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The Merge
The Merge – Chapter 13 (Reunion)

The Merge – Chapter 13 (Reunion)

This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

First published on my wordpress: Here

Thank you for your support. ;)

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Robert kept staring with blank eyes at the little guy on my shoulder, unsure on how to react. “D-don’t tell me you stole the baby of the dragon that kidnapped you?” He eventually asked with his complexion gradually becoming paler and paler. “Eh? No…Actually, I stole its meal, not its kid.” I nonchalantly answered while heading toward him.

“I present to you Rambo, my new pet.” I added while holding Rambo in my arms for him to see. Robert came closer with fascination in his eyes as he inspected the little creature from head to toes. I had been worrying about Rambo’s reaction to other humans, but it seemed I had been worrying for nothing.

Actually, Rambo wasn’t showing any aggression but was instead feeling very uncomfortable and kept struggling to get back into my bag. “Guaaaaarr” I went forward for a manly hug but Robert stepped backward with a shocked expression as I approached. “OH MY GOD!! Can a human truly smell that bad?”

We stared at each other for a few seconds, then I quickly saw that he had difficulty keeping a straight face. We burst out laughing simultaneously and settled down with a handshake. “Good to see you safe Nate. By the way, I can’t believe you brought a baby dragon… Isn’t it dangerous?” He worryingly asked.

“I don’t think it will be a problem. Anyway I intend to keep a close eye on him and his training. From what I’ve witnessed so far, Rambo is a lot smarter than any animals I’ve seen so far. Or at least, his learning speed is just amazing.” Seemingly satisfied with my answer, Robert then prompted me to get in the truck because it wasn’t safe to hang around at the same place for too long.

I sat in the passenger seat and placed my bag and Rambo on my lap. Robert then proceeded to storm out of the parking lot and head toward the hospital. I was unsure whether it was due to finally having company, a comfortable seat, or a mix of both, but my eyes kept trying to give up on me. Because of how mentally demanding the last few days had been, I now had to fight with all my might just to stay awake.

What also didn’t help, was just how silent Robert was. Coming to the conclusion that making conversation was necessary for me to stay awake, I asked him something that had been on my mind for a while now. “Say, that day that you and Cami disappeared… I mean… You don’t need to hide anything from me you know. Even if you two are dating or something, there’s no need to hide if from me.”

I wasn’t lying when saying that, I truly didn’t care if the two of them dated. I suspected that they might have thought that I loved Cami because of how close and friendly I was to her, but truth was, I didn’t have any romantic feeling toward her. Actually, if I suddenly decided to get a girlfriend, Emanuela would probably have been my first pick.

My preference for Emanuela was not because of her physique, but because I liked my women on the wild side. Camille was motherly, calm and always composed. Emanuela was more wild, free spirited and her actions never failed at making me feel flustered. That was what I was looking for in a woman. The only reason I hadn’t gone for her after all this time was because of her previous relationship with Marc. Sadly, seeing her dump her man as soon as a better one showed up, had ruined any potential romantic feeling from me.

We needed to keep the group unity as solid as we could, or at least until we made it back to earth. It was obvious that if I went for Emanuela, Marc would have gone mental and could have possibly become a danger to us. To me, Camille was a kind person who I could trust and rely upon. I also didn’t want to be with her because she was my only option. I had never really believed in male/female friendships, but there was no other words to describe my feelings for her.

After hearing me imply that I suspected them to be a couple, Robert showed a face that screamed ‘face-palm’. While keeping his focus on the road, he simply showed me the gold ring he had on his left hand ring finger and stayed silent for a few seconds. His face was showing a complicated expression that looked like a mix of sadness, nostalgia and hope.

“You see this ring? This is all I have to remember her. She’s the woman I gave my soul to. No matter how far apart we are, no mater if we are in different worlds, I will always find my way back to her. I will never give up on her and never betray her, do you hear me Nate?” Seemed like I had been very wrong in my suspicions after all. Seeing Robert’s face, I knew he wasn’t lying.

“I understand, sorry. But then, what were you doing together with your radios turned off that day?” I still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were deliberately trying to hide something from me. Robert’s face straightened as he seemed conflicted about whether he should tell me or not. Seeing his reaction only made me want to know even more.

“Sighh* Sorry Nate but I promised not to speak of the details. It’s a very private matter and she only wanted someone to talk to. The fact that she asked me to be her confidant, only meant that she trusted me to keep my mouth shut about it. So sorry, I’m not the one you should ask about it. Anyway, if I can give you a word of advice, try not to poke your nose in others’ private matters.”

Now that was a cold answer. I still wanted to know but if Robert insisted so much, it was probably better for me not to dig any deeper. Sensing the atmosphere turning more and more awkward by the minutes, I quickly changed subject with another question.

“I haven’t hear from Emanuela in awhile, is she alright?” I asked while petting Rambo who was staring out the window with fascination in his eyes. Robert’s face subtly twitched as soon as her name left my mouth, sign that something must have happened.

“She… She’s unable to leave her room at the moment. After your disappearance, we sent search parties all over town but encountered something troublesome after doing so. She got injured in the battle but don’t worry, she’s alright and just needs some rest.” Crap, I couldn’t leave them alone for a week without them falling apart after all. Well, it was a bit my fault this time though.

“Encountered something?” I inquired, curious to know what had caused the problem. “Yea, some kind of Godzilla tiger striped t-rex thingy… That thing was furious and out of control. It whipped its tail and blew apart a brick house. The brinks went flying and Emanuela got hit by a few of them. She got banged up quite a bit but luckily, no major injuries. That’s why Camille didn’t come even though she wanted to. One of us needed to stay with her just in case.”

Sigh* Another day in paradise as they say. “HA! And don’t mention Alice’s foot.” He then suddenly added, as if he had just now recalled something important. “Her foot?” I curiously asked. Robert’s expression was quite difficult to understand. No matter how I looked at him, he seemed to try very hard not to laugh.

“She… Accidentally… Shot herself. In the foot.” He then said. This was quite a clumsy thing to do but I didn’t see what was so funny about it, so I kept staring at Robert who’s eyes kept furtively glancing in my direction. “She saw a bug…” At this point, Robert’s eyes were watering and I could clearly see him biting his lips as hard as he could.

Me and him apparently didn’t share the same sense of humour. All I could think of was that we were now two men (women) down. After some more idle chat where I recalled some of what I had went through, we eventually reached a fence gate where Robert had to get out of the vehicle, open the gate, move the truck forward, close the gate, then get back in.

Looked like they had finally managed to complete the fence while I was gone. They had also plowed an empty plot of land near the hospital and planted potatoes and other vegetables in it. The compost wasn’t ready yet so they had used commercial fertilizer for now. Good to see they had been busy. A few minutes later, we finally arrived at the hospital where Camille, Léopaul, Marc and Annie were waiting for us near the entrance. Robert parked the truck, then we got out as the small group rushed to greet us.

I was expecting the first one to come at me to be Camille but strangely, the little Annie was the one running toward me as fast as her little legs could carry her. Flattered, I crouched with open arms, ready to receive her affection but she then suddenly stopped a meter away from me.

She looked at me from head to toes, sniffed a few times then ran away while pinching her nose. It was true that I stank but this was still hurtful. “Our warrior is back!” Triumphantly screamed Robert. It was a good thing that I was so dirty, that way they couldn’t see me blush from embarrassment at his words.

“Nathan!” Said Camille before jumping in my arms. “Hehehehehe You smell so bad! Smells like you had a tough time eh?” She then added while giggling and hugging me as tight as she could. “I won’t lie to you, even if I had a broken arm, I would still go in the shower first before getting it fixed.” I said, to which we both giggled while still clinging onto each other.

“Hey young lad, glad to see you safe. We missed you a lot around here. And as you can see, so did the ladies. Aren’t you glad? Hurhuhurhu” Old man Léopaul’s comment prompted Camille to push me away after realizing we had been hugging for a bit too long. “Hey man, welcome back.” Then added Marc who was keeping his distance.

After hearing his voice, I looked at him but noticed something strange. Marc had busted up lips and two black eyes as if he had fought against someone. Then something I had noticed in the truck earlier came to mind. While showed me his wedding ring earlier, I had noticed that Robert had injured his knuckles, as if he had punched something.

The two couldn’t be a coincidence. Robert and Marc had obviously fought about something and it was also obvious who had won the altercation. I had been gone for no more than 10 days and so much stuff had apparently happened during that time. Since I was exhausted, hungry and dirty, I decided not to ask what had happened.

Everybody came to shake my hand and spirits seemed high, which seemed like the perfect moment to release the Kraken. “EEEEeeooooooooo!” At Rambo’s appearance, everybody jumped back with eyes as round and big as loonies. (Canadian 1 dollar coins)

“I present to you my child, Rambo.” Old man Léopaul and Marc were staring in shock, Camille had stars in her eyes as if she was looking at a puppy, and Robert… Well Robert was rolling on the floor laughing. I then began to explain how I had come across Rambo, saved and decided to raise him.

Camille was totally under Rambo’s charm and tried to touch him, but Rambo growled at her before disappearing into the bag he had came out of. Annie who was silently hiding behind Camille seemed saddened to see Rambo disappearing. As for Camille, she seemed to take it personal, as if Rambo had rejected her. Wanting to cheer her up, I told her that he was still a baby and needed time to get used to new people, after which she seemed to regain hope.

“A-Are you fucking insane?! You brought a fucking dragon into our base?????” Then complained Marc with his busted up face. There was many things I could have answered to that, but I settled on talking about the safety he would bring, instead of danger. “Until a few days back, I had a dragon skull on my front yard, want to know why? Because it kept all the other monsters away. Now imagine a real, tamed dragon… We won’t have any monsters problem anymore.”

My words seemed to be met with enthusiasm excepted from Marc who still seemed highly unhappy. “Alright enough! Everyone leave him alone for now. From what I can see, Nate needs a medical check-up and we also need to look at his injuries. Let’s leave the chatter for later. Come this way.” Interrupted Camille who then grabbed my hand and dragged me inside the hospital.

I asked to take a shower first and also asked if they had a change of clothes that would fit me. I wasn’t going to wash myself and put my dirty clothes back on afterwards. Camille said she would take care of everything and left after escorting me to the shower room.

I entered the locker-room and proceeded in removing my sticky clothes off. In the meantime, Rambo had gotten out of the bag and seemed perplex as he watched me. I guessed that for him, seeing me undress for the first time might have looked as if I was peeling my skin off or something.

I piled up all my belongings in a corner and went inside the shower followed closely by Rambo who was bunny hopping his way behind me. I went to the first shower near the door, opened the faucet and waited for the water to get warm. Seeing water suddenly coming out of the wall caught Rambo off guard and made him run back to me.

The little guy was digging his little claws into my skin as he tried to climb, forcing me to use a bit of red mist to harden my skin. Even without using red mist, my skin was incredibly hard to pierce now, but this baby dragon could cut through it as if it was the flesh of a newborn baby. I scolded him a little, since bad habits needed to be dealt with as soon as they appeared.

Once he reached the size of an elephant, it would be too late to try and teach him not to dig his claws into people’s skin. Even more so now that my manly bits were dangling precariously and made me feel insecure around him. I gently began to splash water on him and his fear quickly transformed into playfulness. We played a bit but I soon went back to washing myself, since hot water was now a luxury we couldn’t afford to waste.

Scales don’t really get dirty, but I took the opportunity to wash Rambo as well which he seemed to enjoy a lot. Finally seeing the true colour of my skin again, I closed the faucet and went back to the locker room to wait for Camille. As if she was reading my mind, Camille entered the room simultaneously and came face to face with my naked body.

Flustered, I hid what needed to be hid with my hands and tried to hide behind a locker. “Kyaa! E-eb-eeeeb-b HERE!!!!! A t-towel to dry your… And c-c-clothes… I put everything here ok? SORRY!!” And she ran out of the room with her cheeks as red as a Ferrari.

A bit embarrassed but mostly amused by her innocence, I dried myself and put on the clean clothes she had brought me under the curious stare of Rambo. “Guaarr!” It was a deep purple chemise, black pants, white socks and a pair of brown shoes which were too big for me. Not really my style if you ask me but it would have to do for now.

I exited the room and saw Camille who was waiting for me, still looking like a flustered schoolgirl. “I took your stuff and will p-p-personally wash everything.” I gave her my sincere gratitude then followed her to a room for the medical checkup. The entire checkup didn’t take too long and ended by me swallowing a few pills and receiving a few shots just in case. She also cleaned the various cuts and scratches all over my body and disinfected them. Camille was very professional and seemed like a fish in water. We were truly lucky to have a doctor with us in this misadventure.

The entire time during the exam, there had been something in the back of my mind. Me and her had a really great relationship, yet she had chosen Robert over me to be her confident that day. I just couldn’t understand why, after all, we spent hours talking to each other on the radio. She spoke to me about a lot of personal stuff during these times so why didn’t she talk to me that day.

After all, this had all happened just after I had left the hospital the same day. Had I done something to make her lose trust in me? Resisting the urge to ask her was torture, but I still had Robert’s warning in mind, telling me not to poke my nose where I shouldn’t. By the end of the exam, I was barely standing, almost sleepwalking.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Seeing how sleep deprived I was, Camille then brought me to an empty room and said that it was mine for as long as I wanted. Robert arrived at the same moment and asked her how I was and if everything was alright. Camille reassured him and dragged him outside to let me sleep in peace. The briefing on what I had learned during my adventure would have to wait until I wake up.

Being around people truly was exhausting after all. I grabbed Rambo in my arms and laid him on the bed next to me. Intrigued by the softness of the bed at first, Rambo then fell asleep only a few seconds later. The day must had been stressful for him as well. As I was slowly drifting into the dream world, my ears which had been recently trained in a jungle to perceive every little noise caught the sound of a conversation.

“I hate hiding stuff from him Camille. Sshhhh* Come.” The faint voices of Camille and Robert made my eyes reopen instantly. It was barely audible but I had heard that. I sprung up from my bed and stealthily exited my room. After hearing this much, I was now a man on a mission with one precise goal, eavesdropping on their following conversation.

I got out of my room and stealthily walked down the dark corridor. I followed them closely while being careful not to be spotted. They then eventually stopped and began to whisper to each other. I silently walked closer and hid in a dark corner just close enough to hear what they were saying.

“You said you wouldn’t talk about it to anyone!” Angrily said Camille. “Nate isn’t dumb, he immediately noticed something was going on. I didn’t tell him anything. I promised I wouldn’t speak so I didn’t, but I don’t believe we should lie to him. We owe him at least that.” Then said Robert.

Camille seemed like she was about to have a panic attack but continued. “You know very well why we can’t tell him!! What if he loses his calm and goes after Marc the way you did? We both know how powerful Nate is, he could accidentally kill him with one punch.” Then added Camille.

Robert seemed to agree but still looked conflicted. So I was right to think that Robert was the one who had beaten up Marc. I didn’t know what Marc had done, but from their conversation it was something that would anger me enough to make me want to beat him up as well.

I couldn’t help but imagine the worst scenario in my mind and was growing restless. He wouldn’t have dared… raping her right? The thought of it made my blood boil with anger and veins began to swell on my forehead. “EEEeeeeeeooooooooooo!” Surprised by Rambo’s sudden appearance at first, my attention then turned toward the two people staring at us at the end of the corridor.

“Dammit Rambo, you’re usually better at reading the atmosphere.” When I was acting stealthy, Rambo usually kept his mouth shut but not this time apparently. Robert was face-palming while Camille seemed highly distressed after realizing I had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

The two of them ran up to me with panic in their eyes after noticing the paint peeling off the walls all around me. All these worst case scenarios I was imagining in my head made me angry to a point where I couldn’t control the red mist anymore. Tons of it was furiously leaking out of my body, melting the linoleum on the floor and peeling paint off the walls.

Feeling like I was about to burst, I stared in Camille’s eyes and asked her in a voice that made it clear that if she kept lying to me, I would go ask Marc myself. “What did he do to you?” Rambo seemed worried by the way I acted and began to growl at the two of them. Robert let out a long sigh before saying, “Seem like we don’t have a choice anymore.”

Camille seemed reluctant but finally gave in. “Before I tell you, you have to promise me not to tell anyone and not to do anything to Marc.” She said with determination in her eyes. I was still drowning in anger and couldn’t think properly anymore. “I can’t promise you that. If he did what I think he did, I’ll kill him.”

Robert and Camille’s faces turned pale as they began to worry about my possible reaction. The two of them seemed not to know what to do when Camille’s expression suddenly turned to anger. “Okay I will tell you but if you harm Marc in any way because of it, I won’t forgive you!” Seeing the determined look in her eyes made me calm down and listen to what she had to say.

I took Rambo in my arms and tried to calm him down while Camille began to recall the events. “From the time she first saw you, Emanuela began to ignore Marc as if he had become invisible to her. Marc seemed quite down because of that so I tried to cheer him up by spending some time with him. I may have accidentally sent him wrong signals that made him think I was interested in him.

From that moment, he kept following me around and would occasionally touch me inappropriately when we were alone together. That time I asked to speak with Robert in private was to ask him to avoid leaving me alone with him and keep an eye on us just in case he went too far. He did not rape me or anything okay! I was just getting creeped out by the way he acted around me and wanted someone’s opinion.”

Finally hearing the truth, I was still angry but reassured at the same time. Luckily, it was not as bad as I was imagining but I still wanted to beat him up after hearing the details. “Now I want you to go sleep and never mention this ever again. Am I making myself clear?” She then said while glaring at me.

“Sigh* Alright, I promise I won’t touch him. But know that if he ever touches you again, I’ll kill him.” I blurted out while angrily going back to my room to sleep. I was highly frustrated not to be able to do anything but luckily, Robert had already taught him a lesson before me.

I tried to rationalize the situation by convincing myself that groping a woman wasn’t worth the death penalty and that he had probably received a sufficient beating from Robert. Rambo and I then went back to bed but my mind was so agitated that it took me a long time to settle down and finally fall asleep.

A few hours later, I was woken up by Rambo who seemed hungry and unable to sleep anymore. As for me, I felt like I could have slept a lot more but established Rambo as a priority. As I was putting my clothes on, Camille entered the room with a plate of warm food for me and a bowl of blue meat for Rambo.

“Morning! I wasn’t sure what to bring for Rambo, so I brought some fresh meat from this morning’s fence patrol.” Said Camille with a warm smile. Since they had completed the fence, the group had began to patrol around it everyday to gather the corpses of electrocuted creatures and use them for the compost pile. “Oarrrningg!!!”

“Did he just say ‘morning’ ???” Asked Camille with an incredulous expression. “Yep, sounds like it. Sometimes I suspect him to be smarter than most humans…” I answered while hugging him like a proud father. Smelling meat, Rambo ran up to Camille and began to bob his head up and down in excitement. She placed the bowl on the floor and watched him eat with a satisfied expression on her face. She seemed satisfied not to be ignored by him anymore.

Seeing the other plate in her hands made me remember just how hungry I really was. Turning her attention back to me, Camille then gave me my plate of canned chicken stew which I wolfed down as fast as I could like a wild animal. “Hehehe careful not to choke on it. Ha! Now that I remember, I told Emanuela that you would go see her when you wake up. When you’re done, we will gather and wait for you in the main room to listen to what you have discovered. All of us are really excited to possibly be able to go back home.” She said before leaving.

I was a bit annoyed by Camille ‘order’ at first, but decided that going to see someone on their hospital bed was the least i could do. Rambo and I ate our food and exited the room to go see Emanuela who was still stuck in her hospital bed. I walked down the corridor while waiting for Rambo who’s short legs made him a lot slower than me. Once arrive at the door of her room, I knocked and waited to be invited in. “Yes?! Come in!” Said Emanuela from the other side of the door.

I entered with Rambo following close behind and finally saw her. She looked quite beat up and had a cast on her left arm but still seemed as joyful as ever. “Nate!!! Took you long enough to come see me.” She then said with a pouting face. “Sorry, I came as soon as I could.” I answered with a smile, well aware that she was only trying to tease me.

“Ha! And that must be Rambo. AWWWwwwwwwww* What a truly adorable little thing!!! Ermm… Won’t he become a fire hazard or something?” She asked while looking at Rambo who was hiding behind me. “Eeeooo? Guaa!!!”

“I’ll keep a close eye on him. Of course he will need to learn many things, but people managed to tame grizzlies and tigers back on earth after all. Since Rambo is a lot smarter than commons animals, he should be relatively safe to keep around.” Emanuela seemed satisfied by my answer and began to ask many questions about my recent adventure.

We spoke for a long time during which, Rambo eventually climbed on the bed and poked her with his nose, asking to be petted. Seemed like Rambo liked Emanuela more than the others. Emanuela was in bliss as she caressed Rambo’s scaly body, but the little guy seemed to be the happiest one of the two.

“Nate, can you do me… a favour?” There was no doubt by her amused expression that she had taken a pause mid sentence on purpose. “Sure, what is it?” I asked. “You see that box over there? Can you take one of what’s inside and use it on me please?” She asked with her face suddenly turning serious for once.

Curious to know what she wanted, I walked up to the small wooden box and opened it. My face instantly turned red as I saw what was inside the box, which made Emanuela giggle like a little girl. The box was containing a bunch of condoms. “Rhahahaha* You should see your face. By the way, I’m a hundred percent serious.” She added with a playful expression.

I couldn’t tell if she was joking around but I somehow felt like she was very serious. Embarrassed, I grabbed Rambo and ran away before things became more complicated. It was already hard to resist her advances before, so if she had decided to be this forward in the future, things would become a lot more troublesome for me.

Still feeling troubled by Emanuela, I went to the main room where the people had gathered and were waiting for me. I sat at the table and tried not to look at dickhead Marc who was sitting right in front of me. I had a feeling that I could potentially lose my composure and accidentally kill him if our eyes met.

The fat Alice was there as well, but she was silent and seemed even more pissed than usual. She was sitting on a wheelchair and kept staring at the ground for some reason. “Alright, now that Nathan is here, we can begin the discussion. Nathan, you spoke of a way of going back to earth, mind telling us about it?” Asked Robert.

Everybody turned their attention toward me and anxiously waited for me to start talking. I began by recalling my adventure from the beginning to the end while trying to include as much details as possible. The ambience around the table was quite strange and felt as if I was a storyteller telling them about the tales of a legendary hero.

They were clinging to each word coming out of my mouth and even had moments when I could hear them gasp, cry and celebrate to what I was saying. I then had to explain to them that I could see the poison in the air but didn’t know why they couldn’t. I told them that I could see it as some kind of red mist floating in the air and even told them about the mysterious red sun in the sky.

Apparently, the red sun I could see in the sky was visible to them as well but appeared as a second moon. To me, this world had two suns, but to them it was two moons. This made sense in a way because it was easier to explain an earth gravitational system having two moons rather than one having two suns. (AutNote: Error 404, Brain.exe has stopped working.)

Then eventually came the time to talk about what they all wanted to know. “That red mist also seemed to gather in giant circles, looking a bit like storm cells. Knowing how mysterious this red mist is, and how the size of these circles are the same as the teleported lands we are in, we can assume that these mist vortexes are the phenomenon responsible for bringing us here.

I also found Mayan ruins not so far from here. This means that a similar phenomenon did happen in the past and that we are not an isolated case. I was worried that other worlds could be connected to this one, and it could transport us to yet another world if we tried to be teleported again. I am not entirely sure that this is not the case, but this Mayan stone reassured me quite a bit about that.

So what I am basically saying it that we could potentially return back to earth if we stayed in a circle that seems to be ready to teleport us. I am not certain about this but among the red mist vortexes I’ve seen from up high, some seemed denser and more unstable than others. If we had a plane or something we could study them better and pick the one that seem the most ready to teleport us but we don’t, so we can only hope for the best.”

As I said these word, Robert and Marc suddenly reacted as if they knew something important. “We found two planes in a hangar not long ago…” Said Robert. “I found the planes, and told you about it.” Retorted Marc. “What! What kind of planes? Do they work?” I impatiently asked.

“Emmm I don’t know much about planes, but they were small yellow two seaters. Their wings were detached for space saving purposes, but they can probably be reattached easily… They were the kind of planes some passionate middle class people can afford I guess.” This was major news. “This is perfect! We need to select a road and transform it into a safe runway then I will go check our surroundings from the air.” I confidently said.

“Nate wait, you know how to pilot these?” Worryingly asked Camille. I didn’t really know how to pilot them but I was very good at flight simulators, and had owned a few RC planes in my life. Adding to that the fact that I could probably survive a plane crash with red mist doping, I felt confident. “Of course! Don’t worry. What I’m afraid of is encountering dragons in the air… Speaking of which, we need to kill that king dragon.”

“Are you out of your mind, why should we even bother fighting such a thing?” Blurted Marc with fear in his eyes. “Because there’s a detail I didn’t share with you.” I paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “I saw a human. It was a woman and she got devoured before my eyes back there. That king dragon hunts humans to feed his ‘dragon meals’. This thing needs to die.”

Shocked by the revelation, the discussion immediately turned to questions about their appearance and every details I knew, but then the details of how she had died brought tears to the eyes of some of them. Touched by my story, everybody agreed to find a way to kill it, even though Marc kept saying to keep him out of it.

The meeting ended up lasting hours, during which we brainstormed a plan to create a mobile living quarter for the 7 of us, and a way to bring it down to a red mist circle that we still had yet to select. It would all come down to what I would see from the air, so first we needed to prepare the planes and a runway.

“Alright guys, look like we will be busy for a while. Let’s get to it shall we?” Then declared Robert. Normally, this is where I would have left back to my bunker but after hearing what Camille had went through, I felt like I needed to keep an eye on things here. Having made my decision, I raised my hand to get people’s attention.

“Cough* cough*, if it’s okay with you all, I’d like to move here with you for a while. I’ll go get a few things from home and move them here. It will be easier to work together on getting back to earth that way.”