Copyright © 2003-2024 DouglasDD. All Rights Reserved.
Robert Charles inserted the key card into the slot and pushed the starter button on the sled. Nothing happened. He pushed it again. Once more, nothing happened.
"What the fuck?" He strode over to the other sled and went through the same routine with the same result. Robert Charles punched in a code and opened up the compartment where the power chips were inserted. It was empty. He went back to the first sled and found the compartment empty as well.
"Who took them?" he screamed.
"Took what?" Scooter asked.
"The fucking power chips! What else?"
"I don't know. I didn't know they were gone." Scooter was confused. Why did Robert Charles lock the compartment if the chips weren’t there? And who took them? It sure wasn't him. He had tried to take them last night and the compartment was locked. And now Robert Charles opens the case and finds them gone. As far as he knew, only Alex and Douglas had key cards and codes. But they never locked the compartment, which is why Robert Charles had been able to steal the chips the first time, or so they thought. Now it appeared that RC had a key card and code as well.
Robert Charles was furious. Like Scooter, he couldn't figure out how the chips had been taken. He had watched the sleds carefully until the scouts left. As soon as the scout teams left he locked the chips up, and with Alex and Douglas gone, he was the only person who had a key card and knew the code. There was no way anybody could have gotten in there without one or the other or both. Somehow, the fact that he had been the group leader and had access to keys and codes had been forgotten.
He asked each person what they knew about the missing chips. They all shrugged and said they didn’t know a thing. He knew somebody was lying, he just had to figure out who it was. As the sun rose he and Jordan started tearing apart the sleds looking for the chips.
Since Warren was one of his supporters, he asked him to help. But Warren refused, saying he was feeling weak and needed to sit down. Robert Charles called him a wuss. No one else would help. Stevie organized breakfast. While the boys ate, they watched Robert Charles go bat shit crazy.
He and Jordan went through the tents and found nothing.
"I want to look in everybody's backpack,” Robert Charles demanded. Nobody moved. "Now!" Still nobody moved. Robert Charles picked up his metal bar and walked towards Warren. Warren raised his arms over his head to protect himself. Jordan jumped up on the sled and grabbed Robert Charles's arm.
"Hey, he's on our side!" he yelled.
Robert Charles stopped and lowered the bar. "Shit. I'm sorry Warren. I'm really sorry. I wasn't going to hit you. I am just so pissed off." He walked over and gave Warren a hug. Warren was still a little frightened and wasn't sure how to react, but he accepted the hug, going along with whatever it was Robert Charles was doing. Robert Charles took Jordan and Warren over to a shaded area and started talking to them about who could have taken the power chips. Jordan had checked the spares and they were gone, too.
"It had to be Stevie," Jordan said. "He's the only one other than me who knows enough to figure out how to get to those chips. And his brother probably gave him his key card and the codes."
"I think you're right. But how did he do it? It had to be last night, because we would have noticed it during the day. The only time we left the area was when we told the scout teams good-bye, and Stevie was with us."
Warren's heart sped up when he heard that, but Robert Charles went right on. "It had to be Stevie. He must have done it last night. I want us out of here before the scout teams come back or we’ll never leave. This is my chance to get back in control and lead this group right. I don't feel like dying with those guys out here in some empty mountains. I think it's time I had a little talk with Stevie."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mike and Douglas looked at each other in disbelief when they heard the voice. It sounded like the voice of a young boy. They quickly started moving debris until they found two boys strapped into a pair of seats who were covered by dust and debris.
They were the twins from the lower school. Douglas couldn’t remember their names. Mike and Douglas worked to uncover them. The twins looked cut and bruised with pale skin and chapped lips. Their blondish hair was unkempt. Douglas recalled that they were around nine and ten years old and were the oldest boys in the lower class.
"Thirsty," one of them uttered. Douglas unstrapped his water bottle and let them each have a couple of swallows. He'd read somewhere he shouldn’t give someone who was parched too much water too quickly, so he let each boy have a couple of good swallows.
"I'll get you more soon. We need to get you out of here first."
He and Mike had moved enough debris away to give them room to unstrap the boys. The twins were hungry, thirsty, weak, bruised, and banged up, but they didn’t seem to be seriously hurt. Mike and Douglas helped them out of the shuttle tail section and found a spot in the shade for them to sit in. Douglas gave them a little bit more water and said he and Mike would be right back.
“How the fuck did they survive that mess?” Mike asked. “Alex has nothing to feel bad about—he landed us all in one piece.” He didn’t mention Matthew since it wasn’t Alex’s fault that Matthew had unstrapped his seatbelt.
“I think it was because they were at the very back of the shuttle’s tail section,” Douglas speculated.
The first thing Mike and Douglas did was search for food. They found some in a cabinet that was still in one piece. Mike found some dry cereal and bread which they gave to the twins. The twins scarfed the food and drank some of Mike's water.
Neither of them had said a thing since they’d been unstrapped. Douglas wondered if they were in shock. The twins could not believe they had been found and had been found by two boys they had seen on the "Starkeeper". They were too weak and tired and sore to have the energy to ask what Mike and Douglas were doing on the planet.
"I'm Douglas. This is Mike. I guess you can figure we were on the 'Starkeeper''.
"Ethan," the boy in the right seat said. Then he pointed to his brother. "Logan."
"We'll talk later about how we all got here. For now we need to get you back to our group. There are more of us. All of the upper class boys landed here." He didn't say that one of them had died here, too.
They left Logan and Ethan alone for a while to explore what was left of the shuttle to see if anybody else survived. The wreckage was scattered all around the small plateau. They expected to find a lot of bodies, but it wasn't until they got to the cockpit area that they found two bodies. Even though Douglas knew he would see some bodies it still shocked him and made him sick when he saw them. They belonged to a pair of crewmen. The smell was awful. They found four more bodies, including one woman, before they quit looking. The dead were all crew members.
They returned to the twins. Douglas asked them how many people had been on the shuttle. He found out that including them, there were only eight. Six crew members and the twins. Douglas was curious as to how that happened, but he would wait to get their story.
They concluded that the twins were too weak to walk back down the trail to the sleds. After some discussion they decided that Mike would walk back to the camp and procure a sled. The trail was wide enough for the sled until the end of the box canyon. There was no place in the area to turn the sled around so the driver would have to back the sled down the trail for a few miles, which would take some skilled driving.
“Only one person has the skill to drive on that trail,” Douglas said.
"Alex," they both said together.
When Mike was ready to leave, Douglas accompanied him back to the trail. They hugged each other and then Mike started his solo trek. Meanwhile, Douglas climbed back up the plateau.
He gave the twins more water and then explored more of the wreckage. He found one special treasure and one other interesting find. The special treasure was two cases filled with full water bottles. Douglas counted 100 bottles. The water was going to be a huge help, especially with two extra bodies in their group.
The interesting find was two laser pistols. Alex had told Douglas that he had the code to open a locker that contained weapons. Douglas decided that he didn’t want to have weapons available that Robert Charles could get his hands on.
“What if whoever lives on the planet attacks us?” Alex asked.
“Then we’re fucked, weapons or no weapons,” Douglas told him.
When the "Sundancer" crashed it must have broken open a weapons locker. Douglas fired the two pistols at the ground. They were both charged. He stuffed them into his backpack and went back to join the twins. Maybe it just might be a good idea to have weapons after all—weapons that Robert Charles didn’t know about.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Robert Charles had Stevie cornered. "What did you do with the power chips, punk?"
"I don't know what happened to your stupid chips, I never touched them."
"And why did you tell your brother about what happened before the concert?"
"What does that have to do with anything? We’re marooned on this fucking planet and you ask me that? You are one fucked-up crazy dude.” Robert Charles grabbed his arm. “Let me go. I told you, I don't have your stupid chips."
"I think you're lying. And I'm going to make you tell me where they are."
Robert Charles threatened to beat Stevie up if he wouldn't tell. Stevie said he didn't know where the chips were or who took them. Robert Charles knew if he beat up Stevie, Alex would come after him. But if he took both sleds and took them all away from the camp before Alex came back, Alex would never find them. He had no intention of leaving water or a working sled behind. The way he saw it, without Alex, Mike, and Douglas nobody could successfully challenge him. But he needed the power chips to pull off his escape.
Robert Charles asked the rest of the boys about the chips. He was hardest on Scooter, Travis, and Brandon, especially Scooter. Travis and Brandon were handy around machinery and technology, but Douglas could easily have given Scooter the key card and the codes.
"Did you check if the chips were in there before you locked the panel up?" Scooter asked.
"No, but where else could they be?" Robert Charles answered.
"Then, for all you know they were removed a long time ago. Maybe one of the scouts has them.”
Robert Charles was fuming. Scooter could be right. But he swore he and Jordan never took their eyes off the panels from the time they stopped until the scout team left.
He went to Ryan next. Ryan got a little smart mouthed. He was positive that Robert Charles was the one who slugged him on Mars. That was one of many reasons he loathed Robert Charles
"What if I know? What are you going to do?"
"Are you saying you know?"
"Maybe."
"I think you're lying, but I have a way to find out."
Robert Charles called Stevie and the others over. They were all standing in front of him. He wrapped his arm around Ryan’s throat.
"Now, Stevie, or Ryan, or Scooter, whoever, I'm going to find out where those chips are right now, or Ryan will become a bloody mess and can join Matthew in Inferno hell for all I care."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Douglas slowly got the twins to talking. He gave them a little bit of food and water and told them his story. When he finished, he slowly learned how the twins ended up on Inferno.
The lower class had been visiting the crew spa and the wading pool. It was the best way for the little kids to get some time there. Even though they were not quite ten, the twins often wished they could hang out with the upper school kids like Matthew did. Their parents squashed those desires, saying they were still too young to be around the older boys.
After finishing in the spa, Ethan and Logan got dressed and headed back to their cabin. The class wasn't going to meet again until after lunch. They were heading for the elevator when the ship shook and they heard a roaring sound. Then the alarms went off and the red lights came on. They followed the path the lights lit up, just like they had in the drills, and got to a shuttle.
A crew member met them and helped them board. Crew members were assigned to shuttles, but smoke and fire had blocked the way for many of them. The crewman who met them had been off duty. There were three other crewmembers in the cabin plus two in the cockpit. The crewman at the airlock saw smoke rolling down the corridor and shut the airlock. The shuttle shook from the force that struck it. The pilot blew the explosive bolts and the “Sundancer” was knocked free of the "Starkeeper", dropping them out of warp.
The crew could see that the right wing was damaged as was one of the rockets. They looked for more shuttles and listened for a locator signal, but detected nothing. They discovered later that their radio receiver had been damaged.
Two of the crew members went out on a space walk and repaired the damaged rocket. One of the crew members was an astrogator and he quickly discovered the sun that Inferno orbited. They set a course for it and engaged the warp drive, which wouldn’t run out to full speed. When they found Inferno, the crew did another spacewalk and gave the “Sundancer” a full inspection. They also set to work repairing the receiving antenna and immediately picked up a weak locator signal from the “Moonduster”. The signal came from the surface of the planet.
The astrogator found its location and decided to land there. The “Moonduster’s” radio transmitter was dead except for a weak locator signal. Unlike the receiver, they couldn’t repair it.
The crew members did another space walk and repaired the broken wing so it would unfold. Lorinda, the female crew member, strapped the boys into the back of the galley, saying the back of the shuttle was the safest place to be for a landing. She left two bottles of water with them and told them not to leave their seats until they were told it was okay. Then they started their landing.
It seemed to go okay until the damaged rocket started sputtering. The uneven thrust made the “Sundancer” hard to control. The stress broke off part of the damaged wing. The pilot knew the shuttle wasn’t going to clear the mountain and he had to land it right away. The only place they could find was the small plateau where it crashed after they scraped the side of one of the cliffs.
While the twins weren’t cognizant of all the details, they did know that they had to land or crash into the side of a mountain. They figured they had been on the ground for three days. They were certain they would never be rescued—after all who was going to find them? They were careful with their water, but had run out that morning. Then, when they thought they were going to die, Douglas and Mike found them. Douglas, as well as the young twins, knew that their being found was a miracle. For Douglas, it helped make up for losing Matthew in the desert.
Douglas told the twins that their problems weren't over. He informed them that his group was lost and he and Mike had found the wreck only because they went out on a scouting expedition. But they were surviving. He told them about what Matthew thought he saw and they were trying to find the patch of green. Nobody knew what the horsey was. Matthew was dead and couldn’t tell them.
Now all they could do was to wait for Alex to return with the sled to take them back.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Robert Charles had his arm wrapped around Ryan's throat. "Tell me where the chips are or he’s fucked!" Robert Charles was getting desperate. He didn't plan on injuring anyone, but he hoped he would scare somebody into talking. Ryan didn't know that though, and he was shaking so hard he thought he would faint.
Warren knew what Douglas had told him. If he had no other choice he had to reveal his secret. Well, he had no other choice now. He stood up and said, "I know.......," but he never got a chance to finish. He heard a loud thunk, and Robert Charles dropped to the ground on his knees, holding the back of his head.
"I knew there was a reason I played baseball," Jeremy said. He and Alex came running down the hill. They had come around the rock and seen what looked like Robert Charles strangling Ryan. Jeremy picked up a large rock and threw it, knowing he had only one good chance. His aim was good, and the rock plunked Robert Charles on the back of the head.
Before Robert Charles could recover, Travis, Brandon, and Stevie sat on him until they could tie him to the side of a sled.
Ryan gave Jeremy a ton of hugs and kisses. The old roommates were both crying.
"I wasn't going to do it," Robert Charles said. "I needed to know. I just needed to know."
Everybody ignored him. Jeremy was the hero of the moment and was getting all of the attention. Then Scooter remembered what Warren had started to say.
"What was it you know?" he asked Warren.
"Where the chips are."
"Huh? You do? Did Douglas tell you?"
"No. I hid them myself," he said with a big smile.
Then he told his story. Douglas had given him his key card and told him how to remove the chips and lock the compartment. When everybody walked up the hill to the trails, he stayed behind and took the chips out of the sleds. Then he walked up the hill acting like he was very sick, but was going to come up anyway.
"You mean you didn't really faint?" Travis asked.
"Nope, but I think I faked it pretty good," Warren smiled.
When Robert Charles said they were going to go, he told him he wanted to go with him. He wanted Robert Charles to know how sick he was so he wouldn't start getting suspicious of the time Warren was alone. He got scared for a moment when Robert Charles almost started figuring out that the only person who had been alone with the sleds was Warren. But, he was quiet and shy and small and he seemed so helpless that Robert Charles never suspected that Warren was the one who took the chips.
Jeremy gave Warren a big hug. "Looks like we're both heroes now," Jeremy told his best friend.
"Where are the chips?" Alex asked.
Warren took them to the big rock. Douglas had noticed a hole worn away on the side away from the path. Warren reached in and pulled out the chips. He handed them to Alex with a broad smile on his face. Warren hadn't felt this important in his entire life.
Now all they had to do was wait for Mike and Douglas to return. Scooter kept sending out thoughts, but so far he hadn't gotten an answer.
It was Stevie who saw Mike first. He was alone. Scooter felt his heart sink. Was Robert Charles right about Mike? He had predicted Mike would come back alone. Were Robert Charles and Mike both their enemies, but in different ways?
"Where's Douglas?" Scooter asked as he ran up to Mike, skipping any greeting.
"You know where he is," Robert Charles yelled. “You keep thinking I'm the enemy. But it's him, your precious Mike, who’s the enemy."
Mike saw that Robert Charles was tied up and knew something serious had gone on. "Douglas is okay. He's up in the hills. We need a sled to go get him."
"Is he hurt?" Scooter asked worriedly.
"Nope, far from it." Then Mike told them all what they had found. Alex started up the single sled before Mike finished talking. Scooter and Mike jumped in with him and they went crawling up the path. Scooter left Travis in charge.
Riding the sled didn’t take too much longer than walking had. When they arrived at the wreckage, they left the sled and climbed up the hill and on to the small plateau. Douglas and the twins were lying in the shade sleeping. They were all naked, and Scooter wondered if something had gone on between them. He found out later that Douglas had taken his clothes off because they were dirty and smelly. He convinced the twins to do the same to start saving them from wear and tear. Besides, being naked was more comfortable.
They loaded the twins on the sled along with the bottles of water. They found just a little bit of food that wasn't spoiled, but the water was the most important. Douglas looked back at the crash site. If we ever survive this, he thought, somebody would have to come back and bury the brave crew who brought Ethan and Logan to them.
Alex slowly backed the sled down the path. It was even slower than going up, but he got them back safely. The entire group heard them coming and met them at the fork. They made Ethan and Logan feel welcome. Mike went to microwave some warm supper for everybody.
Douglas glared at Robert Charles. Alex, Mike, and Scooter had filled him in about the chips, his near attack on Warren, and his attack on Ryan. They told him about how Robert Charles was going to take the sleds and probably strand the four scouts without water or transportation, no matter what he said. Then came the kicker. Scooter told him about how Robert Charles had been stealing water, especially from Matthew.
"He dies," Alex said. "And I'm more than happy to be the executioner. He is dead. As of now."
"No," Douglas said. "Nobody dies. At least not so we are the killers."
"You can't let him stay with us. We can't trust him for a second," Mike said. "He is evil. I'm happy to help Alex kill him right here and now."
"No," Douglas said one more time. “That’s not what we do.”
"Then what are you going to do?" Alex asked. "Let things go as they are?"
"No, we can't do that, but I won't let you guys kill him. That would make us worse than he is. You’re right though, we can't keep him with us."
"Then what the fuck do you plan on doing???" Alex raged. He was getting angry with Douglas. This was the time for Douglas to show how tough he was, and here he was being wishy-washy and indecisive. As far as Alex was concerned, dying was too good for Robert Charles—that he didn't deserve to live.
"Call the group together. Get the twins, too." Douglas commanded. “The twins are part of our team now.”
They were all near the sleds. Robert Charles was tied to the nearer sled. Douglas stood a couple of feet away from him.
"Robert Charles has betrayed us," Douglas said.
"Bullshit, and you know....," Robert Charles started to say, but Douglas put his foot right into Robert Charles's crotch and pushed. Robert Charles grunted and then shut up.
"Robert Charles has betrayed us," Douglas said again. "I'm not going to go into all the leadership crap and what happened to Ryan. That was bad enough. But the most precious and valuable thing we have is water. We need it to stay alive. We all rationed it carefully, even though we hated doing it. We gave Matthew more than the rest of us because he was hurt and sick. We knew we needed to find what we were looking for before the water ran out. We all knew that every drop was a treasure."
Douglas peered at Robert Charles with fury in his eyes. "You stole the most important thing we have. You took our life. You drank water when the rest of us did without. Every day you stole from us. And worse, you took it from a boy who was hurt and sick. You are the worst human being I have ever met in my life. I can't even begin to imagine how you can stand yourself. You disgust me. I give you the only water you deserve."
He walked up to Robert Charles and, like Alex had once done, he aimed his cock at him and peed in his face. Then he spit on him and stepped back. While Alex had humiliated Robert Charles in private, Douglas had just done so in public. The twins looked at what was going on not knowing what to think. The whole affair was scaring them—they thought their parents might have been right in keeping them away from the big kids—they were crazy.
Robert Charles sat in the sun covered with piss and spit. He felt like puking.
"Robert Charles, do you have anything to say before I decide what is going to happen to you?"
Robert Charles spit on the ground. His mouth had the taste of piss in it. "Yeah. First I don't know why I bothered trying to lead you guys. You're worthless faggots. A bunch of queer cowards. I knew if you followed me you would survive. You aren't even worth my pissing on. And as for your precious water, Matthew wasn't worth saving it for. He was hurt, sick, was gonna die, and was slowing us down. I was doing you a favor."
Jordan turned, doubled up his fist, and whipped it across Robert Charles's mouth. A trickle of blood came out of his mouth, mixing with the piss already there.
"RC, I kept thinking maybe you could have been somebody who could help us survive," Douglas said in an angry but controlled voice. "You could have done so much for us. You could have been a good leader. Instead you robbed us of what we need to live. You abused your power. You threatened and bullied us. And it goes back to the start of this trip - from Mars on.
"Some guys here want you to die right here, right now. They want you sentenced to death. But Alex is right, dying is too good for you. And killing you would make us worse than you are, if that is possible.
“Here is what I'm going to rule. This is my decision and mine alone.” He gave Alex and Mike a glance. “You had six bottles of water in your stash. They are yours, and are six more bottles than you deserve. If we hadn’t found water on the ‘Sundancer’ you’d have none at all.
“Your shoes, your socks, your pants and shirt, they are yours. Your backpack is yours. That's all you get. I am exiling you from the group. You are on your own. I am ordering you to go down the hill and not return. Alex is going to untie you. He and Mike will escort you for the first mile. They will watch you walk away. We can see you from up the trail. I am going to warn you not to follow us, or I might end up listening to Alex and Mike." He picked up his backpack and pulled out the two laser pistols. He handed one to Alex.
"If you try anything on the way down, I'm sure Alex won't mind using this one bit."
Alex grinned and nodded yes.
"And if anybody ever sees you near us, you will be shot. It will be shoot first and ask questions later. I don't have the guts to kill you, RC, but I don't think Inferno will be shy about doing the job. You have your six precious bottles of water and your two feet. Good luck."
Douglas turned and walked away. Alex and Mike untied Robert Charles and handed him his clothes, but didn't let him dress or clean himself up. He was led out naked and covered with piss.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was too late in the day to try going up the mountain and follow the route that Alex and Mike had laid out. Douglas said they would need to post two guards. They set up a watch schedule for two hours at a time. Douglas kept one gun and gave the other to the guards. Scooter and Douglas took the first shift. Alex and Mike had a later one. The night was calm and they started up the trail right at dawn.
The sleds climbed slowly up the hill. They were back to thirteen boys. They still didn't know where the valley was, if it even existed. They had 100 extra bottles of water and two young boys they needed to learn about. Douglas was sure he did the right thing exiling Robert Charles. He didn't know what Inferno would do to him. He couldn't see him surviving in the desert with little water or food, and no shelter, or even clothes. But somehow he had the feeling they hadn't seen the last of him.
Ethan and Logan sat in the trailer sled. They were alive. But the older boys seemed strange and different, just like they did on the "Starkeeper." They looked at each other wondering what they were in for now.
Next: Chapter 27 Green Horsey....Horsey Green