Struggle (Chapter 2)
#3 of Struggle
Chapter Two
+Voyage+
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON*
The horn of the massive ship blew as we began our voyage. Furs lined the shores waving to loved ones and chearing. Alot of the soldiers were doing the same, leaning over the railing calling out to family and friends. Some starting to cry, others seemed to be in a hurry, and some looked like they were ready to jump and swim home. Eventually we all started roaming about the ship, getting better aquainted.
I spent my time trying to hunt down Luke, found him near the stern hoarding smokes.
"LUKE! You asshole you know your splitting those with me right?"
"Yeah up yours shit head, do you know what I had to do to get my hands on these?" He chuckled
"Let me guess, pay $6 to the guy running inventory?"
"Shut the fuck up." As he tossed me a pack of my own along with a lighter.
As I lit my smoke we got down to talking and decided to try and find the rest of our squad. Wandering about the ship, hunting for the other six members. Our squad name was Echo 3. A short time later we ran into Devin Montiview, a tall Grey Fox with a light British accent. Out of all the time I had been training back on the mainland, I had never seen a better support gunner. Handy with a rifle and could throw a grenade through a hole the size of a donut if he wanted to. All around a great soldier, and the third member of Echo 3.
"Devin you horny bastard how have ya been? Haven't seen you since Sargent Pholler made us run 10 miles in the rain after we got caught stealin potatoe chips."
"Ahh not much you wily spit fuck, and besides, your just jealous that you can't get in my pants." He laughed a little as he shook my hand.
"So, do you know where the rest of our squad is or are you just makin small talk with the rest of the men, key word men, on the ship?"
"Shut up ya fuckin wanker, and for yer information, yes. I saw 3 more of us near the aft end of this damn thing."
"Alright thanks, me and Luke are gonna go get them, meet back here in about 30 minutes." Luke and I began to jog towards the aft end of the ship, but I stopped and yelled out to Devin. "Don't waste all your energy getting semen out of the seaman Devin!" All we heard as we continued jogging was a loud "FUCK YOU!" Laughing and jogging towards our destination as we passed other furs smoking, talking, and heaving their guts over the side of the ship. When we had finally reached our destination, Luke immediately found two more members of our squad, and of course, as per tradition, Luke greated a friend by tackling them to the ground.
"TRAVIS! Why are you hear? I thought they decided to leave your ass back at home."
"HELL TO THE NO! NOW GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" Travis yelled as he rolled over and put Luke in a headlock. Travis Bevlin being a strong Bengal Tiger, I'm suprised Luke could put up as good of a fight as he did. As I watched and laughed at the put stupidity in front of me, I noticed the Matthew and Mary Grandon were also watching and laughing. Legitamite fraternal twins, a pair of House Cats, and in my opinion, Matthew is absoutely gorgeous, too bad he's so shy. After a small chat, we made our way back to Devin. 6 out of the 8 members of Echo 3 had been found and united, now the only thing that remained was to find the last 2.
We had searched the ship all day but had found no one, finally night had fallen, and it was time to get some rest. As we made our way down to the common area of the ship, we kept looking, but to no avail. We did find a map, telling us that Echo 3's bunks were located in 2 rooms adjacent to each other. Once we reached our bunks, we found a Raccoon rustling around in a bag. He startled us when we walked in, simply the look in his eyes meant he had been anticipating this war more then anyone else. He stood up slowly and looked at all of us, almost like he was trying to see inside of us.
"Hello, my name is Ben Topeaze. This is Echo 3 right?" His voice was low and some what menacing. You could tell this Fur was here for only one reason, to kill everything that wasn't a Fur, or be killed in the process.
"Yeah this is Echo 3, I'm Jake, this is Luke, Devin, Travis, Mary and Matthew." I was kinda hesitant to talk to him at first, I don't know if I was afraid or intimidated, but either way the feeling was strong.
"What, only 6 of you? I was told that Echo 3 had 8 members. Was I told wrong?" He had a slightly confused look on his face but he never at any point lost his composure, he was truly a proffesional. This kinda guy you fear playing cards with because his poker face was flawless, and you didn't know if he was going to leap across the table and kill you.
"No, there's supposed to be 8 of us, we just can't find the eighth person." Luke quickly spoke up, I think he was intimidated too.
"Hmmmmm, something tells me that half of you won't make it 3 days on the battle field."
This time Devin stepped forward. "Oh yeah, and what makes you think that pretty boy. Who's to say you wont be the one they find face down, cold as a stone. What about that tough guy."
Quick as a bullet, Ben grabbed Devin by the throat and slammed him into the wall. This time his voice had a growl to it. "Because I'm prepared. How can I trust you clowns when you can't even find the rest of your squad. It's going to be a lot more hectic on the battle field. So I suggest you get your shit straight or there wont be anything left of you for them to find." He let go and Devin fell to the floor gasping for air and coughing. Me, Luke, Travis, and Mary stood in front of Ben, fists curled, as Matthew helped Devin back to his feet.
"Is there a problem here?" One of the Leuitenants just so happened to see the incident and took it upon himself to be the voice of reason.
Ben without missing a beat. "No sir, just a simple disagreement. Everything is under control."
"Not from what I can see." He walked closer and stood about a foot away from Ben. Facing him, making sure he made eye contact. "Seeing as how you like to give people advice, let me tell you something. You tell him to get his 'shit straight' just because one of your squad members got lost on this very large boat. Perhaps YOU need to get YOUR shit straight."
"And why is that sir." You could hear the anger in Ben's voice growing.
"Because he's not the one choking his teammates, did that thought ever cross your mind?"
"No sir. My apologies sir. It wont happen again." His voice lowered again, it seemed like he was kind of ashamed of himself.
"Good, see to it that it never happens again." He turned and began to walk away, but stopped, turning his head to look at Ben again. "Oh, and I heard that angry little tone in your voice a minute ago. If you ever strike another tone like that with me again, I will have you repremanded and have your ass sent back to the mainland to sit and watch the war from the side lines so fast your fucking head will spin. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir." Ben avoided eye contact as the Leuitenant walked away. When he was out of sight, Ben grabbed his bag and threw it underneath one of the bunks then hopped onto it and rolled over. Not wanting to share a room with Ben, a quick game of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors" was played. Me, Luke, Matthew and Devin were the lucky ones. Poor Mary and Travis got to stay with Ben, them and the mysterious eighth member. However for the time being, we had one empty bunk.
More senseless 'Mini-Games' to decide who got top bunk, this time I wasn't so lucky, and neither was Matthew. We all layed in our bunks. Luke, God bless his dumbass, fell asleep almost instantly. Devin was the next to go, and I was slowly starting to fade. I swear though, through the dim lighting I believe I saw Matthew staring at me, blushing ever so lightly. When I moved a little bit he jumped and rolled over. I smiled to myself and whispered "Goodnight Matt." I heard him whisper back in his adorable shy voice "G... Goodnight... Jake."
A little inner chuckle as I rolled over. This is definately going to be one interesting trip. I had better make the best out of it, because when this ship finally reaches the shore, everything will change in a heartbeat, and nothing will ever be the same.