"Eric," I said. "Eric Robinson."
Kara stared at me. "The man in the sleep pod?"
"I think you mean cryo chamber ... wait a minute. You know who I am?"
"Everyone knows about the man in the sleep pod," she said. "When the Degenerates stole the pod, everyone thought you were lost. Well, those that cared, anyway."
"Degenerates?"
"Yeah, there's a bunch of them that way," she said, pointing in the direction that I had come from. "When I first saw you, I thought you were one of them. This is their territory. But then I noticed how you were dressed and how you were acting. You're definitely not a Degenerate."
"You're talking about those cavemen, right?"
"Yeah, I guess you could call them that. But they weren't always like that," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"That metal sphere you saw - it's function is to transform people. It's what we call 'being touched'."
"So, it turns people into cavemen?"
"No. It turns people into a lot of things including cavemen. If I hadn't come along, you'd probably be touched right now and would probably be one of the Degenerates. Although, we're on the edge of their territory, so maybe you would have changed into something else."
This was crazy. At first I thought the human race had de-evolved into a primitive race of beings. But now I was learning that a metal ball was floating around and changing people into who knows what? That was even more insane.
"Come on. The sphere probably won't come near us, but if we stay here too long, it may get curious enough," Kara said.
"Are you saying it's alive?" I asked.
"Sort of. It's a living machine, if that's what you mean. It has a brain (a mechanical brain), but not much else. Basically, it's just a really sophisticated probe."
Earlier, I thought it might have been probe. I guess I was right.
"Now, come on," Kara said, walking away.
"Where are we going?" I asked, as I followed her.
