Author's Note: Okay, I know this is a short chapter compared to the others, but I just love the way it ends. It just seems to be a natural ending point for this particular part. As always, thanks to all for the continuing patronage! And thanks for the compliment on my user name! It is the name of a character Iplay in one of the many D&D campaigns take part in (yes, created the character and her name myself;-)
Ormandria
The group of five people stood on a high dune, looking down at the accomplishments of hundreds of hard-working people. It had taken nearly a year and half, but there it stood, before them. A grand city lay out beautifully, with three plants surrounding it, to help supply it with the power it needed. Off slightly to the north of it was a the start of the city's graveyard, already filled with the bodies of those that didn't survive the crash and a few who died during the last year and a half.
Water was still a bit of a problem, but there were experts from among the sleeping passengers that were already working on the problem.
Shawna looked over at her friends and smiled. Whatever had happened between Cannon and Eleesa that day had been just what the doctor ordered. It had broken her out of her stupor and gotten her back on par with the others. It was a damn good thing to, as Shawna wasn't sure how they would have managed if she had gone any further over the edge.
"So what should we name it?" ask Mac. It had already been decided by everyone from the ship, crew and passengers alike, that the Captain should have the honors of naming the city once it was done, and Shawna had decided that the crew should also have a say in the matter.
"I like Dilintry," replied Pat.
"That's cause that's your home town on Earth," laughed Mac.
"How about Cannonstown?" joked Cannon.
"How about Hyjeita? I'd rather name it after the ship then your ego," countered Shawna with a laugh.
"July," Eleesa interrupted in a thoughtful tone.
"July?" Shawna asked. "Really? I have to say it's interesting, but why July?"
"Jack's birthday was in July," Cannon responded with a smile. "A tribute, eh?"
"Yeah," responded Eleesa.
"July. I like it. What do the rest of you think?" Shawna looked at the crew.
"Gotta admit, it has spunk," commented Mac.
"It's nice," remarked Pat.
"It's perfect," said Cannon.
"Then that settles it then," Shawna smiled, waving her hand across the sprawling city down below. "Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the city of July."
Meryl threw her bag down in a fit of anger.
"What do you mean that we're stuck here for another day?" she screamed at the young man in front of her. He coward behind Millie, hoping the second girl would provide him with protection from her volatile friend.
"I told you miss," he stuck out his head just far enough to keep an eye on the smaller of the two insurance agents. "Somehow sands gone and gotten into the control panels and there ain't nothing we can do about it 'cept to clean it out and that'll take another whole day."
Meryl's eyes flashed, sending the man screaming from the room in terror. The other passengers of the Sand-Steamer all stood with their backs flat against the inside of the hull. Each was mentally gauging the amount of time it would take to run past the maniac woman and whether they could do it without getting caught by her.
"You know Meryl," Millie said, trying to calm her friend down. "You shouldn't get so mad at him. It isn't his fault that the steamer broke down."
"I suppose not," agreed Meryl. A heavy collective sigh escaped the rest of the people in the room as they realized that she had finally calmed down and was no longer a threat to them.
"I just want to get to New Maine as soon as possible," she continued.
"Well maybe someone will loan us a jeep and we can go on ahead," Millie suggested.
"Um, excuse me?" asked an older gentleman, who stepped away from the young girl he was traveling with. "I couldn't help but over hear your conversation and well…"
"Yes?" asked Meryl, suppressing the urge to yell at him for ease-dropping.
"Well, I really wouldn't recommend trying to get to New Maine without the sand-steamer."
"Why not?" asked Millie.
"Because you'll never find it. At least not unless you've been there before, or have an innate sense of direction."
"I don't understand," Meryl shook her head in confusion.
"The desert around New Maine shifts all the time," explained the man. "If you don't know where you're going, it's real easy to get lost out there. I once knew a guy that spent four days wondering around looking for the town, but was within a days walk of it the entire time."
"Okay, but if we take a compass," the black-haired woman started.
"Wouldn't work," interrupted the guy, causing another man in the crowd, who had been listening in on the conversations as well, to look up in a panic.
"Compasses don't seem to work once you get within a few days drive to the town. Makes it real easy to lose your way. You're better off just sticking to the sand-steamer. At least the driver knows where he's going."
"I guess," replied Meryl, with a slightly worried look at Millie. "If you say so."
"Oh shit," a low voice exclaimed, well out of earshot of the Bernadelli Insurance agents.
Kable brought down the binoculars for a brief moment as he scanned the desert horizon. He knew that they were most likely still ahead of the Sand Steamer by a good day or two, but that wouldn't mean squat if he managed to get them lost before they reached their destination.
"Nothing yet," he told his older brother Kreeker.
"Damn," remarked the Gunrit Gang's leader. "Just how far away is this stinking town?"
"From what I've heard we're probably still three or four days out from it," replied the younger brother.
"So what's the chance of us making there before the sand-steamer?"
"Depends on Lagur. If he succeeded in placing one of his special sand bombs in the control panel, than that should have held them up for at least another day or two while they cleaned everything out."
Kreeker laughed. "Just enough to be an annoyance, but not enough to do any real damage. Gotta love'em."
"Yeah," replied Kable. "And he was kind enough to leave us some in case we need them." He held up one of the small, brown pressure packs that Lagur was always making.
The bombs worked simply enough. If the right type and right amount of pressure was placed on them they would explode into a huge cloud of sand and dust that spread out to a good six feet in all directions. In a control panel of a sand-steamer, it would knock out all systems it touched until they could get the sand cleared out. It had been, in the minds of the entire gang, one of the best inventions that they had ever seen. And it was all Lagur's.
Kreeker grabbed the pack and tossed it in the air, catching it with the expertise of someone use to using the gadgets, and knowledgeable enough not to set them off.
"Anyway, it should be enough for us to get there one day ahead of them," Kable said.
"And Lagur?" his brother asked dubiously.
"He'll arrive with the sand-steamer and the rest of the passengers."
"Good. Now let's get going. I'd like to make as much headway as possible while there's still light." The larger of the two Grant brothers held the sand bomb in one hand and a red overcoat in his other hand. He smiled, clutching the coat tightly in his grasp, as he thought of all the money that they would receive for this one.
"Vash the Stampede, just you wait. We will catch you, you little bastard!"
Knives awoke to the sound of running water. Looking out, he noticed that the sun was already up. He pushed himself up off the bed and went out into the hall to see where the noise was coming from. He noted that it was coming from the bathroom down the hall, which meant that Eleesa was taking a shower. He smiled in satisfaction to himself and walked toward the closed door, just as the water stopped.
Not being one to concern himself with what others thought, he casually opened the door and watched as Eleesa stepped out of the shower and proceeded to dry herself off, oblivious to his presence.
The killer found himself admiring the condition that her body was in. Not many humans cared enough about themselves to keep in tip top shape. Just more proof as to the flaws that riddled humanity. Yet Eleesa was different. Her body was well-toned and very well-defined. As he watched her, he noticed only two flaws in an otherwise perfect specimen. The first was a small white scar on the small of her back, that seemed even more prominent then it might normally, given that her skin was still a touch red from the hot water of the shower. The second was on her shoulder. It was longer and thicker then the one on her back, but somehow neither of them appeared ugly. In fact they only proved to accentuate the rest of Eleesa's body.
A normal man would have a very difficult time not falling in love with such a wondrous creature at this point, but Knives was hardly normal. In his view, love was simply a weakness that, if exploited just the right way, could be used to utterly destroy the entire human race. Of course, just because Knives was not one to fall in love didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy the sights a bit.
Even so, Knives was more interested with the fact that Eleesa was quite a bit more muscular then he would have thought. It wasn't really that surprising though, once he thought about it. When he considered all the work they had done the day before, and the fact that she normally did that, and possibly more, by herself, she would need to be strong just to get through the day.
"Are you just going to sit there and stare at me all day, or did you come in here for a reason?" Eleesa finally asked after a few moments, making Knives realize that she had indeed known he was there. She just hadn't cared.
"I just thought I'd pop my head in and see what's on the agenda today," he smiled wickedly. "Yesterday was a bit boring, so I thought there might be something more interesting to do around here."
Eleesa paused in the middle of drying her soft, brown hair, letting it fall loose so that it cascaded down her back and past her waist. She turned to look at her guest, her face contorted in concentration.
"More interesting, huh?" She thought for a moment and then looked back at the mirror and smiled. "Well Knives, you're in luck. I think I have just the thing to keep you from getting bored."
Knives laughed in wry amusement as he continued to pipe air onto the burning coals to keep them lit. Apparently Eleesa's idea of more interesting came down to a simple matter of work that was different then the normal work she did. He had to admit though, that as hot as it was in the barn, this particular job was much better then the things he had done the day before.
He had taken care to note everything that Eleesa did, from letting the animals out of the barn so that they would be out of the way, to arranging all her tools just so, so that they were not only all within easy reach, but straight as pins. He found it almost odd that she would be so meticulous about such a small thing, when she appeared so relaxed in every other aspect of her life. Still, it represented a possible flaw in her that could be exploited later. Knives filed the information away inside his mind.
She had gone on to tie her hear tightly in a bun in the back of her head, so that only a few wisps of hair escaped, so that it wouldn't catch fire. She then took down a pair of worn aprons for her and Knives to wear while they worked.
"Okay, that's enough for the moment," Eleesa said as she looked with satisfaction at the bowl in the middle of the coals.
Knives complied, letting the small bellows go and seating himself on a nearby stool. Eleesa took a long hollow rod and poked one end into the bowl, bringing up a small lump of molten ooze that had once been simple sand and bits of broken glass. Lightly wrapping her lips around the opposite end, she began to slowly breathe through the tube, causing the liquid glass to expand. Knives found himself suddenly interested in the goings on, despite his best efforts to remain detached.
He had heard and even read of glass blowing when he was one the ship, but he had never found much interest in it before. He had never thought though, that it would be like this. He gazed as the woman before him played with the glass. Every breath was deliberate, every motion, every twist and turn, finely tempered with more patience then he had ever seen from another living being.
For the second time that day, Knives stood mesmerized by her presence and actions. The more he was around her, the harder time he had believing that she was merely another human infection. Even the Gung-Ho Guns had never impressed him as much as this woman did. They had merely been useful pawns that he had been planning of disposing of later anyway, but try as he might, he was finding it ever more difficult to think of killing her and tossing the body aside. No, the only recourse left to him now was to ensure that he would have to bring her to his way of thinking and make her his equal. No matter the cost.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Eleesa asked, interrupting his thoughts.
Knives looked up and saw the finished product. It was a long, slender vase with a floret top and a flower base.
"I suppose," Knives replied a little too lazily to be believed. "Not that it matters. What good is beauty, when there is always someone waiting to destroy it?"
"Never underestimate beauty, Knives." Eleesa's voice was low, as she continued to stare lovingly at the fragile glass in her hands. "It sometimes has a way of turning exceedingly deadly, when you least expect it."
A chill of excitement ran the length of Knives spine. Eleesa stood, handing the cooled vase over to him.
"For you," she smiled. "To keep in your room."
"Oh? And why do I need this?" he asked.
"You don't, now," she said knowingly. "But you will soon enough. Trust me on this one."
"You know something I don't?" he smirked.
"Oh, I think you will find that I know a lot that you don't." Eleesa smiled as she felt the crack open just a tiny bit more with that, then turned on her heel, leaving Knives behind her, his eyes narrowed in dark thought.
"I'll be inside cooking lunch, when you're ready," she commented as she left the barn.