The Phoenix Colony

"The damn thing is poisonous," said HArold. "I just touched it's gum and well look for yourself! My finger looks like a dog's been having a go at it!" A smile crept along HArold's face. He took his thorn branch and began pressing the thorns into the creature's gum. "I think I just sound a new toy. Hey Chrys, Derek, Doc want to grab some thorn branches and make you own ball bat from hell?"

 

"Me?" He let loose a little smile. "I'm nineteen, I'll be twenty two weeks from the day we left. What was that, three, four days ago? I can't even tell anymore, time's been crazy." He paused for a moment, examining her in an attempt to guess her age. He wouldn't say she was over twenty, but he didnt' think she was under sixteen or seventeen either. He decided to aim for the middle, saying "What're you, eighteen?" with an inquisitive look on his face.

 

"Seventeen, but seriously, what are they doing down there?" Chrys said absentmindedly.

She heard Mobby's reply, "Unless it's flammablel, it aint fun to me!" She looked up into the crown of the tree, "Besides, i don't want to be anywhere near that thing!"

Chrys hissed as a small thorn ball narrowly missed her head.

 

The pain shot through his shoulder as the needle went in. He let out a sigh of pleasure in his mind. Pain was what kept him real, pain and death.

He could hear the annoyance of Yuri as he gave a sigh. He didn’t budge as she sewed him up. He looked at the wound, hoping it wouldn’t get infected. He gave her a nod, knowing she wouldn’t trust him. Not that he cared, who would want to trust a mass murderer afterall.

He looked over near the trees, hearing the mutters of Fox. Raylene runs to Fox's side, yelling for Viva to get water. Pasha rushes over, as Viva runs towards the spring. He quickly grabs Fox, gently laying her over his shoulder. He runs after Viva, until the reach the small creek. It seems to lead from the mountains. They quickly begin to splash the water over her face, hoping she’ll wake up.

 

HArold watched a grey lizard scuttle across a rock. With a grin, he brushed he coated thorn against the creature's tail. It shrieked, shook, and died. He looked up at Chrys. "Nothing's going on. I'm just playing with the locals."

 

"You're a Beanie-Headed Meanie, just thought you should know!" Chrys yelled, not looking down to check.

She looked back at Derek, "So, the whole Punk thing, there a reason?"

 

"17? Hey, guess I was close. Callin' me a punk? Since when am I a punk?" Derek said. Having expended his emotion for the night, he said "Whatever, well I gotta go find out what the big guy is up to." He jumped down from the branch, grabbing it with his arms, swinging back then forward again and landing perfectly on his feet. He walked up to Harold, looked at the dead lizard, and said "How'd that happen?" nodding his head towards the corpse.

 

Smith Chewed thoughtfully on one of the Chocostrawberry's and smiled as he heard someone talking. He walked towards the sound of the words and came upon the entrence of a cave. "HEY! Anyone in their." He called just in case this planet had some horrible moster that could imitate human speak. He patted Joey who chirped loudly at the entrence copying him. "This planet can't be all bad can it?" He asked looking down at his freind.

 

The mobster chuckled and showed his finger. "The thing was poisonous. Recipe for a dead lizard. Dip the thorns in moster spit. Touch the lizard. No fuss. No muss. Now why don't you guys grab some thorn branches. I think we found some weapons."

 

Chrys heard them bustling about below her, mulling over how he could be insulted about an observation. She didn't-wait, she was a little sensitive...

As she realized this, she heard a voice call outChad!

Chrys fell back out of the tree, her legs guiding her to her feet, helping her land ready to run.

 

Fox opens her eyes and sees the outlines of people standing around her. "The Warriors of Ares must have come to help me." thinks Fox.

Fox says "Hey guys, sorry about making you come all the way out here. You guys should be careful, there are a bunch of convicts and weird predators running around."

She hears the sound of running water and looks over at the stream. "You know, I could use some water right about now." says Fox as she drags herself toward the stream. She begins to drank the water as quickly as she can.

 

"I thought I'd told you," Derek started, "I don't do hefty weapons. Then again, I guess I could always make a little sharpened stake. Don't kill too much though, if we keep doin' that kinda stuff there's gonna be a rift in the group." He glanced back at the tree, making sure Chrys was still there before saying, in a voice quiet so she wouldn't hear, "Chrys is a bit sensitive to that s**t. You see her after we killed the Banshee bastard?"

 

Raylene follows Pasha, a little uneasy about leaving their belongings behind, but her worry over Fox makes her follow.

"Hey guys, sorry about making you come all the way out here. You guys should be careful, there are a bunch of convicts and weird predators running around." Fox says.

"She's delirious!" Raylene cups some water in her hands and brings it to Fox's lips.

 

"My arm is doing very well. Thank you for setting it."

Allen walked slowly toward Reva and she found herself retreating as he stepped over the thing's carcass.

"You don't trust me do you? Is it because of what Xare told you? She's not all that trustworthy herself you know."

"At least she told me the truth. That's more than you did."

He kept coming, he wanted to kill her, Raylene had said it and Reva believed it.

The time was over for conversation. Reva smashed the branch at his wounded arm, turning and running again, racing out of the copse of trees and across the wasteland with no clear idea of where she was heading except away from danger.

I'm sick of running, she thought as dashed over the rough ground, If I survive this I'm going to sleep for a week...I wish I had a gun...

Reva risked a look over her shoulder to see if Allen was following but went flying, her boot thoroughly tripped on something softish but immovable.

She hit the ground, I've got to stop doing this, pushed up and rolled, Allen is coming after me...where is he..., and saw that she had tripped over a man. Again. Blonde this time, nice suit worse for the wear, bloody, and he had a shotgun.

Holy cow, sometimes prayers get answered, she thought and gasped, "Sorry," and, "Can I borrow your gun? Thanks," as she reached for it, looking back the way she had come for Allen.

She stayed down, hoping that the long weeds swaying in the breeze above her would act as cover.

 

"What?" He said softly as Chrys dropped into his narrow feild of vision from above. She really was becomeing a Cat, or more like Kat. He thought and realized she was sprinting towards him. He smiled happily and Joey chirped. Joey! She'd kill him if she ran me over. Smith quickly put a hand up for her to stop. "Hey, calm down, becareful, I'm glad to see you to but don't go giving me another concusion." He hoped she listened.

 

"No, *cough cough*, that guns empty!" cried Ben as he wiped the blood from his beard. "I emptied the clip on some, *COUGH*" yet another stream of crimson fell from Ben's red, chapped lips as he struggled to his feet. "Whatever your planning on shooting, you best use one of these." He handed the women a single shell, the one easily accessible one on his body. "You know how to pop it in? Pull back the ejection port, it'll stick open and, *cough*, once you've got the damn round in press the little black button, *cough cough*" Ben suffered from a coughing fit as he tried to stay on his feet, trying to watch what was about to happen.

 

As she drinks more water, the people around her become recognizable. Fox stands up and says "I'm sorry for slowing us down." and begans to walk towards the tree. "Lonan, I'm glad you didn't see me like that." thinks Fox.

Britney's leg has gone numb. "That damn thing just had to go after my leg, didn't it? I have to keep moving." thinks Britney as she continues to search for Reva.

 

Chrys stopped suddenly, as if given the yeild cmmand, dude, that ain't right!

She walked forward, noticing the chirping creature in Chad's hand. It started to cower as she got closer. Do I smell like a predator? Ey, you look like that thing I was chasing earlier...Oh, it might just be...oops...

Chrys gave a soft chirp to the creature, placing one hand under Chad's, not touching the creature.

"Shirrp. Chirp. Shirrp?" Chrys offered, hoping she was asking for forgiveness.

 

Joey looked at the now Chirping Chrys like she'd lost her mind. He sniffed at her carefully and gave a confused Chirp. Smith knew just how to handle this. Using his free hand he pulled out a Chocostrawberry and offered it to Chrys. "Give this to him and he'll be your freind I promise." He smirked to himself, now she was a Rat-Roo? She was a vary interesting person indeed.

 

"No, *cough cough*, that guns empty!"

Of frickin' course it is, thought Reva.

He tried to explain how to load the gun between coughing fits that brought blood to his lips. Reva tried to follow his instructions, dropping the shell twice with shaking fingers and taking quick looks back the way they'd come. Finally she managed to get it loaded.

The man tried to stand up and Reva grabbed a handful of his suit jacket, jerking him back to earth.

"What are you crazy?" She hissed, kneeling so that they stayed in the natural blind of tall dead grass, "You want him to see us?"

 

Before responding, Harold weighed his options. On the one hand, he could affirm his role as leader and shut down Derek's idea of not killing everything just because he could. On the other, he could listen to his advice and appear to be more sympathetic and then gain his trust. He decided it would be better to have the trust of their small group than rule by fear. "Yeah I did," he replied. "Good point, I'll stop. Just don't go around killing the innocent behind my back," he said, giving a small wink. "Good idea with the stakes, why don't you get to work." He finished with an order in an attempt to assert his leader role, then turned and walked towards the rest of the group.

 

Pasha grabbed onto Fox’s shoulder, stopping her from going any further.

“Drink until you can’t drink anymore.” He growled. He knew they might not find another stream for a long while. He bent down, quickly taking in the water. Viva soon followed.

His dry mouth soon moistened again, sending a smile over his face. He looked back at Raylene, taking her aside.

“You let her believe whatever she believes, don’t tell her otherwise. People tend to get violent when their reality is challenged. I would know that. She'll come back to her senses with some water and rest. We don't have time for rest though, after we get this water in, we need to travel until we can find a decent enough spot for a shelter."

 

The creature's reaction was not what she expected, it must have been smarter than the Banshee, already hip to her bluff. Smart-ass. Just give a girl a chance.

Chad offered her this weird fruit thing, "Okay." Chrys took it from his hand, and trew it back at him, "Mutha flip!"

 

"At least she told me the truth. That's more than you did."

Allen couldn't dodge her blow, but he did manage to turn and take it across his shoulder instead of his broken arm. It hurt, but didn't really cause any injury. She started running and Allen instantly knew he would never be able to catch her in his state.

Allen wiped his file off as best he could on the creature. It looked a lot like a gorilla, but it sure hadn't acted like one. He stiffly moved back to where he had dropped his sling. While it sat on the ground he put a stone in the pocket, then put the loop around one of his fingers and grabbed the other cord. He was reloaded

Allen was suprised to find that he felt a twitch of regret. I can't tell you the truth. It's not what I do.

He set out to follow her tracks, hoping she would be careless enough to lead him to the others. He wanted to have a good talk with Xare. How did she know?

 

With that Joey scrambled up Smith's shoulder and hide half way behind his head. "What?" He asked looking at the small berry now laying on the ground. "They taste great, you should try some before you scare little joey here."

He scratched Joey's head gently as he chirped repeatedly and angerly at Chrys. "I think you made him made." He said with a smirk, it almost sounded like he was trying to curse Chrys out.