The Phoenix Colony

Cull cursed as he fell over a body and caught his elbow on a rock it left an uneven gash on his arm, at his feet a woman was screaming. Cull could smell crisped hair and burnt flesh. Damn he needed a freaking flash light. A man with a large gash had given Cull a lighter in return for the stitches he’d given him. But he couldn’t hold the jet lighter and see to wounds at the same time. Most of the people Cull would be seeing to would be to distressed to hold the darn thing for him. Cull stood and brushed himself off before squinting at the woman.

“Help me,” she wailed. Cull nodded his head vigorously. He knew already and was getting to it as fast as he could.

“It‘s alright I won‘t go anywhere without having a look at that arm first.” He held the lighter away from the woman and took a look at her arm, his eyes running up and down. Bit of skin were falling away in blobs. He beaconed her to sit then sat in front of her sorting the medical kit. There were to many people this stuff just wasn’t going to last. He knew several plants that were useful all thanks to university, he doubted they grew here. He pulled out a syringe and injected her with sedative before accessing the wound while she rested in a daze. It was a mess. The bad skin needed cutting away, then he could treat the wound.

After what seemed forever he finished off by binding the wound with gauze after using a plastic film to cover the burn. The dark hadn’t won over him, though it had come close several times.

“There,” he said with a grin. “Try not to bend your arm to much and be careful try and stay some place sheltered.”

The woman thanked him and gave him a scalpel she had apparently been saving to use on a guard. That had given Cull an idea. For those less injured he could ask a tax for extra needed things to help the other wounded people. That way there would be more items to help out. They’d still undoubtedly run out, but this would by Cull some extra time. He blindly moved through the night trying his best to look for more injured, then cursed as he heard the sound of running water. Had he gone to far.

“Well F*** me!”

 

Time Advancement to 6:22 am, just before daybreak

:::: Time Advancement, please re-set your watches to 6:22 am, GT (Game Time) ::::

Reva woke, her first thought being surprise that she had slept. Her second thought was that she was more comfortable than she had been in a long time.

Someone had gone really crazy with the pine scented air freshener, though.

She started to stretch only to find that she had been using a strange man as a body pillow. She startled upright and stared at him, the pine boughs partially sliding off as she did, cold air sweeping in to the warm nest.

In the dim light of early morning she saw a brown-haired man who looked a little more dead than alive. The events of the past night came back to her and she looked around uneasily but saw no threats.

The stranger's chest rose and fell steadily, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. She grimaced and knew she'd have to deal with that. Maybe it was best to do it while he was out.

Taking a deep breath she rolled up onto her knees, felt his arm quickly to see where the break was and with a swift tugging, set the bone.

 

"SON OF A BITCH!"

It was a moment before Allen was able to regain his composure after waking up like that. He immediatly regretted his outburst because there was somone kneeling right next to him pulling on his broken arm.

She was a woman. Wow, Allen, you really need to get your head in gear. She had red hair and green eyes. He could tell by the way she looked at him that she was a watcher, the kind of person who could look at you and figure things out. She saw the details.

Allen tried to sit up and get a look at his surroundings, but as soon as he was upright his head rejected that notion and told him to lie back down. It said that in a rather violent manner that caused him to lose the little bit that was in his stomach.

"Where am I? What happened?"

 

"Diane, I don't want you to forget me, kay?" Her mother said, clutching her tightly, "But it's the only way to protect you. Oh my baby, I hate oyour father for this." She cried into Diane's hair, "Don't forget your mommy, okay?"

Chrys looked at her, "Mommy!" She screamed, gripping the hem of her mother's skirt with all of her might. "Mom, no!"

"Ow! What the flip!" Chrys screamed, ramming her head against the bouuder again. "Wah?" The sky was that perfect blue gray before the sun smiled upon them.
She sat up, now cradlng her head from the headache that boulder had caused.

Chrys looked over at Mobby, wondering what she'd find.

 

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Well, he was not in a coma, Reva decided, her ears ringing as she leaned over him, pinning the newly set arm in place.

She only let him up when she saw the desperate look in his eyes as he sat up part way and promptly lost what little had been in his stomach.

Oh good. She thought dryly, more vomit. Her stomach churned in sympathy.

She helped him lie down again without disturbing the arm and pulled the pine needle branches back over his lower body.

"Where am I? What happened?"

Reva didn't answer right away, she had managed with some difficulty to rip the hem of the sweatshirt off and a strip a bit above that. She put the wet muddy garment over top of the pine branches that covered Allen, hoping that it would dry to some extent.

She finally ignored the questions and asked one of her own.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Reva asked, glancing at him in between placing a sturdy piece of branch at his arm for a splint and beginning to wrap it in place with the strips of sweatshirt.

 

As Fox began to wake up, she could feel someone curled up against her. She opens her eyes to the sight of blond hair. As she stands up, she looks down Britney. "I guess guard girl got cold during the night." says Fox. Her stomach still hurt a little but atleast she wasn't vomiting any more. She feels along her side to see if her gun was still secure. "Good its still there and so are the other two clips." she says.

As Britney wakes up, she sees Fox standing infront of her, inspecting the condition of her gun. She sits up and stretches. Fox looks down at her and says "Morning. I guess you must have been cold last night." Britney blushes when she realizes that she was holding onto Fox as they slept. She says "Um, yeah I was." as she looks down and the floor. Fox goes outside and sees Raylene sitting there asleep.

Fox kneels down next to her and shakes her a little. "Hey wake up." says Fox. Raylene opens her eyes and looks at Fox. "Some guard you are." says Fox in a joking maner, "So do you know if Reva returned last night? Are group is small enough as it is, we don't need to lose another member."

 

Smith awoke under one of the muddy blankets he had scavenged curled up next to the weapons rake. "Ow! What the flip!" Chrys screamed, ramming her head against the boulder again. "Wah?"

"Well i'm awake now." Smith said looking over at Chrys. He and Ben had dragged the rake back some time in the early morning and Smith had passed out. Now that he was awake he had no idea what he was going to do with it. Surely he couldn't hand the weapons out, to dangerus. He fanaly decided he was either gona have to drag it with him everywhere or take all of the ammunition and let the others have all the fun they wanted with empty guns. He'd have to run it past Ben.

 

Chrys was startled to see Chad and Ben, but worried that the Mobby hadn't moved during the night. SHe was starting to feel like Chris from Family Guy, she picked up a stick and prodded at Mobby.

"Dude. Duuude! Dudio? Wake the freak up man. YOOO!" She scremed, giving Mobby a particularly fierce jab.

 

Cull grimaced, he was grateful for the dawn light. It would make helping the wounded easier, however the tiredness he felt from staying up all night wouldn’t. Near the river he could see a woman hunched over a man. He hurried over to the woman who was poking a stick at the man calling out dude.

“Don‘t do that,” he said grabbing her hand, “haven‘t you heard of checking for a pulse? Now what‘s happened here.”

 

"Yeah, he's alive, i'm trying to annoy him awake." Chrys snapped at the man gripping her hand, "Let go. Now, please." She continued, prodding at Mobby witth her toe.

 

HArold stirred slightly and groaned. He could barely move and it stil felt like someone was sitting on hs chest. Slowly, he sat up. Everything was spinning. It felt like he has pennies in his mouth. "Why are you poking me?" he asked before dropping to the ground again.

 

Smith thought back to waking up after the crash and remembered for some reason his side had hurt. "YOU POKED ME TO WAKE ME UP AFTER THE CRASH!" He anounced loudly but not angerly. With that he started laughing. "You could have at least checked to see if I was alive." He said laughter dieing to a giggle. All he could picture was a house cat who had accidently killed the mouse it was playing with.

Then the man grabbed her hand, Smith leveled the loaded Rifle at the man but didn't say anything to him. "Kat it is then." He dicided to keep that knick name for her. "So Kat," He started siriusly, "I'm thinking of getting you a real gun." He said kicking the weapons rack and finally sitting up from laying down. "Mainly so I don't have to drag it around everywhere." He confessed.

 

Chrys, still in the new guy's grip, looked over at Chad, "Chrys, not Kat." Then looked at her captor, "You wanna let go of me, he's evidently alive, he just spoke."

 

"You know what to do then Joseph? The success of the mission depends on you getting in there and shutting down the automated defenses," came the voice of Vlad Pestov, leader of the Icarus Coalition.

"I still don't think its a good idea Vlad. Its too bid of a hit for us. Section 60 is the biggest base in the western hemisphere. We're no Warriors of Ares," replied a young Joseph a bit sceptically.

"That's why we have you my friend," said Vlad in his faint Russian accent. "With you, we are unstoppable. You are our golden child, our knight in shining armor. We haven't failed since you came to us. What we lack in numbers, we make up for in skill."

Vlad's confident smile and barrage of praise was hard to turn down. Reluctantly, Josepg nodded his head in agreement. "All right Vlad...I'll do it."

"Yes! Alright my brother. Remember, this is for your father. This is for freedom...for the world! All the world will know the names of the Icarus Coalition fighters who took down Section 60."

Joseph's eyes snapped open. He must have dosed off sometime earlier in the night. It looked like the sun might be rising soon. Joseph sighed and got to his feet to do a little stretching. Being on an alien planet didn't mean he shouldn't keep in shape after all.

 

Allen layed on his back and stared at the grey sky. It was rapidly getting lighter, and the clouds seemed to be thinning. Hopefully that would be the last of the storms for anytime soon. Quickly taking stock of his surroundings he noticed some things that sparked his memory. There was a rockslide blocking off the canyon they were in. There was a tree lying in the stream. There was.......Allen streaked down the slope, ignoring the fact that he could easily trip and end up dead. That was a trivial chance compared to what was behind. He angled off to the right, but after a quick glance behind started straight down again. There was no way he could run out of it's path. The landslide stretched from five hundred yards on his left around a bend on his right, a good six hundred yards away. He was dead. There was still a good four hundred feet of ravine below him and the slide was practically on top of him............

"I was running down the side of the canyon. There was a rockslide." Allen raised his free arm to his eyes...............The wind threw him toward the ground again. This time he was headed for some low trees at the bottom. Closer and closer he hurtled down, even faster than mere gravity could account for, untill death by pine needle was inevitable. That's when there was another CRACK. .........

"A column of wind caught me, It threw me down." He shook his head trying to remember more, but that only made him feel queasy again.

"I don't remember anything else."

 

“Well you shouldn‘t,” Cull growled. “He might be in a comma. If he’s sleeping its for a reason. The bodies natural defences. “ he let go of her hand. “I can see you‘ve had no Medical training.” he got down to his knee and started to place the man in the comma position muttering as he did.

 

"Dude, he's awake! What are you so worried about?" Chrys said, plopping down next to Mr. Surgeon, "You got a name. Mine's Chrys, with a y, not Kat, "She said, turning to glare at Chad, "Put the gun down."

She looked back at Mr. Surgeon, 'Well?"

 

Reva bit her lip as she finished bandaging the brown-eyed man's arm. She sat back on her heels and looked at him again.

"My name is Reva," she said, extending her hand to shake, "I fell over you where you were lying by that stream down there when I was running away from-"

She broke off, unsure of how to continue.

"I was running from something," she finished lamely.

 

Smith smiled as he lowered the rifle now. "Hey!" He said to the new guy. "Your a doctor?" He asked and stated a little. "Thats great, maybe you can look at this nasty bump to the head I got, Passed out a few times probably because of it." Smith said, and looked at the sleeping man. "I usually got a bit of time to walk around first though."

 

Cull watched as Harold’s eyes flickered open, “indeed he is,” he said to Crys. “I‘m an anaesthesiologist. So my training covers those areas yes. My names Cull Brackwell.”

He looked to the man and nodded as he asked about a wound, “of course I‘m here to help anyone who needs it. Though I ask for cloth lighters knifes and drugs in return. So I have the supplies to help anyone else that might need it. Whatever you have free I‘d appreciate. It sounds like you‘ve got concusion, when you‘ve got the time I‘d like to here how it happened.”

 

Fox kneels down next to Raylene and shakes her a little. "Hey wake up." says Fox. She opens her eyes and looks at Fox. "Some guard you are." says Fox with a chuckle, "So do you know if Reva returned last night? Are group is small enough as it is, we don't need to lose another member."

Raylene stretches her good arm out and up and then rubs her shoulder with a yawn. "I was getting worried about her, I wanted to go look, but I was just so tired and both of you were asleep. I didn't want to go....out there...by myself. Let's grab what we can carry and go search for her."

 

"I guess we have no other choice. Let me see the stungun." says Fox. Raylene hands her the stungun. Fox calls for Britney. As Britney comes out of the ship, Fox hands her the stungun. "Stay here and guard our shelter while we go out and search for Reva. Its not a good shelter but I bet its better than anything that the other tribes got right now, and I doudt that they would be willing to share it with us." says Fox.

Britney watches Fox and Raylene leave. "She's a pretty good leader." she thinks to herself with a smile. She quickly shakes her head and whispers, "For a terrorist."

As Fox and Raylene walk away from the ship, Fox could hear her stomach growling. She says "We should search for food along the way."

 

The lady bit her lip and sat back.

"My name is Reva," she said. She offered her hand and Allen took it. She had a firm handshake.

"I fell over you where you were lying by that stream down there when I was running away from-"
She stopped and raised her hands halfway and hunched her shoulders. It was an unconcious reaction most people have when they get nervous, scared, or suspicious. It puts your hands in the best position to strike or grab anything headed for any part of your body.

"I was running from something," she finished, obviously not wanting to relive the experience. He doubted that she even knew what she ran from.

"I'm Allen."

Allen looked up at the top of the ravine where the landslide started. That part of the wall was no longer a cliff, but a gentle slope. All of the rock and dirt that had once made up the side was now at the bottom, filling it up about a third of the way and completely cutting off the stream. A little thought popped up in the back of his mind.

"Do you have a camp around here? Someplace with some food and a place to shelter from the rain?" Now it was time to see if she gave him the answer he was hoping for.

 

Pasha had awoken before the any of the others. He had left Viva asleep next to Bardon, with much argument from Yuri.

“You shouldn’t have left her. He’s a criminal.” Yuri nagged.

“So is she.” He said back, his voice at a low whisper. He heard Yuri take in a deep breath as if he was going to start an argument when he gave a surprised yelp.

“What?” asked Pasha rather annoyed.

“I thought I heard something…” he Yuri muttered.

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“Not out there, in here.” Said Yuri, his voice actually sounding rather terrified. Pasha gave a gentle laugh as he came back to the camp with a pile of good wood. He saw that Bardon had all ready awoken and gave him a half-hearted wave. He appeared to be exercising. He tossed some more wood into the fire, and sat the rest of it to Viva’s side.

“I think Furstin will be fine with the fire… we should go scavenge for some food.” He suggested, as he picked up his large stick from the side of the shelter. He then grabbed a few of the sharp rocks, putting them in his pocket, “We need to find something for a makeshift rope…”

 

“I think Furstin will be fine with the fire… we should go scavenge for some food.” suggested Pasha as he picked up his large stick from the side of the shelter. He then grabbed a few of the sharp rocks, putting them in his pocket, “We need to find something for a makeshift rope…”

Joseph nodded in agreement. "Food sounds nice...no sense in you going alone either. None of us know what's out there." He looked down at Viva. "Besides, I don't really want to stay here."

Joseph walked next to Pasha as they searched around the area for anything that looked edible. "Try and find some fruit or something... I don't really recognize any of trees or plants."

Pasha went off in search of something while Joseph went off in the other direction. As he was walking around through the trees, Joseph felt something catch on his shoe. "Huh? What have we got here. He bent down to inspect what it was. It seemed to be a small vine growing up out of the ground with some peach-like blue fruit things attached. "Pasha!" he called out. "I think I've got something here."