Chapter 9: Close Shave

"Safe... for now."

When his vision returned, the first urge Akikta felt was to vomit. He scrambled onto his knees, violently yanking his slippery and wet mask off. With a grotesque wheeze, he puked liters worth of nasty salt water onto the warm artificial snow. He took in a quick breath of air each time he barfed.

After a minute, Akikta eventually caught his breath, gasping and wheezing between each gulp of air. His hair and clothes were all wet, adding to his already uncomfortable state of being.

"What...happened...?" He wheezed out, only to hear O.R.C.A respond to his inquiry from a nearby security camera.

"You passed out upon contact with the water. Shortly after, you drifted to the Cozy & Safe Factory site." O.R.C.A explained. Akikta turned to look up at the camera; below it was a large rusted steel door with Alterna's withered-out logo on the front. He saw towering water tanks and construction lines in the distance, confirming O.R.C.A's answer.

Events that happened moments before Akikta's blackout replayed in his head like a tape recorder. He looked over to see the blue rocket and Alterna Space Center in the distance.

"How long was I out?"

"For approximately a minute and a half." The response surprised Akikta. It should've taken longer for him to drift all the way over to the Cozy & Safe Factory. A minute and a half was way too short to cross such a vast distance.

Then again, he thanked the Great Spirit that he wasn't out for too long. He could've drowned. What a hilarious ending that would've been. A city-wide catastrophe couldn't kill Akikta, but a little water could. That would've been one thing he and Subject 7 had in common.

Just when Akikta began to relax, he suddenly tensed up before looking around to where he had thrown his mask. He found it facing upward at the simulated sky. He rushed over, quickly taking it in his arms to look it over hurriedly.

It was terribly wet. Other than that, it was fine.

Akikta took off his shirt and squeezed out all the excess water. It was still pretty damp, but much less moist than it had been moments before. Akikta wiped off the mask with his shirt as much as he could, gently caressing the white-painted wood so it didn't crack or break.

"There, all better." A sigh of relief escaped Akikta's lips. Considering the time that passed, the situation would've been much worse had the mask not been made out of water-resistant timber. Father Axe once told him the mask was made from a close-grained wood. Pine maybe? Or was it something else? Either way, he was glad water would be the least of his worries.

A garbled noise buzzed in Akikta's wet pocket. He jumped in response. The radio was completely forgotten about until now. Akikta wiggled the device out of his pocket with his free hand after dropping his shirt. It was practically drenched. Yet, it worked perfectly fine, save for all the static, but that was a normal occurrence at this point.

"Sal? Sal, can you hear me?" Akikta said, expecting a familiar voice to break through from the radio. However, what he got as a response was a gurgle.

The garbled tone in Sal's voice was something he had grown used to, but this was different. This garbling noise was higher pitched. It felt feminine in tone and pattern.

He listened to the garbling continue, only to realize two distinct voices were speaking. "What?" He let his confusion be known. The gurgles seemed to respond to what he blurted out. Were they also confused?

Akikta shook the radio a few times in an attempt to get a better connection. He could not understand anything the voices said.

History books he read as a small child noted the different types of languages that used to exist before the worldwide disasters. Some were still alive and even used in Alterna at one point in time. But whatever language these voices spoke, Akikta didn't even know where to begin. It was like they were choking on water.

Before he could make sense of the situation, the connection dropped once again. He shook the radio one last time, expecting the voices to come back. All he received was static. It was just Akikta now.

"Huh..." As strange as that was, Akikta knew standing there and thinking about it wouldn't get him anywhere. He put the radio back in his wet pocket and turned towards the door, not giving the voices another thought.

He needed to find a way back to Holdout Zone 7. A quick stroll through the Cozy & Safe Factory could help him get to where he needed to be... somehow. "I hope there's a change of pants in here...and some new shoes," Akikta said to himself before twisting the knob. The door creaked loudly as he slightly struggled to push it open, but once it was, a decently lit area greeted him.

Bravely, he ventured onward unto the Cozy & Safe Factory.