Africa ( the resolution in the land of HAM )

Barett and Utah didn't expect to spend the next 5 days walking across the desert. The girl was suffering from an infection and could use more water and rest, and some good medicine. Barett and Utah were taking turns carrying her, walking at night and sleeping during the day. By day six Barett wondered if Tsai lee was going to make it, they had come across a small dune, just outside of the city Utah had plotted out for them. Down at the bottom was piles of new cars, fountains and the trappings of modern life. But there was no one, no gas in the cars, not one living soul. Truck tracks showed that people had been coming and going, but no one stayed. Deciding that this was to off and creepy they borrowed some nice robes, and crept over the hill in the dark. About halfway down Barett slips on the lava rock encrusted dune, making a loud racket. Hearing movement above and to the left of them they dodge just in time to miss the volley of bullets sprayed down on them. With only limited rounds Barett and Utah return fire and then rush the position a mere 30 feet away. Three " Dogs of War" troops were dug in, keeping an eye on the refugee camp down in the valley below. The destination for Utah and Barett, but now they were fighting three well armed and rested German shepard mixes. Barett makes six good shots and drops the first, but he is left with only two more bullets. Jumping into the mix he makes straight for the second guy, striking him with knee kicks and fists to the throat, dropping him and only taking some minor damage. Utah manages to quickly take down the third guy, and quickly secures the large covered fox hole they were hiding in. Finding that no one else was around, they dragged the bodies back into the foxhole and took their water and rations. Stripping the weapons and radio off these guys and getting some short rest they head down to the refugee camp.

Images of the Brothers

I have been working creating images of the Brothers. As I complete one I will post it to the blog. Work was all done in Photoshop CS2. Images I selected were taken of different actors I felt partly embodied the coontail brother's personality and look.

Utah Blaine Coontail



Barett Coontail




Rick Coontail



Dave Coontail

Paris

This was the most action that Rick had ever gotten in his life, and that was saying a lot. What worried Rick was that he guessed that Maria was the type of woman who could just up and leave him one day without a second thought. Of course he was the same way. She had been around a lot of men and she knew how to use their weakness. He guessed she was doing it to him now but it was so hard not to give in. He was sure he would lose her fast if he wasn’t careful. This hot, fast, and dirty relationship was the sure fire way of her getting board with him. He knew he couldn’t be clumsy and assume that she liked it like a man liked it, even though she was the one instigating it fast and frequently. Rick was sure she was doing a lot of this to please him. But was it a game to her? Well, he decided, it didn’t really matter if it was or not. He had time now and he also knew how to put on the moves. It was his turn to see if he could make her melt.

The train bounced sideways as it flew over a slightly uneven section of the track. Rick took the moment to take control. He grabbed her roaming hand and pinned it against her body. Then in a blur of movement that years of martial arts training had given him, he grabbed her whole body, pulled her in close and did a leaping-spinning-thing with her, pinning her under him against the wall of the train and the bed. He smiled wickedly down at her and began a lengthy make-out session. It developed aggressively but playfully, kissing intermingled with some nibbling and soft biting on her lower lip and earlobes. It was at least a 30-mile tease. Then he moved to her collarbone and kissed her slowly, working his way from her left should to the middle. He mimicked the movement with his fingertips on her right shoulder then stopped just short of the “hot zone” in the middle. Rick continued to tease her slowly by touching and kissing her everywhere but the place he suspected she wanted it to the most. This was his battle to test his skill in the art of seduction and love making. He kissed her neck again, moved right and nibbled her ear and then engaged in deep, wet kissing while he ran his hands all through her dark red hair.

He could tell he was having the desired effect as she shuttered again in his embrace. The foundation he was going for was to force some mischievous stress on her and then begin to telegraph anticipation while taking the stress away a bit at a time until she was relaxed and enjoying the experience. Now that he had built up the moment, he rolled away and waited. It didn’t take long. Maria, the exotic Spanish beauty that she was, pounced. He let her do whatever she needed, but it was impossible for him to not enjoy it too. Afterwards they slept well for a two hours.
Maria woke to find Rick sitting on the floor with his shirt still off, his back to the cabin door, his gun in pieces, and a dopey smile on his face.

“Good morning beautiful.”

“Good evening to you too.” Rick said as he moved his attention away from the gun barrel. “It’s not morning anymore. It’s almost seven o’clock at night.”

“I know; it’s just something I like to say when I wake up.”

“You sleep well?”

“Fabulously! You?”

“Like a baby.”

“Um, why do you do that?”

“Do what?’

“You know, clean your gun all the time. Is it like an obsession for you or something?” There was a hint of criticism in her voice.

Rick looked quizzically back at Maria with one eyebrow raised, not able to tell if she was talking about him actually stripping down and cleaning the components of his guns or if she was making reference and teasing him about something else.

“No, you dork!” She said after a few seconds of Rick staring back at her. She reached back and threw her pillow at him. “You know what I am talking about,” she said as she pointed to the gun parts scattered at his feet.

“Oh. Well, in that case it is something that my ‘Pa’ taught us when we were young and is a habit I always do. He would always say, ‘Having a good firearm carries a number of responsibilities with it. One of the most important is to care for it. If you don’t properly care for your gun it gets damaged and ultimately performs no better than a giant paperweight at the moment you need it.' Anyway, guns are simple to clean and it only takes a few minutes so there is really no excuse not to doing it.”

“Will you teach me how then?”

“Sure thing; come sit down here.”

“Is that Xochi?”

“Is this what?”

“You know, Xochi, my gun you bought for me. I call her Xochi.”

“You named your gun?”

“Sure, it gives her personality.”

“OK then. ? No this one is mine.” Rick said as he wondered about her sanity while he reached into his bag and pulled out her H&K P30 9mm. “Here’s Xochi.”

“Great, what’s first?”

“Well, the first thing you need to do when you take down a firearm is to make sure it is clear and safetied. You need to automatically drop the magazine before you go any further. So if there are live rounds in there you are assuring there are no more to be feed into the weapon. From there, we retract and release the slide with enough force so if there is a round in the chamber it will come out. When it comes back you use the take down lever to lock the slide to the rear. Then you always do a physical and visual check to make sure it is clear.”

“You always check it both with your finger and your eyes? It seems a bit redundant.”

“I can’t tell you how many times my uncle Floyd would ramp me on the head when I didn’t. But now I am in such a habit that I just do it without thinking. It’s a good practice.”

“I can see why. You don’t want to go and shot yourself.”

Rick gave her a wink. “Or your buddy sitting next to you. Bad things happen when you combined lazy with thoughtlessness. Anyway, when you are done with clearing and safety-ing your gun you are ready to break it down. See that lever on the front above your trigger. That is the takedown lever. You turn it to the vertical position and then retract the slide back and then forward, sliding it all the way off. Inside you can see the recoil spring and guide. Take these out and put them to the side. Now you grasp this unlocking lug on the bottom of the barrel and lift it up and out thereby taking the whole barrel out of the slide. The last thing you do is separate the recoil spring and guide and the gun is done. But it isn’t considered field stripped until you also strip the magazine too.”

Maria followed Rick’s directions as he demonstrated with his own gun. They reassemble the guns and practiced a few more time until she found she could do it quit easily.

“What’s next then?”

“The magazine. After taking all the shells out, you hold the magazine upside down with your thumb on the back. Taking a tool like this, you press the depression down and then slip out the floor plate and use your thumb to hold and control the spring tension inside. You take out the insert, remove the spring and then flip it over and let the follower slip out. Easy, right? Now your weapon is totally field stripped.”

“You make it look so easy.”

“Well, it takes some practice to be able to do it fast but there isn’t much to it.”
The train’s PA system chimed into the cabin followed by a friendly female voice that announced: “Mesdames et messieurs, nous arriverons bientôt à la station de Gare de Lyon.” (Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon be arriving at the Gare de Lyon train station.)

“We are here already? Wow these trains are fast.” Maria said. “A trip like this back in Bolivia would have taken at least two days.

Rick stood and raised the shutter on the cabin window. Early twilight was upon the old gray stone buildings of Paris. A few lights were one in the district the train was passing. Narrow cobblestone streets raced past the window revealing the densely populated area. They were clearly in the heart of the city.

“Looks like it is time to clean up.”

Maria just stared out the window in amazement. Rick could tell she was excited. He cleaned up the guns quickly by himself and put them in his secure bag. Then kicking the other bag they had used to get through customs back in Sete to the door, he turned to see Maria still staring in amazement at the city as the train pulled into Gare de Lyon station.

“Come on cuttie,” he extended his hand to her as the train came to a stop. “Let’s go have some fun.”

“What are we going to do first?”



She was almost like a little girl in a toy shop. This was her first time to be in a large modern city. They had only skirted London when they came in from South American and never really saw any of it. Malta and Sete had seemed big to her but this was Paris, “the city of lights!” Even though her home back in Bolivia had almost a half million people in it, it was a poor place that had been through too many wars and revolutions to have anything of a history or infrastructure that presented itself as these old European cities did. Paris was solid and stable. It was Europe that allowed animals to be co-equal to humans and here they were living together side by side without the enmity from the empire hanging over them.
“Well, I am thinking you want to do some shopping. Then we can get dinner somewhere nice and then hit the clubs. What do you think?” He asked as they walked down the train’s narrow hallway to the exit.

“Wonderful. I know just what I am looking for!”

They stepped off the train onto the huge station platform. Purplish pink twilight filtered in through the massive metal trusses and giant glass skylights. The architecture of the station was early 19th century, the same as the Eifel Tower. Masses of people milled about the place. Maria tugged at Ricks arm.

“Rick, I really need to use the restroom. Will you wait here for a minute?”

Rick looked over to the side of the building at the small line of women waiting to do their business. “You know that is why men rule the world don’t you? We can hold it longer and are built more efficiency than women in dealing these types of delays.” He joked.

“Oh, really? And you want to debate that?”

“No.”

“Besides, I need to clean up and it is your fault anyway.”

“Moi?” Rick fake acted as innocently as he could but Maria was already ignoring him and jogged off to stand in line.



But this was a good distraction for him. He wandered around for a few minutes acting like an ogling tourist as he scoped out the station. Satisfied with what he found he sat down on a bench near the restrooms and waited. It was longer still before Maria returned. He figured the station was an excellent place to see if they were being trailed. He took the bag that had been searched by customs, there wasn’t anything of real value and it anyway, and subtly slid it behind the bench, hiding it out of sight. With the bait set, he commenced to pretend a cat-nap. The five more minutes he waited seemed more like fifteen.

“Hey, you ready?” Maria prodded him with her foot.

“Très bien, Mesdame.” Rick smiled.

He grabbed his one bag he knew was clean and then headed for the exit with Maria’s arm linked in his. But just before they took the escalators down, Rick surreptitiously stirred Maria to the left and guided her over to the heart of the station. There up a staircase and facing the rails was a fancy restaurant called “Le Train Bleu”. The windows from the restaurant had a commanding overview of the train platform. The restaurant, like the train station, was also built in 19th century flamboyance and grandeur.
The place was busy but with an expensive tip, Rick and Maria were seated next to a window looking over the platform.







“Rick, I recognize this place.” Maria said in a hushed excitement that one usually reserves for religious fervor.

“Really, where?”

“This is the same restaurant in the movie “La Femme Nikita” where she shot the Asian tourist and then ran to the back into the men’s room to get out the little window. I’ve seen that movie a dozen times and I am sure this is the same place.”



“Huh. I never saw it but I guess it could be.”

“Esto es tan maravilloso.”

“I am glad you are having a good time.”

Rick enjoyed Maria’s exuberance as she turned into a Spanish chatterbox of joy, talking how exciting it was to be in the same place that she had only experience vicariously through the television and movies from back home. There were a hundred and one things she wanted to see and do. The dinner was pricy but the atmosphere and the food were well worth the expense. But it wasn’t all fun and games. Rick continued to run surveillance out onto the train platform, watching the bag he had left hidden under the bench. Maria was too much in her excitement of the place to realize what Rick was doing. It was something she would have to learn if she was going to be successful in the business but for now, he let her have her fun. He was glad she was having the chance to loosen up and enjoy herself.



Besides, maybe things were OK and he was just being paranoid.

The City of Sete

The City of Sete lay off in the gorgeous morning in the horizon. It was late morning now and the Mediterranean Sea simmered in the glowing sun light. Sun glasses were a must.

With his large gray duffel bag full of goodies at his side (including a special silver briefcase that need to delivered by Monday morning in London) and the camera case swung over his neck and shoulder, Rick turned the boat around, pointing it back towards the open blue turquoise sea. He lovingly stroke the boat’s controls one last time. Then with a punch of the figure on the computer screen, he activated a timer. Sad really, it sure was a beauty of a boat and he wasn’t past stealing it. But he was busy and didn’t have time to figure out how he could pull off the job scot free.

A timer began flashing on the monitor as it started to count down from five minutes. He had programmed the boat’s auto-pilot to take the craft south, south-west after the timer reach zero. The timer would reset for five hours and then the controls would lock into 10 degree turn. The yacht would go in circle until it ran out of gas or someone found it. He had also left behind a nasty little computer batch file designed to delete everything on all the boats computers after 7 hours. What happened to the multi-million dollar yacht after that was anyone’s guess? More than likely some coastal guard patrol would pick it up and trace it back to Sir Norton Larrs. Not that Rick thought he deserved a boat this grand. He was hoping the illegal drugs would get Larrs busted.

Rick left everything on board as was, minus the clothing Maria took, the food they ate, and the money he used for fuel back at Secca Grande, Italy. Oh, and minus one inflatable raft with an outboard motor. With Maria’s help, the two had pulled the raft out of storage and prepped it for the short ride into Sete.

With a final check to make sure everything was clean and working, Rick grabbed his bag and headed down to the back of the yacht, sliding down the railing with exuberance that is usually displayed only by those with youthful innocence.

But Rick had good reason to be happy. All had gone well yesterday in St. Paul’s bay, last night through the lonely dark of the Mediterranean Sea and now this cloudless Saturday morning off the coast of France. Yacht or not, Rick had one smoking-hot bombshell of a girl to share company with and a job, with said ‘hottie’, pulled off without a tag-a-long ride with Mr. Murphy.

He was happy, more than the fact that the job had gone well but happy with the reality that Maria had been an equal partner. Rick liked that about her because most the girls he knew would end up being an extra burden, liability, and ultimately a problem if he took them along. But Maria was not only beautiful but as Rick had learned, she was a handy companion to have with him. She was tough, a quick learner, and unafraid to get her hands dirty.

Dropping down to the back of the yacht, Rick tossed his duffel bag into the waiting raft. Without a second thought he abandoned the ultra expensive yacht. Rick cut the mooring rope with his tanto and Maria started up the outboard motor.

The ride into Sete took less than twenty minutes. Maria drove as Rick kept his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. Arriving at the port, they took the small raft around the sea wall and towering light house and then headed up into the harbor. Sète, sometimes called "the little Venice of the France," due to its numerous canals and quaint neighborhoods, had seemed like a great place to come inland onto the continent. Rick wasn’t disappointed with his choice. There was no security of any kind that he could see as they moved up past the large industrial docks at the edge of the city. They were moving against a steady flow of the fishing vessels heading out to sea.

Passing the harbor where the larger ships are moored, the two worked their way up
the waterfront until they passed under the first bridge and entered the city's canal system. Colors from the buildings reflect brightly in hues of red, orange, yellow, and slate in the blue morning water of the canals.

It took passing under three more bridges until Rick finally spotted a empty space for Maria to dock the raft on the right side of the canal. Small brightly painted boats choked all sides of the canal. There were so many of these "Venice-type" boats that Rick was beginning to wonder if they needed to turn around and head back to the industrial docks.

Beyond the wall of boats were narrow roads running the length of the canals. The roads were only a foot or two higher than the waterline. Just on the other side of the narrow one-way roads were the cities historic buildings all five to six floors tall covering every inch of the waterfront. It reminded Rick of floating down a river in the narrows back when he was a boy. The buildings were squeezed so close together that the only hint of one building ending and the next beginning was the difference of paint color. Sete really was a lovely city and Rick found he was beginning to like the place.

That was until Maria brought the raft up to wall. Rick noticed some late morning café patrons watching them a little too closely. He stared back as he jumped out and secured the raft to the short wall. The patrons continue to gaze in their direction.

Wondering why they were drawing attention, Rick looked back at Maria as she grabbed her bag and jumped out to join him. Realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Damn, you’re too good looking, Maria.”

“Why thank you my water prince. You’re not bad yourself.” She said as she mischievously slapped him with her tail.

Rick cocked his head in a gesture to point towards the people at the café.

“Oh.”

All eyes were looking at the two.

It was obvious that the people of Sete had a dark complexion while both he and Maria were much fairer in comparison. This alone made them stand out. But Rick also assumed they were getting the eye because both he and Maria were attractive. He often found women ogling at him and he had the bad habit of sticking in their minds at times he wished he could blend better into the crowd. Maria was the same if not so much more! She was too damn attractive. And that was the problem. "Attraction" attacks attention. She really stuck out in a crowd! It is like a movie star walking into a room full of ‘mere mortals’. People tend to notice things like that, just as these people were noticing them right now.

“You think we should do anything?”

Rick thought about making a scene of it by having Maria go over to the group of breakfasters while he took pictures. But then he thought better of the idea.

“Just smiled and wave at the nice people”.

The two waved and called out a greeting in Spanish knowing it was the wrong language. They turned quickly and headed up north along the canal road.

“Let’s not make a scene if we can help it. I would like to get rid of this package as soon as possible.”

Fortunately, the street they were on was somewhat busy. A number of European compact cars with their wimpy engines and low gears raced noisily up the one way street. Rick looked back a few times to see if they were still being watched. He looked back at Maria. Maria’s jeans and white tank top she was wearing weren’t helping any. And the perfect roundness of her breast were awfully distracting. He slapped himself mentally and looked around again. He could see other people along the road seemed notice them too. Maybe there was something else he missed?

“I wish we would have come in during the night; Fewer eyes to hide from.”

“I think you worry too much Rick. What are they going to do? Call security because they saw two foreigners get out of a boat and walk up the road?”

“I hope you’re right. I just get a little tense when I am doing a job. I think I have been around Barett too long. He sees daggers in every shadow.”

Ten minutes later, walking along the canal side of the road, Rick and Maria crossed over to the west side and then turned down a small side street named Rue Colbert. At the end of the street they found a quaint little park and adjacent hotel. This was close to the main road circling Sete and seemed a good place as any to try to contact Barett and Bridget.

Maria went into the hotel to order some foot while Rick crossed over an intersection to use a public phone. All he had to do now was call Barett and let him know where to find them so he could pick up the package and start his leg of the mission.

What could go wrong?

L. in A.d. ( The confrontation )

Barett's plan, at least the version he could come up with in 30 seconds, is to get out of here and find Utah. He is trying to pressure these locals to let him move out of the building, he needs room to move, get a sense for what is going on. From what he can deduce from the elephant and others is that there is a rivalry going on in town. The two groups argue and fight over things and have divided the town in half. They are afraid to leave the village because of the Predators at night, and are fighting among themselves in the village during the day. No real blood has been spilt yet.
Barett moves out in to the small plaza in the center of the village, right next to the odd church. Trying to excite the villagers and make a lot of noise, in the attempt to find Utah. He brings the group right to the edge but they won't go further, stopping just at the halfway mark. From across the town the other group has assembled, two large crocadile bipedals are at the center, one holds a large caliber revolver, the only gun he has seen so far, the rest hold tribal swords and the like. Out of the big building on the southside, steps Utah, surrounded by six others. Barett is a little surprised to see him in the opposite camp, but it looks like from the way they are acting that they hired Utah for the same purpose as Barett, to control the whole village. Shouting insults at Utah, he tries to incite a riot, so that he can escape. No luck on that, just as things start heating up a large hippo bipedal steps out from a small hut, his priest like robes wrapped hastily around him. He starts calming the villagers down, " My brothers, my brothers. " he says. " Please calm yourselves, there is no need for violence, please stop." His large presence and charisma calm the crowd, he speaks in tones of love and the like, very convincing like. If Barett wasn't such a hardened solider he may have believed some of it. The elephant drags him away from picking a fight with the Hippo, and back to the large distillary. The building is really a series of interconnected structures, maze like in its configuration, one addition connected to another. He stills thinks that burning this whole place down may have been the right idea. The elephant leads him upstairs to a large, well decorated room where an old man sits, surrounded by lackies. This is the real leader, he questions Barett about a few things then summons a strange old women from the shadows. He didn't notice her before and gets a strange vibe that she is all trouble for him. The old man asks her to read the future about Barett and the other stranger. Before she even pulls out her bag of magic crap, he butts in.
" Look I'm trouble and death for everyone around me." He says with as much grit and menace that he can muster. " That other mans my brother, my twin brother. I can take him, and you.." pointing at the old man. " Will rule this village, is that not what you wanted ? " The old man nods at Barett then waves his hand at the Witch. She throws some bones with writing on them on the ground, and spits in her hands, mumbling something to herself. She looks up at Barett and then to the old man. " He will betray you, he is dangerous. " she snarls between her rotting, black teeth.
" I told you that I'm trouble, but I will do my part, I will shoot this man." says Barett.
The old man looks him over and the old witch, then over to the elephant.
" We can't do anything till dawn as long as the priest is here, we will wait till then, find him a comfortable room to rest till then." and motions for Barett to leave.
On his walk to the room Barett finds out that the village makes a alcohol that is picked up from men that come in trucks about once a month, another 3 weeks away. The other group on Utah's side of town grow the grain they use to make the alcohol, there has been some problems in the past. Then the Hippo priest came in, then things settled down, but the old tensions are still there. The Priest is an outsider, someone they think was sent by the people who buy the alcohol. But none of these things really matter to Barett, right now he is going to get some needed rest, at lest for three hours.
In the morning, having slept with his hand on his gun, he marches right out to the plaza. " Hey you ignorant, slob come out and fight me. " He screams at the top of his lungs, towards the other big house. Utah steps out not long afterwards with a Girl Barett recognizes, Tsai Lee, the swordwomen. The two crocs are with him also. Barett keeps yelling at Utah and pointing to his chest where the armor plate is, signalling him to shoot him there. Just to get things started Barett shoots the croc with the pistol in the head. It was a clean shot and he drops where he stood, this agrivates the other croc and he lunges at Barett. Utah commands him to step back, but he still goes forward. Hitting Barett in the shoulder with a tribal sword ( well more like a machete ). Utah fires at the same time hitting the croc and killing him. Barett falls back and lets the body of the croc fall on top of him, faking death.
This event causes the whole crowd on both sides to go wild, and a massive riot rolls out through the whole village. Seeing an oppertunity to leave Utah grabs Barett, swings him over this shoulder. " He is one of mine, I will do what I want with him. " He yells, as they approach to tear Barett's body limb from limb. The Hippo priest is trying desperately to restore order but the whole thing has turned into one big bar brawl. Being ignored for now Utah starts walking out of town, Barett over his shoulder and the girl in tow. Barett whispers," Lets get some food and water before we go, maybe start some fires on the way out." Utah agrees and sends Tsai lee to start some homes on fire, as they grab some food at the little shop by the gate.
Barett learns from Utah that they had Tsai Lee tied up in the basement, naked and tortured. She had been sent on a mission almost 4 weeks ago that had gone wrong, and she was left here. They gave her to Utah to work for them. Clothed and with a tribal sword she walked with them out into the desert. Barett knew she was trouble, he was just hoping it was the good kind of trouble.

L.in A.D..The village

It was right out of some 1970's National Geographic magazine, right down to the fuzzy lens shot, there sat the small village. The red mud walls about ten feet tall, small one man look out towers unevenly spaced along it, the out line less a geometric shape and more a exageration of the natural roll and twist of the small valley it was sprawled in. Larger than it looked from the distance, the village contained several large buildings, multiple entrances and one large church like complex in the center. On the west side were several large fields and stock yards, and a large gap between the towers along that wall. The strange thing to Barett was that this village did not show up on any of the intel maps he had seen, or even a hint of one on the map he now carried. By now it was almost 2:30 in the morning, things were pretty quiet, almost dead in the village.
" There are no incandescant lights in this place." whispers Utah to Barett, " That just ain't right, all the lights we saw are lanterns and fires, best to not disturb the locals. I say we sneak in on the west side into the gardens, check the place out."
Barett agrees, the plan being to throw rocks at opposite sides to distract the guards and jump over the wall in the middle at the darkest spot. Barett goes first, swinging over the wall and into the gardens quietly. Utah makes the jump good but catches his foot on a wooden grape vine support, breaking the wood, the shaking grapes, making a loud noise. Running through the garden to the church like building, they hear the beating of metal drums, a warning cry goes up through the whole village. Managing to sneak into the large church building and climb the small tower, Barett can see dozens of people gathering along the wall. Strangly they stay on either side of what would be considered the middle of the village. After some cursory searching the two parties start arguing with each other. Deciding that this distraction would work well for cover, the brothers start to sneak over to the largest building on the north end. They leave the church, at least thats what they called it, more like a cross between a buddist temple and a country cathedral, with a large fat hippo statue at the head, behind a podium. They make thier way almost two hundred feet before popping around a corner, only to scare a small child. Instantly it screams, that high pitched, nails on chalkboard, but higher decibel level, death scream. As he is running towards the large building, people start streaming from the small huts along the way, Barett thinks, ' where did all these people come from and why do they even have metal drums at all, this kid is better than a air raid siren ? '
Diving through the makeshift window on the wall closest to him,in to the largest building in the village, as two seperate groups converge on him. Barett finds himself in what appears to be a large, medevil design but operating, distillery. Large wooden barells, charcoal stoked fires, tubes and vats. Thinking that his last flash/boom grenade in here would make a great distraction, he contemplates blowing the whole thing up. Looking around he notices that Utah did not come through the window with him, he is no where to be found. 'Where the hell is Utah' thinks Barett. Heading for the door on the east side he is confronted by villagers with farm tools, spinning to the west he can see a large elephant at the head of another group. Slowing down enough to realize that killing all these people is a bad idea, he waits for them to make the next move, slowly lowering his rifle and waiting on them.
The large bipedal Elephant speaks in a think south african accent, difficult to understand when added with his bad lisp. " How did you get past the predators, how did you get in ?" Barett finally makes out after the third time. Seeing that none of them are carrying guns, but tribal swords and spears mixed with farm tools , he relaxes a little more. " I killed it with my big boom stick. " Says Barett loudly, shaking his rifle in front of him. " Nasty little bugger, quick as hell."
"You killeddd de Predetor, You kiillleddd de nasssty ?" Spits out the Elephant surprised.
"Yea, I killed it." says Barett throwing down the metal dart he took from it.
The whole crowd goes hush, as they look back at Barett then the dart.
"You work for me, do job. " says the Elephant, all excited now, Barett can tell he is not all with it, a bit slow. " Be big man, much good, Silver bars in it for you, food, women, what you want?"
" Sure " says Barett, " lets do it now, who do I need to kill?.....where is the target ?"

Lost in African Desert

The cool night air moving across Barett's arm, lazily draped out the open window of the beat-up 68' camero, was the most comfortable thing that had touched his body in the last 48 hours. The open desert was dark and quiet, the dirt road, if that is what you wanted to call it, more of a rut through the red dirt and low weeds, meandered mostly straight ahead, to the south. Utah Blaine sat next to him, almost unseen, all decked out in black combat gear, a subdued skull in camo painted on his face. Utah kept tapping the fuel gauge on the dash and swearing, the needle dropping faster than even this lead sled should comsume. Barett eased back in the seat, inhaling deeply, the stench of stale tobacco and spilled coffee invaded his nostrils, the stolen camero had done it's job, gotten them away from the complete cluster failure of the mission drop zone. But now they were heading south, instead of north to the pick up landing, gas slowly leaking out of the old car, lost temporarily somewhere in the desert.
That would not be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact the radio's were toast, so much for high impact plastics. Ammo was low, lest than 80 rounds between them and seperated from the rest of the team. The twin brothers sat silently in the dark, waiting for the last drops of gas to push the camero as far as it could. Utah pulled it to the side off into the sand and weeds, the ground was flat and open with no real cover, letting it roll to a stop. Stepping out onto the sandy ground they stared at each other. "Lets keep moving south, most roads go somewhere, or past something. Perhaps we can find a radio or phone to get an extraction point out of here." Barett says, nodding towards the south. " I agree, nothing left to do but look for a place to hold up and get a line out." Says Utah Blaine, weary with the only option being to walk through the desert in the dark.
The walk goes with out excitement for almost two hours, the night sky not lending much light to the road they are following. Soon the dim lights of a small settlement shimmer in the distance, not very bright they seem more like fires than incadesant lights. Barett guesses that it could be 10 miles or more away, and suggests they keep an eye out, about two miles later they hear a scream in the distance. The scream and the unknown village, not on the intel maps, make them very cautious. After some time they come across the bloody mess of a gut pile. Searching the organs they appear to have been humanoid, and the large paw prints show that something came this way not long ago. Following the prints they come to a small ravine hidden by the shadows and rocks. Down at the bottom they see the remains of a goatman shepard, local sandals and robes lay bloodied around the pile of torn flesh.
They are just setting up to follow the tracks when two figures race toward them, one on each side of the ravine. Moving quickly on all fours the first throws a small, metal dart at Barett the second one at Utah. The twins duck and seperate, Barett to the left Utah to the right. The first tango ( unknown figure ) jumps at Barett. Swinging his rifle stock up to block the blown, and knock him down he makes a lucky strike right across the bridge of the nose, cracking the skull and killing him. The second tango moves away as Utah strikes at it missing. Barett takes a couple of shots with the rifle but he has moved to far away in the dark for any more shots to be taken. After some discussion they decide to heads towards the small village.