Booya. Another chapter done and the wait this time was a little less than normal, though still a long time. I have decided to make this an update for chapter 8 because 9 was turning out to be even smaller and so i figured it would help the story to flow a bit more. I have put a few dashes where the new content starts so you can skip the old bit if you've read it before. Just yell if you dont understand whats going on 'cause I have been stop-starting this chapter for a few months. Anyway I am gonna stop here cus I tend to write too much in these Authors notes.
Enjoy
Jonny 5
Chapter 8 : Instructions not included
Gonzales woke up with a start about an hour later, suddenly realising that taking a nap when people were in danger wasnt exactly a good idea. There was no sign of Gillsts fleet except for a trail of exhaust where they had once flown. Gonzaled looked around, well he'd made it to the beasts rock. There was no shortage of spare parts around so he decided to get to work on the life rafts engine.
The repairs were finished in no time at all and though the little boat seemed to be functional again, Gonzales was a little worried that the original engine casing no longer fit. He put it down to the fact that the parts were originally part of a much larger engine. He also realised that this would probably make it use more fuel, but that wouldnt matter as long as he got back to Geriva before Gillst.
He hopped in turned the engine on, it started with purr so at least it seemed to be working properly. Gonzales pushed the lever that made it go all the way forward. The raft didnt move, it sounded like it was making power just not using it to move. But if its making power and not moving then that means...
"Uh-oh". The raft shot into the distance before Gonzales had a chance to jump out. It was going at such a speed that Gonzales' feet were no longer touching the deck. His face felt kind of tight too.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". Gonzales looked down at the spedomiter, which he just managed to catch a glimpse of before it vanshed in a puff of smoke. Was it meant to twitch around like that?
He managed to put his feet back down onto the floor, and checked behind him to see how far he had come. The answer was still unclear, since the boulder he had started on was no longer visable. The only evidence that he had been moving was a trail of smoke coming from the jets of fire from the rafts exhaust ports.
Gonzales stopped the boat to catch his bearings, though at the speed he was going they would probably take a while to get there. He wasnt even sure he was going in the right direction. Night was beginning to fall and the moons were already beginning their ascent.
"I know I can use the moons to find out where I am", Gonzales checked the sky.
"Lets see, Geriva is near Nasr so the red moon should be high with the yellow moon rising in the north west. I was near the green moon so if I was going in the right direction that should be due south. But its not... where is it, aha its south east and the yellow moon is north, so that means i need to go north east to go to Nasr."
Gonzales maneuvered the boat in the right direction and slowly set the power to full. He didnt want to take himself by surprise and wake up at the bottom of lower sky. By the time he was under way night had fully fallen. Gonzales wasnt exactly quick on the uptake.
The increase in speed meant that Gonzales had only travelled three hours before the red moon was getting to where it should be. It was Gonzales noticed a glow on the horizon.
"Hmm, pretty sunset" he thought. Then he realised that it was almost midnight.
Then the landmass that was Geriva appeared on the horizon. From what he could see from this distance, it was burning, a lot. Fireballs occasionally rose up into the sky before dissapearing as canisters of fuel were ignited. This created, to all those unfortunate enough to still be alive, a rather hellish effect.
A minute passed and Gonzales was close enough to see the extent of the damage. The enormus amounts of power behind Gillsts cannons was immediately apparent. Huge craters dotted the landscape, and cracks were begining to widen across the landscape. The edges of Geriva were crumbling, becoming small chunks and falling to the depths of lower sky. What few maps Geriva was on, it wasnt going to be for much longer. Gonzales switched on the rafts floodlight and began to look for a place to land.
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Landing on the island was a problem, even for a ship as small as Gonzales' life raft. With someone as calculating as Gillst the ports were the first places to go, hopefully the other got out ok. Everywhere else was fire or rubble making for difficult landing. Setting down at the edge was also a no go, the crumbling of the land mass meant that even though the raft would stay afloat it wouldnt be reachable in a couple of hours. Gonzales realised the best place to land was the lake, and so he set down there. Once he was off the boat Gonzales turned off the engine and pushed it into the lake (1).
Gonzales looked around the landscape and preyed he would not be there for long. This once lively city was making him jumpy. Whatever the arcadians image of hell was, this was it. Like Hell the air was thick with ashes and smoke but obviously not brimstone, fires raged all over the city giving a glow that Gonzales could not describe. If he was Earth now he would have described it like the orange haze you get over cities at night from the street lamps.
He first headed to where he thought the docks once were, hoping he wouldnt see the remains of a boat and his friends. Gonzales started to run, he couldnt bear the doubt over his friends fate, he had to know.
Finding the dock was much harder than Gonzales expected. Everyone always say how different cities look at night, it was amazing the difference a few shells could make. He could no longer see the road for the rubble, and there was very little left of the buildings (2). That said there was just enough left of the buildings to make out where the road boundarys were.
Now tiring, Gonzales slowed down to a jog, though he still didnt see the crater until he was at the bottom of it. Gonzales slowly got up rubbing his head after the fall, it wasnt a particularly large crater. Now he was standing up most of his torso was above it and he could probably touch both sides if he streched his arms out. Although there was a strange object at the bottom. Obviously some kind of weapon and probably a dud seeing as how the crater wasnt as large as the others. It was quite different to a normal cannonball, it was elongated and looked like it was constructed rather than moulded. The rivets were what gave this away. It also had some kind of fan at the back too. Gonzales decided to investigate it further later and so, after marking out the site with pyri fires, set off again towards... wherever the dock is, was.
He had barely run for a minute before some rubble began to move and talk.
"help". The voice was barely audible and sounded like the rubble was struggling to breathe.
Gonzales easily found the source quickly. It was a man who looked just older than Gonzales, and was trapped under a section of what was once an old wall and some wooden beams. Gonzales dug him out and helped him to sit against what was once a wall.
"Its ok I'm a friend. Can you tell me your name?"
"Rium" gasped the man.
"Ok Rium I am going to fix you up good, you just try to stay consious alright? Who did this?" As if he had to ask.
"Gillst"
"Alright this is going to hurt for a second" said Gonzales got ready to pop Riums arm back into its socket. Rium gasped as it went back into place, he wasnt strong enough to scream. After a while Rium started to look a bit better, although was suffering from the pain of being prodded to check bones, and from lack of energy. Gonzales cast Sacres several times which helped bring back some of Riums colour
"Can you tell me the way to the dock?"
"You're... already there" at this Rium began to lose colour again.
"NO! Dont go now. Listen to me, were there any others here? What happened to them?"
"Gonzales? They said you would come... Your... too late. They..." Rium exhaled, and went limp. Gonzales checked his pulse and sighed.
"Talk about a cliche" he muttered. Looking around, the rubble seemed to have most of the features of the dry dock. The reamins of A tower was evident in one corner. There was enough rubble to suggest there had been high walls. The pile of burning wood (mouldy) seemed to confirm Gonzales' worst fears and fit into what Rium seemed to be trying to say before he went. Maybe the others really were gone.
Gonzales gathered wood and started a fire where he and Rium were talking barely moments before. He had to decide what to do next.
N.B. To help save on confusion later, this chapter ended at 2:00 in the morning
(1)Better to have a wetboat than a pile of ashes
(2)I have an image of buildings during the WWII Blitz in my mind, for anyone whos seen pictures.