A Question of Humanity

Soontir948 · Post by **Soontir948** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:00 am

As Andy walked over to the command tent, he saw all three of them at the entrance. He looked at their faces and noticed it was only the guys whom seemed to be speechless about something.

"What did I missed?," he said concernedly.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:23 pm

"Fuck you, you miserable fuck!" Dane roared. "Show yourself! You've got magic or super powers or whatever the fuck you have! What the fuck are you afraid of? Show yourself you motherfucker!"

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:31 pm

The man continued screaming, waving his fists in the air

What the hell?! Nadya shied back even more, step by step, until she felt herself bump into something. There was nothing there a few seconds ago, she was sure.

She let out a scream of surprise and jumped back, turning around and bringing her machete to bear.

It was the creepy man from the plane.

-----------------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:09 am

This was bad. Something strange was happening here, and the only other person seemingly not affected was the creep. Her chances of getting out of this one kept getting slimmer and slimmer by the minute.

Calm. I am calm. she kept thinking to herself over and over. There is a way out of this. I just have to see it.

She turned to the big man again.

"Calm down, please. It's all going to be alright. There is nobody but us here. Take a deep breath and tell me what you saw."

----------------------------

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:22 pm

"You don't even fucking remember, do you?" said Dane. "You probably think I'm fucking insane, don't you? You wouldn't believe the truth when I told it to you then, you won't believe it now." He turned away from her.

Arming himself was easy. A knife from the kitchen in his belt, under his jacket, and a length of wood made a decent club. Lantern in one hand, club in the other, he headed for the cave.

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:40 pm

"What are you talking about...where are you going?!" Nadya shouted as he strode towards the kitchen tent, ignoring her outburst.

"Zach," she she turned to the other man. "Listen to me. We have to calm him down. Can you help me?"

-----------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Soontir948 · Post by **Soontir948** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:37 pm

Andy had no idea what was going on or what Dane was talking about. All he knew was the direction that he was heading for.

"Whoa hold on a second, you don't want to go there!," he yelled, "There was someone screaming down there and you could be fucking next!"

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:21 pm

"I'd love to, but look at him. That man has completely lost his shit. And frankly, with what happened the last time we tried going into that cave, I'm in no mood to go into it chasing some crazy asshole."

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:01 pm

Cave? Screams? What is he talking about? Nadya thought. Something's happening here, the same thing that drove the others away, some sort of madness. She began trembling, slightly. She wanted nothing more than to be far away, safely in New York.

It took a supreme effort of will not to run off into the jungle.

"C-c-cave?" she said, regaining control of her voice. "Screams? You obviously know something I don't." She turned to Zach. "What did I miss?"

------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:10 pm

"Dane came into the tent screaming about some crazy symbols and a cave. Then the lights went out. When they turned back on, you were gone. We left the tent to go to the cave, the lights went back out again and we found ourselves 5 minutes ago." Zach shook his head. "One could say it was a bit confusing."

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:16 pm

"What?" Nadya blinked. "Lights went out? Found ourselves five minutes ago? That makes no sense!"

She paused to think for a moment.

"I've just finished searching the sleeping tents for supplies when I found you."

-----------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:31 pm

"Yeah, and from my perspective, that was about 5 or 10 minutes ago. I distinctly remember Dane was holding that machete you just brought in."

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:44 pm

In his own way, Zach was as crazy as the big man...Dane, he called him, Nadya realized with a start. All this talk of perspectives and time-travel, it made no sense.

"So..uh... the tent you just left? Did you see anything there? Anything unusual?" Whatever caused it, it had to be from the tent with the antenna.

-----------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:17 pm

"No, just a sabotaged radio and some logs partially explaining why the generators are failing and where the hell everyone went."

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:49 am

Nadya stared at him. "Where did they go? What happened here?"

Behind her, she could hear Dane's screamed ramblings over the sound of the rain. He was quickly approaching the tent with the cave.

----------------------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:12 pm

Upon entering the excavation tent, Dane found it restored from any disturbance from when he last saw it, time itself having seemingly reset. The mouth of the cave looms ahead, somehow more ominous for the intense illumination than if it were completely dark. What within so terrified the crew that they could not face it without light as great as day? How does it relate to his past, to the pasts of everyone else?

The only way to find out is to step across the threshold.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:38 pm

Lantern in one hand, club in the other, Dane entered the cave.

Soontir948 · Post by **Soontir948** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:06 pm

"Goddamn it!", Andy said, "Great, we can't let him go in there by himself. Army nut is probably the only one of us here who knows how to survive out here. I've gone hiking a few times with friends but I never knew I needed to actually know this shit!" "Fuck!"

Andy went inside the tent looking for another flashlight and went back out.

"I sure as fuck don't want to go to that cave either but noooo Army nut decides to go deeper into shit than out."

Andy continued on past the two towards the cave.

"We'll we gonna try and get him back or what?", he yelled out.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:02 pm

"Merde. All right, let's do it. Maybe this time the world won't reset on us." Zach guided Nadya ahead of him after Andy.

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:26 pm

"Hold on, we have to take that journal. If there's an answer to whatever the hell is going on here, it's probably in there," she slipped out of Zach's hands and stepped into the tent.

She swept her eyes along the tent, taking in the interior- the maps and geological surveys on the walls and table, chairs knocked over and papers strewn everywhere. Computers, by contrast, were neatly powered off and tucked away. Then, she spotted what she was looking for- a radio, and next to it, a thick log book.

She paused, before picking it up. Did she really want to do this? These people were clearly out of their minds, irrational. And yet...she looked at the open page, taking in the entry. She couldn't just abandon them to their fate. Not Dane, who saved her life, nor the medic, not even the creepy guy.

She sighed and turned back towards the exit, limping quickly out of the tent and back into the pouring rain.

"Come on!" she headed towards the tent into which Dane disappeared

-----------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Soontir948 · Post by **Soontir948** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:46 pm

Andy arrived at the tent and didn't find Dane anywhere.

"Great, he must've charged right in," he sighed harshly. He took a look around one more time and found the shovel where it was before he had taken it previously. With it in his hands, he felt a bit more safer but not much.

He walked back to the tent entrance and called out, "Hey, what's taking you two so long?"

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:58 am

The cave is brightly lit by numerous electrical lamps, the floor covered in snaking cables. Dry and warm from the radiant heat from all of the lamps, the only real moisture is from the mud tracked in by whoever ran in here before. These tracks however rapidly dwindle away to nothing.

The cave is clearly partially artificial as there are numerous marks on the walls indicative of natural walls and ceilings being chipped back by human labour. Incredibly long and back breaking labour in fact, for to the eye of an archaeologist, whatever work was done was without the aid of metal tools. Whoever did this also added on more skilled workings in the form of strange paintings further into the cave. Much of it is in the form of stick figures carrying out their daily lives and ceremonies, but there are other, stranger things. Abstract lines and geometric figures, things without readily distinguishable meanings. Deeper into the cavern the abstractions begin to take over while the stick figures get increasingly violent towards each other. Along the way some of the abstractions start to take on familiarity. Dane saw some of the symbols that had been there the night his family died. Andy saw what he had thought were weird gang signs sprayed as graffiti down in the subway tunnels. Zach could swear he'd seen some of the things in his medical textbooks... somewhere. And Nadya thought she could see Russian words in the paintings when seen out of the corner of her eye, but nothing that could even be considered close to any form of writing let alone Cyrillic when looked at straight on.

Then the tunnel reached an abrupt bend down where the paintings all died away. The only way forward was a short drop, perhaps less than a meter, then to duck down and move off to the right. Bright yellow light continued through from the other side of the transition. However, ominously there are three last pictures around the hole. One is a white star pattern speckled with a few other dots. The second is an abstraction of a flame in red ochre. The third is a representation of a grinning human skull in black.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:10 am

"Fuck you, you time bending asshole," Dane muttered. "You think I'm scared by this? It's too late for that. I moved way passed fear, passed terror, you mind bending fuck."

He jumped down to the drop and crouched down to get through the hole.

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:09 pm

Nadya made her way into the tent and stared into the gaping mouth of the cave. She really did not want to go in. She turned around, looking at Zach for encouragement, sighed, and went in.

The cave was well lit, dry and far warmer than the wet jungle outside, but Nadya could not help but shiver as she limped down the cave. Then she stopped.

"The tracks, they're just...gone?"

This can't be happening. It just can't! People don't just disappear into thin air!

"Dane? Come back!" she shouted into the cave. The words echoed through the tunnel, but no response came.

"DANE?!"

She gripped the machete tighter with her trembling hand and started walking forward again.
--------------------------------------

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

fgalkin · Post by **fgalkin** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 11:07 am

If the tracks disappearing were bad, what came afterward was far, far worse. The pictures, the symbols on the walls...Nadya could swear that they moved, shifted, changed. Some of the symbols looked like Cyrillic, she swore. She would turn her head and take a closer look, and then they were something...else. Something strange.

"T-t-this is not possible," she whispered, leaning in closer to Zach's and grabbing his hand for support. "The symbols...."

Together, they made their way through the cave until the bend. Nadya swallowed hard, looking at the pictures- a white star pattern speckled with a few other dots, a flame in red ochre and a skull in black. She was covered in cold sweat. Her leg hurt. She realized she would very much rather take her chances trekking through the jungle outside, even with the creep in tow, than take another step.

"DANE! ARE YOU THERE?" she yelled.

------------------------------------

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

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A Question of Humanity

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