Chapter 2.
Back at the camp of gray-uniforms, the perimeter guard silently
fell to the ground, breathing his last. He had died silently.
The rest of the tipped-off gray's crept towards the perimeter,
nearly silent, veterans of guerilla warfare. The lead gray
came upon the still-warm body of his fallen comrade. In the
on-again, off-again moonlight he could see the half-decapitated
body. Something had efficiently stopped this guard. Just then,
the clouds cleared the moon again, and light shone brightly.
A dark and immense figure bore down upon him at incredible speed.
Though terrified, he shot from the hip at point blank.
The musket-fire lit up the night and illuminated the creature.
It took the shot, and hesitated almost imperceptibly, then
in a blur, half-decapp'ed the lead gray, who fell in a heap.
Enjoying the lit target, the 20 other grays let loose.
musket-fire filled the air. The creature staggered and fell.
Yells of "there more of 'em!" pierced the air. Pistol-fire was
heard as the grays retreated back to the campfire. More
grays fell. At the campfire, the bearded commander knew
what was happening. He knew the creatures. He drew
the "funny looking" sabre his troops had kidded him about.
Across the river, Tom and Huck shook of the odd-colored
snowflakes of the nuclear winter. It was a small meeting of
five in the woodland clearing. The other three were ...
... sitting eating toast, failing to notice what was going on some distance
behind them.
Buried deep in the ground, the remains of the Kessler4000 shuttlepod rested
in a crumpled heap. Then something popped. No one saw, much less heard the
artistic license clank to the blackened floor of the craft. The license had
spung a leak in the hidden, most deadly cargo of the craft.
Leftovers from Star Trek II.
The slow mist of the Genesis Project wafted upwards out of the crater
created by the shuttles crash. It's highly technical compounds floated over
the soft, muted yellow grass until coming ot rest on a small pile of fox
feces.
The chemicals began their fiendish work. Bit by bit, they merged and
mutated the now dry mound. Within moments, fur and enamel sprouted from its
slowly forming body. Underneath the fur, the skin of the forming beast
hardened to that of adamantium. Sharp, cutting teeth sprouted from a
ravenous maw. Floppy and fuzzy ears ended in a series of sharp spikes, bent
on death.
Titter had been reborn. And this time she wasn't kidding around.
Checking her fluffy tail, which was filled with upended nails, and could
be shot with the force (and pleasure) of a pnumatic nailgun, Titter slowly
loped forward toward the unsuspecting Tom & Huck & Friends...Always
obsessed with Tom & Huck, Titter failed to factor the fox into her plans
again! Her nail-tail was caught flaccid as the oportunistic carnivore
latched his jaws around her neck, and a quick flick of his head snapped her
vertebra like dry twigs. The skin had not been pierced, such was its
strength, but the very bones upon which she relied had betrayed her! Her
sharped teeth gnashed futiley as the life drained from her eyes. The fox
was stymied by the toughness of the skin, and after chewing for a while he
realized that this was no easy meal. Fortunately, a number of fox friend
were nearby, and he summoned them to share his treat. After long hours of
gnawing, the stupid bunny was finally consumed. Saying farwell, the foxes
dispersed to the far corners of the county. Then next morning, the remains
of Titter were in steaming piles several miles distant from one another. To
add a dusgusting exclamation point to this portion of the story, a black
bear made a meal out of one of those piles, and wandered off to parts
unknown with some of Titter's earthly remains slowly digesting in his
stomach. Meanwhile, back at the camp...
...Tom & Huck and their three companions worked feverishly on their charge.
Small, fluffy, and extremely strong, the furry rodent crouched nearby,
poised for the kill.
"Now!" shouted Huck.
In an instant the rabbit leaped forward and landed squarely at the fox of
a quivering fox. A quick slap of the paw, tumbled the weasly rodent, and
the rabbit made haste in dispatching the beast with a quick flick of her
own jaw, the fox's vertebrae snapping like so much dry twigs under the
intense pressure. Satisfied with the easy kill, knowing it could do the
same to any number of foxes set against it, the rabbit looked toward its
master.
Tom smiled. "She's one helluva rabbit Huck. Those cybernetic implants
really are amazing. And she learns paw-fu quite quickly. What did you say
she has in her chassis?"
Huck grinned evilly. "A Goretex polymer muscle augmentation, Titanium Bone
lacing, orthoskin, cybereyes with theromogrpahic, mag sight and flare
compensation. Her claws have been replaced with razored adamantium, and her
left front paw has been modified with a 3 shot shotgun. To top it off, she
has delta grade wired reflexes with a Reation enhancer. She's a real killer."
Tom shook his head in amazement. "What did you say her name was again?"
"Titter."
"Hmmm... and she was cloned months ago from that nest of rabbits we nuked
a bit ago?"
"Yup. That's why we had to do it. Their queen was on to what we had done.
We had no choice."
A long silence settled over the five. It was broken by one of the red
shirts standing near the forests edge.
"What are you gonna do with her now?"
Huck massaged the growing stubble on his chin. "There's some goings on a
ways down here, that I, for some reason feel that we need to attend. So
we're gonna gear up, and head down there."
Within minutes, Huck's words were reality, as the crew of five, armed to
the teeth with heavy military grade weapons and armor, along with the
killer cyber-rabbit, Titter, slinked through the forest to where they soon
heard sounds of...
....Deer foreplay. coo-ing and grunting were heard. Several foxes were
watching from the sidelines. Titter began to titter, a somewhat metal-ish,
cyber-ed titter. After some hours of Deer tittilation, Huck received
a comminique on his Corncob-pipe/comminicator.
"Its the one who signs our paychecks!" Huck grunted.
"Tisn't so!" Tom cried.
"Yes indeedy" Huck replied.
"Well what the flack ya waitin' for? speak!" Tom barked.
"Uh, like, okay and stuff. Stop getting so down on me." Huck leveled.
Tom rolled his eyes.
"Okay" Huck said "we are to proceed to sector gamma gamma delta niner".
"You mean Texarkana?" Tom queried.
"yeah" Huck replied.
"Well why didn't you say so?" Tom complained.
"Valid point" Huck said, and led his company onwards.
*******
Back at the gray's camp, the smell of death hung in the blackness.
the Beard's special sword had done well. But so had the dark creatures.
The gray troops had fought well, but their weapons had has run out and
didn't fire fast enough. They were all dead. With the aid of his troops
and his skill with his special sword, they had killed two more after
the first, but a fourth one lurked. Beard was not well, the creatures
had gravely wounded him. He could sense the creature approach.
Beard was wheezing, propped on an elbow, sucking chest wound flowing.
And then the creature was nearly upon him. He gritted his teeth.
Then there was a small metallic popping noise. And the creature fell
on top of Beard. In his injured state, this was trouble enough. But
something helped the vile carcass off him.
And there stood ... Vinnie "hammer toes" Greenthistle.
"Hafling" Beard rasped, "I thought we locked you up".
"Well" Vinnie replied "your guard don't search foot-hair very well",
and proudly held a small,odd gun that apparently packed a punch.
"And now" Vinnie said "we must ...
...get the hell out of here."
Beard managed a small chuckle. "Unlikely." Blood spat from his mouth, as
his newfound, short, furry friend helped him along. "There's miles of woods
in either direction, and the nearest fort is at least half a days travel
from here. I'll never make it."
Vinnie smiled. "Think that if you choose." he led the injured Beard down
through the forest to the river's edge. "Get in." he said flatly.
Beard managed to turn toward the halfling. "What?" he gestured toward the
cool water. "You're trying to kill me!"
Vinnie was unmoved. "Not likely. I saw what you did with that sword back
there, and I'm willing to wager that you are the only one who can do that.
So, it's in my best interest for you to survive. Plus, with those beasts
out there, and the nukes that have going off lately, you are my only hope
to get out of here alive." Vinnie slowly eased into the cool, calm water.
He held out his hand toward Beard.
"So, 'enemy of my enemy.' Are you my friend?"
Beard sighed heavily and eased into the water, it's frigid temps stinging
his wounds.
"Hold you breath now." Vinnie commanded and he pulled himself and the
injured Beard under the water's surface.
His strength waning, Beard relaxed and let Vinnie lead him. *I've no
strength to oppose him, so I may as well make this quick.* Beard could feel
himself being pulled deeper under the water. Pressure mounted on his
injured chest, making it more difficult to hold the precious oxygen in his
lungs. The pressure continued for what seemed like an eternity, until Beard
suddenly felt a cold blast of air wash over his head. He gasped, sucking
wind in hard. He looked around.
"I'm underground!" he exclaimed looking around at the scene before him.
"I'm....
wangchung, chap. 3
back to the FATGOP page