The robot had gone silent and still. Zieg continued to stand there with his hand wiping the salt and sweat that was collecting on the back of his neck and running from his sideburns until the mech’s lack of response dawned on him. Kithless had become unresponsive. The Gunslinger’s left brow slowly rose as his cough-drop eyes cautiously rolled over the machine. Silence; lack of movement; no other form of response; yep, the golem was gone. Zieg dropped his hand and leapt toward the machine. He swung his left foot up and thrust it outwards to slam into the mechanical shin of the bot. For a transhuman or ascended human, the kick was stronger than that of the average man, and although Kithless weighed a ton to make such a strike seem ineffective, the sand cracked beneath the robot’s feet. The grains began to flow like water back into the ant lion hole until a shelf about the hole broke and Kithless went sinking like a ship back into the pit.<br/><br/>Zieg had practically wiped his hands clean and did away with his confession. “It’s too damn hot to be wastin’ time out here,” he grumbled in aggravation. He marched back over to the truck with every intention to abandon The Gambler and The Priest if they wished to stand about the ant lion hole and mourn the shortage of the metal Christian. “’Thing was always a piece of shit.”<br/><br/>Wrenching open the truck door, Zieg slipped back into the seat and the shade of the truck roof. He wasn’t sure how many hours it would take for them to find some form of civilization, but he thought the Cats had to make a pit stop somewhere. If there was anyone suffering in this heat, it was a furry animal.