"FINALLY WATER!" Abel yells pumping his fist in the air as Mohan does the same and gives Abel a fist bump.
"Pipe down you two" Elena grumbles at them. "So now what do from here Mr. Survivalist," Elena says before giving a hard poke at Abel's chest.
Abel clears his throat and calms down before responding. "Well we need to find a nice clearing and I think the way we go would be to set up a tree house so we have some safety from the aliens"
"Ok, I can use a drone to map out this area," Luh says as Mohan gives her a small drone which she begins to pilot.
"I guess we can just chill in the meantime," Mohan says before lying down on the ground. While he does that Hibiki takes out the alien Abel had killed and starts analyzing to see if it's edible. Abel and Elena sit next to each other.
"So how many bullets do you have left? I have 2 Mags" Abel asks Elena.
"About the same here, we gotta save our bullets now 'cause we can't waste resources to make more bullets" Elena responds.
"Ya that's true," Abel says as he puts his gun away.
"GUYS, ITS EDIBLE!" Hibiki yells out. Mohan, hearing this immediately sits up.
"Nice! Wanna help me get some firewood to start cooking?" Mohan asks Hibiki as he stands up.
"Ya sure I don't mind tagging along," Hibiki says standing up and following behind Mohan. They head back into the "bamboo" forest and start using a machete to cut down some bamboo in silence, Mohan then breaks this silence. "So Hibiki, sorry bout getting all pissed off at ya last night. In hindsight you weren't wrong" Mohan says rubbing the back of his head.
"It's all good, I can see why you were mad though," Hibiki says with a soft chuckle.
"So we're good?" Mohan asks Hibiki.
"Ya we're good," Hibiki says as Mohan daps him up. They then hear rustling coming from a bush behind them and they quickly duck down behind a large rock. Hibiki peeks out from behind the rock and sees a medium-sized alien with 4 legs and a scissor-like mouth. The creature then begins to use its mouth to cut and then eat the "bamboo". "Oh it's just a herbivore, let's head back now," Hibiki says after taking a quick sketch of the creature.
"Ya let's head back, I'm getting hungry" Mohan replies before they head back to everyone else. Mohan and Hibiki head back to the temporary camp the group had set up. On arrival, Mohan makes a fire and starts skinning the alien they had found earlier, which has been dubbed a lesser tree crawler, and gets to cooking while Hibiki watches curiously.
"Damn something smells good," Abel says as he comes over.
"Ya I'm making some curry" Mohan replies.
"Why curry of all things? We should've used the aliens to make burgers or something like that" Abel grumbles but regardless sits down and watches hungrily.
"Y'all, I found a cave nearby but it's across the river," Luh says walking back. "Also damn that smells good," She says as she puts her tablet away and sits down to watch. Elena soon joins the group, also waiting for Mohan to finish cooking. After about 30 minutes of looking hungrily at Mohan's curry, it's finally done cooking and he gives everyone some using the lunch boxes they had on hand.
"Damn Mohan this is amazing!" Abel exclaims loudly and gives Mohan a thumbs up.
"Thanks, bro, it's my mom's recipe" Mohan responds.
"Damn you should introduce me to your mum once we get back home-" Abel says before Mohan lightly punches him in the shoulder.
"Ah fuck off dude," Mohan says as he rolls his eyes before the both of them share a chuckle.
"Hey Mohan, what'd you even use to make this? It reminds me of chicken kinda but it's tougher to chew, '' Luh says before taking another bite of the curry.
"Oh, I used that tree crawler alien thing" Mohan replies casually as he continues to eat his portion of curry.
"Que?" Luh responds as the color drains from her face.
"Ya it's alien, you thought we had chicken or something like that we could use?" Mohan says as he and Abel hold back laughter.
". . . WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU'RE TELLING ME I'VE BEEN EATING AN ALIEN THIS ENTIRE TIME?!" Luh yells in complete shock as Mohan and Abel break out into laughter. Luh then puts her lunch box down and leaves as Mohan and Abel laugh until Elena smacks the top of their heads.
"Shut up you two before some alien comes and rips us apart," Elena says as she rolls her eyes and goes back to eating. "Also the curry isn't bad considering it's made with alien meat," she says as she eats.
"Agreed, I like the curry more than some curry I've had back home" Hibiki adds as he finishes off his curry.
"Thanks, bro," Mohan says, smiling at Hibiki. "Also damn you crushed the curry," Mohan says with a bit of a surprised look.
"Ya I was pretty hungry" Hibiki responds rubbing the back of his head.
"Fair enough, we haven't eaten in a good while," Mohan says before going back to eat his curry.
Hibiki chills and adds some information to his field guide while everyone finishes eating. Once everyone finishes eating, Luh comes back. "Alright so now that you all are done eating that, we should probably figure out how to cross the river so that we can get to the cave right across the river," Luh says as she sits down.
"I'd say we build a raft" Abel gives an idea.
"Ya, let's do that," Elena says as she stands up, stretches, and grabs her machete Abel does the same and heads out with her to collect material for the raft.
After about 30 minutes of gathering materials and building, the raft was finished and river-ready.
"And St.Sammy is ready to set sail!" Abel says holding the raft over his head.
"Hey, how come you get to decide her name-" Luh says before being cut off by Elena.
"We're naming it Petropavlovsk," Elena says matter-of-factly as everyone approaches the river.
"Nuh-uh!" Abel retorts. Elena and Abel then break out into an argument about what the ship should be named.
"What kind of name is 'St.sammy'?! A ship's name should be majestic like my home city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky" Elena says.
"Ya but at least we can pronounce my name for it, you monkey-" Abel responds only to be cut off by Luh.
"I think we have bigger problems at hand than the name of this shitty raft. I'd rather not get killed because of both of your yapping. Plus we're at the river" Luh says as they stop by the river.
"Fine fine" Abel grumbles as he puts the raft down.
"Fair point" Elena mumbles as Mohan and Abel push the raft into the water, once they do everyone gets onto the raft and Elena uses a large piece of "Bamboo" as a quant pole. The group pushes themselves across the shallow river in their raft, Abel looks over the raft and at the oddly greenish water of this planet when he sees a couple of golf ball-sized balls of some type of fleshy material.
"Hey, what's that?" Abel says before touching it. When he touches it he gets an electrical shock.
"AH, WHAT THE HELL-" Abel yells, pulling his hand back when suddenly the boat is hit from below and the entire raft flips over.
Everyone quickly swims back up to the surface of the water and grabs onto the flipped-over raft.
"Is everyone ok?!" Elena asks everyone and does a quick head count.
"Ya we're good but what the fuck was that?!" Abel yells back.
"Well, probably an alien-" Hibiki starts but before he can finish he's pulled under the water.
"HIBIKI!?" Mohan yells before diving down after him and grabbing Hibki's hand and pulling but something was pulling Hibiki from the other end.
Abel then dives down as well and instead of pulling on Hibiki as well, swims a bit and sees what's trying to drag Hibiki away. Once he does he sees a large creature resembling a giant electric eel but it has holes all over its back. Abel then quickly uses his machete to stab into it which makes it let go of Hibiki before letting out a small electrical shock that travels up Abel's machete and stuns him. Mohan then scoops up Hibiki while Luh and Elena jump in to bring Abel to the surface.
"Oh shit I feel numb as hell" Abel mutters as Luh flips the raft upright and Elena loads him into the raft and Mohan does the same with Hibiki.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The alien then turns back around and chases after the group as they try to push the boat along as quickly as possible.
"Shit shit shit, what should we do?!" Mohan mutters in a panicked tone.
"Wait, didn't this thing attack when Abel touched that fleshy thing and got shocked?" Hibiki asks
"Well, ya true" Abel groans in response, still feeling slightly numb from the electric shock.
Hibiki then grabs an electrical component that Mohan had on him and throws it into the water. The alien then suddenly turns towards where Hibiki threw the electrical component and everyone continues to quickly push the boat along the relatively shallow river. After a bit, they reach the other side exit the raft, and lie down on the ground to catch a breather.
"Good job Hibiki," Luh says with a relieved sigh.
"No problem" he responds tiredly.
Then Hibiki helps Abel up as Luh leads them to the cave. They finally arrive at the cave and everyone settles down into the cave and takes a quick breather.
"Well, Elena how about you and Abel chill here and get the cave ready so no aliens break in," Hibiki says as he stands up.
"Why don't you help us set up the cave?" Elena asks him.
"Well we were thinking that me, Hibiki, and Luh can head out to get supplies while you guys can catch a break from all the action," Mohan says as he also stands up.
"Fair point but can't one of you stay with him-" Elena protests but Luh interrupts her.
"Nope! Now see ya!" She says as they grab Elena and Abel's guns and machetes and leave.
"HEY WAIT DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH HIM-" Elena yelled back but it was too late as they had already run away.
Once they are out of Elena and Abel's hearing range, Luh speaks up. "Do you think that'll help them from arguing all the time?" she says as she uses the machete to cut through some vegetation.
"Well, it'd be nice if they do 'cause I don't want those two titans to start fighting," Hibiki says with a small chuckle.
"C'mon they aren't that much taller than us," Mohan says.
"Well they're like a foot taller than Luh-" Hibiki says before he's cut off by being hit on the head by Luh. "ow" Hibiki mumbles as he rubs his head.
"You were saying something?" Luh says as she crosses her arms and raises her eyebrow.
"Nope," Hibiki responds promptly as the group moves on to get some resources such as firewood, food, and water.
Back at the cave, Elena tries to get Abel to get up and help her to make the cave a livable place.
"Just get up and help me make the cave a livable place," Elena says as she stands in front of Abel with her arms crossed.
Abel blinks a couple of times before responding. "Can't we just relax? My body feels like jelly" he says leaning back further on the cave wall.
"No, we have to do our part and get this place ready" She responds promptly as she waits for Abel to get up.
"Can't you cut me some slack? I just got electrocuted by some stupid alien" Abel grumbles.
"Fine, whatever I'll just do by myself," she says before walking away and starting to clean up the cave and make it habitable while Abel sits and chills.
"You know Elena you should just chill out, you're probably exhausted," Abel says to her.
"Well I can't just sit down and be lazy while we're stranded on a fucking alien planet," she says as she continues cleaning the cave.
"Well you know, me and you have been physically carrying the group on our backs pretty much," he says as he stretches a bit and sits up straight.
"So what now they're out there getting the supplies, I'm not just going to sit around and do nothing" Elena responds.
"Well working yourself to exhaustion helps no one," Abel says.
"Whatever. I'm not gonna be lazy like you" Elena says rolling her eyes as she goes back to making the cave livable.
Abel decides to not respond as Elena continues to clean up the cave but it's clear that Elena is still exhausted from all that has happened. Midway through the cleaning, Elena loses her balance and Abel manages to catch her before she hits the ground.
"I told ya that you're too tired to do anything right now," Abel says.
"Shut up," Elena says as she gets up again.
"Elena seriously you should take a rest-" Abel starts but he's cut off by a loud shriek, immediately putting both Elena and Abel on high alert. Elena grabs two sharp pieces of wood from the cave and tosses one to Abel as they get ready. They hold their makeshift spears in front of them as they wait so they don't get ambushed by any aliens. After about 10 minutes of silence, they let out a sigh of relief and lowered their weapons.
"Well seems that was all about nothing," Abel says as he drops his spear and turns his back away from the cave's entrance. Elena is about to do the same when she suddenly sees a large alien with 6 legs and a spiky, armored body, lunge towards Abel. She quickly tackles Able out of the way as they both just barely dodge the tiger-like beast.
"What the fuck-" Abel says before seeing the alien and quickly scrambling to his feet and rolling out of the way of the way as the alien lunges at him once more. Elena throws the spear at it while its back is turned but it bounces off due to its armor and it continues to chase Abel around as Abel is just barely able to dodge its relentless assault. The creature finally lunges on Abel and tries to bite him but Abel shoves the spear sideways into its mouth, using it to push its mouth away from him. "ELENA, I DON'T WANNA DIE SO CAN YOU DO SOMETHING!" Abel yells out as Elena frantically looks around for something she can use when she spots two stones and starts using them to start a fire. The creature continues to push down on Abel, trying to bite him, and just as it's about to break through, Elena throws a rock at the back of its head causing it to turn around to Elena and charge towards her. Elena has one hand behind her back, presumably hiding something from the creature.
"C'mon . . ." Elena mutters under her breath as she braces herself for the creature, the creature then is about to lunge when she shows what she was hiding, a torch. The creature immediately halts as Elena shoves the fire in its face. "BACK!" she yells at it as it continues to back away from the torch before turning around and running off. Abel stays on the ground and lets out a massive sigh of relief.
"Good to be alive," Abel says sitting up.
"Yup .. well I should probably get back to getting the cave ready-" Elena says before Abel interjects.
"C'mon really?! We both nearly just died so let's take a break to rest" Abel says before getting up from the floor.
"Ya but we gotta pull our weight, stupid," she says crossing her arms.
"True but we both are exhausted so instead of overworking yourself and injuring yourself, which would drag everyone down with you, just relax for once," Abel says.
Elena thinks for a bit. "I hate that your logic makes sense," Elena says with an annoyed sigh before sitting down and leaning against the cave wall. Abel is about to sit down next to her when she spots something, it is Hibiki's field guide that he had left behind in the cave. He grabs the field guide and then sits down next to Elena before beginning to flip through it and finding a page with a drawing and the name of the creature they had just fought.
"Huh I guess Hibiki found one somehow, he's calling it Armato Occisor. Have no clue what the fuck that means" Abel says with a shrug.
"It's Latin for armored killer, didn't you pay attention when they made us learn Latin for the mission?" Elena says pointing to the book.
"Well I forgot but that's not important, we beat this thing so we should make our own note," Abel says grabbing a pen and starting to draw.
"Who are you even drawing??" Elena asks as she leans over to watch him draw.
"Myself obviously" Abel replies as he continues to draw.
"Pft- that looks more like an alien than a person-" Elena says as she holds back a laugh.
"It does not! I'd like to see you do better" Abel says tossing the notebook and pen at Elena.
"Bet," Elena says as she catches the notebook and begins drawing. Abel watches her draw.
"What the fuck, how are you good at drawing-" Abel says as he looks at Elena's finished drawing with his eyes wide open in surprise.
"Well I used to draw a lot when I was younger" Elena responds as she puts the notebook and pen down.
"Huh, never took you for the type of gal who liked to draw," Abel says before continuing. "So do you still draw or did you stop or something?"
"Well ya, I don't draw anymore" Elena responds.
"Oh, why'd you stop then? I mean even while being retired from drawing, you can still draw better than me" Abel asks her.
"Uh it's complicated," Elena says in a more quiet tone.
"Oh ok, anyways pass me the notebook real quick we gotta add something to it," Abel says with his hand extended for the book.
"Sure, here you go," She says as she hands him the book.
He takes the book and adds a speech bubble with some text to it. "Boom done," he says before closing the notebook and tossing it back to where he found it.
Meanwhile, Hibiki and the others had been able to collect some water from the river while narrowly escaping an ambush predator that fills a similar niche to that of crocodiles on earth and collected some wood without any big incident. Now they are foraging and hunting for food.
"Yo, these plants are edible," Hibiki says as he gathers some using a knife.
"Nice" Luh responds as she gathers some other plants that Hibiki had also determined to be edible. Meanwhile, Mohan looks around and then finds a flock of 4-legged and about chicken-sized aliens. Mohan then aims his gun and shoots 3 of the aliens before the rest scramble away. Hearing the gunshots, Hibiki and Luh immediately turn around as Mohan pumps his fist in the air.
"WHOO LET'S GOO! WE EATIN' TANDOORI CHICKEN TONIGHT!" Mohan says as he heads over and collects the three aliens he shot.
"AY LETS GOO!" Hibiki yells, giving Mohan a fist bump.
"Damn, your aim isn't ass, surprisingly," Luh says. "But tandoori chicken sounds great," Luh adds.
"Hey my aim isn't that bad but you better be excited for some tandoori chicken," Mohan says with a smile as the group starts heading back. As they head back to the cave where they left Abel and Elena. As they do so they hear a loud bellow from a couple of trees away.
"What the hell is that?" Luh says as she grips her gun a little tighter.
"Oh it sounds like a Cristatus Serpens, they're these big ol' herbivores that eat tree leaves, we'll be fine," Hibiki says nonchalantly as he continues to walk back to the cave. As they do, the large alien bursts from the treeline, it doesn't attack them though as it rushes right past them.
"Wait, is that another alien in its mouth?!" Mohan asks in a confused tone as the alien disappears.
"Uh ya .. . I have no clue about that and its eyes were all glazed over too," Hibiki says nervously.
"só faltava isso" Luh mutters under her breath. "Whatever let's just get moving before it turns us into a snack or something," she says as the group picks up the pace to get back. When they return to the base they see Abel and Elena chilling by a campfire in a semi-cleaned-up cave.
"Yo your back, how'd it go" Abel says as he and Elena get up to greet them.
"Went pretty well for the most part and we got some chicken-looking things," Mohan says holding up the 3 aliens he had shot.
"Looks perfect for some barbeque," Abel says excitedly.
"We are turning this into tandoori chicken, not some shitty american bbq," Mohan says, holding the aliens tighter.
"HEY AMERICAN BBQ IS GREAT, WAY BETTER THAN FUCKING TANDOORI CHICKEN" Abel states proudly.
"OH YA? LET'S SETTLE THIS LIKE MEN" Mohan says rolling up his sleeve.
"BET" Abel says as Mohan gives him one of the aliens and they head to their respective stations to start cooking.
"Huh, I thought they were gonna fight," Luh says in a disappointed tone.
"I bet 15 bucks that Mohan is gonna win the cook-off," Hibiki says as he, Luh, and Elena sit down to watch the cook-off.
"Hibiki there's no need to bet, there's not a single chance that Abel creates something edible, let alone beating Mohan," Elena says.
"Fair point" Hibiki responds as he grabs his field guide and starts adding some new entries to it. After about 30 minutes of cooking, both Abel and Mohan present their dishes to everyone else.
"Watch this curry muncher, imma blow you outta the fucking water!" Abel says as they both place their dishes down. Everyone starts with Mohan's dish, which is as always delicious before moving on to Abel's dish.
"I'm a little scared to bite into this, to be honest," Luh says as she's about to take a bite of Abel's food.
"Same here," Hibiki says before he takes a bite. As expected Abel's food was barely edible.
"Ya Mohan wins by an astronomical amount," Luh says after taking a bite.
"Told ya, bro, you cannot cook for the life of ya," Mohan says patting Abel's back.
"Shut up" Abel grumbles.
"Anyways, since I'd rather not get food poisoning from whatever Abel made and we're all still hungry, I'll cook the final alien," Luh says as she gets up and heads over to the cooking station. After about 45 minutes of cooking, Luh made a dish similar to chicken stroganoff.
"Damn, this is not that bad," Abel remarks as he eats.
"Thanks, it's my mom's recipe," Luh says as she eats as well.
"You know maybe you should introduce me to your mom-" Abel starts but is cut off by Elena slapping the back of his head. "Ow,'' Abel mumbles as he rubs the back of his head. Everyone chuckles at this as the sun begins to set and their second day stranded comes to an end.