BLUE SUB: GAIDEN
Part 4: "Into the Blue"
.o.o.o.
Garr ran as fast as he could, through the jungle, trying to get to the coastline. He had to get as far away from the jungle as he could. The little boy felt, somehow, that it would be safer if he could get back to the boats that he and his family and the others had come in.
His small bare feet finally touched down on sand as he made his way out into the open. The sun shined down on him brightly as the ocean waters came into view. He turned abruptly and ran down the shore.
In the distance, he spotted the boats, but he noticed strangers standing by them. He panicked as he tried to figure out what to do. Then, one of them- a fox hybrid spotted him. The other, a strange green woman with red hair noticed him as well when the fox pointed to him.
Garr stumbled forward a few feet and fell onto his knees. His eyes welled up with tears as he collapsed from exhaustion. He could hear voiced calling out to him- probably the fox and the green lady. He lost consciousness after that.
Dianna raced over to where the child had fallen down and turned him onto his back. She looked down at him, quickly realizing that he was a hybrid. He was covered in dark brown-gray fur and gray fur on his hand, feet, the tip of his tail and his face. His short brown hair hung down around his ears.
She glanced at the dirty clothes he was wearing, a pair of hand-stitched pants and a tunic. She glanced down at a red spot on them. She picked him up and got back up onto her feet and turned to Cray. "…Blood."
.o.o.o.
A man sat down silently on a rock, out in a clearing in the jungle. It was now mid-day as he adjusted his straw hat and looked over to his side. O'Reilly glanced over at the other men as they rounded up the hybrids that they had caught the other day.
O'Reilly was an older man with thinning white hair and a tanned complexion. He had no facial hair and wore glasses. He had a pistol holstered on his belt, along with a machete and wore a vest with various bits equipment tucked in it. His pack and rifle were leaned against the rock he was sitting on.
He stood up and walked over to them. "How many do we have here, Ashcroft?" He asked one of the men.
"We have ten of them, sir." Ashcroft replied. He was a younger man, in his thirties with short blond hair and glasses. His sleeves were rolled up and his hands were covered by leather gloves. He also had a handgun on his belt, along with a knife and a rifle slung over his shoulder. He wore a pair of green pants and a tan vest over his shirt.
"Is that all of them?" O'Reilly asked dully as he took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, the light illuminated his face briefly under the shade of his hat.
The man shook his head apologetically. "I'm afraid not, sir." He began. "As we were corralling them, one of them got away."
O'Reilly's expression darkened somewhat. "I'm disappointed." He replied. "Have you done anything to rectify this little problem?" He asked calmly.
The younger man nodded. "Yes sir, I've sent Amaki to find him and bring him back."
"That's all well and good, but we need twelve, and our runaway out there only makes eleven." O'Reilly remarked. "Explain to me why the math doesn't add up." He instructed and he took off his glasses and looked sternly at his subordinate.
"T-there was a child with them too- he was the twelfth- but we lost sight of him some time during the ambush."
The older man nodded. "Right, just make sure that Amaki brings the adult creature back alive- we don't need it bringing in more of these animals in on top of us." He explained.
He took a drag from his cigarette. "As for the whelp, I'll handle him myself- I've found that children require a gentler hand." He added darkly.
Ashcroft nodded. "You always did have a way with children, sir." He replied bleakly.
O'Reilly just laughed at the statement and turned around to the rest of his men. "Duggins, Frist." He called out. "You two, keep on eye on those things!" He instructed the two men with a gesture at the hybrids that were huddled together, trembling. The two of them nodded.
The first man, dark skinned and slightly overweight, wore a camouflage hat and aviator glasses. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white shirt with a gun tucked into a shoulder holster. The other man, fair skinned and with a shaved head, wore a barrette and matching tan trousers and jacket with combat boots. He had a gung-ho persona and a twitchy personality to match.
He then turned to another man, we was setting up a laptop computer. "Coulter, signal to the boat, tell Tamari that we'll be ready for pickup at dawn."
Coulter, who looked somewhat burned out, with a ponytail in the back and various segments of braided hair hanging on the shoulder of his jacket, nodded in reply and began sending the instruction through his computer.
Amidst the huddled figures, a hooded individual glanced off to the side, tense with apprehension. "Garr…?" A soft voice whispered.
.o.o.o.
Dianna turned to Cray and handed the young boy to him. "Keep an eye on him; I'm going to go take a look around." She instructed him.
Cray fidgeted at the words. "But, we don't know what's going on- you could be walking into something." He implored.
Dianna shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll be careful, now get somewhere safe with him." She replied.
She then took her hat out of her pocket and put in on as she walked into the jungle. Cray nodded and watched her disappear in the lush organic foliage before him. He glanced down at the child he was holding.
Cray noticed something unusual about him…
.o.o.o.
Dianna made her way into the jungle, making sure stay in the same direction the whole time, she didn't want to get lost while she was there. After about ten minutes, she stopped. She thought she had heard something and glanced around.
She could hear the rustling of leaves and foliage in the distance and ducked behind a large tree a meters off from the path that she had been following.
"Shit!" Swore someone as the noise got closer.
Eventually, it sounded as if they were just about to pass her. She heard a loud crashing sound and peeked around her covering, brushing away leaves, and spotted two people struggling.
One of them was human- Asian, and had a gun slung over his shoulder as he struggled with another figure on the ground. The other figure was a hybrid- a wolf of some kind- and he was one the ground, struggling with the human.
Dianna came to a decision and quickly made her way over to where they were situated. The man slung his gun around and aimed it at the hybrid.
"Damnit, stop moving you dirty savage!" He exclaimed.
Just then, Dianna struck him across the back of the head and he fell off to the side, hit his head on a rock- his muscles jerking and pulling the trigger of the gun.
The shot echoed through the jungle like a cathedral. Dianna glanced down at the man briefly and then helped up the hybrid.
The human was dead- his skull was cracked in the back and Dianna could see blood pooling on the dirt.
.o.o.o.
O'Reilly and the others snapped to attention when the sound of a gunshot reached them. He dropped his cigarette and stood up.
"What the hell!" He exclaimed. He then gathered his thoughts.
He turned to his men. "Duggins, Frist- you two stay here." He told them. He then turned to Ashcroft. "You're going to come with me to meet up with Tamari."
"Sir?"
O'Reilly glared at him. "Think for a moment- Amaki knew damn well not shoot that darkie brute!" He exclaimed. "Something else is going on here, and I intent to find out."
The hybrid also looked over as well. One of them, who was sitting in the middle of the cluster glanced over and pulled down her hood, revealing a dark haired human woman with green eyes. "Oh Garr…"
O'Reilly loaded his rifle. He cocked it and hoisted it up. "Someone… or thing… is going to die tonight."
(- End of Part 4 -)
.o.o.o.
This chapter is a massive departure from the last three, and it style is very different. The first chapter and the last chapter (3rd) was an issue of not having enough material to fill a whole chapter. I really had to struggle to make it them long enough to have some depth- especially part 3.
However, this time, it was a struggle to fit a lot of information and storytelling and plot into one chapter. I was facing the problem of more story than I knew what to do with. I hope this chapter is entertaining for all of you.
A lot of thanks go out to Carlos Angulo, QReaper, and Onigumo.
Later,
-Bojack727