Tough Love
Current mood: stressed
Category: Writing and Poetry

Christy's heart was heavy as she watched Rok and Travis leave.  Every instinct told her that she should go with them.  Maverick and Mike could handle themselves.  Except, she knew that Rok would argue and protest while Travis bled to death, so she submitted in the hopes that he would get Travis some help.  More and more she couldn't understand why she was with him.  He never listened to her opinion.  Memories of him jumping between her and an AC soldier about to spray her with bullets; getting busted two ranks by taking the blame for her fuck up; him carrying her three miles through enemy controlled territory despite having a seven inch long piece of shrapnel stuck in his ass.  That's why she stayed with him.

The problem was that she wasn't entirely sure if those memories were real or not.  But, those were the only memories she had.  Other than chatting online with everyone else, she couldn't remember what she had done prior to showing up at the airport in ....Nashville.... with Rok.  It scared her that she had no recollection of her real life and she didn't like that feeling at all. 

"This would be a lot easier if you'd help," said Mike.

"I, uh, oh yeah," said Christy as she focused on the business at hand.

They spent another ten minutes searching and piling everything they found onto the tarp that had once been the roof of their shelter. 

"We could probably find more stuff, but with the corpse of the flying lizard lying there, I'm worried those big dinos will show up again," said Maverick.

"Yeah, I'd suggest we slaughter it for the meat, but I agree we should get moving," said Christy.

With a machete in one hand and a hatchet in the other, Christy led Mike and Maverick along the trail into the jungle as they carried the tools wrapped in the tarp.  She spotted plenty of splotches of blood on the ground that she assumed had come from Travis.  It made her guts twist inside of her to think that it could have been herself or Rok that had gotten attacked by the flying lizard instead of Travis.           

"Pure random luck," she whispered to herself.

"What the fuck?  Who's that?" said Maverick as he dropped the end of the tarp he was holding and pointed out into the jungle.

Christy looked where he was pointing and saw some movement and a bare human ass for a brief second before it disappeared into the foliage.

"Wait!  Come back!" yelled Maverick.

"Did you get a good look at who it was?" asked Mike.

"All I made out was an ass," said Christy.

"Yeah, me too," said Maverick.

"It sorta looked like a naked woman, but I didn't see much and…Holy Shit!" said Mike.

Up ahead on the path Christy saw Rok lying prone on the ground and Travis' legs sticking out from some undergrowth.

"NO!" screamed out Christy as she ran to Rok.

She dropped down to her knees beside him and put two fingers on his neck to check his pulse.  His pulse was steady and strong.  He was unconscious and other than a large welt on his jaw, he appeared to be fine.

"Oh fuck," said Mike as he pushed a bush away and looked down on Travis.

"Reaper69, son of a bitch, he ate his face!  His fucking face!" said Maverick with a disgusted look after seeing Travis.

"Rok, wake up, come on wake up," said Christy and gave him a light shake.

He seemed responsive and slowly his eyes flickered open. 

"Hey, ow, fuck my head, what the hell?" he said once he regained his senses.

"You tell us, what happened dude?" asked Maverick.

"What do you mean?  I, Travis?" said Rok.

"Reaper69 got him," said Christy.

Rok suddenly shot up to his feet and stalked over to where Travis' body was lying.

"Rok, you need to sit back down.  It's too soon for you to…" started Mike until Rok turned and gave him a shove.

"Don't you fucking tell me what to do you fucking twat!" he screamed.

The veins on his neck were bulging and his face a dark red.  Christy knew that reasoning with him at this point was useless.

"Hey now, that's not cool," said Mike.

"What the fuck you going to do about it you fucking pussy?  Do something!  Go on, do something!" snarled Rok as he got into Mike's face.

"Knock it off you fucking asshole!" shouted Maverick.

"Two on one is it?  Well bring it on you Cocksuckers!" screamed Rok.

"That's enough soldier!  Stand down!" yelled Christy.

She surprised herself by calling him soldier instead of Rok, but she had to do something before the situation got out of hand and it was the first thing that came to her mind.  His rages in her memories had led to plenty of trouble for not only himself but her as well and she wasn't going to let this continue.

Rok turned his head to glare at her and started to say something but then stopped.  He stepped back a few steps, put his head down and shook in frustration.

"Dude that was…" started Mike until Christy cut him off.

"Drop it," she said and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever, what do we do about Travis?" said Mike.

"You two keep carrying the tools, me and Rok will get Travis," said Christy.

"No, I'll get him.  It was my fault.  I should have been more careful and not let Reaper69 get the drop on me," said Rok.

He kneeled beside Travis' body, grabbed one of his arms and pulled him up onto his shoulders.  Mike and Maverick both looked at Christy.

"Yeah, ok, let's get going," said Christy.

She let Rok lead the way with Travis draped over his shoulders.  Nobody said a word as they trudged through the jungle.  For Christy each minute seemed like it was an hour from all of the tension.  When she saw Kenny, a wave of relief washed over her.  Not because she liked him, but because it was someone other than the three people she was with. 

"Hey what's going on?" said Kenny as he approached them.

"Travis is dead," said Rok as he walked past Kenny.

"What?  He's dead?  Oh fuck!  What happened?" asked Kenny.

"What do you think?  Reaper69," said Mike.

Nicki, Melanie, Carrie, Tracie, George, Little John, Jonas, and Heather all came to them as the news quickly spread.  Rok dropped the body of Travis near the entrance to the cave and then crawled inside of it.  Christy wanted to go to him, but everyone wanted to know what had happened so she stayed and described the attack by the flying lizard, how Rok and Travis had left on their own, and seeing the person running in the jungle before finding them. 

"This is so messed up.  You guys know that Travis was number six.  Everyone has died in order now," said Kenny.

"Number six?  I, oh no, JP!" said Nicki before rushing off with Melanie.

"What's that have to do with JP?" asked Little John.

"JP is number seven," answered Heather.

"Oh, damn," said Little John before wandering away from the group.

A stab of jealousy invaded Christy's thoughts at seeing Nicki's reaction.  Rok would never show emotions like that about her. 

'How did I end up with such a pig headed, stubborn, uncaring son of a bitch?' thought Christy. 

"I'm not dead yet baby," she heard JP say as Nicki was crying on his shoulder.

'Just once I want him to call me baby maybe even sweetie.  Not hey you or bitch' thought Christy with a sigh.

"Look, we can't leave him laying around, it's not healthy.  Big John, Gabe, grab a shovel and start digging a grave for him," said JP once Nicki had calmed down.

Christy got tired of watching Nicki and JP together and then saw Debbie and Creagh.  The two of them never left each other's side and he was slowly rubbing her back to comfort her.  She looked away and there was Alan and Karen with each other.  She looked away from them and saw George with Tammi and Carrie.  Then Grant and Caz, Little John and Kim, even Colorado James was with Sara comforting her.  She couldn't take it anymore. 

'I've had enough.  It's over with that prick,' she decided.

She walked over to the cave and crawled inside.  Rok was the only person in the cave and in the dim light she could see him curled up in a fetal position.  As she crossed over towards him to tell him it was over, she couldn't believe it, he was crying.

"I'm such a fucking idiot," he said between sobs.

"Idiot?" questioned Christy.

"I'm not thinking straight and I'm fucking everything up.  It's all my fault that he got killed," cried Rok.

"What?  No, it could have happened to anyone," said Christy, her anger with him subsiding.

"No, I shouldn't have insisted on taking him alone.  We could have come back for the stuff.  The four of us could have stopped him, we could have put an end to that sick fucker but I blew it."

"You made a decision and went with it.  We were all still stunned after the attack by the lizard.  Right or wrong at least you tried to do something."

"It's not just Travis.  I know I'm really fucking things up with you and I just don't know what to do or say.  Every time I get it in my head to tell you that I love you, I get all mixed up because, I'm, I'm scared baby and I don't know what to do," he said and wrapped his arms around her.

She was stunned.  Not only was he actually showing real emotion and exposing his vulnerabilities to her, he'd actually in a round about way said he loved her and called her baby.  All thoughts of breaking things off with him were gone.  He was her man and she was sticking with him.  He might be very rough around the edges and not as affectionate as she might like, but she knew he'd do just about anything for her and that was good enough.

"You'll always have me stud, always."

Currently listening : Stand by Your Man By Tammy Wynette Release date: 1999-10-19

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