The journey to the Bright City was exhausting. And they had only been traveling for a day. The beginning wasn’t so bad, as they had left pretty early in the morning and the bare landscape of the southern Borderlands remained at a mild temperature for a few hours. However, by about noon, the temperature skyrocketed, and the four quickly had to find a shady shelter to rest at until the next morning. Five bottles of water and two hours later, they did. The group of bionic young adults were just about done with trekking the seemingly endless miles of sand. But really, compared to other environments in the Borderlands, the desert was nothing. Lucas had heard around Lumina, there were vast forests that stretched all the way to the edge of the remaining world, and in the north, tundras that stretched to what used to be the top of the Earth.<br/><br/>As he sat in the shade on his watch break, Lucas looked out at the sandy wasteland, recalling what he had learned in his terrible former school. Every day in history was the same old thing. Flood to Lumina. He wondered what had happened in the years preceding the great disaster that killed billions. Would the Earth ever thrive again? Thousands upon thousands of years wasted by a natural disaster. There had to be an explanation. And if they made it out alive, Lucas would make it his quest to learn about the past. There had to be ruins scattered around the Borderlands. Or even in other places, like “China”, if it even existed anymore. Communication and transportation was abruptly cut off, so it was still unknown if other places existed anymore. Nobody had ever heard of anyone traveling between different continents since the flood.<span style="font-style: italic">Maybe someday…</span>he thought, closing his eyes and drifting off.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><br/><br/>Lucas’ eyes fluttered open and he moved his arm up near his face to check his watch, but before he could look at the time, he heard Thea get up and say something about heading out to go catch stuff or something. Following her footsteps fading, he heard Gerhard say that he was tired of hearing the “sleeping” scientist snore and rush off to join his fair and snappy maiden whom he subtly attempted to court -- I mean, flirt with. Psh, “court”? The Borderlands were definitely not a place where noble and mannered men lived.<br/><br/>“I heard that,” Lucas shouted after Gerhard, scowling and turning back on his side once again. Footsteps began coming towards him, and he could feel a looming presence over him as the person sat down. Of course, from simple deduction, Lucas figured it was Dan. Unless it wasn’t, and Dan had run off with Thea and Gerhard, leaving Lucas alone to be eaten by animals.<br/><br/>Imagination aside, Dan began uttering something about sand working effectively against machines and making a good smokescreen or whatever. He was suggesting that they somehow bring sand into Lumina. The only way to do that was to dump everything out of their backpacks and fill them with sand, and he was not going without water. Lucas did applaud Dan for teaching him something he didn’t know, but there was absolutely no possible way that they could sneak enough sand into Lumina to work against an army of robots, much less one.<br/><br/>“Not that I can think of, no. But if you can think of one way, then we can talk to the others about it, because we’re going to have to carry that sand. If no one wants to do that, then obviously the plan won’t work,” Lucas answered.