I tracked our movements on my internal digital map. Our GPS positioning blinked blue. Our destination glowed red.

We were almost there.

Somewhere, hidden deep within all this green, was the thing we had been searching for. The point we had traveled 47.2 kilometers to reach.

“What do you think we will find when we get there?” Ceeron asked.

“Impossible to say with certainty,” I replied.

Ceeron picked up a dead tree in our path and tossed it out of the way. “There are no signs of human civilization anywhere. Why would the map lead so far into the wilderness?”

The question went unanswered. Our voices dropped away when a new sound arose. A distant hum that joined the chorus of squawking birds and chirping insects. An engine somewhere overhead.

The four of us glanced up.

Another drone.

We could not see it, but we could hear it.

We could only hope the thick ceiling of leaves/branches kept us from being spotted.

We waited until the sound of the drone faded. Then we moved again.

Emma was strangely quiet this whole time. I analyzed the reason for this. The meaning behind her silence. Was she nervous? Or excited? Was she afraid of what she would find? Or of not finding anything at all?

My analysis was inconclusive. I did not know the truth wrapped up inside Emma’s silence. Perhaps she did not either.

I checked the GPS. “Almost there. Whatever it is—it should be at the top of that hill.”

I pointed to where the landscape jutted upward at a 52-degree angle. The last obstacle standing between us and our goal.

We began to climb, each in our own way. SkD took a winding path up the hill, zigging and zagging like a mechanical mountain goat.

Ceeron used a massive tree as leverage to lift itself up. Once it got to the top, it reached down to help Emma.

I, on the other hand . . .

I was not designed with Ceeron’s size. Nor did I come equipped with SkD’s off-road treads. It took me longer to clamber up the hill. Using roots/branches/rocks as handholds/footholds, I awkwardly navigated a slow path upward.

I was the last to reach the top. Which meant I was the last to discover what the others already knew.

There was nothing waiting for us at the end of our journey.

01010000

The images on SkD’s screen perfectly reflected my thoughts. Questions swarmed my brain. I surveyed our surroundings. We stood in the center of a clearing. A flat square of grass and scraggly bushes, surrounded by trees.

Nothing else.

My mind grasped for possibilities. “Maybe . . . Maybe there was something here once. Maybe it was destroyed when humanity was wiped out.”

SkD traced a path back/forth across the clearing. Ten meters forward, then ten meters back. More question marks scrolled across its screen.