After the bout with the zombies, Alex and his alien companion had finally made it to the coast. The beaches were oddly pristine.
"Wow, it's as if these beaches have had no human intervention. Interesting..."
His thoughts were cut short by the fact that the grooves on the suit were blinking. Suddenly Alex was concerned. Dr. Kleiner had told Alex that when the grooves blink, the suit had used up the metals needed for fusion. Definitely not a good thing.
The voice warned, "Emergency. Suit power supply depleted. Locate an energy source immedia..." The voice wound down until it finally stopped. The HUD on the suit's visor blinked off, leaving only an unaltered view of the environment. The grooves stopped glowing blue, and faded out to the inactive grey color.
Otis chirped in question, obviously wondering what had happened to the glowing blue mass of metal he was clinging to.
"Well, buddy, it looks like the suit's power finally died. I guess we used more energy than we thought, the suit was supposed to be well-fueled for at least a week. Maybe a bug in the system..."
While Alex had no HUD and could not keep tabs of his lifelines, the suit would still be able to sustain a good amount of physical damage before finally falling apart. Undaunted by the sudden suit failure, Alex and Otis kept going.
"I saw a pair of wyverns fly in this direction...they've gotta be here somewhere. Otis, what do you see?"
It was a mystery as to how Otis could see anything. He had no eyes. Maybe he sensed heat given off by the environment, or perhaps he echolocated like a bat. He chirped a lot. As a matter of fact, Otis lacked most of the sensory organs most terrestrial animals had. The headcrab had no eyes, nose, or ears. The only main feature was his gaping maw on the bottom of his body, and the razor-sharp fangs that surrounded it, as well as the beak headcrabs normally use to couple with a victim to zombify. However, Otis had small hairs on his body and legs. Maybe those sensed vibrations? Only Otis knew for sure, and he didn't speak English. However, he seemed perfectly capable of understanding Alex's instructions back at the harbor. Regardless, he made a good traveling companion.
The sand must have been deeper here. Alex's foot sunk calf-deep when he took a step. The weight of the suit was taking its toll. The suit weighed at least two hundred pounds, but Alex had perfect balance when the suit was active, for reasons unknown. Now, he struggled to get through the deep sand while bearing the weight of the suit. It was also quite hot in there. Alex had managed to drag his frame up onto a large flat rock. It was here that he finally got out of the suit, and switched it out for his trademark jacket. As he sat down to take a break, the suit lay down on the rock like a lifeless metal man.
"Oh well," Alex sighed. "It was good while it lasted. At least I still have the rifle. Of course, that's going to run out of power eventually, as well."
If Kleiner was still alive, and hopefully he was, it was a good chance that he would let Alex keep the suit and gun just as a reward for saving the city. Alex's thoughts perked.
"Y'know Otis...I have a friend in a far-off city, and he has a headcrab for a friend, too."
Otis chirped questioningly. He raised one of his legs and pointed it at himself. This supposedly meant Otis was asking if the headcrab in question was like him.
"Well...," Alex pondered, "not exactly like you, per se. She's more of the normal headcrab."
Otis was clearly confused. He chirped again.
Alex slid off the rock and picked up a stick. He etched the shape of Lamarr in the sand.
"She kind of looks like that. Kleiner calls her Hedy Lamarr. Never heard that name before."
Otis studied the drawing with whatever bodily structure he used to see. He squeaked and swayed his body back and forth. This was something new, what did that body language mean?
"Hmm. There's much about you I've yet to learn, Otis. We better keep going."
Hold on. What would Alex do with the suit? He couldn't keep it out in the open. He looked back at the knee-deep sand. He suddenly had an idea. Alex climbed back up on the rock and dragged the suit down and let it fall to the ground. He covered the suit up with sand.
"That should do it," said Alex. "If all goes well, we should be able to come back here and claim it when we're ready to go home."
Alex picked up the rifle off the rock and stick a piece of driftwood into the sand that the suit was buried under so he could find it again. He took care to position it like the other pieces of salvage wood on the beach so as to not draw attention to it. Alex collected his belongings and called Otis back up to his shoulder. With his goal in mind, to find Ein and Marshall, Alex continued down the beach with jacket, gun, and headcrab.
