Chapter 17+18

Chapter 17 and 18

CHAPTER 17: BIG DECISION: TO STAY OR TO LEAVE? DREW GREW UP

They were gathering in a big room, some are eating ration, others are just laid back in comfy chair. They formed semi-circle. The mood was very dark ever since they found out that none of the colonists survived, and that most likely, they will not survive either. They are at impasse. This is the time where the wise words of the captain would have helped tremendously. Unfortunately, the captain is no longer with them. They are completely at loss as to what to do.

Drew was sitting cross-legged in front of the group. Even when the chips are down, she couldn't bring herself to be part of the group. She was cradling her rifle, both for support and protection. Some of the guys aren't exactly female friendly. And as the sole female member of the crew, she was definitely uneasy, to say the least.

"The way I see it," Drew said, "we need to get off the planet as soon as possible." She was completely at loss, lacking direction. Nobody bothered to respond to her, although Adam eyed her with curiosity.

"I mean," Drew continued, "isn't rescuing the colonists the sole reason why we are here?"

"We're supposed to trade goods with them." said Adam. "Of course, that goal is no longer valid."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Drew.

"Beats me." said Adam.

Nobody said anything to anybody. Their body language betrayed their feelings. They were seriously depressed.

"How about we kill some monsters for fun?" Leslie asked.

"I don't think we have enough bullets for that." Drew said.

"I think we have enough. We have the whole armory for ourselves!" replied Leslie.

"I don't want to do it. We can't even handle a small group of monsters, being prepared as we were." said Drew.

"That was a fluke!" said Leslie.

"How do you know?" asked Drew.

Leslie didn't say anything. Everybody was staring at him, waiting for him to answer. He became uncomfortable. "I don't have to take this from a woman!" he finally said.

"What does that mean?" asked Drew, surprised.

"It means, you just shut up and do as you're told!" snarled Leslie. Drew was in shock. She was completely speechless.

"That still doesn't answer why you think we can handle the monsters, them having kicked our collective asses back there." said Adam.

"Well, that's not true.” said Leslie. "We killed the whole bunch of them in the lot outside."

"That's because they came to us in waves, so we could reload in between. When they come to us all at once, we'd be hard pressed to keep up." said Adam. "Besides, no telling when another big and scary monster will come up, and we need rockets to deal with them. We don't have a lot."

"Well," Leslie said, "We'll just kick their butt again!"

"How?"

"With our weapons!"

"We had weapons last time."

"We have guts, and we can kill them."

"Are you saying we didn't have guts last time? And how exactly are we going to kill them?"

"The trouble with women is that they don't have guts like us men. We'll kill the monsters for sure!"

"Leslie, there's only one woman here. The rest are men, and it doesn't make much difference. About the only difference is that she managed to hold them up when you were knocked over by the back blast. What difference does it make that she's a woman?"

"Well, big difference. She's a woman and she's weak."

"What difference does that make?"

"She's weak! She's stupid! She's totally useless!" Leslie put down the cup of coffee he's been holding and started to gesture animatedly and excitedly, swept over by his own conviction.

"How do you figure that?" Adam kept the questions coming, pushing for answers and explanation.

"Everybody knows women are useless! You know where they belong? They belong in the kitchen! Yeah, that's where they belong!"

"What difference does that make?"

"They're only good for cooking, cleaning, and children. Baby factories, that's them!"

"What difference does that make?"

"There's just no helping them. They're stupid and weak!" Leslie was so excited that he stood up and made wild gestures. "Stupid and Weak! Stupid and Weak! That's them women!"

"What difference does that make? We're talking killing alien monsters here, Leslie. Don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject!" Leslie was gesturing wildly. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CHANGED THE SUBJECT!" Leslie was near shouting. "The fact is, women are completely worthless whores who are only good for making babies! There's just no helping them. We just tolerate them because they're good at crying and fainting. There's absolutely no good use for them!"

"They can do more than that." Adam was perked up, seeing Drew's reaction changing from shock to extreme anger. Leslie missed it completely.

"Yeah, right. Maybe good for cooking and cleaning. That's all they're good for. Cleaning dishes. Cleaning toilets. Cleaning cloth..." At that moment, Leslie's cup that was set down on the floor exploded, spilling its coffee on Leslie's feet. Leslie was staggered back to his chair, shocked. Drew shook with anger. Her rifle was shaking in her hands, her finger was halfway pushed on the trigger.

A red laser dot could be seen dancing around on the ground on the broken coffee cup, moving slowly, madly to Leslie's groin, and stayed there. Everybody froze, including Adam.

Adam cleared his throat. He slowly and carefully said the next few words. "Well, like I said, they can do more than that..." The mad dancing red dot on Leslie groin slowly moved away. Finally, Drew calmed enough to switch it off. Her shoulder slumped. She said nothing. Her whole body sagged, even though her eyes still burned with fire.

"But women are stupid and weak..." Leslie was hesitant in speaking the words. He still couldn't come to terms opposite of his prejudice despite facts to the contrary.

"Not when she's holding that big honking rifle of hers, she's not!" retorted Adam.

Everybody laughed, at Leslie's expense. Drew merely smiled sadly. She had completely forgotten that she had toilet duty on the ship until Leslie reminded her. That will be her cruel fate when they get off the planet.

Everybody went quiet again, not knowing what to say. At length Drew turned around. She walked to the next room, which was an exhibition room. "When you're done here and want me, I'll be in the other room. Making plans." She forced her reluctant feet to move and take one step after another.

"Making plans. Just like the captain." said Bob.

The captain! That stopped her in her track. Her whole body slumped. She owed so much to her captain, and the captain died. She couldn't do a thing. She couldn't even take revenge. She never felt so useless in her whole life. She broke down and cried. There was no one there to comfort her. She just stood there in the middle of the room crying her eyes out.

The guys became uncomfortable. They were unused to seeing a girl cried alone, and their instinct was to shield her, protect her. Unknown to Drew, the guys felt the same way as her, except guys can't cry. They make jokes. They teased each other. But each and everyone of them held as much respect for the captain as she. Each and everyone in the room became introspective. They held a moment of silent for the captain.

Drew's sobbing finally came to an end. Her tears ran out. Without wiping her tears that were streaming down her cheeks, she stood up straight. Addressing Bob, she said, "Yeah."

Then she walked across the room to the exhibition room, alone, without looking back.
The guys are milling about, doing nothing. Finally, Adam stood up. "I'm curious as to what her plans are. I'm going to join her." He went to the exhibition room. One by one, the guys followed him.

Time: 52 minutes
Words: 1413


CHAPTER 18: THE PLAN OUT

They were gathered in the exhibition room. There is a huge display of model of the whole compound. The little plastic buildings were a big help in visualizing their plan. Drew was leading the discussion.

"The way I see it, we have two choices: Either go East where you landed, or go West where I landed." Drew was gesturing along the model.

"What's on the West?" Someone asked.

"Her shuttle." answered Adam.

"Does it work?"

"Steering column is in pieces." answered Drew.

"Well, then we go East. Safer that way, since we already cleared the path when we landed."

Drew looked around. "Any objection?"

Adam said, "It's a long way from here. Some of the creatures may have moved in, in the meantime."

"The question is," said Drew, "Can you handle it? Can you handle the creatures that may have wandered since last time?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Then that's what we'll do."

"Why don't you just bring your shuttle here to the airport?" Adam was pointing to the airport on the model. "We were going to land there because it would be convenient."

"It's out of range." Drew said. "Wait a minute. You mean you didn't land at the airport?"

"The captain decided to land away from the airport for safety reason. He figured to land in an open area so we can clear any monsters that may be around."

"That's a wise decision, but where did you land, exactly?"

"Up North. Here." Adam pointed somewhere off the map. Drew did a quick calculation. “That's about what 3-4 miles?”

"About right."

"That's a long way." Drew mused. How long did it take them to cover the ground? She was way over to the other side. It has taken her all day to get to this point.

"We were jogging around. We figured about 14 miles round trip should be fine." said Adam.

"Oh." Drew didn't think that was so wise, but there is a reason why the captain excluded her from the landing party. Now that she knew this fact, she doubted that she could've kept up with the guys, being encumbered with weapon and armor.

"Well?" asked Adam. "Shall we move East or North?"

"East for now." Drew said. "We may have to stop somewhere if we run into some difficulty." Meaning, Drew thought, I will be holding back the guys because I can't jog that far.

"Very well. East it is." agreed Adam. "Everybody agreed?" Heads nodded. "Kev, find us a route!"

"No problem." Kevin was just itching to get into action. According to my sensors, there are nests here, here, and here." Kevin was pointing to different areas on the model. "So, I suggest that we go here and here. We'll arrive at the airport by evening."

"Hey, I just thought of something." Drew said.

"Yes?"

"It's an airport! We can just grab some planes there and fly!"

"Planes don't go to space, and there aren't any. We checked."

"Did you?"

"Yes. That's why we didn't land there. We also covered the ground afterwards. No planes."

"Not even spare parts? Planes we can fix?"

"That's a good question. Is there?" Kevin consulted the sensors. "There may be. I see some vehicles there, but no planes...”

"Well, that's too bad." Drew said. "Anyway, if everybody agrees, we can go now and hit the airport by tonight. And work on another plan by morning."

"I agree to that." Adam said.

"Me, too." Kevin said.

Everybody else also agreed.

"Well, then, let's get a move on." Drew said.


Time: 33 minutes
Words: 593
Total Words: 2010