Jump to content

fanfiction Ultimus Chapter Nineteen: The Survivors’ Camp


OverRannus
 Share

Recommended Posts

 

Sylas Fennec was the only one up working in the base camp while the others were gone. Something that even he was surprised about since he rather sleep in until noon. Though he didn’t know what time it was so for all he knew it could be midnight. He had several baby rockarrots in a tray of tools he was using on his current project. He liked munching on them while he worked. His project was to work on several droids or “Sir5rM8s”, that’s what people back on the Arks called them. He was properly adding in the main computer components and wiring as he listened to the futuristic boombox he fixed earlier. Erica built the robots the other day and he wanted them finished before they got back. It made it easy to build when you set up camp in a futuristic arcade. She said she built them as well as the ones on the Ark. And she did, though he wished that she didn’t. He wished that she made them a little more unique. The ones back on the Ark looked like pot belly Star Wars droids, identical in every way and they all sounded the same. He tried making them unique but his master never wanted them that way. He wanted them all the same, but now he has control over that and he can program them to speak however the heck he wants. And nothing was going to stop him.

Out of one of the tents came a man. He was rather tall to Sylas but to be honest everyone in the group was rather tall to his five foot four stature. He wore glasses and his hair was a dark brown cut fairly short. And he was average built. He stared over at Sylas with a distasteful expression. This was Jonathan Ducasse, the Zoologist/Paleontologist from the future. Or his future he guessed as Jonathan was from a hundred years in his future. He was a man of high standards and a strong personality. A typical stereotype of his people from what he can tell. Though in his time traveling around the world. He met nice -

“Sylas, what is this horrible noise you have playing? And why did you waste your time working on that stupid stereo that you got out of that rundown car? You could’ve done better things with your time and got more work done. Like cleaning up after the animals.” He said in an annoyed tone as the stereo played “Royal”.

“Can you please be quiet Jonathan? I haven’t heard any of this song for a over year. Or 200 years or whatever. However long it’s been. I am just so thrilled to hear songs like this one!! So shut it as this song plays.” Sylas said,

“At least clean up the area around Phil. It smells like an Elephant enclosure here or a Sanitation Facility.” Jonathan groaned, Sylas looked at him with slight irritation in his eyes.

“First, his name is Phil the II. Second, bite me, Jonathan. I’m finishing these droids then I’ll work on cleaning the pens. Heck, I can program these so that we can get more important stuff and work done.” Sylas said, Jonathan rolled his eyes.

“You don’t work around here Sylas. All you do is tinker with anything that has a motherboard. I do your work and I really don’t want to clean up after your ape, again. I just finished my field notes on the differences between Arthropluera from the Carboniferous period and this species of Arthropluera and like to get on to a few more done before I go farming resources for huts and forging equipment.” Jonathan said.

“Alright. I’ll get it done… but you know, I could get these finished up quickly so you don’t hav-”

“Just clean up Sylas. Preferably now and put the robots on hold.” Jonathan said sharply as he turned around. Sylas mockingly copycatted him as he walked away. Jonathan turned around and looked at Sylas disgracefully. Sylas sat there smiling.

“Sylas, you are such an immature and childish person, and you’re I’m a wimp that you can’t even defend yourself. You’re more of a burden than you are a blessing. Get to cleaning up after the animals or learn how harsh I can be.” Jonathan said, Sylas chuckled.

“I’ve seen it, at least ten times now. And your threats are getting repetitive as Dread Pirates Robert’s with Wesley. I’ll get it done though, after I finish these droids.” Sylas said, Jonathan gave him a death glare. Sylas smiled wide as he stuck a baby rockarrot in his mouth like a cigar. He wished it was one, not like he smoked or anything but because it would have felt much more baller. Jonathan shook his head and turned away.

“Typical lazy Americans.” he continued as he walked away. Sylas sighed as he munched on his rockarrot and got back to the droids.

‘And our forefathers fought alongside them. I wonder how many wanted to strangle them.’ He thought as he touched a live wire.

“Ah!! Son of a hamster!!” He yelled, dropping the rockarrot from his mouth.

As he stuck his finger in his mouth, he thought about what Jonathan said. He wasn’t lazy, he was working hard on what he was specialized for. Sure he couldn’t or didn’t help with as many things as the others. But he didn’t feel he could help or he’d mess up something if he did. So he stuck with what he knew he could do, and some of the mundane tasks that needed to be done. Sylas sighed as he put down his tools and took one more rockarrot to munch on. He’d finish up the droids after he cleaned up the base camp.

~

Andrew and the survivors traveled their way through Sanctuary where they said they set up base camp. It felt unusual, he was walking alongside three other people and two of them were riding dinosaurs. Something he had lost hope to ever happen. He wondered if there was hope for Earth if they brought down these Arks. He wasn’t quite sure, but he did wonder. And though he didn’t trust this group of people yet, he didn’t distrust them either. He wasn’t sure, while the blonde-haired woman saved him and the man named Paul was kind to him and showed him mercy, but he had to wonder if they had something planned. He couldn’t tell if they had ulterior motives though, but he could definitely feel that the black-haired woman didn’t trust at all. And he couldn’t blame her, he threatened to kill her friend. He regretted doing that, fear and surprise had got to him. He wishes he could go back and change it, but what’s done was done, no changing that now.

As they walked in silence, he had a question that kept racking in his brain that he couldn’t help but ask.

“How did you get those?” He asked softly, Paul looked back from the back of his mount. He stopped for a moment 

“What’s it laddie?” Paul said curiously, not hearing it properly.

“How did you get those? The creatures?” Andrew asked, Paul chuckled

“Well, it’s a wee bit difficult to answer. But many of them have different ways to tame these animals. Some like Erica’s you have to tranquilize them and feed them to tame, others like this wee one here under me have unorthodox and complicated methods to tame. Though not all can be tamed” He answered.

“Oh.” Andrew said, he wondered if he was able to do this with Tracy.

“We’ll explain more about it to ya when we get back to camp. Jonathan has been studying every creature we’ve seen so far and has each of their taming methods.” Paul said smiling. Andrew smiled back kindly, he never imagined himself riding a dinosaur as an adult. Seemed crazy to him.

As they walked through the city, they saw robots and avoided them. Paul said that most were aggressive towards them when they arrived so they avoided them as much as possible since then. Several did try to attack the group, but Paul’s dinosaur dispatched them quickly. Finally, they arrived at where the camp was located. An old arcade with a mascot vaguely resembling a ghost hanging over the side. Most of the building was dilapidated enough that the windows and parts of the side of the building were no longer there, while still being structurally strong. Paul and Erica dismounted their dinosaurs and began going with Freya and Andrew following behind.

Andrew observed the area of the building inside as he entered. Most of the arcade machines were either destroyed or dilapidated over time. What used to be carpet was now soil with ferns and larger plants. The ceiling of the first level was completely gone, showing the plumbing, ductwork, and skeleton of the building. As they went further into the building, Andrew began to notice primitive, made structures. Mostly that of wood and stone, though a few tents were in-circling a campfire. 

“Welcome to our camp!! Feel free to explore while we drop some stuff off in our tents and go find the other two. Then will properly introduce you to everyone.” Paul said smiling, Andrew nodded and smiled back before exploring the rest of the camp.

Paul sighed to himself as he watched Andrew walk off to the other side of camp. He hoped that he didn’t make a mistake bringing him here. He had hope in him, but he knew this young lad had been through some things. He looked over at Erica who stared in the same direction as where Andrew was walking. Paul rolled his eyes and chuckled. She had so much distrust against the boy for being afraid. Though he couldn’t blame her either. But she always seemed to be distrustful of newcomers, to Sylas, to Freya, to Jonathan. Even to him when they first met on that cold beach. It just seemed to be her nature. The same with her tight lip about her past, even Jonathan wasn’t as tight-lipped as her, though his being more on his academic excellence. Everyone else when they met in their group couldn’t wait to say something about them or try to be friends by sharing some backstory. But not her, all she would say was her name, that she worked on the Arks as an engineer, and that she was from the future. She was distrustful of the world. But from her eyes, it didn’t seem like she was always like this. Like something changed her. She looked over at him with a serious tone on her face.

“Hope you know what you're doing Paul, I don’t like him.” She said,

“Now why don’t ya? Is it because you don’t like how tight-lipped he is? I thought that might make you more comfortable around him.”

“You know perfectly well what I mean Paul. I don’t like him being here and I-”

“I, I know, you don’t trust him. And I know we’ve been through Nottingham and back on the Ark but you have to take a leap of faith with people Erica. It’s the only way to trust. Now for me, I don’t know what to think of him yet. But I know if I left him out there alone or to go wherever he would’ve gone. That something bad could happen to him in the state he was in.” Paul said,

“And what’s so bad about that?”

“Erica, I took an oath to do no harm, if I let him go knowing full well that he could harm himself. It would be no better than if I harmed him myself.”

“But you killed before Paul, you killed soldiers in war and you killed people on the Ark.”

“I only did what I had to do Erica, I had no choices in war. I gave them a chance to aid me in not making those hard choices, but they threatened to hurt others under my watch. And becomes the same circumstance. Same with on the Ark, and it doesn’t mean I am not convicted of the choices I made Erica. They haunt me, from the first life I took to the last. But I do not take a life unless they threaten to take one life for their own.” Paul answered, Erica stayed quiet. She turned around to look back at Andrew before looking at Paul.

“At least keep a close eye on him, Paul, I still don’t trust him but if you think we should keep an eye on him. I’ll be keeping mine on him.”

“Aye, I will. And remember who’s in charge around here Erica, I don’t have to ask you or Freya for any advice. And I don’t have to take orders from you.” Paul said jokingly, Erica smirked a bit.

“But you do anyway.”

“Aye, because you’re more stubborn than a Scotsman.” He said before both chuckled about it.

“Hey Erica…” Freya called as she walked out of her tent and over to them, she had changed out of her Desert Cloth Pants in trade for Flak while they had talked.

“Do you know where that weird spear that lights up you were working on went off to?” Freya asked,

“The Electric Prod? I think it’s in my tent right now.”

“Oh, okay. Would you happen to be done with it? I would like to use it if you are done.” Freya continued, Erica looked at her with a questionable expression.

“Uh, sure. But why do you need it.”

“You and Paul said that they are used for knocking out things. And I wanted to finally go get a mount of my own, I saw something that I thought would be good for me and I would like to use the prod on it.” Freya said,

“Okay, now I know I modified the prods a bit so that they can be used more than once once and all. But wouldn’t be easier to just use a rifle? I got one-”

“I don’t use your ranged weapons or weird magic weapons, Erica. It takes the challenge out of the fight and dulls your mind. Now with this ‘prod’ is as far as I go. It still holds the challenge I use to sharpen the mind but won’t kill me when I use it on this beast.” Freya said, again Erica looked at her with a curious look

“What are you going to tame Freya?”

“Just a fine mount for a first tame.” Freya answered.

“Alright, do you need any help with this tame?” Erica asked,

“I’m fine by myself, but that you for asking.” She said smiling,

“Oh, Freya. Do ya mind waiting a wee bit before so that we can introduce ya properly to Andrew?” Paul asked, Freya smiled wide,

“Not at all, I would love to introduce myself to him.” She said, before a smile slowly left “But how would we go along on doing that if he can’t understand me?” She continued, Paul rubbed his chin for a moment as he pondered on that.

“We’ll figure something out, don’t worry. Just be sure you stay for a week bit.” He said before she nodded and walked away over towards her tent again.

~

As he began to explore their camp, he wondered to himself how long it took them to learn how to build this stuff small stable-sized pens, on his left one had a giant bipedal ape looking like an ancient cryptid with the name ‘Phil the Second’ on the front of the stable’s gate. To his right was another stable with a giant centipede inside. Andrew had seen these centipedes before, even getting close enough to be spat at by one. But he had never been close enough to see its compound eyes individually. There was a name on the gate but he couldn’t read it. There were a few more stables with some smaller creatures like dodos and sheep. He heard a loud noise from behind him and heard a strange noise and dull hooting from one of the stables behind him. 

“Yeah, is that funny Phil? Is it funny to see me struggle to clean up your mess? Well, it's not.” A voice came from the same stable. The hooting didn’t stop though. Andrew came around to the stable seeing the strange hulking ape again, but noticing a small man lying on the ground. The ape walked over and lent his hand to the man. The man looked at the ape and humorously shook his head.

“You know, this is your fault, now I’m gonna have to take a bath because of your mess.” the man said as he reached for the ape’s hand and lifted himself. He was roughly half or a third of the ape’s height. His red hair was short and curly. He wore similar clothes to the others, except they looked like they were dyed or drawn on to add designs. Though there were mud streaks all across his clothes now. 

“I wish you could learn to use a-” he said before turning and letting out a high-pitched scream as he stared at Andrew. Andrew jumped in surprise. The man ran behind the ape and hid behind him as the ape let out a growl and clenched its fists. The man peered from behind the ape and looked at Andrew suspiciously

“Who are you? Where did you come from?” The man asked, Andrew raised his hands in the air as the ape growled even louder.

“My name is Andrew, and I came here with Paul and your friends.” Andrew said, the man's suspicious look turned into curious wonder as he stepped away from the ape.

“Really? Well then where did you come from?” The man asked,

“I am Camacho Forest, but if you mean what Ark, I didn’t come from one. I have been down here this whole time.” Andrew said as the man’s eyes lit up.

“Really, how many are down here?” He asked

“Counting myself, one. I am the only one down here that I know of.”

“Oh, well how long have you been alone?” The man asked

“My time of being awake, twelve years. But I don’t know exactly for sure how long I have been the last. I was in Cryostasis for a millennia.” Andrew said, the man’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I’m sorry what?”

“In layman’s terms, I was asl-” “I know what it means, it’s kinda hard not to know if you watch Sci-Fi shows or play those types of games. But you're saying you're the real deal? A Rip Van Winkle?” The man said cutting in.

“Who?”

“Old Reference, sorry. You're a Captain America or a Han Solo?” He said,

“I still don’t know who you're talking about.”

“How is the future this advanced yet have no recollection of timeless classics!!” The man said infuriated, the man seemed to be so goofy that while even angry. He seemed to be more silly than really angry.

“Well, I can say you can probably change out that timeless part of that title.”

“Forget what I said, the point is I know what you're talking about and now you are lost on my references.” He said, “Sorry for the rabbit trail, but you’ve survived alone for twelve years. How old are you? Twenty, Nineteen?”

“I’m Twenty-Three, I have survived out here since I was eleven.” Andrew said, the realization came over the man’s face.

“Sylas! Can you come here we have someone we-, oh I see you two have already met.” Paul said, the man nodded.

“Yeah, Andrew’s been telling me about himself, but I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Sylas Fennec, nice to meet you, Andrew!” Sylas said as he raised his hand out to shake. Andrew smiled and shook hands with him.

“Why are you out here Sylas? I thought you’d be workin on the droids Erica made?”

“Well I was, but Jonathan told me that I should clean the pens up instead of messing with the droids. And I have been, well except I slipped and covered myself in mud and whatever else is in Phil’s pen.” Sylas said, Paul groaned and shook his head.

“Sylas, I’m sorry but I didn’t need you working on the pens right now. I needed you to do the droids. Jonathan was supposed to be doing the pens and he was also supposed to leave you alone. I should’ve told both of you but you were sleeping. I told Jonathan this though before we left and I thought he’d listen. Those droids will cut back on our farming and harvesting allowing us to explore and map out this area.” Paul said, Sylas mouth was open from this and he looked at the mess he was in.

“Go clean up, thank ya for help on the pens. I do appreciate it Sylas.” Paul continued, but Sylas didn’t seem to hear this as he got out of the pen and walked out of view. Paul sighed and turned to Andrew

“Sorry, ya had to hear that. Do ya care to eat while we wait for him?” Paul said, Andrew smiled.

“Sure, I can go from some to eat.”

“Ah good!! We have some mutton that I have been excited to cook up and eat, and after Sylas comes back, I’ll properly introduce you to the rest of our camp.” Paul said, Andrew smiled. He would like to meet the others properly and not under so startling circumstances.

“I’m fine with that.” He said,

“Alrighty, I’ll show ya where we eat.” Paul said as he led the way with Andrew following behind.

Edited by OverRannus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • OverRannus changed the title to Ultimus Chapter Nineteen: The Survivors’ Camp

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...