Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Da Doofus]

"I saw something peeking from the bushes, yeah." Rufus glanced at the two newcomers. "Probably just an animal, but still got me alert."

The man raised a brow at Rufus.
"Are . . . Aren't you the scout? Why are you up here?"

"Why is anybody anything pal, is there some protocol or something? I think you guys may need to up the guard." He barked, his edge starting to show.

The man stood silent for a moment.
"Uhhh . . . That's up to the Commander I think-"

"Gotcha." He tapped Kairo's arm. "Let's go." He picked his helmet and gunbelt back up, holstering his pistol as he descended down the steps.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo listened into the confrontation with interest. When Rufus asks for him to leave, he falls in line behind him, heading down the steps. As they reach the bottom, Kairo takes a few quick strides to be next to Rufus instead of behind.

"That guy seemed nice." He said in an obviously sarcastic tone. To be completely honest, he couldn't tell if the man's question was sparked from curiosity or spite. But whatever it was, it wasn't the best thing to say in that situation. Whatever it was, he didn't seem to care that much. The only real thought in his head being the prospect of sleep.
"You planning on taking a bed tonight? Or still sleeping outside?" He asked.

 

[Da Doofus]

"I plan on telling Stryx that he may want some extra security around first." He said. "Between Republic stooges, and the chance of another encounter with a man-sized lizard, I'll take the first one thank you." He glanced at the walls, expecting some kind of movement in his state of paranoid deja vu.
"You know where Stryx is this time of night?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

He gave Rufus's question some thought, remembering the tent Stryx had entered that first night at camp. Chances were, that would still be his personal tent. At this time of night, it was probably the only place the man could have been. He wouldn't want to bother the man, especially at this time. But the way Rufus seemed to glance at the walls seemed to signal that something wasn't completely right.

"I know where his tent is. But he's probably asleep." He said, opening the portable terminal he kept with him to check the time. It was already past midnight. "I can show you where it is if you don't wanna wait till morning."

 

[Da Doofus]

"Fine fine." Rufus sighed. "And I'm not being paranoid." He turned to glare at Kairo.
"I'm cautious."

 

[Chai_T3a]

“Yeah. I never thought you were.” He said, a bit of a nervous smile on his face. He didn’t want to admit it, but the glare definitely unnerved him a tiny bit.

He began leading Rufus to Stryx’s tent. It didn’t take him long to find the place. And soon, Rufus and Kairo were standing right outside of the tent.

“Take the honours.” He said, gently nudging him forward.

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus rolled his eyes, and stepped in the tent.
"Stryx?" He said within. "I got to talk to you.
Hey Dr. Faolain."

"Mr. Maye." Stryx answered. "Wondered where you went." A moment passed with silence.
"Who's outside?" He asked.

"That's Kairo." Rufus answered. "Hey." He said as he parted the tent's folds open.
"Get in here. It's rude."

Behind him, Stryx and Helen were standing next to Penny, who was projecting a hologram of a nighttime view from the wall.
The sounds coming from it were the same as the other night when the sounds of some predator's hunt echoed across the area.

 

[Chai_T3a]

"Yeah. Okay." He said as he promptly entered through the tent flap. He raised his eyebrow, a bit surprised to find so many people in here.

"What are we watching." He mentioned casually as his eyes seemed to focus on the projector. The familiar sound that soon came from the projector seemed to answer the question for him. A chill ran through his body. He wasn't sure if it was from the cold, or the from being reminded of that gruesome noise.
"Recording's from day one?" He winced.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Yes." Stryx answered. "Penny said she saw something peculiar in the jungles below us that night. Dr. Faolain was pointing out what she's noticed."


"Watch before the sounds begin." The redhead pointed. "There is movement in the trees, and . . .
There."

In that moment, flashes of lights blinked from below the canopy around a path of wobbling trees. Four in total, blinking one after another before a second path of shaken branches charged the first.
Then the sounds ensued as the other three closed in.

"I've never seen anything like this, outside of deep sea animals, so the only thing I can compare this to is some kind of communication." She pointed at the separate paths of disturbed canopy.
"Large pack hunters is my theory, but I don't have enough to go on to say more.
All I will say is that given this form of communication, these creatures have to be nocturnal. So absolutely no one is to be outside the perimeter in the evening."

Rufus was analyzing the footage as well, dwelling on his own ponderings of the images.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He nodded, agreeing to the statement that Helen made. It seemed like being outside in such an environment would definitely mean an untimely demise. Probably a painful one too. Those things must have been massive if they were capable of rustling the trees. One of them would more then likely be able to kill someone wih just one swipe.

His mind then wandered to another pressing matter. He’d remember hearing that red team had been sent out on a retrieval mission, and from what he’d seen on his watch shift, there hasn’t been any trace of them coming back. A new wave of worry hit him. He knew that they would be able to take care of themselves. Even with those things roaming around. But he just couldn’t stop himself from assuming the worst.

“Red team.” He mumbled. “You sent them on a retrieval mission. Are they still out there?” He looked over at Stryx.

 

[Da Doofus]

"I ordered them to hold their position at Maye's campsite until morning. That was at 6:00." He explained, hiding his worry well.

"As long as they didn't take down my fence, they'll be fine. I amped that thing up to make even a Demihydra think twice." Rufus added in. "You got another matter though: you gotta beef up your security. Like now."

"Why exactly?" Stryx raised a brow.

"Call it a hunch, but I think our scaly friend is back, and he's outside the walls as we speak."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo visibly relaxed hearing that red team was safe. But that feeling didn’t seem to last long. Again, the concern was brought back as Rufus mentioned the possibility of the Guest being back. He tried to stay calm, but he couldn’t fully hide the concern on his face.

The last thing they needed now was to have him back on their tails. The camp was still in it’s infancy, seemingly fragile and weak. Any little setback could potentially destroy the entire mission.

“What are we going to tell the people?” He asked No one in particular.
“I mean. I’m not saying we shouldn’t heighten security. But wouldn’t people find out that something isn’t right?”

 

[Da Doofus]

"It's becoming apparently clear that we'll need to anyway." Stryx said. "We are on our own. The Republic is dead, and no one is coming.
I'll notify Jameson to send more troops in the morning."

Rufus nodded.
"And tonight?"

"Kairo, go to any bunks you can and rally whoever is awake." The Commander ordered. "I will supply the arms."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo seemed a little surprised at the speed at which Stryx decided to take action. He would have at least expected him to dwell on it till morning, but he wasn't complaining. He wasn't able to give what Stryx said previously much thought, but it was pretty obvious that the man was right. After all that happened in a span of 3 short days, everyone needed to be at an upmost level of alert. Postponing sleep was a small price to pay for that.

He gave Stryx a nod and exited the tent. The urge for sleep had completely disappeared and he found himself jogging to every bunk with renewed vigour. There weren't many that were awake at this time, but he could still find at least a few in each bunk. He repeated this process, directing the recruits towards Stryx. 15 minutes had passed by the time he'd finished his task. By then, he'd counted at around 16 people who were conscious enough to report to Stryx. He was the last out of the group to arrive back, along with one other person from the bunk he'd checked last.

 

[Da Doofus]

On his way back to Stryx's location, which was near the armory, he would see additional lights being set up throughout the camp. Stryx could be faintly seen over the distant crowd he was currently addressing.

Kairo was almost among them as he passed by a pair of storage sheds, until he felt the cold edge of a blade on his throat. The wielder was standing in the shadows of the storage sheds, and glared at him with familiar scarlet eyes and a face scarred from unknown brutality. Rather than prolongue the surprise reunion, the returned Guest growled softly and jerked his head back with a grunt, conveying Kairo to follow.

He could call for help, being only twenty feet away from the crowd.
Then again, he could lose his head just as easily.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo froze in place. His breathing quickened, while his body seized to move. He could feel the ice cold edge of the knife pressed onto his throat. The pressure applied forcing him to lift his head up. Any closer and the knife would probably cut into his artery.

He'd had nightmares about meeting him again. The thought of the guest attacking having been on his mind ever since the original attack. He knew he'd see him again, and he'd tried to prepare himself for it. But to actually have to deal with it, especially with a knife pressed against his throat, was more than he could have possibly cope with.

He wanted so badly to scream, to kick, do anything to get away from him. He probably would have done so as well, if it wasn't for the constant reminder that the Guest could kill him at any moment.

As much as he wanted to panic, this wasn't the time to do. He had to try and stay calm. Take the best course of action, and as of now, the only thing way he could preserve his life was to follow the Guest. He took a long, hitched breathe as he let the Guest guide him towards wherever they were going.

 

[Da Doofus]

The reptilian snatched Kairo by the collar and hauled him away from the gathering crowd of soon-to-be extra security, and practically carried him to a less populated area of the camp.

Soon, he would be thrust against a section of wall with the Guest's mauled snout aimed at his face, teeth bared. He growled softly, a quiet rattling sound, as though there was much restraint in his vocalizations.
Then he inhaled, the type of breathing in similar to something an aggravated person would do to calm down.

When he exhaled however, the sound was a breathy snarl, his diamond-slit pupils locked on Kairo's eyes.
"Where. Are. They?" He spoke in a rumbling whisper, layered in an agitated growl.
His grip on Kairo's collar tightened when he spoke.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo's pupils contracted almost comically in shock. Was he finally starting to go insane? Or did he actually hear the Guest speak? He'd only ever thought that the Guest could understand him, not actually speak the same language. For a second, he seemed to be too dumbfounded to even speak.

"I...I don't know who you're talking about." He managed to utter weakly.

 

[Da Doofus]

The Guest snapped his jaws with a snarl.

"You do." He glared. "I heard them in here yesterday and a few hours ago.
I know they're here." He pushed Kairo tighter against the wall.
"Where?" His right eye twitched menacingly.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Realization seemingly came to him the moment the Guest elaborated. He wasn't sure why the Guest wanted the critters so badly, but he wasn't in a position to question his motives. The force from the push was beginning to hurt.

"There in the research lab." He blurted with little resistance in him.
"I can take you there. As long as you don't plan to hurt them." The last part seemed to come out from his mouth without any thought. He wasn't in any kind of position to negotiate, and yet his damn mouth couldn't just shut up. He mentally braced himself for some kind of retribution.

 

[Da Doofus]

The scaly humanoid's eyes widened in surprise at what Kairo said for a moment, his grip loosened.
Then the look of feral aggression returned.

"Take me there." He tossed Kairo in the direction of camp and sprinted past on all fours between a tent and a crate.

"Hey, you." A voice came from above Kairo. A man on watch duty was looking down at him.
"You ok down there?" He asked, seemingly unaware of what got in the camp.

Across from Kairo, the Guest watched with his piercing eyes, and his claws raked on the crates surface. His gaze doubled as a warning to cooperate.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He fought with the urge to say that he wasn’t okay. But that just wasn’t an option. He could make out the threatening glare that the Guest gave him from the corner of his eyes. If he toed the line just a bit, he could be risking the lives of himself and the guard.

He gave the man as best of a forced smile as he could possibly muster.
“Yeah. It’s fine. Just tripped on something.” He said, pointing down at a rock on the floor. He didn’t stay a second longer, dreading the possibility that the lookout would question his terrible lie.

Once out of the man’s vision. He exhaled deeply, trying to calm his heart rate. He knew that the Guest was watching him, so he couldn’t spend too long composing himself. The moment he felt capable of moving again, he made his way to the research lab. Hopefully there wouldn’t be anyone working in the lab at this time. Otherwise this could go terribly wrong.

 

[Da Doofus]

As he moved through the camp, he could faintly catch glimpses of the Guest darting to and from different spots along his route.
Finally they reached the outer part of the research team's tent. No light was on fortunately.

"Go inside." The Guest's voice rumbled behind him seemingly appearing from nowhere. "If no one is inside, step back outside immedietely." He ordered, nudging him forward toward the entrance.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He doesn’t waste any time in doing what he was told. He lifts the flap of the tent and walks in. Taking a look around to see if anyone was there.

 

[Da Doofus]

Naught but the slumbering forms of the triplet critters dwelled in the interior.
Frederick's eyes drowsily opened upon Kairo's arrival, his ears twitching upward.
Ezekiel snored and kicked his leg.

All three had bands strapped to their arms now, labeled with their names. As well as recent clips in their ears signifying their marks for future study upon release into the wilds.