Edosurist, beastcharizard, and CultivationTheory make it through the next few days with one eye on each other, one on the ground, and another all around them. This keeps them alert for all danger, but mentally exhausted.
As they are only one day away from town, they decide to relax and take a short cut. When they do, they stumble upon a small lake fed by a beautiful waterfall. The water is still icy, but a quick swim is quite refreshing.
Beast, having the best cell service, gets a signal and spends an hour away making a phone call. While he does that, Edosurist dumps his pack and clothes on the shore and dives right in. “Shit, that is COLD!!” he laughs, but stays in swimming and splashing around.
CultivationTheory carefully sets his stuff down and undresses. He folds his clothes neatly and sets them beside his pack. With his back to the lake, he grabs his hunting knife and carries it beside his leg, out of Edosurist’s sight. He waves to Edosurist. “I’ll be back!” he shouts, and heads away from the lake.
CultivationTheory circles around to the far side of the lake. He intends to dive in and surface beside Edosurist, then quickly slit his throat. If he stuffs the body beneath some rocks underwater, then when Beast comes back, Edosurist will have just “disappeared”, and they’ll be one less person that he has to share the gold with.
He makes his way up the cliff and emerges from the trees near the top. Tucking the knife in to the back of his waistband, he spots Edosurist and shouts “Here I come!”. He dives, leaping out to avoid the cliff wall.
“Uh, I think there are rocks over there!” Edosurist shouts back, as CultivationTheory plunges headlong onto a submerged boulder. The crack of neck, skull, and bone are loud, and slap of wet meat can also be heard over the roar of the waterfall.
“NOOOOOOOO!!!” shouts Edosurist, swimming over to CultivationTheory’s lifeless body. Edosurist drags him to shore, and weeps silently at the senseless accident and the randomness of life and death. Deep thoughts, indeed.
Beast returns, and as he silently approaches, he slips his cell phone into Edosurist’s side pocket of his pack, and makes his way over. “What happened?”
Edosurist tells him, and they spend the next few hours covering the body with rocks, and then marking the location.
While they sit and figure out how to divide CultivationTheory’s gear and gold among them, Beast walks away again. “Nature calls” he calls over his shoulder. Irritated now at being left with all the work, Edosurist gives the gear to Beast, and the gold nuggets to himself. He also returns Beast cell phone after a few minutes of internet browsing and catching up on his mafia games.
When Beast gets back, he starts to complain about the division of CultivationTheory’s items, but Edosurist stands up, shoulder his pack, and heads out. “I did the work, I get paid.” Beast grumbles briefly, sneers at Edosurist’s retreating back, and grabs his stuff, hurrying to catch up. He really doesn’t want to miss what happens next.
A few more hours, and they are in the foothills and can see the town in the valley below. A distant buzzing of an aircraft causes them both to glance up briefly. Edosurist starts down the path, but Beast, after squinting more closely at the aircraft, heads away from him.
Edosurist stops. “Where are you going? Town is this way!” he shouts, as Beast leaps away from rock to rock.
“Getting out of the blast radius! Drone strike, motherfucker!” he yells gleefully, leaping to another rock.
Edosurist realizes the buzzing is much louder now, and sees a smoke trail as something launches from the drone. He tries to hide behind the closest boulder, but knows he will not be outrunning the missile. He silently begins his death prayer.
The missile flies quickly past him, and impacts Beast mid-leap, cutting off his whooping “WOOOHOOO-!” mid-HOO, with a large, ground shaking blast. Edosurist is knocked to the ground, temporarily deafened, and does not hear the drone turn around and head back, mission accomplished. It continues to rain pebbles and Beast for another minute or two, and then takes a few more minutes for the dust to settle.
Edosurist stands up after a few minutes and thinks about his next move. He’s already registered the gold site at goldclaimsonline.com, so he decides to go home, shower, and then maybe take in a movie. Life is about to get pretty hectic as a newly rich millionaire.
1. Edosurist: Do Nothing
2. beastcharizard: Shoot self
3. CultivationTheory: Shoot self
beastcharizard dies
CultivationTheory dies
