The Phoenix Colony

"Dude! You just smashed my lucky lighter! Why didn't you just light the damn thing!?" Chrys screamed. "Arg!" She belted, grabbing the two branches she set aside, "I'm going to find some fronds long enough to create blankets. My lucky freakin lighter, uhh!"

 

Smith pulls out Kat's lucky lighter. "Hey!" He called back. "I have your lighter, it's fine!" He shouted and tossed it over to her.

 

"Oh!" Chrys said, catching the lighter awkwardly. "I guess I shoud apologize to you, Derek, sorry." Chrys said, then looked back at Chad, "Have you told me your name yet?"

 

Smith laughed. "Ya but you don't remember." He said and added. "Names Chad." Smith went back to getting the meat from the deer.

 

"Phew, close one. I nearly got attacked by the only animal left from earth: a cat!" he laughed, then continued to build up the fire. He put a couple of longer sticks to the side and passed them over to Chad. "Hey, could you sharpen these up? I figure we could make some shishkababs outta that deer. Throw some of the nuts on, add some flavor."

 

"Wy do ya'll call me a cat. I'm clearly human. Whatev." She said shrugging it off.

SHe looked up, "Whoa, that moon, it's like the color of my hair. Whoa." She focused on her task, collecting some of the tall grass, it was as long as her whole arm, it could do. But she tied some of the ends together anyway, then set to the task of weaving blankets, one bit at a time. "Wow, good thing these are flexible, otherwise they'd turn into mats." chrys said, letting out a sigh.

 

Smith layed out some roughed strips of meet on a rock, and took the sticks. "Sure thing." He said and quickly got to work sharpening the sticks. He thought happily to himself that Derek hadn't seemed quiet so agressive since he'd gotten back. He hoped things kept this way, he'd be back safly on top of his own little tribe in no time. That reminded him of Ben, he sure hoped he was ok.

 

While Derek waited, he snacked on some of the leftover chocostrawberries. After the loss of Juan and Harold, it didn't have to be split as much. Between mouthfuls he asked "So Chrys, you ready to hear the story o' how we ended up here?"

 

Finishing off a section of blanket, she mumered "Hrm." And leaned farther over her work, realizing that she was quite deft at this.

 

Smith finished one of the stakes, cut a strip into cubes and slide them on. He looked at it and smiled before handing it over to Derek. "I'll pass you the next when it's ready." He said and got to work.

 

"I'll take that as a yes," Derek said. He took a deep breath, then began. "Well we were all in our respective correctional facilities and made some kinda mistake. That pushed us to be on this shuttle that would send us to the mining institute on Mik14. Space didn't seem to like that idea," he smiled. "Some asteroid or somethin' knocked us off course, and bam, we got knocked down here. The ship broke off into three pieces, and left about a mile long crater. That was a day or two ago. The night o' day one, we all got situated around the crash site. Seemed like a good idea. Then we got hit by a huge storm, it started normal with just rain, but then some kinda airhands started pickin' us up and tossin' us into the air. I got trapped under one o' these," he paused to pat the carcass of the deer with his good hand. "You came over an' helped me up right around the time a few other people came to help. At first, you'n the rest of us didn't get along too well. After a bit, I realized how tough it can be for a young girl such as yourself to be trapped with a bunch o' criminals and decided to keep a special eye on yah. All this happened today."

Derek paused to accept the kabob from Chad and utter a quick thanks, then started roasting it. He left out the part where she had talked to the snake and led them there for a reason. He was the only one there that had been present and could remember it, and he didn't think they'd believe him. "That's when Chad here strolled outta the woods, and soon after you went unconcious. You missed all the action too, our old leader went crazy, killed one of our crew, and Chad here saved my life. Couldn't quite save my nose though," he laughed, giving Chad a light and friendly punch on the arm. He then began to enjoy his kabob. "This is delicious," he said through a full mouth.

 

Chrys listened to this with only one ear, she was finishing the first blanket. "Done." She said, displaying her work.


"Wait, was that guy our leader? He looked really familiar to me, but I can't place him."

 

"He was some big mob boss. Apparently he was all over the papers...that was why you didn't get along with all of us at first. You had a problem with him. That's probably where you recognise him from. Let me see that blanket?" Derek said, trying to wrap it around his shoulders, but failing with out on of his arms. "Well, it feels like it'd be warm, but I can't quite get it on. Nice work."

 

Viva had moved away from Allen, trying to concentrate.
"Oh, well it's okay he ditched ya. Pasha ain't too bad you know."
Shut up.
"Come on, not like you two would've made a good bunch of lovebirds."
Shut up.
"The second you would've told him you're here to kill Pasha, he would've laughed his head off and asked, 'So, you a slut as a side-business?'."
Shut up me. Yeah, me. I talk to myself. Yahoo. The sunlight dimmed and Viva yawned. She had a nice day. She walked over to Pasha, and placed her hands on his shoulder.
"We should nap now. The fence will take a while."
He nodded and they walked to a corner of the cave, lying down side by side. Viva didn't know about Pasha, but she dozed off in a couple of blinks.

 

"I guess he was your guy's leader, you had been with me and another guy back at the crash site. I had helped you get out of the ship and let you have the stun gun so you could watch after yourself, when i got here i was here long enough to go out and hunt and this guy flipped." Smith exsplainied as he handed another shiskabob to Derek. "Either way he's dead now." Smith said trying not to sound depressed about it.

 

"It's flexible, so it should be," She walked over, "Just let me help." She said, pushing the blanket around his shoulders, "there. And no, I think I know him, like know him know him. Like met him before."

"Alright, I'm going to start the next one." SHe sadi, going back to her little work station.

 

"No need i've got two real blankets." Smith said and went over to his improvised sacks made from the blankets and unfolded them. Out fell a few berries, bullets, and three pillows. "A bit dirty but they'll keep ya warm enough."

 

"Thanks again," Derek said, accepting the second kabob. "Good thin you got him. He'd've killed us all if you hadn't." He was trying to be encouraging. "Alright, so who's gonna keep watch for the night? I'm gettin' tired, not sure I'd make it."

 

Chrys looked first a Chad, "Aren't I allergic to those berries? I can't touch that blanket." THen she looked at Derek, "I've had a lot of sleep today, so I could do it."

THen she walked over to the fire, retreiving a kebob.

 

Smith passed over another Kebob and looked at the cave. "So we need to decide weather we're making this our new home or we're moving on." He anounced. "If we're staying here Kat's weaving skills could be exstreamly usefull for making a doorway to keep us safe and warm at night. Plus we should put up some sort of perimeter fenceing as well." He went back to cutting up the meat.

 

"'Kat,' doesn't like weaving enough to create a fence. Doorway, maybe, fence, no." She said, chewing a bit of the meat. "This seems like a good place for now." She looked up at the sky, now illuminated by a bluish moon. "We can't be the only survivors..."

 

"Seems like a good place to me. I'm in no condition to move, and we have everything we need. There's a stream, a forest with food, the cave provides shelter...I could go on. But for now, I wanna sleep. Toss me one o' those pillows, would ya'?" Derek said, catching it with his right hand. He readjusted himself so that he could sleep close to the fire. He lay with the back of his head on the pillow, the blanket atop his chest. He couldn't roll because of his arm, which made it difficult to get comfortable. Tomorrow, he would have to find that medkit they had and take some more of the pain meds. "Nighty night," he said, shutting his eyes and forcing himself to sleep through the pain.

 

"Okay, Chad, is it? Do you wnt first lookout, or hould I take it?"

 

Pasha smiled as he watched her fall asleep. He gently put the rope and sticks aside, his back aching from the constant bending. He gently kissed her on the forehead, and leaned back, looking into the dark night. He didn’t know how he had managed to do the last few portions by firelight, but he could almost hear his mother’s voice. It was a fair break from her screams.

He leaned back, his head against hers. His hand gently wrapped around hers as he stared into the fire.

 

Juliano woke suddenly, as a large gust of wind swept into the cave. Then it all came back to him, he was in the cave with some of the other survivors.

After snatching up a few berries and some cold meat he went slightly further into the cave to see two people lying down, a male and a female. It seemed the female was asleep so he approached quietly.

"Hey" he wispered "the names Juliano, good to meet you, why are you here?" he asked the male.