MINDSPRING- I FINALLY GOT MY FLASHDRIVE TO WORK! HUZZAH! *clears throat* Now back to important business...
Thank you times googolplex to all of the amazing reviewers! You guys are awesome!! Times infinity!! ^-^
I know that the chapters from the girls' POV are a little slow/short/ maybe boring/I've lost my point... Oh yeah- It won't be like this for very long, I promise. It'll get trés exciting soon! So, without further ado… sit back, relax, and kick those feet up!
~Natalie~
"Clones? I don't believe it. No way, no how." I muttered, climbing the concrete steps that led into the kitchen, following Caitlin and Maureen. As we entered, it became apparent that all of the men were now conscious, and, no doubt a little hungry. I listened to them as they discussed things from the room next to the kitchen. We would have a full view of them and them of us.
Great.
"It's true, Natalie! See, go and peek." Caitlin gently propelled me to the open door. I stubbornly dug my heels in and said, "Um, no thanks. Let's cook breakfast for them, shall we?" I turned around and closed the door. I'm sorry, but having a bunch of guys who crash-landed in my BFF's front lawn who just happen to be clones staring at me is not high on my to-do list.
Caitlin rolled her eyes and Maureen said, "So, what are we whipping up in here?"
"Last night I got all the main breakfast essentials- bacon, bagels, toast, sausage, omelet mixings, eggs, and doughnuts." I counted the list off on my fingers.
"Hmm. I vote protein for the big army men." Maureen said after a minute of serious thought.
I shrugged and Caitlin nodded, "Alright, then. Let's get cracking!"
I put my hand in my pocket, brought out my IPod, and waved it at Caitlin. "Please?"
She smirked and said, "Go for it."
I hooked up the music and turned it up, semi-loud, so the men could still discuss whatever without us missing our music.
In the privacy of the music, I could think, finally. It was Sunday, my gymnastics competition was in two days, and there are a bunch of strange men in our house, easily older and stronger than us. How could this thought not have crossed Caitlin's mind, really? I mean, sure it's nice and all, but isn't it a little dangerous for us? I shuddered, and continued with the cooking.
Earlier this morning, Caitlin had told us about her late-night, early-morning talk with the big man in charge, the one in blue she had first taken care of. Apparently, he was the Captain of the regiment that was in the next room, and apparently Caitlin had a little tiny crush on him.
Interesting.
Behind her back, Mo and I had decided that, although a bit odd, it would be cool if he felt the same way about her. She said she had felt a tug to go to him, and that he had been so easy to talk to, and… I swear, Mo and I listened to her for five minutes straight before tuning her out. Kit-Kat can be a little chatterbug sometimes.
About twenty minutes later, everything was set; the table, the food, the drinks, all of it. I turned off the music and Caitlin and I stood to the side as Mo dodged into the room and told them their feast was ready. You should have heard the clatter they made getting to the food. Hilarious. And even more hilarious, they had no idea what the food was, but they took plateful after plateful of it and scarfed all of it down. We watched with amusement from the bar seats, eating our own tiny proportions. Caitlin was taking note of how much more food she would need to get on her trip to town this afternoon.
Looking at the men, I realized that they were clones; the only differences were slight- hair cuts, hair color, but mainly tattoos. Lots of 'em, to. Sort of intimidating. After listening to them talk to each other, however, I relaxed more and more.
Eventually, the chat started to include us. It started when a clone with a mohawk and a tattoo of something slithering down his neck said, "Agh, I have the worst headache right now!"
All of a sudden, I remembered dragging the first man up the stairs and Caitlin accidently dropping his head on the concrete. Several times. I gasped quietly and looked at the other two. Eyes wide, lips pressed together to keep from laughing, I could tell they remembered too. Mo actually had tears in her eyes, and Caitlin was coughing to cover up her laugh. All of a sudden it got really quiet, and the man who had just spoken asked slowly, "What? What happened?"
Maureen got calm all of a sudden, and leaned across the counter at them, her silver eyes sparkling. Her tightly braided black hair fell across her shoulders and spilled over. Her dark skin gleamed.
I'm quite sure he thought he was faced with an exotic goddess, because he smiled shyly and looked around. She smiled back and said, "What's your name, soldier?"
He looked surprised that she could speak like an army officer. "Kirk."
"And do you happen to be occupying the top bunk bed in the room upstairs?"
He nodded again. Maureen smiled quite the dazzling actress's smile. Her teeth looked pure white against her dark sin, and he actually widened his eyes. As a matter of fact, they all did. It was quite funny.
Maureen turned to look at Caitlin in mock shock, eyes wide and mouth open. "Caitlin!" She chided. Caitlin bit her lip, but managed not laugh. She stared Mo straight in the eyes. "How dare you drop Kirk on his head, the poor injured man? Shame on you!"
Caitlin spread her hands and apologized amidst the roaring laughter from the men. I'm not sure why they thought it was funny, but… they are men.
I stole a look at Rex. He was sitting with his soldiers. He was smiling, but his eyes were focused on Caitlin.
I smiled and leaned back, arms crossed. He did feel the same way about Caitlin. Maureen owes me twenty bucks.
After that, they included us in their conversation. Even though they were clones, after a while it was really easy to remember who is who:
Rex bleached his hair; Nott has a shaved head; Jazz has a huge scar running from his temple to his jaw line (I planned to ask him about that later); Matchbox has a tattoo on the back of his neck; Odd Ball has three scars running diagonally across his face (also going to find out what happened); Kirk has the mohawk and a tattoo also down his neck; Veber has two different colored eyes, brown and blue (he told us weird genetic mishap); Fives has a tattoo of, what else, a five on his forehead; Link has a huge tattoo of something running around his neck; and Beta was missing a piece of his nose (also planned to ask w.t.f.).
All of the men had minor injuries; they had just fallen and cracked their heads on something when they had fallen. Pretty soon, they would all be up and running just fine, according to Rex. In fact, most of them, not counting OB (Odd Ball, if you didn't figure that out- he had head wound), were already fine.
"Can we go out and shoot today? This would be a good time to sharpen our skills." Matchbox asked, looking at Rex but directing the question at us. I looked at Caitlin and Maureen, who shrugged.
"Of course we can. I mean, what else are we going to do?"
"Um, we are on a farm. There is always something to do on a farm." Caitlin said. She put her elbows on the counter and counted on her fingers, "There is driving the livestock out to the fields, taking the horses out, or, I don't know, getting rid of the two escape pods that are plowed into my backyard." She raised her eyebrows at the last one.
Rex nodded and said, "We'll take care of that first; then we can go to the outer fields and shoot."
Caitlin told them were their guns were, where they could go, and what they could and could not shoot at. When she mentioned cattle, they all looked at each other in confusion. I rolled my eyes and said, "Big, brown, fat, and slobbery."
Mo cut in, "Basically any domestic animal is off limits."
Twenty minutes later, they were outside, and every single one of them (minus OB) was hauling the huge pod out of the ground. It actually hadn't landed in the backyard; it had landed in one of the fields behind the house. And it was plowed in a good five feet, too. After we had cleaned up in the kitchen, Mo, Kat, and I went outside armed with the hose, sponges, and an IPod and speakers. We set to getting rid of the huge black blast marks covering the lower half of both the barn and the house. After about twenty minutes, Rex came up to Kat and reported the pods were out of the ground and hidden. She nodded and sent Mo to take them to their 'shooting' range.
Mo backed out the truck and ordered them into the back, while Rex tossed them the guns. Then she closed the gate and drove off to the farther fields.
Meanwhile, Kat and I finished up with the marks. They weren't that hard to get rid of, luckily. It just required a few seconds of high-pressure water to make it flake off, and the rest was off with a few wipes of the sponges.
It was now nearing noon, and Mo pulled back into the gravel driveway and said, "I'll go back in an hour."
I nodded and looked to the eastern field. All of a sudden, I remembered who was lying there. I shuddered and said, "Let's bury them. Now."
Kat looked surprised, but took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "I'll get the shovels."
Only five men had died, but in our minds it was five too many. Even though we had known them all less than twenty-four hours, it was enough to see that each man had a different personality, different hopes, wishes, likes, dislikes… the list went on and on.
As we dug the holes, I wondered, sweat running down my face and back and my hands blistering, What could these men have been like? What would they have liked to do? And then, an awful thought struck me: How many of these men have been bred to die?
How many have died, and how many more have to?
