Aaaaand we're back for Part 2. Sorry I'm taking so long but I'm EXTREMELY busy at the moment and updates will be longer than what I normally do. Anyway it was great to get all the positive feedback for chapter one :D Thank yas all and keep it coming. Great feedback for me and my second in command (The gf hehe) Anyway I'll respond to feedback on here unless I've already PM'd.
Shadow Walker of fire: Thanks, appreciate it.
The Prime Writer: ...whoa. You either really know your shit or Wikipedia has stuff I can't find hahaha, anyway cheers for all that m8. And to answer some of your questions, yes some of those characters will be introduced. 2/3 of them to exact. won't spoil more.
Cheers: JJZ-109
CHAPTER 2
MEET CHARLOTTE 'CHARLIE' A. BLACK
To mine a fortune? There was no chance this psycho could be a miner, Charlie thought to herself at speed. As far as she was concerned mining, the cash riddled business she was aiming for - was a clean business. Clean in terms of legitimacy of course, not environmental impact. She had come this far to be an Intern for Engineering Support for Rio Tinto, in their Pilbara mines. However here she was being beaten and bullied by some Brit who dressed (for the most part, with the exception of his pants, boots and glasses) like a psychotic soldier from the 18th century.
A million questions raced through Charlie's mind as she was released by the Redcoated man, and plopped back on her backside against the wall right where she just was.
Oh thank goodness... Charlie thought as she recognized her spot and moved her hands up to brush against the painfully sharp corroded iron, slowly sawing away at her zip tie.
In the meantime the Redcoated man inspected the body of the person he had murdered, nonchalantly kicking his corpse into a more 'neat' location. It didn't take him long to become frustrated at the weight of the man and order his two guards to attempt it instead.
They were distracted.
Charlie seized the opportunity, gritting her teeth and rubbing the zip tie against the sharp edge more and more, feeling the plastic 'sawdust' sprinkle her wrists and the tie starting to release it's painful clasp upon her.
She just needed to get out of here. Though she had no idea where she was, anywhere but here with these monsters was a safe bet.
Tck! Like shackles falling from a slave Charlie felt and heard her wrist binding zip tie finally snap. She breathed out a heavy exhale of relief and looked down, pondering her next move. What now? Run for it? Wait and pretend she never tried to escape then escape at a better time?
Her thoughts were cut off swiftly.
"By the way..." The suave British voice suddenly said, much closer to her than he just was.
An open hand extended out in front of her.
"My name is Rogers. Governor Solomon Rogers. I run this area and all involved business," He continued, Charlie staring at his hand feebly, before looking upwards into his shaded yet powerful gaze.
"Surely you wouldn't do a man disrespect by refusing his hand?" Rogers commented on her non-movement.
For a moment Charlie forgot everything else. Her questions, her escape ideas, her dignity even. She just didn't want to be struck by him another time. She knew he was holding back, and capable of so much more than he had already done to her.
She extend her liberated hand out and shook the Rogers' large one firmly.
"Ah, good handshake. It can tell a lot about a person," Rogers complimented, his eyes narrowing into hers.
It was then she realized her error yet again.
Rogers suddenly grasped her hand like a vice grip, and pulled her up close by it - making her wince out in pain.
"And equally as much...about a fucking deceitful animal!" Rogers screamed out the last three words in a fury.
Suddenly Charlie felt her neck begin to contract and ache in an uncontrollable manner. She hadn't even time to see Rogers grab it and squeeze. Aside from the tremendous pain, she felt incredibly stupid somehow, even though it was just this horrific man's fault. She had walked right into that trick as if he'd known all along what she was doing.
Struggling to stop her eyes from rolling back in her head Charlie thought, he knew what she was trying to do know. And what was going to happen to her if she didn't follow through? She'd either end up dead, or alive and escaped of course. Both of those options seemed to appeal to her more than sitting here being semi-strangled as punishment for trying to free herself.
She looked into Rogers' eyes, with drops of tears running down from hers still. They just looked full of pleasure and normality - as if this kind of doing was just a regular pastime for him.
He clearly expected her not to fight back.
Or do what she planned to do next.
With all the force she could muster up she suddenly jerked her head back and twisted it sharply around and down, in a movement pattern a choking hand could not follow. For a split second she was free of Rogers, and in that split second she scuttled back against the dark corrugated iron wall of the shack, her body smacking against it with a loud clang.
Then again, as with every action she had committed since painfully waking up - she found herself to regret it.
Facing her were two AK-47 barrels, belonging to each of the guarding soldiers who had reacted like jackrabbits to the sudden burst of free movement from her. Rogers' hands instinctively gripped both and forced them down, with him growling like some dominant ape who now faced a threat.
His expression was simmering with rage but this time Charlie had learnt her error from last time. Do not sit and wait to be punished while you are free.
Extending a leg out over the dirt floor she swept up a blanketing cloud of dust their direction, before turning and desperately pushing on the weak corroding wall behind her.
Come on...come on! Break! She urged it mentally but the piece of shit simply refused to.
RATATATATANG!
Alarmed by her move, and in ignorance of their leader's instructions the soldiers fired their assault rifles, with two flickering muzzle flashes lighting up in the mini dust cloud.
Charlie had never heard anything quite like it. It was so...loud. She had only ever heard a gun fire once before, and that was outdoors on a relative's farm. And that had been only a single shot. This however, was shot after shot after shot - with the deafening racket trapped inside a small structure. The noise was horrific.
When the noise ceased, she finally managed to open her eyes and look up. Warm light now poured in through dozens of holes in the thin metal wall, illuminating the swirls of dust going through them.
With a groan, the bullet-riddled shack wall collapsed.
Ah! Was the only enthusiastic noise Charlie could muster up even in her mind, and sprung up, despite her body throbbing in protest.
Light now engulfed her body. Pure, shining and damn hot sunlight that beat down on her skin from the heavens. She couldn't even look up, her eyes now having adjusted to the dim interior of the opened shack.
She could not even see where she was going the new light was so blinding, but she needed no second invitation to dart straight out the new gap created by the fallen wall. Keeping her head low, she ran for her life as her three captors stayed in confusion behind her. She could hear the enraged shouts of the leader at his own men, followed up by -bang.
The sun was too bright for her to even look ahead as she ran, her eyes were kept pointing out the ground where all she could see was dust.
Red dust.
Blinking rapidly she finally managed to raise her vision to look ahead.
Where the hell was she? At least she was still in Australia despite being kidnapped, as implied by the rusty red soil and the Outback forests ahead of her. But perhaps that wasn't much better, as Australia was big enough she might as well be hidden in another country. It could be like finding a needle in a haystack.
And also, where were her companions? Where was Tristan? Where was her brother Hayden? She had to quickly suppress the thoughts as she knew her time was limited. She had taken a gamble trying to escape and she'd better give her all to follow through now.
The alternative...scared her.
Charlie looked up and saw a stationary vehicle on a dirt trail, stained by the red dust and labelled with an insignia on the door which read 'KCA'. She didn't bother to think about what that meant. The engine was still running and that was what mattered. It must have been the one the three murderers (two now) had taken.
She vaulted straight over the door and into the vehicle, wasting no time in clicking the hand break off and slamming the stick into 'Drive'.
Vrrmm! The engine roared in response and the utility vehicle lurched forward, pressing Charlie's back against the seat. As she gunned the car away, she managed to aim a glance into the rear view mirror, at the shack.
Stepping out of the gap was Rogers, staring straight at her.
Nonchalantly, he just smiled warmly.
She shook his gaze off and kept speeding away until the shack was no longer visible in her mirror. Before she even knew it she was off desert space and into thick bushland, lined with towering Eucalyptus trees and dense dry scrub. Branches and bushes whacked against the sides of the car on the narrow trail, making her instinctively flinch. If this was her dad's car she'd be dead.
Sighing, Charlie thought to herself. What now? Wait till she was in phone reception and call cops? Wait no, her phone was gone. She'd have to somehow find a settlement.
Her thought was rapidly interrupted, as two Jeep Wranglers suddenly burst out from the bushes behind her and started closing fast.
Ah what!
She could see them in her wing mirrors and frankly had never been more terrified, one of them had a mounted machine gun on its roof, and both were painted in paramilitary color schemes. These were no ordinary criminals chasing her. More like...an army.
RADADANG
A burst of .50 cal fire smashed through her windshield, making her scream out in shock and duck her head, struggling to keep her eyes on the road.
She stamped on the accelerator even harder, veering off the main trail and onto an even tighter one, perhaps not even intended to cars.
Her turn was so sharp and fast the car nearly tipped onto its side.
She was now just blasting her way through the outback, tearing up any bushes or plants that might be in her way. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she drove, foot to the floor and weaving in between the huge gums.
The two jeeps did not give up chase, following intently and still firing off many inaccurate bursts into the scrub around her. The noise was enough to scar her though.
Charlie could see the native creatures now, Kangaroos getting up from their grazing and bounding away in fear of the terrible noises approaching them. She had gunned her car right in between two of them.
Looking in the mirror, Charlie could see that the Jeeps had lost a little ground on her. And in even better news, it appeared there was a clearing ahead. Light was pouring through trees dead ahead of her.
Blue sky appearing in the cracks between them, rather than red dirt. That was when Charlie knew to slow down.
Her car burst out of the trees, and instantly she slammed her handbrake down all the way, her tires screeching in protest as the car streamed towards the edge of the cliff.
Finally it stopped, parallel to the huge slanted drop to her side.
Wew... Charlie breathed out and looked down out of her window. It was a long drop alright, although not vertical. The rusty red cliff-face went down on a medium gradient before stopping at an abrupt edge, leading to another, shorter - although now vertical drop down to a train track. There was a long locomotive chugging through it.
Her pursuers had not been as wary as she had been. The first jeep, the armed one, blasted through the tree line and slammed on its brakes, but was moving far too fast and shot through the make-shift guard rail with a horrific clang.
Charlie watched in horror as the Jeep began to roll down the cliff-face with the people still inside it.
But her head was snapped back up again, as the second arrived.
She had not even time to react as the whole vehicle seemingly dived out of the bushland and blasted straight into her car, nose first.
"AH!" She cried out in pain as the car's airbags slammed into her face. It had been a few minutes since she was last hit in the face by anything.
"Oh no no no!" Charlie whined out as she felt her car's rear start to slide down off the unguarded cliff face, following the one that had just struck her.
As the last of her four wheels went over, Charlie found herself going down sideways.
NO NO don't roll! Charlie used all her strength to turn the wheel its full rotation and turn it so the front of the car went down first.
The fall down was quick but brutal, the car bumping and bucking her around on the inside as if it was a bull at a Wild West Rodeo. Meanwhile the car going with her had rolled down its side and become a twisted and crumpled heap of metal, now smoking from its front.
CRASH! The crumpled jeep smacked into the remains of the first one, and less than a second later, Charlie's car struck the carnage head on.
Charlie's head slammed into her steering wheel and for a moment everything seemed to not move at all. She was on the fringe of consciousness and her battered head would not stop thinking about just flopping there and giving up. Her head pounded and she felt completely dizzy.
"Uhh..." Charlie groaned and gingerly opened the door to the car.
She just flopped straight out like a rag doll, her cheek scraping against the hard rock. It was then she realized how much her arm hurt, now that the shock of the crash had worn off a little. It was throbbing damn bad, something was wrong with it.
She rolled onto her back and clutched it with her other hand, but instantly winced in pain. Oww...fuck! Shit is this a break...
Dizzily using the last remaining stores of her energy she stood up, holding her arm up across her front as if it were in a sling. She looked up and examined the remains of the three-car cliff face tumble.
She was lucky she was the last one down it. Nobody else had survived that.
Despite her ears still ringing in her head, way back from when the two soldiers fired their assault rifles, she could make out a faint crackling.
Fire.
Her car was on fire. She had seen enough movies and enough cop show videos to know what happened after that.
"Ugh!" She moaned out as she stumbled away, still holding her arm up in pain.
Then another sound broke out, this one far more damning than any impending explosion. It was rotors beating. A helicopter.
And it was flying far too low to be friendly from the sound of it.
Charlie had found herself at the edge of the next drop, the one that led down to the slow moving freight train below her. From the look of the train stretched on for well over a kilometer on either side, and it was moving quite slowly - its freight cars loaded to the brim with chunks of dusty iron ore and dirt.
It was at least a four meter drop from the ledge to the train. However, the sound of the helicopter was getting no quieter.
Turning her head, she just saw the tips of the rotors start to reveal themselves from above the tree line. This was it. She had two options. Die maybe or live...maybe. She made up her mind.
Charlie you crazy bitch...
She threw herself off the ledge.
Meanwhile, the KCA helicopter pilot had just approached the scene of the crash and buzzed over it curiously. There was two cars on fire now and no traces of any survivors. However it did occur to him that one might have possibly gotten away.
Charlie had no time to recover from the impact of her jump. Thankfully, she landed in one of the dirt cars instead of the iron ore ones - making her jump far less painful. But her arm still throbbed out with each motion she made, as if trying to restrain her.
In the top corner of her eye she could see the dark form of the helicopter buzzing above like an enormous black wasp. It was beginning to move her way, and she trembled.
Lowering her eyes, she saw a bridge coming up to her rapidly though.
Thank you god, thank you thank you thank you.
She dove head first into the dirt and began clawing at it with her fingers, splashing it all over her body.
The enemy pilot hovered over the railroad, scanning each individual car on the iron ore train one by one, searching for a potential stowaway survivor. There appeared to be none.
He maneuvered it onto the other side of the bridge, and waited.
A rarer dirt car came out from under it, followed up by more iron ore - but that was it. Nobody was on it.
Ehh...she's dead.
He pulled on the joystick and banked the chopper away from the railroad, before turning on his transmitter to report on his progress.
"Governor this is Raven One...she's dead. Over."
Meanwhile Charlie heard the aircraft leave, and breathed out heavily. She would have cried in pure trauma and stress, but she was completely out of energy to do that.
Using her last morsel of energy she clawed some dirt off her face so she could breathe. "Gah..."
Where's Hayden?
Where's Tristan?
Who is that monster?
Why do they all have army grade guns?
Where is this train going?
Where am I?
Charlie soon began to run out of energy to think and worry too. She was completely and entirely spent, bruised, and beaten.
Her last conscious image that she could register with open eyes was the sun above her, in an entirely cloudless sky. It just sat there torturing her with its rays just as the red coated man had with his fist.
Closing her eyes, she finally let herself fade away from the nightmare she was living.
As she did that, the freight train passed a bullet-hole riddled sign.
WELCOME TO KUNARRA
Handbook Entries unlocked: (2)
Name: Charlotte 'Charlie' Black
Gender: Female
Height: 169cm
Weight: 58kg
Date of Birth: 15/4/1990
Place of Birth: Fremantle, Western Australia
Hair Color: Brunette
Achieved top marks in high school and graduated with honours from the University of Western Australia. From wealthy and sporting family. Accepted internship in North Western Mines in mid 2014. Sister of a young superstar footballing prospect 'Hayden Black'.
Name: Solomon 'Red' Rogers
Gender: Male
Height: 187cm
Weight: 85kg
Date of Birth: 11/10/1979
Place of Birth: Lower Manchester, United Kingdom.
Hair Color: Auburn
Grew up privileged due to large sum inherited from deceased parents, and received quality schooling where he graduated with honors in the field of History. Joined the British Army aged 20, and served in Afghanistan where he was charged of war crimes and extreme brutality. Discharged from military service but evaded imprisonment, worked as chief of operations on Rook Islands until appointment of Vaas Montenegro. Took over Australian branch of criminal operations late 2012. Known for lavish attire and extreme cruelty.
Aaaaand there we are. KUNARRA.
Anyway it's been great to get all the attention this has, so don't forget to review, fave, sub and all that good shit. Also, since this is going to be a long and epic story, you can also keep up with Charlie's story from her personal account. Charlotte 'Charlie' Black is now on facebook, just drop her an add to talk to her ;)
This has been JJZ-109, and as always...have a nice day.