Thanks to Raiders of the Lost Arc for giving me the idea of something Chris could be scared.
Part 4: The Snake
Chris goes into his tent, upset at Vin's news and starts throwing things on the floor. Buck comes into the tent to talk to him.
"You know we're all behind you and we all think Vin's being led astray by his new girlfriend," says Buck.
"They're in love. They aren't doing anythin' wrong," says Chris.
"They shouldn' be getting' engaged yet."
Chris goes outside and sees something small coming towards him fast. He steps aside and it lands on the ground behind him. He goes over to it and picks it up and discovers it's a dart. He carefully picks it up and goes to Nathan's tent where he knows Nathan is.
"Nate, can you look at this?" he asks the team medic. Chris puts the dart on the small foldout table, which Nathan has in the tent.
Nathan picks it up and examines it, then asks, "Where did you get this?"
"It was flying towards me outside - I moved just in time. Is it poisonous?" asks the blond man.
Nathan sniffs the dart; "Smells poisonous to me. You had a lucky escape."
"Why'd someone shoot at me with a dart?" asks Chris.
Buck comes into the tent hearing Chris's question. "Someone's tryin' to get you?"
"Why'd anyone want to get me?"
"D'you think it's Krys?" asks Nathan, still suspicious of the girl.
"No, she's a nice girl, she wouldn't want to kill me," says Chris.
"Maybe she thinks you might persuade Vin to break off the engagement."
"I wouldn't do that because I know it wouldn't work."
Chris goes out of the tent, then he goes back into his own one and lies on top of his sleeping bag.
He jumps up suddenly and opens his sleeping bag and jumps back. There's a huge snake in it. He runs out of the tent terrified. He's shouting obscenities.
Everyone except Vin and Krys gather outside upon hearing Chris's swearing.
"What's wrong now?" asks Nathan, looking at Chris curiously.
"There's a s-s-s-s-s-s...." stutters Chris.
"A what?" asks Buck.
"A s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s in my bed!" says Chris, too scared to say the word.
"Spider? You wimp!" says Nathan, not knowing that Chris is afraid of snakes.
"Not a spider. A SNAKE!" says Chris.
"I bet it's a little one!" says JD.
"No, it's a huge one!" answers Chris.
"Don't look at me, I hate snakes!" says Nathan.
"Me too!" agrees Lu.
"Someone PLEASE get rid of it," says Chris, looking around at the guys who aren't scared.
Vin comes out of his tent; "What's all the noise?"
"There's a s-s-snake in my bed!"
"Maybe it's tired," says Vin, trying to hide a grin.
"A big snake!" says Chris, glaring at the Texan.
"It's not doin' any harm."
"Did you put it there?" asks Chris.
"No I've been… chatting to Krys," says Vin.
"No kanoodling in my camp, Tanner!" says Chris, glaring at the blonde-haired Texan.
"I'm chattin' ta her, not kanoodlin'."
"You wanna have babies, go and find another camp."
"Fine, that snake can stay there then!" says Vin, turning back towards Krys's tent
"Please get it out, no one else will!" begs Chris.
"I don't wanna, this is a chance for you ta overcome your fear of snakes, Larabee."
"Vin, don't be so mean to him," says Josiah, defending Chris.
"You wanna be kicked out of my camp, Tanner?" says Chris, raising his voice.
"Krys and me can leave on our own anyway."
"Leave then!"
"We don' wanna leave yet."
Chris suddenly punches Vin and the Texan falls down. Chris walks towards the stream.
"You okay Vin?" asks Nathan, walking over to the man lying on the ground.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Didn' see that comin'!" says Vin.
"You're an ASS, Vin. We all saw it comin'," says Buck, walking over.
"Krys and me are leavin' then. Chris will jest have ta sleep with the snake tonight!"
"At least move the snake for him, Tanner," requests Buck.
Vin goes back into Krys' tent.
"What was that about?" asks the girl.
"Chris thinks I put a big snake in his bed," answers Vin.
"You wouldn' do that ta him."
Vin stays quiet in answer to her question.
* * * * * * *
Outside they are debating who should retrieve the snake.
"Maybe we should draw straws?" suggests Buck.
"No way. I'd draw the short one," says JD.
"Poor Chris, I didn't think he was scared of anything," says Nathan.
"I was aware of Mr Larabee's phobia before this particular incident…although may I just point out that I was not the miscreant that placed it in our illustrious leader's bed! However the creature couldn't have gotten there by itself!" says Ezra, speaking for the first time in ages.
"When I catch the person who put it there, I'm gonna kill 'em," says Buck.
"How ya gonna kill 'em?" says Nathan, humouring him.
"I'm gonna hang 'em from the nearest jungle tree."
Chris comes along; "Has anyone got that snake out yet?"
"No, but we decided how to kill the person who put it there!" says Nathan, grinning.
"It probably just got there itself," says Chris, hardly believing that one of his friends would do it.
"No, I believe it had help to get there - someone must have put it there," says Josiah.
"Must've been the same person who tried to shoot me with a dart."
"Maybe it's natives trying to get rid of us," suggests JD.
"All this talking's not gettin' rid of the snake," says Chris.
JD goes into Chris's tent and sees the snake asleep on Chris's bed. "Whoa, he's huge!" says the young man. JD goes out of the tent.
"He's asleep!" JD announces.
"Sleep on the bus 'til it goes away," says Buck.
"I've had enough of this place, we're leavin'!" says Chris, standing up from where he was sitting on the ground.
Everyone goes and packs their tents up, all except Chris and Vin's tents. Vin and Krys are still in Krys's tent.
Vin comes out of the tent; "What's this? You evacuatin'?"
"We're leavin'" says JD.
"Where to?" asks Vin.
"We're going home," says Nathan.
"Was you jus' gonna leave us here?" asks Vin.
Ezra comes running along; "Gentlemen, we appear to have company!"
Suddenly army men with rifles surround them!
A man who's a captain walks over; "Stay where you are, we have you surrounded!"
"What? We ain't done nothin'." Says Vin.
"We are here to arrest ATF Team 7 for crimes against the United States of America!"
"You're talking rubbish!" says Chris smiling.
"Drop your weapons," orders the Captain.
"We haven't got any weapons!" says Josiah, showing his empty hands.
"You can't be out here without no protection," says the Captain.
"I wasn' expectin' to meet any ladies out here in the jungle sir!" says Buck, misunderstanding.
The Captain glares at Buck.
"We haven't committed any crimes, Sir," says Chris.
"That's what they all say. You have to come along with us."
"Sure, then we can prove our innocence."
"I'm not coming, I'm not in ATF Team 7," says Vin.
"Yes you are, Vincent Tanner"
Buck goes towards the Captain; "What crimes?"
"Buck Wilmington?"
"Yes."
The Captain puts handcuffs onto Buck; "You are under arrest!"
"I don't believe this!" says Buck.
"The girls can go, they aren't wanted for any crimes. The rest of you will come with us to temporary holding cells."
Chris tells the girls to stay on the bus while they are gone - they will be back very soon.
"We ain't done nothin'!" says Vin, as another man handcuffs him.
"We have witnesses," says the man.
"Witnesses?" asks Buck in disbelief.
"Please come along quietly. You have the right to remain silent..." says the Captain.
"We know our rights, Captain," says Chris.
They get into the army vehicles and are driven to a small jail building at the outskirts of a town.
They are put into two cells: Chris, Buck and Ezra in one and Vin, JD, Josiah and Nathan in the other. They are left alone.
"What do we do now?" asks Vin looking around at the bars of the cell.
"Pray for our innocence to be quickly proven," answers Josiah.
"They will find out we are innocent, we just have to go along with it," says Chris, sitting on one of the foam mattresses on the floor.
"Do you think Krys' ex-boyfriend set us up?" says Buck
"You could be right," says Josiah, leaning against the wall.
The Captain comes back in. "Okay, you'll have to stay here a while."
"We haven't done anything wrong, we're innocent," states Chris loudly and sternly.
The Captain points to Chris and says, "Innocent? You committed the murder of General Ellis!"
"Murdered a general?" asks Buck, "you're kiddin'!"
"I wouldn't joke about a serious matter like that. I'm not surprised you're acting all innocent when you helped him. The rest of your friends helped you avoid the law until we had a witness tell us where you were."
"You're wrong. Someone has set us up," says Vin.
"Can you prove that?" asks the Captain, not taking the Texan seriously. The Captain walks out locking the door behind him.
"Perhaps we can escape!" suggests Buck, looking hopefully at the barred windows.
Chris sits on the stone ground, thinking about this, then stands up and says, "I'm not gonna run away when I'm innocent. That will only make things worse."
They get onto the foam mattresses (there's just enough for them all) and soon fall asleep, as they can't think of anything better to do.
* * * * * * *
Meanwhile back at the camp, the girls are sitting on the bus talking.
"We gotta get them released," says Krys, realising that unless the men are released the girls will be stranded there.
"I didn't think you cared that much," says Lu.
"You was wrong. We can't let them rot in jail," says Krys, already starting to miss her fiancé Vin.
"We don't even know where they are!" points out Lu.
"We can follow the tyre tracks."
They get off the bus, closing the doors behind them. Krys locks the bus, as Chris gave her the keys.
They start to follow the tyre tracks. After half an hour, they come to a town.
Krys stops a local woman and asks in Spanish, "Is there a jail here?"
The woman answers back in the same language, "Other side of town."
Krys thanks her in Spanish and the two girls start walking to the other side of town.
They finally reach the jail.
"Now what?" asks Lu.
"One of these window's gotta be where they are," answers Krys eyeing several barred windows on the side of the building.
They look through windows until they can see the guys in cells inside.
Krys whispers, "Hey Vin!"
Vin wakes up hearing his beloved's voice. He walks to the window and whispers, "Did you walk all this way to find us?"
"Course' we did. Didn' think we were gonna do nothin' do ya?" answers his fiancée.
"You can't get us out though."
"Sure we can. I can pick the locks to this place easy." Krys picks the lock on the front of the building after looking through the windows and seeing there's no guards there. They find their way to the cells and Krys picks the cell doors and the guys all file out.
"Thought you didn' want ta escape Chris?" says Vin.
"After a few hours in there I don' care, let's get out of here," answers the Texan's best friend.
* * * * * * *
They all go back to camp as fast as they can. They pack up the tents after Vin has removed the snake, which was still in Chris's tent.
"You wanna call a truce Chris?" says Vin.
"Can we be best friends again?" asks his friend.
"Yes of course - we never stopped being best friends!"
Chris and Vin smile at each other briefly.
Everything is packed up and they go back to the bus and load up, ready to go home.
"I don' like driving at night," grumbles Chris.
"Can't stay here, they might come after us," says Vin, looking back towards the town, expecting the army men to come looking for them at any moment.
"Are we fugitives now?" asks JD, sounding excited at the idea.
"Course not, we didn't do nothing wrong," says Nathan.
"I want everyone to forget about it. We never got arrested, okay?" orders Chris, knowing Travis wouldn't be pleased to hear that the men got arrested, even if it was on false accusations.
"We never did find out who put that snake in your bed, Chris!" says Nathan, changing the subject.
"IT WAS ME!" shouts Vin, as a huge grin starts to appear on his face.
Chris aims a punch at Vin, but Krys gets between them and stops the punch.
"Just forget it okay!" says the girl.
"I got my revenge fer you tryin' ta kiss my girl."
"If that had bitten me, you would have been sorry," says Chris, glaring at Vin.
Vin ignores the glare, then says, "I knew you wouldn' let it get close enough fer that."
"Everyone get to your seats. No arguing over seats this time," orders Chris strictly.
Buck quickly gets his seat before Krys can, so her and Vin sit away from Buck instead.
To be continued…
Part 4: The Snake
Chris goes into his tent, upset at Vin's news and starts throwing things on the floor. Buck comes into the tent to talk to him.
"You know we're all behind you and we all think Vin's being led astray by his new girlfriend," says Buck.
"They're in love. They aren't doing anythin' wrong," says Chris.
"They shouldn' be getting' engaged yet."
Chris goes outside and sees something small coming towards him fast. He steps aside and it lands on the ground behind him. He goes over to it and picks it up and discovers it's a dart. He carefully picks it up and goes to Nathan's tent where he knows Nathan is.
"Nate, can you look at this?" he asks the team medic. Chris puts the dart on the small foldout table, which Nathan has in the tent.
Nathan picks it up and examines it, then asks, "Where did you get this?"
"It was flying towards me outside - I moved just in time. Is it poisonous?" asks the blond man.
Nathan sniffs the dart; "Smells poisonous to me. You had a lucky escape."
"Why'd someone shoot at me with a dart?" asks Chris.
Buck comes into the tent hearing Chris's question. "Someone's tryin' to get you?"
"Why'd anyone want to get me?"
"D'you think it's Krys?" asks Nathan, still suspicious of the girl.
"No, she's a nice girl, she wouldn't want to kill me," says Chris.
"Maybe she thinks you might persuade Vin to break off the engagement."
"I wouldn't do that because I know it wouldn't work."
Chris goes out of the tent, then he goes back into his own one and lies on top of his sleeping bag.
He jumps up suddenly and opens his sleeping bag and jumps back. There's a huge snake in it. He runs out of the tent terrified. He's shouting obscenities.
Everyone except Vin and Krys gather outside upon hearing Chris's swearing.
"What's wrong now?" asks Nathan, looking at Chris curiously.
"There's a s-s-s-s-s-s...." stutters Chris.
"A what?" asks Buck.
"A s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s in my bed!" says Chris, too scared to say the word.
"Spider? You wimp!" says Nathan, not knowing that Chris is afraid of snakes.
"Not a spider. A SNAKE!" says Chris.
"I bet it's a little one!" says JD.
"No, it's a huge one!" answers Chris.
"Don't look at me, I hate snakes!" says Nathan.
"Me too!" agrees Lu.
"Someone PLEASE get rid of it," says Chris, looking around at the guys who aren't scared.
Vin comes out of his tent; "What's all the noise?"
"There's a s-s-snake in my bed!"
"Maybe it's tired," says Vin, trying to hide a grin.
"A big snake!" says Chris, glaring at the Texan.
"It's not doin' any harm."
"Did you put it there?" asks Chris.
"No I've been… chatting to Krys," says Vin.
"No kanoodling in my camp, Tanner!" says Chris, glaring at the blonde-haired Texan.
"I'm chattin' ta her, not kanoodlin'."
"You wanna have babies, go and find another camp."
"Fine, that snake can stay there then!" says Vin, turning back towards Krys's tent
"Please get it out, no one else will!" begs Chris.
"I don't wanna, this is a chance for you ta overcome your fear of snakes, Larabee."
"Vin, don't be so mean to him," says Josiah, defending Chris.
"You wanna be kicked out of my camp, Tanner?" says Chris, raising his voice.
"Krys and me can leave on our own anyway."
"Leave then!"
"We don' wanna leave yet."
Chris suddenly punches Vin and the Texan falls down. Chris walks towards the stream.
"You okay Vin?" asks Nathan, walking over to the man lying on the ground.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Didn' see that comin'!" says Vin.
"You're an ASS, Vin. We all saw it comin'," says Buck, walking over.
"Krys and me are leavin' then. Chris will jest have ta sleep with the snake tonight!"
"At least move the snake for him, Tanner," requests Buck.
Vin goes back into Krys' tent.
"What was that about?" asks the girl.
"Chris thinks I put a big snake in his bed," answers Vin.
"You wouldn' do that ta him."
Vin stays quiet in answer to her question.
* * * * * * *
Outside they are debating who should retrieve the snake.
"Maybe we should draw straws?" suggests Buck.
"No way. I'd draw the short one," says JD.
"Poor Chris, I didn't think he was scared of anything," says Nathan.
"I was aware of Mr Larabee's phobia before this particular incident…although may I just point out that I was not the miscreant that placed it in our illustrious leader's bed! However the creature couldn't have gotten there by itself!" says Ezra, speaking for the first time in ages.
"When I catch the person who put it there, I'm gonna kill 'em," says Buck.
"How ya gonna kill 'em?" says Nathan, humouring him.
"I'm gonna hang 'em from the nearest jungle tree."
Chris comes along; "Has anyone got that snake out yet?"
"No, but we decided how to kill the person who put it there!" says Nathan, grinning.
"It probably just got there itself," says Chris, hardly believing that one of his friends would do it.
"No, I believe it had help to get there - someone must have put it there," says Josiah.
"Must've been the same person who tried to shoot me with a dart."
"Maybe it's natives trying to get rid of us," suggests JD.
"All this talking's not gettin' rid of the snake," says Chris.
JD goes into Chris's tent and sees the snake asleep on Chris's bed. "Whoa, he's huge!" says the young man. JD goes out of the tent.
"He's asleep!" JD announces.
"Sleep on the bus 'til it goes away," says Buck.
"I've had enough of this place, we're leavin'!" says Chris, standing up from where he was sitting on the ground.
Everyone goes and packs their tents up, all except Chris and Vin's tents. Vin and Krys are still in Krys's tent.
Vin comes out of the tent; "What's this? You evacuatin'?"
"We're leavin'" says JD.
"Where to?" asks Vin.
"We're going home," says Nathan.
"Was you jus' gonna leave us here?" asks Vin.
Ezra comes running along; "Gentlemen, we appear to have company!"
Suddenly army men with rifles surround them!
A man who's a captain walks over; "Stay where you are, we have you surrounded!"
"What? We ain't done nothin'." Says Vin.
"We are here to arrest ATF Team 7 for crimes against the United States of America!"
"You're talking rubbish!" says Chris smiling.
"Drop your weapons," orders the Captain.
"We haven't got any weapons!" says Josiah, showing his empty hands.
"You can't be out here without no protection," says the Captain.
"I wasn' expectin' to meet any ladies out here in the jungle sir!" says Buck, misunderstanding.
The Captain glares at Buck.
"We haven't committed any crimes, Sir," says Chris.
"That's what they all say. You have to come along with us."
"Sure, then we can prove our innocence."
"I'm not coming, I'm not in ATF Team 7," says Vin.
"Yes you are, Vincent Tanner"
Buck goes towards the Captain; "What crimes?"
"Buck Wilmington?"
"Yes."
The Captain puts handcuffs onto Buck; "You are under arrest!"
"I don't believe this!" says Buck.
"The girls can go, they aren't wanted for any crimes. The rest of you will come with us to temporary holding cells."
Chris tells the girls to stay on the bus while they are gone - they will be back very soon.
"We ain't done nothin'!" says Vin, as another man handcuffs him.
"We have witnesses," says the man.
"Witnesses?" asks Buck in disbelief.
"Please come along quietly. You have the right to remain silent..." says the Captain.
"We know our rights, Captain," says Chris.
They get into the army vehicles and are driven to a small jail building at the outskirts of a town.
They are put into two cells: Chris, Buck and Ezra in one and Vin, JD, Josiah and Nathan in the other. They are left alone.
"What do we do now?" asks Vin looking around at the bars of the cell.
"Pray for our innocence to be quickly proven," answers Josiah.
"They will find out we are innocent, we just have to go along with it," says Chris, sitting on one of the foam mattresses on the floor.
"Do you think Krys' ex-boyfriend set us up?" says Buck
"You could be right," says Josiah, leaning against the wall.
The Captain comes back in. "Okay, you'll have to stay here a while."
"We haven't done anything wrong, we're innocent," states Chris loudly and sternly.
The Captain points to Chris and says, "Innocent? You committed the murder of General Ellis!"
"Murdered a general?" asks Buck, "you're kiddin'!"
"I wouldn't joke about a serious matter like that. I'm not surprised you're acting all innocent when you helped him. The rest of your friends helped you avoid the law until we had a witness tell us where you were."
"You're wrong. Someone has set us up," says Vin.
"Can you prove that?" asks the Captain, not taking the Texan seriously. The Captain walks out locking the door behind him.
"Perhaps we can escape!" suggests Buck, looking hopefully at the barred windows.
Chris sits on the stone ground, thinking about this, then stands up and says, "I'm not gonna run away when I'm innocent. That will only make things worse."
They get onto the foam mattresses (there's just enough for them all) and soon fall asleep, as they can't think of anything better to do.
* * * * * * *
Meanwhile back at the camp, the girls are sitting on the bus talking.
"We gotta get them released," says Krys, realising that unless the men are released the girls will be stranded there.
"I didn't think you cared that much," says Lu.
"You was wrong. We can't let them rot in jail," says Krys, already starting to miss her fiancé Vin.
"We don't even know where they are!" points out Lu.
"We can follow the tyre tracks."
They get off the bus, closing the doors behind them. Krys locks the bus, as Chris gave her the keys.
They start to follow the tyre tracks. After half an hour, they come to a town.
Krys stops a local woman and asks in Spanish, "Is there a jail here?"
The woman answers back in the same language, "Other side of town."
Krys thanks her in Spanish and the two girls start walking to the other side of town.
They finally reach the jail.
"Now what?" asks Lu.
"One of these window's gotta be where they are," answers Krys eyeing several barred windows on the side of the building.
They look through windows until they can see the guys in cells inside.
Krys whispers, "Hey Vin!"
Vin wakes up hearing his beloved's voice. He walks to the window and whispers, "Did you walk all this way to find us?"
"Course' we did. Didn' think we were gonna do nothin' do ya?" answers his fiancée.
"You can't get us out though."
"Sure we can. I can pick the locks to this place easy." Krys picks the lock on the front of the building after looking through the windows and seeing there's no guards there. They find their way to the cells and Krys picks the cell doors and the guys all file out.
"Thought you didn' want ta escape Chris?" says Vin.
"After a few hours in there I don' care, let's get out of here," answers the Texan's best friend.
* * * * * * *
They all go back to camp as fast as they can. They pack up the tents after Vin has removed the snake, which was still in Chris's tent.
"You wanna call a truce Chris?" says Vin.
"Can we be best friends again?" asks his friend.
"Yes of course - we never stopped being best friends!"
Chris and Vin smile at each other briefly.
Everything is packed up and they go back to the bus and load up, ready to go home.
"I don' like driving at night," grumbles Chris.
"Can't stay here, they might come after us," says Vin, looking back towards the town, expecting the army men to come looking for them at any moment.
"Are we fugitives now?" asks JD, sounding excited at the idea.
"Course not, we didn't do nothing wrong," says Nathan.
"I want everyone to forget about it. We never got arrested, okay?" orders Chris, knowing Travis wouldn't be pleased to hear that the men got arrested, even if it was on false accusations.
"We never did find out who put that snake in your bed, Chris!" says Nathan, changing the subject.
"IT WAS ME!" shouts Vin, as a huge grin starts to appear on his face.
Chris aims a punch at Vin, but Krys gets between them and stops the punch.
"Just forget it okay!" says the girl.
"I got my revenge fer you tryin' ta kiss my girl."
"If that had bitten me, you would have been sorry," says Chris, glaring at Vin.
Vin ignores the glare, then says, "I knew you wouldn' let it get close enough fer that."
"Everyone get to your seats. No arguing over seats this time," orders Chris strictly.
Buck quickly gets his seat before Krys can, so her and Vin sit away from Buck instead.
To be continued…