SPG- Chapter Two

Rabbit's mind was sluggish, swimming through a soup of darkness. He moaned and his eyes blinked open as the circuits in his mind began to fire and whirr, his vision slowly coming into focus. He frowned. He could faintly hear someone calling his name, but it didn't register to him until he saw the glass lid of the metal case he was lying in wrenched open with a bit more force than necessary. "Rabbit, come on!" The Spine said, his tone urgent. "...Spine? What are you...?" Rabbit asked, his voice slurred. The Spine sighed, frowning in worry. "Come on, up you go." He said, gently pulling Rabbit to a sitting position.

Rabbit held onto The Spine's shoulder for support as they both stood up slowly, steam hissing out of Rabbit's vents. Rabbit let go of The Spine once he was standing and began to run through his simple test of his machinery to make sure everything was working properly. Once he was satisfied, he looked around and froze in shock. The entire stretch of land from the point they were standing at to the horizon was nothing but barren desert sand.

Spine watched Rabbit's reaction with an unreadable expression on his face, though his eyes revealed the emotions that were spinning and snapping through his mind. "What...wh-wh-wh-wh-what happened?" Rabbit asked, his natural stutter becoming worse as dread shot through his circuits, making his body seize up. "Well, I just don't know, Rabbit." The Spine sighed, looking around as if he had to prove that it was real to himself. Rabbit began to panic, his breathing accelerating and his eyes going wide.
"Spine, where is everyone? Where are they? Where did they go? I remember we were just...Pete was telling what he was gonna do, and then... Wait, are they-" He broke off, looking even more horrified as the thought shot through his brain. "Spine, please!" He begged,  latching on to The Spine's shoulders, his asymmetrical colored eyes staring straight into The Spine's vivid green eyes with a desperate look. "Please S-S-S-Spine, please t-tell me that everyone isn't...that they aren't..." He broke off and hung his head, his breath coming in shuddering gasps. His eyes were wide open, and he twitched involuntarily. "Nonononononononono-" the one syllable word repeated itself over and over as Rabbit began to overload from the emotions that were singing through his frame.

The Spine pulled Rabbit off of him and felt panic and concern spiraling through his brain. "Rabbit-!" He began, but Rabbit shut down with a flash of sparks, steam hissing through his vents slowly. The Spine sighed and waited for him to shut down completely. Rabbit began to sink forward in mechanical twitches, his joints clicking. Once Rabbit had stopped moving, The Spine stood him up and pressed several key points on the back of his neck and his arms in a fluid, practiced movement. Rabbit jerked and began to reboot.

Rabbit blinked, and clarity returned to his blank eyes. He looked around again and his eyes went wide again. But before he could succumb to another panic attack, The Spine laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Rabbit, calm down." He instructed, his voice firm but calm, a hint of a smile on his face. "Sure, things may look bad, but then again we might've been just relocated somewhere." He said soothingly. Rabbit gave him a dubious look. "Ya think so?" He asked doubtfully. The Spine nodded genially. "Yeah!" He said, giving Rabbit a comforting smile. "Now, all we need to do is walk until we find someone!" He said, looking around confidentially.

Rabbit frowned in thought. "Hey, do you feel like we're forgetting something?" He asked, raising one of his eyebrows questioningly. The Spine nodded. "Yeah..." They thought for a while before both looking at each other and exclaiming, "Jon!" At the same time, identical expressions of concern on their faces.

They both searched the ground for a while before Rabbit saw a case almost buried completely in the sand. He rushed over, brushed the sand off of the glass and peered inside. Jon lay still inside the case, his eyes closed. Rabbit sighed in relief and gripped the edge with his fingers and tried to pull it open. The glass cracked and shattered; it seemed that the hinges were rusted beyond use. Nevertheless, Rabbit brushed the glass shards off of him and hauled him to his feet.

The Spine smiled when he saw that Rabbit had found Jon. He watched closely as Jon started to slowly turn on, standing up straight with clicks and whirrs from his frame. His eyes shot open, revealing startlingly blue irises. "Oh!" He said, looking around. "Oh my. Where are we?" He asked, frowning in bemusement. "Are we performing? Where are all the people?" He asked. "Ah, actually Jon, we're out in the middle of nowhere." The Spine said. Jon's eyebrows rose. "Ooohhhh." There was a long pause.

"So it's that kind of show!" Jon exclaimed, grinning. "I had no idea that we were doing one of those right after we got worked on! Or rather," he said, looking The Spine up and down, "after you got worked on. Me and Rabbit still look the same and you've got the...the..." He gestured to The Spine oddly as he struggled to find the right words, "Those...things coming from your back and all those markings on your face!" He exclaimed, gesturing wildly at him.
The Spine craned his neck as he tried to look at his back. "Wait what? What things?" He asked, turning around in little circles and frowning. "Oh well, they look kinda like this-" The Jon began to draw an extremely detailed sketch with his finger in the air, squinting in concentration and pursing his lips.

"HEY! GUYS!" Rabbit yelled, waving his arms and widening his eyes. They both stopped and looked at him questioningly. "Yeah Rabbit?" The Spine asked, one of his eyebrows rising. "Don't we need to do something important?" Rabbit asked, lowering his arms and frowning. "Uh Rabbit," Jon said, adjusting his hat. "What would that be exactly?" He asked, his eyes widening as he gave Rabbit a rather uncanny stare.

"Oh, right." The Spine said, straightening himself out and adopting a more serious tone. "We need to find some people! Come on everyone, we're...uh...walking. That way. Yeah." The Spine said, pointing in a random direction. "Oh. Wait, but I thought we were performing!" Jon said, looking confused. "Isn't that what we were doing? Waiting for people to show up?" The Spine sighed. "Jon, no one's gonna show up in the middle of the desert just to see us!" He explained.

"Oh." Jon said, making a face and shrugging. "Alright then. Let's go on an adventure! Come on everyone! We're off!" He said raising a hand in the air and marching off in the direction that The Spine had pointed out, a smile on his face. Rabbit followed with a grin, joining Jon happily. With a sigh, The Spine followed them both with a tired expression on his face. He hoped that they would find someone soon...