The Journey (Continuation)

[Zazoo]

Cliff rolled down his window, "Need a lift?"
"Nope." The man continued walking.
Slowly easing the truck forward, Cliff matched the man's pace. He looked down at the cowboy boots. "I can't imagine hiking in those is very comfortable. You sure you don't need a lift?"
"Yup"
Cliff hesitated, staring ahead. The road was long and remote, and the man was ill prepared for a hike of any length. It also wasn't clear where the man had come from. He was walking in the same direction as the truck, but Cliff had not seen another car on this road all day - parked or otherwise. There weren't even any hiking trails along this stretch of road. Looking back at the man he was about to ask him to reconsider when he was distracted by movement in the forest. Cliff's blood ran cold. In among the trees there was a clown.

[Lazerblade]

"SHIT!"

"What in Sam Hill are you yelling about now, Marge?" Joanne hollered back down the hall. Irritated, she stood up and began making her way toward the back of the house.

"What the hell did I just say?"
"You said 'Shit!'"
"Exactly. Damn dog hasn't been outside all morning, and he finally decided he couldn't hold it no mo'," Margaret stated with obvious disgust in her voice. "That little bastard is getting to be too much work. Maybe I should just get rid of him once and for all."
"Cliff wouldn't like that very much," Joanne stated, knowing that Cliff had thought the same thing not too long ago. She'd seen it in his eyes when Roger, the old hound, had limped away from a fall off the back of the truck.

Marge- "Where is the little fleabag anyway?"
Joanne- "Check the basement. I heard some noise down there a bit ago."
Marge and Joanne met before the basement door, glanced at each other, and looked down the dark stairs. Marge reached over and flipped on the lights. With a teasing flicker, the flourescent bulbs blinked on, seemingly struggling to maintain light in the damp dungeon beneath the house.

"Well?"
"Well what? He's YOUR dog, not mine!"
"Technically, he's Greg's dog, but Cliff raised him cuz Greg wasn't ready to be responsible. I never wanted the damn thing. One more mouth to feed and one more series of messes to clean up- no thanks! Whatever, I'll go first, but you're coming too!"

And with that Marge took a step down into the basement, hesitated, grabbed the flashlight from the utility shelf, and continued down. Joanne followed her down, but not without reservations.

"Roger! Where are ya, you stupid dog! You left a mess upstairs I want you to get a good whiff of before I clean it up."

Sweeping the light back and forth, Marge searched the floor for signs of the dog. He always hid after shitting on the floor. Nowadays he struggles to climb the stairs, so he usually heads down hear instead.

"You smell that?" Joanne suddenly whispered.
"It's the house. It's old. It always smells down here," Marge barked with obviousness.
"No. I know the house is old. That smells like copper, and your water lines are iron."

Rounding the corner of the old storage cabinet that marked the separation of basement and workshop, Marge sniffed the air. Both women could tell something was wrong. As Marge swept the floor with the light, she noticed a pool of something on the floor. The light over here was off. There was a pull-chain wrapped onto a hook at the corner of the cabinet.

Marge gave it a yank, and Joanne screamed.

Splayed across the workbench was an assortment of parts- dog body parts...

[BOBK]

"Tiara, this is Bluebird...what is your status...over"
tifa-tifa-tifa-tifa "Bluebird, this is Tiara, we are two clicks from LZ...we will..."  woop-woop-woop ", "INCOMING...INCOMING...MISSILE DETECTED...TAKING EVASIVE... [-BOOM-]

"...Bluebird-Bluebird, we are going down...repeat, we are going...........................!"


"Tiara, this is Bluebird, say again" - "Tiara, this is Bluebird, what is your status?"

"Bluefly, this is Bluebird, do you copy?"

"Roger, Bluebird, we copy."

"Bluefly, Tiara has apparently gone down just North of your position...Bluelight is 2.5 clicks east of you, en route to the crash site.  They are being held up, due to small arms fire in their vicinity.  Can you assist?...Over"

"Roger that, Bluebird.  Bluefly will proceed to the crash site.  GPSX Coordinates - coming up now."

"Copy, Bluefly, Bluebird out"

[Lazerblade]

Barry awoke with a sharp pain in his side. His vision was too blurry to make anything out at first, and the pain in his head hadn't quite subsided from the truck wreck.

'This is turning out to be quite a day already', he thought to himself.

Reaching down to remove whatever was jabbing him in the side, Barry felt cold steel and a sticky wet substance. He pulled his hand back after slightly moving the steel, and found his entire hand covered in a mix of blood and mud. Closing his eyes tight to try and force them to re-focus, he peered down at his side.

His shirt was covered in blood, but only on one side, and he could breathe fine. Then he noticed something in the mud. The blood wasn't his. A severed arm was buried deep in the sludge, only whitish fingers breaking the liquid surface...

[Zazoo]

(Lazerblade: Barry's already out of the truck wreck and back at the LZ waiting for the helicopter with a military unit  )

[BOBK]

Barry recoiled in horror, and felt a little queasy.  He looked around, and immediately noticed the sky was a strange hue of mostly purple, highlighted with green.  He crab-walked backward, away from the muddy display.  A figure began to come into focus, in the distance.  Someone was walking toward him, out of a foggy haze...a purple haze.  It was an angelic looking figure, in a long, flowing white robe.  As he stared in utter amazement, the figure began to come into focus.  It was Patrick.

His appearance was such a relief, and it brought a deep sense of peace to his troubled soul.

As Patrick glided closer, he stretched his arms out, in an unmistakable gesture of welcome...beckoning Barry to come to him.

Barry attempted to get up, but felt too weak to do so.  As Patrick reached out to help him up.  Looking down at Barry with a loving, smiling, beaming face, he said,"Roger Bluebird, he's coming back to us."

With that the angel about to rescue him from this nightmare instantly changed into that of Lt. Miller.

"Can you get up?  We have to move, now!"

[Lazerblade]

(Edit: This situation could still have happened, albeit in a different manner. Tiara could have been inbound to the LZ and close, while Barry and his "rescuers" could have also been inbound and close but not quite there. The wreckage of the chopper could have theoretically impacted close to where Barry's group was located, resulting in an explosion and twisted metal, thus the steel in his side and the severed arm.)

[BOBK]

If the Admins erased it back to that post, I'd go along.

Its all good!!

P.S.  I'm sorry that I haven't done very well in the humor department yet...there's still time though!

[Lazerblade]

(So, can we get a quick recap on who's who, who's where, and what the general situation is?)

[Lazerblade]

(Slackers)