Ah, I wondered where you (and the prompt!) had got to :) I figured you were writing the final part of Hindsight actually :-D
Keeping watch The night was quiet, there were dull roaring noises from the river but we were all used to water and the way it sounds. It was actually a relief to sleep somewhere, albeit cold and hard, without worrying that we'd wake to find ourselves under attack, or worse. We still took turns on watch but it was a long, tedious watch where it was hard to stay awake and a relief to get back to sleep. We probably actually overslept a touch, but without the sun to wake you at dawn it's hard to tell. We talked, briefly, about trying to find a way around the squeeze from last time, but even Jimmy wasn't really strongly advocating for potentially getting lost in these caves so we went back down there, pushed, pulled, and forced the damn corpse through, and then helped Jimmy along as much as he'd let us. It was an unpleasant hour or so in the near dark with the walls and ceiling and floor all far too close, and the creature had definitely gone into some kind of rigor mortis, but we got through. We were sweaty despite the cold, covered in small scratches and gashes and rock dust, but we knew that we were past the worst of it. We trekked through the caves and emerged opposite Elizabethtown and much higher up, when the sun suggested it was about three in the afternoon. I stretched, feeling the sun's rays warm me up after what felt like years in the dark and cold, and we set the creature down for five minutes and just breathed the fresh air. "What's that?" said Jimmy, pointing towards Elizabethtown. There was a thin column of smoke there that we'd already noted, wondering briefly if they'd burned the town down but realising there wasn't enough smoke for that. Ben and I both searched the view for what he'd seen, and Ben found it first. "A hot air balloon," he said, squinting and shading his eyes with his hand. "Probably not ours," I said, "since we barely had it working when we left. I don't see the Elizabethtowners doing anything with it." "Shanghai Suzie then," said Ben. The sinking feeling I felt as I remembered that we'd had a warning that she was on our trail, with the inventor of the hot air balloon we'd... uh, borrowed. "Great," I said, with deep feeling behind the word. Even Jimmy looked a little shocked at the depth of sarcasm. "Let's go back to Eldorado. I'd rather teach these creatures table manners than meet her." "They're probably looking for us," said Ben. "If we get back and drop the body off and head off straight away... we'll be sleeping outdoors again, but we'll be gone before they land." Jimmy nodded. "They're way over west," he said, pointing. "And the wind's blowing that way too. There's no way they'd see us and get back in the next couple of hours." I nodded, acquiescing, and hoping that the two of them were right.
Oh man, the horror that image of them pushing the body through the tight squeeze put in my head... ugh.
Well, it looks like they managed to beat Suzie's arrival, but not by much. I think they've got the right plan, though, for all that she'll still be on their trail. She seems... persistent.
2 comments:
Ah, I wondered where you (and the prompt!) had got to :) I figured you were writing the final part of Hindsight actually :-D
Keeping watch
The night was quiet, there were dull roaring noises from the river but we were all used to water and the way it sounds. It was actually a relief to sleep somewhere, albeit cold and hard, without worrying that we'd wake to find ourselves under attack, or worse. We still took turns on watch but it was a long, tedious watch where it was hard to stay awake and a relief to get back to sleep. We probably actually overslept a touch, but without the sun to wake you at dawn it's hard to tell.
We talked, briefly, about trying to find a way around the squeeze from last time, but even Jimmy wasn't really strongly advocating for potentially getting lost in these caves so we went back down there, pushed, pulled, and forced the damn corpse through, and then helped Jimmy along as much as he'd let us. It was an unpleasant hour or so in the near dark with the walls and ceiling and floor all far too close, and the creature had definitely gone into some kind of rigor mortis, but we got through. We were sweaty despite the cold, covered in small scratches and gashes and rock dust, but we knew that we were past the worst of it.
We trekked through the caves and emerged opposite Elizabethtown and much higher up, when the sun suggested it was about three in the afternoon. I stretched, feeling the sun's rays warm me up after what felt like years in the dark and cold, and we set the creature down for five minutes and just breathed the fresh air.
"What's that?" said Jimmy, pointing towards Elizabethtown. There was a thin column of smoke there that we'd already noted, wondering briefly if they'd burned the town down but realising there wasn't enough smoke for that. Ben and I both searched the view for what he'd seen, and Ben found it first.
"A hot air balloon," he said, squinting and shading his eyes with his hand.
"Probably not ours," I said, "since we barely had it working when we left. I don't see the Elizabethtowners doing anything with it."
"Shanghai Suzie then," said Ben. The sinking feeling I felt as I remembered that we'd had a warning that she was on our trail, with the inventor of the hot air balloon we'd... uh, borrowed.
"Great," I said, with deep feeling behind the word. Even Jimmy looked a little shocked at the depth of sarcasm. "Let's go back to Eldorado. I'd rather teach these creatures table manners than meet her."
"They're probably looking for us," said Ben. "If we get back and drop the body off and head off straight away... we'll be sleeping outdoors again, but we'll be gone before they land."
Jimmy nodded. "They're way over west," he said, pointing. "And the wind's blowing that way too. There's no way they'd see us and get back in the next couple of hours."
I nodded, acquiescing, and hoping that the two of them were right.
Greg - hah, no. But I got there eventually!
Oh man, the horror that image of them pushing the body through the tight squeeze put in my head... ugh.
Well, it looks like they managed to beat Suzie's arrival, but not by much. I think they've got the right plan, though, for all that she'll still be on their trail. She seems... persistent.
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