Can I Even Trust The Garbage Man?

"YEES!"

Sprinting out, the barren desert and starry night sky greeted Leo. He punched the air in victory and looked for the road. However, turning left and right, all he found on the base's fringes was sand.

Leo's smile was instantly replaced by his ragged breaths. Dammit, what was he supposed to do now? He suddenly felt so exhausted and was forced to catch his breath.

The sand dunes stretched as far as Leo could see and only a couple of fighter spaceships littered the outside boundary of the base. He cursed his luck. Even if he had the OP telekinesis, at the end of the day he was just a nerd that barely knew how to drive. How was he supposed to get out of here?

"YOU!"

[Screw you karma.]

Leo turned around and saw a few foam covered soldiers coming out while pointing their guns at him. Not waiting for a cue, Leo forced his taco-addicted body to start running, almost puking from the strain.

"I… need…. cover - *Cough cough*"

Bullets riddled the sand around Leo as he frantically zipped in a squiggly line while throwing sand tendrils randomly. Tendril after tendril forced the soldiers to retreat, giving Leo a ray of hope.

And then he heard it.

Turning back, his pupils contracted. One after another, the spaceships began to whir to life and all he had was flimsy sand. Freaking flimsy sand. It's not like he had a sand-sailer that could be propelled by his sand tendrils.

[Wait.

That's it.]

Conjuring as much sand as he could, Leo formed a large 10 meter sand tendril that propelled him forward. Faster, it has to be faster.

Distinct whirring sounded behind him and a large beam grazed his shoulder.

"AAAAGGH!"

"STOP, YOU WON'T RECEIVE ANOTHER WARNING SHOT!"

[You call that a warning shot? You call THAT a warning shot? Let me give you a DAMN WARNING SHOT.]

Leo threw his whole sand tendril backwards at the nearest ship.

BOOM

The ship spiralled out of control on impact, causing all the sand to disperse into a mini-sand storm. Every ship tailing it was blinded and Leo made the most of it by using more sand to stop his fall and riskily move toward the spiralling ship. Just as it managed to stabilize, the sand tendril catapulted Leo up to the belly of the ship. The remaining sand tailing him wrapped him onto the ship's belly.

Thank heavens it's night time.

Just then, the other ships came out of the sand storm with bright searchlights, but they were dumbfounded.

"YOU CAN'T HIDE. WE HAVE THERMAL VISION."

Leo prayed. This ship's thrusters had better be hot.

The ships scoured the area, but even after a whole minute they came up empty handed.

"Bravo 1, do you see him? Over."

"Negative, anyone got an eye on him? Over."

All the other six pilots reported negative findings which they then bitterly had to report back to General Baker.

The squadron leader patched through to the general who appeared to be furiously wiping off the foam. Upon seeing his squadron leader's hologram, the general calmed down a bit. There was no way Leo had escaped his spaceships.

"General, he escaped our space-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE ESCAPED?!"

"We can't find his heat - "

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE I GIVE DAMN? SCOUR THE WHOLE AREA, EVEN GO TO THE EDGE OF THE CITIES IF YOU HAVE TO."

He turned back to look at the foam flooded hangar. "GET THOSE DAMN APCS ON THE MOVE."

"Yes sir! Over."

Almost breaking his wrist communicator in anger, general Baker stared at the dark desert. He had never been so humiliated.

***

[I hate heights. I hate heights. Oh god how I hate heights.]

After hanging on for dear life for what felt like an eternity, the ship Leo was piggybacking on reached the outskirts of a bright metropolis. Large skyscrapers, bright billboards, and small specs moved throughout the city completely unaware of the nearby spaceship scanning the outer ridges.

It was about time. Leo was both mentally and physically exhausted after today's crazy debacle. He didn't know how much longer he could keep sticking to the ship before his power left him to plummet to his death.

Seeing that the spaceship had started flying parallel to the city, Leo took a deep breath. All he needed to do now was disengage from the ship and hope that he wasn't detected by the thermal vision or searchlights. But it was easier said than done.

Gazing down, Leo felt the sand almost falter around him.

[no No NO]

He barely managed to concentrate in time to avoid falling, almost rocking the ship in the process. Biting back his fear, he went over his possibilities. He was currently at level with the 30 story skyscrapers. How was he supposed to get down from here? Even after becoming Sandman that didn't mean he could survive such a fall. Sure, he controlled a 10 meter tall sand tendril that could support him, but that was when he was running hard on adrenaline. He was on fumes now.

There had to be something, anything to break his fall. Leo continued to scan all the buildings around him until he spotted a pool on top of a short skyscraper. It was coming up fast and, before his fear of heights could strike again, Leo took the gamble and let himself go.

Stars, sand, stars, and more sand. Everything was spinning as Leo spread his arms and legs out, just like in the movies. He barely managed to balance himself off before seeing that he was off course.

Cursing, he was running out of seconds and all he had was the sand trails alongside him. Realization then hit him and he commanded the sand to hit him towards the direction of the pool.

SPLASH

"EEEEEKKKKKK"

Water splattered everywhere and scared the living daylights out of the bathing couples. They almost drowned from the mini-tsunami while Leo gasped in pain after dislocating his shoulder against the pool floor. Clenching his teeth in desperation, Leo barely managed to make the water pull him to the edge.

"Amy! Call 911!"

"I can't! My phone is drenched!"

"Use my phone!"

"It's also dead!"

Yelling ensued as all the couples managed to get out of the pool and look back at Leo who was now coughing on the pavement. Worries gave way to frustration as one of the teenagers yelled, "The hell were you doing?!"

Leo just kept coughing as he struggled to get up. Glancing around him, he saw the terrified couples were now trying to board the elevator.

[Almost there.]

He bit down on his exhaustion and staggered toward the elevator.

"Oh god, he's coming to us."

"Faster dammit!" One of the guys madly pressed the buttons until the elevator finally closed. Sighing, Leo had to wait for a minute before the elevator came back up. Once there, he boarded it, went down to the lobby, and reached the street while ignoring all the management's bewildered stares. He didn't even appreciate the fine art or luxurious furniture on the way out. All he wanted was to rest.

He walked down the block a bit before finding an alley lined with dumpsters.

"Finally….." he gasped while sitting down and closing his eyes.

A few minutes passed before a slight breeze made him shiver.

"Uuummpttth," Leo groaned. He didn't want to care about being drenched.

Shaking his head, he tried to take off his shirt only to jolt in pain. His darn left shoulder was still dislocated. Grimacing, he placed his right hand on his left shoulder and counted.

"One… two… thre-"

CLICK

"FUUUC!"

Tears rolled down his face as he leaned against the wall again for the next minute. Why was all of this happening? He was having just another ordinary day and had been enjoying some good Jacksepticeye videos about the legendary Han Xiao. But nooo, fate had to throw him through a portal, take him to Area 51, and force him to sand-bend his way to victory.

He was barely 26 and all he had to show for was his antimatter research and a round belly. He didn't even have a girlfriend yet.

Taking off his shirt, he wringed it, put it back on, and closed his eyes.

***

"-ey. Bud- …. Hey."

Incessant beeping filled the background while someone nudged him.

"Eeeegh?"

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Leo opened his eyes and found a middle aged man in a yellow vest looking down at him. Behind him was a large green truck that was emptying some of the dumpsters.

"Were you drunk? How did you get all the way out here?"

"I…." Leo was at a loss for words. He thought he had the craziest dream, but upon looking down, his tattered clothes told another story.

"Ugh. Phill!" The man turned and called for the garbage truck driver. "We got another one. We still got room in the back?"

"Yeah! We got one more seat."

Turning back, the man extended a hand to Leo. "Come on buddy. We can give you a lift to the dump and give ya some food once we're there. It can rub off that hangover."

Confused and groggy, Leo took his hand while his mind struggled to catch up. He was on the run, and seeing that this world had spaceships, then they definitely should have great surveillance. As the realization hit him, he stopped in his tracks while seeing the dawn slowly creeping up.

"Hey, are you ok?"

He had to get away from here, but there had to be cameras everywhere. He was just one guy, and an unfit one at that.

"Hey!"

"Huh?"

"Are you ok? You seem like you just saw a ghost."

Leo just stared at him skeptically. Could he even trust the garbage man?

"Did you get kicked out from somewhere? What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a scientist… but I… I shouldn't be here."

Leo started to turn away, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait… you're a scientist and you're in this tattered state… are you one of those scientists that deserted? One of the many that escaped after the Lyra Federation's experiment that blew up that moon colony?"

"Uh - I just study quantum physics and anti…" Why was he even telling him this? Leo shook his head. He was just wasting time.

"Bud, don't worry. Everyone is pissed at our government after that whole fiasco." The man glanced around. "You need to lay low don't you?" Come with us, those old coots didn't bother to put surveillance at the dump. You'll be surprised at how much they don't care about all the junk there."

[Well no, duh.] Leo raised an eyebrow. [Who cares about garbage?] He quickly tried to come up with an alternative plan, but to now avail. Looking at the man again, all he could see was kindness and worry in his eyes. Well, the man's plan is better than running around and constantly glancing over his shoulder.

"Fine. Thank you."

The man smiled as he walked him over to the truck. "It'll be fine for now. Phill! Stop for a sec and let him get in will ya?"

With that, the man opened the door, releasing a strong stench of alcohol that abruptly woke Leo up. Grimacing, Leo found a hungover man giving him the stink eye and a sleeping teenager slightly drooling.

"Fate just loves me, doesn't she?" Leo muttered as he warrily got into the last seat. Just as he was snapping in his seat belt, a man with gray hair looked back with confusion in his eyes.

"You don't look hungover son. Did you just eat one too many edibles? I know this kid did," he said while pointing at the teenager.

Before Leo could respond to Phill, the other garbage man hopped into the truck. "Alright, that's the last of it for this block. Now we got 42nd street and…."

Leo observed all four of them while the men made their rounds. The smelly two besides him just seemed to be in a bad mood or just completely out of it. Also, the garbage men didn't seem to have the creepy vibe like that of the secret agent he met, but seemed to just be two honest people that helped others in need. If Leo needed any other proof, he saw that they had the same habit as his mother: they had a small rosary dangling on the rearview mirror.

[Guess they might just be good believers that look out for the unfortunate then.]

Turning to gaze out the tinted side windows, Leo noticed that not much was different. People still drove in four wheeled cars, used holographic wrist bound communicators, and hailed AI driven Cubers and Clyfts. He did notice that no shops seemed to have a metallic android at their counters, but some orange construction droids riddled the construction sites they passed.