Having gotten some high protein bars in them and lots of water from the dogs, Barett and Utah take Tsai Lee and go down into the Refuge camp. It was about an hour before sunrise when they walk up on the camp from the dune side. The place was absolutely filthy, garbage and waste scattered across the make shift sand roads. To Barett it was like a " Burning man" that had gone on to long. Near the center was a small hand dug well, with a long line of people waiting. This seemed odd to Utah as the river was less than a half mile from the camp. The people in line were emancipated and dirty, they stared down at the ground, a lost in space look. From what people they could get to talk to them, they found out that the "Empire" had occupied the city, poisoned the river by releasing methane gas into it, and drove the inhabitants out here to starve to death. Deciding that making their way to the city was the only way out and needing to cross the river in a boat, Barett and Utah head back to the " Doggies " outpost and look for the way the small patrol made it from the city to the " Camp ".
The small medical pack Barett had taken off one of the dogs and given to Tsai Lee coupled with the food and water, had brought back her strength. The fever had broken and she was able to travel on her own now. Having lost her sword, Barett gives her his Gurki to use and a MP5 rifle, she just slings the gun over her back, and carries the large knife in hand. With the sun just coming up they are able to pick up the Dogs trail and follow it back to the river. The shore line is covered in bull rushes and vegitation, the river is brackish red and the heavy smell of methane gas is nauseating. Barett can see why no one is drinking the water or swiming across. They find a small landing spot where the dogs were coming in and set up a L-shaped ambush. Barett at the point Utah on the bend and Tsai Lee at the end. If it wasn't for the slapping of the waves on the bow of the patrol boat IBR, with help from thier hyper hearing the replacement Dogs would have surprised them. The boat was super quiet, no motor sound, no mechanical whine, but still quick and agile, this was top of the line OPs equipment. The Black boat pulls up and three German shepard mixes jump to the shore before the boat has stopped, forming a line they start up the bank thru the bull rushes. They are all wearing modified gasmasks, and carring the latest generation of submachineguns. Not wanting the group to seperate Utah opens up, dumping his whole magazine into the first three, at the same time Barett drops a full mag at the four left on the boat, and Tsai Lee does the same. The cross fire is deadly, the ambush classic in execution, Baretts bullets catching all four of the dogs on the boat, slamming them down. Utah gets a nice volley off to catching the point group completely off guard. Tsai Lee on the other hand, is not so good with the gun, it bucks in her hand and goes wild, punching holes in the boat, and spraying the area, barley missing Utah and Barett. After some clean up shots and thoat slicing by Tsai Lee they are able to get to patching the holes up with what ever they can find. Barett finds that doggie fingers fit nicely into bullet holes, and stops up most of the leaks. Taking a minute to gather ammo and weapons, don over their clothes the Black ops uniforms of the dogs and finding that the Gas mask the dogs were wearing help stop the nausea from the methane gas, they prepare to head up river to the Airport on the far side of the city.
Heading up river and to the bend where the other tributary feeds into the river, this part of the river is clean and the odor is gone. Seeing that the City is quiet except for the random military humvee, or transport they sink the boat under the first large bridge and sneak into the city. Finding an abandon hotel a mile or so from the airport they rest up for two hours letting Tsai Lee get some needed sleep. She is doing much better now, and is able to move on her own, even keeping up with Utah and Barett when they aren't running. What ever the Dogs put in their med packs is really good stuff, Barett needs to check this stuff out when they get back to base.
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Black must have been the “in” color of the season. Everyone was wearing it. Even the club’s walls were covered in long black thick silk drapery. But black or not, the place stunk of wealth; there was no doubt about it.
Coming up the flight of stairs, Rick discovered the place had one serious sound system, as the acoustic wave hit him and Carla. The second thing that hit him was the heat. It felt like the air conditioner was broken. But that wasn’t slowing this crowd down. The dance hall was more than a generous dance floor; it was an enormous pulsing psychedelic mixture of bobbing bodies, flashing LED panels, and lights color-coordinated into sections. A three women vocalist group held absolute control over the massing group of dancing bodies as they sang flawlessly into old fashion mikes on a stage in the middle of the room. They were joined by a band of five who provided the very quick drum beat, two lead guitars, a base guitar, and a funky piano. The music was such that it locked and energized the crowed into collective bouncing wave of humanity jumping with each snap of the drums.
The room was sweltering to a point it was uncomfortable. Clothes on the women were skimpy, the music was chest-vibrating loud and the whole of the crowd was glossed and lacquered. A giant golden chandelier dominated the center of the room and shook with each thud of the dance. It sent out a golden glow upon the three women singers and the dancers around the center stage. Everyone was jumping like mad, acting as if they were lost in some hypnotic primitive and frenzied pagan blood sacrifice.
“Oh! Senior Rick, YOU WILL LOVE THIS! WE ARE JUST IN TIME!” Carla shouted at the top of her voice in order for Rick to hear. “THIS IS ONE OF THE COOLEST THIS YOU WILL EVER SEE!”
Cool was not the right word to be used but Rick could barely hear what she saying. “WHAT?”
“THE CROWD DANCES AROUND LIKE MAD!” She yelled back at him and then said something else but it was lost in the dim and she gave up trying to tell him. Carla’s face just lit up in a zealous smile and she grabbed his hands and pulled him into the massing throng, jumping around madly to the beat in a crazed dance. She kept pointing at the ceiling for him to look.
Rick joined in the wild dance and looked up to see if he could figure out what she was trying to point out. He could make out what looked to be VIP skyboxes made of LED glass that had occupants inside looked down on them. But the room was too hot for him concentrate. With the suit he was wearing he started to sweat heavy. He tried to stop dancing but Carla wouldn’t let him. People were pressing in hard on all sides as the mass of dancers continued their relentless fervor. He didn’t get this. Incredibly sexually, yes. Fun . . . yeah, but how could they keep this up dressed as all the men were anyway in very nice suits? Carla sure seemed to be enjoying herself even though she was also starting to really glisten. No one showed any sign of slowing down. In fact, the beat of the music quickened, (if that was even possible). This was like no club Rick had ever seen before. It was like a black and golden lit fire room of a sexy dungeon.
Then to the spontaneous roaring delight of the crowd, blue siren lights blared to life and the music stopped. A fog from the ceiling formed and dropped on the cheering crowd like a sheet being thrown over a bed. The fog was freezing and the temperature dropped a good 30 degrees in seconds.
Pins and needles galore! Short and sexy little Carla had launched herself, arms, legs and all into Rick’s un-expecting embrace, squeezing the living stuffing out of him. Then she grabbed his head and planted a very solid kiss on him. It looked as if she wasn’t the only one doing it too. Couples throughout were doing basically the same thing.
Then, on mass the kissing stopped and the crowded erupted into another deafening cheer. Carla, still cling to Rick with her legs wrapped around his midsection, let go with her arms and punched the now chilled air. She joined the rest of the room in the screaming celebration. It was like nothing Rick had ever seen.
The music started up again, this time much, much slower, and people began to mill about more than dance and talked excitedly about what had just happened. Many headed downstairs to the bars for a much need drink.
“What the hell was that?”
“They have liquid nitrogen nozzles in the ceiling that fills the room with that freezing fog. It’s the dancers and crowds job to get the room hot enough for them to release the freeze. Wasn’t that just amazing!? We couldn’t have timed it better!” Carla kept on talking as she attempted to guide Rick to the left wall but something else grabbed his attention.
“Hey handsome,” someone placed a hand on Rick’s shoulders. “You want to come up with me?”
The voice was low and melodious and is sounded as if the owner was rather amused and quite sure of herself. Rick stopped at the pressure on his shoulder. His senses screamed danger. Carla stopped too and looked back.
With the hand still lightly on his shoulder, the owner swung around to reveal herself. Rick’s knees felt as if they had just turned to jell-o and his innards had just upped and left. The woman standing before him was astonishingly young and slender and above everything else he had ever seen, good-looking! She had sheets of blue-black hair that hung around her olive-brown heart-shaped face and enormous dark eyes. In contrast to Maria, who had the curves that made her what Rick considered the perfectly voluptuous figure, this woman had none of those bends but nonetheless she was one insanely salacious and incredibly stunning woman. Her age, her animal roots, her human origins were all impossible to pinpoint. But one thing was for sure, she was so attractive that it hurt to look at her.
The woman’s finger trailed down his lapel. She was wearing a simple metallic gold color dress, if gold could be considered simple, with elegant white high-heel shoes.
“Who do we have here Carla?” the melodious voice sang out.
“He’s a friend of mine, Miss Angorian,” Carla replied back slowly. Rick could hear the stress in her voice.
“Of course, if he is your friend then . . .” she didn’t end her sentence. But she did step up very close to Rick; very, very close. With her shoes she was almost as tall as Maria. Her standing this close was causing strange feelings trigger all throughout his body. It was almost as if painful sparks of lightening were shooting out from her body into his. She lifted her hand and played with a lose strand of hair that had come out during the dancing. As she was doing this Rick was franticly trying to find the gun at his back but he couldn’t get his hands in the right spot to find it. Everything about this sybarite screamed danger and he was powerless to do anything about it.
“This one could cause a lot of gossip in town, Carla. I would lock him up and hide him if I were you.”
She lowered her hand ever so gently to wipe away a sweat bead that was forming of the side of Rick’s head. At the same time she turned her head and smiled at Carla. Then she was gone, lost in the crowd of people.
Rick was still in shock. It was almost as if when she had first touched him that she had somehow paralyzed him. He was coming out of it fast to find that he hadn’t moved his hands after all. Was there such a poison that could instantly render a victim motionless? He would have to look into that later.
“Come on lover boy.” Carla said as she defensively grabbed his hand again. “It’s a good thing I like you. Inferno, I hate that woman. We better find your friend and get out of here.”
She guided him off into the crowd looking for Maria, Rick still in a bit of a haze from whatever that woman had done to him.
Paris, he was coming to find, was full of surprises.
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