Chapter 4

Slowly Revealing the Truth

Trunks slowly opened the door and peeked through it's crack. He saw the short hallway led to the living room.

He walked out, to see if the girl was up yet. It was 8:00 in the morning and the sun was shining through the windows in the living room. He can hear Symone breathing quietly.

She was laying on the sofa, like she said, under a knitted blanket that almost covered her face completely as she laid on her side, facing him. She had her teddy bear under her arm in the blanket.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently, "Symone." he called quietly.

No response.

He shook her alittle harder, "Symone, it's time to wake up." he said to her.

She moans softly, then the blanket fell from her face. She rubbed her eyes alittle and looked at him. She yawned and sat up, "Good mo'nin'." she greeted wearily and with a slight rasp in her tired, dry voice, "I told you, you would probably wake up before I do." she stretch her arms above her head.

"It's eight o'clock."

She frozed and looked at him, "You're joking, right?"

Trunks shook his head, "Nope."

"Man, wake me up in two hours." and with that, laid back down, pulling the covers over her head.

"But, Symone, I'm already awake. What am I going to do in the meantime?" he asked her.

"Do what you like. I don't care." she said under the blanket. Then she pulled the blanket back, "Or better yet, you can admit to me, that you destroyed the androids."

He sighed, "Not this again.. If I told you who destroyed the androids, will you tell me if you know what kind of vehicle I have in possession?"

"Yeah. I think you have every right to know. But after I tell you, I guarantee you that you will ask more questions." she sat up again, "I think I'm awake now. So, once I get up, bathe, dress, and I'll cook us some breakfast. And redo your bandage. Sounds okay?"

"Yes."

She got up, and took the blanket and teddy bear into her room.

He chuckled under his breath, "She looks kinda unusual with that teddy bear under her arm." he thought as he looked after her before she closed the door with her hips, "Almost like a child."

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After they ate breakfast, Symone sat in the living room with Trunks, unbandaging his wound to change into clean bandages.

"This may hurt for a while." she warned him, "You see, since your wound was an inch deep, I had to pack it with 4x4 gauges, so it'll heal okay, without an infection." she told him, while undoing the tape, "Thank goodness you weren't injured bad enough to what I could not handle. Nothing vital was injured. To my surprise, not even your lungs. Well, maybe pressured, but not punctured." she told him, "Which is kinda strange..."

Trunks was trying to sit still as much as possible, without flinching whenever the bandage loosened around the wound, "It feel sore." he said, slightly flinching.

"Sorry about that, but it's going to be like that for a month or two."

He looked down, "I doubt it."

She stopped, "What was that?"

"I doubt it will last that long." he repeated.

"Why do you say that?" she asked resuming her work.

"You said it yourself. I must have an enormous amount of energy to survive. Don't you think I might have the energy to heal quicker."

"Yes." she answered as she came around from behind, still unwrapping the tape, "I guess you proved my hypothesis."

"What do you mean?" he looked straight into her blue eyes.

She smirked, "That you destroyed the androids."

He smiled alittle, "Okay, you got me. Yeah, I destroyed the androids. I'm not a bragget."

"I know. You don't seem to be that kind of person." she said and made her way around him again.

"I can take that as a compliment." he said smiling, "Though, it strange that you seem to know me to well, only after a few hours of being in your presence." he thought to himself, "I just don't want the press to find out. No telling what publicity that'll bring."

"I understand." she said, then finally remove the last layer of tape.

"So, are you going to tell me what you think my vehicle is?" he asked her.

Symone stood in front of him, and began to remove the layer of 4x4 gauges off his right breast plate, "I'll tell ya later. Let me take care of this first." she told him and dropped the bandage on the pile with the tape, "You'll have to lay back in order for me to take the 4x4s out without touching the flesh too much. Or you'll get an inffection."

He did as he was told and laid back on the couch, "How do you know what to do?"

"Let's just say I did a little volunteer work at a hospital for a year. Not to mention the free training." she replied.

"You too, eh?"

"Yeah. What are you doing?"

He sighed alittle, "I'm transferring food and water supplies to different towns, cities, and undergroud basements."

"That's very thoughtful of you." she said, while removing the gauges carefully.

"Do you want to become a nurse or get a Ph.D when you get older?" he asked her.

"No, I just like to give to the community. You can say I'm just like both my parents." she said, "The community has suffered enough." she said and remove the last fluid covered gauge. She knew she had to make it sound as if she belongs in this timeline as much as possible, though, what she is telling him is true.

She got up and grabbed the pile of medical tape and when to the kitchen to put it in the trash. She came back and kneeled beside the couch, "Okay, like I said, I'm gonna pack your wound with 4x4s drenched in sterilized water." she told him, while putting on rubber gloves, "And I have to do this with gloves of course, to keep everything sterile."

Symone carefully inserted the gauges into the wound with a long neck cotton swab.

"Symone?"

Without looking up from her task, she replies, "Yeah?"

"You've said some things about your father, here and there. Where is he now?"

She tensed up alittle, "He's at home. I'm just on a vacation, right now."

"But that doesn't seem right."

"Why?"

"Can I ask you how old are you?"

"Has anyone ever told you it's not proper to ask a lady her age?" she retorted.

"Yeah, but I thing I'm gonna bend the rules alittle." he said with a smirk, "And from what it seems like, the way you act, I'd say at least between the ages of 16 to 18."

She blinks, "I'm 15 ½." she answered.

He stared at her, "She's 15 ½?!" he thought in surprised, "And here I'm thinking she was alittle closer to my age." he blinks, "I thought you were alittle older."

"Don't let my intellectual personality fool ya."

He chuckled alittle, "I'd say you're just mature for your age."

"Just being myself."

Symone began to spread the 4x4 gauges out and lay it over the packed wound, "Why did you want to know my age?"

"I thought your dad just didn't give a damn about where his daughter is and if she was alone."

She chuckled alittle, "Let me assure you that my father cares about me. A lot. Almost suffocating. He didn't really want me to go, but I wanted to. Besides, I can take care of myself."

"Are you trying to achieve something?"

She stopped for a minute and thought about his question. She hasn't forgotten the reason why she's traveling the time dimensions, "Yeah. But some other thing have came up." she said and pulled the gloves off inside-out.

Trunks sat up, rubbing the bandage, "At least it doesn't hurt as much anymore." he said and put his tanktop on, "Thanks."

She smiled alittle as her replied.

Trunks got up, "I think I better go." he told her, "I don't want my mother to think something has happened to me. Well... something too bad, anyways."

"Okay. But if you want me to, I can give you a lift in my Sky Car."

"If you want to come along and meet my mother. But you don't have to." he told her.

"I don't mind." she repllied, "Let me go get it."

"Okay."

Symone came back from the room, with a capsule in her hand, "I'm going to put the house into it's capsule. So, if you're leaving your sword here, you'll be coming back." she asked him as she walked outside alone with him following.

"Yeah, I don't need it now."

"All right." she said and put the house into its capsule. She picked it up and put it in its case with the rest of her capsule. She pulled out another, "How about a convertible?" she asked him.

"Fine by me."

She clicked it and threw it on the ground. It puffed into a black convertible, with nicely polished rims.

Symone walked towards it, "I haven't drove this baby in a while." she ran her hand over the hood.

"Nice wheels" he said walking to the passenger side.

"Thanks, I'm renting it from my dad." she used a remote control on the keychain to unlock the driver and passenger doors and let down the roof.

They both got in, and Symone started the engine and took off, "The one thing I like about the car is that it can both drive on the road and hover." she told him.

"It's rare and expensive to find cars like those around here." he said.

"It is?"

"Yeah, the only vehicles out there now are the ones that does the driving, and the other one that does the hovering. Most of the driven vehicles are like vans, 16-wheeler trucks and people who live in the suburbs. But then again, lots of people haven't driven much since the androids annihilated ¾ of the planet."

"Oh." she replied, "So, you live in the Capsule Corp. HQ, which is West City?"

"Yes."

"And we are...?"

"Just in the outskirts. Don't worry, you'll see the city's ruins."

After two hours, they were driving through the empty streets, except for the large construction machinery.

"It seems the buildings are getting repaired alittle sooner than I thought." Trunks said to himself.

"Are we almost there?" Symone asked him.

"Yeah. Believe me, you'll know when we see a huge light yellow building, which could be seen almost anywhere from the north side of the city."

"That big, huh?" she said, "You don't say?" she thought sarcastically.

After thirty minutes, the building came into view, "There it is!" she called out. She picked up the speed alittle.

When they got there, the building itself was being repaired from the large gaping hole it had from the destruction over the years.

Symone pulled up to the side.

"I'm sure glad my grandfather got some good insurance on the house." he said, getting out and looking at the build.

Symone did the same, "I'm kind of surprised that it's still standing." she looked at him, "Well, lead the way."