taken Spanish instead of French," he said with a playful smile. Iz was always teasing me about learning French but il est un petit connard. He took it back and began translating it. "Um...gimme a moment," Iz said, reading over the faded, old document. "It says something about orders? It seems this sub was infiltrating some great lake. Looks like they were probably doing some espionage... Apparently they were stealing secrets or something, because they were investigating the tech in the plant we were in, as well as ways to take the tech for themselves. I guess they must have been really deep under cover, because if they were busted, the Government they were associated with...probably called Lapídes....would refuse to even acknowledge them, let alone help. They were probably caught and bombed, because they were supposed to destroy these orders if they were successful. ...Um...I can't read any of this, it's gibberish. Written in...Code M? For safety reasons it seems." He paused to look around before taking once last look at the paper and saying, "Let's get out of here...This is starting to give me the creeps."

I nodded and we headed back to the entrance. Along the way, I started to cough a little. It got worse. I could feel the pain rising in my throat as I coughed.

"Jase, you okay?" Iz asked, putting a hand on my back. I kept hacking, my vision blurring a little.

"I'm not..." I coughed again and plodded on, Isaac was calling my name, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. My arms felt heavy. And I was aching all over. Just... sore. I stumbled as we were almost back to the starting place. My eyes felt heavy. Just... I was tired. I needed rest. I needed...

My head hit the floor of the sub as I fell face-first and blacked out.

I know, I'm an asshole, aren't I? Don't you guys just love my cliffhangers? xP Anyway, I really am happy with this chapter. I wrote a lot of it when I was sleep-deprived, but I'm happy with it. Rate, fave, comment, and all that good stuff. =D -kergiby

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