All Good Things...

[Sargun II]

It was amazing what one could do with a little genetic engineering. One hundred and fourteen cherry blossom trees, fifty-seven on each side, lined the winding gravel road that split off from the main road to the north. There was a gate with no fences or sides that opened ceremonially to the gravel road that marked the ownership of the property. The gate read [i]The Tintagyl Cherry Estate[/i] in calligraphy across the top, and a broken lock let it swing open without a creak.

After passing the gate, one would traverse the always-perfect cherry blossom road until they hit a crescent-shaped lake. The lake was picture perfect as well. There was a shallow bridge that crossed the lake and divided it in two, and at the end of the lake there was another gravel path. This well-worn path led to the elegant 'Cherry Manor'. It was two stories tall and quite wide, but was not too large or overly grand. The building was painted in hues of light reds and pinks and had an oriental style that suited the colors perfectly.

And outside of the house, a man was playing futbol with some Transvaler children. He was obviously outmatched but was skilled on his own; the children were laughing at his foolish attempts at tricking all of them, but still amazed somebody "so old" could do such things. After a few more minutes, the sun started to crawl under the horizon and the children left with the ball in their hands.

Evan Hiley went into the house and threw his shirt into a room downstairs filled with other clothes. He had neglected to do his own clothes for the week and knew that there would be another night of him trying to work a washing machine with disastrous results ahead but cared little as the nights were always sources of laughter. He walked upstairs and slowly poked the slightly ajar door to the master bedroom open. Evan stuck his head in and smiled. Nobody was in the bed but the bathroom light was on, so he quietly got on top of the large bed and spread himself in one of those faux sexy poses.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

As Evan sat on the bed the first puffs of steam began to pour out from the bathroom as the running water of the shower was turned off. From within he would be able to hear the opening and closing of the shower door and the sound of humming coming from the woman inside the room. She took her time, as she always did in the bathroom, there were days that she spent thirty minutes to an hour cleaning and preparing herself and the evening was always the worse, a hot shower was the best way to make the dirt and grime run off from the hard days of work. Sarah, even on retirement, was busy, aside from spending as much time as she could with Evan, she also frequented her Chateau in France under the persona of the Countess de Saint-Germain, but that was secret. As far as anyone else knew she was just the continuously charming former Lady Protector of the Hansa and still one of the most gorgeous women in the world.

Wrapping a towel around her body and cleaning out her ears with another hand towel, she opened the door to the bedroom and nearly jumped back into the bathroom in surprise at the man staring back at her laying on the bed with the smirk on his face. "Evan! For the love of God! I told you how many times, when I'm in the shower you..." Then looking at the pose her eyes narrowed. "No...no no no no no. Out, out right now, I'm tired and I'm not dealing with this tonight." Naturally he didn't move. Groaning she walked over to her dresser, pulled out her nightgown and retreated back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. About five minutes later she returned out to the bedroom with a brush in one hand and sat down at her vanity, beginning to brush her hair. "So I wrote another letter to Valeria today, I told her, I said this entire war is unjust and that if I was still in power in Brisbane it would be a cold day in hell before Dragonisians landed on California's shores. I mean honestly, what in the world is Hannah thinking." Sarah shook her head as she dropped the brush back on the vanity and walked over to the bed laying down next to Evan. "You know there's days that I miss it, you got to meet so many interesting people and all. Though I guess for all the adventures that we've had, I made a pretty crappy leader. Great poster girl, bad leader." She laughed and snuggled into his arm.

"Oh Heather called today, she told me to tell you that things are going great at the university and that she should be home this weekend. Terra...well." Sarah chuckled. "You know how Terra is with responding to anything I write. How were the neighbors?"

[Sargun II]

Evan, of course, didn't move as she ordered him out. His grin lasted for the whole five minutes until she came out the room and started brushing her hair. When Sarah started talking about the ridiculous Tahoan shenanigans going on, he sort of blanked out and started thinking about how unfortunately long the nightgown was. Dozens of Sarahs were dancing a la [i]Single Ladies[/i] in nightgowns for a few moments before she snuggled into his arm. He shook his head at the words 'bad leader' and gave her an affectionate half-hug.

At the mention of Terra, his grin faltered and he let out a sigh. "They whooped my $@!, as usual. You know, I wish Terra would act... just..." He bit his tongue and sighed again. "I wish Adnan would talk to me, he seemed to understand her better. Oh, well. Hey, I got a ne-"

[i][url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr7-x7_oOEY]Ring~[/url][/i]

Evan stopped and reached into his pocket; he checked the number and blinked. "Not anyone I kn... wait, ain't that the White Cross?" He flashed the number so fast to Sarah she probably wouldn't have been able to read it, then opened it up and answered the phone.

"Hello, th-"

"[i]Is this Evan Hiley's number? May I speak with him?[/i]" A smooth voice glided out of the speaker of the phone.

"Calm down, honey, what's the rush? This is him, yeah?" He lowered the volume so that Sarah wouldn't have to listen to an entire conversation and listened to the young woman speak. After about two minutes, Evan let go of Sarah, stood up, and walked out of the room.

Thirteen seconds later a door slammed and he screamed as loud as he had twenty years ago.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sarah watched in confusion as Evan jumped off the bed and stormed out of the room, she waited for a moment hearing the doors of the estate slam as Evan walked out onto the veranda before he screamed the loudest she had ever heard him. Immediately, she got off the bed, got into her robe and walked down the stairs towards the front door, her silk nightgown trailing like a queen's dress. Opening the front door slowly, hoping not to startle him, she walked out and gently embraced him in her arms. Both of them lived lives in their past that they had regretted, hell, Sarah still regretted the life she lived even in the present, but it was something that kept her and Evan together, it was something that helped them stand against the world. The two tramps abandoned by everyone, this is how they survived. Burying her head into his side she nestled in, trying to be cute and comforting at the same time.

"What happened...? What does the White Cross want...?"

[Sargun II]

Evan was breathing much like a giant gorilla; after Sarah appeared, he was breathing like a giant gorilla with a beautiful woman in his arms. For a moment he was on the Empire State Building, an unexpected menace flying through the sky and slowly draining the life out of him. He took his left hand and started stroking Sarah's hair as though she was a child, but he didn't look down.

"I love you so much, Sarah." His eyes were fixed on the setting sun, which cast a brilliantly pink glow across the sky. "I have... they want me to..." Tears dropped down on top of Sarah's head. He kept talking but his sentences were incoherent. She would hear something akin to, "...the killing... pears and prostitutes... back... Breya, Africa..." His mind was reeling and incapable of coherent thought at the moment, so he lowered his head and just silently shook in quiet agony.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Evan. Here, sit down." She helped him to the ground as they sat on the front steps of the veranda looking out at the sunset, her hair still smelling like lilacs from the shower. Sarah had heard a few of the names before, Breya especially and that's what bothered her, Evan's past was nothing to be excited about and when it came back to haunt them, it did so in the worst ways. "What's going on with Breya and Africa and why is the White Cross involved. Look." She turned to him and brought his face down to her own. "I can't see you like this, you'll break my heart otherwise and my hearts been broken too many times for me to count. So..." She said massaging his cheek. "What's wrong, what does the White Cross want, and what I'm I going to have to do to make those tears go away?" She smiled lovingly. "There isn't a mountain too tall in the world Evan..."

[Sargun II]

Evan sat quivering in a mixture of fear and rage. He didn't know if the tears from his face were of pity for himself or mourning for the ones he was remembering. Between each tear a hundred tortured faces cried out for mercy and salvation; between each gasp of breath a hundred dead faces cried nothing. A clear vision raced through his head of a dozen children trying to outrun bullets. They lost, but did so in a brilliant red splash. A laugh, a voice, "[i]Those kills are on you, kid,[/i]" and pain. His shoulders spasmed in violent protest. A faded vision with vivid pain.

"Sarah, how many times have you killed? Murdered? Tortured? How many times have you r-r.."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

[i]"Sarah, how many times have you killed? Murdered? Tortured? How many times have you r-r.."[/i]

"Evan. You can't beat yourself up like this every day. We've all done things in the past that we tear ourselves over." She looked up at the sunset. "Brisbane, Europe, death is a natural cycle and we are used in horrible ways as people. What you did is regrettable, its sinful, but if you beat yourself up over it everyday. How can you ever bear to enjoy life anymore? So you have to stop. Okay, you have to listen to me, you have to step back and relax for a moment. Now." She stroked his hair. "What did the White Cross want? Cause either way we're getting to the bottom of this, I'm not letting you hurt yourself like this anymore. Is that understood. Evan?"

[Sargun II]

"Why is - " Evan gasped several times, "Why is it that you're the one who, who who always, you know, ends up... why is it you're stronger than me?" His shoulders spasmed again, but he didn't show signs of physical pain again. He sat, his conscious mind battling the horrors below back into their nooks and crannies with an imaginary sword. His sane knights ran through the demons in his head with swords of brilliant white flashes, the flashes of gunpowder that drowned out all the light in the night.

"They want me to go back. To [b]f-fg-ti[/b]," he stuttered, licked his lips and coughed, "to Fao, Barada Bush, to the camps. That son of a !@#$%* rat !@#$%^& is in a hospital and the White Cross is holding him for... for three days. I'm the only ex-soldier they can contact that would know where to go to get evidence to turn to authorities to..." Evan pressed his head to her neck and breathed in deeply, closing hsi eyes and enjoying the smell.

After a minute, he raised his chin and rested his head on her shoulder. "They'll let him rot in the worst prisons in Africa is I can find something."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Cause someone has to be there to fight the night horrors when you can't. Plus." Sarah smiled. "Its me, I'm your knight in pink armor." She said snuggling next to him as he continued on about the situation that he and Breya were both in. "So they have him jailed? Then its perfect Evan, where is he? We'll be able to get up there in no time at all and after he's rotting in prison maybe you can finally take it easy for a bit, maybe you can finally learn how to relax." He rested his head on her shoulder as she petted his hair. "I'll be okay Evan, I'll have Monica pack our things tonight and we'll be off northward in the morning. Everything will be just fine, promise and if its not...then we'll just have to make it fine."

"Now." She stood up. "I don't want you out on the porch again all night like the other times you have these breakdowns. How about you come up back to bed with me, alright? Its hard to sleep knowing you're down here tearing yourself apart."

Edited April 30, 2010 by Sarah Tintagyl

[Sargun II]

"Do I really come out here every time?" He asked, standing up shakily. "I never really remember." A smile briefly flickered across his face.

[b]***[/b]

Evan awoke at 3:45 that morning. A million thoughts raced through his head but the one at the front was the call he needed to make. He rolled off his side of the bed, thanking whoever decided to buy this foam stuff that didn't move a bit, and tiptoed through the room into the bathroom. Once inside, he decided against closing the creaky door and climbed on the toilet seat. He pushed a weak section of the ceiling out the way, grabbed a cell phone, and walked into the second room of the bathroom. He turned the lowest light on and dialed a thirteen-digit number.

[i]Ring ring ring...[/i]

[i]"Mr. Hiley?"[/i]

"They aren't working, Doc. I need to take some more."

[i]"That is not advisable. Taking too many can be hazardous, and prolonged use can cause - "[/i]

"I don't care, Doc. I want to know if it'll kill me, that's it."

[i]"You need to know all the risks, Ev-"[/i]

"[b]Damnit[/b]," Evan lowered his voice, "I pay you to give me pills not to tell me I shouldn't use them. Will they kill me?"

[i]"...No."[/i]

"Good."

[i]Click. ... ... ...[/i]

Evan put the phone back and reached into the same cavity and found a rather small pillbox. He opened it as quietly as he could, took four out, and popped them all in. He stood there with his head pointed up for close to a minute as he swallowed them one at a time. After a few minutes, he smiled lazily, put the pills back into the crevice, re-placed the ceiling and walked back into the bedroom.

He climbed back into bed and fell asleep, hoping that when he woke up the feelings would still be there.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

The next morning was bright as the sun shown through the windows of the master bedroom of the estate. Sarah's eyes opened weakly, she groaned,turned to the side and put her pillow over her face. Waking up was the last thing on her mind. Moving towards the side, she threw out her arm over Evan's chest but it hit the foam of the mattress. "No way is he up before me?" Sarah picked her head up from the pillow and looked beside her in awe then groaned again, now she had to get up and just as she was beginning to pull herself from the bed, the door to the bedroom opened as one of the maids walked in with a smile on her face.

"Lady Sarah? We expected you down at breakfast, did you not sleep well?

"No." She yawned. "I slept fine, I was just enjoying sleeping on the cloud that's all."

"Of course, well Mister Hiley is already downstairs, dressed and ready to go."

"Go?"

The maid narrowed her eyes curiously. "Uh...milady, you were the one that told us to get your luggage ready for the trip and to be honest Lady Sarah, we were hoping that you would wake up a few hours ago. The train leaves from Bloemfontein in two hours."

Sarah jumped out of the bed in shock. "Two hours?! Why didn't you say something Monica these are the things that I need to be woken up for." The maid sighed as the frantic woman took off like a bat out of Hell to get ready for the train ride from Bloemfontein towards the north. However, of all the people that the maid know, the former Lady Protector could look her best in a flash, a great deal of training had come from the late nights spent in Brisbane preparing for conference calls and week long trips. She brushed her teeth, straightened her hair and in an hour appeared on the veranda of the estate in a black suit coat, a small black hat with a veil that hung over her face, black skirt, and black heels, though needing to contrast, a pink scarf and her nails were painted a hot pink as well. The town car had been packed with their bags, not a huge deal, but enough for a two week long excursion and given Sarah and Evan's pocket books, they would be traveling in style. Kissing him on the cheek, she got into the backseat of the car and took off her gloves and called Monica over. "My equipment is in there too right?"

Monica smiled. "Ladyship, you wouldn't be traveling fully together if you didn't have your equipment."

Sarah touched her jacket feeling the derringer beneath as well. "It'll be a good trip I'm sure."

"Indeed, both of you take care." The maid said as she shut the door to the town car. "Bruno." She said to the chauffeur. "Take care of them on he way to the station."

"Of course Miss." He said as they drove down the road surrounded by the cherry trees and off onto the country roads towards the train station in Bloemfontein. Once they had reached the station, Sarah and Evan boarded the industrial era style train as the workers loaded their bags onto the train and the conductor led them to their seats on the First-Class Section of the train. The presence of Evan Hiley and Sarah Tintagyl after all was something no train conductor and as the train began to steam forward. Sarah smiled pulling back the curtain of the window. "It will be a marvelous ride. So tell me Evan, its just identifying him?"

[Sargun II]

Evan was up rather early and felt like he needed to go immediately. Before the sun had even started to rise he was taking his morning run through the cherry trees. The sun was peeking over the hills by the time he was back and so he decided to take his favorite butler, Alfred, ("My family is a family of butlers, sir, all named Alfred." "Even the women?" "We're born from concubines.") and go through his entire wardrobe on the first floor. It always got a laugh out of people when they found out that Evan had a larger selection of clothes than his wife, especially when they found out he had three times as many shoes.

Alfred and Evan spent two hours packing clothes. The solution was simple: black, James Bond-esque suits. He also had a pink suit that he decided he'd wear the day he felt he was loving Sarah the most, but he put it at the bottom so she wouldn't see it. She didn't know it existed. Anyway, hours later he sat down in his compartment on the train, looking as sharp as Sean Connery when he was addressed by none other than his wife.

"What?"

Evan didn't understand her question at first. He was on a train, so his mind was wandering with stories of homeless men and giant lions. Ever since he was a kid, he had loved trains; trains were the one thing from the Breya era that nobody had ever been able to take away from him. At least he could lock the doors in a traincar. "No. No, no. I have to... I have to find evidence. Witness identifications are barely allowed in courts these days, much less cross-racial identification from twenty, thirty years ago. I have to..." Evan let out a sigh and lowered his head onto his arms. His eyes closed, he hummed a song he learned from his childhood about politically-insensitive pirates who liked to yell obscenities at everyone. It had a great beat.

"I have to find documents, someone to testify, guns, plans, something. And none of it will come cheap or willing at all for that matter." As he said this, his eyes glanced down at one of the two suitcases he had insisted on carrying himself.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Evan!" Sarah grabbed him as he leaned forward humming to himself. "Now I told you to stop this, c'mon, we're on a train, we have the place to ourselves, there's no reason to be down right now. Okay, so evidence, witnesses, guns, we can handle that kind of stuff. We dealt with worse in New Zealand and Manchuria. Also, do you really think I would leave the best part of my arsenal at home? If you think that Evan, we haven't been together long enough." She lifted up her skirt just a bit, where she had a dagger strapped to her leg and after showing that, climbed over the seat to where their carry-on bags were placed. Taking one of the bags off the top, she unzipped it and threw a few of the clothes on the top to the ground before it revealed a shining 17mm Silver Glock. "As I said, I never leave home without having some kind of back up. I'm imagining you're one step ahead of me. But really Evan, Breya's goons or whoever we have to find. They don't know what they're in for." She took him by the shoulders, her eyes twinkling. "You'll be okay. I can't promise that enough."

Over his shoulder the sun was beginning to set on the African plains. "At least lets enjoy what we have now. The world changes to much to not enjoy everything."

[Sargun II]

"Don't underestimate Breya, Sarah. New Zealand and Manchuria... they're just the regular season. This is the playoffs." Evan smiled and shook his head. He took out several pieces of paper from his suit - there was a lot of stuff in every one of them - and started drawing diagrams of camps. Each was intricately detailed up to the most minute of irrelevant objects, including lamps and paintings that most likely had been moved in the years since. There were darker markers for the emplacements of guns and grenade traps; shade-ins for areas of floors that would collapse, and large circles around minefields that connected the camps. After ten minutes of quick drawing, he then grabbed a sheet of graph paper and managed to show how the sewage systems worked. The sewage systems included all evidence and most human waste, but unfortunately human waste meant "corpses" and the disposal inevitably led to the ocean.

He turned the pages over to Sarah, rearranged them, and sighed. "Why is it that you only lift up your skirt to show me something sharp?"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Looking over the papers the girl sighed, he was right, this wasn't going to be as simple as say Manchuria, and while New Zealand had been dangerous, this was much more brutal than the Aotearoans could or ever would be. If she and Evan messed up here, even once, neither of the would be coming back, and she was not about to leave either Terra or Heather motherless, fatherless, or orphaned. Plus, there was no way in all Hell the world would be able to take care of itself, the global babysitting job was easily the most important occupation she had. She folded up the papers and gave them back over to Evan. "You hold on to them, I'm following you remember." He sighed and said his comment about her legs, Sarah chuckled and ran her hands over her kneecaps. "Listen to you complain." Looking out the window, it was already beginning to darken and the train ride to Bumba would be another eight to ten hours or so. Sarah smiled, leaned over and locked the door to their compartment. "Then how about I make it up to you?" She winked as the train drove on through the night.

Bumba, located in the northern provinces of the Carthaginian protectorate, rode one of the northern bends of the Congo River before traveling south back towards the interior and center of Africa. It was a large town, for as far as large towns went in Africa, but there was a feeling of poverty here, a feeling of life outside the strength of the Carthaginian advances and it could be understood, this far deep in the African interior, this far away from civilization, the rails that Evan and Sarah had entered the city in felt barely stable enough to hold the old Transvaaler train. The entire train shook as they entered into Bumba's train station while Sarah stared at her face in the pocket mirror she brought along with her, putting her hair up into a neat pony tail, the heat of the Congo was already doing a number on her skin. Heat and her never got along, she would be a sweaty mess by the end of the day. Reflecting the environment, she had changed from the formal clothes as was proper of a Lady of Society in Transvaal to khaki shorts, a pink tank top, and fixed a straw hat on her head. They left the train and entered into the city proper, a dismal sight of metal roofs, dirt roads between the buildings, and a uneasy tension in the air.

"Well. I can understand where Conrad got his inspiration for the 'Heart of Darkness'." Sarah said shaking her head. "But if this is where we start, where do we go from here?"

Edited May 1, 2010 by Sarah Tintagyl

[Sargun II]

[i]"Then how about I make it up to you?"[/i]

"God, I love you."

Bumba was the epitome of prosperity gone wrong. Under the glory days of Africa, when the Pan-Africa Coalition had controlled essentially the entire continent, Bumba had been a prosperous industrial city. It was a central station for the Congo, a place where people of all ethnic groups had come to trade and become prosperous. Unfortunately, when Serca betrayed Sarnunga their fortune fell. It was over the next few years that government and economic activity declined, and twice Sarnunga saved them from utter anarchy. Now, Carthage was doing her part, but Bumba - and most of Serca - had fallen into disuse. It was no coincidence that armed band activity rose at the same time as this decline. In fact, they were tied together so deeply that even they didn't know just how important they were.

"You know, I used to own the railroad company that build this piece of !@#$ road line. I'll be sure to fire them all," he said with a grimace. There were armed men with AKs leaning against walls, smoking cigarettes. Evan was still in his suit, albeit a much wrinklier version, and suddenly felt a lot more like James Bond. "First, we go to an old friend of mine. When he tries to slap you on the $@!, speak French when you chew him out." He laughed and placed his right arm around her shoulders.

He started walking, a leisurely pace.

They would arrive at a hut that gave off a smell quite different at the rest. His eyes fell on the cracked door, and he let go of Sarah's shoulders at that point. "Stay," he ordered as if to a pet; he walked forward and peeked in through the door. He lowered his head and shook it, his back shaking with laughter. He pulled out a camera, took a picture, then wrote something on it and walked back to Sarah. Evan smiled and handed it to her. On the display was a picture of a brutally dismembered corpse with his fingers, toes, and rib bones spelling out [i]Welcome back[/i].

"Welcome to hell, Sarah."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

She walked along with Evan through the town, keeping her eyes either glued to him or faced towards the ground. The horror stories of anarchic Serca was enough to make anyone a bit uneasy, deep down Sarah knew her dream of anarchy, the dream of the Countess de Saint-Germain, but this was not what she had in mind and as they continued to trail through the city, the sheer corrosion of Bumba was enough to invigorate her to make sure that these were the first of the innocent of the world that needed protection. Sarah was glad to know that she was starting the dream early with Evan. As they approached the hut of Evan's friend he took her by the shoulders.

[i]"First, we go to an old friend of mine. When he tries to slap you on the $@!, speak French when you chew him out."[/i]

"Like hell." She shook her head and glared up at her partner. "!@#$%^& should have at least some respect for a woman. But I understand, I have a feeling this is going to be a long trip."

But when they arrived at the hut, the smell of rot permeated the entire building. Evan stopped her, though she scoffed in disgust at his, [i]"Stay."[/i] comment.

"Stay? I'll stay you, you lit-" Sarah walked forward and her eyes fell on the corpse. "Oh my God."

[i]"Welcome to hell, Sarah."[/i]

She covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head, Evan was right, there was no underestimating these people, and now they knew Evan and Sarah were back. The element of surprise was completely lost. Her hand reached down to the holster on her hip, just fingering the cool grip lightly, no sudden movements in case someone was watching. "Evan...we should get out of here, at least out of this exact spot. I...I have a bad feeling about this."

[Sargun II]

"Didn't I tell you to stay?" His voice was more concerned than angry; his face was alight with worry for her when she saw what happened. "This is to send us a message. They don't kill if they can scare. We're safe for now." Evan sighed and entered the hut. "I guess you can come in now, but if you touch anything I swear to whoever the $%&@ the Pope is..."

Scattered around the hut was the man's body. Scattered around the hut was also, subsequently, a second message. It would have been hidden, of course, and the people who left it wouldn't have even known they did... but they did. He squatted down and picked up the thinnest of the ribs, then slammed it lightly against the ground. It didn't break. "Luckily, my friend is still alive. This rib was never broken; I remember firmly the day I broke almost all of his," he said grimly. Evan gave a laugh for the poor man who had died. "I'd just like you to know, Sarah, that all of these ribs were taken while the man was alive. These fingers were cut off a week before the ribs, and his legs were ripped off just before he died of massive blood loss. He was conscious the whole time. Think of that the next time you think that anybody who worked for Breya should have at least some respect for anybody, much less a woman."

His fingers peeled through the message before finally plucking a particular piece of wood. He examined the bloody fragment and tossed it at Sarah. "It's a special bush wood. Found in the Barada Bush. That's where their camp is now." Standing up, Evan turned around and wiped his fingers on a dry part of the wall. "At least they were kind to this one," he said under his breath as he marched outside past Sarah and started walking down a path.

Edited May 1, 2010 by Sargun

[Sarah Tintagyl]

There wasn't much she could at this point but run her palms over her eyes and try to get a grip on herself and all she could think about was, what if it was here who had been tied to that chair, watching her ribs ripped out one by one, her fingers cut off bit by bit, and surely she would be ra-...The young blonde shook her head dispelling the thought out of her mind, she couldn't think about things like that now, she had to keep her mind on the situation at hand. When she snapped back into reality, Evan had thrown a piece of wood at her, she caught it an examined it. "Barda Bush. I see." Then he started down the path on the other side of the hut and ran over to walk next to him, keeping her hand on, or near her pistol at all times.

"Evan..." She took his hand and stopped him for a moment before they went further. "Listen, I'm sorry that I tried to understand just how brutal these people are. I know why you shake when you sleep now and I'm sorry for ever making fun of you for it. Maybe after this the shakes and the fears will stop." She touched his cheek. "I wish I could make this all go away immediately for you, but I know I can. I appreciate you bringing me along so that we can face this together." Sarah smiled as they continued down the path, the jungles of the Congo covered the vastness of the horizon in front of them.

[Sargun II]

Evan was quiet for the next hour as they walked into the outskirts of the bush. His breathing was steady and measured, his feet marching along familiar paths for the first time in years. Although his heart was pounding like crazy, the rest of his body was calm and in sync. He was thinking of ways to continue to tell Sarah that she was still wrong but he didn't want to sound like an !@#$%^& when he did it. He had several dozen retorts that all involved her being a !@#$%* but he also had about three dozen that were much more rational. The problem was that he was so calm that he didn't know which one to pick. In the end, he had wasted forty-five minutes on choosing between two because his head was so mellowed out.

"You think that [i]that[/i] is what makes me shake at night? You've only seen the beginning, Sarah. I'm sorry that I have brought you along; maybe if mine go away yours will start." He smiled that humorless, emotionless smile that had been on his face since they got off the train again. It was becoming fast his standard expression. "We won't reach Barada Bush until morning, and that counts time to sleep. While they can only hold him for seventy-two hours, they'll be able to arrest him within the next twenty-four because his medicine will prevent him from reaching back into the jungles until the next day. We can take the time to sleep." Of course, night wouldn't be falling for a good ten hours at least but he felt like he needed to say [i]something[/i].

"Before we reach Barada, though, we will stop by Camp Plank. It's a long shot, but we might be able to find something there." He pulled out a map and pointed out [i]Plank[/i], a small dot to the northwest. It had been abandoned years ago and for the most part burned. "I have a feeling that Plank will be very unwilling to give her secrets up, but at least there won't be armed guards."

He started off for Plank, this time holding Sarah's hand the gentlest he had ever held it.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

When he retorted to her, Sarah's expressions and her heart seemed to die right in front of him. She never tried to be cruel to him, though even she knew that sometimes her humor was displaced, but that was something she had inherited from her father. Dry and tasteless humor to pretty much anyone besides the people who understood her perfectly, even Evan, Anthony, and Albert had never caught all of her humor and Hannah was even worse, nearly threatening to throw the once Duchess out the windows of Lillia Palace. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I...I really didn't." But all Evan did was smile and take her hand, she looked back up at him with a calm smile on her face and it occurred to her that even walking the trails of death through the African jungle, just that calm touch of a person's hand was enough to calm her heart. The tramping of her boots seemed lighter and she even took her hand off of her holster. It was just like walking through the gardens of Solidor Manor, albeit, there were people out to kill them, but then again, given times in Brisbane, the same occurred there too. She wanted to tell him that if she did get his shakes it wouldn't matter, her heart was already black, something like this only made her doubt the sincerity of humanity more.

After their little fight and make up, something that Sarah was sure to happen more while they were out in the jungle, it happened when you put two very vocal people together in a place of danger, she even chuckled, they were more dangerous to themselves then possibly Breya was to them. With nighttime still far away, Sarah and Evan turned down one of the breakaway paths towards the north heading towards a place called Camp Plank, another location on this wild goose-chase for a person who Sarah only knew by myth and legend. About three hours of walking the paths of the central Congo, accompanied by a chorus of exotic animal growls and birds, they came to a break in the trees were Plank was located. From the looks of it, it was an old logger camp, there were still some rusted bulldozers and logging machines on the outskirts of the camp, while the buildings in the camp, an office, a barracks, an equipment shed, a fuel depot, a waste dump, which had the same smell as the hut back in Bumba, and a makeshift saloon, seemed to be rotting in on themselves as Sarah and Evan crept towards the center of the camp. Sarah's anxiety immediately returned as her hand went back to her pistol, her eyes darting around to the buildings.

"This place looks like it hasn't been used in ages. It has secrets?"

[Sargun II]

"Not just dead ones, but two living ones."

Evan's grip on her hand tightened immediately as he pulled her body in front of his. He side-stepped thrice, dragging Sarah's feet along the ground if need be, and whirled around the open doors of the equipment shed. His right arm was wrapped around her lower torso and his left hand was open-palmed facing her, pressed against her left cheek. He leaned his lips close to her ears as if to whisper intimate secrets, and then, "[i]I will kill. A man. In thirty seconds. Do not. Draw. Your gun.[/i]" His breath brushed against her ear for a moment more before he let go of her and gently pulled her off to the right. As soon as it was all quiet, the sound of twigs snapping outside of the equipment shed could be heard. Evan glanced at Sarah one more time before tip-toeing his way as close to the open doors as he could.

The long barrel of a rifle appeared in the doorway, but Evan stood still. As the rifle pointed to the left and the silhouette of a man appeared, Evan jumped in the air, landed on his arms, propelled his feet in the air and let out a grunt. Knives in the heels of his snazzy shoes stabbed at the man's kidneys. The shock and pain of the blow silenced any cry he could have made, and Evan landed on top of him with little sound. His fist rose in the air and landed directly on the nose of the sniper, who died instantly as the bones of his nose shattered and flew into his brain. Evan, with haste, picked up the man's body and dragged it over to the left side. He rushed across and picked up the rifle then dived back to the right. A whizzing sound flew past his ears as a bullet embedded itself in a large amount of straw at the end of the shed.

"Shoot him," he told Sarah as he tossed the rifle to her. "On seeing a new target he will hesitate, thus giving you a split-second advantage. He's on the left upper window of the barracks, under the letter [i]P[/i] in Plank. I know you can shoot damn well," he added at the end.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Everything was calm as they stepped into the camp and then Evan suddenly grabbed her and dragged her into the equipment shed almost as if he was the one that was going to kidnap her. At first she let out muffled screams and moans as Evan pushed her into the shed, then whispering into her ear she went silent. Then the rifle began to sneak its way through the door, as Evan dove into the silhouetted enemy and proceeded to land a lethal fist into the nose of the rifleman. Sarah took a deep breath as the blood squirted into the air and Evan dragged the body back into the darkness of the shed before another bullet struck the ground just a few inches away from where they stood. They weren't out of the woods ye-. Before she could finish her thoughts, Evan picked up the dead man's rifle and threw it towards her. She caught it with both hands and looked at him curiously. He looked back at her with the 'Christ Sarah, I know you're blonde but still...think!' look.

[i]"Shoot him, on seeing a new target he will hesitate, thus giving you a split-second advantage. He's on the left upper window of the barracks, under the letter P in Plank. I know you can shoot damn well."[/i] He smiled at the end of it and her confidence soared for a moment as she jumped out into the open, her and the sniper facing each other in a duel of speed and nerve. Sarah pushed the rifle to her shoulder and stared up at the 'P' on the sign and saw the gleam of the snipers scope. She pulled the trigger and there was the sound of the shattering of glass before another bullet struck the sand near where she stood. He had managed to pull the trigger at the last minute, she was alive because of a few miliseconds of her nerves. A few seconds later, the body dropped from the platform where he was hidden behind the sign and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief.

"Goddamn that was close." She ran her right hand through her hair and looked down at the ground where the bullet had stuck. "Well, it feels good to be alive again. Goddamn." Sarah turned back to Evan and shook her head. "So did we kill the secrets or are you think there's something we could find?"

[Sargun II]

"Damn, you are [i]so[/i] hot to me right now."

Evan blurted it out without thinking but decided that, in any event, it was not the weirdest thing that had been said in the past twenty-four hours. After a few moments of heavy breathing, he grinned and leaned his head against the equipment shed wall behind him. "Those two were the only ones that knew the entrance code for the barracks, but that's fine with us because the barracks would have probably burst into flame upon us entering," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The real secret here is in the fuel depot. Wherever the black gold flows, the blood flows." Evan's laughter filled the shed for another few seconds before he stood up and brushed the straw off of him. "Let's go."

The two walked openly through the camp until they reached the fuel depot, which looked as if it were about to collapse on itself but in reality was strongly built. "I doubt we'll find anything damning but perhaps we can find something to start a paper trail." He pushed open the door and jumped back swiftly, pulling Sarah to the ground with him. A series of large objects suddenly flooded the doorway and flew over their heads and collapsed in a pile behind them. The noise would jar their ears and the impact shake their vision before they could stand.

"Stay low. There will be a garbage can full of spikes that will shoot out in a few moments. After that the coast will be clear." He pushed her head into his chest, mainly to make sure she didn't see that the garbage can was full of spikes that were attached to body parts. He waited, and waited, and waited...