Eileen's Oddysee Chapter 3: From Ashes to Ashes

We waited out there in the thick of the woods, arguing over cultural differences for quite some time, until the sky grew shades of orange.

"The other should be gone by now." Craig told me, hoisting up his gun.

"How do you know for sure?" I asked him. Craig chuckled.

"Name that Trauma comes on at six, they won't want to miss that... Probably the only thing I'm gonna miss about working for the Magog." We started walking back through the woods, as we continued to talk.

"What is 'Name that Trauma'?" I asked him.

"It's a game show on the TV, only one run entirely by sligs." Ah Television... Father had told me about Television. Always wanted to see one for myself. "You see, it's a game show, where they bring Mudokon's out, and they slaughter them brutally and the contestants have to name the method used for the slaughter, or the cause of death!" Never mind maybe I didn't.

"That sounds sickening. Is that really what you'd call entertainment?!" I asked him.

"Well to be honest I think I enjoyed it more when I was younger than I do now. I'd still watch it with the bros for the hilarious Slig host, Valet." Craig chuckled again. "What a guy... Showin all us that Sligs can still make it in a Glukkon run world."

"So the whole death thing doesn't bug you?!" I exclaimed.

"You get used to it. I've been around death since I was a bit more than a egg! Mudokon slaves die all the time under the Magog, hell, us Sligs probably die more than they do! Work place accidents happen every day. It's hard for death to bug you when it never has." I wanted to say more but stopped myself. This was clearly something I didn't have the up bringing to understand. I assured myself that some of my people's pass-times probably seemed equally as gruesome to him, though I highly doubted it.

"So... Sligs... They're now usually like you are, I assume." I asked him.

"Nah not really. I'm sure any of them could be capable of being the rebel scum I've become, but we're brainwashed from birth to believe the Glukkons are our supreme leaders and we are to follow them no matter how little they pay us." Craig explained.

"Why don't you think that then?" I pressed. He was quiet for a bit.

"... So I used to know this guy, we hatched together. His name was 075, but I called him Todd. We grew up together, got beaten by Mama together, and eventually, got hired into one of the Magog Cartel's locations together. We were both guards, stationed at posts near each other. It was pretty great." If sligs could smile, I would have bet that Craig would have been smiling ear to ear... Of course that would also imply that Sligs have ears. "But after a couple years, there was an incident. A large portion of Mudokon slaves had escaped, and in turn the boss decided to punish us sligs by not letting us get any food. He kept this going for a week, I thought we were all gonna start dropping. My buddy Todd especially wasn't lookin too hot during this, so I took it upon myself to break into one of the many Glukkon safe rooms the factory possessed, and grabbed me some Scrab cakes." Craig chuckled. "Ah even as a young un' I was such a renegade... So I gave some of the cakes I took to Todd, and we ate them together, and I thought everything was gonna be fine, but then the boss came along, said that he knew one of us stole food from his safe room. I swore I was gonna die right then. But, Boss..." Craig hesitated. "Then he ordered me to shoot Todd. He said he knew it was him who stole from the safe room, and I was to shoot him, and if I didn't, he'd have both of us sent in for Slig Stew, so-"

"You shot Todd." I said

"Yeah... I did. He was pretty dead after that too." Craig sighed. "Boss... He said something after that, something that's always stuck with me. After I shot Todd, he said 'I'm glad we could be rid of that 074. We have no room for thieves here. Carry on, 075'. It was that that made me realize that boss couldn't tell the difference between us, to him we're all the same. He had me kill Todd, cause he thought Todd was me. I remember thinking I must just be the luckiest bastard in Mudos!"

"Is that what made you turn against them?" I asked him.

"Well... In part. I was kind of pissed off that the Glukkons could get away with treating us like they do the slaves, but I still didn't mind work. I mean beating the shit out of muds is pretty fun-" I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Your job was to beat things?! And you enjoyed that?!" I exclaimed.

"Well technically my job was to keep the slaves in line at any means necessary." Craig explained.

"So what's to say you won't just decide to beat me, huh?" I questioned, glaring at him.

"Ah you got nothin to worry about. You're furry!" I blinked a couple times.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well you're covered in fur, I've never hit something covered in fur and I don't plan on starting now." He explained.

"Good, I'll have you know I grew up with three brothers and if you so much as look at me wrong I won't hesitate to beat you into the ground." Craig chuckled.

"Whatever you say, Miss 'of the Eastern Tribe'." I was about to say something back to him, but then I smelled smoke. Given that we were heading in the direction of my village, this was not a good sign. I broke into a sprint, praying that the smoke wasn't the result of what I thought it was. "Hey miss Eileen! Not so fast!" Craig yelled as he followed after me.

I could see it before we were out of the woods, the flames, the destroyed houses, the ashes. Yet, I still refused to believe it until I stood right before it. My village in flames. The only home I'd ever known, gone. I fell to my front knees and cried.

"Hey lady look I'm sorry I teased ya but really ya need to get a thicker skin good odd..." Craig grumbled as he finally caught up, and laid eyes on what I was seeing. "Oh... Uh... Guess you find this upsetting?" I stood again and glared at him, the tears still in my eyes.

"Did you know about this?!" I yelled.

"Well... Kinda... I knew they were talkin about doing somethin like this-" He said.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" I screamed, my hands balling into fists. Craig raised his arms defensively and dropped his gun.

"Woah! Just wait a second! If I told you they were gonna do this, you'd wanna try and stop them, and then you'd be full of lead!" He reasoned. I was silent. "Tell me if I'm wrong."

"... No... You're right..." I admitted. "Sorry... It's just been a long day... Actually that's an understatement... Huh, and it's not even sundown! Still time for my life to fall apart even more, if that's even possible!" I let out a fake laugh.

"Sorry, I guess. You've lost a lot-" Craig started as though he was attempting to be sympathetic.

"I've lost everything. Everyone I've ever known is gone and awaiting death, and I'm stuck with a creature that looks like something that crawled out of my nightmares who I'm not even sure I can trust!" I yelled, before realizing I shouldn't upset the nightmarish creature with the gun. "... No offense." I added.

"None taken, I wouldn't trust anyone as fugly as me either." I did my best to pull myself together and remember the task at hand.

"So, a train. We have to catch one of these creatures and it will take us to our destination?" I asked. Craig laughed.

"Well it's not a creature, but yes we do have to catch it." I was rather excited for this. I had never seen a train before, this was still a new concept to me, and I couldn't wait to travel on one.

After some thought, I decided that it would have been better if a train remained a new concept to me, as the more Craig told me of them, the less I wanted to be near one.

"Craig, I've decided that I don't want to travel on this metal beast you call a train." I told him. He laughed and gave me a light smack on the back.

"Ah relax! We're just gonna wait for the train to come by, see if there's any ladders or open compartments, and hop on! Pud Glukkons do this all the time!" He explained. I made a mental note to ask what a pud was later. I felt the ground shaking beneath my feet. "Oh here comes one now!"

"This is a bad idea." I muttered, fear clinging to my voice.

"Ah you're just sayin that cause you've never done this before."

"Have you ever done this before?"

"Well... No..."

"EXACTLY!"

The train rumbled down the tracks past us. Craig was looking for an easy way for us to get on, when I noticed a ladder on the side of one of the approaching carts.

"There! That one!" I yelled, pointing at it. I made a jump and grabbed onto the ladder, as Craig ran after the train at a pace that made me worry I was gonna lose him and be stuck on this metallic beast alone.

"There's only so fast metallic legs can go!" He yelled. I was too far up to reach down and grab him, and before I could think of any alternative options, I lost my grip on the ladder, and fell back, my legs tangled in it's rungs, preventing me from falling. I took advantage of this opportunity to grab Craig by his arm and pull him up to the ladder. He then proceeded to climb over me and onto the top of the train. "... Hey Eileen, are you stuck?" He snickered.

"No, it just so happens my people enjoy hanging upside down from fast moving metal beasts- OF COURSE IM STUCK!"