Village
Rita awoke in a daze; the smell of cooked meat filled the animal skin tent she was in. Looking around, she saw the tents open entrance, a pot over a fire outside the tent, but nothing else. Sitting up, she brushed off the discolored animal skin blanket that covered her. She tried to collect her thoughts, remember what happened….
She remembered hiking with her research team, two married scientist named Donna and Marlow Kishbar. They were tasked with exploring a newly found island and seeing if they could find an alternative source to the now non-existent blastia. She remembered her team reaching the island, setting up camp, and then….
The sound of snow crunching interrupted her thoughts; Rita quickly lay back down and covered herself, feigning sleep. A minute passed and she cracked an eye open to see what happened. Kneeling outside by the pot and fire was a man covered in strange leathery clothes. His wiry hair covered his face, but as he stirred the contents of the pot with a wooden spoon, she could see his rotted and jagged teeth when he opened his mouth and drooled in hunger.
Frightened, Rita pulled the blanket up further and nearly screamed when a something brushed her leg. She covered her mouth and breathed heavily; afraid the man would hear her she tried to slow her breathing. For five minutes she practically held her breath, and then she heard the crunching of snow and opened her eyes to find the man gone.
Slowly she looked under her blanket to see who had touched her, but all she saw were her legs and something attached to the blanket. Curious, Rita pulled the object up only to discover to her horror that it was a hand… with the Kishbar family tattoo on its ring finger.
NOW she screamed, and all around her she heard running in the snow and yelling in a language she didn't understand. Pushing the skin off of her she quickly scanned for a weapon, but before she found anything of use the tent door was blocked by gruesome figures. She saw men, women, even children who looked like the man she had seen outside earlier. Each one was dressed in what she now knew were human skins, each one grinned a mouth full of pointed teeth that jutted forward; each one had pure white eyes.
She rushed toward the entrance and must have caught them by surprise because she crashed right through them.
Running toward the islands forest, she saw more of the cannibals shamble out of the forest; but this time her eyes weren't drawn to their grotesque faces, no this time they were drawn to the farming scythes and sickles they carried.
Rita tried to quickly change directions but ended up slipping on an ice patch and falling to the ground, she looked up to see the tribe of cannibals surrounding her. They stopped when they formed a tight circle around her and knew she couldn't escape. A cannibal dressed in human bones and a loin cloth stepped out, his dark yellow skin was scarred with scratches he must have got while kidnapping his victims. The cannibal raised his sickle and screamed in victory, but was cut short when a crossbow bolt flew into his temple. Then the village was alive with noise, a war cry pounded Rita's ears and the cannibals hissed and shrieked at the new threat. As they ran into the village Rita took the chance to run into the safety of the forest.
Roose crouched on the oak trees thick branch, his Galivon crossbow in his right hand and holding his binoculars in another. Far as he could tell the aliens he was tracking had been kidnapped by Cannibals, and at least two were dead (he saw a women get decapitated, and a man taken into the "Fun Tent"). Roose removed his hood and scratched his black cat ears. He knew there were at most three aliens, but if two were dead, then where was the third? Either way, if you spent two days in a Cannibal camp you were probably dead anyway.
He put his hand to the communication stone embedded in his wrist and pressed down.
"Command" his voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. Roose stood at six feet two inches, a whole foot shorter than his brother, and weighed two hundred and eighteen pounds, and despite being seventeen his voice STILL hadn't passed puberty.
He cleared his throat again "Command, I'm ending the search. I'm getting my squad outta he-"
Suddenly Strops, the squads tracker, voice filled his head "Roose! I got a survivor near the red wood!"
Puzzled, Roose brought his Crossbow to his head, looked down the scope, and sure enough he saw a girl being chased by at least twenty Cannibals; she was almost into the forest, almost to Chunk's, the squad medic, position. Suddenly a small group of Cannibal hunters rose from the bushes.
Roose angrily pushed down on his comm. stone. "Chunk! Take out those hunters!"
"I can't my crossbows jammed!" Chunk's voice filled Roose' head.
Cursing silently Roose aimed in the middle of the circle at the Tribes leader.
Damn they already surrounded her? Roose thought to himself.
The target raised his sickle and screamed and Roose took the shot, a feeling of self-satisfaction swept over him as the bolt rammed into the cannibals temple and killed it instantly. As if on cue Strop roared into his amplifier, his scream echoed across the village and shook the snow off the trees and drew the Cannibals to his location.
Roose pulled the lever that drew the crossbows steel string back, and a new bolt from the bolt clip fell into place.
"Chunk!" Roose barked over the stone as he saw the girl run into the forest "Grab the girl! We'll meet you back at the Village!"
Scared and confused Rita ran for at least five seconds before a large figure in a white cloak dropped in front of her.
"I'm here to help-"the figure was cut off when Rita's boot connected with it's crotch.
Processing what the figure said, Rita paused "Wait" she said incredulously "You said your 'here to help'?"
The figure, who was now on the ground, said in a high pitched voice "Yes!" it coughed and struggled to its feet. In a motion of trust the figure pulled down its hood to reveal, much to Rita's surprise, the face of a human man. He was handsome but, her eyes darted up, he had CAT EARS!?
Before she could speak he picked her up "No time, my names Chunk, you can thank me later" and with that he darted into the forest.
Roose reached Strop just in time to see his kill two Hunters. "Nice of you to drop in!" Strop yelled back, rolling to the left to dodge the swing of a scythe.
Ignoring him, Roose drew his black and emerald green katana Benevolence; its green edge caught the sunlight and seemed to absorb it while the black center seemed to smoke from the suns rays. Screaming in challenge Roose rushed into the pack of Cannibals.
R00se: well that's the end of the first chapter. I wanted to make this chapter longer, but decided it may seem to drag on if I did so. I'm already working on the second chapter!