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Two weeks, give or take a few days. Two full weeks had passed since the morning in the cave, the morning when he and Emelyn had been daring enough to try and remove the chip that held him captive here--and had succeeded. With little to no physical consequences to show for it, Thom had realized very early on in his flight. For two weeks he had been utterly free, completely his own to command, and, even though his now-bandaged neck was still sore from the amature surgery, Thom had never felt better.

Admittedly, those two weeks hadn't exactly been something out of a vacation. He hadn't spoken with a single person, after all. Hadn't risked leaving the cover of the trees deep in the forest to visit the areas where cameras were staggered more closely and guards frequented often...but here he was now, was he not? Two weeks, he decided, was plenty enough time for the guards to admit defeat and return to regular patrols. And as long as he could keep out of sight of the cameras, why, he could go anywhere.

It had been difficult, but not incrediably so. Thom had been tall to begin with, and now with a good ten feet of tail added on to him, he was difficult to miss. However, he was also a snake, and the scales wandering up even his stomach and chest meant he could move consistently hardly above the ground at all. He could keep to the shadows, he could hide in the foliage, he was all but invisible to a guard skimming the camera screens. Even the patch covering his wound on his neck was unnoticable once masked with mud and leaves. They wouldn't find him unless he wanted to be found.

And right now, he most certainly did not. He had ventured far closer to the village than he probably should have with a couple of intentions in mind: the first, to see if he could find word as to what might have happened to Emelyn or where she might be, and the second to try and give Natsumi a proper explanation as to why he would be gone for a while... Though, he realized, the second seemed quite pointless. Natsumi was probably hiding away in her duplex, and Thom couldn't risk going anywhere near there.

He had holed himself away in the shadows of a tree, laying still in the leaves and small plants that grew well near the jungle's edge, and he had waited. He was beginning to think his wait was pointless by the time that Oz appeared, and, though his hopes rose briefly, he didn't initially recognize the man. Once he did, however, it was impossible to keep silent. "Oz?"

Fear of any sort was something that the snake picked up on quickly, a flick of his tongue giving him the gorilla's vital stats as easily as if a computer had just taken them. The grimace, too, did not go unnoticed, and between the two it was easy to discern what, exactly, was bothering his friend. "Stand 'ow you're comfortable, mate. You can't help what's 'appened." He hesitated briefly, then lifted his head slightly to nod Oz his way. "Act like I'm not 'ere."

"Yes," he replied flatly as he ducked his head back down.

"I'm a wanted man," he added with no little amount of pride, along with a short laugh. "Too many cameras around 'ere for me to come out. But I wanted to check on Emelyn. 'Ave you seen her?"

Thom had to resist the urge to bang his head against the ground as Oz glanced around for the cameras, though he was thankful for the change of location, and even ventured out of his hiding spot, glancing warily around the trees himself before curling up in a more comfortable position at the foot of one.

"Bandage," he finally replied, figuring there could be no other something at the back of his neck. Reaching back, he carefully checked said bandage to be sure it was still securely in place. "It really needs stitches, but I couldn't do that myself. It's healin' well enough, though, from what I can tell."

At the question, the cobra looked up, a toothy grin spreading across his face. He was far too pleased with his news to keep it to himself. And, indeed, Oz was one of the few people who he felt he could gloat to without getting some sort of warning against having done it or doing anything stupid later on. "Why, we cut out my chip. Emelyn did it. It's been about two weeks now... I'm free, Oz."

"It has been done," Thom replied, still grinning. Oz's excitement was infectious, and was almost identical to the joy and relief Thom had felt once the chip had actually been removed. He hadn't had a chance to enjoy the loss then; he had been rushed avoiding the guards. So he would enjoy it now.

"Wasn't that difficult, really. Hurt like hell, but Emelyn did well. I 'aven't been able to contact her since, 'owever, and I'm worried that th' labs might 'ave done somethin'. I was comin' to check on her, but I can't risk goin' into the village."

"Ah...hedgehog?" he offered, somewhat lamely. It was so much easier to describe islanders by their animals, as sad as that was. It was degrading, in a way, but...in Emelyn's case, it was difficult to describe her as otherwise. He hadn't ever seen her before she was hedgehog-like. And now, that was the easiest recognizable set of features.

"She's been around longer than I 'ave, but she lived away from the village for a while. She was stayin' out near th' mountain, I believe. You might not've met her." He grimaced, rubbing his temple with the ball of his hand. "I hope th' labs 'aven't done anythin'."