42. Part 11 - New Friends.

[Chinaren]

By Chinaren.

[Chinaren]

Any more votes for this?  I'll get around to another chapter soon hopefully.

When I said soon, it was compared to say, the next ice age it seems.  Anyway, I'm off for some days now, so plan to write another chapter of this or The Third Power next.

[MasterOfDisaster]

Come on ChinaMan, please hurry up and write more 
Its very good 

[Chinaren]

Thanks Moddy!  I'm concentrating on Tears of Blood and Full Gloom at the moment, but I have large plans for this one.  And who knows?  Another chapter could just spew forth at any time!

[Silme]

You are a big tease.  I saw '42' on the side bar and thought there was a shiny new chapter to read.  Guess I'll just sit with the Master and wait patiently.

[MasterOfDisaster]

Your going to make us wait  shame on you China-Man! 

[Chinaren]

Your going to make us wait  shame on you China-Man! 

Lol!  Well, maybe I'll slip another chapter of this one in then!  Watch this space.

[Chinaren]

Very well, by popular demand, a new chapter has been started. 

Watch this space.

[Edit] Okay, I've suddenly, and inexplicably run out of Insparatium.  I need a bit of a jolt, just a bit, I can give it up anytime.  Really.

Ahem.

Anyway, I need a kind of villain.  Not a major one, but one that does something for some reason to interfere with things.

Ideas?

[Thunderbird]

How about a mutant crab with enhanced intelligence (otherwise a normal crab) who feels he now has something to prove?

[MasterOfDisaster]

What if A and B's father was a scientist who came to the island for research.

He ended up creating a super intelligent sea-dwelling being, whom in turn, killed their father for reasons, as of now, unknown.

This creature just happens to be a servant for some other major villain.
 

Just an idea, and i have loads more in the attic  ,

Go Ian!! 

[Chinaren]

Ooh. Interesting ideas there Moddy.  I can work with these.

Many thanks!  I shall get back on the 42 horse when I return home.  Oh yeah. 

[Silme]

I'm going to suggest a 'man vs. himself' manner of villian.  The Wrath of Khan-like bug plays with his fears, history, whatever to produce some manner of simple villain that is easily defeated; for now.  Perhaps a pirate who resembles the behaviour of a school yard bully?  Could be the pirate is playing jacks or something, hence the, 'there's something you don't see everyday."

[Chinaren]

Nice ideas too Sil.  I think I may have an idea brewing...

I'm going to suggest a 'man vs. himself' manner of villian.  The Wrath of Khan-like bug plays with his fears, history, whatever to produce some manner of simple villain that is easily defeated; for now.  Perhaps a pirate who resembles the behaviour of a school yard bully?  Could be the pirate is playing jacks or something, hence the, 'there's something you don't see everyday."

[MasterOfDisaster]

Oooohh waiting patiently still China-Man! Got loads of reading time on my hands and the thing I want to read isn't ready . Please hurry up 

[Chinaren]

The Story so far:
Ian has awoken on a desert island after somehow surviving a horrific plane crash.  Stumbling through the jungle he meets Brad, and the two discover a mysterious, half buried orb like structure. 
Leaving the thing unopened, they return to the beach and settle down to rest, but sometime in the night, Ian wakes and finds Brad has disappeared. 
Going in search of his missing comrade, he runs in to a young girl who seems to be unable to speak.  Venturing further he encounters the remains of the orb, which has apparently exploded.  In the remaining crater is a small box, inside which is a strange black egg which cracks, allowing some kind of pink worm to crawl into his ear, whereupon he faints.
He wakes up and the group heads towards smoke, which turns out to be a pig cooking, started by A’s big, simple brother, B.  B tells them that Brad has headed off to the Dark Place, a place from which no one ever returns.
Not wishing to lose his only able minded companion, he sets off to the Dark Place, which turns out to be a rusting hulk of a ship.  After a night’s rest, Ian infiltrates the ship and comes across…

~

“Oh god.” Ian stepped back, holding his nose, and then stumbled further back in panic.

Inside the trashed cabin, which was quite clearly illuminated via a gash in the hull, several almost skeletal figures were fighting over the small carcass of some kind of seabird.  As Ian thrashed about, they turned their heads towards the door and started at him with hollow eye sockets. 

“Undead!” wailed Ian, scrambling back. 

Hissing and baring lipless mouths, the four creatures staggered upright and stumbled towards him, thin arms outstretch in classic zombie fashion.   

Ian slammed the door and ran back the way he’d come.  Behind him the door held for roughly ten seconds before slamming open under the monster assault. 

He’d almost reached the cabin he’d entered through when movement from ahead brought him up short.  Another of the things was stumbling down the corridor towards him. 

Biting his lip, Ian backed up a pace.  Then he frowned. 

The beast, which was dressed in rags that made A’s look new, had stopped too, and appeared to be sniffing the air, as if trying to smell out its prey.

Realization struck.  Of course!  They were blind! 

“The really horribly spooky eye-sockets should have been a clue,” the woman said, popping back into life next to him, and making him drop his knife.

The sound alerted the monster, and it lurched towards Ian, who, with one furious glance at his mysterious female friend, barged forward, shoving the zombie away with one hand.  It was surprisingly light.

The beast screeched in outrage as it fell backwards, tearing Ian’s shirt with dirty, almost claw like nails as he ran back towards the door he’d come through, jamming it shut behind him. 

“Thanks very much!” he gasped at the woman, who was floating next to him.  “Now I’ve lost the knife.” He headed back towards the hole in the hull as scratching sounds came from the door.

“Sorry,” the woman said.  “I don’t seem to have full control.”

“My bladder doesn’t have full control at the moment either,” Ian replied, throwing caution to the wind and jumping back on to anchor chain.  He managed to wrap one arm around a link as his feet slipped off, and nearly dislocated his shoulder.

“They’ve broken through the door,” his hallucination informed him.

“Fuck.” Not looking back, Ian half slipped, half climbed down the chain in record time, falling the last two meters into the sea and thoroughly soaking himself.  From above, dead eyes followed his panicked progress back to land. 

Fortunately the things seemed to be unwilling to do more than watch his ignoble retreat, and he made a clean getaway.

~

“We just have to accept the fact that Brad’s dead,” Ian said, as they made their way along the sand, away from the Ship of Horrendous Death as he’d renamed it.  “And along with him the supplies he had.  Selfish bastard.”

A looked up at him and held his hand in sympathy, whether for Brad or the supplies Ian wasn’t certain.

“Bad place,” B said firmly. 

“You said it,” Ian repeated miserably.  Those eyeless bastards were going to haunt his dreams, he could tell.

“I think there’s someone out there.”  The woman appeared out of thin air directly ahead of Ian, making him shriek with fright and jump to one side.

“What?”  B said, swiveling around and waving a branch he’d picked up from somewhere.  “What happen?”

“Stop doing that!” shouted Ian at the woman, adding to the obvious concern that A was showing on her face.

“They can’t see me,” the woman said.

Ian sat in the sand, put his hands in his head and began rocking back and forth.

“Why me?” he wailed.  “The plane crash okay, that was just bad luck.  Even the fucking zombie things I can understand on some level.  But why the worm?  And why am I seeing things?  And why me?”

He felt A sit by him and put an arm around his shoulder.  He sat there and snuffled and sobbed to himself for several more minutes, until the woman’s voice interrupted his self-pity.

“Are you done yet?”

“Go away,” he said, not looking up.  “Not you A, the woman.”  He could sense A’s confusion. 

“They can’t see or hear me,” the voice of his vision repeated patiently.

“So why can I?”

There was no reply, and he, slowly, parted two of his fingers and peered through the crack.  The woman was gone. 

A’s face blocked his view, her look of worry forced him to reassess his actions, in light of the fact the kid needed him. 

Pulling himself together, he wiped at his nose and sniffed mightily. 

“I’m sorry A.” He nodded at the girl and pulled himself upright again.  “It’s just I’m new to this whole ship-wrecked lark, and the whole worm and zombie situation hasn’t really helped much.”  He forced a smile onto his face.  “Still, onwards and upwards eh?  Stiff upper lip and all that.”

A looked at him for a moment more, and then nodded to herself.  Dropping his hand she started walking off again, heading steadily along the beach.  After a moment, B followed her.

“Looks like sympathy is also in limited supply,” Ian said.  “Can’t blame them I guess.” Straightening his shoulders, he picked up his feet and trotted after the two siblings.

~

“Someone been here,” B said.  He pointed at the now cold fire.  The pig remains had been buried, but the ashes remained.

“How do you know?” Ian asked.  It all looked the same as when they’d left to him.

“Look.” B nudged at a patch of sand that was identical to the other patches.

“Oh yes, I see.” Ian nodded.  “Sand.”

B scowled.  “Tracks.  No us.” He pointed off along the beach, in the direction of the plane.  “One go that way.”

“One?  There’s more than one?”

“Look,” B repeated, swinging his finger around to a bush near the jungle’s edge.  A jacket of some kind was hanging off a low branch. 

“That looks like Brad’s jacket!” Ian said, staggering over to the garment and pulling it down.  “Yes, it’s his for sure, I can smell his cologne.  How can he have cologne on a desert island?” He shook his head in wonder.

“Go that way,” B said, nodding inland.

“You said he’d gone to the Bad Place!” Ian shuddered at the memory.

B shrugged.  “Come back.”

“No one comes back from the Bad Place!”

“You did.”

Ian made a face.  “Fair enough,” he conceded.  He looked down at Brad’s jacket, then back up at the sky, where the sun was heading into evening, and finally back along the beach, towards the horror of the crash. 

“You sure it was two people?” he asked. 

Evidently B had run out of words, because he just nodded.

“Great.”


>>>>>>

So, not a very wonderful chapter I’m afraid.  I had a bit of an inspiration failure. 

Now, it’s heading towards evening, there’s about an hour or so of light left.  Brad has evidently headed inland, whilst another, unknown, party has wandered along the beach in the direction of the plane crash.

What’s to do next?

And who is the mystery stranger?

<<<<<<

[MasterOfDisaster]

  Go Ian! 

Nice one China-Man, 

Right, well cleary Brad isn't what he appears, so what if Brad wasn't on the plane at all 

I still think A & B's father should make an appearance just to fuck there heads up.

As for the second person, it might not be a person at all

[Thunderbird]

Was really nice to see a return to this tale C'ren!  It wasn't terribly lacking but you might've wanted to spend a bit more on the zombies...  Otherwise, I was just really happy to see this continue!  I'm sure a cohesive plot tie together is coming up here and I'm really looking forward to it.

As for suggestions... not sure what to offer at the moment... lemme think on it a bit.

[NicTei]

It wasn't terribly lacking but you might've wanted to spend a bit more on the zombies...

I was promised an undead cannibal orgy.  I did not receive an undead cannibal orgy.  I am unhappy.

[Chinaren]

Was really nice to see a return to this tale C'ren!  It wasn't terribly lacking but you might've wanted to spend a bit more on the zombies...

For some reason I actually got scared writing this.     However, I think we'll probably be coming back to the ship at a later date, so consider this just a scouting mission. 

I'm sure a cohesive plot tie together is coming up here and I'm really looking forward to it.

There is!  There really is!  It's just taking some time to come together.  Hehe.

I was promised an undead cannibal orgy.  I did not receive an undead cannibal orgy.  I am unhappy.

Sorry Nice!  As I said above, I have a feeling we'll be back to this ship, so all is not lost...

[Lokloklok]

Perhaps brad is actually an alien lizardman and the other tracks is also a lizardman. They have a secret underground base full of their kind on many small islands and they are using them as staging bases for the invasion and then slavery of man kind.

[Chinaren]

Perhaps brad is actually an alien lizardman and the other tracks is also a lizardman. They have a secret underground base full of their kind on many small islands and they are using them as staging bases for the invasion and then slavery of man kind.

An interesting theory Loky.  Totally wrong I'm afraid, but still interesting.   

So, any suggestions on Ian's next actions?  Anybody? 

[Lokloklok]

As far as what he should do, i think ian should look for brad. if that fails, he should use B to track the stranger if possible. They are going to need everyone back if they are going back to that ship at some point in time.

[Thunderbird]

I think it might be a good time to find an effective defensive position for their camp, find some good strong sticks and stones for weapons and once entrenched, THEN go searching for Brad, fully armed of course.

[Chinaren]

Two more excellent suggestions there! 

I'll leave this open for a little while longer, then put it to the vote!  We have there ideas so far, some of them not mutually exclusive.

So far:

Go after Brad
Dig in first.
AB father to make an appearance.

[Silme]

Not a bad chapter with some nice plot twists.  I too was surprised the zombies weren't a little more centre stage; but all in good time.  The introduction of a new 'figure' is interesting; or is it a new figure? 

Perhaps B is either dead wrong (no pun intended), about this new person, or he's trying to pull something crafty.  I'd bet he's smarter than he sounds and really just wants our man to head back to the plane.  Maybe B knows something about the plane Ian doesn't, (an item missed on the first go around?  a message now etched into the remaining hull?); maybe Brad's bad news and B knows this so he tries to lure Ian away from chasing him?

Regardless of where this goes, I'm going to bet Ian's life is going to get much harder before it get's even slightly better.

[Chinaren]

Excellent suggestion Sil!

Yes, I got scared when I reached the zombies and ran away. Which, whilst not the most exciting read, is probably what any sensible person would do.   However, they're still there... waiting. 

Right, I'm constructing a poll on this now.  Climb the tree of voting.

[Chinaren]

Any more votes?  I plan to instigate the next chapter shortly.

[NicTei]

[Saint]

Resurrection! 

[Chinaren]

Not quite yet Saint. I was catching up with this one myself when inspiration struck for Gloom instead, so I wrote some of that last night. 

I'll get around to this one at some point again though, as I have the plot wedged in my head.  (Even though it's not obvious at this point in the story).