Out of the Frying Pan... }{ Contest Plot, Bella

[Onas Knox]

Claira looked as scared as he felt, "Wait, What if we die from it?"

Onas looked back, she had a point. But God in heaven, what other option was there? They couldn't take six men on, not with but the two of them. No, this was it, she had to join him. "We die if we stay, we gotta jump," He said looking back to the group again. He looked her in the eyes. It was so poetic, he'd only met this woman a few weeks ago, how could she be here? Nothing in the verse made this right. Onas felt like he owed it to her to keep her moving, she had allready done it for him once, and now, he needed to return that favor. He nodded to her, and they stepped to the edge of the cliff. It was a long, long way down. They would have to get a running start. Onas backed up, and just as he was going to say go, Claira shrieked, "Wait!"

She stepped close to him as he turned to her, ran her hand behind his head, and brought her lips to his, and kissed him harder and longer than he could ever remember. He was speechless. Suddenly he forgot the murderous bandits, the death leap, the evil kidnappers. Like a candle in a window on a dark night. When she let him go, he realized he'd been holding his breath. she took his hand, and together, they ran to the cliff and jumped...

The first moments of the fall would take your very heartbeat. His stopped. At the apex of their leap, Bella's hand gripped taut as they're bodies ranged apart. He held her grip tightly. Onas couldn't breath, couldn't close his eyes, couldn't even scream in his mind. They fell, it seemed, out of nowhere. One moment, they were hovering in mid-air, the next they were plumeting straight down. Hurteling towards the lake below so fast that every scrap of clothing on his body stood on end, flapping in the onslaught of air and mist.

The waterfall was so close that it was cathing him in its spray all the way down. It was awe inspiring, the water fell at the same speed he did, which made the mist like a cloud of ice cold steam. I'm having a hard time explaining it, but that's how it felt. Like a cold misting steam that surrounded him in a blanket as he whatched the bottom soar towards him. Just before he hit, he caught a breath, his eyes were wide with terror, but he forced them closed. Then the crash.

Hitting the water at this speed, gravities full power, was like falling into pavement. His body slammed the water so hard that in opened like a mushroom. His eyes were forced open, and he sucked in water involuntarily. he sank so deep into the water, he didn't think he could swim back up. And when he thought he would sink no farther, the current threw him like a rock, swiping him from the dive, and rushing him through the lakes deeps.

When his body stopped spinning, he reached his hands out, and swam towards the dim light. He hoped it was up. He let out the smallest breath possible, and followed the bubbles, swimming with both hands, and both feet swiping through the water. Onas was a great swimmer, as he'd grown up in lakes and oceans, but he'd never swam with full clothes and a rucksack strapped to him before. It was an anchor, but he would rather drown than lose whatever was in the pack that others would have killed him over. Then it would have all been pointless. Onas saw light through the surface of the lake, he would make it! Then it hit him. Claira's hand, he hadn't had Claira since the water! He swam harder for the surface and burst from it like a whale, sucking in air, and trying to get his eyes cleared. 'She must be here!' Onas paniked. He circled round and round, but saw her no where.

"Bella! Bella! Claaaaair!"

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella turned through out the water several more times till she was pushed to calmer waters. At first she couldn't find what direction was up but it finally dawned on her that bubbles were rising to the surface.

Her lungs burned from her efforts to hold what little air she had in. She swung her arms around trying to raise herself to the surface. He legs kicking with a furious tempo as she could see light above her, she was heading the right direction now.

Finally Clair reached the surface and let the air escape her lungs in a cough, she was light headed and felt like she was going to pass out but she had to keep fighting on. "Onas! She cried out as she began to make her way to the closest shore of the lake. She looked about and spotted him but didn't stop her drive to land again she was tired and didn't know if she who be able to paddle much longer. When she finally got to the shallows she didn't stand, instead only dragging herself to a point she could roll on to her back and keep her mouth out of the water.

As she lie there in the sand she could see a darkness creep in around her vision. Are.. are you alright?" She asked though she wasn't sure he could hear her from how far away he was. For now she didn't have the strength to move and let herself go limp in the water as the small waves crashed over her.

She was cold, freezing in fact the cold mountain water had taken most her body heat/ the chill in the air wasn't helping to bring back any of that heat. To think only a moment earlier she was almost over heated from their run and now she was so cold that she couldn't bare it. The day light was partially blocked out now by the canopy of the trees around the lake.

[Onas Knox]

Onas cricled round again, searching everywhere. He was only seconds from dumping the ruck and diving under to see if he could find her when he heard a sound behind him. He swirled around in the water, and saw her treading about sixty feet away, she was closer to the other side. How deep had they gone to force them that far apart? She screamed his name, and he didn't have enough breath left to answer her, instead he waved her to shore amongst strokes. Onas worked against his clothes, his boots, and his rucksack to swim the relatively short distance to shore.

Once Onas' feet touched bottom, he slowed to a walk, and finally looked back to the cliffs. At the top, he could see the silhouettes of their pursuers, Onas imagined the confounded reactions they must have had. He doubted they could see his exact gesture, but he lifted his hand to them, and flashed his one fingered commentary regardless. He smirked up at them, biting his lower lip with his top teeth, schrunching his eyes against the glare of light off the falls. He let his hand drop, and turned towards shore, wading up to the beach, snikering at their unfortunate loss.

When he got close enough to toss his ruck onto the dry sands, Onas unclipped it, and threw it aside, then turned to where Bella had laid back in the cool mountian water. He splashed over to her, as he neared and saw that she was breathing fine, he laughed with a great smile. Onas wiped his hand back across his head, then foward quickly, letting it flick off the top of his head, splashing the water from his hair down across her. He let out the loudest "Wooaw!" He had the capacity to scream looking up again, and taking in the surroundings, then looked down to her, "Let's do that gain." He offered her his hand, to aid her getting up.

As she stood, Onas felt a shiver go through him, "It sure is nice an cool down here, it'int it?" He looked back up the cliff face, he didn't see anyone anymore. "Whatta ya think? Go further down river, find a spot to dry our gear?"

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clair continued to lay on her back in the water as Onas made his way over to shore. She could see the man at the top of the cliff looking down at them and a smile crossed her face. 'Go ahead and jump I dare you.' She thought to herself knowing they wouldn't do it.

Finally Onas got over to shore and was standing over her flicking water down at her. His comment about doing it again was insain. "If we ever found ourselves being chased like that again I am all for it." She said letting out a laugh as she grabbed his offered hand to get up out of the cool crystal clear water.

As she got to her feet she could feel herself shiver just a little from the cold. "Yeah I think we need to get dried off for sure." She said as she walked over and out of the water completely. She wished she had a change of cloths so she would feel a little warmer herself. Unfortuantly that wasn't an option even if her bag had extra cloths in it, which it didn't, that was gone and she was stuck with what she had.

"Turn around Onas" She said to him and she turned and faced away from him. She pulled her shirt off and run out the extra water from it. It wouldn't dry it but it would get it to dry quicker. Then she throw it back on and walked back over to Onas. "Alright we should get moving befire it starts to get late. We need to get ourselves ready for the night."

They had time before night fall but it would take time to get to a spot get shelter set up and get a fire going to dry things off. THey needed to start on this project now.

[Onas Knox]

Onas turned around and went to get the rucksack while Claira handled her shirt, he faced in that direction untill she came up beside them. He wished he could do the same with his pants but they'd just have to drip. They really needed to put some distance between themselfs and the raving phsycopathic sheep of the "game."

He did take his boots off though, and hung them off his shoulder, opting to walk in the sand barefoot. He hung his socks over the straps of his ruck, and together, they hiked down the shoreline for several hours, untill the sun crested the horizon, and they had to stop. Onas and Bella split up, Bella to scout the area, and Onas to find firewood. Once he got a nice pile going, he got himself down to just his pants, and did what he could to wash the rest, then hung it to dry out. He cleaned the cut above his eye out throughly with the river water, and ripped a strap off the ruck to tie around it. After that, he set to looking through the ruck.

It was a thorough surprise to him that the ruck was sealed against all weather, and thus, it was waterproof. He would have to make sure to hang on to this bag after all, no telling how many times this would be usefull. He dug out all that was in the pack and did the inventory. Two waters, four empty canteens, two scraps of map (each was of a different area, it looked like you needed several to put the compleate thing together) three meals, a kukri style knife around a foot long that had a hard composite sheath, three flares, a box of all weather matches, a twine of 550 cord, a very useless medical kit, and a camouflaged net.

That was it, Onas was a little put out that the bag didn't have a gun, but it would have to do. The medical kit had an antibactierial cream, a few bandaids, med tape, disposible gloves and one of those tweeser things that are always in the boxes, and no one ever uses them. Onas put some of the cream in his cut, and stowed the rest. He lashed the kukri to his back, and got a fire going with the matches. Which was far harder than he would have thought, in the end, he succeeded by using piles of leaves under small dried out twigs, and then adding larger chunks as it got hotter. "Who said man can not create fiya?" He mused aloud to himself.

When Claira got back, he worked with her to get the shelter up, If you could call it that. Not much more than the net tied around several nearby trees, and two sticks that they wedged into the sand of the river banks. Onas set one of the meals out by the fire to warm, and they shared it in an effort to conserve rations. It was nothing new, Onas had been on low meal diets many times when on long space voyages, this was just new scenery.

After hours of not speaking, Onas finnaly broke the silence when a thought struck him, well into the overcast night, and the only light coming from their fire. "Cigarettes! I'd compleatly forgot." He smiled and dug through the sack untill he produced them, some crushing but nothing bad, and dry to boot. He used a twig to light it up, and sat back against his tree to enjoy his moment. He looked over at Bella with a very satisfied smile, and puffed out three smoke rings, then blew them away into oblivion.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella, unlike Onas kept trudging along in her boots sloshing with every step. Most of the trip they were pretty quiet, Clair's mind was racing about all that was going on and why they were there. It took several hours of moving till they finally come to a place they would set up camp.

When they finally did arrive they split of Onas went to gather fire wood and Bella took the time to scout around looking for, well anything that could be of use and to make sure no one had come this way as well. She hadn't found any sign of people being around them, though there were a few times she thought she had heard something. Only to find out it was some sort of animal wondering in the woods as well.

She did however decide they needed to make things a bit more protected and be prepared to move if they had to at any point. She gathered some Ivy vines, sticks and dry brush from around the forest. When she got back to camp she split the ends of the sticks and pushed the brush in to it and wrapped more around the outside of the tops of the sticks with the Ivy. They wouldn't last but fifteen minutes after lit but they would work as a torch for that short period if they needed them.

As far as protecting the came well there wasn't much she could do there other then gather some dry leaves and lay them around the came about five meters out so if someone stepped on them they might hear it. It wasn't much but offered at least a tiny bit of comfort to the pair.

When Onas got the fire going Clairabella took a seat on a rock not far from it and just sat there thinking to herself. Her mind drifted to back home at first, wondering if she ever should have left. Had she stayed there she wouldn't be in this mess, nothing ever happens on New Canaan. Well usually nothing she did remember hearing about a big gun battle on the Maiden's Mercy over companions a while back.

Then her mind moved to her travels and how she had slowly made her way in from the outer rim to the core worlds then to Persephone where she met Onas. That when it hit her that the two of them had been pretty much quiet since jumping off the waterfall. She wonder if what she had done before they jumped was what had caused that.

Her eyes turned to look at Onas with his cigarette in his mount wondering what he was thinking right now. "Are we going to be okay Onas." The question of course had a double meaning. Where they going to survive this situation and had she upset him with her actions. Would there friendship survive her foolish act on the to of the cliff or had she corrupted it by doing that and they would go their separate ways after this was over, not that he would even know the second meaning behind the question. To be honest she didn't want him to know that all she wanted was him to say yes, yes they would be okay.

[Onas Knox]

Onas' eyes drifted from Bella as she asked her question. Would they, hell, he didn't know. A few hours ago, things were looking pretty bad, but all that afternoon, he hadn't seen or heard a soul. All in all, things were looking pretty good at the present. He took a lond deep drag off his smoke, and answered with it on his voice, "I think we'll be just fine. We got a good bit of a lead on everybody. I don't think anyone else would take the jump. And that climb down looked damn near impassable. After all we've been through recently, I think we actually landed with both feet on the ground for once."

The fire died a bit, it was down to almost ambers, Onas added another chunk of wood to it. It was surprising how fast fire consimed wood. In the movies, the campfires always seemed to last forever. He shivered a bit, and reached up to get his shirt off the branch behind him. As he slid it on, he felt his bruised ribs stretch under his arms movement. His whole body had been through the meat grinder lately. Onas was resilient, but if they got out of this alive, he would take a very long vacation. Maybe on Ariel in a hospital...

He didn't share his joke with Claira, she looked a little uneasy. Onas got up and walked over to sit next to her. It was cold, and they had little in the way of warmth. They had mutually agreed that a large fire was just to much of a danger, so they kept it low all night, and you practically had to sit in it to get any real warmth from it. It was aufully cold in the valley down here. Maybe it was like this in every valley, Onas wouldn't know. He was a city man, never strayed out in anything like this before. Never had a reason too. Plus, none of the books he'd ever read had described the weather in any detail. He took one of her hands, and it was ice cold, he rubbed his hands over hers, and huffed warm breath over them.

"I think the biggest thing to remember is to just keep our wits about us. You know? Don't give up." He took a moment to smoke on his cigarette, making sure to blow the smoke away from her, and left it in his mouth, so he could use both hands to warm her's. Onas wasn't exactly super warm himself, but he definitely had more bodyfat than Bella, and he knew that was keeping him warmer.

He watched the flames begin to lick at the chunk of wood he'd put in the hot embers, a dancing light flickering off it, sending shadows around them. A wind blew through gently, not enough to kick up the fire, but enough to send a new chill through him.

He also noted a brand new discovery. No matter where he sat around this infernal fire, the smoke from it seemed to follow him and muss into his eyes. For hours now, it was the damndest thing he'd ever seen...

[Clairabella Corinth]

It took a moment, what seemed like an eternity to her for Onas to respond but it was exactly what she needed to hear. Confirmation was given in his words that they were going to be alright, and it was as if a sigh of relief came out of her with the words. She was happy he had said that even if it wasn't true it was enough to keep her strong.

She had never been much of an out doors person, sure she had spent some time outside of cities and even out side of small towns but usually with a group of people who knew what they were doing. This was just her and Onas and their where god knows how many crazed people out there looking to kill people for their supplies, it was madness really. For now though she was safe with him.

When Onas came and sat next to her she could feel his body heat. Surely he was freezing to but not like her. She could feel his warm hands on hers and she pushed herself to his side in an effort to stay warm. She had mostly dried off by this point but there were still a few spots on her that had yet to complete the process. What they needed now was a blanket of some sort to keep them warm till morning came.

Once morning did come though it would be a matter of figuring out where to go. The valley they were in zig-zagged along for quiet some time and where it would end she had no clue just yet. She didn't even know if that was the direction they would go at this point, in the end it would most likely be up to Onas to decide.

"At least were not alone out here as long as we got each other we should be able to keep our wits." She said with a pause. It was crucial to her that she wasn't alone. She was never good with being alone. frankly it scared her to be alone almost as if it was a phobia of hers. "You know this is one of those times I wouldn't pass up a drink." Aside from drinking at the bar with Onas that first night they had met she had always passed up on drinking. She prefer ed to watch the others drink and talk about things they normally wouldn't when sober.

She watched on at the fire for a while then began to laugh as she saw Onas trying to evade the smoke that had been following him all night. "You know they say smoke follows beauty, but I see it has made an exception for you." She told him as she wrapped her left arm around him to bring herself in a bit tighter to the heat he was radiating.

[Onas Knox]

She casually shared her thoughts on their situation, and Onas nodded his agreement, listening to the clip in her voice. He felt like a drink himself. Onas only drank on occasion, often when he wanted to bury guilt and shame. Onas puffed on his cigarette, and thought about the man he'd killed today, he wondered how his life had gotten to this point?

How he could have broken so many codes of morality? The worst of it, was that as time went by, the things he did meant less and less to his soul. He'd long since abandoned any regard for the victims of his thefts. Now he feared that killing men would one day be as that, just something he did with no regard. Onas swore to himself that something like that would never happen. He wasn't a killer. A liar, a thief, a criminal maybe, but he would never be cold about being a killer. No matter how much reason someone threw at him about self defence. He welcomed Bella's breaking of his train of thought.

Onas chuckled at her comment, glad to shift his thoughts to something else. He thumped her on the forehead, "Then it's doin it's job fathead, I'm the prettiest thing on the whole planet!"

He felt her real tempature when she slid closer to him. Bella was shivering, and Onas could feel her still damp clothes holding on to the chill. Maybe they could risk a larger fire. No, that wouldn't due, God only knows what kind of attention a large light would bring. He put his arm around her and rubbed her shoulder. It would get colder as the night dragged on. He looked to the top of the cliffs, wondering if it were this cold everywhere.

Bella was of the likes of which, he'd never seen before. She was the first person who he had ever met, that never asked him to prove something to her. She quickly won his friendship throughout the breif time they'd known each other, and though he hated that she to had been dragged into this mess, he was gratefull she was here with him. Onas felt this discomfort on some level about sitting here with her, wrapped up by a fire. Were it any other day, any other situation, he wouldn't be on this side of the fire. Some things would never sit right with him, despite all that had broken his moral threshold. Taking advantage of a young woman who put her compleate faith in him, happened to be right at the very top. He thought about her kiss on top of the falls...

Onas' headache returned in force, he released her hand, and took his cigarette to ash it. He continued to rub her shoulder, the last thing he needed to do was start that up, it would only lead to an uncomfortable and compromising conversation. Who in the verse needed that? Claira was his friend, and that was the sole fact. The kiss was a nice gesture from one friend to another, like under the fireworks of a new year, celebrating Christmas under a mistletoe. Or in their case, comfort in the face of death.

He shivered from the cold, the tempature had been dropping ever since the sun went down, Onas decided to risk a bit more firewood. He scooted them closer to the fire, and wrapped his friend in his arms, "Tommorow, I think we should head west out of the valley. It wont be the easiest trek, but I think we should get as far from the insanity as we can. You with me?"

Claira and Onas spoke a little more before she fell asleep, Onas sat with her in his arms untill he couldn't hold his eyes open any longer, his ear's strained for any sound of approach. He hoped Bella's leaf idea warned them if anyone tried. His head dropped slowly as sleep took him from the world, and he dreamed of waking up on Persephone. Far from danger, home with friends.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Bella laughed as Onas remarks about the smoke. If he had a pretty purple dress he might just be the prettiest thing on the planet she mused to herself.

She was glad when Onas put a little more wood on the fire she could feel herself warming up if only slightly. She was grateful to have him there with her to keep her sane in this mad world. She trusted him completely for some reason he seemed like the kind of person she could trust with everything, a true gentleman. A thing one didn't find in the Verse to often.

When he talked about the plan for tomorrow she nodded in agreement. They seemed to have already made a great bit of distance to the west and to continue that way would put more distance between them and the place this all started that had to be a good thing right?

As the night dwindled on Bell felt herself drifting to sleep on Onas' shoulder. Even in her sleep her mind race about all that was going on drifting from the monet she woke up here, to when she saw Onas, and the waterfall then back to the long walk down the river together.

When the morning Came Clair was the first to wake up. There was little left of the fire but enough to get a few more peaces of wood going to get some more warmth in them before they left on their trip. She had been up for almost two hours before Onas woke up.

In that time she had managed to gather a long straight stick and sharpend it to a point. She was down at the river bank where there was a calm pool of water trying to catch a fish. it took her a while to realize that the water altered the perpective of where things were and that she would need to aim slightly closer to herself then it seemed she would to catch anything.

It hadn't been much but by the time Onas had rose from his slumber she had cought a fish about eight inches in length. It would give them something to eat even if it was only half a meal split between them.

When she heard him moving around she turned from her position and spoke to him. "Morning sunshine, I trust you got a good night sleep." She said with a bit of a laugh. Her mood had gotten better, she wasn't worried like the night before. It was as if they were out of danger now, if only for right now it was peace that she couldn't have expected.

[Onas Knox]

The sun had peaked over the mountians, just enough to shine a few rays into the valley when Onas opened his eyes. His body was practically iced over. He felt the dew of the morning still in his clothes, he was nice and damp agian. 'Great,' he thought to himself as he sat up, rubbing his forearms, and shaking off the chill.

"Morning sunshine, I trust you got a good nights sleep," Bella cheerfully cooed to him from the river.

He couldn't remember the last time he woke up in mortal danger with a smile, maybe this was a first, "Dreamt of satin pillows and bearskin blankets, how bout you... turtledove," He teased back to her.

Onas felt at his back, something was missing. His kukri. He looked around and found it in an instant, it was stuck into the sandy beach near the shoreline, near a pile of wood shavings. Claira had fashioned a spear from a long peice of wood. And, it would seem, she knew exactly how to use it. She had speared a fish and was nearly finished cooking it. Onas complimented her on her triumph. "Didn't think I'd wake up to a two course meal this morning." He mused.

He had himself a cigarette after he and Claira ate from her catch, but only one. With only tweenty three left in the pack, he didn't want to smoke them too quickly. He repacked the ruck, and the two of them got another couple of sticks together, they carved out another spear for Onas, and Onas crafted a footlong, sturdy wooden knife out of an oak limb for Claira. She made some argument over what use a wooden knife wood be. That is, untill Onas hurled it into a tree, where he'd buried it so deep, she had to yank it up and down to get it free. With the 'knife strength' issue sorted, they got under way, walking at a good pace for several hours before anything interesting happened.

During this walk, Onas talked and talked, telling Bella all about starship engines. How they came to existence back in the early ninteen hundreds, and how they were revolutionised in two thousand fourty one. How the governments used to be the only producers of starships, and how much more efficent civilians were at it. How the sterling engine on the Athena worked. He droned on about it for hours, never aluding to any question concerning their current saftey. Whenever she asked about anyone tailing them, he would just shrug, and tell her that no one could have made that climb. He stayed beside her the whole walk, and when she looked away, he would scout behind them. Onas told her stories about his most memorable heists, and the stories of how his crew came together. He didn't go to mentioning any of the tragic portions of his life, only the successes, and the high points.

When she wanted to tell a story that was good, Onas listened, and kept her talking. When she started to drift to a story that sounded sad, Onas would tell her how it reminded him of a good one, and take over. He kept her laughing, and smiling. All the while, he pushed her hard down the river banks. He never stopped, and when she did complain of being tired, he would offer her water, and then tell her another story. After a long while, they came across a spot where they had the oppurtunity to hop across several large rocks. They seemed placed there for the exact purpose of crossing the river.

Once on the other side, they began to hear things. At first, Onas paid it no mind, but shortly after that, he realised that it wasn't only his imagination. Brush would move, and sticks cracked. Onas' internal red flag was going balistic, so he and Bella doubled back, and recrossed the river. That cost them a bit of time, but Onas had been whatching for trouble behind them, and he was beggining to believe it himself, that no one was following them. So long as the river was inbetween them and whatever was on the other side, Onas would be happy.

Far into the afternoon, with Bella bitterly complaining of her feet, and Onas' own feeling of blisters, they finally came to his personal goal. The end of the forrest. Great flats streched out in front of them, and it was like massive feilds of untouched green. A rich green grass that he had only read about. Off in the distance, was one thing Onas had hoped to see a dozen times today, and he pointed it out to Bella, it was a house. Well, a shack really, but it had four walls and a roof. As far as Onas was concerned, it was the Madam's Villa of the Companion's Guild.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Bella laughed at Onas' reply to her morning greeting. At least it seemed they were both in a good mood to start they day they would need that good mood to keep them moving today. After their meal it was a long day ahead of them.

At first the walk was pretty plesent even at the fast pace they were keeping along the river banks. Onas kept telling her stories along the way. He had alot to tell and all of them were happy stories. It took a while but Clairabella cought on to what he was doing with the stories. He had been making an effort to keep her smiling and psoitive about things. The stories themselves helped but the fact that he was trying to do that for her was the part that really kept her going.

She hadn't had anyone who put that much effort in to her. Sure he parents loved her but even they didn't have that much time to invest in her. They had hired a private tutor to teach her as a kid and keep her out of their way for the most part. Onas on the other hand had no reason to put so much time in to it. Having another person around only took up more of Onas' rations of food and water and likely slowed him down over all.

As they made their way along Clair cought her mind drifting from time to time nut Onas quickly got it back to the stories. After a small doubling back after crossing the river the treked on for what seemed like ages longer and finally got to where the forrest thinned out then it was nearly gone all together.

When she saw the shack she could feel her happiness boil over. It was a small trashy place and they could only stay there for so long really but it was something to work from. She ran over to Onas a wrapped her arms around his neck hangging around him. "I can't believe it." She squeeked, then dropped from hanging on him. "Oh what I wouldn't give for a roof over my head, a warm bed and real food."

She smiled at Onas. "But I will be happy to settle for that half a roof this place has." She then ran toward the place. 'Please have a bed, please have a bed, please have a bed.' As she cloed on the building she was an old farm plow sitting out side of the shack. It seems at some point this place used to be part of a farm. It made he wonder if there might be some other portion of the farm off in the distance. She paused when she got up close to the place and began to walk around it.

"She could use a little paint don't you think but she is a good starter home." She would have continued but off in the distance many miles away she could hear the sound of a high power rifle go off. It sounded to her the same as the rifle that was used by the guards back when this all started. It made her wonder what had happened and if yet another person who had died.

[Onas Knox]

When she looked down his pointing finger, Bella ran to Onas and jumped up and down swinging off of him with excitement. He smiled at her and laughed shallowly, trying not to get too excited himself. It problebly didn't have a roof. But that aside, four walls would keep out wind, and they had the net if it rained. It wouldn't be ideal, but then, how would being on the river banks be any better?

Claira ran off towards it, joking all the way. Onas was relieved to see the shack, all day he'd hoped to run across an old saw mill or shack or something. And here they were, honestly it was a stroke of luck. They seemed to be on a bit of a roll.

Onas looked towards the roof when he got near, wearing a closed grin he couldn't wipe off as Bella came around the corner. He looked to her as she declared, "She could use a little paint, don't you think? But she's a good starter home." She had her mouth open and a breath coming out, but she never finished her next word, somewhere in the distance, a long way off, a gunshot echoed across. Both looked in the direction of it. 'Buneng women dedao yige tupo dian' Onas thought to himself at that perfect ruining to a long awaited moment. Who could be that close, gaurds? The crazy game's sheep? Were people armed with guns now?

Questions raced into Onas' mind, which meant that they were racing into Bella's as well. He reached past her, and opened the shack door, it was not a smooth process. As he yanked on it, he once again began talking.

"Oh, don't worry about that Bell, doll. That's miles away. Did you know that Persephone is sixty thousand, four hundred and thirty three kilometers in radius? And that's just an average planet. So when your standin in the flats, you.. have been in the flats right?" He asked her, making sure she made eye contact and was paying attention, "Anyway, when your standin in the flats, you look to be what, five four, five five? Five five then. So we'll do some quick math here, you any good at geometry? We take your heigth, the radius of the planet, the depth of Persephone, well, we only need half really. Then you got pathagir.."

He drifted in his own mind for a second doing the math, "D squared plus R squared equals R squared plus 2 R H plus H squared..." He muttered aloud before he paused again with his hand finaly just inside the door's panel, one more tug and it would open. Onas paused and counted on his right hand to aid in his 'from the hip' math. There were more equations going through his head than the one he said aloud, but he thought to fast to explain it, "Change the kilometers to miles an.. Ah!" he said finaly looking her in the eyes again, "You'd see two point four miles to the horizon. From your heigth, well.." Onas shook his head from side to side as he calmly continued, pulling the door open and letting her go in first, when she past him, he scanned the direction of the gunshot, but continued talking. "Not exactly two point four, your eyes arn't perfectly at the top of your head, their a couple centimeters down, and the planets not perfectly spherical, but you get the idea. So lets just say that this planet is a similar size, as most are, You can see around two miles away standing flat on the ground. Which is why these flats are our best security."

She favored him with an odd look, Onas explained his point a bit further, he would have to address the gunshot, she would ask anyway. "The average high powered rifle these days, fires at what, four thousand feet per second?" He looked for her nod of approval, "Well that means that a bullet traveling from a rifle at it's maximum speed would still take over two seconds to hit us from any part of the horizon. So if were dancin, they will never get the shot." He said it so matter of factly, and casually, it sounded like he was reading it from a cue card. Onas stopped talking all at once, and pulled down a curtain in the corner. Dust whooshed by him as it hit the ground, and he turned slowly over his shoulder with a loppsided smile at Bella. They had a bed.

As she enjoyed lounging for a moment, Onas continued around the room. He wanted to check out everything, make sure no nasty critters had taken up residence. He found an odd shaped wooden box. It had a sloping lid on the front, Onas lifted it, and a horrid stench rose up, a disgusting plant was inside, a brown crusty thing at the bottom and white curling tendrils like warts grew off it. Onas had seen this before somewhere. He ignored the experiance in front of him as he plucked the memory from the bowels of his mind.

"Oh my God," he said slowly, then he added, "This is a potato farm!" He looked at Bella, "Jax told me about these things, the river's not far away, the land might still produce. Let's go have a look see." He exclaimed and bolted for the door.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella couldn't even start to understand the math he was doing. She lacked the skills in math to come close to that talent. She did understand though that someone would be able to figure that out. Over two miles was a good distance to be able to see and if he was right they had a bit of a safety net. It was comforting to know that.

She walked in the place and took a look around. There was a bed. Thank goodness she didn't care that the thing was beat up and could hardly be considered one anymore but it still was a bed. SHe flopped back on it and relaxed a bit. She smiled as she just looked up at Onas. She just watched him for a moment as he looked arround in the shack. "oh my god." Onas said slowly catching her attention.

'A potato farm' She thought to herself. That meant food. That was even better then having a shack to stay in. "Hey now we finally have the farm to bet right?" Her mind had completely forgotten about the gun shot earlier. SHe sprang up from her spot on the bed and grabbed his arm to pull him outside with her.

She had noticed on her way in some chives and a few other things she might be able to use to make a bit of spice. If she could get that and the potatos she could make a bit of potato soup. If only they could get their hands on some Chicken or something. "Help me gather the potatos and some other things and I will cook tonight." She was excited she didn't get a chance to cook often but she prided herself on being realy good at it.

[Onas Knox]

It didn't take as long as Onas would have imagined for the two of them to get outside and find the produce. They came out of the shack in a rush, and started searching the ground. Claira found the first one. Onas rushed over to her and saw that she had already picked the first plant, holding precious food like it might disintagrate if she wasn't too careful. He was never so happy to see a potato.

And Onas really, really liked potatos.

When she found the first one, he'd thought they'ed found the golden egg. A quick search in that direction soon showed them how far their lucky streak would go. It wasn't one or two or three. After the first dozen, they kept searching the increasingly muddy ground, scooping up each one they found untill they realised exactly what they had found. This was a field. This was a very large, unbelievably, unimaginably large field.

"Sheng gugu de haizi," he muttered in his typical broken chinese, "Can you believe this?" They stood staring as far as they could see, about two miles if his math from earlier were correct. All the way down the river streching into the land, potatos grew wild. Green drooping leaves the size of his palm were everywhere. Earlier, perhaps tweenty minutes ago, Onas had thought he was looking at some rich green wetland grass. Now he saw the truth, the unbelievable beautiful truth, it was the small leaves of potato plants. Rich and healthy, and more abundant than a whole planet could desire!

He dropped what he was holding in amazement, and then picked Bella up and spun her around yelping like a teenage girl. No pun intended, as to present company.

They gathered all they could hold, and took the bounty back to the shack. Onas gathered firewood while Claira found a rusty pot and began to scrape away at it for them to use. Onas got the fire going, and worked for an hour to get the pot clean. Using the blade of the kukri to scrape the rust off the insides untill Bella told him it would be good enough. This was not an easy task, as the blade folded forward, the sharpe edge of the weapon on the inside of the curve, and was as long as his forearm. Perfect for a fight, but not for a pot no larger than a tea kettle. He filled it with water from the river, and then, then they set to work on their meal.