Chapter 36: Rattlesnake Venom

Ranger looked over at where Scott was pointing and saw what he knew Squall was aiming for. "So, that's what that mountain's called?" He asked. Ranger went out on a limb, then made a thumb's up and compared it to the mountain, which looked exactly like the gesture he made.

"Yeah." Scott answered, "The ship's been up there for a while, but we can't get there yet."

Ranger got out of his thumbs' up gesture, then turned and asked, "Why?"

Squall sighed, then explained. "These guys here have got the only water supply for a hundred miles." He gestured back at the mountain. "The only other source's on top of that mountain."

"Otherwise, those vultures would have you picked clean by day three." Ryan said, mimicking a bird's wings with his hands.

It was there and then that Nobody realized that there were no watchmen, no electric fences, or any form of search team at Camp Greenlake. "Well, THAT kinda explains the lack of security here." He said as it came to him.

Ranger then decided to track the group's progress. "So how far are you guys?" He asked.

"Well, we only need a few more Gummi pieces and the ship's gonna be finished." Caveman answered, "If we're lucky, we'll only need one more trip and we'll be outta here!"

That morning, Ranger and Joyex were going to the activity room, but found Solar guarding it, earning a few odd glances.

"What's up, Solar?" asked Ranger.

"I wouldn't recommend going in there." Solar warned, waggling his finger at them, "Some guy got on the wrong side of Squall and he's giving him a bit of a lecture of what it means to be a man."

Suddenly, with a heaved grunt, someone flew out of the door with a scream and landed on the ground outside the wreck room with a thud.

"You mean he's beating the tar out of him?" asked Nobody.

Solar shrugged, then answered, "Naturally. He only gets three sentences into the speech when they start trying to kill him."

The two went in to see Squall duking it out with some guy that looked a lot stronger than he was, yet the Aussie was holding his own against him. Suddenly, for one brief moment, Squall's physique seemed normal, but the next he seemed to have bigger muscles. Ranger blinked a couple times, then focused on the fight at hand. After a couple exchanges, Squall had the big guy down on the ground and hog-tied by his own t-shirt.

Squall noticed his hat was askew and straightened it out, then noticed the whole room was staring at him. "There is nothing more to see here." He said, as though he was never in a slugfest to bein with, "So, until next time, g'day mates."

The Aussie then walked, calmly, out of the room and dusted himself off.

Later that day, the whole D-Tent went to their daily business of digging holes in the desert. Ranger, Nobody, Squall, Solar, Caveman, and Zero were digging near the same area. Mr. Sir arrived with the water truck and they mainly stayed away from the water truck.

"Y'know I prefer woota I dig out rather than the water that bludger brings out." Squall said, gesturing towards it with his thumb and earning a few nods.

Squall started moving around, checking for something, but eventually sighed in defeat and went to the water truck. Ranger folded his arms, his own water jug in hand, then asked, "What happened to getting your own water?"

Squall turned to Ranger, then shrugged. "No wohta. I can smell wohta after bein' in the outback, mate, but now I can't smell a thing. Crikey, if it don't rain soon, we'll be havin' a problem on our hands."

At that time, Nobody noticed that Magnet seemed a bit too interested in the truck and when it left, he held out a sack. "Hey, anyone want sunflower seeds?" He asked.

"Aw, Magnet, you got sticky fingers!" Squid pointed it out.

Magnet tossed the bag to X-Ray, who took a handful and started chowing down on them. However, their triumph was short-lived, because the water truck instantly turned around.

Solar suddenly seemed particularly frightened from his wide eyes to his trembling knees. "WE'RE in trouble..."

"Yeah, if Mr. Sir finds out about this, we're all gonna hang." Squall agreed.

"It's not THAT!" Solar quickly said, "My…uh…THING'S acting up."

Squall turned around, obviously taking in the sudden change. No one else saw it, but Ryan was giving off a faint glow that was getting brighter by the second.

"Oh boy, that IS trouble!" Squall said, his eyes widening in fright.

"Well, how do we do this without anyone watching?" Caveman, referring to the inmates that were having their share of sunflower seeds.

Squall smirked as he eyed part of the ground around him. "Simple, ain't it?" Squall looked off somewhere else and pointed at a random area of the sky. "Look! Another cloud!" He called.

Just as the inmates' backs were turned, Squall pushed Solar into the hole, so they didn't realize the flash of bright light in the hole's depths. When the flash ended, Squall reached in and pulled his buddy out of the hole by the collar of his suit. "Whew! That was too close!" the Aussie said with relief.

Ranger turned to look at Squall's reply, then asked, "What happened? And why does Solar look like he's about to collapse?"

Solar did look very pale and he was barely standing, as though he had just caught a sudden case of the flu. Squall got a good look at him, then shrugged. "Just not feelin' too good at the moment, mate. I'll take him back for a rest."

Squall then picked up Solar and hauled him off to the tents. He came back a minute or two later, then got very close to Ranger and hissed in his ear. "The little guy's looking for some more Gummi pieces as we speak."

THAT was the wrong time to get Ranger's attention, because Mr. Sir was almost there and Magnet threw the bags between Ranger and Caveman. Both reached for the bag in surprise, but the sac slipped between their hands and scattered the seeds everywhere on impact with the ground.

"Ranger! Caveman! You both got butterfingers!" ZigZag said in a groan.

Ranger scowled at this. He was not only caught off-guard, but he hated these kinds of things; repeat, HATED them. Sports were for muscle-bound morons who couldn't back up their mind in his opinion. He and Caveman quickly buried the seeds just when Mr. Sir arrived.

"Anyone seen my sunflower seeds?!" Mr. Sir asked, grouchily.

Ranger decided to come clean and held up the empty bag of sunflower seeds. Mr. Sir didn't say anything, but took Ranger and Caveman away in his truck to whatever fate awaited them.

The pair went back to the camp and towards a cabin that made the others pale in comparison. Compared to the rest of Camp Greenlake, it was lush…probably because people watered it regularly. Mr. Sir banged on the door and the warden was surely going to come. Ranger expected a large man with a bad attitude and tattoos, but he was quite surprised to see a woman with red hair of all places.

"THAT'S the warden." Caveman whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

Ranger stared a bit, surprised by what he had seen, then said only three words with equal silence, "Well, THAT'S new…"

"What is it?" The Warden asked, her voice having a very prominent Southern accent, "What did ya find? Come in, you're lettin' the cool out!"

When they walked in, Ranger found that it felt like being back on his Gummi Ship. It had air conditioning, a luxurious inner working, and even a good amount of food and water. He and Caveman sat down on a couch as the Warden took a seat opposite them. "What did ya find?" she repeated.

Ranger paused, then came clean. "Well, when Mr. Sir was refilling our canteens, we…"

Caveman finished for him. "Stole his sunflower seeds."

The Warden didn't seem too mad. Rather, she simply pointed somewhere in the corner. "Ranger, would you get my nail polish?" she asked, "It's in the brass case over there."

Ranger was a bit confused by the fact that the warden knew his nickname, but went over to a cabinet all the same. He found it and saw a lot of old fashioned Wanted posters with the same woman on it. The caption said 'Kissing Kate Barlow'. He was confused at the deed he was given, but gave it to the warden anyway. She instantly took out one filled with some pink liquid.

"You see this?" the Warden asked, shaking the container to emphasize what she was talking about, "This is my FAVORITE nail polish. I make it myself. You know what the secret ingredient is?" The two shook their heads as she took the polish and slowly began to apply it to her nails. "Rattlesnake venom. I just love what it does to the color. Don't worry, it's perfectly harmless…" The warden brought her hand, whose nails were covered in the polish, and brushed Caveman's face ever so lightly, yet it chilled him to the bone. "When it dries."

She took her hand off Caveman's face, then returned her attention to Mr. Sir. "So, you think THEY took your sunflower seeds?" she asked.

"No, I think they're covering for someone like Squall or X-Ray." Mr. Sir answered, then pointed out, "It was a five-pound sack and Ranger claims to have eaten it all."

Ranger scratched his head, then explained, "Well, it was only half full when I found it."

"And you could check in my hole for any evidence." added Caveman.

Mr. Sir seemed to be really malicious, because it was starting to show in his voice that he would sooner throttle them than search for further evidence. "Really? Well, we'll see…"

Mr. Sir never finished his sentence, because the warden brought her still-wet nails cutting through his face with one swipe. Mr. Sir fell to the ground, writhing in pain and whimpering, too. "Get back to your holes." She said, quickly. On hearing THAT command, Ranger and Caveman left the cabin without question and without another word. The Warden spoke to Mr. Sir in possibly the coldest voice she had ever used thus far. "I liked you better when you smoked."

Caveman and Ranger returned to their holes and the other boys got a look at them, questions buzzing in their heads.

"So, what did YOU say?" asked ZigZag.

Caveman shrugged, then answered, "Nothing."

"What did SHE say?" Armpit asked.

That time, it was Ranger's turn to answer. "Nothin'."

"What did she DO?" asked Squid.

Caveman and Ranger, at that moment, snapped and answered to every boy within twenty feet of them. "NOTHING!"

Ranger got to his hole and stuck his shovel in it for measuring and found that it was five feet deep. He used it to check the width, too--five feet. Apparently Caveman found the same thing, because he said, "Thanks, guys!"

"Don't thank US, thank your buddies Nobody and Zero." corrected Squid, "They dug your holes while you were gone."

Ranger went over to Nobody and gave him a smile. "Thanks, pal."

Nobody clapped his friend on the shoulder. "No problem. Zero helped, though. Guy's a real miner."

Ranger turned to the little guy, then ruffled his wild hair, making Zero smile for the first time he'd ever seen him do it. "Thanks, little man. I owe you one."

That night, the escapees returned to their tent and went to their bed, but never truly went to sleep. As soon as they were sure everyone in the camp was asleep, Squall woke up Caveman, Zero, Ranger, and Nobody. His actions were a bit unnecessary, though, for they were either already awake or just half-asleep.

"We've gotta get to Solar!" Squall hissed, "He's probably got enough Gummi Pieces to finish our ship!"

The group got up, a few trying to adjust to the world of the awakened, and snuck out of the tent to find Solar wearing gloves and clutching them in pain.

"What happened to YOU, mate?" asked Squall.

"Got on the wrong side of Pendanski." Solar answered, still massaging his sore hands, "I'd rather not talk about what he did..." Solar touched one of his gloved hands for emphasis, then winced in pain with an "ow".

Squall growled, then slammed his fist into his palm. "What I wouldn't give to hit that bludger across the face!"

Ranger there and then decided to change the subject. "Easy, Squall." he then turned to Solar, "How many Gummi Pieces do you have?"

Solar reached into the pocket of his convict suit and pulled something out. They were pieces of a Gummi Ship, unmistakably. "Exactly three."

Squall took the pieces, then racked his memory for what they had so far. "Should be enough, mates. Tomorrow, I say we make a break for it!"

"So, what do we do?" asked Ranger.

"Well, I say we…" Squall whispered his plan to them and they knew what they had to do in order to get out. It would be risky, but if it went according to plan, it just might work.

The Warden

The head of Camp Greenlake who's, surprisingly, a woman. She is anything BUT predictable and can go from as sweet as sugar to as fierce as a wolf in seconds. She has all these misfits in the camp to dig holes and get something, which we can't really figure out. She first appeared in Holes 2003.

Review Squall and Solar.