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SUMMARY: The twelfth in a 14 part serial short story- a new one every week. I wrote this to be recorded as an audio story- you can hear it at www.williamhrdina.com- but I think it holds up as a regular short story as well, and its finished so it won't disappear.

Croucher
Part XII "Precariousness"
By William Hrdina

They buried John Legasse in a grave underneath a large pine tree. They didn't have proper tools, so they had to dig the hole by breaking up the ground with sticks and then scooping the dirt out by hand. There were plenty of shovels hidden with the rest of the Village's technology in the hatch, but no one was going to take them out. The villagers watched the hikers as they dug the hole and bloodied their soft hands in the dirt.
When they were finished it was midday. They said prayers silently over the grave. Logan found himself crying again, but he wasn't embarrassed, he saw everyone else was crying too- even his Dad. For his part, Ryan was doing everything he could to hold himself together. He'd wanted excitement, and a chance to bond with his boy- but this was a bit much.
Once the prayers were over, the villager whose real name was Thomas approached them. He pointed at each of them in turn and then pointed away, back towards the direction they came in.
"Is he telling us to leave?" Dottie asked, annoyed.
"I think he is." Ryan agreed.
"But we don't know where we're going." Dottie said. She turned to Thomas and repeated herself, "We don't know where we're going. Oh, why am I bothering- you don't understand."
"Let's go find a way up the cliff so we can see where we're at." Cliff said.
Except Thomas was clearly not going to let them get anywhere near the cliff. He stepped between the hikers and their destination.
Then things broke down. And when it happened- it happened quickly.
"You get out of our way." Cliff said, scared, and covering up his fear with bravado.
"I'm afraid I cannot do that." Thomas said in plain English. He then reached into the folds of his animal skin clothes and removed a very modern, very shiny, handgun.
Not really thinking, acting purely on instinct, Cliff went for the gun. He was able to hit man's gun hand, but wasn't able to outpace how quickly John could pull the trigger. The bullet went straight through the center of Cliff's heart, killing him instantly, his body collapsing to the ground.
Dottie screamed liked a banshee- running straight at the man who killed her husband with her nails bared like daggers. Her vision showed her nothing but red. Ryan leapt to try to catch her, but she was too fast- too angry. She felt a rage of righteousness that made her feel invincible.
Sadly, the gun didn't care how she felt. Neither did the bullets- they killed her just as dead as they would someone who deserved it.
At the sound of the gunshot the rest of the villagers came streaming out of the forest.
Thomas went into a rage. He reached out and grabbed Ryan by the hair, yanking hard. "You want to see? You're so desperate to discover the secret? You're willing to die for it? Fine. We'll let you see the secret. And then you, and your boy, will be killed and at great expense to us, your deaths will be covered up, and your bodies will never be found. John didn't have the GPS and emergency transponder with him- we took it from you while you were sleeping- amazing what a little sleeping gas can do in a windowless room.