Far Pangaea 23 : Pale Face

Cameron Scott and Malcolm Brand reached the carriage in the desert. They could tell someone had added to their unpacked carnage.

"She's been here. I don't remember leaving that door open. It was locked from the inside. We only entered this door over here." Cam points out.

Rubbing sweat from his face on his sleeve Malcolm nodded, "Still no foot prints outside of the ones our boots left last visit. How is that possible?"

"I got no clue." Cam offers as he pulls his back pack from his shoulder.

Malcolm creases his brow, "You brought the diary box back?"

"Yeah! It felt too personal now that I know she's still alive. I figure we leave it here as a sign of trust. Maybe she will stop being skittish and come out of hiding again."

"Sound plan. Should have brought that top hat back too. Don't look good on you Buddy."

"We never did tease Elle and Ruby with those dresses. Sabbath might need those back too. Wasn't thinking." Cam shook his head.

Mal shrugs in response, "They're there when she comes back. Leave her a note."

"As if I have a pen and paper. I left it back in my room." The pilot rolls his eyes.

"Paper in that diary."

"I'm not going to intrude on her personal life. If she ever wants to talk about it I'm all ears."

"Doesn't sound much like you. All honorable."

"Respect!" Cam expresses.

Malcolm re-opens the Magician's box and finds a bottle of dried ink and a quilled pen.

"Here. Fill it with a little water and you have ink. This Primross guy had flyers for his Magic Shows. Write her a note on the back."

Approving the idea Cam did just that.

"Sabbath, I had no idea you were still alive. I'm returning your diary like a Gentleman. I swear I never read it. There is no need to fear us. I hope to see you again. If not please take care of yourself. Your friend Cameron."

Looking over his shoulder Malcolm nods, "Nice. Make's my eyes all misty."

"It is pretty dusty out here. Wanna borrow my Visine?" Cam laughs.

"Let's check out something while we're out here. No reason to waste our trip. Who knows she might be hold up in one of these boats."

Cam follows Malcolm's lead.

Their first stop found a World War 2 Flying Tiger bomber. It was an easy survey. It's landing left it mostly intact. Only it's landing gear was busted up. Small tears in it's left wing. The windshield still in it's frame only webbed from it's impact in the dirt. Even it's trail left in the sand was still evident.

In the cockpit was the corpse of a man wearing an Army issue uniform. This included Aviation goggles. Dog tags dangled around his bones. Leather bomber jacket still in good shape. Cam carefully reached in and saluted the man before removing the tags. The jacket wasn't his size.

"Rest well, Vincent."

Malcolm also saluted the man from the outside, "1944."

"Looks like the right year. Too bad this baby couldn't be detailed. Little fixing up I might be able to fly this thing."

"Maybe we got a tow truck hiding in our house." Mal chuckles.

"Or a hangar. Ship that size has room for everything."

"You know I'll help you tune it up. Might be cool to use on scouting missions."

"Question is...can anything with power fly? I mean look at all the crashes. I totally lost power once we ended up here." Cam acknowledges.

Malcolm shrugs, "James has those gravity drones flying. Might be possible."

"True."

The two move on.

Back at the Ganthorian vessel.

Ruby and James raced across the ship's hull to see why the dog Xander was so agitated. As they reached the sandy ridge the ship rested against they peered over to see Xander in the distance. He was darting about as if chasing a ghost.

"Has your pup gone crazy?"

"Looks like he's chasing a slight dust storm ." James squints.

As they continued to observe the strangeness, their attention switched to a newcomer.

"Greta's going for a ride." James points at the cowgirl on her horse approaching to their right.

It was nice seeing something normal Ruby thought.

James whistles at the highest pitch possible, "HERE BOY! COME ON BACK."

Greta gallops her horse to about thirty yards of their side, "I'll ride on over and coax him back."

They stand by watching her ride when Ruby leers over at James, "So what were you really doing pointing that notebook at me?"

James expresses a look of guilt, "Nothing. I was checking the area is all."

"So that pad has the ability to survey over distances? There's no cameras that I see on the ships hull that could assist that type of mode."

"It picks up movements like it's own camera. Senses body temperature. That kind of thing."

"Uh huh!" Ruby frowns with doubt that fades as she checks on Greta's ride.

Out on the desert Greta gets closer to Xander's darting about. At fifty yards her horse comes to a halt and rears up forcing her to hold on for dear life.

"What the devil's wrong with you Quiver?"

Her eyes scan about as she manages to get her horse to stay on all fours and step in a backward stride.

The dog dashes about as if trying to lure something away. He would have been great in a cattle drive she thought. Then she spotted something odd. The desert floor was leaving odd creases in it. It reminded her of the giant foot prints back at her oasis. Only much bigger. They were coming right at her.

"I gotta be seeing things." Yet her horse reacts nervously again. Then she spots Xander yelp and act as if he was nudged aside. The dust cloud increased. Something was charging her. Greta's eyes couldn't grow any wider.

Turning Quiver in step she heeled his sides into a run, followed by a loud, "YAWWWWW!"

On the ridge Ruby narrowed her eyes, "She's acting like she's running from something."

"Xander's giving chase. Why is Greta motioning us to run?"

Ruby instinctively pulls her Glock from her waist band.

James in turn pulls out his pad and aims it toward the oncoming horse. He programs it to monitor movement and a full spectrum of anything oncoming. With a look of terror in his eyes he can't speak, only reach out to grab for Ruby's arm. Only it was her right breast as she turned toward him. Swatting it away she snatches the pad to look for herself.

"HOLY FUCK!!!" She gasped as the pad showed Greta being pursued by the outline of a giant lizard the size of a school bus. They were headed right at them. And closing fast.

"James! Move! Run!"

The unfortunate side was the only place close was the ships hull. Inevitably they had no choice but to travel the hull in hopes to escape.

"Head for the sunroof area. Maybe you can drop down on to Jack and Elle." She hurries him along.

"No! The sunroof glass is too thick. They don't completely open up. All we can do is try to confuse that thing and get behind him where we can run over the ridge."

Gunshots echo the area as Greta while riding at top speed utilizes her Winchester. Only audible hisses from the lizard was heard.

"Invisible lizards do NOT exist." Ruby keeps telling herself as they move past the antenna array.

"That looked like a Komodo Dragon. It's shape anyway." James gasps for wind.

More echoes erupt as Greta reaches the hull and literally rides Quiver across the metal.

"Ya'll need to run that way. I'll try and keep him busy." Greta calls out at the top of her lungs.

Between Xander nipping at it's heels and Greta's darting about there was a loud thud that shook the proximity. The lizard had set foot on the hull.

James stops running forcing Ruby to turn back to grab him. He swiftly pulls his pack from his shoulder and digs inside.

"They need help before one of them gets killed."

"Or we get killed. What are you doing?" frets Ruby.

He produces the softball sized drone, "You haven't been introduced. This is "D.R.1"." Activating it he tosses it into the air. In mid air it begins to gravitate and find altitude. James using his pad sends out a program for it to defend against the biggest object out there. Thus making certain it didn't attack Greta's horse. Once the signal is initiated the orb flies away at a break neck speed and zigzags around the lizard. Tiny ports open up on the drones shell that begins firing laser beams at the lizard. Loud screeches were the result.

"Look! Your toy just forced that lizard to go visible. Now we know what we're aiming at."

Greta continues shooting from awkward angles as Quiver tries to keep them safe. In the horses stride it didn't realize it was racing to the far edge of the vessel. Nor it's six story drop to the ground below. Greta panicked at looking over the edge as Quiver managed to follow the rim instead of leaping off. Too close for comfort.

Ruby pushed James along, "It's attention is divided. Let's go while we can."

The two charged toward the sandy ridge over a block away. Xander chose to dog their heels to escape as well.

As the drone bombarded the lizard from various angles it made the beast retreat back into the desert. The chase went on for a tenth of a mile before the orb's range grew dim. It then changed course and returned to follow James.

Whizzing by Greta who was catching up to Ruby and James freaked her out. She was terrified enough without technology boggling her mind.

"Let's get inside. In case that thing comes back." Ruby reacted to Greta trotting beside their pace.

"What about my cows? It's probably after them." The cowgirl shivers.

James catches D.R.1 as it zooms back to his hand, "Better than R.2.D.2 any day."

Their feet carry them down to level ground and narrow the gap to the cow pen. Greta had reached the pen already. Jumping off of her horse she raced over to the ramp of the space craft. Jack and Sophia were at the top dragging more metal out.

"Now ya'll show up." She calls up.

Jack looks down over his shoulder, "Meaning what?"

Before she can say another word Ruby joins her with a gasping James.

"Big lizard. Invisible lizard. You couldn't hear us on the roof?"

Ruby growls at Jack.

"This boats pretty insulated. Obviously not. Everyone alright?"

Unified the trio bark, "NO!"

Everyone hurries up the ramp except Greta. She looked back at Quiver then the pen.

"I left the door open. Where's my calf?"

All eyes bulge.

Stupid move.