So, last time... We recieved two introductions. The first is Jonathan Strauss, the last poleepkwa OC that's owned by me. Any other poleepkwa OC's that appear from this point onward do not belong to me. I'll tell you who they belong to as we go along.
And as for Wilbur, who was only mentioned? Oh, boy. If you saw the movie, I think you should know who this one is. Keep an eye out, because he'll actually figure into events quite a bit.
All right, so we go on with the quest of Balgernon.
And here is where we start bringing Curtis in during the day. Hey, it'll help the plot threads a little if Curtis knows how the poleepkwan characters interact by day. So thus, we'll be seeing Curtis enter the district under percieved troubles.
Or something. Sometimes, the danger is very real.
Oh, and something I thought I might say since I haven't been getting reviews lately. If you guys have anything at all you want to say, don't be afraid to say it! I always look forward to detailed feedback from my readers!
But we'll see soon enough. Away chapter!
The Kind One
The next day, I would be called into the district by something else.
For within the line of tents in my sight during my day shift, I noticed a small gathering of poleepkwas all around one person. Abejide was the first one to point it out to me, and I looked in there and noticed the gathering.
"Maybe they plan on tryin' to overtake us?" asked the Nigerian.
James shook his head. "They'll need much more than that if they want to get all of us," he said. "And I'm sure they know that just as well as we do."
"I'm going in," I said, walking before James or Abejide could say anything.
James simply followed me in there as I moved over to the poleepkwan crowd. I think Dawid and Hendrik failed to notice us, and it was thankful that they had not, for when I dispersed the crowd quite a sight awaited me-- one that was both gruesome and quite unnerving.
To the side, an unidentified poleepkwan had been cut basically to pieces, black blood having collected around the body in a pool. The poor thing had been cut up so badly I was barely able to see who it was. To the side, I saw Caroline attempting to comfort a bloody poleepkwan that I did not recognize. She had on a bright purple dress with white floral patterns on it, with what could only be equated to a flowery necklace around her neck. She clutched a bloody machete in her claws as she sat on the ground, but from the look of the situation she was more terrified than she was manic.
Seeing this, I came closer to Caroline.
"What happened?" I asked.
Almost immediately, the strange poleepkwa trembled where it was, backing away from me slowly.
"Please, no! I didn't mean to!" it cried out. I thought I saw what could be equated to tears flowing out of its eyes and washing away some of the scarlet that had gotten itself all over her cinnamon plating. "I didn't mean to!"
"It was self defense," chimed in Caroline almost immediately. "The one that was killed threatened it with being raped..."
I blinked, looking at the remains of the poleepkwa before turning back to her. "That was caused by an act of self-defense?" I asked incredulously.
And before I knew it, chaos erupted all around me as all of the poleepkwans in the crowd began chiming in with so may words I was unable to say much. I looked around me, a cacophonous symphony of clicks and chirps sounding all around me. James looked concerned from where he was standing behind the crowd, but my attention was quickly absorbed by the sight of the frightened figure. It was so terrified that it had ceased to move, clutching its machete with an iron grip.
Looking around and failing to make sense of what was going on, I shook my head. Raising my gun, I began slamming it by the butt on a nearby tentpole to create enough noise to silence the crowd.
"Shut up!" I cried out as I did this. "Shut the hell up!"
Finally, I was able to get some semblance of calm in the area, and I faced the one who was terrified. Walking over as more people joined the crowd while giving me angry stares, I knelt down.
"Take a few deep breaths, and tell me what happened," I said.
"It's... I'm sorry..." the stranger said without taking a few breaths to calm her down. "He was gonna rape me... And he was gonna hit me... and... and..."
"Don't worry about it," I said. "I won't hurt you. I just need your machete, all right?"
"But... But..." said the scared one.
"I promise on the River Styx that I won't hurt you," I said, holding a hand up after holstering my gun around my shoulder. "Just give me the machete and we won't have any problems."
Instead of giving it to me, the poleepkwan dropped it on the ground, the thing falling down. She looked into my eyes with a terrified expression on her face, mouthparts frigid as she looked at me.
Nodding, I took a hold of the handle of the machete and examined it briefly. I quickly put it in my belt shortly afterwards, and then I turned to the mangled body. Caroline looked at me imploringly, seeming to sense what I was about to do.
"Sorry, Caroline, but I don't really have a choice," I said, grabbing my gun and pointing at the mangled creature's head.
I shot the dead poleepkwa shortly after I said this. With this, some of the crowd dispersed, except for Caroline, who looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. I noticed the one who had done the real killing run away with everybody else, disappearing into the tents quickly.
As soon as James was able to look at me with a shocked expression on its face, Hendrik, Dawid, their troop, and Abejide all came running to me. "What the fook happened?" asked Hendrik.
I pointed to the dead poleepkwan on the ground. "Bloody thing tried to kill some people!" I said, pointing at the opponent. "He started quite an event here! If it wasn't for the fact that somebody else managed to grab the machete away from him, I wouldn't have been able to overpower him!"
As I produced the machete I had confiscated, Hendrik shook his head. "Where the fook did that prawn even get the thing anyway?" he asked.
"Uh... that's a really good question, actually..." I said, rubbing the back of my head. "All I know was that even though that other thing was hacking away, it wouldn't stop thrashing around. So I finally had to put a bullet through its head to get it to stop..."
"I see..." said Dawid, pulling out his walkie-talkie as he turned it to a certain frequency. "I'll call a collection team over to get the body."
With this, Dawid walked away, radioing the base that something had happened. Nodding, I turned to Hendrik.
"And where the fook did the other thing go?" asked Hendrik.
I shook my head. "The poor thing was terrified," I replied. "It dashed off into the camp when I fired the gun..."
Abejide shrugged, patting me on the shoulder. "Well, man, at least we came in, right?" asked Abejide with a slight grin.
I faltered for a second, looking down at the dead body and thinking about the disaster I had narrowly averted before nodding. "Yep," I said.
"Okay," said James, writing all this down on a clipboard that Hendrik had handed to him a few seconds before. "So you came in at the scene where John Doe here was trying to kill people, and then... someone... What was its MNU issued name?"
"Uh..." I scratched the back of my head, realizing that I had not collected the name of the incredibly frightened one before she had just run off. "I..."
"Eleanor." Caroline's voice surprised me, and when I turned around I realized why Hendrik had a semi-disgusted look on his face. "Its MNU issued name was Eleanor Rigby."
"Okay then, Eleanor Rigby..." said James, writing it down without skipping a beat. Sifting through a list, Hendrik looked down it to see if we had a proper identification. "Hm... Sounds like someone really likes Beatles references..."
"No, there is actually an Eleanor Rigby," replied Hendrik. "Eleanor Rigby, MNU no. 945,002, to be exact."
James shrugged. "I'll bet whoever assigned her that name really liked the Beatles, then..." he said offhandedly as he wrote down the MNU number.
"Okay," said Dawid, the clean-up team right behind him as he ran back. "These guys will take care of it. Is someone writing the report?"
The American held his pen up, indicating such. Dawid nodded as the clean-up crews that had come on his trail picked up the body and put it in a body bag. I nodded to Hendrik and Dawid.
"Well, your work here is done," I said. "I'll stay here with James to fill out the report with the only witness that stayed, and we'll be back in our posts in a few minutes."
Hendrik shot me a very brief glare, but thankfully Dawid seemed not to mind. "All right then," he said. "Come on. Let's get out of here and leave them be."
And soon, everybody that was not myself, James, or Caroline began moving back. And as soon as they were out of hearing range, James turned to me with an expression of disbelief that I swear he was holding back.
"Why the hell are you lying to them?" asked James.
I shook my head. "Look, it's the only way I could think of that wouldn't get us any other casualties other than the one that happened, okay?" I pointed out.
"It's dirty, but I will admit that it does kind of work..." said Caroline. "Curtis..."
"Don't worry, Caroline," I said as I patted my gun. "I got everything under control, didn't I? And I did manage to make sure there were no casualties apart from what we saw..."
"That's true," she said, nodding her head nervously. "But please, try not to scare me like that."
At this, I gave her a slightly perturbed look. "I scared you?" I asked.
"Unfortunately," she said.
I nodded, feeling very regretful upon hearing this. "I'm sorry," I said. "But it's one of those things that had to be done."
"No, I understand," she said. "It's all right."
I looked at her, smiling softly. "Actually, I have to thank you for keeping the situation in check for long enough for someone else to come in and do something about it," I said.
Caroline shrugged at this. "It's a good thing you came, actually..." she said. "I don't think I would've been able to keep that under control all by myself... So thank you for coming and doing what you can."
"Anytime," I said, nodding.
I hadn't noticed that James was attempting to get my attention until he coughed rather loudly at Caroline and I. Looking up at him, I saw one of his eyebrows was arched up. He crossed his arms in front of him, holding the clipboard against his chest as he spoke.
"So this is your friend here," he said, looking at the poleepkwan. "Caroline..."
"Masterson," replied Caroline. "And you are...?"
"James Stanton," replied the American. "One of Curtis' human friends. Well, non-racist ones..."
"A pleasure," said Caroline. "You two should get back before the others suspect something."
"That is true," I said, bowing my head politely. "I'll see you later, Caroline."
"So long..." said the poleepkwan.
With this, James and I made our way back to our posts, James writing a couple more notes on the report before nodding to me.
"So that's the one, eh?" asked James.
"Yes," I replied. "Please don't tell..."
James shook his head, chuckling. "Me? Tell?" he asked. "Please. I would've told 'em already if I was that malicious."
I couldn't help but chuckle as well as we returned to our posts in a considerably better mood. We rejoined Abejide in our guard, and since nothing happened throughout the rest of the day we simply conversed about unimportant things.
It would be one of the few times that I would come out of the district during the day feeling better than I did going in.
When I had gone to the night shift with Marius later that night, he looked at me.
"So I hear you killed your first... alien today," he said, checking himself with his word choice.
I nodded. "Well, sort of," I admitted. "Don't tell anybody else, but when I got there the only one that had been killed was already dead."
Marius gave me an odd look. "Now why would you lie about that?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Well, the one who really did kill it was... scared beyond her mind," I said. "The poor thing was shaking. The only reason that she was still there when I arrived at the scene was because Caroline was doing a damn good job of trying to make it comfortable. I just didn't want the others to scare her more than she already was..."
The Afrikaaner nodded as he crossed his arms. "MNU issued name?"
"Eleanor Rigby," I replied, chuckling. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if her only friend was a McKenzie."
Marius chuckled at this, smiling at me. "I take it you know the Beatles, then."
"Obviously," I replied. "I mean, they're from Great Britain, which isn't too far from Scotland, you know."
"True, true," replied the Afrikaaner. "But seriously, I'm glad Caroline stood up for her..."
I looked to around where Caroline's tent was, nodding. "Caroline is honestly quite a helpful... alien," I said, thinking about how she behaved towards me. "Quite reserved, I should think... And she always looks out for everyone. Always a good thing around here..."
At this, Marius smirked. "From the way you're talking about her now, I think you're beginning to develop feelings for her..."
I remember at first feeling very strange at the mere suggestion of such a thing, and then slightly repelled. "What? No!" I cried. "That's... What the...? That's disgusting! And even if... she's got a mate, for crying out loud! Where the bloody hell...?"
Marius simply laughed at my clumsiness, shaking his head. "It always happens like this," he said. "We'll see..."
"But..." I said. "It would be between me and an alien! And it's not a Star Trek kind of alien either! Doesn't that disturb you?"
The Afrikaaner shook his head, patting me on the shoulder. "Abstinence is key, Curtis," he replied. "Don't forget that when it comes to love..."
I was so confused by what Marius had just suggested that I fidgeted uncomfortably for quite some time and said nothing at all. The whole time, he seemed to be smirking deviously at me, as if he had some thoughts he decided not to divulge.
I went over to the tent sooner than I would have liked to, if only to get away from the awkward feeling I had gotten when Marius had insinuated that I was falling for Caroline.
Back then, the prospect of falling in love with Caroline was the farthest thing from my mind. She had already gotten a mate in Edward, and I knew that it was best to stay out given that Edward really did love Caroline as much as she loved him. As well, there was the whole inter-species relationship deal that would create plenty of tension. At first, the prospect of loving a creature was actually a little repulsive to me, seeing as how they were not even creatures from our own planet.
I will admit, though, that things changed afterwards.
When I entered the tent, I saw Jamecyn glare at me.
"So I hear you stopped something from getting out of control today," she said bitterly.
"Jamecyn, it's all right," replied Caroline. "He stopped it from getting out of control."
"I did," I replied. "I just... I had to do some things to keep things from being too suspicious."
"Right," replied Jamecyn, crossing her hands in front of her. "So your idea of keeping within society are to shoot someone else in the face after he dies?"
I glared back at her. "Then what did you want me to do?" I asked. "Two of those people are racist, and they would have worsened things... To be honest, they probably would have killed Caroline if I hadn't intervened first..."
The poleepkwa I had referred to shuddered softly against Edward. Jamecyn's glare only intensified, however, and she seemed about ready to kill me by that point, I was certain.
"Oh?" she asked. "And what, exactly, constitutes being racist? Doing your job and calling us that god-forsaken name? Because you do it too!"
"Hey, I don't have much else to call you by other than 'alien'," I replied. "If I had some other name to call you by, I would refer to you by it, all right? So what do you want me to refer to you as?"
"Oh, I dunno, something other than 'alien' or 'prawn'?" she asked.
I blinked, shaking my head. "Well, did you have anything... specific in mind?" I asked.
At this, Jamecyn fell silent. The tension lifted almost instantly, as everybody realized that I had a point. Thinking about this, I turned my attention to everybody in the tent, wondering if anybody was afraid to speak up.
Finally, however, Harold coughed behind me.
"There is one term that doesn't sound as strong as the rest..." he said. "I first picked it up from the Nigerians when we were still in District 9. I can't pronounce it... But I can spell it on the ground. Give me a few seconds..."
Harold went to work on the ground, tracing a word with his fingers shakily. I watched his finger intently as it traced letters in the dirt. I had to turn on my MNU-issued flashlight to see what he was doing. He pulled his hand away a few seconds later, though, and then I saw a single word etched on the ground:
poleepkwa
I looked at it blankly for a few seconds, thinking about what it translated to.
"I think that translates to 'people'," I said, pointing at the word. "I forget which African language it is..."
All was silent as I nodded, rubbing my chin in thought. I smiled coyly as I thought about it.
"I like it," I said. "It has quite a... noble ring to it. 'Poleepkwa'. I'll have to use that from now on..."
"I told you he wasn't like the rest of them," said Caroline to Jamecyn.
Jamecyn simply glared at everybody in the tent before turning around, laying in the makeshift bed. I shrugged, my attention turning to Matthew. He had peeked his head out, looking at me fearfully.
"Hey, it's all right," I said.
"Auntie Jamecyn said nasty things about you..." he said nervously. "Did you really kill someone?"
I blinked, shocked that he had such a grasp on life. "How... how do you understand what death is?" I asked. "You're like... twelve human years old?"
"Poor kid has to grow up really fast in this place," replied Harold. "We'll tell you the signal once you've told him a story..."
I nodded, thinking grimly. "Well, to answer your question, no I didn't," I replied. "That person was already dead when I shot it. But anyways, I think you really want to hear a story, yes?"
Matthew nodded, looking at me with soft eyes that showed the slightest hint of fear in them. Thinking of the subject of death somehow brought me on track with Hades, and so I told him the story of Hades and Persephone. I told him also about how Demeter was in sorrow over the abduction of her daughter by a man that loved her, and the deal that Demeter struck up with Hades to be able to see her daughter again. I also remember talking about how that was the cause of the seasons to the Greeks, although I think he muttered something about how it couldn't be true as he began falling asleep. As I was wrapping up, I left in a place to make a brief mention of the many affairs of Zeus so I could have a placeholder to start with the next time I told him some stories.
When I finished, he had gone to sleep, softly breathing. Slowly, I turned to Caroline.
"Is Eleanor Rigby all right?" I asked.
"She's fine," replied Mark. "Poor thing was shaken, though..."
"I'll bet it has something to do with the loss of that machete of hers..." pointed out Jamecyn distastefully.
"Well, I didn't want her harming anybody else in the district," I said. "I wonder how she got the thing anyway..."
Harold shrugged, glancing at me uncertainly. "We know as much about that as you do," he said. "How that machete got here in the first place is a question on everyone's mind that knows her..."
I nodded, glancing around the tent uncertainly. "Right," I said. "So, Caroline, I don't think I got to thank you properly for helping me back there..."
"It was no problem," she said. "I'm just relieved that nobody's hurt."
I smiled, looking at Caroline with kind eyes. "So am I," I replied. The truth was, I really was thankful that nobody apart from the one that had gotten killed had been hurt. And in large part, I had Caroline to thank for that for being able to calm Eleanor down long enough for me to get there. And for that I was relatively thankful.
"I have one question, though," added the poleepkwan quickly. "Who are the Beatles?"
I chuckled nervously, scratching the back of my head. "Remind me to tell you that some other time," I said. "In the meantime, I think you should probably pick up where you left off with your story."
Caroline nodded as I took out my audio recording device. As soon as I hit the record button twice, I nodded to Caroline.
When the great one regained consciousness, it was laying not in the sands of the desert, but on a hard bed made of stone. Slowly, it opened its eyes, looking around it.
Almost instantly, it found it was lacking in water. Hacking slightly, it tried to sit up but could not.
At this moment, a gracious one entered with a jug, carrying water slowly. Seeing that Balgernon was awake, the gracious one entered, patting the great one's forehead.
"I found you in the desert," said the mysterious one graciously. "You were nearly dead from lack of energy..."
The jug of water was brought to the mouthparts of the great one. Balgernon took this in gladly, looking to the one who was aiding it with a ghost of a smile.
"Thank you, kind one," replied Balgernon.
"Rest," said the kind one as it pressed Balgernon's head against a pillow. "Save your energy for when you need it most."
Balgernon nodded and sleep overtook it again.
The great one stayed with the kind one for almost two weeks in ill health. The kind one always saw to every need that Balgernon would have, to the point that it almost became excessive. Nevertheless, the great one was thankful for the kind one's services to attempt to make him comfortable, and whenever he had gained the energy to speak he made that apparent whenever.
Soon, Balgernon had begun to recover, being able to move around the kind one's small abode slowly. And what Balgernon saw there warmed his heart greatly towards the kind one. The kind one always seemed to be the one to help all over the village. From the cut-out stone in the walls of the small desert abode, the kind one was seen to be a general help to everybody it knew. Balgernon was filled with a great kind of admiration for the kind one, even if there was a hint of jealousy in it.
Thus, as he neared the end of the two weeks, the kind one sat by the mostly recovered Balgernon. The great one was very flustered by this small conversation with the kind one, something it made apparent as it gazed at the floor.
"I..." began the great one. "I don't know how to thank you for all you've done..."
"There is no need," replied the kind one, eyes shining brightly. "I try to help however I can."
"Still, you saved my life... when you could have left me out there..." replied Balgernon uncertainly. "And you made sure to attend to me no matter what happened... I..."
A thought then occurred to the great one, something that had barely stirred its fancy in any previous track of thought before.
"Do you need any help around here?" asked Balgernon. "Because I..."
The kind one seemed to understand what Balgernon wanted to ask of it. "You may stay as long as you like," it replied. "And you may help in whatever way you can think of."
At this, the great one's heart swelled in joy, and it gave the kind one a hug. As it parted from this, Balgernon realized that it had not known the name of the mysterious stranger.
Before it could ask, though, the kind one had answered. "Call me Ganrel," it said.
And with this, Balgernon nodded at his new companion, standing up as he moved around the room a little.
The great one thus began to meet one of his constant companions that he would encounter on his journeys.
"And that would be a good point to stop at."
I nodded, stopping the recording device. I checked the display to make sure I still had battery. Seeing that I needed to replace my batteries, I made a mental note to do so once I had the chance and stowed it away in my armor. Edward was the only other person who was still awake by that point, and so I looked to him and Caroline as they both shifted slightly.
"I wonder..." I said. "Since you knew Eleanor, do you know anybody else in this district?"
"Some more than others," replied Edward. "We all know different people depending on where we try to move... It also depends on what occupation you were given..."
At this, I cocked an eyebrow. "Occupation?" I asked.
Caroline in turn raised an eye ridge. "You mean MNU didn't tell you they used to employ our kind in mines?" she asked.
I blinked. "No," I replied. "I mean... I knew they were hiring you guys, but... I didn't really look into it..."
The truth was that I had accidentally stumbled across that kind of information trying to navigate through the MNU website to download a job application. I saw all kinds of odd jobs for what was termed 'non-human' as I looked over the jobs. Most of the specifics were in an alphabet I didn't quite understand, but otherwise everything was a little odd. There was an option to translate everything into English, but I thought better of it for some reason. Now that I had heard about mines, however, I knew I probably should have clicked on that odd translation button.
"We worked at labor jobs while we were still in District 9," replied Edward. "Some of us still do, but not as many are lucky enough to get out of here to do so..."
I nodded. "I'll have to check up on that again," I replied. "For now, I do believe you have a signal to tell me about, yes?"
Edward nodded. "I do," he replied. "Keep an eye out for Harold. If you see him walk between the rows of tents closest to where you are more than three times in rapid succession, that is probably a sign you will be needed..."
"All right," I said. "I shall be leaving then. With any luck, I will go into the district itself soon enough?"
"Possibly," replied Caroline.
I smiled as I geared up to leave. "I'm looking forward to it," I replied. "There will be lots of people to meet, I take it..."
Edward and Caroline both glanced at each other nervously, both of them shrugging it off as I exited the tent slowly.
