[Splat]

It's Friday and I'm logged on to 'Internet Explorer' (shudder) because it's easier to format in IE than in Chrome.

Which means it's that time again!
And I did just read through this one! And made some edits! I shouldn't let myself get away with this.

Righty-ho, last chapter had everyone settle in. Now it's time to introduce another important RPG character, amongst other exciting things...

Chapter 33

Javi was in the stockyards around the paramite cages; he’d fed all of the animals, and helped Bunny (that was Rycha; Bunny wasn’t a nickname anyone but Reg used to his face, and Reg was the only one he would let. Apparently he’d once attacked Bela when he’d called him Bunny, and Bela was huge) move the day’s supply of paramites round to the side of the building. Now he was helping Nick do his work on the machinery in the area.

“Javi, pass me the thing with the long handle and the big knobbly bit on the end.”

Nick had quickly given up using the name of the tools. Javi knew about as much about mechanics as he knew about theoretical physics. He handed over the tool. “How long is this going to take?” He wasn’t all that patient at the best of times, and right now he was just standing around a lot, doing a little bit of fetching and carrying when Nick needed it. He did have some things to do.

“Won’t be long now; just gotta get this… YOWCH!” There was a loud crackle and Nick leapt back, sucking his fingers.

Trying not to laugh, Javi hurried over to him. Several of the nearby paramites had looked up at the yell and were watching them closely. “You ok?”

“Stupid thing gave me an electric shock. I thought that wire was dead! The guy who wired this was the biggest idiot in the world!”

Javi stayed silent.

“What?” Nick demanded.

“I didn’t say anything. You can here me saying nothing.”

Nick glared at him, “Yeah, I think that might be the problem.” With a nasty look at the mudokon, he turned back to the machine, “If this isn’t the wire it’s supposed to be, then what is it?” He muttered to himself.

“Maybe it’s one they put in to route out people who don’t know what they’re doing?” Javi suggested.

“Oh, shut up. Hang on…”

Javi waited.

“Wait a second… GTRZ!”

“What is it?” Nick didn’t swear often.

“Shh!” Nick looked up and glanced at the paramite cages.

Javi followed his gaze, “Oh, you utter moron!”

Nick spoke in a very hollow voice, “There was supposed to be a security system where you can open all of the animal cages in a particular sector, in case of riots or break-ins in the stockyard or something, only the system never worked.”

“You stupid, stupid idiot.”

“Um, help?”

Javi realised that as the stockyard manager, he was suddenly in charge of things, “Alright, well if you go over and start locking the cages they’ll pretty quickly figure it out, so just turn and walk away slowly.”

“No way am I turning my back on a bunch of paramites.”

“You want to let them know something’s up? As soon as one realises the cages are open it’ll call the rest.” Javi was already walking away, “Then we run.”

Nick suddenly appeared at his side. He had his radio in his hand. “Um, Seven?”

There was a crackle from the radio.

“Yeah, this is Nick. Um, if you and some of the others could be ready and armed at the front entrance, Javi and I would be fairly grateful. We have a slight... paramite-related problem.”

Another crackle.

“Um, he wants to know how many we expect to have following us.”

“About 18?” Javi suggested, “Those are egg-hatching pens, I don’t know how often they’re used and I haven’t had a chance to take inventory over here yet, so I can’t be too exact.”

“Crackle, crackle.”

“Yes, 18.” There was suddenly a loud, hoarse shriek from behind them. “Soon as you can, then.” And then they started running.

Half a minute later they burst into the courtyard around the front of the factory and charged towards the doors; Seven, Expert and Bela were lined up there, waiting. Kix and Anni were hovering behind them, curious and nervous. A moment later the paramites followed, shrieking and leaping after them. They burst through the line of sligs into the building and they started firing.

“Anni, what are you doing here?” Javi yelled breathlessly over the noise of the shooting.

Anni looked up at him; her face was frightened, but Kix answered over her; “It was my fault. I was with Expert when Seven came and said you were in trouble, and I told her and we came to find out what was going on.

Javi looked angry, “Look, both of you go to the cafeteria and stay there.”

Anni shook her head, “We should go back to work.”

“Just get out of here! It isn’t safe!”

Kix nodded shame-facedly and led Anni towards the lifts. Javi turned back to the sligs, where Nick had joined them. The courtyard outside was littered with dead paramites. Nothing was moving.

“I count nine.” Seven said.

“Ten; there’s one in that corner,” Expert corrected.

Nick turned to Javi; “You’d better come with us; we’ll have to track down the rest.”

Javi nodded and joined the huddle of sligs as they moved out into the stockyards.

A few minutes later, Anni reappeared in the entrance hall having given Kix the slip, and trotted down the steps to the courtyard. She looked sadly around the dead paramites, went over to one, but it was covered in blood and the sight was horrible; she quickly backed off and moved to the gate out into the stockyards.

She paused at the gate and looked around, both for the sligs and any living paramites, but seeing nothing she headed out. She could follow the track of scuffed earth that the paramites had left and wandered back in their tracks. A few minutes later she reached the pens that they had escaped from and looked around. There were two more dead paramites here; evidently the sligs had come this way. She sat down in the dirt, feeling miserable. Why did they have to be killed? They were only trying to stay alive. She found tears in her eyes.

Her ears picked up a tiny noise and she ignored it. It persisted however, and she turned. It was a tiny scuffling, accompanied by a squeaking. She cautiously moved towards the sound; it was coming from one of the open pens.

The floor inside was thick with mud, some of it bloody, perhaps from their food. There was a trough of water against the edge of the pen and the sound was coming from underneath it.

Crawling through the mud, she headed towards the sound, pausing at the entrance to the cage, imagining someone locking it behind her, but she swallowed the fear and crawled on. The squeak suddenly became a rasp, repeated over and over and she finally spotted the source of the sound; a baby paramite was squashing itself beneath the water trough, trembling with fear.

“Hey, it’s ok”, Anni said gently, and then tapped her fingers on the ground, which was slightly firmer over here, in the way she had seen paramites speak to one another. The paramite kept rasping so she did it a second time, then a third. Finally it fell silent and very slowly, gently, she reached out a hand to the paramite. Its head was the size of her hand.

“It’s alright,” She said softly and again tapped her fingers on the floor. T-t-tap! The paramite took a tentative step towards her and a huge smile spread across her face.

She laid in the mud for ten minutes repeating that tap and talking quietly and oh so slowly the tiny paramite came closer to her, touched her hand with its claws, let her put an arm around it. “It’s ok, it’s ok…” Very gently she scooped it up in her arms, brought it to her chest. “Come on,” She gently raised herself to her feet, cradling it against her, bending her back in the low-roofed pen. Taking gentle steps, she walked out into the open and then began to hurry, carrying the baby creature against her. She could feel it moving in her arms, stirring as they passed the dead paramites outside the cage; she could feel its frightened heartbeat on her skin.

It took her a minute to reach the courtyard where the paramite stirred again, smelling the others and even tried to wriggle out of her arms, but she held it firmly and carried it into the building, down the corridor towards the back of the factory. Beyond the grinders there was a corridor that led into the old part of Rupture Farms; she had noticed it days ago, and gone down a short way. The main corridor was blocked off but it forked, and a tiny passage led into the abandoned part of the factory; she had been down that passage only a few metres, but she was sure it would provide a good hiding place for the paramite. She hurried towards it.

She passed the grinders without meeting anyone, remembering that there were only two sligs in the building now, and there wouldn’t be any mudokons in the corridor at this time of day; they were all working. Then she hurried down the forgotten passage and squeezed down the narrow side-route, hugging the paramite tight against her chest to fit them both. After a few metres the corridor widened out and she hurried down, passing through large, empty, dusty rooms and narrow catwalks over empty factory floors, down a flight of stairs, past abandoned slog-huts, broken grinders, long-forgotten chant suppressors, taking a few turns until she found herself at the end of a passage, nothing ahead but a closed, rusty door. She put the paramite down on the ground and knelt down before it to whisper, “Now don’t worry; I’ll be back soon. I’m just going to get you some food.” She backed away from it and it squeaked and took a few steps towards her but she shushed it and said again, “I’ll be right back.” Then she turned and ran.

After a trip to the meat fridge (nearly her least-favourite room in the entire factory, losing only to the slaughter room next to it) she ran back to the paramite’s hiding place, carrying a cut from a meep; it wasn’t at all a pleasant thing to carry but she thought of why she needed it and soldiered on.

Reaching the hiding place, she sat on the floor, gently stroking its back and talking quietly to it as it ate the meat, “I think I’ll call you Somi,” She said, deciding it was a girl, unaware that paramites had queens, not females. Mudokons were the same after all, and yet Anni was an exception. But she didn’t give it a thought; she simply decided that the creature was a girl. “I’m sorry I can’t stay here longer; I have to work, and if the sligs find out where you are… well, I don’t know what they’ll do. But I’ll come tomorrow, and I’ll bring you food!”

But in the end it was several hours later, after the workday had finished, that Anni left the hiding place and returned regretfully to the living half of the factory. Having missed dinner, she hurried immediately to the cafeteria which at this time she expected to find empty, but Dean and Kix were there and stood up quickly when she came in.

“Anni, we’ve been looking everywhere for you! Javi searched the stockyards about eight times for you before he had to go and see the boss!”

Anni looked envious, “Javi got to see the glukkon?”

Kix looked at her with strained patience. “Where did you go? You just ran off!”

Anni paused, “Can I have something to eat?”

“Anni!” Dean growled. “Tell us where you’ve been hiding yourself. Then I’ll get you some food.”

Anni nodded reluctantly and came over and sat down at the table with them.

Very quietly she told them about Somi, about rescuing her and hiding her and spending the afternoon talking and playing and bonding with her. Dean looked grave as she finished and Kix looked shocked, “Anni, that’s not a pet! It’s a wild animal!” Kix said.

“I know that!” Anni replied bad-temperedly, and had to stop herself from adding ‘so am I’.

Dean was silent, thinking. Anni looked at him pleadingly. After a few minutes he sighed, “Odd, I guess we’re stuck with it now, aren’t we?”

Anni grinned.

“Dean, you can’t be serious!” Kix cried.

“Well we can’t just kill it now. Ok, I’ll help you keep the secret, and Javi will to. But listen, Anni! You’ve gotta help us, too, so a few rules. Firstly, no disappearing in work-time, cus if the sligs catch you at that, they’ll want to know what you’re up to. Second, you don’t spend hours down there, cus again the sligs will get suspicious, and if you do go down there you tell me or Javi-” He glanced at Kix, who had her arms folded but nodded reluctantly, “One of us or Kix first.”

Anni nodded eagerly.

“And one more thing, Anni. If you want us to keep this secret then you listen to us. You do everything Javi and I tell you to or you’re on your own, understand?”

Anni grinned broadly, “I always do what you tell me!”

Dean pursed his lips, “Yeah, but usually only after you’ve tricked me into agreeing with you – alright, I’ll get you some dinner.”

* * *

Dean was waiting nervously outside of the mudokon bunks that evening when Javi stormed over, looking grouchy. “Hey, how did it go?”

Javi glared at thin air, “Did you find Anni?”

“Yeah; we’ve kind of got another-”

“Good.” Javi said and walked past.

“Um,” Dean said to the empty corridor, “Maybe this isn’t the best time then?”

He hurried into the bunks, “Javi,” He hissed.

Javi ignored him.

“Javi, what happened?”

“Nothing,” He grunted.

“Yuh huh, you come back from the boss’s office speaking in grunts at staring at your bed post for having the audacity to exist and tell me nothing happened. Come on, Javi. We’re best buds! What did he say?”

“Forget it.” Javi threw himself onto his bed and turned his back on Dean.
Dean sighed; Javi so rarely lost his temper but when he really got upset over something he could clam up; Javi had a lot of secrets about times like this.

“Well when you’re ready to talk…” Dean suggested hopefully and sunk onto his own bed.

Javi lay in bed, blood pumping in his ears, fury flashing in his eyes. The insult was all the worse because the slig had so brazenly said it there in front of him, as if he didn’t have ears to hear, as if his own voice didn’t matter, and Javi was all the more angered because that was right; it didn’t. Of course the glukkons wouldn’t listen to him over the slig. He gritted his teeth and pounded his pillow with a fist, but Nick’s words still rung in his head. Standing there in the boss’s office, with Arnie and his junior executive or whatever the other one was standing right in front of them and Nick saying, “Ya see I’d asked Javi to help, but he got really impatient. I moved away to check out a cable and Javi moved in, started messing about with the machine. Before I knew it, he’d set off some old security system, and released all of those paramites.”

* * *

It took three weeks before Anni broke her promises to Dean. They’d stopped work for dinner break and Anni had gulped down her food as fast as she could. She hadn’t been able to go and see Somi the previous evening, and hadn’t been able to stop worrying about her all day! Now, with twenty minutes until she had to go back to work, she was sure she could slip in a quick visit. She didn’t tell anyone because she was sure they wouldn’t let her. But she wouldn’t be gone long, and it was free time after all.

She made her way to the fridge, grabbed a steak of some meat that she was sure wasn’t paramite and crept to the corridor that led to the hiding place. In the end she had barely more than five minutes with Somi before she had to go back; she was just emerging from the tight passage when the alarm rang to announce that work was recommencing and she smiled to herself and walked out into the factory.

“And where have you been?”

She spun around, gasping. “Reg, you scared me to death!” She cried.

He smirked, “Only in my dreams. Go somewhere nice?”

She shook her head, “Just went exploring.”

“With a slab of raw meat?”

‘Oh Odd’, “Um, well, I thought if I ran into any animals back there it might be handy, you know, to distract them.”

He sneered at her, “Yeah, sure. Where’re you working today, mud?”

“On the top floor,” She replied defensively.

“Uh huh, well I might be paying you a little visit later today, make sure you’re doing your job properly, you know.” He leered and raised his gun, “And I’m not afraid to make sure you’re working, if you know what I mean.”

She rolled her eyes, “Whatever. I’ll see you later, then,” And she ran off towards the lifts.

To her very great annoyance, Reg began to follow her around like a shadow after that, always appearing where she was working, and even hanging around her after work hours, leering, smirking and always watching. She found it so hard to slip away from him long enough to visit Somi, and a few days later Javi had to go and take the baby paramite food, because Anni couldn’t get away from Reg to do it herself. And when he wasn’t following her he was hanging around that passage that led to the old part of the factory, blocking her way.

When Kix found out that Reg was paying Anni so much attention, she looked horrified. She was nervous and edgy and also started staying close to Anni, much to Anni’s continued annoyance. She soon lost her temper with the older female and began running away from her too, when she could.

Two weeks passed and Dean, feeling increasingly sorry for Anni who was getting more and more frustrated about being followed so much, decided to try and give Anni the chance to get away for a couple of hours.

He had finished work for the day and knew Anni was working in the grinders with another mudokon. All he had to do was get Reg away from her for a couple of hours, and after a quick conversation, Javi agreed to provide a suitable diversion for the slig. The workday was drawing to a close and Dean was intending to go and tell Reg that he was wanted in the stockyards, but as he approached the grinders he saw Kix, hiding in a doorway and peeking through. He walked up behind her, “Shouldn’t you be working?”

Kix leapt into the air and let out a muffled yelp, spinning on her heals. “Dean!” She hissed furiously.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kix lowered her gaze and made to walk past him. He grabbed her by the arm, “What are you doing here?”

Kix mumbled, “Just making sure Anni is alright.”

Dean nodded. He could hear Reg talking through the open door. “Kix, what is your problem with that slig?” he said to her back, still holding her arm. “I mean, I know he’s a bully but come on; he still obeys the rules and-”

She turned to face him and he stopped, because tears were glistening in her eyes. “He doesn’t care about the rules,” She said, shaking her head, “He hates Anni, because she’s my friend, and he hates everything about me.”

Dean looked uneasy, “I know he… he bullies you worse than he does anyone else, but I don’t think he-”

“He would,” She cut in sniffing. “I know he would, because…” Tears spilt from her eyes and ran down her face, “He let my best friend die.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Somi is the creative property of T-nex. (Hi Nexy!!!) Unlike in the RPG, she won't learn to talk. (Sorry.)
Arnie's 'junior executive' (aka. Otto) is the creative property of Dripik. We might even hear his name, soon.

I love how much more of the personalities of the characters I got to show in this chapter. Nick is mostly a nice guy and quite responsible but deep down inside he's a bit of a coward, hense his blaming the trouble on Javi. That didn't happen in the RPG but it seemed logical to me that it should have and it's something Nick might come to regret

Dean tries to be responsible but when it comes to Anni she always manages to talk him into agreeing with her. Kix is also trying to get on with them but is getting frustrated with Anni. She wants to be part of the gang but it's gonna take some time yet. The next chapter will tell us some more about who she is...

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