|
Isaac shook his head in confusion and finally limped to a halt. The group in front of him had halted to a stop when they saw the four men behind him holding two spears each up in the air, aimed at the oldest brother. He turned around to see why everybody's mouth was agape. He stood glued to his spot, panting and bleeding like a wounded animal. He raised his voice so it wouldn't waver, "What do you want?" The four men looked at each other and talked quickly between each other and finally a short stocky man answered him, "This planet. It's ours now." He stood ready to cast a final spear into his unmoving target when he spied a Raggenii approaching the wounded man. He curled his lips in disgust and sent his spear flying with speed and accuracy, hearing Isaac scream out in anguish. Taylor nearly started vomiting when the man threw his spear towards his brother but didn't have time to hold it back when the spear hit the poor Raggenii in the chest, rocking her to her knees. He shuddered when Isaac screamed and sank to his knees, holding the Raggenii like his life depended on it. Oh, that's why. She was Isaac's hunting partner. Taylor's head shot up like a spring when he finally found the courage to speak, "Why're you doing this?" He growled. "This? This is a warning to all Raggenii, Cadeska, and even you Terrans. We're taking this planet, don't stand in our way or we'll do to you what we did to the Rag." He pointed with his last remaining spear. Will finally shoved past the crowed and stood, feet splayed in a daring manner and spoke harshly, "This is NOT your planet. This is not OUR planet. We're colonists here and as soon as this place is made livable, we're kicked onto another planet to do the same. You think we're free? No, we're just given a bigger cage then we had before, we're still captives. Go home, don't come back or I swear on everything Holy I'll kill you." And with that said and done, he crossed his arms and glared. "We will NOT give up, we'll kill the damned Iosie when they come back for us. We're taking this planet over, be sure of that much. Lets go." He waved his men away. Zac rushed forward to his injured brother and tried to pry him off the dead Raggenii. He tugged and pulled at his shoulder before Isaac finally blew up and shoved his little brother as hard he could. "Get the hell offa me!" He screamed and returned to holding his downed hunting partner. He didn't even feel bad for the pained look on Zac's face as he slammed into the ground. Zac stood up, brushing the seat of his pants off, and started towards Taylor. "What's his problem?" Zac mouthed quietly, already knowing the answer. You're hunting partner was like family here, you depended on them with your life when you were out looking for game. They watched your back when you weren't able to. Many new life forms were found since being dropped on New Terra and a few of those could easily kill you if you didn't have somebody to help you watch your back. "You know just as good as I do." Taylor sighed, death had become such a common occurrence with the life of being a slave and it hardly bothered him anymore. Come to think of it, it hardly bugged anybody unless they knew the being that died. "Poor Ike." Angela approached Zac and Taylor from the back of the surrounding group and just looked deeply into their eyes. Both boys nodded and she walked forward to Isaac. "Ike? Ike? Come on, I know you can hear me. We gotta get your leg looked at. You can't die. Your brothers need you." She whispered into his ear. She watched him turn towards her; sorrow etched with grief covered his fine features. She pulled gently at his hands a few times until he finally collapsed into her arms, sobbing like he was nine, not nineteen. She lifted him into a walking position, helping him limp his way to the infirmary. Angela knew she wouldn't be able to hold him up for long and motioned for Taylor and Zac to take her place and they readily did. "Come on Ike, lift your legs a little bit more." Zac coaxed gently, hoping his distraught brother listen to him. Somehow, Isaac managed to stay on his own two feet the entire time they walked/limped to Camp H's infirmary. As they walked by, hoards of the camp's Raggenii made their way to the fallen member of their species to get her prepared for her death rights. Isaac's calf was still leaking scarlet liquid when they arrived to the overhanging cliff that was painted red, with red ocher found around the camp's stream, and the two younger Hanson siblings led in their older brother. Two 'nurses' were speeding in their direction and Isaac cringed openly, trying to burrow closer into Taylor and Zac's arms. He didn't want to be taken away from them, not yet. Taylor and Zac didn't want that either and they kept a firm yet gentle grip on his arms despite the nurses efforts to pull him away. "Just show us what bed platform." Zac growled, watching the two women back off and nod, looking slightly nervous. "God, blondes..!" Zac thought to himself. Two Days Later "Hey Ike. What's up man?" Taylor sat down next to Isaac's bed. "Not a lot." The depressed man revealed. He looked at his leg and pried at the bandage that covered the gaping hole in his leg. They didn't have the medical staff to close the wound yet, so nature would have to take it's course and everyone hoped that infection wasn't a possibility at the moment. "How was the burial?" Ike questioned. It had been rainy and dismal that day, the day Deleriz was buried. Isaac wasn't allowed to attend for fear of some sort of infection that might turn up from the bad weather. It'd taken a more then a few men to hold the poor young man down for the first twenty minutes for the last rites and after that he'd just laid there....looking out of it for lack of a better term. "It wasn't anything special, the other Rags wouldn't let it get overboard like we wanted. Uhm.'member the report we did on native tribes? How some of em didn't just dig a hole and throw dirt over the dead, they put skins over the body in a shallow pit then put rocks all over instead of dirt?" Zac questioned. "Uh huh." "Yeah, well that's what the Raggenii do too." Zac smiled slightly. It had taken his mother over an hour to get the image into Ike's brain. She'd drawn a picture finally in the end and the poor guy understood, at last, what she was talking about for that day's lesson plan. "Don't worry Ike, we're gonna nail that guy. He's not gonna get away with doin something so pointless. We know she meant a lot to you." Taylor encircled Isaac's shoulders with his arms in a hug. Zac sat back for a moment surveying the scene before him. "So what now?" Taylor questioned. "We get ready for a fight I guess. Those guys seemed pretty serious." Isaac sadly stated. "Yeah, seriously screwed up in the head." Taylor muttered. Zac smiled slightly in agreement and said, "How do we get prepared though?" "I talked to Will about the spear thrower thing, he thinks we should do it." Taylor smiled encouragingly. "We need more then spear throwers to get us ahead of em. Did you see how commando they were?" Isaac hissed. Taylor furrowed his eyebrows in inner pain at Isaac's snappy reply but he knew it was only from the stress. "Yeah well I tried to warn ya." He grumbled. "Yeah, but anybody else believe you except for Will? Ya know everybody's calling you a brown noser, and I think I'm gonna agree." He growled. "What!? Who's sayin that?" Taylor screeched. "Ask around smart one. See what they say." Isaac glared at his brother. Zac winced noticeably, "You guys....quit it. Bottle it up till we gotta deal with the commandos again. Please?" He asked. Taylor would have none of that, "Who the hell is sayin that?" He yelled. "Shut up. Leave me alone, I don't feel like talkin to you anymore." Isaac replied in a flat, emotionless voice. The middle Hanson brother looked wounded and started to drop his head and walk away when he spun around. "Just because your freaking hunting partner got killed doesn't mean you take it out on the only family you have here. You and I both know we're never gonna see mom and dad ever again, so don't push me and Zac away. You'll regret it for the rest of your life." His voice cracked a little in the end and he finally turned and walked off quietly. Isaac sat on his bedding pallet wide eyed and in shock, he had no idea his brother felt like that. He looked to Zac for some sign of comfort but he was looking in any direction but his own. Zac shifted around a bit before he finally bolted up suddenly and jogged after Taylor. "Oh Jesus. What did I do?" He dug his finger tips into his eyes and rubbed fiercely. The Next Day. "FIRE MEETING!! ONE HOUR, ONE HOUR! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!" A humorous caller yelled out to Camp H's luncheon diners. Taylor hardly bothered to look up from his soup as Angela took a seat across from him and Zac. She's most likely gotten the full report from Ike about the little fight from yesterday and was here to try and help smooth it out. "Guys, I talked to Ike." She began. "Surprise surprise." Taylor leaned near Zac's ear and whispered, "Just nod a little, but don't agree to anything. Lets figure this out on our own without Angie's help." Zac nodded. "What you said was rude and uncalled for Taylor. And Zac, how could you just up and leave Ike sitting there by himself in the infirmary? He's hurting on the inside too." She said angrily. "Uhm..Thanks for the cheesy pep talk Angie, but ya know, we'd love to stay but we gotta fly." Zac stated with a grin and grabbed Taylor up by the arm, dragging him away from the table and towards the mouth of the cave. "Blondes." She mumbled to herself. "Taylor, front and center!" Will yelled from his office. "Yo, wsup?" Taylor loped up and asked him. "Gimme your ideas on this will ya?" Will motioned to a pile of knife tipped spears. "Wow, who thought of this?" He picked on up and examined the tip of the sharply honed knife. "I did." Will stated simply. "Wouldn't doubt it." Taylor smiled at him. He dropped his smile when he saw looks being exchanged between the other men assembled around. He flushed red and shut his mouth. "This looks great man.but won't this leave us short when we have, uh..like, hand to hand fighting goin on?" He wanted to know. "Well, the spear we pulled outta Deleriz was tipped with a knife, it'd been broken from a larger blade, but it's still a knife. These guys mean business," He turned around and picked up a long, flat three foot object and smiled, "We got spear throwers." He smiled a warm smile at Taylor. "Wow! How do I make one of these?" He asked quickly. "Ya don't hafta. I had three made for you and your brothers." He handed them to Taylor, who smiled in response. "Seeing on how Ike's in the infirmary till tomorrow, can you take his to him?" "Uh....I'm sure it can wait Will." Taylor chuckled grimly. "NOW!" He said forcefully. Taylor almost complied, but then he decided not to be Will's "brown noser" anymore. "I said it can wait. Did you not hear me right the first time?" He raised his voice a bit to his leader. "Excuse me? You're disobeying a direct order. That's serious trouble... now take this to your brother and I mean now!" Will thundered. Taylor looked him in the eyes, even at the same height Will was intimidating. Then he spoke. "N-o. No! Do it yourself." He stepped up into Will's face and dared him, silently, to hit him. Taylor briefly wondered when he himself had gone insane, but dismissed the thought for now. He had bigger problems now, like the man in front of him. Will just stood where he was, measuring Taylor up. He looked into the young man's eyes and saw all the problems and emotions swimming just underneath his mask of bravery. What was going on in this kids life right now that he wouldn't share? "This is gonna come back on you three fold if you don't do what you're told. Stop being your normal pain in the ass self and give THIS to your brother." Will snatched Taylor's hand up and slapped the spear thrower in it. Taylor looked at his hand, turned on his heel, and started to walk away. Will smiled, he was listening. He was about to turn his back when he watched Taylor casually toss the spear thrower into the grass reeds nearby on his way out of the cave and he put a small grin on his face. "Smart ass kid." "McKarther!" He yelled. "What?" Jason yelled back. "Grab the spear thrower and deliver it to Isaac Hanson in the hospital." "Right away sir." << Previous Page of Story>> << Back to Story Page>> << Back To Index Of Chapters Page>> Back To Main Page>> |