[Danny]

thank you! i love you people!

i think the reason people don't tend to read many fanfics is that they are all writing their own. i admit that i haven't had time to read many, what with my fic, my homework, and real life.

i'm sorry, teal. i intend to read all of your fics, as soon as they are all up here, but i'm not sure what order they come in. you posted the order on the ezboard, but that's dead now.

anyway, here's the next chapter, since you've all been such nice people... it's another long one, where i've tried to put some tension into it, with arguments and things.

CHAPTER 20

“We’re lost.”

“No we’re not.”

“Ok, where are we, then?”

Rettick sighed. “I don’t know, but we’re headed in the right direction at least.”

Frag spoke up. “Well, how do you know that?”

Rettick pointed up into the sky. “The sun rose over there, so that’s… the west? Is that right, Greeb?”

Greeb shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve never had to navigate before in my life.”

“Well, I’m sure that is west, so we’re heading north, which is where we want to go.”

Nad shivered. “I told you, we’re lost. You’re going to get us lost, and then we’ll all die here. We’ll be eaten, or poisoned, or… or.. or starved, or…”

“Calm down!” Tillyn comforted him. “We’ll be okay. Rettick’ll get us out of here, and I’m sure Greeb can keep away the predators, and we’ve got three bigbros hunting for us. We’ll be okay.”

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling screech rent the air. All ten sligs froze.

Briori leaned over to Drak. “Do Scrabs live in the forest?” he whispered.

Drak shook his head.

“Then that must be that creature!”

Frag leaned over Rettick’s shoulder. “Do you still have that radar scanner they gave us?”

Rettck reached into a pocket and pulled out a black box with a round black screen on it. There was a bright white spot at one edge, moving towards the centre.

“Shit! It’s almost on top of us! Run!”

“Which way?”

Rettick pointed to their right. “That way!”

They began to run. Volt, strapped to Gormanul’s back, could not see where they were going, and began to panic. Nad was terrified, and most of the others were scared. The screeches got louder.

Greeb found his breath. “Shit, that thing’s fast!”

Drak panted. “Let’s change direction, see if we can lose it. Left!”

They turned left. The Crossbreed followed their every move.

“How’s that thing following us?” panted Frag. “I thought they had no sense of sight and bad hearing.”

“Smell?” hazarded Drak.

Frag shook his head. “It wouldn’t know we’d changed direction yet if it was following a scent.”

Lork grabbed the Radar. “Gimme that!” He tore the back off it to reveal a mass of circuitry… and a flashing white light. Their eyes widened.

“A fucking homing beacon!”

“That’s how it’s following us!”

“The bastards! They really wanted us to die, didn’t they?”

Nad moved forward. “Get rid of it, then!” He snatched the beacon from Lork, and swung his arm back to throw it out into the forest. Unfortunately they were stood on a particularly narrow branch, and his foot slipped. As he flew off the edge, Tillyn made a grab for his hand, but missed. Nad’s scream echoed through the trees.

“Nad!” called Tillyn.

They rushed to the edge, and stared over. They lost sight of Nad’s falling body in the darkness long before it would have hit the ground, and there was no sound but the echoes of his scream. There was a stunned silence, while they tried to take in the fact that one of them was dead. They had all lost friends before, but that had been at the hands of the Glukkons, and their friends had merely ‘disappeared’ when they were deemed to be troublemakers. None of them, except for Greeb, had ever had to actually watch anyone die before. They sat down, and Gormanul let Volt down from his back, and laid the stretcher on the branch.

When the shock had worn off a little, Greeb glance at the radar.

“At least the creature’s changed direction.” He looked up at the others. “He didn’t die in vain.”

Frag sighed. “We should get moving. The creature may be back at any minute.”

Lork stood up. “Right, but I think we need to sort some things out here. For a start, I’m not following some crazed revolutionary to my death at the hands of mudokon terrorists. Not any more. We followed him for nearly a week now, and now we’re one less. We can’t afford to lose anyone else. What we have to do is return to the flyer and try to get the radio equipment working. The guys at the factory will pick us up.”

Rettick started at him in disbelief. “Have you not been listening to a word I’ve said? Grozit wants us dead! That’s why we’re out here. That’s why there was a fucking homing beacon hidden inside the one thing that we’d be sure to keep with us at all times. That’s why we didn’t have enough fuel to get back, anyway.”

“He may want you dead, but I’ve served the Cartel well all my life, there’s obviously been some kind of mix-up. When I get back there, they’ll see the mistake they’ve made, and I’ll be given my well-deserved promotion.”

“Lork, you’re not thinking clearly. I think your steroids must have started to wear off.” Frag and Briori nodded, but the others just looked puzzled. “You’re acting irrationally, it’s just the comedown from being a bigbro. If you’ll just try and stay with us for a couple more days, the steroids will be out of your system, and you’ll be normal again.”

Lork snorted, and turned away. He began to run back the way they had come from.

“Lork!”

“Don’t be an idiot, come back!”

“Leave him.”

Rettick stared at Greeb in disbelief. “Leave him?”

“We have to stick together. If we go after him, we’ll just lose each –”

“Tillyn! Gorm! Stay here!”

Tillyn had begun to chase after Lork, and Gormanul wasn’t far behind. After a few second, they were out of view. Rettick turned to Greeb.

“Fine. You just protect yourself.” Without waiting for a reply, Rettick set off in pursuit of the three runaways.

“Rettick! You’ll just get us all lost!” Greeb turned to the others. “Try and stay with me. It’s all coming apart.” And he set off after the others. Drak, Briori, and Frag followed him. No-one thought to pick up Volt, who lay there.

“Guys? Come back! Someone help me!” He crawled on his one good arm, his cries echoing through the empty forest.