The scrape of gravel under boots announced the approach of the human some 50 meters away.  At 20 meters X re-enabled his human interaction subroutines for the impending encounter, whatever it might hold.  His chest slowly expanded and contracted in an approximation of breathing.  He allowed his face ‘muscles’ to make small adjustments to themselves in a human-like assortment of twitches, sniffs, lip licking, and other ridiculous gestures which would make him seem more ‘natural’.

Lacking photoreceptors hampered his ability to evaluate the disposition and possible threat level of the approaching individual. Other sensory queues told him a good deal.  A heavyset male by the cadence and scraping impact of footfalls, heavier on the right foot – carrying a load; smell of fungus on leather and ferrous oxide - armor: not well kept; hacking coughs, wheezing intake of breath, but no detectable mucus burbling - lung function impairment likely due to inhalation of hazardous ‘chems’; theory proven as the odiferous person stopped, unslung their load, took something from a buckle at their belt, and ‘puffed’.

“What the fuck is an old man like you doing way the fuck out here?”

“I seem to have lost my way,” X admitted, facing the stranger with a smile on his face, bandages covering his eyes.  He held his walking stick firmly planted in front of him with both hands.  He was not lost in the truest sense of the word.  He had accurate topographical maps of the entire area, and his internal compass still worked.  Now that he had evaded his most recent Institute pursuers, he just didn’t know where to go. 

“Lost yer way?! That’s an understatement! How the fuck did you even git out here with no eyes?  You with a caravan?  Someone out here with you?”

“Someone is, yes.” X found humor in stating the obvious truth as a misdirection.  He was alone, but the man need not know that.

“Where?”

“Nearby.”

“Riiiight.”  The man’s heart rate increased audibly and his weight shifted as he looked around for X’s ‘hidden’ companion.  “Well, you don’t want to be out here after dark.  If I was you, I’d head east for Concord.  Shelter there, and some pals o’mine will be along that way some time tomorrow.”

“That’s an idea…”  X nodded, “Thank you.”