by Robert Lyon
At the landing Brosuers in crowd was starting revile.
Atrisia would put her face right in a sleeping survivors and face and start yelling like it was the second day of bootcamp, more than once the responses she got was being shoved down and told, “Shut up bitch!” Brosuer looked at her with disappointment and said, “How about just waking them up.” The next group she went to wake she kicked sand in their faces, Smity and Casley walked over to her as that group started to get up dismayed as to why they deserved that and they shoved her down. Smity said,
“Just wake them up, get your damn panties out of your ass and quit being such a bitch.” Atrisia yelled back, “I don’t have any panties. Jeff Hubbal sat up and said, “Because you couldn’t get the birdy cartoon character out?” Atrisia replied, “They were a
gift and my family hadn’t considered that those may be the panties I die in!”
Artimus was in his lean-to waiting for the yelling to stop, he had to pretend to be unaware or he be expected to react, if he didn’t then it would be seen as condoning the behavior. Artimus stepped out of the pentagon as soon as the yelling subsided for a minute or two and made himself appear to be distant and in deep contemplation. He glanced over at Chief Casius and said, “Have them form up.” Casius said, “Okay...get in ranks!!” Em3 Villa said, “Chief some of them we can’t wake up, they might be sick.” Casius replied, “Just form up.” The captain stood chin up as casius looked over to see if he had heard it, seeing no sign of recognition she said, “Sir, some…”Artimus interjected, “…‘Just form up’ will be fine chief.” As they formed ranks the captain glanced over and gestured as he said, “Tighten it up on the left.” and he checked to see that the ranks had formed to his satisfaction. Then he clapped his hands and rubbed them together and announced, “Okay, we have some work to do today. We need to get these walls up and get some sentry positions going…some watches…” and with a big congratulatory smile he continued, “to watch for our rescuers.”
He began to walk the ranks first row pacing back and forth as he said, “Our rescuers will need the reassurance that we have maintained ourselves as a military unit and that their heroism is matched only by our ability to survive these adverse circumstances.” Artimus glanced out at the ranks hoping to see bold smiles in response to his assertion that rescue was absolutely on its way. Instead it was blank stares and shock, He continued, “I have been through the ranks to reach the position of captain, I you can be sure I know a little something about navy operations, the delay in our rescue is indicative of ongoing
operations that implicate this region. I expect you to be vigilant for rescue or hostiles. Given the recent political climate the possibility that our ships loss was due to an adversary it far from impossible though it does trend in the direction of drug cartels operating in the waters of southern California and northern
Mexico. I would not expect an assault team to find us, but rescue is eminent.”
Chief Brosuer stepped up and said, “Aye sir.” Captain
Artimus strolled over to the surf and starred out at the water as the chiefs continued morning muster. The Junior officers had been standing in the ranks but recognized their cue and went to join Artimus at the surf. Ensign Clarkson stood there with her khaki shirt of and a white tee-shirt, her khaki pants were stained at the knees as well as at the crotch she asked, “What’s the political climate sir?” Artimus responded, “Bad things happen all the time, the waters we were operating in before the loss of the ship were non incidental, so it wasn’t a regular force.”
Swishzel said, “Sir, I don’t think we were attacked, we had an odd list for days. We were going to have shipyard divers check on once we were back.” Artimus replied, “The point is, the rescue is delayed because of ongoing operations.” Lees stepped forward and asked, “What about the water sir?” Artimus asked,
“Where did it come from?” Chief Casius, walked up in an irritated state and asked, “Permission to dismiss the crew sir?”
Artimus replied, “Put them to work chief” and gleamed a smile at the junior officers to signal them to present as happy and confident. Spayner replied, “I’ll help you chief.”
Spayner stepped up to the ranks, her khaki shirt was open and her tee-shirt was sheer, the breeze teased her blouse and hair, she had a streak of dirt on her chin and her khaki pants were rolled up to just beneath the knee. With a flick of her dark
brown shoulder length hair she said, “Okay, let’s build these walls and set some guards.” She put her left hand on her hip and turn to her right, glancing back at the ranks to her left she said,
“We need to know where the water came from, so’s we can get more. That is all turn two.” Atrisia still barefoot walked up to
Sputali, still enjoying the breeze blowing through her hair and up her pant legs. Atrisia said, “An engineer brought the water through that hole in the brush.” Spayner had a wide smile from enjoying the breeze and had her head cocked back, she glanced over to Atrisia and said, “Show me.” Atrisia had short blonde hair that for a woman could only be referred to as ‘military style’ she ran her right hand through her hair and cocked her head to the left in a leading gesture and loosened a couple of buttons on her shirt as she turned to guide Spayner to the break in the brush, Atrisia had given up her tee-shirt so the unbuttoning revealed her bra and what cleavage a ‘b’ cup could produce. Jane Spurtlai noticed the gesture and leaned over as they walked toward the brush line to whisper, “Maybe you should leave that buttoned you don’t have much going on down there.” Atrisia looked back at her with a stunned goofy smile to which Spayner responded, “I’m just sayin’…you know woman to woman.” Atrisia laughed and took her dungaree shirt off completely and replied, “Let’s keep the woman to woman stuff going” and winked at Jane. Jane pointed at an opening of the brush line and asked, “So…over here then?” and before she received a response she blurted out, “Okay, thank you.” Atrisia called to Jane as she hustled away, “Ma’am have you seen my panties?” To which Jane responded, “No, thank you.” EM1
Haydel said, “Is that them with the birdy on them?” pointing at various tee-shirts and pants hung on a bush. Atrisia responded,
“Doesn’t matter.” Charlie MCcree was nearby and said, “Mine
have a pink heart on them, used to be red but they faded.”
Hauldbalm sitting next to her added, “Bite marks too.” Atrisia looked over as she went to gather more sticks and rolled her eyes.
Capt. Dave Artimus stood with the remainder of his officers discussing the situation. Dave said, “I’m not going to have our rescuers show up and discover we have failed to be officers, we’ll maintain leadership and prevent any hostilities from developing amongst the crew. The ‘pentagon’ as they have been calling it will be our symbol of fidelity, confidence, and hope. They’ll need leadership and a logo to follow.” Mr. Capes had been standing bent at the knee cradling his stomach and just collapsed to his knees, “Sir,” he said, “I need food.” Dave replied, “I was told they were making a fishing net, just hold on.” Clarkson asked, “Who?” Dave replied, “The same bastards that got us into this.” Spayner had returned from her walk with
Atrisia and heard that statement and said, “I don’t understand?”
Dave replied, “The D.O.D. deputy that brought all this hell on us by declaring martial law over some snow.” Ens. Swishzel asked, “They did this?” Dave responded, “That was why we needed this mission, to regain some damn credit with our superiors, but don’t say anything about this to any of them.”
Bruce Deckly glanced at Mormus sleeping in the sand and then at Mulner and mulner blurted out, “Fucking enlisted.”
Near the pentagon they were still arranging bush and sticks interweaving them as best they could to make a wall, when Ens.
Mulner was overheard saying ‘Fucking enlisted.’ Chief Brosuer looked over at her and said to himself, “They lose the fucking ship and she has the balls to say that.” Haydel heard her as well and despi
te Brosuer speaking under his breath to himself she had heard what he said as well. She sarcastically blurted out, “Well,
you know they’re all going to be admirals now.” Brosuer looked down at the sticks she was weaving together and said, “Don’t weave those any looser because of that; they won’t want us looking in, but I don’t want them looking out.”
Mulner saw Haydel looking at her with a glare and Mulner was heard saying, “We should courts martial them.” she was seen putting her hands and her hips as she said that smileing confidently and proudly at Artimus. Artimus seemed displeased that she said that a volume that could be over heard and he gesture to her. He was seen appearing to saying ‘over here’ as he and Mulner walked closer to the surf to further drown out their voices. Brosuer was still tring to lip read them in shock and
Mulner eventually turn and in a somewhat drowned raspy female voice he heard her say to him, “Get to work chief!”
Brosuer then strolled over to Master chief Hauldbalm and sat down with him. Mulner seeing this appeared enraged and started walking in his direction in an authoritative stride but Artimus grabbed her arm and could be heard saying, “This is what I am talking about!” Mulner brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked up at Dave with a look that seemed to be a spoiled daughter looking at her father in dismay as to why she was being chastised about the maid not having done the dishes. Clarkson folded her arms and glanced over at all the enlisted gazing in their direction and looked embarrassed. For some that was sufficient that resumed their activities. For others their look of disbelief continued, for them this was finally the proof of what they had suspected all along, petty motivations fueled by a sense of entitlement. And now it was that character that had landed them in the middle of the ocean floating on their backs for an entire week, only to be washed up on some would be princesses
new kingdom and she wasn’t the only one that seemed to regard herself that way.
Francesco had heard what was being said and glanced over at gunner’s mate Smity nearby he was preparing to post a watch he laughed at Francesco and said, “And you still have to respect them because there are certain realities…for example Sweden stays neutral, you know that right?” Francesco said, “Ya.” Smity asked, “Do you know why?” Francesco said, “They’re peaceful people but they stay uninvolved when it looks weak to stay out of the wars.” Smity chuckled and replied, “That’s what I’m talking about; because, I have no idea where you got that idea.
Sweden stay’s neutral and we acknowledge that and don’t try to pull them in to wars or police actions because as a government they are neutral…but as a people, they have been providing mercenaries to the whole world for hundreds of years now; and you thought they were weak idealist pacifists”
Monica Villa joined Francesco and kissed him on the cheek as the three of them gathered brush and wove it together for the pentagon walls, just after Monica kissed Francesco’s cheek
Smity Said, “There you go, just handle what matters and let the officers handle the rest.” Monica asked, “What were you guys talking about?” Smity interjected, “Nothing.” to which
Francesco added, “Just building a wall.” Monica said, “Ya, this is bullshit.” Smity said, “Ya, I know…but I’m still a second class so let’s get it done.” Smity walked away and Monica blurted out, “What an asshole.”
Francesco said, “At least were doing something.” and
Monica watched him weave the stick together and said, “Ya… you better not be a lazy bastard when were married.” Francesco scoffed and said, “I won’t be.” and Monica blushed.
I had scoured the island on the Eastern side and found a couple of logs; soil erosion had taken out the trees root system. I looked for any rock I could use to attempt to hollow out some of the trunk, but knew it wasn’t absolutely necessary. So instead I started winding some rough plant materials together to form a rope, I had taken the fibrous brown material from around the base of the palm tree and it occurred to me we should be making the fishing net of it as well, it was tougher and more sturdy, the palm fibers were soft almost like silk. After making a short section way too short to actually use, but none the less proved it possible to make rope from that material, I knocked the log down the small cliff side it was on and carried the other down to the beach and dragged the over to our work site. Tommi gruble stepped Out from behind a bush pulling her pants up, watching me drag the logs; I didn’t smile because of the look of shock on her face, instead I looked out at a crashing wave and watched the curl collapse and noted how blindingly bright out it had become, must have been the glare off the sand. Tommi came up and said, “A boat?” I said, “Our fishing boat” she smiled with a huge grin and took the smaller log. I smiled back and realized I hadn’t smiled at first seeing her, she was relieving herself in a bush and I had startled her coming from further down the beach in the opposite direction then she had expected and the shock lingered, when she asked, ‘a boat’ she was hoping my answer would be that I had seen a boat, and not that the logs would serve as a fishing boat but at this point the phrase ‘any news is good news’ is true.
The pentagon walls had gone up and no one from the landing had ventured in our direction, we would soon be delivering three vases of water simultaneously leaving ourselves with one. Double rations for the work crew just seemed right.
The work crew was gathering more wood for the fire which had been maintained religiously. The size of the fire in the circle of lean-tos now also walled off but four walls and a fifth wall the was more of a thicket forming an arch was to be reduced to a much smaller fire to prevent those walls from catching fire.
Artimus instructed the officers to have the enlisted coat the wood with mud to further reduce the chance of a ‘surprise your fort is now an oven, turkey!’ moment.
The ‘blue shirts’, enlisted pay grades E-6 and below, were dirty and getting dirtier still as they carried mud over to the pentagon and threw mud pies at the walls like hippie protestors.
Hudlow made a little smily face out of his mud pie and showed it to Lieutenant Capes and said, “It’s you!” then throw it at the woven twig wall and just as he turned to give Mr. Capes the middle finger capes slapped him so hard Hudlow fell down and the Robert Capes said, “James, get your head out of your ass.”
Hudlow looked away from him lying there in the sand and turned to look at the ocean waves but once again there he was…the sand spider. Hudlow started sweating and shuffled away on his back then ran around saying, “There’s spiders everywhere!”
Robert said, “I think he just likes you James.” and walked back into the pentagon. Atrisia stood with a pile of mud in her hand she was considering throwing at James and then thought she might have a better target. She scratched at her crotch and looked around, Ebony Allick made eye contact with her and just before Atrisia could tell her to screw off Ebony gave her a sly look and reached down her dungaree pants and scratched at herself as well. Atrisia nips got erected and she turned and threw the mud pie at she wall as hard as she could then rubbed her shoulder saying to herself, “to bad I don’t like black girls.”
Ebony had come up behind her while she was rubbing her shoulders and started rubbing them for her and whispered, “I don’t like white girls either.” Mister Deckly noticed the apparent sexual context of the situation and had been observing the work, concerned over the hostility and the sudden onset of lesbian lust he blushed and walked away.
EN3 Rich stepped up near Atrisia and had a hand full of mud himself, and said, “Throwing it that hard looks like it really works, it got into all the gaps.” He held out his hand with the mud in it and asked, “Was it wetter than this?” Atrisia suspected double entendre and looked at it, in a hazey melo demeanor she replied, “It’s about that wet, but might be stickier.” Ebony giggled and pulled Atrisia away. Rich threw his mud at the wall hard enough that there was a thud. Orbly walked up and in a rant he started making mud pies from a cache of mud he had placed in his dungaree shirt that he carried
like a bag over his shoulder he dropped it on the ground and packed mud like snowballs as he threw them yelling, “Fucking island…Fucking
Officers…Fucking bitches…” Mulner saw this and she became enraged and ran at Orbly to tackle him as she knocked him down her bra broke and he grabbed at her breast tring to subdue her, she yelled, “You just tore my bra bitch!” Orbly grabbed a had full of mud from his shirt next to he and slapped her with it. In the shock of the moment everyone observing that saw the mud splatter in slow motion and the range of facial expressions that crossed Kimberly Mulners was surreal, shock does that…slows thing down because it has sped you up. She looked down at orbly with mud splattered in her hair, she realized she was straddling his chest and all her anger over the circumstance overwhelmed her, she reached over for a handful of mud as if she were at her desk reaching for an ink pen and was going to
set to work, she took the mud and with an odd psychotic smile and twist of her head started packing handful after handful of mud into James Orbly’s face James clawed at her breasts and
Kimberly rode his chest like a mechanical bull, ensuring she got mud into his mouth and up his nose. Once James recovered from his rage he realized she was trying to kill him as he spit out mud and wiped it from his eyes and he struck her as hard as he could in the left temple. Kimberly was knocked unconscious and
Orbly threw her off of him. As he assessed the situation he became enraged again, with both hands he grabbed her by the neck and started dragging her down the water to the surf, leaving a wide trail in the sand.
Mr. Deckly had been observing from a distance on a slight slope leading up to the brush line, he passed out where he stood.