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 Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:07 pm
Keith knelt down and set Antonia properly on her feet. Just as she was about to start playing twenty-questions with Keith, something hit the ground with a large thump no more than five feet away from her. This forced Antonia to swiftly jump backwards into Keith's stonewall chest. She hyperventalated with fear at what she saw in the direction of the fall. It was large and hairy and it's face kept hidden within the silhouette of the massive trees from which it must have lept. It was crouched down in the darkness, but slowly got upright on it's feet. Antonia froze, but Keith was unaffected "Madre de Dios, Raul." Keith said to the beast "Would you quit wearing them animal skins? You're scarin' the kids." The figure stood up all the way and quickly caught a thin enough ray of moonlight to calm Antonia's breathing. "Ahahahaahahaaaa! The look on your face, senorita! HEHE HEHE hahaaahahahahaaha!" a huge bear of a man with a shoddy, unkept beard and an animal skin coat on his back belly-laughed "Priceless! Every time too! I never get tired of that. Ohh... Seriously though! Senor Rivers, I'm sorry!" Antonia felt Keith take her shoulders and move her to the side. Keith walked up and exchanged a quick secret handshake with Raul. Before Antonia could question his age, she was being shuffled along again. Raul picked up his rifle from against a tree and slung it over his shoulder. "Vamos, yanqui and kids." Raul whispered, to Antonia, Nali and a dizzy, dazed Felix's slight annoyance "Stay close, now." They resumed their trudge through the jungle. No footsteps followed them anymore.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:31 pm
The ground was a little less rocky than normal now and there were were short elevations every now and then which slowed Antonia, Nali and Felix's progress, but didn't seem to have any effect on Keith or Raul. The three of them had to fight to catch up, particularly Nali who had decided to take on the responsibility of supporting her almost fainted brother as they made their way along. The three were just coming over the top of a larger hill when they noticed Keith and Raul had stopped. Raul was standing near a pit dug in the ground. With something of a creepy smile on his face, he simply said "Si man... Come on down and join the fiesta!" Raul jumped up and into the pit. Nali quickly followed, carrying Felix on her back and Antonia was helped down the flight of dirt stairs dug into the side of the pit by Keith who stayed above long enough to close the door and follow them. Once the thin sheet of metal closed off the outside, the inner darkness of the tunnel was replaced by lantern light. Nali attempted to calm her now semi-conscious brother while he continually drifted in and out of his passed out state. While Nali whispered softly in spanish to stay awake, Raul came back through a makeshift door at the end of the tunnel and took Felix by the ankles. "Get him through here." the now serious jungle jokester said "The doctor will see him quickly." They quickly moved through the door made of individual strands of dry grass hung from the top of the opening. On the other side, several large men packing AK's and sporting camo pants and tank tops led the way to El Doctor.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:04 pm
Keith and Nali were led through the dirt tunnel until they came to an opening that led to a partially submerged room. It was long and wide and filled with medical cots, some occupied. Dead palm tree branches were stacked on top of a wooden frame which provided a sturdy, but in some places leaky, hut roof which covered the hospital wing. A spectacled man with a clean mustache and a white lab coat stained with what appeared to be mud quickly made his way toward the approaching patient. Immediately the questions came, in rapid spanish "Injury? Where's he hit? Has he lost much blood? How long has he been unconscious?" The spanish flew back and forth between Keith and the doctor for a few more moments before they laid Felix down on the bed. The doctor snapped his fingers and a tray table stacked with tools was brought over by one of the large men, while the other got a look at Felix's wound. Once he had finished the verbal barrage with the doctor, Keith led Antonia and Nali out of the room. He took care to shuffle them out quickly, lest either of them see that the color of the ends of all the tools were the same color as the stain on the doctor's coat. Nali was resistant to leaving her brother alone, but even she knew that there was nothing she could do for the time. Back inside, the doctor closed Felix's eyes with one hand and put a chloroform-soaked sponge up to his face with the other.
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:36 pm
Many hours later, Keith walked into the main chamber from the direction of the hospital. "How's he doing?" Antonia asked while clutching tightly the hand of the worried Nali. Keith nodded and flashed a quick smile "They sedated him and operated. He's sleeping now. Mostly they think he'll be all right." he said. This triggered an enormous sigh of relief from Nali and she hugged Antonia tightly before getting to her feet. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to see him for a while. He needs his rest." Keith was quick to remind Nali "I needed to talk to you two anyway. Now that the Royal Guard has seen you with me, if you show your face out there, they will kill you one way or another. I have to talk with my superiors, but when I get back I should ask you something. In the meantime Antonia, you should get some new clothes and wash up. The people around here are at your service, you two just ask for what you need." With that, Keith simply made off down a different tunnel than he came from. Nali and Antonia looked one another up and down and decided that after those miles and miles of trudging, a change of clothes would do them good.
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:16 pm
It was true, the crude form of escape from the Royal Guard they had been given had not done their clothes any good. Antonia's blue dress was soiled with sweat and dirt. Nali had sacrificed a piece of her blouse to bandage Felix's wound and there were small spots of blood just below her bosom from where his shot wrist was dripping. Luckily for them, a kind old woman who was walking the tunnel in their direction showed them where to go. In no time flat they were in a dead-end trench covered with palm fronds just like the hospital. Small changing rooms were dug into both sides of the trench and sheets of canvas protected the privacy of each. It seemed as though whoever ran this place had thought of everything. The old lady went to the end of the trench where a pair of ironclad trunks waited for her. "A new shirt for you." her kind voice, thick with accent, said "And an outfit for you. I'll even give you some shoes because you're so sweet." Antonia's eyes widened at the sight of them. Quality, factory-produced, hard-soled hiking boots. Antonia didn't even know that such things were available to the civilian population.
"Are you sure you can spare this? Cause you really don't have-" she asked
"Oh, nonsense dear. Your feet really need them. And we have more than enough."
Antonia eagerly took her new clothing and took a changing stall. But being more educated in such matters, Nali just silently shook her head, thinking Those things aren't civilian issue. Royal Order: code 395 says all resources that go into making those things are property of the Royal Guard. Nevertheless, she took the stall next to Antonia and switched shirts.
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:09 pm
After they finished changing, Nali and Antonia had nothing left to do but get some rest of their own. By now it was so late outside that it was almost early and their internal clocks were burning their consciousness out by the second. After finding the bunkhouse they both said their goodnights. They fell asleep at very different times. Nali was used to having her own bed and only sharing a room with her brother but Antonia, the lifelong farm girl, fell asleep like a rock. Across the tunnels, Keith met with the ringleaders of this subterrainean civilization. There were three of them in the room when he arrived. One of them was a fellow built much like Keith, though shorter. He wore a full set of fatigues and a red beret. On his face a thick and dark stubble grew, creating the image of a very rough and rugged man. The second one there was shorter and with smoke-grey hair. On his face there grew no stubble or beard but if there was one thing that could be used to set him aside from others, it would have been his eyes. Instead of color in either one, a milky swirl of light grey spread across them like pools. His obvious blindness gave necessity for the third man. A man who by all accounts had nothing special about him and blended into a crowd perfectly. The man with the suspenders and white shirt from the palace helped the old man from his seat and brought him toward Keith and the rugged man so that they all could talk.
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Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:57 am
The conference began between the huddled men. They began to speak of the recent state of affairs at the palace, which the suspendered man elaborated. "The Queen has seemed quite proud of herself as of late." he said "Her and General Salazar have been talking a bunch. I managed to pull a maintanance duty in the conference room next door and listened in through the wall. The walls were thick but I could make out enough to know that the details are hidden at several guard stations." Keith and the rugged man looked at each other. "Mmm." Keith thought and half-muttered "Maybe it's time I asked them."
"You want us to do what?" Antonia asked from her bunk early the next morning.
"Join the Resistance. It's the best way to avenge your family." Keith replied
"You have a point. And that's all I have been thinking of all night."
"So is that a yes or what?"
Antonia's mind flashed back for a second when he said this. In her mind, the bleeding heads of her parents looked at her from outside the truck. A silent rage toward the perpetrators filled her. In her stoicity, she simply replied "Yes..." Below her, Nali nodded and whispered into Keith's ear. He nodded and left the bunkhouse. Neither he nor Nali fully realized the seriousness of what had just transpired in their vicinity. Antonia's mind was set, and it seemed to her as though even the threat of death couldn't change it.
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Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:41 pm
The days passed quickly the next week or so. Antonia wasn't really paying attention to the time, all she had her mind on was her plot of revenge. And her first part of that was learning to handle her AK-47 which like pretty much everything else around here, Antonia had come to realize, was stolen. For the next week she was dragged around the jungle in a series of conditioning tests. Many times she fell behind and had to find her own way, but she accepted this as part of the experience and part of the ultimate plan. When it came to her actual firearms training, it was very simple. Just point and fire at a large burlap coffee sack filled with pig guts and learn to fire on the run. This and similar tests filled the hours between morning and night every day. In the course of a single week, Antonia was taught all the Resistance had to offer. The night of her "graduation" she was given a fresh set of stolen camo shorts and a tank top to wear in the military campaign that had become her life. Standing in the doorway of the relaxation room, she thought she looked every bit the rebel as the rough, cigar-chomping men and women clapped. Antonia sighed with pride, she was one step closer to justice. Many miles away from there, her brother Leo sat in his Royal Guard barracks. In his hand, a pistol engraved with the signature of the Queen. In silence he remembered what he had been given it for.
For demonstration of self-sacrifice in rooting out traitors to the government within one's own family.
Leo felt the steel's cold course from his hand to his veins all the way down to his heart. A tear appeared in his eye and he holstered the pistol.
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