15 Aftershocks

Chapter Fifteen Aftershocks Elias, Vale, and Abigail ran for the explorer pod. The building was going to blow any second, and they had to get behind the pod before it did. They dove behind their ship. But nothing happened. Just silence. "Guys!" shouted Vale. "I think the explosion hurt my ears. I can't hear anything!" Abigail shook her head. "That's because there's nothing to hear," she said. She stood up and peered around the pod. There was Finn, dragging a very heavy Foggy out of the queen's palace.

"They're okay!" she shouted, and ran toward Finn. Foggy woke up just as Abigail reached them. "What are we doing outside?" said Foggy. "And why do I feel a breeze inside me?" "Oh, sorry," said Finn. He reached back and shut Foggy's panel. "Finnegan Emerson Caspian, I am very glad you're alive but now I have to kill you," said

Abigail. "That was the dumbest, bravest, but mostly dumbest thing I've ever seen someone do." "Can you take his legs?" said Finn. "I think we're going to have to carry him to the explorer pod. He's a little weak." As the troop made their way back to the ship, Abigail berated Foggy for being a bad friend to Finn. "And we found you just lying on the floor!" said Abigail. "Could any of your new robot friends be bothered to help you up? Nope! They just left you there like trash." "Hey," said Vale. "Lay off of trash. I have a newfound respect for it." "I know," said Foggy. "I know. It was ridiculous of me. I was so excited about these new friends, I stopped paying attention to my good friends, and then I almost met my end. Is that a poem I just wrote? My head hurts." Abigail buckled Foggy into his seat and took the pilot's seat. She pressed the throttle and launched the pod up toward the Marlowe. Finn sat next to Foggy. "You must be very angry with me," said Foggy. "I don't blame you."

"Nah," said Finn. "I wasn't always great to you. My mom was right. I should have appreciated you more." Foggy smiled at Finn.

"You know, we tried a couple different passcodes to reset you," said Finn. "Your name and then your home." All the explorers looked at Finn. They wanted to know how he'd saved Foggy. "So I thought about how, if I were a robot and I had a reset code, I'd probably want to come up with it myself. And I'd make it something that I would never forget. Something that I really loved." "3466," said Foggy. "Yep," smiled Finn. Vale looked down at the small communicator on his wrist. "Let's see, 3-4-6-6," he said. "That spells 'dino.' That's weird. You love dinos?" "Finn," said Elias. "It spells 'Finn.'" Finn gave Foggy a hug. "You know, Foggy," said Finn. "You're going to have to change your code now." "Why?" asked Foggy. "I think you should change your name," said Finn. "I'm thinking something like 12121222221112212211."

The pod zoomed toward the small purple light in the distance. The Marlowe was waiting for them, and Finn couldn't wait to get home and stay there for a while.