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Carlos pressed some of the red mud in between his thumb and his pointer finger, rubbing them together and trying to analyze the gritty texture. Initially, his hypothesis had been that the sand had absorbed a lot of blood from the creature that had left behind those bones, but further observation had proved otherwise. For one, it really was some kind of earth that he was examining, and not just damp, discolored sand, and for another, Kevin claimed that whatever had left those bones behind had done so years ago. Carlos didn’t know how he knew, but he trusted his knowledge.
Geology had never been one of his interests, and he finds himself starting to regret that now. When he got the chance, he’d have to consider braving the library for a few books. New hypothesis: the dirt had a large quantity of iron in it, leading to a rust-like color of the material. There was also the possibility that there was a large deposit of iron underneath the surface, and that some kind of liquid substance had caused the color to rise up and mix with the dirt.
Carlos thought his new hypothesis held some weight. It made sense that there would be deposits of ore out here, because the wandering army had to get all of their weapons somehow. He would have to talk with Doug and see if he could get more evidence to back it up.
He nearly jumped out of his own skin when his phone suddenly shrieked. Ever since coming to this place, the thing had only screamed in different voices, and he had hoped that he would become used to it, but it got him every single time. He pulled out his phone and saw that it was Cecil calling. He had just done nearly a whole show with Cecil through phone call alone, and while that had been yesterday for him, if his calculations were correct, it had only been about two hours for Cecil. He could probably ignore it for now, collect a few samples and make a few notes, and then still call Cecil back in time before he went to bed.
“You should probably answer,” Kevin said.
He was kneeling just a few feet away from him, focused on a small section of carapace that he had unearthed from the mud. There was a streak of red earth on his cheek from where he had brushed his hair back out of his face.
“I know you didn’t listen to his show today,” he paused and grunted as he cracked the carapace in half. “You didn’t really have to, since you were actively talking to him during it, but—” another grunt and another crack, “The horoscopes were rather pointed.”
Kevin had an app on his phone, courtesy of his previous employer, that allowed him to tune in to each of Cecil’s shows. It was the only thing on his phone that he hadn’t deleted, and both he and Carlos used it often. The reception was fairly spotty, so sometimes the show got interrupted by other broadcasts, but they usually had it playing in the background while they did other things just on the off chance that Cecil’s show aired when they weren’t paying attention to the time.
Carlos sighed. He loved Cecil, but his habit of airing out grievances on air was one of the few things that really bothered him. It’d be nice to not have the entirety of Night Vale know about their dirty laundry for once.
He picked up on the fourth scream, and shoved the phone between his ear and his shoulder. “Hey, poot. Did you have dinner yet?”
“No, I… hah.” Cecil’s exhale was half a laugh, and half a groan. “Wow, I never thought I’d get to use this on you, but, uh… I’m actually not calling for personal reasons?”
Carlos blinked, more than a little taken aback. He wiped his hands on his pants and moved to hold the phone with his left hand just to make sure it wouldn’t fall.
“What do you mean?” Carlos asked.
“Well, earlier…” Cecil trailed off. “When, uhm, when the rumbling was happening? And you got hurt? Which, I mean, I am of course very happy that you didn’t get, like, really injured, especially with you so far—”
“Ceec,” Carlos interrupted gently. “It’s okay. I get it. What’s up?”
“Well, I just—” Cecil started, and then stopped. “You mentioned a vague sort of others out there with you, like maybe more than just the wandering army, and I was just wondering if… if maybe you had seen someone who looks kind of like me? But like a nightmare version of me.”
Carlos’ eyes darted over to Kevin. He was busy sharpening the smaller piece of carapace that he had broken off with his teeth, and acting like he wasn’t listening in to the bit of the conversation that he could hear.
He’d not had any intention of talking about Kevin to Cecil. After everything with Strexcorp, he had been under the impression that Cecil hated Kevin, and so he had never planned to mention their burgeoning friendship. He doubted that Cecil would believe how much Kevin had already changed, not when he thought it had only been a few weeks since Carlos got trapped, and he didn’t want to make him even more worried than he already was.
Carlos searched for the safest answer, “I might have seen him a few times.”
A few times, a few hundred times, every single day… no big difference, really.
“Do you think he might have gotten hurt during the rumbling?”
The question just made him even more confused. Kevin had actually been completely untouched during the whole thing, and had seemed to enjoy making a game out of dodging the various flying objects with a few of the members of the wandering army.
“I was a little focused on other things, but I believe he was fine,” Carlos said.
“Oh, good.”
Two words, and that was it. Carlos frowned, “I didn’t think you liked him.”
“I… his sister!” Cecil faltered, “She listens to my show, and I knew she would want me to at least try and check on him.”
Carlos lowered the phone, “You have a sister?”
“...I have a sister?” Kevin sounded just as surprised as Carlos was by the information.
“Is he there right now?!” Cecil’s voice was quieter with the phone not directly to his ear, but Carlos could still tell he was angry. “Carlos! Is that him?”
“I… I have a sister… Oh, Smiling God, Carlos, I have…” One of Kevin’s hands came up to the scar on his throat and began to scratch, “How could I just forget that I–? No, I don’t… I don’t right? I wouldn’t just—”
Carlos didn’t even say goodbye, he just hung up right in the middle of Cecil’s annoyed squawk, and shoved his phone in his pocket. He hurried over to Kevin’s side quickly, grabbing his wrist and trying to pull it away from his throat before he clawed himself open.
Unfortunately, Kevin was a lot stronger than he was, and trying to keep him from clawing at where the Strex-collar had used to be was impossible. It had been a couple of months since Carlos had finally figured out how to get the damned thing out, but when Kevin had these episodes, it was like it was still there, his brain picking up on phantom signals that always drove him half mad.
“Doug!” Carlos called loudly, “Alicia! I need help!”
A few hours later, Carlos finally broke away from the camp that the wandering army had set up and called Cecil back. If he was lucky, it had only been a handful of minutes or a half an hour at most for him.
Cecil picked up instantly, “What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Carlos reassured him. “It’s a little hard to explain, but one of Strexcorp’s methods of conditioning seems to have been by making people forget their lives outside of work, and Kevin didn’t remember he even had a sister. He didn’t respond well, to put it mildly.”
“Did he hurt you?”
This was a new tone that Carlos had never heard before. Something darker than he was used to from Cecil, and it put him in mind of when he’d had the barber run out of town.
“He didn’t,” Carlos wanted to squash whatever this was as quickly as possible. “He never would.”
“How can you trust him?” Cecil demanded.
“You haven’t been here with him. You haven’t seen how hard he’s working to undo everything Strexcorp’s done.”
“It’s only been a few weeks,” Cecil protested weakly.
“Sometimes that’s all you need,” Carlos responded shortly.
Which wasn’t even true, but how could he explain everything to Cecil? How could he explain that first horrible week here, when he’d been alone and abandoned? He had turned around one day and Kevin had just been there, so much like Cecil and yet so very different, looking half-crazed and talking about how they could be so much more productive now that they had each other.
It had taken nearly a month for Carlos to figure out that the metal collar around Kevin’s neck was sending signals directly through his spinal cord to his brain, causing him to do things and feel things without any Strexcorp overseer anywhere near him. The thing had started to malfunction without any direct orders and without any signals nearby, and it had nearly killed Kevin before Carlos had figured out how to get it off of him. He still remembered all of the blood, because the collar had been embedded deeper than he had ever realized, but Kevin had been smiling and crying, thanking him, and—and there was no way to explain it.
Cecil was silent for so long that Carlos was worried he’d just made him angrier, but then he spoke up again. “He actually has a few surviving siblings.”
Carlos closed his eyes as he realized the implication of Cecil’s words. Some of Kevin’s siblings must have died, and given what little of his history Carlos knew, he could just guess that it was because of Strexcorp.
“Is he there now?” Cecil asked.
“No, he’s asleep.”
Asleep probably wasn’t the most accurate term, since Kevin had been accidentally knocked out by Alicia in her attempts to stop him from harming himself, but Carlos was far too tired to come up with a better one.
“I know when I’ve brought it up recently that you’ve been a little reluctant to find a door–”
“Ceec-”
“And I get there’s super interesting science to do out there–”
“Now is not the time–”
“Carlos, please, just let me finish.”
The last thing Carlos wanted to hear about was finding one of those damned doors, but the pleading undertone to Cecil’s voice left him incapable of interrupting again.
“You asked me to be patient with you, and I’m going to try.” Cecil sounded miserable, and it made Carlos’ heart ache. “I get that you want to stay there, and I know I can't force you to come home. This isn’t about looking for a way out, but a way in. Kelly would love to see her brother again, and… well, maybe we could see each other? I miss you, bunny. I love our chats on the phone, but it’s not the same.”
It would be good for Kevin to see his sister, and it would definitely be nice for Carlos to have someone else to help him keep an eye on Kevin and to help him when he had one of his episodes. He would also love to see Cecil again, even if he didn’t actually believe that he wouldn’t try to talk him into going back to Night Vale.
“Okay,” Carlos agreed. “I’ll look for a door today. I miss you, too. It’d be great to see you again.”
"Oh, Carlos, I can't wait!"