The Phoenix Colony

Cull nodded and took a swab cleaning himself up. Harold was right. He couldn’t help but forget what these people were and where he was. It was different now. A mess everything everywhere. Cull looked about and sighed.

“Looks like we won‘t be going anywhere any time soon so I guess we should try and make some kind of shelter. Guess we need to wait for your friend here to come round first though.”

 

Reva saw an expression flit over Allen's features that made her uneasy but then it was gone as he sighed and struggled to stand. He staggered for a couple of steps. She reached for his unhurt arm to steady him then he spoke again.

"Well, let's go. I think I'm good for a couple of miles. If you see any food, well let's just say I'm hungry."

"I don't think it's that far," Reva replied to his remark about a couple of miles, "but it's rough going."

They struggled up to the lip of the ravine together. Once on level ground Reva dropped his arm, remembering the cold calculating look she'd seen in his eye. What did it mean?

"There is food back at the camp," Reva hesitated. Fox had gotten really sick after eating that and she herself had some cramps. But Raylene and Britney had been ok, hadn't they? "but maybe we should find berries or something."

She wondered if the others were searching for her or if they'd simply written her off when she'd disappeared. She didn't want to risk yelling to try and get their attention in case that big...predator?...happened to be attracted as well.

Through all of this Reva couldn't shake the slight uneasiness Allen caused her. Who was this guy?

"So," she said, trying to make her query light and jesting, "what did you do to end up on that ship?"

 

Harold laughed as hard as he could. The sound quickly turned into a hacking cough which slowly brought the heavy set man to his knees. After a few minutes, he worked a thick gob of phlegm loose and shot it to the ground. Harold stared at the mud and gulped air as quickly as he could. He smiled. “That’s ok Doc. I don’t need to know why you’re here. Keep your secrets. We all have them.”

Harold nodded towards the blind man. “Should he be sweating so much?”

“No … not again,” said Juan. “He was looking up at the mobster. He couldn’t move again. The body he was trapped in was talking. Harold was asking something. Juan tried to will the head to move but nothing happened. “Am I going insane?” he screamed silently.


"Shelter huh?" said Harold to Cull. "I guess we better. I think there are still some metal plates over there. I used to do construction ... this shouldn't be too hard."

How the hell am I going to do that? Steady HArold, don't let them know how weak you are. WHat did the Godfather always say? If you look strong, you don't gotta be strong.

 

Cull patted Juan on the shoulder, “I‘m still here mate.” he reassured him before turning back to Harold.

“Yeah we need something sturdy that’ll block the wind and cut the cold back a little.” He grinned “I‘m glad one of us knows how to get his hands dirty. You tell me what to get and I‘ll get it. Hopefully we can find a spot to build on.”

 

Fox and Raylene make their way around the ship, searching for any sign of footprints. They circle it once and then head out about 10 feet and circle again. Head out another 10 feet and start the circle for the 3rd time. On the opposite side of the entrance, a mound of dirt impedes their progress. Raylene scrambles to the top and down the other side. As she heads down, her feet entangle in some roots that had been plowed up, either by the wreck or the storm and she ends up sliding the rest of the way on her belly. At the bottom, she finds something.

"FOX! Get down here! You've got to see this." She hollers over the berm. The tracks definately aren't human. Fox bounds over the berm and squats near the tracks and examines them. A giant swath of dirt has been moved. It reminded Raylene of a snakes' path through soft sand, the twisting of it's body as it sithers across the ground. These markins were accompanied by large footprints with 3 claws each set of prints. Strangly, it seemed that there were only front feet and the rest was the slither.

Raylene looks at Fox in horror. Five feet from this strange imprint, an unmistakable human hand print. "Oh my God! Something got her!" Raylene gasps. "But there's no blood. Did it swallow her whole?"

"I don't think so, Raylene. Look, her footprints lead that way....she was running. Let's go." Fox replies and they sprint toward the river.

 

“Well, we might as well start building right around here,” said the mobster as he absently strated cracking his knuckles. “Alright, can you roll some of those logs over here. Don’t bother trying to lift them, you’ll just hurt yourself. Use your legs to get one end off the ground and start shuffling backwards. I’ll try and budge a couple of those metal plates.”

I must be out of my mind. Oh come on Harold, if can pull this off, no one will ever think I’m weak again.

Harold forced himself to stand up straight and walked over to the biggest plate. He knelt and wrapped his pudgy fingers around the plate’s base. With a jerk, he tried to straighten his legs.

“Come on … you … stupid … son … of … a … b**ch.” The plate wouldn’t budge. Harold’s legs were shaking. His face was beet red. A few cons had begun to gather. They were beginning to laugh.

You can do it Harold, don’t give up.

His arms and legs were shaking. Blood was rushing to his face. A dull pain began to creep down the mobster’s leg. He was about to pass out when the plate suddenly budged. With a tug, Harold pulled it out of the ground. It suddenly felt as light as a balloon.

What the hell? Don’t question it, just move the damn plate before your luck runs out.

Harold looked at each of the cons and smiled as he slammed the plate deeply into the earth.

Harold and Cull stared at each other. “Uhh … Doc? I can’t move my left arm anymore.”

 

As they run Fox thinks to herself "Three claws, a tail, and very large. Whatever made those prints was probably a predator." As Fox and Raylene runs towards the river, a man aproaches them. He was a large man, probably around six feet, five inches tall. He obvously worked out a lot.

He puts his hand on Fox'es shoulder and says "Well, lookee here. A couple of the girls managed to survive. Tell you what ladies, since I'm in a generous mood I'm willing to offer you the deal of a lifetime. If you do me some.....favors, maybe I'll be willing to protect you two from the other prisoners." Fox smiles and then quickly knees him between the legs. The man falls to his knees in pain. She grabs the back of his head and pulls him into another knee strike. The man falls onto his back. Blood was pouring from his face. He lays there cursing. Fox stands over him and lands an open palm srike into his chest with all of her strength. She feels his ribcage cracking and breaking under her hand. The man begins to shake violently, coughs up blood and gasps for air. After a few seconds, he stops moving. "Raylene, come!" says Fox in a commanding voice. They continue running towards the river.

 

"So, what did you do to end up on that ship?"

Her voice was a little off. This wasn't just curiousity. That wasn't a problem though, anybody would want to know who they were taking home under these circumstances. He was actually a little suprised that she was making the effort to help him at all.

"I was in Denver running a small drug ring. It wasn't much, but it made enough to keep me comfortable. One of my men got a little careless though and the cops saw him in the middle of a deal. They took him in, but they didn't want to just leave it. They made him a deal, reduced sentence if he gave them the info they wanted. He took them up on it and the cops set up a sting. They had a plainclothes come to me pretending to be a supplier and I agreed to meet with him. Once the deal was made the cops swarmed the place. One of my men drew his gun and that set off a firefight. In the end three cops and two of my guys died. They never could figure out exactly who had killed who, so they gave us all the same sentence."

The lie rolled easily off his tounge. He almost didn't even have to pay attention to it, he knew it so well.

Allen scanned the terrain ahead of them. Once they got on top of the ravine it wasn't so rough, but there were still trees and piles of rock to deal with. As they passed a pile Allen grabbed a round one just a little bigger than a golf ball and put it in his pocket.

"What about you?"

 

"Holy S**T FOX!" Raylene looks over her shoulder at the guy on the ground. "I hope she didn't find one of those thugs along with the 3 clawed thing. Do you think she'd be able to defend herself if she did?"

 

"Probably not, but most of the other tribes were probably to busy sleeping or guarding their shelter to look for victims." says Fox. As Fox and Raylene got closer to the river, they could see two people walking. There was too much distance to see who the guy was, but she could tell that the woman was Reva. Fox yells out "Hey Reva, over here." and waves her left arm.

 

Ben had sat out, watching and taking notes. The mobster from last night was getting pretty close with the doctor while the tribes reformed, he acted tough but Ben wondered, there was a feeling of uncertainty in the environment, he couldn't peg it but his kept coming back to the mobster. They got back in their little groups, standing around, piecing together ragtag shelters, poking around the woods for food. Food, the mere mention of the word got Ben's stomach a growling, but he would wait, he would bide his time, there was work to be done around here, and first thing was the gun locker.

Ben stood up and walked over to Chad, dozing as he sat on the wet grass. He nudged the man with his foot and motioned him to follow, which he did without a second thought. They walked, away from the gun rack, side by side, and they talked. "Chad, we need to have ourselves a little reality check, make some decisions. Things are happening fast, friends are being made and if those friends aren't our friends we are going to be in the rough, and the rough is only a few blades of grass away from being a sandtrap." said Ben in a clam tone, looking around him. It felt safe to have a shotgun in this crowd of scum, it felt good to have a friend too, power in numbers and all that. "We need to expand is what I'm saying, make friends in low places, a lot of low places, but first, we need to do something about that Gun cabinet, hide the weapons in some bushes, dump the case itself in the river, but we need to be quiet."

 

Reva stiffened. A drug dealer.

“If that is true,” she said tightly, “then YOU are the reason I am here.”

A wash of anger flooded her. She wanted to attack Allen, punch him, knee him in the groin, smash his face and make him sorry for living.

Reva concentrated on a couple of deep breaths reminding herself that there were a lot of drug dealers. It wouldn’t actually have been him…and was interrupted by a voice calling her name from up ahead.

“Hey, Reva, over here!”

Reva saw Fox waving at her from across the wasteland of brambles, thicket, fallen trees and rocks. Had she really run through all that in the pitch black and panic of the night before?

“There are the others now,” she told Allen tonelessly, not looking at him.

Reva jogged away to meet Fox and Raylene, leaving Allen to follow.

 

Smith let the doctor treating him only laughing and telling the Doc that he wished he remembered what happened too. The crash had knocked that bit of memmory out of him. The he watched the Doc walk off and after a bit Ben called him off to talk.

"Chad, we need to have ourselves a little reality check, make some decisions. Things are happening fast, friends are being made and if those friends aren't our friends we are going to be in the rough, and the rough is only a few blades of grass away from being a sandtrap." said Ben in a clam tone, looking around him. "We need to expand is what I'm saying, make friends in low places, a lot of low places, but first, we need to do something about that Gun cabinet, hide the weapons in some bushes, dump the case itself in the river, but we need to be quiet."

Smith thought for a moment and then concidered another option. "The weapons are useless to us, lets just trash them and take all of the spare ammo and make some bag to carry it around with us." He said and looked back at the rake. "I could take a shot gun to go with my rifle and you could grab a rifle, then I saw we give all the Trank guns to the doc their and let him use them for medical stuff."

 

Ben nodded and said, "Ya, alright, but I'm going to need another shotgun, its what I used as a kid, sentimental and all that, plus a rifle will be pretty useless at close range. You pick out what we'll need while I go find us a bag." Chad nodded and walked off while Ben stood there for a moment, examining the camps around him. Just the convicts, nesting down in the same area, foolish, they didn't have much but-

Ben saw the deer, and a figure underneath, and then the idea came to him. He checked a pocket of his jacket and felt the weight of a knife within. He ran forward to the carcass, cleaned of all meat and guts, and inspected who it was beneath his deer. Struggling to breath, there lay one of the people he had offered food to the night before. "****!" said Ben as he set down his gun and lifted the deer off of him, much lighter than it had been originally. "Thank you kindly, you remember me right?" the man nodded. "Good, your going to remember what I did here right?" he nodded a second time. "Good, now if you'll excuse me." finished Ben, grabbing his gun as he dragged the deer back towards the guns, one hand grasping a mud covered hoof, the other fitted tightly around the trigger of his gun as the barrel rested calmly on his shoulder.

 

Pasha woke up, his head pounding painfully. He saw Bardon, not far from him. He lifted himself up, a smile on his face.

“I saw you again, Yuri.” Pasha said.

“You were obviously high.” He heard Yuri say. A pang of worry hit Pasha, still noticing the depressed tone in his friend’s voice.

“You all right buddy?” he asked in a whisper.

“I’m fine, but these others need to get out of here.” Yuri snapped.

“Wha—“ Pasha started.

“Just listen.”

Pasha shut his eyes and listened hard. He heard nothing at first, but soon enough her could hear the whispers and the mumbles from inside his head. Pasha shivered.

“What is that?”

“Who, is more like it. I don’t know.” Pasha tried to shrug it off. He looked over at Bardon who seemed to be in his own little world.

“Sleep it off buddy,” he said patting him on the back. He put a sharp rock next to the man, as he took off with his stick in hand. He walked onward until he saw Viva sitting near camp with an antelope. He gave her a broad smile.

“She’s apparently not as useless as she looks.” Yuri said. Pasha raised an eyebrow.

“Since when are you like that?” There was no answer, as he sat down next to the fire, tossing in some more wood.

“This job is too big for a sharp rock.” He mumbled to himself, “Good job Viva.” He took the straps of bark, setting them under one of his rocks, and placed his stick atop them, setting it all aside. He gave her a pat on the back. He looked at the antelope, running the sharp rock along the skin. It was rather thick. He knew he would need more then just this rock.

“Stay here Furstin,” he said, “I’ve got to get something.” He stood up, and headed back towards the ship. He noticed Ben pretty instantly with a deer in front of him. He jogged over, looking at him with a grin.

“Two in a row?” he said, “Not bad. I was wondering, we’ve got a catch at our shelter, my rocks aren’t cut out for skinning such a thick animal. Do you think we could manage a deal here?” he pointed to Ben’s knife.

 

The fellow from before, the one who had given Ben a rock to work with, came up to Ben as he skinned the deer. Why the lawyer fancied himself a Native American, not wasting a thing off the animal, all he needed was a Casino. He looked up to the man, Pasha, and said, "Ah yes, this thing, sure sure, just let me finish up with this skin, its the same deer, but seeing as you've got something I don't think I need to kill another now." Ben tore at the skin, ripping it off inch by inch as Pasha watched, he took almost every bit of it, everything except the face, since there was none to be had there. Wiping a little sweat off his forehead, he handed the knife to Pasha and put a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Now what have you got back there? Is there enough of it for a few more?"

 

Pasha wiped the blood from the knife onto his shirt. The smell of the blood seemed awoke his senses. His hand screamed for death, as he hand wrapped tightly around the handle.

“Keep calm.”

He let the feeling slip aside, giving a gentle nod.

“I think we can manage.I’ve got two others in my party… but that antelope has more then enough meat to share. We’ve got a fire going, and a small shelter. I think we can make more room, if needed.”

He walked off, back to camp, and settled down on one of the rocks.


"You're being sociable for once." he heard Yuri say in the back of his mind. He ignored it, and went to skinning the deer.

He took a long, deep cut in between the creatures ribs and stomach. He quickly reached his hand in, taking out all the innards. He slid them onto the rabbit furs. He set the animal down, as he moved some of the rocks from around the fire. He then placed more wood, making the fire larger then it had been before. He placed the rocks around the fire, and collected sticks of various sizes. He quickly went back to the antelope, now content that the fire would be ready.

 

Viva watched in anticipation as Pasha made arrangements for the food to be prepared. She wanted to help, but she was amazed by how he was designed to manage such affairs. She giggled as the fire got set, and then walked towards him as he skin the antelope. She smiled loftily and then widened her eyes as she noticed his neatness.
"You're so awesome at these things!"
She said out giddily and then placed her head on his shoulder as he worked.
"And you look so cute this way! Like a great and humble conqueror!"
She worked her way towards the antelope's meat, and then chuckled.
"It's sooo soft! Something like a water bed. You ever heard of it, Mr. Huggles?"
She looked into his eyes, excited and happy.

 

Pasha grew uncomfortable as he felt her cheek against his. He tried to give her a laugh, as his face turned bright red.

“Aw, so cute.” Mocked Yuri.

“Thanks.” He muttered under his breath. He continued cutting along the skin, until it was loose enough to pull on. Within the next few minutes, he had gotten most of the skin of the body.

“I’ve never had a water bed, but I’ve heard of them.” He finally said. He gently lifted her chin from his shoulder, placing the knife into the flesh of the animal. He lay the skin out ontop the roof.

“What did you do besides sing?” he asked, as he sat back down, and began slicing the animal up. In the back of his mind, he wished she would put her chin on his shoulder again.

 

Viva quietly tasted the blood on her chin, and giggled.
"Sweet."
She then replied to Pasha:
"Oh, I also like skateboarding, tennis, golf, swimming, dancing, yoga, cooking...hairdressing, make-up, playing games, and...oh, that reminds me! Can we play after we eat breakfast, please? It'll be so much fun! You can also pick the game!"
She jumped a little, like a little girl pleasing to her father.

 

Ah, so this is the voice I keep hearing, silly girl. Ben watched as Pasha gutted the thing, with some skill, but not without a little sloppiness. "Alright, get it cooking and I'll be back, save me some." he said, throwing the barrel of the shotgun on one shoulder and walking off, dragging the deer skin along with him. Ben walked back through the camps, the convicts eyed him suspiciously at each little gathering he passed. Some big black guy in particular, muscles out the ass, crouched under a lean to propped up against a rock, was really bothering him. His eyes were like two dirty stars in the shadows of his shelter, a third star twisting in his mouth, a cigarette. The lawyer no longer felt very safe being alone amongst the convicts, they had taken there sides, formed there little groups, anyone who wasn't in it was an enemy, or at least a liability. Ben picked up the pace, heading to the gun cabinet where Chad was.

 

Pasha looked up at her with an arched eyebrow. He still didn’t quite understand her, nor his feelings toward her. He no longer thought of strangling her… he only thought of… He quickly turned his head away, trying to hide his smile.

“Pasha and Furstin, sitting…” Yuri started to chant. Pasha growled under his breath.

“Shut up Yuri!” he snarled. He looked up at her, his face turning red again. He set the legs he had broken off next to the fire and atop of the rocks. He could all ready smell the flesh roasting.

“Sure, you can pick the game.” He muttered.

 

"Yay!"
Viva clapped her hands, the most exotic form of joy and excitement on her face. She hopped around, giggling as Pasha awkwardly cut a few slabs of meat from the antelope's legs. He took two in his mouth and offered her the other two.
"So sweet!"
She giggled and ravenously finished the slabs. Pasha finished earlier, but only by a few seconds. He then looked at her questioningly.
"I know what we can play."
She walked eerily towards him, and then yelled after patting his shoulder:
"You're it!"
She started running, at which Pasha followed.

 

Pasha didn’t quite know what she meant at first, as she ran off, but he got the idea. He jumped up, wiping the blood from his hands on his pants. He ran after her, a laugh emitting from his lips. His hands touched them, it felt so unreal. What was this girl doing to him? His legs were much longer then hers, and he quickly caught up with her. He felt another laugh come from his lips as he poked her in the back.

“You’re it!” he said as she dashed away from her. Her grinned and took a quick turn past her as he headed closer to the camp.

 

Viva giggled and ran after Pasha. Her legs hurt a little, since he was taller and faster, where she was almost 10 inches smaller than him, but she never lost spirit. She laughed and smiled wildly as she rushed towards him, yelling:
"I'll get you no problem!"
She then sped up a little more, and her fingers reached for him like villi on an intestine. Her foot then jerked against a small rock and she felt her balance being lost. She flung forward, and grabbed his shoulder, falling on him. Pasha fell forward and hit the grass. Even though it hurt her legs even more than before, she chuckled hard.
"That was fun, right Mr. Huggles?"