Author Topic: 42. Part 11 - New Friends. (Read 9618 times)

Chinaren · « **on:** April 25, 2009, 11:37:07 AM »

By Chinaren.

Chinaren · « **Reply #1 on:** April 25, 2009, 11:37:47 AM »

Darkness. Total and utter darkness, even to his superior senses. Visually there was nothing. No change from the last time he’d awoken, over… he checked his internal chronometer, one thousand local years.

Yet something had activated him. He started a diagnostic, after several million years even the best equipment tended to develop glitches here and there.

Three microseconds passed, he’d initiated a thorough scan, not a quick one, just be to be sure. Nothing. Everything in order.

Then what?

No. It couldn’t be.

Scarcely wanting to even think about it, he checked the master alarm.

It was doing the equivalent of screaming its head off.

Not good. Not good at all.

Cursing to himself, he started to dig upwards, towards the surface. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too late. Hopefully he could reach it before They did. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to destroy the solar system.

The paperwork killed him when that happened.

Saint · « **Reply #2 on:** April 25, 2009, 11:43:31 AM »

Liking this one so far... Just one thing, is the character an Android sort of thing?

Chinaren · « **Reply #3 on:** April 25, 2009, 11:48:04 AM »

Ah, you should know better by now Saint! You know I like to keep people in ~~suspenders~~ suspense!

I have the plot (roughly) figured out for this, but I think it will be interesting as an IS.

Saint · « **Reply #4 on:** April 25, 2009, 01:11:28 PM »

Curse you, China! Curse you and your ~~suspenders~~ suspense!

Chinaren · « **Reply #5 on:** April 25, 2009, 03:26:01 PM »

“Shit!” Ian woke up to a throbbing headache and an unfamiliar view. The sun, directly overhead, shining down on him through the fronds of a palm tree.

“What the fuck?” He winced, clutched at his head, and sat, slowly and painfully, up. There was a metal toilet next to him, sitting there like it had just been installed. He looked at it in complete bafflement for a moment, before turning his head the other way.

He was lying on a beach! The fine white sand sifted down through the rip in the front of his Hawaiian style blue shirt, and made the cut that ran diagonally down his chest sting.

“Fuck,” he repeated, and rolled to one side to throw up, heaving up the last thing he ate, which appeared to be some kind of brown mush, onto the white earth, discoloring, polluting the pure grains.

Wiping his mouth, he staggered upright, shirt flapping around him as he first used the mysterious toilet, and then tree he’d been lying under for support. The rough bark scraped at his skin, but he ignored it as he took in the scene of devastation around him.

The plane! Of course, the plane had come down! A sudden flashback of five of the most terrifying minutes of his life screamed through his memory.

He remembered the captain’s announcement as he’d just stepped into the small washroom - the request that everyone return to their seats immediately. He remembered shaking his head and swearing, deciding he was going to take his crap first.

Then there had been the sudden jolt, and the ceiling had come up to meet him. The lights had flickered as he’d flown upwards, and then was thrown to the side before landing back on the floor, foot ignobly and uncomfortably wedged in the toilet bowl.

The next few minutes had been a nightmare. A chaotic mass of images, noise, and the realization he was going to die.

The door had been wrenched off by some unseen force, and a woman had flown past, screaming, eyes wide, pleading, longing for life. She was only there a fraction of a second, but Ian knew he’d never forget her expression as she was sucked away.

He himself had managed, somehow, to extricate his foot and then turn and cling onto the toilet bowl, sobbing and squeezing his eyes shut as the cries and explosions had come from behind him. His regrets, his wishes were all going to be meaningless. He was going to die. He was going to die!

Then there had been one more jolt, and… and that was all he could remember.

Now he stood, painfully, on a beach, breakers crashing soothingly against the shore, and surveyed the debris that littered the immediate area.

There was a large chunk of fuselage lying in the shallows. It had been ripped apart as if some giant can opener had been taken to it. He could just about make out people, or maybe bodies, sitting limply in the rows of seats inside.

Nearer, embedded in the sand, was the tip of a wing, maybe a tailfin. It was hard to tell, as the metal was streaked black with soot.

Shaking his head, he stumbled forward and immediately tripped over something. He staggered and fell, landing hard on the sand, the wind knocked out of him.

He turned his head and screamed. Lying next to him, staring straight ahead with wide, shocked eyes, was a young child. Scrambling backwards he screamed again, as he realized only the top half of the poor kid was there. The waist was a bloodied, mangled mess, resting in a circle of red sand.

“Oh, for the love of god,” he whimpered, as he staggered upright again and whirled around.

He was in the middle of a field of corpses and body parts.

Something snapped inside him. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Ian turned and fled into the jungle beyond the beach, leaving the scene of carnage behind, sheltered by the towering, uncaring tropical trees.

>>>>>>

Okay, just a short one to start with, as it's nearly my bedtime.

I wasn't going to have a Suggestion phase here, but it may be interesting to see what people come up with. Bearing in mind this is in the scifi area, and I do have a direction for this story, let's see what you can suggest.

Any ideas as to what happens next? Does he meet someone? Find something? It's a pretty open SP!

<<<<<<

Saint · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2009, 04:05:24 PM »

I'd say he runs into canibals, but in mind of the SciFi theme, I'll say a mutant or something.

Angel · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2009, 10:14:39 PM »

It could be one of those women only islands that hate men and offer them up to their weird God.
So for the SciFi bit I say that they have an evil robot that's asleep on some plinth but is able to control them or brainwash them. And just for humor the robot could also be a femenist xD

Saint · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2009, 10:21:16 PM »

Why does that remind me of futurama?

Angel · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2009, 10:30:03 PM »

I have no idea...Weird robot?

Saint · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2009, 11:08:40 PM »

They went to an all-female planet ruled by a 'femputer'

Chinaren · « **Reply #11 on:** April 26, 2009, 12:23:38 AM »

Keep it ontopic you two!

And I was thinking more 'mysterious' and 'strange' for this one atm. Still, I'll ponder these.

Chinaren · « **Reply #12 on:** April 28, 2009, 03:10:05 PM »

So, now we're back on the all new Tome, any other ideas?

Saint · « **Reply #13 on:** April 28, 2009, 03:52:32 PM »

Honestly? No. That's the best I've got..

Chinaren · « **Reply #14 on:** April 29, 2009, 04:05:53 AM »

Quote from: Saint link=topic=870.msg10652#msg10652 date=1240930352

Honestly? No. That's the best I've got..

Curse* you Saint! Come on, you can give me more! Pull out those ideas. You can do it!

*Not a curse.

Cutypie · « **Reply #15 on:** May 02, 2009, 03:55:28 PM »

He meets someone who had wokenup before him and was found in the jungle. Let it be a man, they fight about food and suddenly they see a woman arrive with a small boy, she can say she heard them fight and she's happy to hear there is people allive in the place. Or they fight over food and soon they relise that the one is from the future, that he meets himself, but he feels he has hilusinated.

Saint · « **Reply #16 on:** May 02, 2009, 04:02:06 PM »

Sorry C'ren, I just can't see how to link this to Sci-Fi. All I can think of is he finds a robot in the jungle...

Chinaren · « **Reply #17 on:** May 03, 2009, 01:56:45 AM »

Thanks CPie, that's... very detailed! I may well incorporate some of that, though it's too soon for anything 'future'.

@Saint:

Don't worry about the sci-fi aspect, you probably won't see anything obviously sci-fi for a while yet. Just some kind of situation like meeting pepople or finding something. I'll figure out how to incorporate it into the story later, if needs be.

Chinaren · « **Reply #18 on:** May 05, 2009, 01:20:46 PM »

K, I think I'll go with a slightly adjusted version of CPie's suggestion here.

Chinaren · « **Reply #19 on:** May 06, 2009, 01:13:05 PM »

By the time he stopped running he was lost, sweating, exhausted and hurting. He was also bitten half to death by swarms of giant mosquitoes.

Stumbling over a plant covered ground, he made his way to a moss covered rock and sat on it hard, waving ineffectually at the insects queuing up to suck his blood.

“Piss off you little bastards!” he shouted. “I’ve lost enough fluid as it is.” He examined his chest wound, but decided as bad as it looked, and as much as it hurt, it wasn’t more than skin deep. Something of a blessing given his unhygienic surroundings.

He looked down, to see the mother of all mosquitoes sucking away on his arm, and slapped at it hard.

“Ha! How do you like that?” he asked at the bloodstained splat that was the result of his attack.

“You should get out of the trees,” a voice said.

“What the…?” Ian jumped up and whirled around, startled.

“There’s a clearing a little way to the north,” the voice directed.

“Is that you god?” Ian said, unable to locate the owner of the voice.

“What?”

“I’m sorry for not believing in you! Please help me out here.”

“I think you’ve caught too much sun,” the voice said.

“Quite possibly, either that or I’m going mad and talking to myself.” Ian sagged to the floor, the enormity of recent events overwhelming him.

“You idiot. I’m up here.”

Ian squinted up into the leaves above and, after a moment’s searching, located the shape of a man resting on a branch of one of the larger growths. He appeared to be sitting comfortably, despite the fact he was near the top of the tree. He saw Ian looking and waved.

“What the hell are you doing up there?”

“Looking around,” the man replied. “Did you come from the plane?”

“Where the fuck else would I have come from? Of course I came from the plane. How many of us are there?”

“Alive? Not many it seems. I’ve only seen you so far.”

“Shit.”

“Hold on, I’ll come down.”

Ian watched as the man, showing a total lack of concern for the possibility of falling, climbed nimbly down the tree, jumping the last bit and landing neatly in front of him.

“Jesus, part monkey are you?” Ian said, taking in the strangers’ form.

The man smiled and brushed at his suit, which was an expensive looking black one with an Indian style collar. Underneath his jacket was a light blue shirt, probably silk, which served to enhance the muscular shape below.

His face was a handsome triangle, with a sharp chin, straight nose under two green eyes and a mop of dark hair that was just ruffled enough to be cool. All in all he hardly looked like he’d just fallen out of the sky onto a desert island.

“Brad,” the man said, holding out a hand as if they were meeting at a dinner party. “I was an athlete. Always enjoyed heights.”

“Can’t say I’m of the same view,” Ian said, reaching up, grasping the outstretched limb, and using it to pull himself upright. “Ian,” he said.

The two looked around, as Ian swatted away a few more mosquitoes.

“So, you mentioned clear ground? Mosquito free ground?” he asked.

“That way,” Brad said, running a hand through his hair.

“So why are we standing around getting bitten then?”

Brad shrugged. “I’m not getting bitten.”

“Your blood is probably too sweet for them,” Ian scowled. He was beginning to take a dislike to this person. He seemed to be the sort of person who never tried at anything, but always won at everything. Girls, money, the best jobs.

“So let’s go then.” Brad set off.

“How did you manage to get out?” Ian scrambled after the man.

“I was in first class…”

“Of course.”

“…asleep, when there was a gigantic bang, and I was flying through the air. Landed in a bush with barely a scratch. Lost my Rolex though.” He flashed an empty wrist.

“My heart bleeds,” Ian said, treading on something squishy. “No, you don’t want to know,” he mumbled to himself, forcing himself not to look down.

The pair climbed a steep incline, and suddenly they were out of the jungle and facing a sweeping hill covered with long grass. Overhead the sky stretched out, bluer than blue, whilst to the right and left the green of the jungle stretched out as far as the eye could see. The sight was quite breathtaking. And depressing.

“Not a soul in sight,” Brad said, doing a full circle.

“Hey!” Ian suddenly realized something. “I’ve got my phone!” He dug around his pockets, searching for his mobile, whilst Brad shook his head and folder muscular arms.

“There won’t be any signal here!”

“You can never tell,” Ian said, digging out his Nokia and pressing the ‘on’ button.

They both waited for the phone to power up.

“So?” asked Brad, after a few minutes of watching Ian walk back and forth with his arm at full length in the air.

“No signal,” Ian replied. He frowned and squinted along the jungle wall a little way. “Hey, what’s that?”

The object was a black, half sphere protruding out of the ground. It rose to about waist height.

“Let’s go and see.” Brad set off, and Ian made haste to follow.

Upon closer examination, the object turned out to be made out of some kind of black stone. The top of a door was embedded in the surface, the lower half buried in the earth. Ian felt a strange sensation when he looked at it.

“We should open it,” he said. “There could be food inside.”

“More likely it’s an old bunker from the war containing poison gas in rotting canisters,” Brad said, shaking his head. “Best leave it alone. Anyway, we don’t’ have anything to dig with. I say we head up the hill, get a view of the lay of the land.”

Ian looked up the slope and blew his cheeks out. “That’s a long walk. Maybe we should go back to the plane. Check for survivors and gather supplies.”

“Really? Check through a load of bodies?”

“Mmm.” Ian pulled a face.

>>>>>>

So, what do they do now? Ideas?

<<<<<<

Saint · « **Reply #20 on:** May 06, 2009, 03:58:26 PM »

Bunker. But of course, the athlete's right, as he was with the signal, and it's full of gas.

Chinaren · « **Reply #21 on:** May 07, 2009, 12:20:09 AM »

Good one Saint!

Saint · « **Reply #22 on:** May 07, 2009, 12:40:48 AM »

I have my moments.

Chinaren · « **Reply #23 on:** June 17, 2009, 01:41:23 PM »

Right, I'm going to make an effort with the next chapter of this now. Hopefully something will come out soon.

Chinaren · « **Reply #24 on:** June 17, 2009, 02:50:51 PM »

Recap: Ian has awoken on a desert island after somehow surviving a horrific plane crash. Stumbling through the jungle he meets Brad, and the two then discover a mysterious half buried structure.

“Really? Check through a load of bodies?” Brad made a face. “I suppose I’m game if you are. I couldn’t face them on my own, it may be better now you’re along.”

It was Ian’s turn to make a face. “Well, I don’t fancy it either.” He pointed at the half buried door. “Yet I feel we should look in here for some reason.”

“You’re in shock,” Brad said, sniffing. “Go ahead if you want, I’m heading up the hill. I’ll meet you back here in an hour or so. Enjoy your digging.” So saying, he turned away and jogged off in the direction he’d indicated.

Ian watched him go for a moment, and then turned back to the strange orb. Narrowing his eyes, he took a step closer and touched the surface with a finger, only to jerk it back quickly. The thing was cold! He looked back up at the rapidly dwindling form of Brad. Maybe he should go with him.

No! He didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Besides… he glanced back at the mysterious find, there was something compelling about this. Braving the mosquitoes once more, he searched along the edge of the jungle until he found a piece of wood he could use.

Suitably armed, he returned to the orb and started to dig.

~

“You’ve done a good job!”

“Jesus Christ!” Ian jerked about and looked up at Brad. “Don’t do that! I nearly crapped myself.”

“Sorry,” the other replied, with no trace of sincerity in his voice. “It looks like you’re about done.”

“Yes, you have remarkably good timing,” Ian said, wiping his brow with a dirty sleeve. He scrambled out of the hole he’d mined and threw down the latest in a line of makeshift wooden shovels.

The two stood there for a moment in silence, looking down at the now exposed door. It was a hatch really, with a round porthole three quarters of the way up. Ian had tried to peer through, but the glass was too scratched and dirty, and the inside too dark.

“Did you find anything, up the hill?” he asked, wishing he had a drink.

Brad shook his head. “There’s a nice plume of smoke hanging about over the wreck, but beyond that is sea, sea and more sea. I don’t know where we are, but it’s not close to anywhere else it seems. If they are looking for us it’s going to be a while.”

“Very well then,” Ian said, in a fit of decisiveness. “We’ll open this, and then go back to the wreck, if there are other survivors we should band together.”

“It’s going to be dark soon,” Brad pointed out. “Maybe we should get back now, try and find some food and a place to squat for the night.”

“I’m not going to stay near the crash!” Ian said, eyes wide, the image of the dead child running across his vision.

“I’m not keen either, but I’m hungry and thirsty. I didn’t see any fresh water on my trip.”

Ian gave another look at the orb, but then nodded. “Very well, let’s get this over with.” He swiveled around, trying to mark the spot, and then followed Brad into the jungle, swatting at the inevitable mosquitoes.

“How long do you think it will be before they find us?” he asked as they made their way through the undergrowth.”

“As I don’t know where we are, or how and why we came down, I have no idea. There’s no radar in the middle of the ocean, so they’ll probably only have estimates to go on. I’d have thought someone would have been here by now otherwise.”

“Great,” Ian said, stepping over a log. “At least we’ll have plenty of firewood, assuming we can light a fire.”

They stumbled on in silence after that, Ian swatting away mosquitoes every other minute. Brad seemed unaffected.

Eventually they burst out of the jungle and onto the beach, which seemed a lot narrower than Ian remembered it.

“The tide’s come in,” Brad said, looking around. They’d come out of the jungle a little distance from the crash site, a fact that Ian was quite relieved about.

“That way,” he said, pointing at a cloud of fading black smoke to their right.

The two set off again, stopping briefly so Ian could take his shoes and socks off, it was more comfortable traipsing through the sand without them on. He laced the shoes together and hung them around his neck, and promptly regretted the move as he stepped on something sharp.

“Damn!” he said, hopping about, holding his foot. Brad bent down and pulled a piece of metal out of the sand. Wires trailed from it.

“A part of the plane,” he said unnecessarily.

“Crap crap crap.” Ian fell backwards into the sand, and grabbed his foot. There was a small scratch, but it wasn’t bleeding.

“Better put your shoes back on,” Brad commented.

“Bah,” was Ian’s only retort, but he did as suggested.

“Come on,” Brad said as he did the shoes up again. “It’s getting dark.”

“I’m ready.” Ian stood up and they set off at a jog.

Parts of plane debris soon started to litter the beach, and shortly after that they came across their first body, an elder woman lying in the sand, still attached to her chair. Several birds took off as they approached.

“Gross.” Ian wrinkled his nose. “I hope they don’t get a taste for human flesh.”

“Look!” Brad pointed. “Is that a meal trolley?”

Ian looked. A long metal box was wedged into the beach directly ahead of them.

“A bit of luck if it is,” he said, and they hurried over to it.

It was indeed a trolley, and barely dented too. Pulling it out of the sand, they turned it upright and dug into its innards.

“Bingo,” Brad said, pulling out a tray. He pulled off a bread roll in a plastic bag. Unwrapping it, he stuffed it whole into his mouth and chewed.

Ian dug through another tray and pulled out a small carton of juice, which he opened and drank in one go, throwing the discarded container aside as he went for another.

“Ahhh, that hits the spot,” he said, wiping his mouth and opening a third. He passed one to Brad, who was busy trying to swallow his bread.

Their immediate hunger and thirst assuaged, they set about pulling the trolley further up the beach and away from the wreck, and then returned once more, to scavenge what they could in the rapidly dwindling light.

Luck was with them, and a short time later they were sitting around a debris and wood campfire at the edge of the jungle, far enough away from the crash to put it out of their immediate vision, but close enough to see if anyone came to rescue them.

“That wasn’t pleasant,” Ian said, relaxing on a makeshift bed made from several blankets.

“No, it wasn’t,” Brad replied, looking out to sea.

Ian lay down and shuddered. To recover the blankets they’d entered into a section of the plane itself. A small section to be sure, one that obviously came from the first class galley. The accusing stares of the dead would haunt him for a long time to come. He shivered.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight,” he said.

But he did.

~

“Wha…?” He jerked awake suddenly, disorientated a moment by the magnificent swathe of stars that glittered in the clear sky overhead. “Wow,” he said, and then looked down.

The fire was a crackling orange mound, casting a dull glow for a short distance around. Ian pulled his blanket up to his chin as he looked out into the pitch black that surrounded him. It was amazing how dark night was without human buildings around.

“Brad?” he whispered. “Are you awake?”

There was no response.

“Brad?” he repeated, slightly louder.

Again, no response. He rolled over and squinted at the other mans’ bed.

It was empty. He was alone on a deserted beach, in the dead of night with a plane full of corpses only yards away.

Ian whimpered.

>>>>>>

Where has Brad gone? What will Ian do now? (Bearing in mind it’s dark and he’s a bit of a coward.)

Suggestions please!

<<<<<<

Saint · « **Reply #25 on:** June 17, 2009, 03:23:10 PM »

He's gone into the jungle to get that orb and hide it somewhere; he knows something about it. Ian tries to go back to sleep, thinking nothing of it, but goes looking for him when he A) Hears a scream, B) Sees a light from the jungle, C) Both.