He needed the rest of the download.
He reached the dish. The tablet's battery was at 6%. He plugged a salvaged wire into a rusted port. The screen flickered.
It wasn't a video of an oasis.
He opened the file. The video played.
The problem was, the only place with a strong enough signal to resume the download was the satellite dish on top of the abandoned gas station. And the gas station was currently occupied.
While the chaos erupted in a cloud of dust, Oscar scrambled over the gas station's cracked pavement. His tiny claws clicked on the metal ladder leading to the satellite dish. He held his breath. He could hear Buck yelp, Popy squawk, and the sound of Harchi colliding with a signpost.
It wasn't real. But for a download, it was enough. oscar oasis download
And they saw a tiny lizard silhouette on the dish.
He took a sip, took a bite, and watched the two-second clip of the oasis shimmering on his cracked screen.
94%... 95%...
Oscar had watched the first two seconds a thousand times. A shimmering pool. A leaf big enough for a hammock. The word "PARADISE" written in glowing green letters. Then the file froze, pixelated into a mess of green and blue blocks, and died.
Harchi’s ears shot up. He abandoned the oil drum. Buck’s nose twitched. Popy tilted his head. The grub was real. The tumbleweed was a lie, but the grub was very real.
Oscar peered out. There was Buck, the fennec fox, using the dish as a sun umbrella. There was Popy, the vulture, perched on the station's sign, preening. And there was Harchi, the hyena, trying to fit his entire head into an old oil drum. He needed the rest of the download