I shook the hand of a muscular man, a military man no doubt. Great, another hot-head to deal with.
“I’ll be your Chief of Security.“ He muttered deeply, his huge muscular hand nearly crushing mine “The name’s magikmw.”
“Guzuntight?” I responded confused
Before he could be offended, a man with a shovel and a baseball hat lunged forth and shook my hand with the glee of a madman “The name’s Ellis sir!” With a smile that you could balance a moon on he held up one of the shovels “I’m a mina’! I can build stuff too, stone stuff not that rotty wooden stuff.”
“Fantastic.” I muttered
The other miner, spade in hand, rifle over his shoulder pushed Ellis out of the way “Cut it out, you’re scaring the guy.” His glare could have killed a cow as he shook my hand “Name’s McNeele, Dan McNeele. I can shoot a rifle if ya’ need me to, but this ones just for show.” He motioned to the old thing on his back “Family Heirloom.”
Two people hefted the only axes over their shoulder “I’m Thomas McCloudy, and this is Paige Anderson.” Paige nodded and continued to count the supplies to make sure everything was there.
A thin man laid on the cart still, his straw hat shading his eyes from the dampened sun “Hey.” He gave a slight wave “I’m the Gunsmith, tell me when you got some metal.” With that returned to his peace.
Sighing deeply, I touched my scar in nervousness “Alright, you two, start diggin’ and you two, start choppin.” I whipped out a map of our future fort “I’m gonna go gather some plants.”
-----
“Where did you go!?” I ran up the stone hill to see Ellis cheerily strolling down.
He looked back at the menacing maw of the cave “Oh ya’ know, heard somethin’ makin’ a scratchin noise in dem caves. Found a hole, and covered it up, don’t want no poor guy trippin’ over it.”
My eyes were wide in both frustration, fear, and pure confusion “Alright.” I muttered, twitching a little before nervously tripping down the hill. Hopefully nothing got out.
-----
Work has started on the initial palisade. I’m starting to get nervous about the wildlife
Especially since Paige has fallen asleep under the rafters.
The anaconda in particular has been rustling in the nearby bushes, fortunately the dogs scared it off. I might have to start training these things sooner then I would have hoped.
-----
Setting up a dormitory in a small nook in the hill. Putting a table in there so we don’t have to eat off the grass. I am also personally training the dogs, so they can better guard us against these large snakes.
Not because I have a crippling fear of snakes, and they will now follow me around and die for me, but to protect the… others… yes, the others… That’s why I trained them.
-----
Oddly, the pools in the north western part of the map still have water in them, while the ones next to our wagon have gone dry. The swamp is still as murky as ever, but at least the large puddles are drying up.
-----
Summers here, not that anyone could tell under all this murk. The outer wall is about a third complete, the bridge isn’t constructed yet.
Cautiously, I ordered the rock floor that Ellis built removed, and built a wooden floor several layers into the cave. Empfan came back out with a glint in his eye and three small rocks. Chuckling like he just discovered how to fire a gun.
“Check this out!” He showed the rocks to me
“Shouldn’t you be building the wall?” I asked with arms folded
“Aye! But look! We have hit the motherload! Iron, coal, and rigid rock!” He shook the rocks in direction, as if we had not struck a dirty stone, but a huge vein of gold “We won’t need these wooden walls! We will make a wall of bullets!” He burst out laughing and threw the rocks in the air “Now Imma goina get a drink.” He muttered and dragged himself off to the pile of ale.
-----
Thankfully, this embark was uneventful, I’ve had to many of these turn sour. Hopefully we can continue to establish our dominance on this side of the land, then we can work our way underground and--
“Pureheart!” Cloudy McThomas ran up to me balling like someone had died “Pureheart come quickly! He’s hurt!”
I ran around the cliffs and set my eyes on the mangled body, his leg was broken, and his back was twisted in an odd angle, he’ll never walk again “Do something!” Cloudy balled
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg263/scaled.php?server=263&filename=90951113.png&res=mediumIt was just a cat, or what was left of a cat, there was more on the walls then there was on the cat! Cloudy was removing the scaffolding when it wandered onto it. Cloudy yanked it right out from under the poor thing.
I stared at the mangled thing, what ever happened to ‘cats always land on their feet’? This thing landed on its feet alright, and splashed all over the walls! Yes, splashed! There’s no other way to describe it! Dear Armok I’ve never seen this much blood
“Do something!” Cloudy yelled again, shaking me violently
What am I supposed to do you crazy cat lady!? I didn’t even know cats had that much blood! Wide eyed and startled I nudged the cat with my foot -wait- that was his brain. Cringing, I nudged a different pile of giblets. Finally it let out a gnarled meow, got up, and walked several paces.
“Thank you Pureheart!” She shrilled and grabbed me
“Yeah, no problem.” I muttered as I saw the cat hacked and fell into a dried pool
Actually, this Cloudy girl is kind of cute. Cute in a crazy kind of way.
Later that day I followed Cloudy up the scaffolding, might as well ask her out before anyone else does. Just as I reached the top of the ladder, I shouted out to her “Hey Cloudy, what do you say me and you go get a drink sometime.”
She turned around, grabbed the shaky bridge and ripped it away from the wall, the brick flying on the other side. Trapping herself in the process. Smiling at me she ducked around the ledge, out of sight.
A simple ‘No’ would have sufficed.
-----
The bushes rustled again. Again the dogs barked and the rustling subsided.
“Cap’n.” Ellis said tugging at my shoulder, obviously out of wind “We have a probl’m.” He pointed to the bush
“It’s just a snake, don’t get close and we should be okay.” I muttered and returned to my drink.
“Well… What happens if its not a snake?”
“Alligator.” I squeeked “EVERYONE GET INSIDE!” I bellowed over the sparse sounds of labor.
-----
We sat there, for several weeks as the alligator loomed near our workshops, finally, we had to survive off one barrel of meat. Not ideal conditions. Finally, the alligator lost interest and returned back to its brethren. Cautiously, I ordered everyone outside to continue work. Just in time to, because shortly afterwards, some members of our party caught up to us. Population is now 15. We might just get these walls up before the Zeds come bearing down.
But the real question is, can we support them?
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Topic: Ravenmist [Corrosion | _34.04_] Now Accepting Overseers! (Read 17661 times)