Swords, Sorcery, and Sex in the World of Greyhawk - Chapter 2 - Part 1

Chapter 2: Finding Shelter - Part 1

"Wooh! We made it!" Peter yelled, shaking his fist. "That was- that was incredible, man." He didn't try to stand up, though, and still gripped his ankle. Erica was the first to rise, climbing over the edge of the boat to collapse on solid ground. The two girls followed her, glad to be on the ground again.

"Now that we're safe, maybe we can figure this out." Steve said, looking up at the control podium.

"No, we've got to get out of here." Erica shook her head.

"But-" Steve said.

"Look, as soon as this storm passes they'll be out searching for us. They'll spot this thing right away, and then we're back in deep shit."

"Erica's right." Mickey spoke up. "They looked like raptors - they can probably see a mouse a mile away."

"Why can't we just rest under the boat until it stops raining." Peter asked, worried about how far he might have to walk with a bad ankle.

"Well, if we're going to walk, it'd be better to move now, so there's time for the rain to cover our tracks after we go." Steve said.

"But how far can we get on foot? Do you have any idea which way to go?"

Erica shrugged.

"Alright, but if we get lost and die of starvation instead, don't blame me." Steve said, giving in.

"Uh, guys? I'm not going to be moving anywhere very fast. I think I twisted my ankle back there." Peter said, standing slowly, favoring his left leg.

"Can you walk?" Erica asked, looking concerned.

"Slowly. But I can't carry her." Ashley was still incoherent, crying softly against Peter's chest.

"What the hell. Little Ms. Bitch 's gone psycho." Maria said, sneering at the back of Ashley's head. " I say we leave her."

"No, we need to stick together. You heard the old man - 'you will need to all work together to survive, to do what you have to do.' What if we need Ashley to get back home somehow?" Erica said.

"It doesn't matter anymore. If we need all of us we're screwed. Robert's dead, remember?" Mickey sat on a rock with her head in her hands.

"See? She agrees with me." Maria said.

"Well, I... I don't know." Mickey mumbled.

"You think should leave the bitch, right?" Maria demanded, but Mickey just shrugged vaguely, refusing to meet her eyes. With a huff, Maria turned her back.

"Well, I'm sure not going to carry her." She said.

Erica knelt beside Ashley, but when she put her hand on Ashley' shoulder it got slapped away.

"Mickey, can you try?" She asked. Mickey looked dubious, but she moved closer, talking to Ashley in a soothing voice while she gently stroked her back. Ashley's thin sweater was water-logged as the rest of them, and Mickey could see goose-bumps on her bare arms.

"Ashley's turning blue. She's freezing." She said.

"Nah, it's just her lame tattoos." Peter joked, but he was already taking off his sport coat.

"So? I am too." Maria said. The others could see how her silk shirt clung to her chest, outlining a pair of G-cup breasts and erect nipples. Erica's blazer and Mickey's bolero jacket offered some protection, but the other two girls had little to keep them warm.

"Here. I'll be okay with my shirt." Peter offered Mickey his coat for Ashley.

Mickey smiled up at him and reached to take it, but Maria snatched it out of Peter's hands.

"I'll take this. She can use yours." Maria snapped at Steve while sliding her arms into Peter's jacket.

Peter looked unhappy, but didn't say anything.

"Um, okay." Steve took off the black uniform he wore over his shirt and tie and handed it to Mickey, who draped it over Ashley's kneeling form.

"Can you move?" She asked softly.

"Fuck off. All of you." Ashley said venomously. She glared at Peter, stabbing her finger at his face. "If you ever try something like that again I swear that I will rip your balls off."

Looking hurt, Peter backpedaled as Ashley stood.

"I'm fine. I said I'm fine!" She yelled at Mickey, slapping her hands away.

"Come on. Let's move." Erica felt like she should say something to relieve the tension, but she couldn't think of what.

The others followed her into the woods, keeping their distance from Ashley.

"Which way?" Steve asked.

"Civilization is probably that way." Mickey said, pointing down the valley. When Steve looked at her questioningly she continued. "There's probably a stream that leads to a river. Probably a village on the river."

"Makes sense." Steve admitted.

"And a village means a fire, and food...and warm clothes. God, I need a hot shower!" Maria said, fingers rubbing her scalp. "And a steaming bowl of soup. Yeah." She finished the thought, stating downhill.

"Wait a sec." Erica said as the others turned to follow. "How do you know that crazy guy won't think the same way? As soon as this rain lets up he'll be all over this place - villages downstream will be the first place he looks. How can we hide there? We don't know what kind of people live here - we don't even know if they're human! What if they're birdmen and they all work for the maniac? Huh?!" Her voice rose.

"Look, we all want to go home, right?" The others nodded. "So do I. And I want a shower as much as you do, Maria, but...Not. Right. Now. If we want to get home without ending up like Robert did, we need to take this one step at a time. First we hide and figure what the fuck is happening here. Then we make a move."

Giving in to Erica's logic, they set out through the rain. The forest seemed oddly familiar, a mix of maples, tulip trees, overshadowed by the occasional oak. Their winter brown was tinted red by buds promising the season's leaves. Stands of Douglas Firs provided splashes of green, but they weren't thick enough to offer cover against the rain. Mickey slowed as they passed a colony of trillium, their showy pink flowers in full bloom already.

"We must be fairly high up." She said, pointing at the flowers. Erica turned to look curiously at her. "The red markings on those, over there, those are painted trillium. They don't grow in the foothills."

"Hm." Erica said, thinking it over. "So is this the same forest as back home?"

"I...it could be. It looks like Southern Appalachia, at least." Mickey replied as they resumed hiking.

"Are you from this area?"

"No, I grew up in Charlotte. But I'm a bio major - we take a lot of field trips. How about you?" Mickey explained.

"Music." Erica responded

"No kidding? My mom made me take piano for years."

"Yeah? You still play?"

"I can play 'chopsticks' and 'Frere Jacque' and that's it." Mickey laughed.

Erica gave her a wry grin, saving her breath as the slope steepened. There was little undergrowth to block their passage, aside from the occasional stand of rhododendron, but most of those were large enough that it was easier to clamber through than go around. The muddy ground made walking difficult, especially when covered by patches of slick wet leaves.

It took more than an hour to make it up to the ridgeline, but Erica insisted they keep going until they'd found someplace to hide from the birdmen. With Steve taking point, they stumbled down hill, moving parallel to the ridge away from the boat wreck. It was difficult to judge how far they'd gotten, though, because of the rain and their slow speed.

"Hey, is that a cave?" Steve suddenly stopped, pointing at a rock face ahead of them. Glad for a break the other six stopped to look. The rocks split near the bottom of the face, leaving a crack of darkness.

"Might be. Let's take a look." Erica agreed, and the others nodded their heads in tired agreement.

The fissure turned out to extend well back into the mountain, wide enough for them enter, though Peter had to turn sideways. Steve took several steps inside, calling out that the cave opened up into a chamber after a few yards. Erica felt some unease about stopping this close to the downed airboat, but the others were already filing inside before she could object. With a frown she followed them.

The chamber Steve had found was roughly the size of a dorm room, and reasonably dry. Glad to be out of the rain, they settled down, leaning against the cave walls. A man-sized darkness at the back suggested that the cave might continue deeper into the mountain.

"We can rest here a bit, then keep moving." Erica said firmly, eliciting a chorus of groans.

"Give it a rest." Ashley voiced the group's protest. "We've walked for hours in the rain, and it's getting dark. We can stay here tonight."

Stay the night? Her words brought home the reality of their situation. They were trapped in an unknown wilderness, hunted by alien creatures for reasons they didn't understand, with no idea how or why this had happened. And they had no idea what they should do.

"We're going to get home, right?" Mickey sought reassurance, but none of the others had any to offer.

For a long time, they stared blankly at the entrance. Dusk was falling outside, and the rain had settled to a mountain drizzle, as wraiths of cloud drifted through the forest.

"What do you think happened to that birdman?" Peter wondered out loud. Of all of them, he was the least concerned with larger questions, preferring to leave the hard thinking to others.

"Dropped from a hundred feet up with a broken arm? I don't think we have to worry about him anymore." Steve said.

"You mean I killed him?" Peter asked, with a puzzled expression, like he didn't know whether to be happy or sad about it.

"Hopefully." Steve shrugged.

"Hey, speaking of that, thanks a lot you two. You were great back there. You got us down safe and everything." Mickey smiled, looking at Peter and Steve. The big man beamed, proud of what he'd done.

"Hey, is your arm okay?" Maria asked Steve sympathetically.

"What about my ankle?" Peter interjected.

"Oh, poor baby. Does your widdle ankle have a boo-boo?" Maria said, laughing as a portion of stress lifted from her shoulders.

Steve smiled at the praise, but it was only skin-deep. He knew what Sergeant-Major Williams (or the other ROTC instructors) would say if he'd been watching: 'I don't care how good you are at sneaking through the woods, Kim, I want leadership, and I don't see it from you." He'd ducked responsibility every time - escaping from the cell, opening the hangar doors, and fleeing on the ground. This was his chance to show what he could do for real, and he'd let Erica make every important decision for the group. Why couldn't he have acted like she did? A girl, even. Hell, he might as well have been a raw private for all the leadership he gave. Maybe the Sergeant-Major was right; maybe he should quit ROTC.

Unaware of his jealousy, Erica was equally bitter. What about me, she thought in a mirror image of Steve's complaint. It was my idea to get out of the cell; I was the one who thought of getting away in the boat. If it hadn't been for me you would have all walked down into a village and been captured all over again. Everyone should be thanking me!

From the other corner, Ashley looked at the way Peter's wet shirt stuck to his skin. She felt like she ought to say something about the way he offered his coat--she still didn't want to think about how the asshole had slung her on the boat - but she couldn't bring herself to do it. He might take it the wrong way, she rationalized.

"I wish the cave stopped more of the wind." Maria tried to sympathize with the men and their thin shirts, but it still came out as a complaint.

"Yeah." For once, Ashley agreed with her.

"It'll get warmer the farther back we go." Steve said.

"How do you know? Anyway, that's the last place I want to go." Maria asked.

"Whatever. It's a cave." He shrugged, unwilling to argue.

"Warm would be good right now." Peter said, shivering.

"What is this? How come you say 'no' to everything I say? Don't I get an opinion just like everyone else?" Maria complained, still wearing Peter's jacket.

"Oh, we've heard your opinion - too much of it. We just think it's stupid." Ashley rolled her eyes.

"You-" Maria started for Ashley, but let Erica stop her with an arm in her path.

"Let's take a look, okay? We don't have to go far. Just enough to get out of the wind." Erica reasoned with her.

"How? It's pitch black down there. I'm not going."

"Like this." Ashley said, pulling out her cell phone.

"Doh!" The others all remembered their own phones.

"Nah, no signal. I checked after we landed." Ashley said with a shrug. The others drew theirs out, but no one else had a signal either. Holding it above her head, she lit the screen. In the wan blue light, they saw that the cave did indeed continue but they couldn't tell how far.

"Watch your feet. Might still be water flowing." Steve said, stepping close behind her.

"Hold on." Steve cautioned the others, who were holding up their own phones. "We may need those lights later. One a time."

"How is that fair? Why should she be able to see where she's walking while we're here in the dark." Maria grumbled, unhappy about the decision to explore the cave.

"Would you like to go first, Maria?" Erica asked with a sigh.

"Whatever. Do what you want - you will anyway." She pouted.

Continued in Chapter 2: Finding Shelter - Part 2

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