to clear up any confusion this story was written in partnership, so me and Scrabtrapman will be posting our chapters here. Scrabtrapman's chapters will focus on one character, while mine focuses on another.
Santh's tale: Chapter 1
Santh was sat next to the fire, warming his hands, watching his breath as it left his mouth and joined the cold, night air. He was thinking to himself. Thinking about last night, when they had to kill an escaped scrab. It had wondered into the free-fire zone where he was stationed, and they had to fill it full of bullets. He wished they had the equipment to tranquilise the poor beast and drag it back to its pen, rather than killing the thing in a violent, flurry of ammunition. He felt something touch his shoulder and spun around in shock. It was his friend, Dale.
“We got another run away.” He breathed, as if the escapee would be able to hear them if he spoke to loud.
“What? A mud?” Santh asked, placing his hand on his rifle lying on the mossy ground next to him.
“Yep. First a scrab, then this. Never been this busy since that little rebellion the muds had in the factory.” Dale commented, looking at the tent just next to them.
“Alright then.” Santh groaned, standing up. “Lets get this over with.”
They both walked away from the fire (and away from the warmth), rifles held by their hips. They walked through a bush that looked blue in the moonlight, and Dale stopped just short of a rock protruding from the ground. He knelt behind it, and Santh did the same.
“There look.” Dale whispered, emitting a small patch of air from under his face tentacles as he pointed into the darkness.
Santh looked in the direction of his finger, and couldn’t see anything at first. Then something moved, and he could just about make out the silhouette of a scrawny mudokon. Dale placed his rifle carefully on the rock, and took aim.
Sant realised what he was doing and put his hand on the gun.
“What ya’ doin’?!” He said hoarsely, attempting to look at this face in the night.
“He’s classed as an escapee now!” He answered irritably. “If he gets out alive it’ll give a bad example to the rest of the muds in Rupture Farms!”
“But they wont even know!” Santh replied, not giving in.
“Are you goin’ soft again?!” Dale said accusingly, staring down Santh. “You know we’ve got it lucky! The managers of Rupture Farms have totally forgotten about us, but we have to make sure no one escapes through here otherwise they’ll boost security and then they’ll find us. Do you wanna get stationed back on the processing lines?”
Santh looked at the ground he was kneeling on and replied. “No. I don’t.”
He didn’t look up again for a while. But he heard the gunshot, he heard the scream, he heard even more shots fired by Dale, and then silence.
“Got ‘im. He wont be runnin’ away from nowhere now!” Dale finished, and walked over to where the body had fallen.
Santh knew he was right, but it didn’t justify the murder.
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