When he regained consciousness, he found himself hearing strange sounds. He opened his eyes to see a green...thing.

He immediately shot up onto all fours, using his knees and the backs of his wrists to keep his rings from pressing on the ground. The green thing didn't move. It ruffled with the wind, but it didn't move. It wasn't herbaro...so what was it? It didn't look like it was alive. It didn't look very threatening. But what was this thing? It was obviously part of the Outside, so... So then it was good.

He smiled and used his forearm to feel it. The green thing tickled a little bit. Upon closer inspection it wasn't entirely green. There were green round-ish things sticking out that didn't look harmful at all. Holding those green things was small, slender brown things. They connected to one larger brown thing that stuck out of the ground. Incredible...

He shifted one of his legs to get up but stopped in surprise when he heard a rustling sound. But...this was the Outside, and there was so much he didn't know about it. So far nothing was dangerous. The green thing that sat in front of him didn't make that kind of rustling, but there was a glimmer of curiosity in him that begged him to turn around and see what it was. It was barely any curiosity but it was strong nonetheless.

He turned to look at what it was. His leg had hit the paper wad the English-speaker had given him. He knew he didn't have to worry about the English-speaker—he was dead. They had both been in horrible shape last night but while he was exhausted, the English-speaker had severe burns and gashes.

Thinking back to the events of last night reminded him that he still didn't know what to do or where to go. His worst fear was that he would encounter more English-speakers. The entire facility had been blown to bits so the probability of someone having seen all that smoke and fire was high.

He stood up, wobbly and still weak from Projekto Nivelo Up. There was more green around him than he had ever seen before. Sadly, it wasn't what he was hoping to see. The crisped building wasn't at all in sight. He had figured that he could go back there—it was all he ever had. Now, with it gone, there was nothing left for him. His entire life had revolved around that place but now that it had been taken from him, it was as if his life was pointless. Everything he had gone through had been in vain; it had served no purpose. And now it seemed he was unable to function on his own. He had to find that place despite its gruesome end.

He left the paper wad to rot on the ground—anything from an English-speaker wasn't worth keeping—and set out to find the now hidden building. Having nowhere else to go, it was the only place he could think of.

The first few steps were very slow and cautious. The herbaro was soft and brushed up against his feet. It wasn't something he was used to. But as he began to accept the herbaro as a terrain much more comfortable than concrete, he allowed himself to drop his guard against it and moved faster. This was the Outside after all, and the only problem in the Outside would be other scientists and English-speakers.

The trek continued for what had to be hours on end before he noticed that the green things were growing thicker and much taller. They were close together now and other strange discoveries were made. What looked like extremely soft, tiny pieces of herbaro covered chunks of concrete. Some of these concrete pieces were pointy while others were round. Some were big, others were small. Some were brown but most of them were gray.

He found what looked like a slow-moving, soft, living thing that left a shimmering trail wherever it went and carried a tiny piece of brown concrete on its back. It was fascinating and it didn't scare him since it was very small and slow. If it wanted to hurt him it would've already done that. He decided to call these peculiar creatures malrapida-incitantaj.

He found flying creatures all over the place—they were bigger than the malrapida-incitantaj and ten times faster. They were also ten times smaller than he was and didn't look very threatening, so he wasn't intimidated. They made odd sounds. Some were cheeping, others made a "chip, chip" sound, and still others made a "kwee, kwee". They didn't have concrete on their backs like the malrapida-incitantaj. They were also more colorful and fun to watch. He decided to call them flugantoj.

The very next creature he found was gray and fast. It was also small and tended to flee from him when he came close. It would use tiny feet to scamper up the brown part of a tall green thing and perch there for a bit while it watched him closely. Its long, fluffy tail always twitched. It wasn't seen as a threat. He decided to call these creatures lanugaj-vostojn.

He paused, his body stiffening. There was a strange sound coming from farther off. He somehow knew it wasn't a creature; it had to be something foreign, something completely unknown to him. Then again, everything was foreign and unknown...

No matter. It was still a nearly indescribable sound, a mixture of a "swish" and a "zoom". It seemed an impossible choice—go toward the sound and see what it was, or steer clear of it and risk it coming to get him later. It really was a difficult choice and making decisions wasn't exactly his strong point. It was useless. Here he was standing right out in the open where anything could kill him, while there was a possible safety where that noise had come from. It was only when he thought that someone had survived and was waiting over in that direction that he wanted to see what it was. The need to have someone else tell him what to do was overpowering. He didn't hesitate any longer and directed himself toward the place where the sound came from.

The tall green things began to thin out and his vision was no longer blocked. He crept as close as he could before diving behind the wide, brown stick the held up the green thing. He summoned the courage to peek around it and survey the area. There was concrete. In the middle of it was a black line with large, crude things that rolled around on black circles. They came in all different colors. Bordering the black line were two gray lines, one on each side. People walked on it, about half of them talking into small devices that they held up to their ears. Some of them were tapping these same devices with their thumbs. Others were actually paying attention to where they were going.

He noticed that they were all English-speakers. While he greatly detested English-speakers, they were somehow intertwined with those he knew. That meant they could take him somewhere more comfortable, somewhere he was used to. Part of him was hoping someone had survived that explosion and was on their way to get him right now. Another part of him had a feeling that it just wasn't going to happen.

For a moment his nerves betrayed him and he thought about going back, but just as quickly as he had gained cold feet, he lost them and summoned every last ounce of the reserve courage he had left...and slowly crept out into the open where everyone could see him. He felt the urge to hide his rings as much as he could and allowed it to take over, sticking his hands behind him.

He walked with the stream of people but it wasn't getting him anywhere; that much could be told immediately. He didn't know what else to do, though, and continued to follow the crowd. Some of them regularly broke off to enter a building on the side of the gray concrete while others exited those same buildings to join the crowd.

He had no idea just how little he knew until now. Every word was something he couldn't understand. The Outside was fascinating but it was too strange a place for him to handle. All these people knew where they were going and what they needed to do, whereas he was aimlessly walking around. They had a purpose and he didn't. They were so accustomed to the Outside and he just...wasn't. He had always wanted to know what the Outside was like but now that he knew, he realized that it was no place for a boy who had lived his entire life locked up inside a secure facility.

He felt his shoulders stiffen as he grew more and more uncomfortable. He had to find a dark-ish building, any kind of building as long as it was something he knew! It needed to be big and dark, preferably with concrete inside. He highly doubted that in the Outside, concrete was what made up a building.

He continued to walk, following the long string until he finally saw a few people crossing some yellow markings on the black concrete. All the rolling devices had stopped for them and seemed to be waiting patiently for them to pass. He went with them, sticking as close as he could without looking suspicious. As he'd hoped, not a single one of them paid any attention to him and went about normally.

Unfortunately, though, they spread out almost immediately after they had crossed, leaving him all alone. At least he now had a new objective—find a place he could take refuge in, if only for a little while.

He took a breath and kept walking, carefully assessing each building he saw. The big ones weren't that dark and looked kind of lonely, which was far from what he was used to. The smaller ones seemed too cramped, which also was far from his comfort zone.

There seemed to be just...nothing. The only bit of consolation was the rings. He never had any real feeling towards the rings, but now they held special meaning. Now they had a purpose that had little to do with his "trainers". It was the first and hopefully last time he would feel like he actually needed these rings.

As he continued on for what felt like hours, he was forced to keep reminding himself that what he was doing wasn't really a decision so much as a command given by circumstance.

But the situation was still grim no matter how anyone put it. He was the only one who actually stood out and he felt it. There were only two people in front of him now but he'd seen enough already to know that they weren't going to lead him anywhere useful. To them though, they were going someplace useful—another thing that made him so much more different. The Outside was such an unfair place...

A/N

Okay...so this was a slow update and a short, crappy chapter that probably made you want to claw your eyeballs out. I do have my reasons for not updating as soon though! I haven't really been able to work on it because I just moved to a new house. Before, during, and after was full of "joy". And we all know that by "joy", I mean tiresome and a real pain in the neck. To top that, even before we started packing, the stress of writing and updating was too much and I had to give myself a break from writing nonstop. It was a long break but I'm mentally writer-ready again. You can expect a faster update next chapter.

I do really hope this story gets more reviews! :') It gives me a TON of drive to continue and even ideas as to what could happen.