[5-10] Flights of Fancy (Christa and Red)

[Gildarts]

The one-armed woman was in the middle of snapping a cig in two when there was a loud Ping! that immediately caught their attention. Without further delay, the machine was in her hand. Christa’s eyes widened as she brought the screen down low so that Nanaki could see it too. Visible through the fog between her eyes and the end of her arms, was an evident dot in the center and a glowing sphere of neon light that radiated outward in intervals of about every seven seconds. “It looks like... A radar,” she said and was followed by another ominous Bwoop!

What had activated the flat-screened device, however, had caught her eye, for in the corner of the grid there was a tiny little dot. And it was moving. “What do you think that is?” The pinging continued and her mind shifted between survivors, Abner and maybe Karl Jak, there was also the possibility of another of the giant friggin’ monster they had slain on the beach. Their eyes pulled from the screen to exchange a look of mutual understanding before Christa straightened her back and turned to the direction of the dot. Both of them were looking for someone, and both would have their answers.

“Hard to tell,” Red said, “It will be best if we think we can sneak up on it, keeping our distance until we know for sure.” No matter what, the dot told of danger and it had started to skip on the bounds of the device’s range. With the incessant beeping and without a way to turn it off, sneaking up on it would be a far-fetched chance at best.

“Well, I guess we’re going after this thing then,” Christa spoke with a fearless tone that told of leadership, “Listen Red, from here on out, any wrong move we make could mean our demise. In war, you could just be strolling in your own territory with all the caution in the world and step on a land mine, you wouldn’t just lose your leg though, you’d lose all the blood in your body. One mistake, one slip up, can be fatal out here. It may not look it, but this island has a taste for blood.”

At first Nanaki thought she was lecturing him, he’d had his fair share of tragedy and survival, but after another short moment, he realized she was trying to unite them. They were fighting the same battle together, and in order to die without fear, they had to live the strongest they could, which meant, together.

The ping sounded again, marking their time to go, Christa put one foot in front of the other and pulled out her knife, which had been hitched on her belt with her other grenades and utilities. “Red,” she said in a softer tone, signaling that they were on the hunt, “Once we get closer, I’ll hold onto the machine, and we will split up, you can go in from behind and surprise them if its an enemy. Who knows, it could just be a cell phone tower, but I think it’s best to go in with a plan.”


Nanaki looked up at her, intrigued, offering a slight nod of compliance while Christa’s nose was a little too close to the screen, so she walked into a smog-covered tree. Bark scraped the skin of her nose and she pulled back in a wince, after seeing that little harm had come to her, he smiled right after she did, “And watch out for trees. Never know when one might sneak up on you.”

After she had said that, a sharp stab was driven at her abdomen, so much so, that the girl gracelessly collapsed into the soggy dirt, lathering what was left of her clothes in wet mud. In her hand she still clasped the device, so that it would not break with her fall nor malfunction due to the mere inches that separated it from the squishy ground. The agony had been startling, and lasted no longer than a pinch, meanwhile Nanaki had grit his teeth and felt whatever force had caused Christa to fall from her feet, though he withstood the pain on the balance of his four paws.

She stood up, a streak of blood running down her lip while her clothes and most of her skin had been covered with a camouflaging shade of brown and stood up again saying, "Invisible trees, right?"