Chapter Twenty One

Nothing could get me to move now. I’d eaten my slop and now I was resting again. If someone came in here and yelled that they were going to murder me on the spot with a blunt ladle I wouldn’t have edged and inch. That’s my excuse for being dragged from my cell by what I was sure was my brain, tossed on the floor outside and almost scrapped off the floor by Jessica... Jessica? I looked up at her and smiled weakly, I could smell a bit of blood but it was old. She must have caught a bit of rubble in the explosion and spent yesterday recovering.
“Hey” I croaked, getting up with her help since I felt like someone had snuck in at night and started hitting me with a brick. I noticed another smell now, I didn’t realise it was coming from Jessica. She emanated nervousness like a worried light house; I could tell she was forcing herself not to shake.
“You had to get Survival?” she hissed at me, pushing me lightly to get me to walk and seizing my arm when I almost went headlong into the concrete.
“Not exactly my first choice either darling” I whispered to her as she pulled me close to her so I could walk. She didn’t seem dare talk, the others were done with sorting TNT out and she didn’t want the chance of being caught.

I was deposited into the middle of the crowd, wobbled on my pulverised pins before collapsing over onto something large and fluffy.
“H-hello” the large thing that was for all intents and purposes a talking pillow right now “You’re a friend of Bud right?” I looked sideways, it was the squirrel girl and she had a surprisingly strong tail to be holding me up like this.
“Yeah... sorry. I’m really tired; I was basically beaten to a pulp yesterday” I gently rubbed myself against her soft fur “Wake me up when we’re-“
“We’re moving”
“Yeah”
“No, we’re moving” the girl wrapped her tail around my waist and guided me forwards like a zombie “I’m Bud’s roommate Chip, Mist explained everything about you guys since all Bud does is sit there and hum to herself.” We were walking into the open air work place now; I was almost being dragged by Chip. My feet left long scuffs in the dirt as my furred female foundation took me over to the shed guarded by the tusked man.
“You two are pushing carts today” the man said without looking up at us.
“Do I look like I can do ANYTHING today?” I groaned, clinging tight to my new friend. She was a new friend, anyone who’d let you hang onto them this long without protesting was worth keeping around.
“If it ain’t broke you’re working” the man grunted “now go before you learn what pain really is.”
“I was in surviving harsh environment buddy, anything you could do would be an improvement” I coughed; this took the tusked man back I could tell.
“Doesn’t matter to me, if the guards shove you out here then you’re working” the man said, looking away from me as if that was final.

Chip helped me over to some empty carts on the track, some large sacks for collecting rocks at the bottom. I put my sack on with minimal help; I was getting less stiff the more I moved. I began to walk off, picking up rocks on my way and winding around people searching for the others. The sack was getting heavier and heavier, soon I had to go back and empty the sack into the cart making me wince from the loud sound of stone on metal. I repeated this three times before I found Stitch breaking rocks like a mad woman; she swung her hammer like she had a personal problem with the boulders.
“Hey Stitch” I mumbled, just missing a blow across the head which would surely have done more damage than the entire exercise yesterday.
“WHAT?!?” she fumed, spinning on the spot with hammer held close. Her eyes bulged as she saw me; I must really look a mess because she switched from nasty to nice in the amount of time it took pity to register “Jeese, what the hell happened to you? Did the guards beat you up?”
I shook my head and happily found the collar had saved that from getting sore “Na, I got special training yesterday. Don’t get surviving harsh environments or you’re doomed; I only survived because of my tough exterior.” I leaned up and cracked my back, dropping a few rock pieces in my sack and groaning at the extra weight “How’s Trapper doing?”
Stitch sighed and rubbed her hair out of her eyes “His arm’s broken but he’ll recover soon; it was a small fracture but he’ll be in a cast for a while.” Her eyes flicked down to the floor “Sorry I snapped before, I haven’t had a cigarette in days and it’s getting to me.”
I patted her lightly on the shoulder, seeing her stitches strain under the weight of hammer and hand “It’s ok, I’m just checking up on my friends.” I grabbed more rocks and pulled my laden sack back to the ever hungry carts that ate up the rocks like candy.

Chip was holding her sack in her tail; it was completely full to the brim with rocks. All my trips I’d only been able to carry half full at a time; her tail must be a massive muscle.
“Do you know where anyone is? I’ve found Stitch already but I want to check up on the others” I asked Chip, smiling weakly at her as I tried to lean on the cart like it wasn’t the only thing holding me up.
“Bud and that boy she always hangs out with are other there” Chip said, pointing in a direction I hadn’t tried yet “Mist and that strange man-“
She was cut off by a small explosion and a lot of black smoke “Found them, thanks for your help” I said at once. I made my way towards Buzz and Bud first; it wasn’t as if TNT was hard to find. I wove between people, running into Gemini on my way there and offering her a small wave and a smile. I’d talk to her later, it had been little more than an hour and this was an eight hour shift. It turns out that it was Buzz that found me, grinning gently as he saw me. It wasn’t his normal wide happy grin but the tired grimace of everyone here.
“What’s happening?” he asked; trying to seem cheery like always. Bud was clinging onto his arm and smiling at me, she smelt less and less of the strong aftershave that she coated herself with.
“Just checking up on you guys; I heard Bud got in a little bit of trouble with her roommate” I smiled back, knowing I looked even worse than these guys.
Bud nodded silently and Buzz wrapped an arm around her protectively “She seemed to get an idea that deflowering Bud would show her who’s boss.” Buzz grinned maliciously and kissed Bud on top of the head, causing her wooden features to darken as she seemed to blush; seems like they’ve finally come out as an item, it’s about time.
“Trapper’s doing alright; I’ve seen Stitch just now. See you guys later... it’s not like there’s much to explore around here anyway.” I sighed softly, picking up some rocks and dragging them towards the still billowing black smoke.

There wasn’t MUCH carnage this time, just a smoking crater and a laughing TNT. He seemed to be getting better at this as time progressed, I was just glad he wasn’t practising in his spare time.
“How are you-“ I stared saying.
“DID YOU SEE THAT!?!” TNT yelled, dancing on the spot as I tried to collect the pieces of rock. They bubbled and spat as I picked them up, making me drop them quickly again.
“Yes yes, we all saw you blowing a hole in the floor” Mist sighed “Now I know not to turn my back on you again.” I could tell that she was trying to suppress something in her tone but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. She turned to me “The human wrecking ball here’s already told me all about your adventures with the training, no need to explain any more. We should keep working or they’ll smack do something even worse and I don’t think you could take that.” If her tone and words could have been translated into a sign it would have been a billboard fully equipped with flashing neon lights saying “GO AWAY!” in large green letter. I took this as a hint and left them to go on my merry, muscle burning way.

Disclaimer: I'm being a busy little beaver, so steal this from me or Lavalamp studios and you'll get several vital organs smashed under a hammer.
Ebony and Ivory Collection
Ebony and Ivory chapter twentytwo