"God, I wish we had a car." Ilos complains. His walking is slow, and he frequently stumbles over himself. He scans in front of him. "Only five miles now." Ilos groans.

Ilos peeks behind him to see 32B silently following. She faces forwards but doesn't seem to pick up on Ilos's attempt at conversation. Ilos lets out a sigh and continues walking, albeit at a faster pace.

Getting a bit colder….." Ilos makes another attempt. Again he is met with silence from 32B. He stops and turns around to face her. "Are you…, okay?"

32B stops just behind him. She faces his direction, but it seems that she looks past Ilos. Ilos waves his hand in front of her face, but her visor hides her reaction.

"Hey, 32?" Ilos says, slightly worried.

32B doesn't seem to react to her name. Ilos lets out a sigh. 32B reacts at bullet speed and turns hard to look towards him. Ilios jumps at her sudden turn and takes a few steps back away from her.

"Is something the matter?" 32B asks seriously. "Why have we stopped?"

"Oh...nothing," Ilos says. "You just seemed…..distant." Ilos scratches the back of his head. "You had me worried, that's all."

"Distant?" She says, bringing a hand to her chin. She does a slight bow towards Ilos. "I apologize for worrying you." She raises herself. "I was giving my report to my operator."

"Your operator?" Ilos asks with genuine curiosity.

"Yes, all field units are assigned an operator they are to report to." 32B explains. "I was simply updating my operator on our current situation." She looks towards the night sky. "I also requested a replacement Pod."

"Uh….okay," Ilos says in a confused manner. He looks up to the sky as well. After taking in the night, he looks back down at 32B. "I have a question for you."

32B looks at him and tilts her head. "What is it, Ilos?"

"Is the White Chlorinate Syndrome…..gone?" Ilos nervously asks as if not believing the words he's saying. "I haven't detected it since I left Paradise Lab."

"White Chlorinate Syndrome?" 32B questions. "I don't believe I have any records about such a thing on me." She places a hand on her chin. "Perhaps 24O can look into it for you…She would have access to the Bunker's records."

"I see." Ilos turns around. "We should press on…."

32B grabs hold of Ilos's arm. "If you don't mind, I think it would be better to wait until the Pod arrives."

Ilos let out a quiet sigh then nods. "Alright, we'll wait."

Ilos looks around the vicinity for somewhere to sit. The duo has been following an old-world highway for the past 18 miles making it difficult for Ilos to find a proper seat. He lets out a defeated sigh and ends up hopping atop a divider and sitting on it. 32B remains in the middle of the road, looking into the sky expectantly.

Ilos starts to kick his feet and starts to whistle. He slowly turns his head to 32B and stops whistling. "Hey, 32."

32B turns to face Ilos. "Yes, Ilos?"

Ilos looks back to the sky. "Kinda looks like updog, doesn't it?"

32B tilts her head. "What's updog?"

"Nothing much, how about you?" Ilos tries to stifle his laugh. He can't hold it in any longer and starts to laugh hard enough for tears to come out of his eyes.

32B looks at him emotionless. "I don't understand."

"Pfft. There's nothing to understand." Ilos hops off the divider. "It's a joke." Ilos puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head. "But I guess that's lost on a robot."

"What is the point of this…..joke?"

Ilos shrugs. "I dunno. I guess I kinda wanted to see if you could laugh." He lets out a slight chuckle. "Guess I failed."

"How does one laugh?" 32B asks in a serious tone.

Ilos looks at her, surprised. "What?" Ilos puts his hand to his mask. "Hmmm. I guess I could try to teach you." Ilos lowers his gas mask to reveal his lower face.

32B takes a step towards Ilos, close enough where they are almost touching. She tilts her head back and forth, inspecting Ilos completely revealed face. Only now does 32B realize how feminine Ilos's face is. His cheeks are round and have a fuller look to them. His lips are also noticeably lush but bear scars on both sides. His nose is slightly upturned and bears freckles from one cheek to the other.

Ilos smiles slyly. "What's wrong?" He lets out a slight chuckle and scratches his cheek. "You can touch my face if you want." He says jokingly.

32B places both her hands on Ilos's cheeks, squeezing them together gently.

"H-h-hey w-w-what are you doing!" Ilos stammers out his face becoming flustered.

32B gently forces his head back so that the shorter Ilos looks up to her. She places her forehead against his and touches noses with him. "Warm." She says quietly.

Ilos face reddens. "Too close!" He shouts, pushing 32B away. Before she can respond, he stiffly, but quickly, walks back to the divider and slams the front of his body against it. He places his hands against the divider and grabs hold of it deeply, inhaling and exhaling.

"Did I do something wrong?" 32B asks. "Your heart rate has increased."

Ilos starts to turn to face 32B. "I was-" He stops himself and looks to his pants, then quickly turns his body back to the divider. "I was joking….I was joking."

32B folds her arms. "I see." She turns her attention to the sky to see a small light heading towards them. "I believe that's the Pod."

Ilos turns his neck to face the light making sure not to turn his body. The light descends to the level of the duo, revealing a small robot with limbs. The robot hovers by 32B silently.

"Is that the Pod?" Ilos says from the divider.

"Affirmative."

Ilos lets out a deep breath and finally unlatches himself from the divider. He walks over to 32B and stops just a few inches away from her. His gaze is affixed on the robot.

"So, what does it do?" Ilos asks, folding his arms.

32B walks over to the Pod. "Due to the immediate nature of my request, it does not do much." She places a hand on it. "All it can do is simply hacking, scanning, data transfer, and data storage."

"Huh," Ilos says, scratching his chin. "Does it….talk?"

"Negative. A speech module was deemed unnecessary for such a temporary companion."

"I see. Impressive nonetheless." Ilos says, slightly impressed. He smiles slightly. "I wonder if it could hack into my eye."

"Negative. It can't hack into biological components."

Ilos leans towards 32B. "Only one of my eyes is biological, 32."

32B looks at Ilos. "Is that how you can see where you are going in the darkness?"

"Eyup." Ilos taps his right eye. "Built-in night vision, GPS, 1 Petabyte worth of data storage, vitals hud, thermal vision, and scanning capabilities. Just to name a few of its functions." Ilos places a hand on his hip. "Of course, it's all attached to my brain."

"Interesting." 32B ponders. "If we were to hack it, we could give you access to the Bunker's network." She looks at the Pod. "I think it would be in our best interests to attempt this course of action."

"Sounds good to me." Ilos folds his arms. "Let's get started."

32B nods and looks at the Pod. "Prepare to hack." The Pod faces Ilos and hovers towards him. It stops directly in front of him. "Begin!" 32B orders.

Ilos's eye HUD pops up with an error message. Ilos quickly closes the message. Another message opens.

Nanomachine Command under foreign attack deploying countermeasures, hacking at 5%.

Ilos looks at 32B. "Hey, wait, that's-" In an instant, his eyes lose focus, and everything becomes a blur. His legs give in from under him, and he falls to his knees. His head starts to hurt. "Ugh." Ilos groans placing a hand on his head.

Hacking at 25%. Countermeasures failed. Attempting expulsion of nanomachines.

"32 wro-." Ilos's mouth fills, stopping his words. He keels over and throws up onto the ground. His head goes completely dizzy now, and even on his knees, he fights to stay planted on the ground.

Expulsion failed. Hacking at 50%. Attempting self destruct.

Ilos starts to sweat uncontrollably at the last message. He grabs hold of 32B's skirt and pulls on it to raise himself. "STOP!" He tries to yell.

Hacking stopped. Self-destruct canceled. Returning to equilibrium.

Ilos lets out haggard breaths as 32B kneels next to him.

"What happened?" 32B asks curiously.

Ilos looks at her, annoyed. "You were hacking the wrong thing!" He yells at her. "It's my eye. MY FUCKING EYE!" He points at his purple eye for emphasis. "If you didn't stop there, my brains would've painted this road."

"I apologize." 32B says in her usual emotionless tone.

"Malaka… I can't tell if your serious or not." Ilos says, rubbing his head. "Let's try that again, shall we?"

"Affirmative." 32B responds. She looks a the Pod. "Prepare to hack." Once again, the Pod hovers towards Ilos and stops just in front of him. "Begin!"

A message pops up on Ilos's HUD. This time he actually reads the message before closing it. Satisfied with what the message says, he closes it.

Hacking of Lupus Tech Industry equipment is an act of Terrorism under United States Federal Law. You will be found and punished. Hacking at 30%

"That's foreboding," Ilos whispers to himself as he closes the message on his HUD.

Your family is not safe. You are not safe. You will be found, and you will be terminated. Hacking at 55%

"Alright," Ilos says nervously.

Luca Shaw. You violate Federal Law. Cease and Desist immediately, or you shall be held a traitor in the eyes of the United States of America. Your location is being sent to the nearest police department. Hacking at 77%.

"How the fuck did it know my name….."

Lupus Tech Industry knows everything, and soon your life will be terminated. Any and all that stands in the way of human survival will be put down. Nobody is above us. The police have been informed that you are to be killed on sight. You shall-Hacking at 100%. Hacking complete. Two-way access to the Bunker has been granted. Glory to Mankind.

"Getting a bit scary at the end there, but I guess that's complete," Ilos says. He looks at 32B. "Is everything good on your end?"

"Affirmative. You have been granted access to all the files stored at the Bunker."

"I noticed it said two-way access….. Should I be worried?"

"Negative. The price of information is information."

"Understandable." Ilos gets up off the ground and pats the dust off himself.

"H-Hello?" A voice calls out meekly.

Ilos turns around; his P90 pointed into the darkness.

"Is something wrong?" 32B asks, looking in the direction Ilos is pointing his gun in.

Ilos squints his eyes to try and see anything, but nothing appears out of the ordinary. He lowers his gun and turns to 32B. "No, must have been the wind or something."

"I see." 32B says. "We should continue our mission."

"Y-yeah, let's." Ilos turns the GPS in his eye back on. He spins in a circle to activate its rerouting function. He points down the highway. "That way. 5 miles." Ilos takes a step forward.

"Hello?" The meek voice calls out again.

Ilos stops and looks around again. "Who the fuck was that?" He thinks to himself.

"O-oh s-sorry." The voice apologizes. "I'm attempting to get the video feed working, but your HUD is so archaic…" The voice stops talking, but its soft breathing continues where its words stop. "I think I got it. Activating….now!"

In an instant, Ilos's HUD is filed with a screen facing what Ilos can only imagine is the ceiling of a building. The building is a monochrome color, whether that's the lights or the surrounding Ilos doesn't know. The camera shakes a bit as if someone is fidgeting with it. The shaking becomes more frantic and starts to cause Ilos to become dizzy.

"24! What are you doing?" A more abrasive voice calls out.

"36. Perfect timing. Help me with this, would you." The meek voice says.

Ilos can hear the clack of heels on metal.

"Jeez, 24, all you have to do is lower it. You don't have to shake it so much." The abrasive voice says as the camera is lowered. The camera is quickly stopped, just above some hair, causing it to shake even more. "What's wrong with you?!"

"Wait….How do I look?"

"Ugly." The abrasive voice teases, lowering the camera.

The image of a blonde-haired woman appears on the video. Her hair is done up in a short bob, and she wears a black outfit. Her blue eyes seem to contrast heavily with the monochrome room, almost acting as beacons in the white light.

"Huh." Ilos thinks to himself. "She's pretty cute."

The woman places her hands on her cheeks. "You heard that 36! The human called me cute!"

A loud sigh is heard. "Don't get full of yourself 24. Focus on your task." The abrasive voice says. The sound of heels on metal is heard and quickly fades away.

"Wait…..you can hear my thoughts?" Ilos thinks.

"Affirmative." The woman says happily. "Oh-oh! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is 24 Operator model, or 24O."

"24O? I remember 32B mentioning you earlier."

"Affirmative. We are both androids in service to YoRHa. Glory to Mankind!"

"Yeah…..Anyway, I had a question for you."

"Ask away," 24O says in a curious tone.

"Has the White Chlorination Syndrome disappeared from Earth?"

"White Chlorination Syndrome…." 24O quickly types away at her terminal. "I can't seem to find any reference to this White Chlorination Syndrome."

"I see. It's fine then I haven't detected it since awaking, so I'm going to assume it's taken care of."

24O shifts awkwardly in her seat. She starts to twirl her hair in one finger and looks directly into the camera. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." Ilos thinks moving the video screen to the top right corner of his vision to see the GPS directions. He continues to walk.

"Could I ask to have access to your vitals data?" 24O twirls her finger faster. "I-I understand if you don't want to give it…...sorry that was a stupid question forget about it….I'm just a data collector, so I would like to see what a human body looks like….s-sorry I'm being too pushy, aren't I?... I'm just really cur-"

"Stop." Ilos can't help but smile. "You can have access."

"What! Really!?" 24O lets out a girlish squeal. "Ohmygosh, this is so great! Wait, calm down 24 calm down….." She inhales deeply and exhales even deeper. "Right, let's see what we got here." She goes silent for a moment as she examines the data. "Wow, this is amazing."

"It's not that great."

"No, you're wrong. This is amazing," 24O says seriously. "So many moving parts….all organic they move and contract based on natural stimuli instead of programming… it's amazing."

"Stop your going to make me blush."

"Is it okay if I ask you some questions? Your vitals data is extremely impressive, but it lacks some information."

"Alright, go ahead."

"How tall are you?"

"5'2. 157.48cm, I believe, and before you ask 61/53/92."

"How much do you weigh?"

"110lbs."

"How old are you?

"22. My twenty-third birthday, if the days and months are still the same, is November 27th. Which should be a week from now."

"If you don't mind, is it okay if I monitor your vitals data….just in case, there are any changes of course…..not that I want to watch how your body reacts to stimuli or anything hahahahaha….."

"So you're going to act as my physician then?"

"Does that mean I have permission?"

"Yes, Dr. 24O."

No words come out of 24O, just an extremely high-pitched squeal of excitement that causes Ilos to cover his ear out of reflex. She quickly calms herself down as she notices the eyes on her.

"As your doctor, does that mean you have to do what I say….At least if it involves your health, of course!"

"I suppose so."

"Then, as my first order as your doctor, I demand that I be granted a full physical of your body when you come to the Bunker."

"Hmmm, well, it has been 7979 years since my last physical….eh, why the fuck not. Sure, you have a deal, doc."

"7979 years?"

"Yeah, I went under the ice in 2020. Seven thousand nine hundred seventy-nine years in the future is the year 9999, right? Unless math changed, I should be correct, right?"

"Oh, you must be mistaken. The current year is 11945."

"Oh. Well shit. I was only 2000+ years off."

"Oh, by the way, I never caught your name….I can't keep referring to you as the human...unless that's what you want to be called…"

"You can call me Il-... Luca. My name is Luca Shaw.