Okay, heres the new chapter, it's not too good. I decided not to put all I had intended into the chapter, because I felt the story was moving much too quickly. Well, I'm only an amature after all!
But its still the same length as all the others so thats okay.
No action in this chapter, sorry!
Chapter 12: Travelling Nomads
-5 months after the destruction of Mort Labs-
Many months had passed, and to no avail. It had taken almost half as much time for Dr Mort to convince Eba, but this was different. Eba lacked the knowledge to convince, and 024 lacked the feeling to be convinced. As of yet, 024’s systems had not returned to their usual state, and he still had none of his extra functions back, or so he said. Eba was sure 024 could escape, but why wasn’t he? He wasn’t escaping, but he still wasn’t listening. Bea had said it was like “trying to convince a Scrab that you taste bad…as it charges at you…with its herd…while you’re in a dead end…tied to a stake…smeared with Meep blood.” And Eba agreed, although he seemed to lack the imagination to word it like that exactly. Over the months Eba had made good friends with Bea, and they had made quite a good hide-out, which Bea called his ‘tree house’. They had sustained themselves on a diet of the strange fruits, and the occasional bird, killed using Bea’s newly made slingshot and longbow, which 024 had finally accepted were not poisoned. They had become accustomed to the immediate area, taking it in turns to explore the few surrounding miles. Apart from the birds, there was no sign of any other living thing. Eba had expected to be fighting off Fleeches every night, but Bea insisted that they lived in the rockier areas, and it seemed he was right. The only thing they were not used to were the constant strange sounds, and the fall of night. There was something very odd about this place, Bea insisted it was ghosts, but Eba did not believe in that kind of thing, even when Bea protested that Abe had in fact met three! The fact that Eba had been made to learn secret documents in his schooling, which told of giant Guardian that roamed Necrum looking for intruders, and the number of these was unknown, did not help him sleep.
Today was like every other, Eba and Bea had been trying to deprogram 024, to no avail, and every so often Bea would lose his patience, leave the den, and return with some food. Just as usual. The sunset was slowly getting darker, and Bea had put on his blanket sewn from leaves, which he had made for each of them, even 024. Eba had said that this would make him see them as less of a threat. He was preparing for the rush of cold and dark. “Wrap up warm” he said to Eba, tossing him his blanket. Eba put it over his shoulders immediately, and then put 024’s on top of him. 024 had been recently moved to a less painful position, tied in a sitting position to the largest offshoot of the branch they were on. Suddenly it went quiet. This was what normally happened. All the odd sounds stopped, and every creature in the jungle seemed to freeze. Then it came. The slow whooshing sound growing louder and louder, as the dark spread from the distance, changing the sky, and the forest, from oranges, reds and browns to blues, purples, and blacks. The wave passed over them, the cold chilled them to the bone, as did the low moan like sound, but this time there was something else. A small stifled cry, from something real, a few metres off, sounding like it came from the jungle floor. Then amidst the silence was the sound of other voices trying to shush the crier. Before Eba could make out what they were saying, the familiar jungle sounds returned, muffling these new sounds. Eba turned to Bea to ask if he had heard, but Bea was already crouching, drawing an arrow from his wooden quiver. Eba slowly, and as quietly as possible, leant towards the edge of his nest, and peered out, rifle at the ready. He was about to turn his night vision on when small lights began to flicker at the trunks of the trees ahead. They, whoever they were, were lighting torches. Eba used his rifle to zoom in, and with the now flickering torch flames, he could make out most of these mysterious visitors. They were Mudokons, bedraggled and tired looking. They also looked very frightened. Two carried a stretcher, on it was laid another Mudokon, cut all over, with an arm missing, twitching uncomfortably in his sleep. Eba turned to Bea and whispered “Mudokons” to which Bea nodded, keeping his bow ready. “Its okay Bea, they’re Mudokons” he whispered again. Bea shook his head vigorously whispering back “What if they’re ghosts?” Eba sighed “They’re carrying someone injured, they have torches. They aren’t dead!” Bea still looked uncomfortable, and stayed away from the edge of the nest. “They could be…Necrumanians…” Eba tried hard to remember what an undertaker was “…Mudokons come to bury their dead?” “No!” hissed Bea “A band of renegade lunatics who grievously wound travellers, and then sacrifice them to their ‘spirit gods’” Eba was quite disturbed by this, he thought all Natives were good. “Go down and see” Bea said to Eba, gesturing his head in the general direction “no way!” retorted Eba “What do you think they’ll do if they see a green, poison barbed Slig, with a huge rifle and glowing yellow eyes!?” Bea muttered something about not being afraid and then leapt from the branches. He and Eba had become very good at traversing the tree tops, quietly, and now was the time to use this skill. Bea slunk along another trees branch, grabbed a vine, and silently swung around the tree, going lower and lower. He stopped on a branch directly above one of the Mudokons heads. No one noticed him, bow string drawn. “…Don’t…move…a muscle…” He shuffled around slightly, getting a better view of them all. One seemed to start moaning “It’s a Necrumanian…we’re doomed…” to which Bea was pleasantly surprised, still he kept his solemn demeanour, and his bow at the ready. “You’re not Necrumanians?” he questioned. They all answered no in unison, fearing the worst, some covering their faces, some dropping to their knees. “…good.” Replied Bea calmed considerably “In a second I am going to call down a SLIG. Don’t worry, he’s with us…” The Mudokons terror, that had begun to subside, returned again. Bea whistled a signal, and Eba climbed down to the party, from the other side, scaring them even more. “It’s a demon Slig!” shouted one of the Mudokons, sparking the others off into screaming and flailing. Bea stared, bored at the crowd. “No he’s just…never mind. Why are you here? In the middle of Necrum?” The Mudokons quieted down, eventually, and the one with the showiest head dress, probably the leader, spoke. “P…please, just give us somewhere to sleep, we can tell you all you want…just let us rest…” Bea looked over at Eba who pointed upwards saying “Its not big enough” Bea agreed. “You’ll have to sleep here tonight, there’s no way you could all fit in our nest, let alone get to it.” The Mudokons began their screaming and flailing again. “But the Fleeches will get us! Or the Necrumanians!” Bea sighed, waiting for the commotion to calm down “There are no Fleeches here, or Necrumanians. We will watch over you from the treetops. Settle down in and around the trunk and roots of that tree” Bea pointed to the tree opposite theirs. “We’ll have a good view of you from there. Put your torches out.” They Mudokons obeyed blowing the flames out. When they looked back up, the strange Mudokon and Slig had both vanished. Up above them, in the treetops, Eba and Bea readied for a sleepless night.
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