Survival Skills
A/N: *is horribly bored and clogged with writer's block*
DISCLAIMER: Nanu, nanu. Laura owns nothing. Nanu, nanu. (don't ask. It's a Mork and Mindy thing my father is fond of quoting.)
Chapter 5: Fort Humanity
"Hey, Kai," Max asked timidly.
"Yeah?" Kai said gruffly.
"What was it you were yelling yesterday?"
"Yelling what?" Kai asked.
"When the… when you… you know."
"No, I don't, actually."
"This." Rei said, and repeated the phrase Kai had yelled in Russian the other day.
"Good memory," Tyson said, awestruck.
"You don't need to know." Kai said immediately.
"It had my name in it." Max pressed.
"So does a lot of other words," Kai pointed out.
"He does have a point there, Max." Chief said. "Maximum. Maxilla. Maxim. Maximal. Maximize."
"I get the point," Max interrupted. "But Kai, you know it's not good to keep secrets from your teammates."
"Besides, Kai, I think you know more than you're saying." Rei said. "Ever since we arrived here, you've been waking up every few hours."
"You've noticed, too?" Tyson asked Rei.
"Doy, who can miss it?" Rei asked sarcastically.
"Guys, shut up for a second," Max told them. "Kai, what's going on?"
Kai sighed. 'If I tell you, will you shut up?' he thought.
"If you tell us, we'll shut up," Tyson offered. Kai rolled his eyes.
"That I would love to hear." Kai muttered. "Tell you what. If you can go the entire day without saying anything, I'll tell you."
"But—but—but—" Tyson sputtered.
"Tyson! Just try, will ya?" Max begged.
"Starting now." Kai smirked. "Oh, and you all have to leave me alone the whole time too."
The four boys' eyes widened and Tyson was about to open his mouth and protest, but Max and Kenny both dove at him, covering his mouth.
Kai smirked again. "I'll see you guys later." He said, standing up with a bit of difficulty and disappearing into the trees again.
There was a dead silence in the forest as Kai limped along a pathway that had once been beaten but had long since been overgrown through nonuse.
"Are we there yet?"
"I'm hungry!"
"He's touching me!"
"Seth, Alexei is looking at me!"
"Kris, I'm tired!"
"Are we there yet?"
"I'm hungry!"
"Make him stop touching me!"
"Would all of you pip-squeaks just stop whining for two seconds?"
Two seconds pass…
"Are we there yet?"
"I'm hungry!"
"He's touching me!"
Kai had to stop and laugh as the memory of that first trek to the fort. No matter how gruesome the escape from Balkoff Abbey had ended, this was one of the most humourous moments in his memories. Alexei and Bryan bickering endlessly about one touching the other, Tala whining about his never-ending hunger, and Taras' complaints about the distance.
He reached a clearing the middle of the forest and closed his eyes momentarily. Then he reopened them and saw it as it had been ten years earlier…
"Hey, Seth, toss that hammer over there!"
"Which one's the hammer? They're all sticks and rocks!"
"This one," Kai said disdainfully, picking the makeshift tool and bringing it over to his brother.
"Thanks, squirt." Kris said affectionately, ruffling Kai's hair. He turned back around and banged in the final piece of the fort.
There was a large tree in the centre of this clearing. Kris and Seth, to a lesser extent, had spent the past few weeks building one of the most elaborate forts in the branches that anybody has ever seen. There were four different bedrooms, a kitchen, a food storage room, a set of stairs that pulled up, with some difficulty, and a deck that went all around the building.
On the ground, not far from the main building, was a smaller shed and not far past that point was a spring.
"Wow," Tala said admiringly. "You guys did good."
"Thanks, kid," Seth said.
"I get that bedroom there!" Alexei yelled, dashing for the staircase.
"I want that bedroom!" Bryan screeched, running after Alexei.
"I get the other bedroom!" Tala and Taras screamed simultaneously as they sped to catch up with their friends.
After looking at Kris briefly, Kai took off to rejoin his friends, laughing as Alexei and Bryan tussled over who got which mat.
Kai brushed his fingertips lightly across the railing of the staircase, which was still pulled down from the last time he, Tala and Bryan had ever gone in the fort. Carefully, he climbed the stairs until he reached the deck. Knowing that the wood could've rotten quite a bit in ten years, he tread cautiously as he entered the building.
The first thing he saw was the paper, now yellowed with age and moisture, that Seth had stuck up on the wall just minutes after they had first built it.
On this day, the 15th of July, 1992
We seven human beings
Kristian Nicholai Piotr Hiwatari
Seth Nathaneal Resven
Bryan Myer Benson
Kai Daivid Lyaksandr Hiwatari
Tala Vladimir Nicholae
Taras Ivan Nicholae
Alexei Edik Tchaikov
do hereby revoke any lessons learnt while in the training centre for evil known as balkoff abbey and will follow only the rules of humanity set by Kris TO CO-INHABIT THIS FORT OF HUMANITY ON THE HEREBY NAMED LIBERTY ISLAND PEACEFULLY.
Kai smiled sadly. 'The rules of humanity… I had almost forgotten those.'
"Here are the rules for humanity," Kris said. "A: No boy shall torment anybody for any reason. B: We shall all cooperate to make this easier on everybody. C: There will be no fighting, whether play or real. D: There will be an equal sharing of work, depending on your age. Nobody slacks off while I'm around. E: No going off on your own. None of you boys goes off without either Seth or I. Last thing we want is anybody getting lost. F: No stealing. What's mine is mine and not Alexei's. What's Bryan's is Bryan's, not Taras' or Tala's. Etcetera, etcetera. Everybody got that?"
"Yup!" Taras said cheerfully. "Can we go swimming now?"
"And of course that was the day Alexei died," Kai murmured softly.
"Kris, go get him!" Kai screamed as Kris scooped his brother up into his arms. "Kris, you gotta go get Alexei! Kris!"
"I can't, kiddo." Kris said softly, reaching down a hand to put a comforting hand on Bryan's terrified head.
Kai took one last look out at the calming waters, tainted the morbid red, and lay his head back down on Kris' shoulder, letting the first tear in a long time slide down. "Alexei…"