Randall did not notice when the human opened the back door to the truck. He was still too cold and too sleepy to be aware of his surroundings. The trucker had stopped on the side of the highway because he remembered that he hadn't checked the seal on his back door the last time he had gotten gas, about seven hours ago. Being paranoid, he could not bear driving another mile without checking it, for fear that someone might had stolen something while he was inside the stop. The man had done this dozens of times, always with the same result, reassurance that the seal was intact and a mental note to be more careful about checking it when he was supposed to. This time though, was different. Randall woke when he heard the man yell.
"What the fuck? What the literal fuck!" Randall realized he was in trouble, but he was still too cold to move very quickly. He tried to look up and see what was going on. The trucker grabbed for the rod that he used to close the door when it was out of reach overhead. Randall was able to focus enough to barely make out a human from holding a long, metal looking object. He became very afraid that this human meant to hit him with whatever he was holding. He managed to camouflage himself and hoped it would be enough to confuse the brute until he could muster the strength to move. It seemed to work. The human stood there dumbfounded. "Where did you go you freaky, lizard fuck? Where'd you go? Damn critter. What the fuck? Fuckin' mutant swamp freak. What the hell! Man, I hearda chemicals causin' all kindsa weird mutations in critters in the water. Never heard of anything like that freaking monster. Musta ran off, damn mutant." While the man stood there ranting and cussing, Randall managed to slowly make his way out of the truck and away from the highway. He could hear the man still yelling behind him. "You hear that ya mutant freak, stay the fuck out of my rig! Lucky nothin's missin', or I'd hunt ya down and mount ya on my goddamn wall!"
That was way too close. Randall thought to himself. And stupid. What was I thinking, hitchhiking in the back of a human truck. Falling asleep where I could be seen like that? What the hell, Randall? I must have been hit in the head worse than I thought. He knew that he would need to warm up before he could come up with a better plan for himself. He began to search for a place to bask. In the monster world, during the cold months, basking stations were set up throughout the city so that reptiles could heat themselves whenever they needed to. But Randall knew better than to expect such a luxury in a monster-less world. Animals, barbarians, he had been met with nothing but pain and fear from these creatures since the moment he had entered their world. He was convinced that everything that he had ever been taught about their inferiority to monsters was true. They were mindless, aggressive things, good for nothing but an energy source. Why had Sullivan ever defended that kid was beyond him. Surely it was out of spite. That big jerk just couldn't bear to see me succeed. He just had to stay in the lead, even at the cost of science. That imbecile. I'll fix him. I'll find a way back and I'll show everyone that I was right. Waternoose thought he was giving the orders, but the machine was my idea. The old fool had no idea I was playing him the whole time. I'll get back there and I'll show everyone. Sullivan will pay.
He stewed over the thoughts in his mind as he lumbered up the hill away from the highway. He was in a large city, that was obvious. The buildings were taller here even then most of the ones in Monstropolis. He looked for sunny spot away from cars, and away from human foot traffic, as there were dozens of them out walking around, even this early. The sun was barely above the horizon. They must all be endothermic. The thought made him chuckle for some reason that he wasn't quite sure of. Before he approached the teeming city, he looked down to check his camouflage. He was shocked to see himself covered in a thick layer of mud and leaves. How did that human not see me leave his truck? It was a mystery that would never be solved. He took a moment to writhe in the grass on the side of the hill to clean himself as best as he could. He got up, and dusted his scales off with his hands. He was still covered in a fine layer of dry, dusty Earth, but it was fine enough that he would be undetected if he lay low to the ground and didn't move too much once he found a spot to hide. He made his way to the edge of the city, across a small street, through the crowd of walking people, and to a patch of untouched concrete outside of a building that was shorter than the others around it.
This in itself was a small miracle, since he still couldn't see, even while squinting. Everything was so blurry, the humans were featureless, colorful bipeds; the building a solid red mass; and the concrete, a flat, glowing expanse of nothingness. The only reason that he knew that no one had walked there and that it was safe was that he could sense the warmth coming from it, and the warmth coming from all the other objects nearby. The humans all glowed very brightly, and left dim marks on the pavement where they walked and heated the ground beneath them. The cove where Randall was now settling was surrounded by untouched, cold concrete, and had a bright warm spot in the middle where the sun was coming through between the other buildings. He stretch out as much as he dared and made sure that he was still blended before letting his eyes close as he basked, careful not to fall back asleep. He felt grateful for the first time time since he entered this world, grateful for this one, figurative and literal, tiny bright spot in his morning.
He had not been laying there long, maybe a little more than half an hour, when something startled him. It was a human voice. "Hello there Mr. Scales. What are you doing there?" Randall jerked his head to make sure that he was still blended. When he saw that he was, he became confused. Is it talking to me? How would it know that I'm here? He waited in fear to see what the creature did next. "This isn't the best place to bask you know? I know it's nice and sunny, but this is a loading dock, and if the store gets a delivery this morning, then you'll be squished. That would be a tragedy, loosing a pretty, scaly beauty such as yourself." Now Randall was very confused. She couldn't be talking to him, could she? And it was definitely a she, the voice was too high pitched and musical to be anything else. He was most certainly still invisible. What the hell is going on here?
The human female walked forward, until she was about two feet from him. Randall remained motionless, hoping that she wouldn't notice him if he didn't move. "Shh, it's ok little one. Don't be scared." She reached her hand out and picked something up from the ground. Randall squinted his eyes harder. He could just make out a small, greenish-brown thing in her hand. It was tapered at the end, and twitching. A lizard! He realized. The human had picked up a tiny lizard that he had not even noticed basking just a few feet from him. Is it a trick? He thought. What is she going to do with him? Will she hurt him, eat him? Oh god! For a moment, he almost wanted to get up and take the lizard away from this sweet-talking human, before she could bash it in the head the way the other humans had done him. He stopped himself and watched in horror as the human carried the struggling lizard to a ledge on the side of the building. "This is a much better spot, no trucks here. See, nice warm bricks." She set the lizard down on the little ledge. "You be careful now, and good luck this winter." Randall could see enough to noticed that she waved goodbye to the lizard as she walked away and into the store that he was apparently basking next to. That was unexpected.
Randall decided to take the girl's advice and search for a basking spot that was not in a docking bay. There was a metal awning above the store, it was not completely covered by sunlight by this point, but it would be in just a little while. He climbed the wall and got onto the awning and continued his basking. He did not close his eyes this time,but watched the humans moving below him. They looked so mindless, like a bunch of bipedal ants scurrying to and fro. They didn't look up. They didn't look at each other. They didn't do anything but scurry. What kind of animals were these? Creatures that shouted, hit, screamed, cursed, and mindlessly walked about, but somehow noticed and saved tiny lizards. He began thinking about the musical human female. She hadn't sounded like the others that he had encountered. She spoke clearly, and had a very pleasant voice. She had not only noticed a basking lizard all the way from the sidewalk, but had taken the time to move it to a safe location before continuing on her way. Why, why did she do that? There has to be some motive, some reason. What would drive a human to do something like that?
An hour later, he was no closer to an answer to his question when he heard her voice again. "Yes, ma'am. I'm leaving the store now. No, I told you I won't be back in town until this afternoon. No, I can't work on it from home yet; I have to at least get the preliminary sketch done in person. Don't worry about it, I'll have Carol with me. Oh, I'm thinking about going to the mall later. Yeah, yeah that one. Do you want me to get you something from Teavana? Yes ma'am, you got it. Ha ha, yes ma'am. I love you too, Mom. Yeah, I'll see you later. Okay, bye Mom, love you too. Bye." She was standing in front of the store holding a bag in one hand and a small, black object in the other. He realized that she had been talking over a phone. The thought saddened him for one, wistful moment. He remembered years ago, having similar conversations with his own mother. She had always worried about him so unnecessarily. He banished the memory from his mind. The human began to move away. She helped the lizard earlier. maybe she can help me, in an indirect way. He decided to follow her in hopes of being lead to a safe place to recuperate from his injuries, which had still gone uncatalogued. He needed to get to a mirror, a first aid kit, and a steady heat source to heal himself, or at least a source of warm water to get the rest of the dirt off of him first. He was a stranger in this world. He didn't know how it worked. He didn't even know what city he was in. He needed a guide, even one that didn't know he was there.
As he watched her path, he figured out that he could stay on the walls of buildings and above the human heads as he followed her. He would never be spotted if he stayed above them. It was true what he had observed before. Humans almost never looked up. He was glad of that fact, and one other thing. The human that he was following was easy to spot apart from the others. It was known in the monster world that all humans looked very similar to each other. Aside from a small variety of skin and hair colors, there was nothing unique about the way each human looked. They all had the same basic shape, the same basic face, and the same basic abilities. For this reason, all humans decorated themselves with highly styled and personalized clothes to tell each other apart and give themselves a recognizable identity. While most humans wore a conservative amount of colors or one bright color alongside something more muted, this one wore a very bold outfit, comprised almost entirely of the color black with bright crimson on her torso. Even her hair has black. From the back she was a solid black figure moving in a sea of blues, grays, browns, and pastels. She looked like a shadow to Randall's blurry vision.
He followed the black-clad human to what appeared to be a building populated entirely by cars. As she walked away from the mass of walking humans on the sidewalk, he could hear her singing to herself. He moved a bit closer to hear the song. He had never heard human music before. He didn't even know that humans had music. It was a mournful, lilting song about a woman who lost her love to a fight with a random stranger. It was beautiful to the ear, but words were so sad. Randall wandered what had inspired it. Could it be that these things are more emotive than we thought? Or maybe it's a form of mimicry, something else wrote music long ago and humans learned to copy the sound. Did some intelligent species live here before humans did? I know there have been theories that humans have buildings and electricity because monsters lived in this world before humans killed them all and stole their homes. This theory had never been proven, but Randall supposed it was possible, given the hostility he had seen since last night.
Randall followed her up to a small vehicle with two wheels. It was black and red, like it's owner's outfit, and had an attachment that looked like a chair with wheels coming off the side of it. She put the bag in this attachment and put what appeared to be a cross between a mask and a hat. A helmet, he realized. It was a human version of a helmet. She sat astride the two wheeled vehicle and began to fiddle with the controls. Randall guessed that he wouldn't be able to keep up with her once she started traveling. He made up his mind to stay with her until he found a safe place. She seemed the only mildly pleasant creature around here. He carefully crawled into the side-chair-on-wheels, making sure not to disturb the bag that she set in the bottom of it. Lead the way, Shadow. He wandered where this adventure would take him next.