  |
Ghosting AroundHank "Shakes" Gumble stumbled down half a dozen feet before he caught a point of stone that jutted out of the sheer hillside. He had been out scouting for most of the day, a glance at the horizon showed he didn’t have much more time left before dusk.
"Hm.....dusk eh? I had better get the salt out." Considering this, he shouldered his rifle and started to sprint down the cliff side.
"&#$!" was Shakes cry as he tripped on yet another rock and this time the speed at which he had been running caused him to fall a good twenty feet before he slammed into a large, solid stone.
"*#$!ing rocks!'" Shakes shouted to the sky as he rolled over onto his back. He got back up, snatched his rifle, and started back down, being a bit more careful. He thought back on that one time he found a dollar, and what it would be like to find ANOTHER dollar. An echo shattered his train of thought. Shakes looked around, hoping for something to shoot a hole in. He found nothing and began to consider shooting some rocks, Shakes didn’t care much for rocks after his recent fall. His slower pace down the steep hillside had cost him daylight, and he know moved in near darkness.
"Rocks" Shakes stuttered under his breath, because...well...there were a LOT of rocks. Shakes had been wondering who ‘they’ was in the phrase ‘that’s what they say’ when yet another noise caught his rather short attention span. He spun around, hoping to see something to "shoot with his gun" as his drill sergeant had said you often did when you were a marine. He found nothing again.
"Well, that’s just down right weird." He said aloud. Shakes turned back around to continue his way down the hillside towards the ever-growing lights of the Terran camp. "Hey, don't turn around" said a voice from somewhere behind him.
"Oh no, I'm not stupid!" Shakes turned around only to see nothing. Shakes had about enough of this, and was just about to say so, when a sudden blur of movement flashed across his vision. He had an odd feeling in his chest, then another.
"Hm....perhaps I should investigate?" Shakes looked at his chest. "Well there’s the problem, I got a couple holes in my chest! Uh-oh...." Shakes had indeed been shot, a few times. He looked around, a simple note of panic slowly creeping into his slow to grasp mind. He fell to his knees, still with a look of utter confusion. Then he spotted movement approaching him, his vision began to blur as he raised his rifle at the object, no, objects, there were a few, or wait....Shakes promptly fell on his face, the blood collecting on his chest spilled into a pool that spread quickly over the dusty ground.
The figures grew in clarity as they disarmed there cloaking devices and stepped over the body. The three of them surrounded the corpse, one pointed at the body and then made a slashing motion with his left hand.
"Good shooting Tex, let’s finish the job." They lowered there rifles and all fired off a round into the former body of Shakes.
Having dealt with the disposal of what remained of Shakes, Special Agent Noulder and his comrades sat down under a willow tree and relaxed.
"I think that problem was well handled, wouldn’t you agree Sludig?" Noulder asked while plucking an apple from his ‘Tactical Issue Fruit Dispenser’
"Blowing a nice gaping hole in the lung will deal with almost any annoyance." Sludig replied after he had eaten a forkful of noodles from his ‘Ghost on the Go Noodle Bag’. "Hey Captain Al’Thor, you uh....you want some noodles?" Sludig motioned toward the remaining noodles.
"The winds blow....It is not the end.....nor the beginning.....but it is a beginning." Al’Thor said while staring out into nothingness.
"Sometimes you creep me out. Anyway, I’m glad we dropped that load of human waste." Noulder spoke not for himself, but for the whole team. "I can’t believe he names his boots" Noulder stared at the muddy pair of boots they had taken off Shakes before lighting the body aflame. "And what kind of names are ‘Leesan’ and ‘Jake’ for boots anyway?" Noulder stuffed the boots in his pack.
3 days later…
"You’re sure it was him?" Commander Peterson asked while pacing the length of his office. Noulder ,of the Black Wings squad, sat calmly on the padded leather, still in full gear.
"His boots.....we....have his boots...." He offered a bag, which bulging contents could only be ‘Leesan’ and ‘Jake’, Shakes beloved boots.
"Good. Now I want this hush hush, you tell the other marines he was killed by uh.... tell them some Zerg ate him. I think they all knew it was coming anywise, but the media would have a frenzy if this got out."
"Of course. My team and I will keep it of utmost secrecy." Noulder sounded like he had gone through a similar routine more then a few times.
"But can you blame me? I just hated the guy. Did I tell you about the time he brought a goldfish to base and demanded that I give it clearance to the nuclear arms storage? Or when he wouldn’t leave my office until I explained why we have to wear pants?" Peterson had been about to continue when Noulder broke in.
"Uh...sir, you don’t need to explain yourself to me, we all hated him, by you’re leave I would like to get back to my team...I’m missing a picnic." Noulder was clearly getting impatient. Al’Thor had stated that if Lews wanted fruit, then Lews got fruit. Exactly who Lews was or why he wanted fruit, Noulder didn’t know. He did know that last time Al’Thor had said Lews hated bugs, he had shot a fly with a grenade launcher.
"Of course, you may leave." With dismissal, Noulder ran from the office like a school child. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
