"Kinnooo!" A familiar whine broke the silence of the crisp fall air.

"Yes, Hermes?" The 16-year-old continued driving through the forest listening to the whir of engine and the crack of twigs under the tires.

"Are you sure this is the right way? I don't want to get lost and run out of gas again." Hermes complained.

"We weren't lost. I was just going a different route." Kino replied to his groans matter-of-factly. "Eh?" Kino stopped the motorrad suddenly and in the process rotated him 90 degrees.

"Kino! That's not good for my tires you know!"

Kino shushed him. "Do you hear that?"

They were silent for a moment before there was a reply. "I don't hear anything! Kino! Are you sure you ate something? You don't think straight when you don't eat."

The girl ignored his comment and drove through the last remaining gap of trees before a clearing. She took off her goggles, her mouth hung wide open in a gasp. She had thought she had heard the sound of a fire but she hadn't imagined something like this would be ahead. On the far side of the clearing there was a lake sparkling in the sunlight with water so clear and void of pollution that you could almost see to the bottom. In it stood several men holding spears, fishing. One of them caught one as it jumped and the beads of water glistened. Closer to Kino and the middle of the clearing stood several rather crudely made wooden houses. Outside the houses children were playing and between the houses stood a large cackling fire.

"Wah!" Hermes exclaimed. "It's like time has popped!"

Kino thought for a second. "You mean time has stopped?"

"That's what I said!"

In the time it took the two to say this they had been noticed and practically surrounded. The children seemed to be especially interested in Kino's metal partner. It was obvious that in a place like this motorrads were not an everyday occurrence.

"What is it?" One of the children crept close to Hermes and poked at him, their curiosity overwhelming their fear.

Kino smiled at the boy. "This is Hermes and I'm Kino."

"Is Hermes alive?" The boy asked timidly.

"How mean!" The subject of discussion had apparently decided to defend himself. "I'm a machine! That you'd even have to ask is insulting!"

"Hermes!" Kino kicked the obstinate piece of machinery to try and shut him up.

The children ran in separate directions. That this hunk of metal could talk was beyond the scope of their imaginations.

"Magic?" One girl asked.

Kino laughed. "Something like that."

……………………………………………………………………

That night Kino sat outside her tent staring up at the stars. "You know Hermes…" She was silent, not finishing the thought.

"Yes Kino?" Hermes nudged her on.

"It's just in all our travels we've never been to someplace like this. Somewhere that has never heard of a motorrad or even simple technology. They've never seen a Persuader either. I was beginning to think places like this didn't exist anymore…" The girl sat silently again, contemplating.

"Do you wish there was technology here Kino?" The motorrad seemed perplexed by her train of thoughts.

She thought for a minute. "I'm not sure… It seems like it makes their lives harder to do without it but… Maybe it's better this way." Kino went into her tent, zipping it closed so she could undress. "Good night Hermes." And she blew out her lantern and there was quite once again.

……………………………………………………………………

When Kino got up the next morning she went a far ways off before she practiced her drawing. The Persuader was one piece of technology that these people didn't need to see. When she got back to her tent there was a swarm of young children around her mechanical partner. They seemed to be a bit bolder today and one was sitting "side saddle" on his leather seat.

"Kino! Kino! Kino! Stop them! I'm going to fall over!" Indeed at that very moment Hermes began to sway and fell to the ground with a crash.

Kino ran over and picked up the child who had been sitting on the motorrad's back. "Are you alright?" The child just nodded and ran off to do something else with a burst of laughter. "Thank goodness…" The traveler sighed.

"Kiiiinnnnnoooo! How mean!" Hermes had begun whining. "You care more about those little monsters than me!"

Kino looked at him. "Really Hermes. They are just children and you are a machine. I would think you were tougher than them."

Hermes was silent. Once again Kino had twisted his words and put him in a lose-lose situation. Before he could think of anything to say another voice came into the conversation.

"Kino! Please come eat with us." One of the women of the village sat beside a large pot of stew which boiled delightfully, spreading a smell through the air which tickled Kino's nose and tempted her taste-buds.

"Eh? Are you sure it's alright?" The youth asked, a little surprised by the generosity of the woman.

"Please. We would love to have your company."

Kino nodded unable to hide her pleasure at eating something besides her terrible ration bars.

……………………………………………………………………

"That was so good!" Kino loaded a few things onto Hermes back preparing him to ride.

Hermes looked at his rider suspiciously thinking to himself that she had perhaps been gone a little too long and eaten a little too much. "Are we leaving already?"

She shook her head. "They have been so hospitable to me. I want to be able to do something for them. So I was at thinking that I could at least gather some wood for them." She mounted her metal steed, pulling his kickstand up with her foot.

Hermes engine began to whir. "Kino… You don't usually help people unless they really really need it. Besides… Last time you helped someone it ended badly. Why are you helping these people now?"

Kino was silent for a minute thinking about rabbits, thinking about betrayal. "I don't really know. Maybe it's because I can do something this time. Because I think I've found a little good and want to give something good in return."

"Kino…?"

"Yes, Hermes?"

"Do you think there will be a good ending in this country this time?"

Kino looked ahead with a vacant, sad look in her eyes. "I wish I knew…"

……………………………………………………………………

The next day Kino was almost sorry to leave.

"Please stay a few more days!" The villagers protested.

"No. I'm afraid I have to be moving on." She smiled. "I've had a very good time. Thank you. I'll be sure to stop by if I'm ever passing through this way again."

"Please do!" A chorus of agreement followed the suggestion.

Kino smiled and waved as she pushed Hermes out of the grove and into the forest. It was denser here than it had been on the ride in and she would have to take Hermes on foot for a bit but she didn't mind. It was a beautiful day. As she continued to move through the forest she noticed something shining at her feet.

"Eh?" She put Hermes' kickstand out and bent over to see what it was.

"Kino… I swear… Bending down to pick up coins… You're so cheap!" Hermes whined. He wasn't as happy as Kino was to not be riding.

"It's not a coin, Hermes." The girl rubbed the dirt off the metal object and held it up to the sun. "It's a gear. But what would a gear be doing all the way out here?" She laughed. "You don't think it's a motorrad graveyard do you?"

"Kiiinnnooo!! That's not funny!" The motorrad's protests were rather loud.

She laughed again. "Alright. It looks like the forest is less dense now. We can probably start riding." She slipped the gear into one of her pouches and undid the kickstand and the girl and the motorrad began to ride.

……………………………………………………………………

"Kiiiinnnooo!" Hermes would have had a pout on his face if he had a face to display it. "I hate riding in the rain!"

"I hate it just as much as you do Hermes. There is a cave up ahead. We'll wait out the rain in there." Kino looked frustrated at the downpour and her hard to please partner. "Really! It was such a beautiful day out! I don't know what happened!" Indeed, it was pouring now and a storm seemed to have come out of no where.

The two pulled into the cave and Kino took off her coat and hat, laying it across the motorrad's back. Then she looked around the cave. It was small but dry enough and there was some timber, probably left from someone else who had used the cave as shelter, in the corner. Nodding she busied herself with starting a fire.

"Kino?"

"Yes, Hermes?" The girl didn't look at her partner as she continued her work with the fire. There. It looked to be going steadily now.

"Where do you think that wood came from?"

"Hmmm? Probably just some traveler who came in here to rest like us."

"But it looks old… See? It's kind of rotting there." True to the motorrad's words the fire cackled with the unmistakable sound of rotting wood.

Kino looked puzzled and then shrugged. She sat down and tried to dry herself by the fire. It was then that an old leather bound journal caught her eye. She picked it up and opened it, coughing slightly as it released dust from years of neglect. Then she began to read.

……………………………………………………………………

October 10th, 5 days after the explosion

As I write this people may still be dying in the rubble. It has been five days since that terrible explosion that killed so much of our population. I suppose it came of man trying to play God and failing. When man tries to play God it can lead to a sort of mass genocide. At least it did in our case. Two peoples living in the same country that both thought that they were better than the other. And both of those peoples had too much technology. In the end it led to an explosion that destroyed everything. God… If there is a God… I fear that he is punishing us for taking his role. Now I look around this room and I see faces of both the warring peoples. What good has our war done us now? God, what good has our war done us now?

October 12th, 7 days after the explosion

In the time since I have written two more people have died. It seems that the explosion gave off some type of poison. A few more have already come down with the sickness. Of the fifty or so that escaped I wonder how many will be left in the end.

October 15th, 10 days after the explosion

I have not had much time to write in the past few days. So much has been going on. I haven't really been able to sleep either. All the time I hear moaning. I can no longer tell if it is from the living or if I am just imagining the moans of the dead. I suppose it no longer really matters. In all the time that I've been awake I've been doing a great deal of thinking. I think the reason that we felt like gods back then was because we had already done so much that was god-like. We created life in a test tube. Can you imagine that? Life without a man to start it. I suppose that this would have been God's greatest achievement, man. Or am I just thinking selfishly again? Wanting to believe that I am the most important think in the world?

Spring ? days after the explosion

I had given up this journal almost two years ago. Since then I have forgotten all notions of calendar days and lived only with the seasons. I gave it up the day we signed a treaty to forget all about technology and to live without it. I wanted to give up this journal so I would not look back to technology and want for it again. But I have decided to write one last entry. Since the day I last wrote, twenty-two have died. We have also had five children born. I guess there is nothing like shared pain to bring a man and a woman together. We plan to leave this place now. To set out for someplace clean and wild and live simply there. I hope to God that we will never repeat the same mistakes. If someone has read these words… Please learn from our lesson. Let our pain not go to waste. Now I will say my final goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

……………………………………………………………………

Kino closed the book slowly and she looked to be deep in thought.

"Kino… Do you think those people were…?"

"Probably, Hermes. Let's just go to sleep." Her voice was flat and she doubted very much that she'd get any sleep.

……………………………………………………………………

"Whoa! Traveler! Do you have a minute?"

Kino and Hermes stopped and the former removed her goggles to look up and see who spoke to her. It was a man driving a trader's truck. In the back were ammunitions of all sorts. She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Is there a small village just beyond here?" The trader asked.

Kino nodded. "Are you planning on going there?"

"Yes. We heard the people there live like heathens! No technology at all. I thought I'd do them a favor and give them some persuaders so they could at least hunt. Pretty generous of me, huh?" His smile was wide and sincere.

"Yes. How very kind of you." And Kino smiled as she lied.