Chapter Text
On the roads far from anyone with half the sense to stay indoors, was a white mid sized car, with nothing much to it, apart from music from about two decades past blasting inside. In the passengers seat sat a teen, pressing their face a bit too close to the AC's vent trying to nullify the sting of the dry air.
Despite the AZ heat, they were dressed quite modestly, a sweater a bit too big for their frame, and dark blue jeans, with thin glasses halfway broken from mishandling. Far from clothes you should wear in the desert.
A voice cut through the uncomfortable feeling of heat “Sam your to close to the ac, your gonna smash your face in if I hit the brakes”. Sam was mildly annoyed but obliged to the wishes of their parent, their father had always been a man of direction, “honesty was the best policy” he’d say, although “honesty” was always subjective to him. And him alone. Sam whined in an exaggerated tone “Why can’t we turn the ac uuuuup?” Sam’s father quickly gave them a ‘look’ and Sam quickly ended the use of it, quickly looking away and sitting up straight.
It was silent again…Eventually the music, no matter how animated, couldn’t fill the gaps of speech forever. Soon they’d arrive at their destination, a small town. Or more specifically the edge of town, where a building resembling what was once a storage facility turned half motel. Sam and their father stepped out of the car, Sam waited patiently for their father to speak with the man about the unit.
As Sam looked on, units were lining the small spaces in the building walls, the steel dull in the sun’s unforgiving rays, with small dents and scratches. Most damage was inflicted on one door, seemingly from the inside, Sam was busy thinking about how those dents and scratches could’ve even ended up there while their father kept talking to the owner, the owner was a nice man, he seemed very calm and polite. Although there was this air about him that didn’t seem to make much sense, as if he was rushing something, but what?
Eventually Sam’s thoughts were interrupted by their father calling out for them holding two sets of keys, one with a number of the motel room labeled on the tag attached to its ring, and one completely blank for the unit. “He said our room will be on the second floor to the left, start putting our stuff in there” Sam’s father gestured towards the car trunk. “Okay!” Sam said without much thought, although they had to admit they were excited to see what was in the motel.
After a few minutes of resistance Sam was able to open the door to the motel, plopping down the luggage on the floor, they then started to check for any signs of bed bugs, or possible infestations. “Hm, alrighty then! Bug free!” Sam allowed themselves to fall onto the left mattress, “finally! No more cramped car” Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Sam eventually stopped basking in the relief of a soft bed on their back, going down stairs to help their father with the unit.
Eventually the old silver key worked and once the door was pulled open, a cloud of dust and sand spewed everywhere. “Cough-jeez! Is there anything good???” Sam asked, a bit surprised by the lack of ANY maintenance “probably! He said we can take anything, and that he’d scrap anything left, but with our luck their should be some good parts!” Sam’s father started to separate the mountains of ‘loot’ from most valuable to least.
Sam hurriedly went to collect some boxes from the back of the car, all afternoon they sorted and boxed and sorted, and boxed….again….and AGAIN. Until the dessert itself was getting tired, lowering its gaze, setting into a cream purple with splashes of orange and red along the sky.
The long day was coming to a close but the man came by the door, and as Sam’s father was talking with him, they wondered why the man felt 'off'….“hey, I got us an extra unit! There might be something good in there!” Sam’s father went on and on, although Sam wasn’t one to deny their father the time to yap about his interests, but that strange feeling…. Sam took the keys, examining them, they were labeled a different number then the other units; they only went up to the double digits. It was “833” labeled on the keys face along with a bright orange tag on the key ring, it looked even older then the other keys, if that was even possible.
Unfortunately their “loot collection” had to come to a stop, as not only did the night begin, rain started to roll in, the wind bellowing through the mountains. Eventually Sam and their father wind down preparing for bed and the next day’s search for loot.
Early in the morning Sam awoke to view the sunrise. They absolutely adore the desert sky, a mark of the world’s art, colors twisting and meshing together to make a golden glow. Unfortunately Sam is a bit too early, no matter, they change and start their day in the motel's questionable bathroom, eating the food they’d packed from the previous day.
A simple ham sandwich and apple juice, childish, but delicious.
As Sam was eating they could not get the feeling of unease out of mind….that key….’why the hell was it even labeled for??? Not like -‘ Sam then realized, the unit without a number, the one that probably has seen better days. Sam grabbed their phone in a rush, leaving their glasses lonely in the motel with their father, using the light to illuminate the path down the stairs. Sam walked down cautiously making sure they had good footing. Didn't need another bruise’ they mumbled to themselves as they descended.
Eventually, after what seemed like fucking 20 minutes, they reached the bottom, the desert road was cracked, as it usually is in places of high heat. Sam walked a bit quicker to the unit, making sure no one was looking, tripping along the way, but eventually they made it to the unit. Sam had a bad feeling about this….but after all the unit was free…and it wasn’t like anything bad could be in there, maybe some rotten food or rusted over parts, ‘but nothing dangerous…right’? Sam sighed and then cautiously opened the unit, it was dusty, far dustier than the last one they had opened previously. Dust spread everywhere Sam quickly turned away coughing a good deal before looking at the contents inside, and it was…a car!? Sure it was dusty, but it was the real deal!
No body damages except a few scratches but Sam realized their eyes widened-“A beetle!? Oh gosh, I gotta get a-“ Sam hurriedly tapped their phone to take a picture fumbling around with it, almost dropping it in the process. “Come on! Come on!!!” Sam promptly swiveled around and held up their phone snapping a photo, “aw man! Stupid flash” Sam’s eyes were also closed in excitement for their discovery, ‘it’s not every day you find an almost mint…beetle?’ Sam looked at the picture and it wasn't—they turned around to see…not a beetle?
Sam looked at the tall figure in awe, ‘what is that!? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?MY BROWN ASS ISNT PROPARED FOR THIS HORROR MOVIE TYPE SHI-’ Sam continued to stare ,mouth a gape, they couldn’t speak, the figure surely wasn’t the same as before! its eyes met with Sam’s, blue and glowing radiantly with a sort of liveliness, and it blinked!? Its head tilted slightly as if silently communicating its own questioning thoughts.
Sam started to scream, but was promptly stopped, mouth covered by its great big hands, it was cold.
The mechanical creature shook its head rapidly, its “ear” like attachments dropped down as if in distress. Sam was as quickly as they were silenced, let go. And Sam stared once more, mumbling some incoherent words “b-Buh what-I-uh-WHAT!?” The mechanical being started making small noises, it was distressed but not showing signs of any aggression, Sam started to step back.
And as if understanding, the creature lowered its hands and stepped back as well. Sam was close to running away, but maybe out of foolishness, or fear, did not. They simply stood and watched one another, eventually Sam spoke, a bit shaky but clearer than before, “w-what's...wrong?” the creature then opened its eyes a bit more, almost like a human would in realization, it then turned around and grabbed something promptly handing it to Sam.
What looked to be a golden hood ornament, it was heavy, but looked to be high quality especially since, from the looks of the being, it was pretty old. The ornament was very detailed engraved with a specific pattern making it almost look like a blocky face. No, not just a face, one that looked not too different from the creatures, robotic, although unlike the yellow robot, it was much sharper looking. Sam compared the two holding it up to see them both side by side, the yellow robot politely bending over to allow for better comparison.
A quiet “thank you” escaped Sam’s mouth, Sam looking at both ‘faces’ then said without much thought “wow, you look much cuter than this angry face!” The yellow robot then shook its head rapidly, almost in agreement, Sam chuckled at this…..’why was this thing so…nice?’ Sam thought to themselves.
The robot then very slowly lowered its head pointing at the silver line going down it, there was a vague mark where one would assume something went, then Sam looked at the ornamental object and then at the golden robots ‘forehead’ they then reached out placing the ornament on the space it had looked to go to.
“Is this what you were trying to say, well, ‘mime’ I guess…”.
The golden robot then shook its head happily? Sam then started to chuckle a bit more at its simplistic joy, as the robot made small noises of celebration, its ears going back up, as an animal would when excited. “Wow you really liked that huh? Well…I’m glad you feel better…I guess?” Sam started to back away quickly hoping it wouldn’t notice, Sam was relieved they didn’t anger the robot.
But Sam promptly slipped on a rock falling over, bumping their head hard on the cement, they were on the ground the world dancing around them far too fast. And it was far too early to fight for consciousness. Sam was out like a light.
Eventually Sam’s father came rushing over after noticing their absence, In the chaos the golden robot had already turned back into the form Sam came to first find it as.
Sam eventually came to, with the help of their father’s nagging.
Sam paused to see if their father saw what they did, but alas. Sam pointed at the car with a shaky hand as their father continued to scold them for leaving the motel room without speaking with him first. Sam’s father looked at the open unit, getting excited by the sight of the car. “Woah! you struck gold! And here I thought that guy just gave us a unit full of trash! Good job Sam”! Sam simply nodded, hoping whatever that weird fever dream of an encounter, was just that, a dream.
worked my butt off to finish it, also don't make fun of my sona, its literally what i look like oki broski, byeeee :3