The Phoenix Colony

Fox felt a hand grab her shoulder. “Drink until you can’t drink anymore.” She turns around to see Pasha standing there. "Fine." says Fox. She walks over to the stream and begins to drink as fast as she can.

Britney has reached to forest by now. She comes to an area with tall grass. After hearing some rustling noises, she calls out "Is anyone there?"

 

i can do that too. Chrys returned Joey's little rant sound for sound, startling him into silence, at which point she stuck her tongue out at him.

That done, she looked at Chad, "That thing burned my skin, it feels like there are fire ants crawling under the skin that touched it." She wagged her fingers in the air, trying to cool them, the were turning Target red. "Ooh, i think it burned them! ow! OWWWYOWWYOWWWY!" She screamed, dancing around and running to the stream.

She released a sigh as the water chilled her hand numb. "I'd love to make friends with yer litttle buddy, but I'm allergic to that fruit, and I think I hunted him earlier." She said, wincing a bit at the last part.

 

Derek didn't like being given orders, but he had to agree it was the best thing to do. He walked over to the tree where he had talked to Chrys earlier, and noticed she was gone. He glanced around, seeing that she was talking to one of the guards from the ship. He was instantly inflamed at the sight of the guard, but reminded himself that they were all trapped. He was at an equal level with the guard now. Still, he knew that approaching him wouldn't end well, and decided to go about his job.

He broke off one of the thinner, lower branches on the tree. It was rich in smaller branches that could be used as daggers or stakes, if carved correctly. Not having a knife or sharp object, he looked for two rocks. He picked out one big, flat one, as well as a smaller one that would fit in his hand, and sat on the ground with his branch. He broke off pieces slowly, resting them on the flat rock and smashing one end of them until they were sharp. He made a pile next to him as he worked, getting about five out of the branch. He took two, putting one in each of his pockets, then took out another cigarette and lit it. Smoking it, he ripped the sleeves off of his shirt and used the sharp edges of the sticks to carve out two long sheets, wrapping each around his hands to create a sort of thick glove to protect him from the poison. He tucked in the loose end so that the gloves would stay on, and brought the three stakes over to poison them.

 

Joey had been silent for awhile till he noticed that Chrys seemed to be suffering sometype of discomfort. He stepped silently out from behind smith's head and chirped sympatheticly. Smith was realizing how much like a dog this thing was. begging, comforting, even gaurding. Smith walked over to Chrys. "Thats certainly a tough bit of luck." He said and smiled softly. "At least it wasn't in a pie or some other food before you realized you where alergic, that would have been much worse." He said hopeing to point out the brighter side of things.

Joey moved down Smith's arm and jumped down the rest of the way to the ground where he hopped over to Chrys and chirped up at her happily. "See, Joey's got no hard feelings." He said and thought about what she said. "Why would you hunt such a small thing?" He asked then shook his head, another Kat moment he prosumed.

 

Her hand now comfortably numb, Chrys gestured for Chad to follow her, "You should meet my group. Not that it's mine, but yeah...just follow me." She picked up Joey, cradling him in her good hand. First the ankle, then the storm, now this...I think the planet's out to get me...

"Okay then, let's move on." She led them back to the tree she had jumpped from, and now saw Derek carving something. "Hey."

She pointed at Chad, "Chad." She should have told Chad Derek's name, but she thought not to.

 

"How's it goin'?" Derek asked turning around with his stake in gloved hand. That was when he saw the guard. Derek tried to be accepting, but he just couldn't help the knot he felt in his stomach when he saw him. He swallowed the knot in his throat and managed to talk normally, but his hand still tightened around the stake. "Hey Chad, name's Derek. Nice to meet you," he lied, pretending not to know Chad was a guard.

 

Chrys knelt down, leaning to whisper in Derek's ear, "Now what happened to Mr Be Nice? Chad's okay, but he's got gun lust, not blood lust. Calm it."

She leaned against the tree, placing Joey on the ground, "What you doing, want help?"

 

"Well good to meet you too." He said happily and lowered the sack to the ground the amunition clinking softly inside. "Man that was getting heavy." He said and took one of the rifles off his back and set down, removing the mag from it. "No need for two rifles really." He said realizing how tired he was from his trip. "How have you all been getting along out here?" He asked. "I'm a bit hungry, could go for some meat now, but i've got some berries if the rest of you haven't eaten." He offered digging a hand into his sack and pulling out a hand full of Chocostrawberries. He looked over to where Chrys put Joey, who had been unusually quiet the whole conversation with Derek, and tossed the little Rat-roo a berry gently that he caught and munched on.

 

In response to Chrys's whisper, Derek took a deep breath and loosened his grip on the stake. "I was just buildin' some stakes. All's you gotta' do is beat one end of the stick with a rock til' it's sharp. Harold found out that the Banshee's mouth is poisonous, so he's havin' me build some o' these and poison 'em. If you guys wanna help, grab a rock. If yer' gonna poison 'em though, you might wanna make some gloves." He held up his hands, showing his improvised gloves. "I got a bit o' cloth left over, it'd probably be enough for you," he said to Chrys.

 

"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?"

Ben continued to heave for a minute as he thrashed on the ground, and in a course, angry, spiteful voice he said, "**** you bitch! I'been on a spaceship set for enslavement for something I didn't do, I fought a bunch of inbred **** stains over a few boxes of ammo, and now! Now I just been pushed down by some whore, *COUGH*, after bein' chased by Satan's invisible pal the man-eating baker from mulberry lane!" His harsh words echoed in the distance as he once again struggled to his feet, near death no doubt, before he finally fainted, falling into the soft, forgiving grass, his head landing in a pool of his own blood.

 

Smith quickly realized that he had been ignored. He didn't really care either way, so he dumped the fruit back in the bag and closed it. They where his "Joey snacks", he thought and laughed at his scooby doo joke. He could hardly belive that they had come out with yet another version of scooby and the gang, scooby would live forever. Joey hopped over to smith who rubbed the little guys head and then picked him up and placed him back at his place on Smith's shoulder. "So what have you guys done about food?" He asked again.

 

Chrys wriggled her swollen fingers, "Found my own poison, I'm allergic to those berries that Chad's offering, I want to try something." Chrys closed her eyes and followed the scent of the Banshee, guiding her hand to it's mouth, she placed one swollen finger against the gum.

"Since those berries are good for us, but I'm allergic, i wonder if I can heal form the thing's saliva?"

She looked down at her finger, "Oh my God, it's regaining it's natural color!" She shoved her whole hand into its mouth. "I can't believe this."

She ran to the stream to rinse off the saliva. "Why am i so freaking weird?" She muttered to herself.

 

Derek turned to Chad. "Well, we haven't done much of anything about it since we ate that deer yesterday. In all honesty, I'm starving. Those berries any good?" He was still starving, and he had forgotten about it in all of the hustle and bustle from the creature attack and everything that happened after.

 

While standing in the tall grass, Britney heard what sounded like a man cursing. She grabs her stungun and yells out "Who's there? Come out to where I can see you."

While looking around she sees Allen standing there. Holding up the stungun she yell "Your the bastard that killed Fox's mom. Come any closer and I'll kill you." "This guy hurt Fox's mom and arrested her father, for that he is going to pay dearly." thinks Britney.

 

Smith had no idea what Chrys was going on about but he knew that the stomach was one of the quickest ways to a man's heart. He reopened his sack and tossed one over to Derek. "Tastes like dark chocolate covered strawberries. The skin tastes kind of like dark chocolate and once you bite the insides taste just like strawberries. Chocostawberries." He offered up the name that came to mind. He thought to himself that he was great at naming things. Joey seemed to watch the berry headed for Derek longingly already having finished his, so Smith gave him another and reseaved a happy chirp and a tickled neck in reply.

 

Derek caught it and held it between his thumb and index finger, examining it for a moment before popping into his mouth. He was still wary of trusting the guard, but he saw that he had fed it to his little pet and assumed it would be okay. His eyebrows lifted in a sort of surprise. "These are delicious," he stated, still chewing in an attempt to enjoy the flavor as long as possible. "How much do you have?"

 

Chrys returned from the stream, "So, guess how weird I am?"

 

Derek turned to face Chrys, but continued to listen for Chad's response. "On a scale of one to ten? At least sixteen," he jested, smiling.

 

"Hmm," He said thoughtfully, he had picked the bushes mostly clean while he had been their. He opened his sack and looked at the rather big pile. "Oh about five or six pounds worth, no enough to feed a group but certainly enough to tide over some hunger." He said and then Chrys walked up and spoke.

"Um, fully grown man in spandex weird?" He awnsered and laughed loudly at his joke.

 

"Alright well there's five of us, six now that you're here, but Chrys won't be eating any. Seems like we gotta' split that five ways if you're plannin' on joining our tribe. If you're gonna' do that, you should probably talk to Harold. He's the huge guy over there," Derek pointed back over he shoulder with his thumb.

 

"Okay, you beanies, I walked into that. I'll admit it." She said, playfuly throwing a pebble at each of them, and patting Joey's head, hoping he didn't lck her. "Ever since we got here, i've been hissing at paople, chasing rodents, mimicing things, and climbing up trees and jumping from them, but that's not the weird part." She said, gazing at her hand.

"the weirdest thing is that I'm allergic to those berries, but regenerate with that poisonous saliva. That doesn't...make any....What was I saying? Oh, yeah, that-" She fell backwards, passed out.

 

Startled by Chrys's quick drop, Derek knelt and instinctively felt for a pulse in the neck. It was there. He moved his ear over her mouth, making sure she was breathing. It was faint. He turned his head and yelled "Hey Doc! We need you! Chrys is down!"

 

(AHHH you beat me to it!) She hit the ground and Smith was down by her side, checking her pulse on her wrist and saw Derek checking her breathing the way that they teach you to do in the manditory firstaid class. "CHRYS!" He shouted hopeing to wake her up. Her pulse was slow but strong, and same with her breathing. "Whats going on?" He asked and prayed she fogive him as he pinched her arm hopeing to wake her.

 

Chrys was home again.

"Diane honey! Come down to breakfast!" her mother called, "Daddy had to go into work early, he promised we'd go out to dinner as a family tonight." She said, caressing Chrys's cheek, "Yeah, he promised." A tone of premature disappointment permeated her smile, showing the little girl what her mommy really thought.

A pinprick attacked her arm.

"Mommy! I got my blue suede shoes on, and my pwettiest dwess! Do I look as pwetty as you?" Chrys said, reaching for a hug from her mom.

She leaned down, hugging her daughter, "No honey, i'm pretty, but you're beautiful. Now let's wait in the garden up front, Daddy should be here any moment."

They walked to the front yard, sitting on one of the ornate granite benches.

"Where's Daddy?" Chrys asked, swinging her feet.

Before her mother could answer, a spray of bullets rained onto their yard.

"Diane!" Her mother screamed, grabbing the girl by her ponytail, throwing her behind the bench, and covering the little girl with her own body....

 

Viva bit her nails as Fox tried to get back to her senses.
"You know, there was once this guy downtown who was begging for water and people used to throw sealed packed bottles at him and laughed...I wonder why he didn't just open the bottle and drink it?"
She looked curiously at Raylene who eyed her in a worried way.
"And girl, this dress is not right. I know, you are the rebel, but still lovely! There's a fashion rebel's style too! You where what's totally gruesome...and strictly awesome, you get it?"
She then started pulling her shirt, saying:
"One inch could have been lost and you wouldn't look like a peanut."
Before Raylene could object, Viva let go and smiled crazily.
"Oh...I think I need to clean these so-not-right clothes, by the way! So see you all in a few minutes!"
She ran off to the tail of the stream, giddily prancing.