Keith sat with his back against a tree, watching the bot’s remote LCD. No hits after five minutes. He looked at Shelley, sitting on a rock. She smiled with her lips closed. He doubted he had a shot at dating her again.

“So, are we going to go out again after all this is over?” she said.

“You mean you weren’t just using me for my technical skills?”

“I asked you out before I even knew about these guys.”

Keith snapped apart a twig and used it to work dirt from under his fingernails.

“You gonna do that a lot?” Shelley said.

“Just until it grosses you out.”

“Mission accomplished.”

“I like to test my boundaries up front.”

Keith pulled out a few Pro-Teen bars he kept in his backpack and shared them with everybody. He remembered the ad bot he programmed for the product, with corny teenager lingo like, “One taste and you’ll say, ‘Dodge Rammit’ these are good.” It was the worst bit of cross-marketing he’d ever heard, but the term had caught on with the less clever kids.

Falcon and Theo lay on their backs, looking up at the sky, munching quietly. Theo hummed a song Keith didn’t recognize, and soon Falcon joined in for what Keith guessed was the chorus. It sounded like Falcon was guessing, too.

“Damn, Billy-boy, we’d never make it on the road with that one.”

The bot’s remote chirped.

Theo got up on his hands and knees and scampered over to Keith like a dog coming for its favorite treat. “Whatcha got, Keither?”

“It found some metal. I have the coordinates.”

“Let’s git on over there,” Theo said.

On the way, Keith started to feel vulnerable. The forest’s unpredictable layout, with none of the right angles or structural organization of the city, made him nervous. With nothing to keep his bearings besides the technology he held in his hand, he wanted to be surrounded by the familiarity of the streets.

Keith barked his shin on a rock. He stumbled for a moment, but continued with only Shelley noticing. After that he kept his glances down at the remote’s display to a minimum.

All the men worked to get enough oxygen. Shelley didn’t seem winded at all. At first they carefully wound their way around briers and low-hanging branches, but that soon gave way to altering course only for large trees. Keith lacked their sense of urgency, but because he was their navigator, he kept up with the group.

“Hey, we’re getting close,” Keith said.

“Hot damn!”

“Watch out. There’s a rusty set of springs up here,” Falcon said.

Keith walked straight for it, eyes locked onto the screen.

“Don’t tell me,” Theo said.

Keith stopped. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” he said. “We’ve been tracking this old bed.” He kicked the springs.

Before they could get settled, the remote chirped. Hoping to avoid panting all the way to the next stop, Keith headed out first to set the pace. Theo and Falcon hummed again. Shelley joined in at the most repetitious parts, her voice improving listenability considerably.

They reached a spot that was about two meters wide and clear of leaves. His eyes on the LCD, Keith said, “This is it.”

“Well, where’s your little buddy? We ain’t got no way to dig without him.”

“What were you going to do before we came along?” Shelley said. “And is that honestly the way you talk? It’s getting annoying.”

“As you may have noticed, we left the train under duress. Stopping for our shovel wasn’t high on the list,” Falcon said. “As for how he talks, I’ll let him tell you that.”

“I’m what I like to call a self-styled southern cowboy,” Theo said.

Shelley laughed. “Right, and from the future.”

“I’ve called the fetcher bot back to this location,” Keith said.

When the bot arrived, it stopped on a spot at the center of the small clearing.

Keith said, “Detect and retrieve.”

Standing on three legs, the bot tore into the ground with its other three. Each time it went as deep as its legs reached, it pulled off a piece of its carapace to scoop out the dirt, then repeated the process.

“Adaptable,” Falcon said.

“It has a little bit of AI,” Keith said.

They stood over the hole watching the bot work. Each time it flung dirt from the hole, they leaned back to avoid it. When it got two meters down, Keith could have mistaken it for a groundhog in a flurry of dirt and debris.

Then it stopped digging and emitted a warning sound like an earth mover in reverse.

“Stand back,” Keith said.

A metal case shot out of the hole, about five feet above ground. Shelley fell and scrambled like a sand crab. The case landed with a thump in the spot where she had stood.

Keith reached for a small tree to keep from falling. Before he could stop himself, he saw that thorns enshrouded the tree’s trunk. Pain shot through his hand. “Son of a –” he began, then finished with a growl.

“You makin’ it okay, Keither?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Am I the only one these woods are trying to kill?”

“Your robot’s trying to kill me,” Shelley said.

Dogs barked in the distance.

“Well, friends and neighbors, it sounds like somethin’ stirred up the hounds.”

Two of the fetcher bot’s legs reached above the edge of the hole and staked themselves into the ground. Then, in one fluid motion the bot flipped up from the hole, withdrew the two legs and landed on its feet. “Stop search,” Keith said. The bot went limp.

Everyone walked over to the dirty case. The parts not covered with dirt shone a dull black. “That’s it,” Theo said.

He knelt down, released two latches, and opened the case. Inside was a bright silver box, and a small lock held shut its ornate clasp. Intricate engravings adorned the top and sides.

“It’s beautiful,” Shelley said. “What’s inside?”

“Should I tell her, pard?”

“That’s up to you, but I don’t recommend it.”

Tired of the buried treasure, Keith walked over to his bot and started wiping it down with his shirt. It had shown him a new side. Maybe after that he would entrust it to do more than just keep his apartment floor navigable.

The sound of the dogs grew louder.

“Um, guys, the dogs are coming toward us,” Keith said.

(to be concluded)