The Congo

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Shalimar and Brennan looked at each other as the jet, set on auto pilot, flies back towards their head quarters, and home. They were going to be stuck out here for a long while and there goes their ticket home. They would have to wait for a while if they got into trouble for the jet to come pick them up.

“So, which way do we head?”

“According to this transmission, we head north east of here.”

Shalimar sighed and picked up her bags, and headed in that direction. Sighing, Brennan started after her, carrying his packs similarly. It was hot and humid, they were stuck together, and they had a really bad fight just before leaving. This was not going to be a very fun mission together. But he still couldn’t shake an ominous feeling he got as soon as Emma had told them that Adam wanted them. Now that they were in the jungle, it had gotten worse.

“Shalimar, wait up! You’re going to fast!”

Brennan had to run up to her as she went through brush on game trails. Mostly pig trails, making it difficult for him to keep up as he had to swim through vegetation. Because he was watching his feet and the bushes, he didn’t see that Shalimar was stopped in front of him. Therefore, he rammed right into her back.

“Oof!”

“Shhh! Be quiet Brennan, there’s something ahead of us.”

“Where, I don’t see anything-!”

Brennan fell to his knee after he felt a sharp, needle-like prick on his shoulder. Shalimar whirled around to look at him. Her eyes went wide in surprise, but she said nothing. Instead, she crouched down next to him and gently pressed around the dart. The dart was actually high tech, up to date. The silver gleamed in the sun light shinning through the canopy, or what sunlight that was coming through.

“Brennan, are you all right?”

“I… I think so. My legs just collapsed on me.”

At that moment, some mutants leapt out of the brush in front of them and attacked. Shalimar’s eyes instantly changed as she started to fight. Brennan at first only dodged attacks and used his fist, but then he was forced to use his powers; which he wasn’t able to do.

“Uh, Shalimar…”

“Uh, Shalimar…!”

“Shalimar!”

“What is it Brennan? I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

“I can’t use my powers. I’m kind of helpless over here.”

“Damn it Brennan, I told you to be quiet. Blackblood must’ve been in that dart.”

“Yeah- kind of nice- now that you mention it! But I am fighting a mutant over here to—!”

“Brennan, are you okay?”

She looked to see that one of the other mutants had knocked Brennan clear across the little defrayal. The force had knocked him out. Her eyes shone a little brighter and she went into a berserker-like mode, becoming even faster and stronger than she was. She soon had the enemy at bay, four laying dead in unnatural positions and three knocked out. The other six decided that their necks weren’t worth being killed and they grabbed their knocked out buddies and took off. Shalimar immediately went back to normal and ran to the downed Brennan.

“Brennan! Brennan! Talk to me! Are you alright?”

“No… my head feels as if somebody crushed it.”

Shalimar bit back a sob, not wanting anyone to see her cry, especially not Brennan. She helped him to his feet and looked around. She thought she heard an echo sound close by while she was fighting. Following her animal-like instincts, she went the direction they told her. She soon found herself at the mouth of a cave with dense brush and vines surrounding it. Just to make sure, she had Brennan sit close to the mouth, but not in it, and went in.

She had found nothing there that indicated that it was occupied, so she helped Brennan in. Once he was settled, she went all the way back to the fight scene and gathered up both of their packs that were dropped in the heat of the moment and took them back to the cave. She started a small fire, not for warmth, but to keep wild animals away, but she herself stayed back some ways from it.

Brennan was pretty close to the fire as he warmed up the water from the canteens, sterilizing it. He then went to Shalimar as she stared silently at the mouth of the cave, as if she was expecting something to come in through there. He touched her shoulder and she jumped a little.

“That’s something new. What has all of your attention that I can scare you?”

“Startled, not scared. And it feels as if something is watching us from out there.”

“Hmmmm… to tell you the truth, I had a bad feeling about this trip from the moment Lexa told us that Adam wanted us.”

“Then why’d you come?”

“I don’t know. Duty?”

“How are your powers coming along?”

“I still can’t even start a spark. This stuff is pretty strong.”

“Do you know how long it lasts…?’

“No… do we still have the intercom?”

“I don’t think we grabbed it.”

“Damn. How can we contact Adam?”

“No, this mission is important. I will not have Adam cancel it just because I am unable to use my powers. I know the martial arts too Shalimar, we practiced along side each other. We are continuing with this mission Shalimar.”

Shalimar whirled on him, pinning him against the cave wall. Her eyes were slightly glowing as she used her powers so that he couldn’t escape.

“It’s not just you Brennan. I almost lost control today. I haven’t done that since Adam gave me that retro-virus. No, wrong. I did lose some control today. I killed four of those men, and nearly three of the others. I couldn’t stop myself Brennan! I kept telling myself to stop, but I wouldn’t. Don’t you understand? I may completely lose control, and it won’t just be the enemy who I’ll be after.”

Brennan could see the pain clearly in her eyes as they dimmed and her grip loosened. His features softened a little as he cupped one side of Shalimar’s face in a hand. When that didn’t help, he held her face in both hands, forcing her to look at him.

“You won’t be alone Shalimar. We’ll get through this. Maybe this is part of the reaction to the virus, maybe this is how it works.”

Shalimar smiled a little at him. Brennan knew the fear of losing control. After all, that is his biggest fear, to lose control of his gift. He bent his head to hers and kissed. She returned the kiss, both of them going deeper. This was going to be a long night, for the both of them.

The person smiled as it saw the two make up after an obvious fight. Love was always stronger than hate. It brought people closer together. After all, love from its parents had brought this being into existence. And love will take it out when the time was right.

The individual withdrew from the foliage. It is time to find out where those intruders were. They were in its territory and it didn’t want them there. They brought noise and disturbance here in this peaceful land. They brought death and loss of homes. They were not supposed to be here.

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A/N: Yey! I got the next chappie done. This is wonderful. I had fun doing this chappie, although it was a little hard. I had to look at the character profiles as I wrote it. 

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Outside Help

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Shalimar rose from Brennan’s arms that morning and hurriedly got dressed. She rummaged around in their packs, only to find that they had freeze-dried, bland food. Sighing, she headed out of the cave. She walked no more than five feet when she tripped over something, nearly falling.

Looking down, she sees a dead animal. Examining more closely, she finds that it’s still warm and that it appeared to have died for no reason. Shrugging, she picked up the boar and took it inside the cave with little difficulty. Once there, she started the process of chopping it up. It was very difficult, considering that she didn’t have a very big knife with her and that there was bone, and also that she had never done this before.

Brennan awoke to the smell of roasting meat. He blinked in confusion several times before remembering where he was. He rose behind him to see Shalimar struggling with a pig over the fire. He frowned in confusion as he got dressed and went to her.

“Why are you cooking that and how did you get it? I didn’t know you could hunt, or cook?”

“I’m cooking it so that we don’t have to eat that bland space crap. I found the pig outside and I don’t know how to cook. This is my first time.”

Brennan sighed, then moved to the mouth of the cave. The weather had been perfect so far, but it was still hard to see the sky although there was light down at the bottom of the rain forest. He felt the presence of eyes on him, but he didn’t know where it was coming from. He peered through the foliage, but still didn’t see anything.

“along?”

“Hm? What?”

“I said, ‘How are your powers coming along?”

“Still can’t use it.”

“What were you staring at so intensely?”

“Oh, just thinking.”

“About what?”

“I don’t think we’re alone.”

“Well yeah. The enemy is here too.”

“No, not them. Something else. I don’t know what, but I just feel it.”

“You too? It doesn’t feel hostile, only curious… and hopeful…”

“Hopeful for what?”

“Don’t know. Anyway, I think the pig’s almost done.”

“Do we have water left?”

“Not much. I gave you some, cleaned the cut on your arm and drank some myself.”

“I’m going to look for more. I won’t take long.”

“Alright, but be careful.”

Brennan smiled reassuringly at her before leaving, taking the three canteens with him. He got a few yards out when he noticed that a game trail passed in front of their cave. Deciding that it was his best bet, he followed it. It wasn’t long, about five to ten minutes before he found a flowing lagoon with a small waterfall and a stream leading away. Judging it to be safe, he dunked the canteen under the water.

The whole time he felt eyes on him, but could not figure out where they were coming from. He ended up hurrying back with the water. The sense was too much without knowing where it was coming from. He came in, slightly out of breath, but other than the wrapped up arm, perfectly okay.

Taking in a deep breath, he entered it. Shalimar was eating a pig leg and looked up at him. She briefly nodded to the cooked pig, which the outside looked very burnt, but the chunk Shalimar cut off showed that it was quite done. He smiled and sat down next to her and dropped the containers between them.

He cut a chunk off the rump where Shalimar already slice and took a bite. It was quite good for Shalimar’s first try at cooking, but it could use a little spices and juices. After that, he automatically thought, ‘I’m getting lazy and spoiled. The wild people… wild people? Maybe…’

“Hey Shalimar! Do you think that those presences that we can feel could be the wild people, the tribes that live out here?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of tribes out here, but then again, this is not a very explored part of the Congo.”

“Great! We don’t even know what’s here!”

“Hello!”

They both turned to see a girl standing in the font of the cave inside. She had long black hair, and her eyes were a little shadowed. Other than that, she looked completely normal. But all they could do was stare at her in shock. A girl had just entered the cave without them knowing and being in the Congo, shouldn’t have known their language.

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A/N: Yey! I got another chap done. I’m having fun with this! This is going great and smoother than planned. Every time I wrote that they had eyes on them, I kept picturing eyes appearing on their backs. Anyways, I hope you like it.