Burning Heaven

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Bloodthirstybutcher
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Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:20 pm

After finishing Post-Punk and Shrunk, I was having trouble thinking of ideas for my next story. Particularly because that one was so emotionally draining for me. I kinda had the bones for a sort of apocalyptic scenario, but i was never in love with it and others have written better. Almost jokingly I thought about doing a western with tiny little lady gunfighters, but it just seemed too silly to me. But the idea kept hanging around, so I started thinking of ways to make it work, mainly because I don't know if there are any westerns in our weird little micro genre. Not saying there isn't, i Just don't know of any.

I thought of films like Four of the Apocalypse and Hannie Caulder... survival westerns. Hell, even a Japanese women's prison break film called Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion- Jailhouse 41 (Yes, that's its actual title) occupied my brain. As I continued to write, Tolkien and even Stephen King seemed to work their way in. This may sound like a mess, but i wear my influences on my sleeve and the only real way to transcend genre is to acknowledge it first, just like music.

So, anyway... that first story poured out of me and i completed it in less than a month. This one was a dirge. There was a lot more research involved than I had planned. Also this winter has been hell at work. Even as short as I try to make entries, some of them took me a week to complete because I was just too busy. You can imagine what that does to your continuity.

But, here are the beginnings. I plan on dropping a couple of entries a day, just like Post-Punk and Shrunk. I hope you enjoy it and any comments always mean the world to me.

Thanks
BTB
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:22 pm

BURNING HEAVEN


Part 1-"An Introduction To Heaven" 


Heaven was anything but.

Nestled in a narrow canyon deep in the driest, hottest, most inhospitable stretch of Nevada desert, Heaven's founders certainly had a sense of humor about the naming of their town.  Silver had been discovered there in late 1880 by a pair of Cornish prospectors who would go on to sell their claim, the richest ever found in the area, for upwards of $100,000 to a London based mining company.  Both men invested their money well and lived out the rest of their lives in luxury.

Heaven prospered.  For twelve years the Cornish Mine outproduced every other mine in the district, some saying it generated anywhere from $70,000,000 to $100,000,000 for its owners... depending on who you ask.  Heaven grew to a hefty population of five thousand hearty souls, a lofty number for a town with no water, and limited space.  Homes, business, and tents sprung up along the sides of the canyon.  Some, nearly on top of one another, others having to be bolted to the rock due to the lack of space and the steepness of the canyon walls.

The usual vices of any mining camp followed as well.  A dozen brothels and twice as many saloons sprung up along the main drag almost as soon as the miners arrived, adding more irony to the town's name.  It was a rough and rowdy place.  Shootings became nightly events.  Law enforcement would come and go... usually in a pine box.  Hell, one night Lewis Perkins, a local mercantile owner, decapitated a prospector with a shovel because said prospector cheated him on a grubstake.  Such was life in Heaven.

Heaven was at its peak when, on the morning of August 4, 1892, a rumble was felt through the entire town.  A miner's candle had ignited a pocket of methane gas deep underground and set off an explosion inside the Cornish Mine.  The entire Mine collapsed in on itself, killing 148 men... there were no survivors.   Each of the miner's families was paid $500 by the Londoners.  The parent company tried desperately to save its prized producer, but the damage was far too severe, the ground too unstable.  It was considered a total loss.  This event, combined with the crash of silver prices the following year all but killed the town.  

Miner's left for nearby camps for work.  Then the shopkeepers.  Then the saloons folded.  The post office was gone by 1894.  It seems people couldn't leave Heaven fast enough...

...that is except for one business.

The Heaven's Gate Hotel had opened three years before the mine explosion.  The two story building stood out among the other false fronted buildings along Main Street.  Its lavish Victorian style and comforts offered a touch of luxury in the surrounding barren wasteland.  Truly one of the finest hotels in Nevada at the time.  To see how difficult it is to get to Heaven, it's construction was nothing short of a marvel.  By the spring of 1895 it was completely abandoned

Then five local women stepped in:  "Ma" Maggie LaRue, Connie McCormack, Greta Deutsch, Ellen Rhodes, and Sandra "Doe Eyes" Bingham.  These five women became friends, really a support group, after they had lost their children in a typhoid epidemic years earlier.  All five were also widowed by the mine blast.  

Hardened by the harsh American west and embittered by the hand fate had dealt them, these five women decided to go into business together to survive.  They pooled the money they were given as compensation by the British company and bought the hotel for pennies on the dollar, not wanting to see the beautiful building fall into ruin.  This proved to be a disastrous decision from a business standpoint.  There was no clientele left and the location wasn't exactly a tourist hotspot.  The only business they received during the first year was from outlaws who used the secluded location to hide out from capture.

Their next move was one no one expected...  sex work... which also proved to be a turning point.  

You see, these five women were not just beautiful for the time, but any time.  Word spread throughout the district of five soiled doves whose beauty surpassed that of royalty.  

Business... boomed.

The town did not recover, but men flocked from as far away as Sacramento for the opportunity to... ahem... seek their services.  The women found that they could charge far more than what the average prostitute could, and be more choosy about their customers, implementing a sort of auction system.  This only strengthened their reputation.  The isolation also deterred pesky religious groups from harassing them.

Even though they split their earnings evenly, the ladies elected Maggie LaRue as manager of the hotel because she was the strongest when it came to accounting.  This earned her the nickname "Ma" even though she was the youngest of the five at the ripe old age of 24.  The stunning brunette spent the time she wasn't on her back in the back office sorting paperwork or making sure the other ladies finished their chores.

Connie McCormack was a sassy redhead of Irish decent who proved to be a natural with a pistol.  She acted as the hotel's enforcer when not entertaining guests.  Greta Deutsch's family hailed from Austria.  Occasionally one could pick up on the slightest of Germanic accents.  Her blonde hair and larger than average...eh... assets... made her very popular with guests.  Ellen Rhodes was the quiet one.  She had very dark hair inherited from her Cherokee mother with her English father's green eyes.  She was incredibly shy, but the things she did to men, and the occasional woman, in the bedroom became stuff of legend.  Last, but not least, was Sandra Bingham.  An almost ethereal beauty, her calming demeanor, long curly blond hair and big blue eyes made her seam like an angel on earth.  She was by far the most popular girl of the five, eventually earning the nickname "Doe Eyes" from her friends and enthusiastic fans.

The celebrity of the Fallen Angels, as they would come to be remembered, grew...  that is, until one weather beaten and frightened prospector stammered through the swinging doors of the hotel one hot summer day... and they completely disappeared from history...


End Part 1
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:47 pm

Part 2-"Tommyknockers"   


"That's it!  I can't take it anymore!  It's too goddamned hot to be doing any goddamned work!"  Exclaimed Connie.  

It was a Friday afternoon in late July and the dry desert heat was taking its toll on everyone's patience.  The hotel was empty save for its five female owners and a pair of down-on-their-luck prospectors playing cards in the corner.  The women would often house and feed men in exchange for help with odd jobs around the hotel.  No freebies upstairs though... those services were only granted with cold, hard cash.  

It wasn't uncommon for the building to be free of clientele late in the week.  Things would explode over the weekend as miners from neighboring camps, anxious to free themselves of their earnings, would rush to Heaven in hopes of having a shot with one of its, now famous, ladies of the night.  The women didn't operate on a first-come-first-serve basis like most brothels.  They knew that demand was high and auctioned their skills off to the highest bidder.  This way they could make as much as possible without wearing themselves out.  All of them could handle themselves if the men got out of control, but Connie took pleasure in a good scuffle.

"I don't care if you walk around here nekid as the day you was born, but we gotta git this place ready fer the weekend rush," quipped "Ma" Maggie.  She noticed that her comment had caused the two men in the corner to perk up their ears and take notice, eyes full of hope. "Fa'get about it, boys."

The two men resumed their game.

Connie grabbed a pitcher of less-than-clean water from behind the bar and walked outside onto the wooden sidewalk in front of the hotel.  The two card-playing prospectors pretended not to notice seeing her dump the entire container over herself.  Connie was wearing a pair of men's pants and a white collared shirt, left behind by a rough client who didn't expect Connie to pull a gun on him when he tried to beat on her.  She made him run into the unforgiving dessert, buck naked, and was never heard from again.  The white shirt revealed more than the card players could have hoped for when soaked.

Greta, Sandra and Ellen were busy upstairs in their rooms switching out bedding for the coming night's marathon.  The second floor was even hotter than the first and the ladies did their best to air out the rooms until the sun went down.  Maggie continued wiping down tables and sweeping in the bar.

"Y'all ladies about finished up theya?!  We still need to get the liquor stocked," Maggie called.  She didn't really have a southern drawl, but found that the customers thought it was charming and trustworthy.  Sometimes she'd just forget that she didn't need to perform.

"YES MA," all three women yelled back simultaneously, eliciting a giggle from each.

"Real funny, you three!" Maggie countered.

Connie walked back in, dripping wet, and resumed her post behind the bar.

"Damnit, Connie!  I just cleaned this floor and you're dripping' all o'r it agin!  Mop it up!"  Maggie ordered.

"Whatsit matter, Ma?  Those filthy animals are just gonna git mud and beer and blood all over it again... like they do every week!"

Maggie didn't need to say a word.  She just shot Connie an all too familiar look to let her know she was serious and Connie sulked into the back room to retrieve the mop.  Maggie resumed wiping down tables.

Then the light shinning into the saloon faded slightly in the corner of Maggie's eye.  The dark silhouette of a man stood in the door frame and then pushed its way through the swinging doors.  The man had the familiar look of yet another down on his luck prospector, a dime a dozen in those parts. Dirty, thin, unshaven, weather beaten.  He said nothing as he pulled up to the bar, setting a large sack down on the floor at his feet.  Maggie could tell something was wrong from the look of fear in the man's eyes.  She set her rag down and made her way behind the bar to greet him.

"Can I git ya somthin' to drink, mistah?  Or maybe yer lookin' fer somehin' more... specialized?"  Maggie asked with a wink.

"Whiskey, whore," the man ordered rudely, his eyes never meeting hers.

"Well, sir, I'll be happy to oblige, but you may call me Mayam, or Maggie, or just Ma like everyone else," she corrected him.

"I SAID WHISKEY, WHORE!"  The man screamed, pounding a single fist on the bar top.  Maggie jumped backwards, surprised by the man's outburst.

"I think you owe the lady an apology, mister."

The man swung around on the bar stool only to be met with a cold pistol barrel in the forehead.  It was Connie, mop in one hand and a sixshooter in the other... and a sly grin behind both.

"Wanna try again?" She quipped, cocking the hammer back.  These women had learned early that, in able to stay in control, no disrespect could be tolerated.

The man put his hands up and spun back around to face Maggie, who was standing with her arms folded, a sly smile on her own face to match Connie's.

"I-I-I'm sorry, mayam.  A w-whiskey... please."

By this time the other women were leaning over the banister watching the show, snickering amongst themselves.  The card players pretended they didn't notice anything happened.

"Alright ladies, show's ovah!  Back to work!"  Maggie ordered and the three went back into their respective rooms.  Connie uncocked her revolver and slid it into her belt behind her back. She began moping up the water she'd been dripping again, but kept a close eye on the stranger.

Maggie poured the man a shot and he shakily threw it back.  

"Anothah?" Maggie asked.  The man nodded and she poured him another shot.

"Just leave the bottle... please," the man said sheepishly.

"Only if'n you got a way to pay, honey," Maggie answered.

The man reached into his bag and set a small bar of silver on the counter, a Spanish cross stamped on its surface.  He slid it towards Maggie.

"Will this do?" He asked sarcastically.

"Sure, if you're looking to buy the whole bar," Maggie joked.

"Keep it.  I'd like a soft bed to sleep in for a few days, and besides... it has cousins."

"Mistah...," Maggie started, getting cut off.

"Name's Clay," he interrupted.

"Ok, Clay... how's a man come across a fortune like that?  It didn't fall out of the ground that way," Maggie inquired.

"You rob a stage or somthin'," Connie interrupted as she set her mop against the bar.

"I found it... in the mountains," he replied.

"I think if' I'd come across a fortune like that I'd be jumping out of my knickers, Mistah... er, Clay.  You look like you've seen a ghost.  You sure you ain't in no trouble?"  Maggie pressed.

"It ain't all I found," he replied.

The two men playing cards had approached from behind and parked themselves on either side of Clay, listening to every word.  

"What'dya mean?"  Maggie asked, a knot forming in her stomach.

"Tommyknockers," Clay replied, "I seen 'em... with muh own two eyes," he growled while pointing two fingers towards his face.  He threw back another shot.

"Vhat the hell is a Tommyknocker?"  Yelled Greta from the the second floor.  The three of them had emerged from their rooms again out of curiosity.  Sandra and Ellen were silent.

"How could you have lived in a mining town this long and not know what a Tommyknocker is?!"  Connie shouted back from below.  She was now leaning back in a chair with her feet up on a table.

"Ghosts," replied one of the card players, "ghosts of dead miners.  I reckon Heaven has more than it's fair share."  The man suddenly felt ashamed he even brought up the mine disaster.  He removed his hat and apologized to Maggie, "I'm sorry mayam, I shouldn't said nothin'."

Maggie just smiled and patted him on the hand.

"It's a lot of bullshit is what it is," said Connie, "ain't no such things as ghosts."

"THEY'RE REAL!"  Clay shouted.  He stood up off his stool and spun around to look at Connie.  "Septin'... they ain't ghosts.  They're flesh and blood... just like us."

"Again... I call bullshit, Claaaaay," Connie taunted.

"That's enough, Connie," Maggie interjected.  "Why don't you have another drink and tell me about it, Clay.  Might feel good to talk about it."

Clay sat back down and gulped down another mouthful of whiskey, "alright."  He took another swig and then began.

"About five days ago, I came across some markings carved into a rock wall about a day's ride from here.  I'd seen injun writin' and this wasn't it.  It looked like Meskin markings... Spanish, ya know?  Crosses and such.  They seemed to be pointing deeper into a slot canyon, one set of markings leading to another.  I followed the symbols for two days until I finally came to a hole.  It was nearly hidden from view, only enough room for a gopher to git through.  The entrance has been deliberately collapsed."

Everyone sat silently as he continued.  The ladies upstairs sat down and peeked through the rails of the banister.

"I easily cleared away enough rock fall to wiggle my way in with a lantern.  It was clearly an old Meskin mine.  There were tools laying about, nearly rusted away with age.  I carefully made my way deeper inside.  After a few hundred feet I came to a wooden door to the side of the adit.  Above it was a boulder balanced just so... a booby trap.  Clearly there was something worth hiding in there.  I had some rope on my belt so I tied it to the door latch and pulled it open from a few feet away.  The door swung open and the boulder fell with a crash.  After the dust cleared I shined my light inside... and there it was..."

Everyone seemed to lean in towards his reveal.

"A cash.  It was a cash of Spanish silver bars.  Five small stacks... I guess somthin' happened and they never got shipped off to Madrid.  You were right, Mayam,  I did about jump out my knickers at the sight.  I loaded up a sack before it got too heavy to lift and dragged it out of the mine.  I went back down for more, but decided to explore the workings a bit more out of curiosity.  I made my way back another hundred feet or so... and that's when I saw 'em."

Maggie felt a chill run up her spine.  Connie just rolled her eyes.  The other girls stared at each other in fear.

"There were four...  not much more than skeletons left of 'em.  Even still, they... they weren't people, ya know?  Sure they had arms and legs and such... but... but their hands... their skulls... they wasn't human."

"Bull... shit," Connie interrupted.

"Let 'im finish, Connie," Maggie ordered.  Connie just folded her arms and scowled.

"That's not the part that scared me though.  I've spent mosta muh life in the dessert.  I've seen plenty of things that would make a man's blood run cold... but it was the cases that were with 'em.  Boxes... I don't know what to call 'em.  They was clear, like glass.  There were sections... compartments inside of each.  Inside of those... I tell ya it was skeletons... mummies like the ones you see in the papers about Egypt!  Bones.  They was people... only..."

Clay raised his hand and brought his thumb and index finger get together just inches apart.  

"They was only about this big!"

"You ain't taking this shit seriously are ya, Ma?"  Connie said with a scoff.

"That's quite a story there, Clay.  You sure you need any more liquor?"  Maggie joked.

Clay slammed his fist down on the bar making Maggie jump backwards in surprise.  Connie sat up in her chair and reached behind her back for her gun.  Maggie waved her back down. 

Clay then reached into his bag and pulled out a hexagonal box, clear like the ones he had just described.  Maggie and the the two card players leaned in to view inside, Connie got up and joined them.  The girls upstairs were bitting their nails with fear.  

Inside the segmented case were piles of tiny, dusty bones... jumbled together from the rough trip through the desert.  

"What is this, Clay?"  Maggie asked with a tremor in her voice.

"Weren't you listening?!  It's people!  Tiny people!"  He said with heavy agitation in his voice.

"Oh come on, mister... that's just a bunch of old chicken bones or somethin'.  What're ya tryin' to pull here?" Connie sneered.

"I'M NOT FUCKING LYING!  I'M NOT FUCKING DRUNK!  JUST LOOK!"  Clay pulled a prospector's hammer out of his belt and slammed it as hard as he could down on the case.  His surrounding audience stepped back in fear, expecting glass to explode everywhere.

Nothing.  He didn't even make a scratch.

"SEE!"  Clay yelled out, panting.

"I'll be goddamned...," muttered one of the card players.

"Oh come on, you three!  That doesn't prove anything!  It's just some new kinda glass or something.  Maybe it was made to keep dynamite from blowing up in a miner's hands," Connie protested.

Just then Clay reached into his bag and slammed another object down on the counter.  

It was a skull.


End Part 2
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:04 pm

Part 3-"The Sphere" 


It was no ordinary skull.  That was for sure.   

The usual features were all there, just... different.  It was much larger than a normal person's skull, yet the nose and mouth were much smaller.  The eyes, though... the eye sockets were enormous.

"Would you believe the creature this was attached to was only about four feet tall?"  Clay asked rhetorically.

Just then then, the usually quiet Ellen screamed out in utter terror.  With her hand covering her mouth she shot up off the floor, ran inside her room and slammed the door.  Greta and Sandra both sprung up and followed her into her room to check on her.  Connie rushed upstairs to do the same.

"My god, mister... you ain't jerkin' our chains, is ya?" Said a terrified card player.

Clay reached back into his bag as Maggie braced herself for the next terror to emerge.  He pulled out a white sphere.  Smooth and metallic.  He set it on the counter next to the skull.

"W-what is that?"  Maggie stammered.

"Don't know," clay answered, "it was clutched in one of the creatures' hands.  Figured it might be worth somethin'."

One of the card players reached out to touch the sphere and Maggie slapped his hand away.  "Leave it be, will ya?!  You don't know what it is... what it does."

"There was somethin' else," clay added.  "It was obscured as I made my way towards the mine, but there it was just the same... sticking out of the canyon wall, like a... a...," clay struggled to find a description.

"Well come on man, what was it?!" Exclaimed one of the card players.

Clay looked behind the bar and saw a couple of dust covered plates, remnants from when the hotel still served food.

"Hand me a couple of those," Clay ordered Maggie.  She wiped off the top one with a rag and handed a pair to him.

"It was smooth... silver in color... shaped kinda like this...," Clay flipped one of the plates over and placed it on top of the other and held it up for them to see.

There was no reference at the time for what they were seeing.  They had no way of understanding that what they were viewing was a man's loose interpretation of a vehicle capable of flight.  One not known to our world.  It would take another half of a century before the term 'flying saucer' would be coined. Considering what was about to take place, it’s the only explanation that makes sense.

"Was it made of silver?!" Asked one of the prospectors.

"Don't know... could be," Clay answered.

"You need help getting it out?  For a cut, of course," said the other card player.

"Yeah... yeah I suppose I do.  S'pose we're all gonna be rich, right!"  Clay finally perked up.

"Can you get us back there... can you find it again?"  One of the men asked.

"Reckon so!"  Clay answered.

"Great! Let's leave tomorrow!"

Maggie was still feeling shook from the monstrous skull sitting on the bar and excused herself to retrieve more liquor... but really just desiring to get away for a moment to collect herself.  She walked into the back room and left the men to their scheming.

"Can I see that there shiny ball, mister?" Asked one of the card players.

"Uh... yeah... sure," Clay consented, picking up the strange object and smacking it into the man's hand.  "What's your name, my good man?"

"Name's Chester, this here is my compatriot Lester," the man answered.

"Chester and Lester... Ha!" Laughed Clay, "well ain't I just blessed-ter!"

All three men laughed as Clay affectionately slapped them on the backs.  Chester turned the sphere over in his hands examining it.  He spit on it and rubbed it on his shirt to remove the dust.  

"Hey Clay, look at this...," Chester said holding the sphere to his new partner's face.  As it would turn out, the sphere was not perfect.  There was a small, indentation on its surface, previously obscured by decades, if not centuries, dust.  Chester rubbed his thumb over the depression.

The object began to hum.

Chester dropped it on the bar out of surprise and the three men stared at it in awe.  The object began to glow yellow... then white, seemingly through the metal itself.

"It's beautiful...," Lester whispered.

"Yeah," Clay concurred, "what'dya suppose it's doin'?"

The hum emitted from the object suddenly turned to a deafening, high pitched tone and shifted to a deep red.  Maggie in the back room and the girls upstairs covered their ears at the sudden awful sound.  The object shook violently as cracks began to appear in its surface.

Clay's eyes grew wide, "RUN!  IT'S GONNNA BLO-"

The object exploded before they could even react.  The entire saloon was enveloped in a red glow as the explosion sent a shock wave outwards through the rest of the hotel.  All five women felt it hit them, not knowing what was happening.  The four upstairs stopped holding their ears and ran towards the bedroom door.  Maggie lost her balance and knocked a case of whiskey over with a crash.  The pulse retracted in on itself and pulled back towards the object, which then imploded... leaving only a scorch mark on top of the bar.

The saloon was empty and quiet.

Maggie suddenly felt ill.  Dizzy and disoriented, she stumbled back out into the saloon.  She braced herself against the bar to keep from collapsing, the world around her waving and expanding.  The three men were gone, only pools of clothing were left.  Just then she looked up to see Sandra and the other girls burst out of Ellen's room.

"Ma... something's... wrong," was all Sandra could get out before she collapsed on the floor.

Maggie felt like she was falling as she tried to maintain consciousness.  Before she blacked out she could swear she saw the other girls melting into their clothes.


End Part 3
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:32 pm

Part 4-"Bad Business"  


8:06 PM   

The first wagonload of prospectors arrived at the hotel. The excited men were joking and laughing, happy to be done with the week's work.  As they pulled up to the front of the hotel, they could tell something was wrong.  There was no light emanating from the building.  It looked as quiet and dead as the rest of the town.

"What's the big idea?!  They go outta business or sumptin?"  One miner complained.

"I'll go check it out," said Arnold Wilkins.  Arnold had a good relationship with the Fallen Angels as he ran supplies to them and used his wagon as a ferry for the miners to the hotel  Secretly, he and Greta had been stealing away together when they had the time.  He hoped one day to ask for her hand in marriage, despite her chosen profession... and unbeknownst to him, she did as well. 

Arnold tied off the reigns and hopped off the wagon.  As he crept up the creaking wooden stairs and into the hotel, he drew his gun.

"Hello!?"  He called into the ever darkening entryway.  The steep canyon walls made nighttime come early for Heaven.  "Ladies?  You here?"

He slowly made his way towards a table to light up a lantern.  He lifted it up and moved it about the room to see better.  There were piles of men's clothing at the bar and a dress at the other end.  Arnold didn't like the looks of any of this at all.  He backed out of the saloon and called for the other men to come in.

"Hey fellas... I could use some help in here!"

The other men, a little more than half a dozen, hopped out of the wagon and entered the hotel.

"What's goin' on... where's the women?"  Asked Robert Jenkins, a miner for the Sheep's Horn mine.

"Start grabbin' lanterns, candles.  We need light... somethin' here ain't right," ordered Arnold.

The men spread out through the saloon, striking matches and lighting kerosene lamps on the tables and walls.  

"Hey look up here!" Shouted Glenn Johnson, a mule train leader from Dirksville.  

Arnold rushed up the stairs to see three dresses and a white collared shirt and slacks pooled up on the floor under candlelight.  Women's fancy boots sticking out where there should be legs.  They looked as if the women wearing them had simply disappeared.  The sight sent shivers up Arnold's spine.  

Downstairs the rest of the men were either inspecting the discarded clothing or the strange items on the bar... or simply helping themselves to unprotected whiskey.

"What're you assholes doing?!"  Arnold shouted down to the others.

"Don't worry, we plan on payin'," Mr. Jenkins assured him.  He pulled a silver dollar out of his pocket and set it on the bar, then helped himself to an entire bottle of whiskey.  Hardly a fair trade.  "Even if'n I ain't gettin' any tonight, I sure as hell didn't come all this way to NOT get shitfaced either."

The rest of the men saw this and dropped what they were doing, slammed a dollar each down on the bar, and started helping themselves.  Arnold continued his investigation as the rest drank away the long hard hours in the mines.  He made his way from room to room.  No sign of a struggle.  No sign of anything.  It was as if five women simply ceased to be.  Had they left?  Did someone abduct them.  His stomach turned with worry for his dear Greta.

Before long the others were blitzed.  Playing cards and dancing with each other as more disappointed men arrived on horse or mule back.  Bottles were being smashed against the floor as soon as they were emptied.  Glenn Johnson got so drunk that he fell backwards and destroyed a chair, eliciting laughter from the other men.  Arnold heard the commotion from the far end of second floor and rushed back downstairs, greeted by nearly twice as many men as when he first arrived.

"You clumsy sons-a-bitches!  Can't you act civil?  There's something wrong here all you morons can do is drink yourselves stupid!"  Arnold chastised.  

Glenn struggled up and out of the wreckage of the dinning chair and got right in Arnold's face. His whiskey breath filled Arnold’s nose. "Why don't you relax for a piece."  Glenn drunkenly snarked. He connected a sucker punch to the side of Arnold's head, knocking him clean out with a heavy thud on the floor.

"What the hell ya do that fer!?" Scolded Robert Jenkins.  

He threw himself at Glenn Johnson, pushing him to the ground.  The two men started wresting around on the floor while the other men tried to pull them apart.  The two men started throwing punches at those trying to stop the fight and before long the entire saloon was in an all-out brawl.  Punches were thrown, tables were smashed with bodies, bottles were broken and sliced at throats... it was truly a violent scene.

Several kerosene lamps had been knocked to the floor starting small fires that soon turned to larger ones.  The wood frame building was already highly prone to fire in the dry dessert climate.  The drunken men didn't notice amidst their infighting until it was too late.  Several tried to dowse the flames with their dusters and jackets to no avail.  Some drunkenly tried throwing whiskey at the growing blaze, only to fuel it more.

"Everyone out!  Run!"  Shouted an anonymous miner.

The men emptied into the street, save for the few mortally wounded or dead on the floor... and Arnold Wilkins. He was very much still alive, but unconscious on the wood plank floor.  He would unfortunately parish in the blaze.  The rest either rode off or simply ran blindly into the night, hoping to hide their involvement in the night's events in the coming days.

As tended to happen in so many towns of the era, the fire didn't stop with the hotel.  It spread from building to building, engulfing the entire town.  Before dawn... Heaven had been reduced to blackened piles of smoldering cinders, with only the occasional stone chimney protruding from the ruins.

The once prosperous town of Heaven was no more.  Destroyed by the very horned up, drunken men that kept it from complete desertion.

In a few short years it would be all but forgotten.


End Part 4
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:11 pm

Part 5-"Rude Awakening" 


4:55 PM 

Three hours earlier...

Connie opened her eyes to find herself covered in some kind of thick and heavy white material.  It allowed enough light in for her to see she was naked, laying on top of more of the course fabric.  Her head was pounding and she was having trouble remembering how she got there.

"Jesus Christ... I must have really overdid it," she muttered to herself, thinking she'd drank too much... even though she didn't remember drinking at all.  Or really anything for that matter past..., "that man... that... shit... did he do this?"

She felt herself getting angry when she suddenly heard Ellen sobbing in the distance.  Her anger was now fueled by fear as well as she struggled to find a way out of her strange surroundings.

"Ellen!  Ellen sweetie, I'm comin'," she called out.  

She found something heavy was holding down the covering and that she was unable to budge it.  Luckily there was enough of an opening to the blockage's side that she was able to wiggle through.  What she saw as she emerged shook her to her very soul.  The object holding the material down was a pistol, easily twice as long as she was.  As if that wasn't strange enough, she recognized it as being HER pistol.

"What the fuck is this!?  Is this some kind of jo-," her thoughts were interrupted by Ellen's whimpering.  She spotted her curled up against... what looked like floor trim, only... it was way too big.  Familiar but exaggerated floral wall paper stretched impossibly high above her.  "My god..."

Ellen was also nude.  Her face was buried in her arms.  Connie wiggled the rest of the way out of her trap and ran to Ellen.  She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the terrified woman.  Ellen jumped a little with surprise.

"Ellen, are you ok?  What the hell is going on?!  Where are we?!"  Connie asked nervously.

Ellen lost all control and buried her face back in her arms, "it's...it's the hotel."

Connie looked back up to her surroundings.  Ellen was right, they were in the hotel... only... everything was bigger somehow.  Much bigger.  She suddenly remembered the strange case Clay had shown them with the small bones inside... and shivered.

"We're... we're small aren't we, Ellen?"  Connie asked.

Ellen looked up to greet Connie's eyes with her own.  She gave a single nod and then buried her face back into arms, crying uncontrollably.  Connie held her, trying to be strong for her friend, but ready to lose control herself.

"That motherfucker... if he'd just left that shit in the desert... if-," Connie found herself interrupted by another voice.

"Hey!  Connie... Ellen?  That you?"  Came the voice from under another pile of material.  

Both Connie and Ellen's heads turned to attention and spotted a form moving under the expansive covering.  They both yelled in unison, "Greta!"  

"Vhat's happening?  Vhere are my clothes? Vhere am I?"  Greta shouted from under what Connie now realized was the purple dress Greta had been wearing that day.  

Connie and Ellen both jumped to their feet and ran towards Greta.  They stopped near one of her enormous boots at the base of the dress.

"This way, Greta, follow my voice," Connie instructed.  The two women watched as the bulge on the surface moved closer.  "That's it, you're almost there..."

Greta's head emerged from under the fabric and she looked up at the the other two naked women.  "Did vee... did vee have an orgy I don't remember?"  She quipped.  She saw that the other two women had deathly serious looks on their faces, Ellen with tears pouring out of her eyes.  Greta climbed to her feet.  "Vhat... vhat is wrong?"

That's when she realized she was standing next to an enormous boot... her boot to be precise.  "Vhat is this?  Vhere did this come from?"

"It's your boot, Greta," Connie answered.

"Vhat?  No... that makes no sense, that's..." Greta struggled to understand.

"That man... Clay... that... stuff he brought in here... it did something to us.  I think we're only a few inches tall," Connie explained.  Ellen dropped to her knees and started sobbing again.

"Come on, Ellen.  Get up.  We need to go find Sandra," Connie ordered.  Ellen nodded and struggled back to her feet, trying to wipe the tears away as they continued to flow.

The three made their way to the final massive pile of clothing.  All three began calling out to Sandra.  There was no response.  Connie found a sleeve and crawled inside. After a few minutes that seemed like many more, she started to panic.  

"Sandra!  Sandra... where are you!"  Connie’s muffled shouting from inside the dress only fell on Ellen and Greta’s ears.

Ellen and Greta began walking along the top of the dress trying to find a bulge other than Connie, shouting at the tops of their lungs themselves. They found nothing.  Connie made her way out of the bottom of the off-white dress.  She was about to come undone with fear.

"I don't understand... where is she... what happened to her?"  Connie yelled in a panic.

Greta rushed over to grab her friend, "calm down, vee'll find her, ok?  Don't let Ellen see you break.  She needs you."  

Connie looked her in the eyes and nodded silently.

"Hey... listen," Ellen said as she approached one of Sandra's tall boots.  One was lying on its side on the floor, but the other was leaning up against the banister at an angle.  Ellen placed her ear to the massive boot and shushed the other women.  A faint muffled sound came from inside.

"She's in here!"  She screamed.  "Hold on, Sandy... we're coming!"

The three women stood back, staring at the gigantic footwear, a tall nearly knee high number. For them, it was as tall as a four or five story building

"How the hell are vee going to get her out of it?" Greta asked, scratching her head.

Connie climbed up on the toe of the boot and jumped on it.  The entire thing slowly fell flat onto its sole. She didn’t expect it to give so easy and she fell off the end into Ellen's awaiting arms, sending both to the ground.

"Thanks El," said the tiny redhead, slapping Ellen on her ass... which made her face flush with embarrassment.

"Vell... I don't know that that helped," said Greta, "now vhat do vee do?"

The three of them looked around the landing, trying to find an answer... then Connie got an idea.

"Quick, help me with this!" Connie yelled.  

She made her way towards Sandra's other boot.  She started climbing it, and since it was on its side, didn't take long to get on top.  She scooted herself towards the mouth of the boot and started pulling the lace out of a hole.  It fell to the floor where Greta picked it up the end looking puzzled.

"Pull it out of the other hole, dummy.  We can use it as a rope!"  Connie shouted.

Greta nodded and began pulling the thick lace out of the bottom hole.  The three women worked back and forth, Connie from the top and Greta and Ellen from the bottom, to free the lace from the boot... each pass taking longer to pull the lace out.  As it passed through the last upper hole, Connie slid down the side of the boot and helped the other women yank it free.

The three of them dragged the thick lace towards the other boot.  Connie wrapped an end around her waist and tied it off.  Greta and Ellen boosted her onto the toe of the boot and she began her accent up the laces.  She had to scale it carefully because the laces would bend and stretch with each step.  Once at the top she shouted down into the dark insides of the boot.

"Hey Doe Eyes?!  You alright down there?!"  

"Yes... I-I think so!  Where are we?! What’s Happening?!"  Sandra replied.

"I'll explain in a minute, but for now you need to brace yourself, ok?"  

Connie untied the lace from around her mid section and looped through the top pair of laces.  She continued pushing it through as the Greta and Ellen fed her more lace.  Once the end met floor level the other two pulled it backwards as Connie made her way back down.  She slid off the toe and joined the other women on the line.

"Ready ladies?"  Connie asked.  They each stood, one in front of another, with a length of boot lace on either side.  "Pull!"

The three minuscule women leaned backwards, and in a few steps, caused the boot to topple over.  the three of them landed on their backsides in a pile. Sandra screamed as the boot landed on its side.

"You ok, Doe Eyes?" Greta called.

"Can you come help me... I seem to be caught in some kind of net." She replied.  

Connie and Greta stepped up into the boot and walked inside the leather cavern.  Hey found Sandra near the heel, struggling to get out of her own fishnet stocking.

"Ladies... what is going on?!  Why are you naked?  Why am I naked?!  Who did this to me?"  Sandra's mouth was running a mile a minute with questions that would needed only a single answer.

Connie tried ripping the fishnets apart, but the material was too strong... or rather, she was too week at her current size.  "C'mon Greta... lets drag her out.  It'll be easier in the light."

"Wait... don't..." Sandra exclaimed as she fell backwards, the stocking being pulled out from under her.

As they reached the mouth of the leather cave, Ellen had already found the opening in the stocking and folded it back so Sandra could get out.  She stood up and stared at the three naked women in front of her.

"Jesus... did we have an orgy... did I black out drunk?"  She nervously joked.

"Ha!  That's vhat I said!"  Greta chuckled.

"Thanks for getting me out of there.  My head is killing me and that place smelled like sweat and feet," Sandra said as she rubbed at her temples.

"Well... there's good reason for that...," Connie reluctantly replied, pointing at the other boot.

Sandra turned to see the gigantic boot’s twin laying on its side.  The four women found themselves standing between the gigantic pair of footwear.

"I... I don't understand... what does this mean?"  Sandra asked, her already large eyes looking like they might pop out of her head.

"Those idiots down there were fuckin' around with that weird shit that stranger found... and now... now we're the size of chess pieces," Connie answered.  Ellen began to cry again and Connie put her arm around her.

Sandra looked away from the others and took in her surroundings.  It looked like the upper floor of the hotel alright.  Just... unfathomably enormous.  She turned and started walking towards the banister, each of its supports as wide as tree trunks.  The other three followed her to the edge.  The four of them stopped between the posts and looked down into the saloon... marveling at its enormity.

"Mein god...," was all Greta could express. Indeed.

Connie held Ellen against her as she cried against her chest.  Then Connie spotted Maggie's tan, floral dress.

"We gotta get down there," Connie exclaimed, interrupting the other's stunned silence, "look... Ma's down there!"  She pointed towards the end of the bar where Maggie's clothing had piled up and the others’ eyes followed.  

The confused and frightened quartet walked the length of the landing towards the stairs, taking in the giant objects around them.  They dragged the boot lace along, knowing they were probably going to need it to get down the stairs.  All four felt vulnerable and lost, with Connie tying to stay strong for the group.

As they approached the stairs, the lace was used to lower each other down to the next step.  Connie was last.  She dangled herself over the edge of the wooden stair and the others caught her as she dropped.  They walked to the edge of the next step and looked over.

Greta poked at Connie and sighed, "this... this may take a vhile."


End Part 5
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:22 am

Part 6-"A Small Paper Package"  


7:26 PM


"Ma!  Ma... you in there?!"

"Ma!  Maggie?!  Can you hear us?!"

The women surrounded Maggie's dress, trying to find an easy way in.  It had pooled up nearly straight down when she shrank so they started tugging at it to try and flatten it out.

Like the others, Maggie awoke to a splitting headache.  She felt completely disoriented and unaware of where she was.  All she knew was in the dark and that her friends' shouting was making her headache worse.

"Maggie?!  Can you hear us?!"  Greta shouted.

"Give it a rest would ya!  My head is killing me!"  Maggie finally responded.  

"Oh thank god!"  Greta sighed in relief.

The four of them had lifted a section of the dress and Maggie could finally see light beneath the collapsed circus-tent-like covering.  She could see four pairs of huge bare feet as she reached the opening, causing her to pause for a moment out of confusion.  She pressed through on her hands and knees until she finally made it out.  What greeted her was nothing short of shocking, to be sure.  Her eyes slowly moved from the large feet upwards to see four giant nude women towering over her... her friends. She slowly stood up to find that she barely reached half the height of any one of them.

"Oh, no... oh god no... Maggie...," Sandra whimpered with a gasp.  She cupped her hands over her mouth as the tears began to fall.

It was rare for any of them to call her anything but 'Ma', so she knew the situation was serious.  She took a step back and felt her bare sole hit something cold and hard.  She peered down to see a nail sticking up out of the course wood floor, only... the rectangular head was longer than her foot.  She looked back up to the other women, all of them with the same look of fear on their faces.  Then her gaze circled the vastness around her.  The realization of what had occurred hit her, but she seemed to mentally accept it faster than the others had.  Perhaps the sight of her friends looming over her forced her to admit the impossible to herself sooner.  She knew she was in the hotel... and like Connie, thought of the case of tiny bones on the bar... now high above her and what could easily be a quarter of a mile away.

"Why is she so much smaller than us?!" Connie belted out with a hint of desperation in her voice.  

Greta turned to look at Sandra for comfort, but realized something she hadn't before.  She flattened her hand on the top of her head and moved it towards Sandra's.  Sandra cocked her head back, confused by what Greta was up to.  She grabbed Greta's hand to stop her.

"What are you doing, you weird Kraut?"

"Sandra... you used to be taller than me.  By nearly a head even.  Now I'm a little taller than you!"  Greta exclaimed.

Sandra realized it as well.  It didn't matter to her though, she yanked both their hands to their sides and whispered into Greta's ear, "do you think that really matters right now?"  She gestured towards Maggie with a slight tilt of her head.  Greta got the hint.

Maggie looked back up to each of her friends, "how small are we?"

"We're not really sure... I guess maybe four... five inches," Connie estimated.  "I can only guess based on the length of our boot heels.  I guess...  I guess that means your..."

Maggie interrupted her by raising her hand, "yeah, yeah... I know.  How long have I been out?"

"Maybe a few hours or so.  We came to a while ago, but we had to git Doe Eyes out of her own boot and then it took over an hour to git down the damn stairs," Connie informed her.  "Never thought I'd be competing for the number of naked dames I've rubbed up against getting down those steps with the way lil El here does on a weekly basis!"

Ellen said nothing, she only shot Connie a dirty look and then punched her hard in the arm.

"Easy Ellen, I'm just bustin' yer chops... Jesus."  Connie rubbed at the dead-arm she'd just been given like an old war wound.

Ellen knelt down so she was eye level with Maggie, "do you think we can fix this, Ma?"  Her sight began wave with tears again.

Maggie thought back to just before she blacked out.  She tried to picture what she saw again.  The three men were gone... but something else was missing, too.  

It was the sphere.  

She remembered all she saw was a burn mark on the bar before turning to see the girls run out of Ellen's room.

"I think... I think that weird metal ball did this.  I think it may have exploded or something, those idiots must have broken it.” She continued, “something hit me when I was in back... like the rumble from when the mine caved in."  She realized quickly that she should have used a different metaphor when she saw the looks on the other's faces. “Sorry.  I didn't mean to bring that up.”

“Anyway, that ball was gone when I came out of the back room and the bar was burned."  Maggie raised her her eyes back up to meet Ellen's, no longer lost in thought.  She could tell that Ellen was about to lose it.

"You... you mean we... we're stuck this way?"  Ellen pleaded with her eyes, hoping to god Maggie would know how to save them.  She dropped her head and started balling into her hands.

Maggie approached her, stood up on the tips of her toes and leaned in, wrapping her arms around Ellen's neck.

"'Fraid that might be the case, El.  I wish I knew what to do.  This is all a little out of my wheelhouse."  Maggie stroked Ellen's beautiful black hair and tried her best to comfort the poor woman.  Then Sandra, Greta and Connie knelt down with them and they huddled together in an embrace.

Maggie lifted her eyes to see that she was surrounded by sobbing, giant women.  "Listen to me everyone... this is hard.  This is awful.  But all we've known is awful and hard... and we've risen above it.  Our children and husbands were taken from us, and it was unbearable... but we survived it. We are stronger now because of it.  We had to sell our bodies to buy food, and now... we have men eating out of the palms of our hands.  And do you know how we did it?  Together.  We have each other and that's all that matters.  We can get through this, too... as long as we look out for one another."

The five of them all clutched each other tightly and nodded in agreement.  Despite being so much smaller than the rest... Maggie stood tall.

"Now... do we know where those three assholes are?"  Maggie asked, thumbing towards the three gigantic piles of male clothing at the far end of the bar.

"Probably trapped in their own britches like the rest of us vere," Greta joked.

"Well, I suppose we have to go git them out," Connie sighed. “I can’t wait to bust their goddamn teeth in.”

The five tiny women struggled to their feet and wiped the tears out of their eyes.  They began their trek across the floor.  Maggie had to take extra care when crossing from floorboard to floorboard not to get a foot caught between them.  It took them a few minutes to reach the first pile when they started calling out to the men.  

"Hey!  Chester!  Lester!  Clay!  Can you hear us?  You in there?"

They circled the pile for a few minutes before regrouping again.

"I don't get it... they go deaf or something?" Connie asked.

Just then Maggie realized something that should have been obvious before.

"No one move!" She ordered.  

The other women froze in their tracks.  

"Fuck, it's so obvious... they're tiny!"  Maggie shouted.

"Well... yeah... no shit, Ma," Connie countered sarcastically.

"No no no... they're REALLY tiny.  That's why I'm so much smaller than the rest of you.  I was closer to the... thing... when it went off."

Greta snapped her fingers, "and that's vhy Sandra is shorter than me now...  because she vas closer to the door vhen vee got hit!"

"How... how small do you think they are?" Ellen asked in a worried tone.

They all looked down at the floor and then back up at each other.  Almost as if rehearsed, they all took a nervous, reflexive step backwards.

That's when Sandra felt the crunch.

She felt it.  She heard it as well.  So did the others. Everyone froze in terror.

"Mmmm...Mmma?"  Sandra stammered.  She was too afraid to move.

Maggie slowly walked towards Sandra showing the palms of her hands submissively to try and calm her. "Ok, Doe Eyes... it's Ok... I'm just gonna have a look, alright?  It's alright... just stay calm..." 

Maggie continued to chant as she walked around to the back of Sandra's tall legs.  She knelt down and took her foot in her hands.

"Ok sweetie... can you lift your foot for me?  It's ok..."

Greta and Connie rushed to Sandra's sides to support her as she stood on one foot.  Ellen looked on, covering her mouth in horror.

Sandra curled her foot back and up.  Maggie could already see blood stains on the wood.  She then apprehensively turned her attention to Sandra's blackening sole to find three tiny bodies plastered to it in a triangular pattern. Each man couldn’t have been more than an inch tall from her perspective, pressed nearly flat under Sandra’s weight. She cupped her hands to her mouth trying to keep from being sick.  Maggie stood up straight, shaking her hands at the wrists to try and calm down.

"It's them isn't it?! ISN'T IT?!"  Sandra cried.  "I killed them... oh god... oh Jesus no... I'm so sorry..."

Maggie was still trying to walk off her nerves when she spotted a small piece of torn newspaper caught under one of the bar stool legs.

"Just hold on a second Sandy...," she called as calmly as she could as she ran towards the scrap.  It wasn't much, maybe a couple feet across from her perspective.  She was amazed at how large the print was and how easily she could see the fibers making up the paper.  She knelt down and grabbed it with both hands, then leaned backwards.  It gave fairly easily, sending Maggie toppling backwards.  She stumbled back up and then ran back to the others.  Once back down on her knees at Sandra's foot, she tore the paper in half and set one of the halves below her foot.

"Ok Doe Eyes... it's almost over.  Stay strong for me, ok?"

Sandra nodded through her tears.  Greta and Connie held her tighter.

Maggie began peeling the remains off of Sandra's sole, each one making the poor blonde woman cry out in emotional agony.  The sickening wet sound they made as they were removed sent Maggie to tears. Maggie tried to hide her sobbing as she did what needed to be done.  Once all three mangled bodies were laying on the paper, she folded it up as tightly and carefully as she could.  Then she took the remaining paper and moistened it with her tongue.  She proceeded to wipe the blood stains from off of Sandra's sole until they were gone.  After this, she took the dirty rag and covered the blood stained spot on the wood so Sandra wouldn't have to see it.

"Ok, Sandy... it's finished."

Sandra immediately dropped to her knees and cried uncontrollably.  Greta and Connie continued to try and comfort her, to no avail.

"I'm sorry, Sandra.  It's not your fault.  It could have been any one of us.  I'm so sorry.  Please know it isn't your fault," Maggie pleaded as she rubbed Sandra's bare back.  She turned back around and picked up the gruesome package and held it without knowing what exactly to do with it.

Ellen finally broke out of her terrified trace and approached Maggie.  She knelt down and and held out her hands, "here, Ma... let me take it."

Maggie nodded and carefully placed it in Ellen's much larger hands.

"I'll take care of it... I promise... until we can give them a proper burial," Ellen offered as her voice began to crack in sadness.

The five of them huddled together again and clutched each other in their grief as the dropping sun shrouded them in growing darkness.

Then they heard it... the unmistakable sound of a typical weekend's business rolling into town.  The sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground and of wagon wheels churning the earth.  The sound of men hollering and singing.  A sound that grew louder and louder.

It was 8:05 PM



End Part 6
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by jogger » Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:29 pm

excellently written! intrested in more.

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:53 pm

Part 7-"The Hidden" 


The sound of the horse drawn wagon pulling up in front of the hotel sounded almost apocalyptic to the Fallen Angels' tiny ears.  Each of them stood up and looked outwards into the street from the floor below the end of the bar.  None of them had noticed how dark it had gotten until then.

"Oh shit... our 'clients' are here," Connie grumbled.

Greta looked at Connie with confusion and hurt in her eyes.  "Vhat do you mean... they can help us, can't they?"

"Greta?!  What do you think is going to happen here?!  Do you think a group of thirsty, horned up men are going to scoop us up and cry in their beer over our situation?!  When they walk in here and see five tiny... NAKED... women in here, they're going to... I don't even want to think about what they could do to us.  They're fucking animals and they'll fight over us like dogs fighting over a bone!"  exclaimed Connie as she wagged her finger at Greta.

Maggie placed her hand on Greta's leg to get her attention, "she's right Greta... we’re gonna have to be very careful."

"No, they vouldn't... they vouldn't do something like that!  You can't assume the vurst in people, Connie.  Vhat if it's Arnold?  He vouldn't hurt us... I love hi-," Greta cut herself off in realization that this was the first time she had told the others about her and Arnold.

"Why... I knew it... you sneaky little whore!  I knew you two were up to somethin', fuck!  You two gonna run off and get hitched?!  Maybe he can find a ring that will fit around your waist!"  Connie laughed and mocked.

"Knock it off, Connie!"  Maggie ordered.

"No, really... is she gonna have kids with him or somethin'... Jesus!  If Arnold doesn't rip her in half, the kid sure will!" Connie continued to press.

"I SAID KNOCK IT OFF, CONNIE!"  Screamed Maggie.

"Fine...shit..."

Greta just hung her head and tried not to let Connie see that she had gotten to her.  Greta knew she was right... what kind of life could she have with him now.

"Ok, say Arnold will help us, Greta... we don't know if that's him yet... we need to hide... now!"

The five of them rushed around the corner of the base of the bar.  Maggie trailed behind, her strides being half of any one of the other girls.  They could hear loud boot steps making their way up the stairs, growing ever louder as they approached.  Connie lifted Maggie up up so she could get a hold on the lowest shelf behind the bar and pull herself up.  Greta then boosted Connie and Sandra next, who both leaned over the edge and pulled Greta and Ellen up by their arms.  Together they pushed a couple of pint glasses out of the way so they could hide behind them.

The boots stopped in the doorway, "Hello?  Ladies?  You here?"

The voice was impossibly loud, like thunder echoing through the hotel.  Greta still recognized it as her lover though.  "ARNOLD!  HERE!  VE'RE DOWN HE-"

Connie silenced Greta with a hand over the mouth.

"Are you fucking crazy?!  We don't know who's with him!  We need to wait," Connie scolded.

Greta looked down towards Maggie who nodded in agreement with Connie.  Greta also reluctantly nodded and Connie removed her hand.  The women continued to listen as the booming boot steps resumed vibrating through the bar.

"Hey fellas... I could use some help in here!"  Arnold's voice echoed through the open space again.

Connie stared at Greta and thumbed in Arnold's direction, "See!"

Then the stampede began.  Seven more men entered the hotel in what could only be described as a small earthquake to the tiny women.  The rumble of the men's boots only being amplified by the shelves and glassware surrounding them.

"My god... it sounds like an army approaching!"  Maggie said, terrified.

"What's going on... where's the women?"  A familiar voice boomed from above somewhere.  Maggie thought it sounded familiar, but couldn't place it.

"Start grabbin' lanterns and candles.  We need light... somethin' ain't right," they heard Arnold order.

More commotion of gigantic footfalls filled the room as the women could see light slowly begin to illuminate the darkness from against the ornate backbar.  It was still very dark inside the shelf space though, for which they were grateful.  They heard another voice call for Arnold join him upstairs.

That's when they got their first view of one of the giants they were now completely at the mercy of.

A pair of enormous legs, clad in worn out denim, appeared behind the bar.  None of the women were prepared for just how enormous these men would be.  They instinctually crouched down lower... like the tiny creatures they were... trying not to be seen.  The pop of a cork and some exaggerated gulping sounds informed Maggie that this man was helping himself to a bottle of whiskey.  She instantly filled with rage.  She had never tolerated theft, and she was ready to blow up.

"Why... that cheap motherfucker... I'll...," she began as she stood up from behind one of the giant pint glasses.  Connie quickly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back down.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Connie's eyes were wide with a combination of anger and terror. Maggie thought about it for a second and realized what she'd almost done.

"Sorry... I... I guess old habits die hard.  It's hard to accept that the hotel isn't ours anymore," Maggie submitted with a voice filled with sorrow.  The sex work was what it was, but she did truly love managing the place.  Ellen placed a large hand on her shoulder in an effort to comfort her.  "It's theirs now."

They continued to watch as more towering men appeared behind the counter to help themselves to some refreshment.  As they drank they became louder and rowdier.  The first bottle crashed onto the floor, causing the women to jump in shock at its deafening crash.  They were forced to cover their ears as more bottles met their end on the hardwood, only interrupted by the horde's raucous cackling.  Maggie, Ellen, Greta and Sandra were all in tears.  Mostly because the situation was really starting to sink in for them, but also because they could only stand by as their beloved hotel was being destroyed.  Connie wanted to give in to her emotions as well, but knew it would only trigger the others.

An enormous crash that sounded as if a building had just collapsed forced the women tighter in their huddled fear.  It was followed by the distant but loud voice of Arnold from somewhere above.

"You clumsy sons-a-bitches!  Can't you act civil?  There's something wrong here..."

"You tell 'em, Arnie!"  Greta blurted out, immediately cupping her hands to her mouth.

"Why don't you relax a piece," an unfamiliar voice followed.  

A loud smack and a thud vibrated everything around the diminutive females like an explosion.  Traumatic flashes of the mine explosion filled Greta's mind.  She knew something was wrong.  She knew something had happened to her Arnold.  She leapt from her crouched position with the other girls and ran to the edge of the shelf.

"Greta no! What're you doing?!" Maggie called out.

Greta wasn't thinking clearly.  Panic had clouded her judgment and only the well being of her lover concerned her.  She lowered herself over the edge of the shelf and darted along the base of the bar to try reach her man.

"What...  what do we do, Maggie?"  Ellen whimpered.

"We go after her."

Maggie hopped to her feet and ran towards the edge.  It was quite a drop for her and she hesitated.  Sandra and Ellen weren't far behind luckily.  Ellen lowered herself over the edge first and dropped to the floor.  She lifted her arms up to catch Maggie.  Sandra went next, with Ellen offering her hands as a step.  Connie just stood over them from above with her arms crossed.

"She's gonna get us all killed, you know?"  She complained, placing her fists on her bare hips.

The other women stared up at her wordlessly.  Connie just rolled her eyes and lowered herself over the edge.  The commotion on the other side of the bar grew with more glass disintegrating, more furniture breaking.  It sounded as if the world was coming to an end.

They spotted Greta as she darted her to the far corner of the bar, her feet carrying her faster than she ever knew she could.  The others followed as best as they could.  With each passing second more enormous chunks of broken glass came raining down around them.  They pressed themselves up against the base as much as possible to avoid getting seen... or crushed.  As they saw Greta disappear around the corner, a titanic body came over the top of the bar and landed on the floor. The man's gigantic, bearded face smacked just inches from the shocked women.  He glared directly at them trying to process what he was seeing.  The four of them stood motionless in paralyzing fear waiting for his next move.  The giant's eyes fluttered a little and he passed out from an injury to his head. A pool of blood from under his face beginning to creep towards the women.

"Go!  Keep moving!"  Maggie ordered and they all took off on a dead run towards the corner, dodging an obstacle course of jagged glass as they ran. 

They too finally reached the edge.  They could see Greta kneeling, pressed against the front corner of the bar behind a gigantic spittoon.  They rushed to greet her only to stop dead in their tracks at the sight unfolding before them.  Warring titans were destroying everything in sight.  Blood and bodies and wreckage sprawled out across the saloon.  Fires were beginning to consume drapes and wallpaper... and spreading fast.  The sheer scope of the scene held the women in a brief state of awe.

Ellen broke from the trance first and rushed to Greta's side.  Greta's fist was clenched at her mouth as she looked at the unconscious body of the man she loved.  Ellen embraced her friend and watched the carnage around her continue, the precious paper package still held against her breast.  The others joined them and peaked around the corner at Arnold's state.

"We need to get him up!  Now!  The bastards are gonna burn the place to the ground!  We don't have a lot of time!"  Maggie ordered over the commotion. Her voice was too small to be noticed by the drunken patrons.  

Ellen pulled Greta to her feet and the five of them rushed cautiously to Arnold's immense face.  Greta pounded at his neck trying to wake him.  Connie and Sandra pulled at his whiskers trying to cause enough pain to pull him out of it.  It wasn't working.  By then, the giant men were scrambling to put out the fires or abandoning the hotel altogether, completely unaware of the drama unfolding at their feet.

"Everyone out! Run!"


End Part 7
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:30 pm

Part 8-"The Escape" 


The heat of the fire grew more intense as it spread closer to the five shrunken proprietors and their full sized yet unconscious acquaintance.  The footfalls of the last of the perpetrators echoed their way out the door and down the planked steps into the street.

"GRETA!  WE CAN'T HELP HIM!  WE HAVE TO GO!"  Connie screamed as the menacing blaze threatened ever closer.

Greta knelt at the base of Arnold's neck, clutching at a lock of his hair... crying in anguish, "NOOOOOOOOOOO... PLEEEEASE... VAAAAAAAAAKE UP!"

Connie grabbed Greta by the shoulders and dragged her to her feet, still screaming.  She looked Greta dead in the eye... a single tear falling down her cheek, "I'm sorry Greta... but we have to leave or we're all going to die!"

Connie clutched Greta to her chest as tight as she could as the tiny blonde cried out to an indifferent god.  Connie grabbed her by the hand and darted towards the door... still so very far away.  The others followed suit.

Getting to the door was a gauntlet in and of itself.  A maze of men's bodies blocked once clear paths and had to be navigated quickly.  Any wrong turn could waste precious seconds.  The fire had reached the second floor and flaming chunks of the ceiling were beginning to fall all around them.  Ellen reached the doorway first followed by Sandra and Connie.  

Greta lagged behind them, still terribly upset about having to leave Arnold behind.  As she approached the door she looked back one last time to, hopefully catch one last fleeting glimpse of him.  What she saw instead was Maggie, far behind the rest of them.  Her smaller legs were unable to keep up and she was having a much harder time navigating the giant shards of broken glass and burning cinders.

Greta stopped on a dime and screamed, "Maaaaggiieeee!" 

She darted back towards the tiny brunette while the others screamed from the entry way.  Once they met, Greta picked Maggie up as if she was a small child and ran back towards the door.

"I'm not going to lose you too, Ma!" She shouted as she ran.

The doorway grew closer as Greta huffed her way across the burning floor.  Larger structural portions of the roof were beginning to cave in.  Just as safety seemed within reach, a long stretch of crown moulding dropped from the ceiling to the floor.  The three women outside fell backwards as it crashed.  It stretched far wider than the door frame, blocking Greta and Maggie's escape.  It's entire length was engulfed in flames.

Greta set Maggie down and the pair ran back and forth along the moulding's length searching for a way through.  There was none to be found.  The moulding was nearly waist high for Greta, making it about as thick as Maggie was tall.  The flames rose much, much higher. it was far too wide as well, there'd be no way to run across it and survive.  The other women called to them to jump... it just wasn't an option.

Greta felt Maggie take her hand like a child trying to comfort a distraught adult.  They looked into each other's eyes.  Greta had never stopped crying, but Maggie let a single tear roll down her cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Greta... this is all my fault... I'm so sorry..."

Greta stiffened her jaw and looked backwards towards her lover and then locked eyes with Maggie again.

"You take care of them, Maggie.  They need you...," and with that, Greta grabbed a surprised Maggie by an arm and a leg". She lifted the much smaller woman and began spinning in place, trying to gain momentum.

"Wait... Greta... what're you...?"

Greta released Maggie with as much force as she could muster and flung the tiny woman over the moulding and through the intense flames.  Maggie landed hard on the rough wooden doorframe where the others met her to dowse her hair as it began to burn.  She pushed them aside, as best she could anyway at her size anyway, and screamed back into the hotel.

Barely visible through the ever intensifying flames was Greta's face.  She kissed her palm and waved goodbye to her friends before turning on a dead run back into the inferno.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Maggie wailed.  Her normally collected demeanor was nowhere to be seen.  The other girls had to restrain her as she tried to fight her way back across the flames after her dear Greta.  She kicked and squirmed in their arms as she called out Greta's name.

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

Greta dodged the gauntlet yet again as she ran.  The entire room was aglow with fire and the heat was making it harder and harder to breath.  The only advantage she had was her tiny stature, ensuring much less smoke inhalation being so close to the floor.  She ran harder than she thought possible. A piece of broken glass the size of an orange found her foot, sending excruciating pain shooting through her sole.  She ripped it out in one motion as blood gushed from the open wound.  She resumed her quest, now limping, leaving a single trail of tiny, bloody footprints behind her.

And there he was.  There was her Arnold.

She hobbled to his ear and screamed as loud as she could, "ARNOLD!  VAKE UP,  PLEASE!"

There was still no response.

She continued screaming at the unconscious man to no avail.  Only when a trail of flames snaked its way towards one of Arnold's palms did his eyes finally jerk open.  

"ARNOLD!  ARNOLD... OH THANK GOD... GET UP WE HAVE TO GO!"

Arnold turned his head to see the naked shrunken image of the woman he loved jumping up and down amidst a sea of fire.  

"GRETA...?"

No sooner had he said her name and the last supports holding the roof burned through and finally gave.  The entire roof of the hotel caved in as the fire raged ever stronger.  A heavy support beam swung loose and fell almost straight down on Greta, killing her instantly.  Arnold was not so lucky.  The same flaming beam teetered on its end for a second and toppled onto his chest, crushing his rib cage.  His death came agonizingly slow.

Two lovers... together in death... as they hoped to be in life.

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

Meanwhile the four surviving Fallen Angels were still fighting the hysterical Maggie as they made their way across the wooden sidewalk and down the stairs.  They had to take turns helping each other down as they had inside earlier, only this time with a woman gone half-mad with grief.  They eventually made their way into the dusty Main Street of Heaven.

They settled in the middle of the road and collapsed, holding each other in stunned horror.  It wasn't much longer before that the roof caved in on the hotel... and the grief finally took hold of the the other three.  They could hear Arthur's screams from inside as he slowly burned to death.

One by one, other buildings would catch fire.  All they could do was watch as the entire town went up in flames.  The fear of a false front potentially collapsing into the middle of the street forced them towards the edge of town.  There... propped up against a small rock... they held each other in the cold air of a desert night... and cried until the sun arose the next morning.  

By then... Heaven was nothing more than a few stone fireplaces towering over smoldering cinders... like tombstones in Hell.


End Part 8
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:32 pm

drek wrote:
Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:29 pm
excellently written! intrested in more.
Thank you so much! No worries, my dude.. theres plenty more to come!
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:47 pm

Part 9-"Goodbyes" 


The dim light of dawn began to creep down the sides of the canyon.  The cold of the desert night would soon be contrasted by the intense heat of late summer in Nevada.

Maggie had forced herself into a state of uneasy calm.  She could easily break down again at any given moment.  But she knew that, despite her much smaller stature, the other women looked up to her for leadership, even the hardheaded Connie.  She couldn't lose control again, despite how hard it was to maintain composure.

"What... uh... what are we gonna do, Ma?" Ellen asked, breaking a silence that had lasted for hours.  She had somehow saved the folded newspaper package in the rush to escape the fire.  She clutched it to her chest like a security blanket.

"I really don't know, El...," Maggie answered as she stood up and walked a few yards away from the others, staring at the ruins of the hotel.  "Whatever we decide to do isn’t going to be easy.  All I know is we don't stand a chance if we can't find water and a way to cover ourselves.  The sun will cook us if we don't, and we don't have a lot of time."

Maggie thought about how strange it was to be worried about the heat when she was standing nude, rubbing her arms for warmth in the early morning air.  She turned to address the other three.  Sandra was already on her feet, leaning against the rock with her hands on her knees.  Ellen was just getting up.  Connie remained sitting with her head in her hands.

"I'm open to suggestions here, ladies...," Maggie began.  None of them replied.  "How far is it to the next town?" 

Sandra answered, still hunched over and staring into the dirt, "Dirksville is about five miles away in the canyon to the south of us... but that's if we take the pass.  It's three times that far if we go around."  She lifted her head and stood up straight, "it isn't even that much of a town though...  just a couple dozen miners' cabins and maybe a couple of saloons.  I don't think they even have a post office."

"So what?  Are we planning on mailing ourselves somewhere safe, Doe Eyes?" Connie said sarcastically, mumbling through her hands.  She leaned back against the rock and looked to Maggie, "our only real option is Kern's Junction."

Kern's Junction was a railroad town built to service the area's rich mines.  It was small, but quite a bustling place for as little water was available in the area.  What there was had to be pumped from deep underground to supply the steam engines.  The men in the area tended to quench their thirsts with spirits anyway.

"Kern's?!  But... that's over ten miles from here!"  Ellen exclaimed.

"No... it isn't...," Maggie spoke, sullenly, "it was... but you're now, what... a tenth of your normal height?  It'll be over a hundred miles now... and it'll feel like twice that for me."

"My god... that’s impossible...we’re going to die," Ellen began sobbing again as Sandra put her arm around her.

"I ain't gonna lie to you... it doesn't look good.  But we'll most certainly die if we stay here.  I certainly don't want to be around when the buzzards start picking at...," she stopped herself, not wanting to even think about Greta and Arnold becoming a meal for some gigantic, bald chicken.

"Let's say that, by some act of God, we do make it?  Huh?!  What then?!  We still don't know who we can trust out there.  Have we forgotten that?  We're completely fucked, Ma!"  Connie grumbled as she finally stood up, placing her fists on her hips.

"I think last night was example enough that we need to find someone... anyone to help us.  I made the wrong call and... I'm sorry for it.  Maybe if I just listened to her, Greta would...," once again Maggie had to stop herself, only this time she couldn't hold back the tears.  She covered her eyes in a vain attempt to hide her emotions.

Connie rushed to her and knelt down, pulling Maggie to her chest and wrapping her arms around her.  "If there's blame to spread, Ma, then I should get my share, too.   It was my idea to hide and we all agreed it was the right thing to do.  We still don’t know if it was the wrong choice, you saw what those barbarians did to each other. Don't shoulder this all yourself.  We couldn't possibly have known."

It was a genuinely touching display of kindness and friendship from a typically cynical Connie.  She was just as scared and broken as the rest of them, but had difficulty admitting it.  The walls she had spent years building around herself were beginning to crumble.

"There's a doctor in Kern's!"  Sandra suddenly blurted out.  "I can't believe I forgot!"

"That's great Doe Eyes, but I don't think this is something a doctor can fix," Connie replied, trying not to sound like a snarky ass as she continued to hold Maggie.

"No... I suppose not... but don't they take some kind of oath... a promise of some kind that they have to help people?  Even if he can't, he could get us somewhere that can."  Sandra countered.

Ellen interjected, "even if that means we end up in a zoo or something?"

"It's still better than dying of thirst or being eaten by coyotes," Sandra replied.

Maggie tapped Connie on the arm to let her know she was ok.  The two of them joined Ellen and Sandra by the rock.  They stood there in silence for a minute as they contemplated what they were about to undertake.

"So we try for Kern's then...," Maggie stated more than she was asking.

"And what about the water and clothing... what do we do about that?"  Maggie asked.

"Well...," Maggie started, scratching her chin, "we'll pass by the dump on the way out of the canyon... we might be able to find something to cover ourselves there.  As for the water... we'll just have to hope there are enough cacti between here and the Junction.  We can get moisture from those."

"That's an old wives tale, Ma," Ellen corrected, "most cactus water will make you sick."

"Fuck...," Connie whined, "so the plan is... we cover ourselves in garbage and just hope we find water... Jesus Christ... we don't stand a chance, do we?"

"Like I said before... I'm open to suggestions, Connie.  There's no water here.  There's no way the barrels inside the hotel survived the fire, and even if they did, we are in no position to get to them or into them.  We have try."

"I'm not arguing with ya, Ma.  I just don't like our odds here."

"I know, Connie.  Neither do I."

"Well... s'posin' we should get movin' then.  Won't be long before the sun dries us out like salted beef," Connie said.

"One thing first... please," Ellen interrupted.  She held out the package containing the three tiny men she had been clutching to her chest.  "Can we... can we give them a proper burial first?"

Sandra covered her mouth with her hand as she fought back more guilty tears.

"Of course, El...," Maggie assured her, "where should we do it?"

"Right here would be fine, if it's alright with the rest of you?" Ellen replied.

All of them nodded in unison.  They knelt down onto the rough desert ground at the base of the rock and began chipping away at the surface with pebbles.  Once deemed deep enough, Ellen gently laid the package into the hole.  Then collectively, the rest of them pushed the coarse earth back over it.  The silence could only be described as deafening as each woman fought back their tears... precious moisture they could not afford to lose.

"Should... should we... should someone say something?" Ellen stammered.

The women looked to each other, eyes darting from one to the next.  Faith wasn't something any of them had much left of.  After losing their families, their livelihood, and now even their place in the food chain... they struggled to accept there could be anything divine worth praying to.

"I'll say something," Sandra finally volunteered.  Her own guilt still weighed heavy on her heart and felt it only right that she step up. The rest of them bowed their heads, staring at the tiny grave.  "Lord... if there is such a thing... I'm really not sure anymore.  If you ARE there, please take care of them whose lives were cut short this past night.  Some we didn't know, some... some were dear friends... family really.  I'm sorry for my role in adding to... I'm so sorry..."

Sandra couldn't finish.  She covered her eyes with her hand and became too choked up to speak anymore.  Ellen rested her head on her shoulder and embraced her friend.

"Thank you, Doe Eyes," Maggie said, "I know that wasn't easy."

There was more silence... part grief... part dread for what they were about to undertake.

Ellen let go of Sandra and raised her forefinger, "just one more thing, Ma..."

She took off towards the burned out remains of the nearest structure, moving as fast as her tender bare feet could take her across the rough, rutted, and rocky terrain.  She stopped near a long blackened board and tested a piece of the charcoal for heat.  It had cooled off in the morning air so she chipped off a piece with a rock and returned to the puzzled group.  She approached the rock and began rubbing the charcoal into it.

"Here lies

Chester
Lester
Clay"

Ellen dropped the charcoal and stepped back, "ok... I'm ready now."

"Not quite," Maggie said.  She picked up the charcoal and began scratching more names on the epitaph.

"Greta and Arnold
Our dear friends"

"Now we can go," she stated sullenly.

"You know no one's ever gonna see this right?  No one’s gonna know they're here," Connie said with genuine concern.

Maggie put a hand behind Connie's knee and looked up...

"We will."

And with that, the four women began their slow journey out of Heaven... each of them looking back and remembering what once was.


End Part 9
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:36 pm

Part 10-"The Heap" 


Day one.

It became apparent early that the trek was going to be slow going.  What were once tiny pebbles in the sand were now painful impediments under their feet which needed to be navigated with caution.  It was even worse for Maggie at half the height of the others. 

The wagon road out of town wasn't exactly well kept either.  It was deeply rutted and rocky as it winded its way down the narrow canyon.  The four women walked along the edge of the ruts like they were shallow valleys, not wanting to walk inside in the event of a wagon full of soon to be disappointed men came roaring up.  It was still the weekend after all.

The sun had become a factor as well.  By midday the heat was nearing a hundred degrees... and they were still within eyeshot of the town.  Thirst and hunger were beginning to grab hold.  Maggie kept quiet, but was beginning to get very worried.  They were still quite a ways off from the dump and it was possible they may not make it there by nightfall.  Even then... there were no guarantees it would supply them with what they needed.

"Hey ya'll... let's take a break, alright?  We need to conserve our strength," Maggie shouted. Despite the time crunch, she didn’t dare push them.

"Oh thank god... my feet are fuckin’ killing me!"  Connie replied.

The four of them hunkered down under a prickly sage bush that provided them with at least a small amount of shade.  They inspected and rubbed at their pained soles.  Ellen and Sandra were picking dirt out of cuts.  Maggie observed that the bare skin on the others' backs was beginning to redden.  Connie being a pale, freckled redhead was particularly bad.

"How much farther do you think it is to the dump, Ma?"  Sandra asked.  Her skin was nearly as pale as Connie's and wasn't doing much better.

"I don't know... another five miles from our perspective.  Maybe more."

Ellen felt her stomach sink.

"We just have to pace ourselves.  Take shade when we can get it.  We have to go slow... we can't sweat more than we have to.  We have to conserve what moisture we have," Maggie instructed.  "We'll just sit here a bit longer and then keep going."

Maggie took their silence as compliance as they continuing to rub at their sore feet.

After another ten minutes or so they resumed their trek.  The pace became even more agonizingly slow as the path snaked its way towards the mouth of the canyon.  By mid afternoon the hundred degree mark had come and gone.  Waves rising off the ground itself formed mirages in the distance.  The garbage dump had become a sort of beacon of hope amongst the women... something it really hadn't earned yet.  It offered no assurances other than a simple goal on the first day of their treacherous journey.  

As evening drew closer, Maggie began to panic... though keeping it to herself.  The fire in town the previous night had warmed the air enough to keep them from freezing to death, but now they were completely exposed.  Naked and vulnerable, even if they survived this day, there were no promises they'd survive the night.

The dump finally came into view.  It laid below a series of steep switchbacks cut into the side of the canyon, easily visible from their vantage point above.  The former citizens of Heaven would usually just throw their trash over the edge, leaving a rather unpleasant greeting for those coming into town.  Seeing it though gave the women a second wind and their pace quickened.

"What if we take a shortcut?!" Connie called from in front of the line.

"What'dya mean?"  Maggie asked from the back.

"We could keep following the road, but if we made our way down the sides here it might save some time before nightfall!"

"We may as well try," Sandra agreed.

"Fine then... lead the way, Connie," Maggie replied.

Connie began feeling out a safe path for the rest of them.  It was much, much steeper... covered in loose rock that could give way at any moment.  Being as the little women didn't weigh as much at their current size, Connie still felt it worth a try.

They made it down the first slope, lowering each other or offering a steady arm as they descended.  Connie had been right, it had saved them a tremendous amount of time, but not saved their skin.  Each of them had scratches and cuts on their backsides, arms and legs.  They navigated through the wagon rut valleys and down the next slope.  The sun had dropped behind the walls of the canyon, but there was still enough light to see.  

The final slope emptied directly into the rubbish pile, but would prove to be the most challenging.  It was almost entirely loose rock that had rolled down from above... massive boulders to the shrunken women.  The three of the four of them looked over the edge with skepticism.  Connie, never wanting to be seen as a coward, began feeling her way through a pair of rocks.

"Wait, Connie... maybe we should just take the last bend on this one... it looks way too dangerous," Sandra pleaded.

"Your lack of garb is showing your yellow belly, Doe Eyes," Connie snarked.  "You gonna give me a hand down to this next rock or are ya just gonna stand there gawkin'?"

Sandra grabbed a hold of Connie's arm as the little redhead felt for solid ground beneath her feet.  Her toes stretched out to feel for solid rock below her.

"Alright... easy now, Doe Eyes...," Connie instructed.

"I think Doe Eyes is right, Connie... this isn't worth the risk.  Let's just take the road," Maggie said.  

"Ah, I see you've caught yellabelly fever as well, Ma!" Connie replied.  

She chuckled to herself as Sandra lowered her enough to put some weight on the rock beneath her feet.  As soon as she did though, the rock shifted... and then gave.  Sandra still had a grip on Connie's arm and secured it with her other hand.  The boulder rolled out of place causing what might have been an uneventful slide of loose scree to a normal person, but a tremendous avalanche to the four miniature women.  Connie was left dangling by an arm as Sandra tried desperately not to get pulled over with her.

"Grab my legs!  Grab my legs!" Sandra shouted.

Ellen and Maggie jumped onto Sandra's legs as instructed, though Maggie's size did little to help the situation.  Connie grabbed Sandra's arms with her other hand and began to pull herself upwards.  Ellen rushed to the edge of the rock and helped pull Connie back up to safety.  As the four women tried to catch their breath, Connie began to laugh.

"Huh... that yellabelly fever must be contagious somethin' awful... I think I caught me some!  Ha ha!"  Connie joked, amusing herself greatly.  "Did I hear someone say somethin' 'bout taking the long way down?"

The other three women stared at Connie for a brief second before bursting out laughing in unison and shaking their heads.  The first real laugh any of them had had since...  before.  They all stood up and brushed the dust off their naked bodies as best as they could through the pain of their burned and scratched skin, continuing down the road.

The waste pile wasn't much... a few dozen square yards of mostly rusted cans.  Various other items were deteriorating amongst the brownish-orange metal cylinders... glass, old newspaper, weather beaten wood planks.  Lizards the size of large dogs scurried in and out of the mess.  The quartet approached with caution.

"Stay together, ladies...," Maggie instructed, "we don't know what could be in here scavenging... just like we are.  There could be snakes... scorpions... tarantulas... keep your ears sharp and your eyes open."

The thought of so many different predators hadn't crossed their minds until just then... only the goal of getting there.  Their prize.  They formed a square, with each woman being a corner and proceeded in.  The smell was typical of any trash heap, a mix of various kinds of rot.  Massive flys buzzed above them, filling the air with an eerie hum.  They'd swat at the disgusting beasts as they swooped, each one the size of a loaf of bread with wings.

"Hey!  What about this?"  Sandra suddenly yelled.  She pointed to a corner of old newspaper sticking out from under a pair of cans larger than stagecoaches.  "Could we cover ourselves with that?!"

Connie approached it.  Just as she reached down to touch the paper, a gigantic black spider darted out from between the cans.  It didn't attack them, it only scurried into another darkened space... but that didn't keep the four women from screaming at its sight.  Connie had fallen backwards in shock, only to jump back up as if nothing had happened.  She cautiously approached the paper again and tried to pull it out.  The fibers in the paper were so old and dry that they all but turned to dust in Connie's hands.

"Don't think this'll work, Doe Eyes...  all that and all I got was another opportunity to shit myself," Connie quipped.

"Keep looking.  It'll be dark soon," Maggie ordered, trying to get the group back on track.

They continued to scour the pile.  They found an old washcloth, but the material was too thick to tear apart.  They looked inside the mouths of bottles, hoping there would be some kind of moisture to be found... none was.  Their prize was proving to be a bust, and it was beginning to get dark.

"I think we should figure out some kind of shelter for the night... if we don't we could freeze to death," Maggie informed.

"I don't exactly see The Palace Hotel sticking up outta this dump, Ma?" Connie snarked.

"One of these cans will have to do.  Let's see if there's any without rust inside, preferably with a lid still attached," Maggie replied.

In their first bit of luck, Ellen found one in a matter of minutes.  Almost no rust inside and the jagged lid still clung to the can by a sliver of metal, making it easy to maneuver it shut.  All four of them could fit inside easily with room to spare.

"This will work perfectly... great work, El!  Now if we huddle together inside with the lid closed, we can share each other's body heat and maybe make it through the night," Maggie explained.

"How bout that El?!  Getting all these nekid women pressed up agin' ya probably sounds like a dream come true don't it?!"  Connie prodded.

Ellen wasn't laughing.

She had been quiet for hours.  Not an unusual thing for her, but the stress of their situation was taking its toll on her psychologically.  She was scared and angry and everything in between... and she most certainly wasn't going to put up with Connie's jabs any longer.  She turned and charged towards Connie, screaming and raising her fist.  The only thing keeping Connie from getting a mouthful of broken teeth was Sandra stepping in to grab Ellen by the elbow.

"Don't let her get to ya, El... it ain't worth it.  We have to stick together," Sandra pleaded.

"Let me go, goddamnit!"  Ellen screamed and struggled in Sandra's arms.  "I'm sick to death of her goddamn mouth!  I'm gonna bust the fuckin' thing!"

None of them had ever seen Ellen explode like this.  Maggie and Connie stood, jaws agape as Sandra continued to hold the angry woman back.

"Calm down, would ya?  I was only foolin', El...," Connie said, "I didn't mean nothin' by it."

"You're still talkin', bitch!  You just keep runnin' that fuckin' mouth of yours!  I'm sick of hearing it!  Shut the fuck up!  We're gonna die out here and all you can do is crack jokes and make fun of me!  Shut the fuck up!"  Ellen screamed.

Connie hung her head and approached Ellen slowly.  As she got near, she pushed Sandra out of the way and grabbed Ellen by the wrists to keep her from throwing a punch.  Then in as quick a motion as she could, she wrapped her arms around Ellen in a deep embrace... and began sobbing.  Sandra and Maggie were as confounded by this as much as Ellen's behavior.  So was Ellen.  She'd seen Connie reluctantly shed tears, but to break down like this was something to behold.

"Ellen... please... don't hate me... I'm sorry... I can't lose you too... oh god Greta... oh god what're we gonna do... Ellen I love you... please don't hate me...," Connie sobbed incoherently, her suppressed emotions externalized and words stumbling over one another. Her crumbling walls had just fallen.

Ellen realized instantly what was happening.  Just as her outburst was a reaction to this nightmare, so was Connie's breakdown.  She'd spent the past twenty four hours trying to be strong for the group's sake, but desperately needed someone to hold her, just like the rest of them.  Ellen buried her face in Connie's neck and embraced her back.

Sandra looked down to see Maggie had tears streaming down her face, the weight of her role as leader now getting the best of her as well.  Sandra picked her up as though she were lifting a toddler and carried her to greet the other two.  The four of them comforted each other until it became too cold in the darkness.  They entered the tin can and Sandra pulled the lid closed behind her.  

The inside of the can didn't provide any kind of comfort,  it did still retain some of the day's heat, but it was hard and dirty.  The wrenching of thirst and hunger in their stomachs was nearly unbearable.  Still... sleep came easily from the lack thereof the previous night and exhausting first day of travel. The first of many more to come.  All they had was each other... and for now... that would have to be good enough.


End Part 10
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:49 pm

Part 11-"Genesis" 


Light began to creep along the edges of the serrated can lid signaling morning had come.  The four tiny, roughed up women were still huddled together for life saving warmth.  Maggie was the first to awake.  She found herself pinned between Sandra and Ellen's larger torsos, with Connie pressed between Ellen and the back of the can.  She felt far more comfortable than the others had, surrounded by their enormous warm bodies.  Her heart sank though when she thought about their impossible situation, wishing it was just a nightmare she could awake from.  Greta was gone and their own lives hung by a thread.  Her stomach ached with hunger pains and her lips felt dry and cracked.  Still, she knew she had to hold it together for their sake.  If she gave up, so would they.  At less than half their height, she knew if she kept pressing on, the rest would have no excuse.

Maggie carefully stood up so as not to wake the others and crept towards the lid.  She really felt the pain in her feet once her full weight was dependent on them.  She leaned against the lid with her shoulder to force it open enough to walk outside into the cool morning air.  What she saw nearly made her heart jump out of her chest with joy.

"Get up!  Everyone get up!  Come out here!"  She shouted back into the can.

The other three groggy women groaned and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.

"I'm not kidding!  Get out here, now!"  Maggie repeated.

They slowly got their feet, feeling the can trying to role beneath them as they stumbled their way outside.

"Look," Maggie exclaimed, "water!"

Their eyes left Maggie and darted around in excitement.  Dew... dew had formed on the glass bottles in the morning air!  Nothing of note to a full sized person, but for them... it was a gift.  Each of them rushed to the enormous glass bottles and began pushing droplets of water together and then into their hands.  The surface tension was so much stronger at their size, especially Maggie. Just a couple of drops could be pooled together to fill their hands.  They slurped handful after handful down. Connie was sucking the moisture right off the bottle's surface like a ginger catfish.  The air was still cold and they shivered as they continued to drink, but were so exited they didn't care.

"Fill your bellies girls, we need as much as we can get.  This is it!  This is how we survive!"  Maggie exclaimed.

They drank and drank until their bellies hurt with fullness instead of the opposite.  They sat in the dirt so they could face one another as Maggie proposed the next step.

"Would anyone be opposed to staying here for another night?  We know now we have a water source here.  We could really scour this heap to see if there's any way we can collect some of it for the journey.  I think our feet could use a break from the road anyway."

"Yeah, that might be best, Ma.  Besides, it's not like we're under some kind of time table here," Sandra agreed.

"Exactly.  Our priority is to stay alive above all else.  We don't need to push ourselves like a horse team.  We really shouldn't leave here until we're sure there's nothing else of use," Maggie added.  "Lets start by collecting as much water as we can and collect it inside the tin.  Hopefully the sun won't burn it off if we close the lid."

The four of them began collecting what water they could as the sun began to creep over the edge of the mountain.  This lower section of the canyon was much wider and the heat would come sooner and last longer.  They rushed as fast as they could as the precious droplets began to shrivel and disappear nearly as soon as the sun hit them.  When there was none left to save, they had a small pool, not much more than a comparative small bucketful, clinging to the edges of the bottom of the can.  Sandra closed the lid and Connie stuck a pair of rocks on either side of the cylinder to keep it from rocking when they were inside.  They began to explore the the trash pile again.

Early on it was more of the same from the previous evening.  Broken bottles, cans and rotting paper.  They didn't get discouraged through, it only drove them harder.  They divided the heap up into different sections radiating outwards from the can.  Once a section was thoroughly searched, they'd return to the can to quench their thirst and crouch under the hanging lid to get out of the sun.  They continued this process until well into the afternoon, when Maggie made what would prove to be their first useful discovery.

"Hey, ladies... could you help me with something," she called out to the others as they cautiously inspected a pile of broken bottles.

They gathered around her as she dragged a jagged, broken bottle base out into the open.

"Do any of you think you could break the rest of the jagged parts off of this.  I'm afraid I'm too weak to do it'" Maggie asked the group.

Connie picked up a rock and began pounding it at the thick glass until only the circular base of the bottle was left.

"Like this?" Connie asked.  "What're you thinking here, Ma?"

"Just an experiment for now.  Can you lift it easily?  Be careful... I don't want you to cut yourself.  If you can't lift it, we'll abandon it altogether and chalk it up to folly."

Connie lifted the disk up, its weight being far less than expected.

"Nah Ma... its not to bad at all.  Shit I could even try rolling it if needs be.  What's this for?"  Connie asked again.

"Like I said, it's an experiment.  Let's take it back to the tin and get ourselves another drink," Maggie answered, cryptically.

Connie and Sandra lifted the amber disc and navigated a path back through the pile to the can.  They dropped it to the side of the can and dusted their hands off.

"Here good?" Asked Connie.

"Yup, thank you.  I'm just sorry I couldn't help.  It really makes me feel awful... and useless," Maggie replied.

Connie knelt down and placed a hand on Maggie's shoulder, "we completely understand, Ma.  Don't pay it a second thought."

Maggie gripped Connie's hand in hers and the two of them joined Sandra and Ellen inside the can.  It was extremely hot inside and the water supply was about gone.  Luckily there wasn't much day left, and they were in a better place than they were the at the same time the previous day.

"Let's get one more section scouted and then we'll call it a day.  That suit you ladies?"  Maggie asked.

"Suits us just fine, Ma," Connie replied for the group. 

With that they headed for an, as yet, unexplored section of the pile.  They helped each other over a half buried bottle and then rounded a corner in a canyon of trash. There lied a gigantic book leaning against a pile of wooden planks. They couldn’t see the title as it lay upside down and on its face.  The book was dirty and the edges of its pages were yellowing from exposure to the elements.

Ellen's mind raced with ideas.

"Do you think we can drag it down flat?" She asked the others.

Connie, Sandra and Ellen squeezed between the wood and the book and pushed it forward.  It stood up on end and then fell flat on its back with a thud and a cloud of dust.  The three of them looked at each other and smiled when they read the title.

"What... what book is it?" Maggie asked.  She had to stand on the tips of her toes to even see over the top.

"It's... it’s the Bible," Sandra giggled, "I guess some prospector gave up."  Connie was the one usually making the quips, so it came as a surprise to everyone to hear one come from Sandra's mouth.

"Anyone have any qualms about tearing this thing apart?"  Ellen asked.

"Doesn't exactly bide well for us if it's some kind of omen, does it?" Connie joked.

"Well... if there is a god, I figure he'd want us to use what we could to survive so... I say do it," Maggie added.

"See if you can find a shard if glass on the ground... something I can cut with," Ellen instructed.

The quartet spread out to look. Maggie found a broken bottle crushed underneath the woodpile with plenty of tiny shards.  She pulled out a sliver of glass, almost dagger-like and rushed it over to Ellen.  

"Will this do?" She asked.

"Perfect," Ellen replied.  "Connie, can you give me a boost?"

Connie offered her clasped hands and Ellen stepped up, pushing the leather cover upwards as she climbed inside. "Give me a hand, please."

She pulled Connie up with her and the two of them pushed the cover back.  Unable to hold it up themselves and begin cutting the paper, Ellen went back to the edge and pulled Sandra up with them.  She easily lifted Maggie up as well.  As the other three held the cover back, Ellen worked the glass along the crease of the cover, being very careful not to cut herself.  Once she'd cut a line along the seam the rest of them were able to push the cover over without it flipping back.

The first couple of pages were disintegrating under their footsteps so Ellen continued cutting along the binding until they were able to push the rotting paper away to reveal clean, white pages.  Genesis was revealed. 

Ellen looked at Maggie for a few seconds, analyzing the diminutive brunette, and then began cutting out a rectangular shape in the paper.  She cut a smaller hole in the middle of it.

"Whatcha makin' there, El?" Connie asked.

Ellen ignored her and separated the rectangle from the larger page. Then, in one swift movement, pulled it down over Maggie's head like she was pulling a shirt over a child's head.  Maggie's head popped the circle loose, which still clung to the back of the makeshift garment.  Ellen pinched at the shoulders to crease the paper so it would cover her better.  She took a step back and presented her work.

"Ladies... I give you the King James Poncho."

As rare as it was for Sandra to joke around, it was even rarer for Ellen to do so.  The group was clearly in the best spirits they had been in since before shrinking.  Maggie shifted around in the stiff garment and smiled at Ellen with an approving nod.  She reached behind her to rip off the remaining circular tab when Ellen stopped her.

"No leave it.  It'll help keep the sun off your neck."

Where it was easy to just eyeball Maggie's poncho, she had the others lay down to get a better idea of how big to make each.  When finished with Connie's and Sandra's, she laid down herself and Connie cut one out for her.   Before long, all four were draped in the creation story down to their knees.

"I know it isn't exactly the latest in French fashion, but they'll help keep the sun from burning us up," Ellen stated proudly.

"Thanks, El," Connie said with a smile, "though... I know it's gonna break your heart not to stare at my gorgeous ass all day!"

Connie immediately slapped a hand over her mouth, knowing she could have just set Ellen off again.  Ellen lowered her head and stared intensely at Connie like she was about to pounce.  Then the slightest of grins began to creep up the side of her mouth until she couldn't suppress it anymore.  She laughed at Connie's joke like it was was the funniest thing she ever heard.  Connie lowered her hand in relief and chuckled.

"Everyone hop off," Ellen ordered, "I've got another idea."

Sandra and Connie helped Maggie down off the book as Ellen began cutting again.  They watched as she freed page after page from the massive book, pushing each over the edge as she continued.  After freeing another page she began folding it, three times to be precise.  When she was done, a long triangular structure had been built.

"Now we have a little bit of shelter if there's none to be found out there.  I think it's big enough to fit all four of us to stay warm.  We can also fold strips of paper over the ends to seal off the openings.  It won't be much, but it's something.  We can just role it up and pack it with us, it wont weigh all that much."

The three women at ground level began applauding Ellen's efforts.

"What are these extra sheets for, El?" Sandra asked mid applause.

"Oh, those are just to line the can with and for blankets tonight.  I thought it might help keep the heat inside, like insulation... and be a little more comfortable to sleep on."

"Goddamn, woman!  Where's this little genius we have here been hiding?"  Connie exclaimed.

Ellen just blushed.

"Ok ladies' let's role these sheets up and carry them back.  We still have a bit more of this place to search... anyone opposed to another day here?"  Maggie asked.

The group shook their heads.

"Well, quit your gawkin' and let's head back!" Maggie ordered with a slight laugh.

The women rolled up their paper tent and extra sheets and made their way back to 'camp'.  They laid them inside the cylinder and spread them out.  What little was left of the water had evaporated in the heat, so there was no worry of it soaking into the paper. 

It was still much too hot inside, so the ladies sat down outside the opening and just enjoyed each other's company.  The heap had become kind of its own little world for them.  It was contained, it offered them water in the morning, and exploring it also gave them purpose.  As long as they had these simple goals to check off, it helped to keep their minds off the 'bigger' picture.  They were able to joke and laugh with each other again as they sat in the dirt, rubbing their aching soles.

“It feels strange to be sitting out here like this without a fire,” Maggie thought out loud.

"Christ!  I'd give my left tit for turkey leg right now!"  Connie suddenly blurted out.  

"You can't be serious... it'd be as big as the can we're sleeping in!"  Maggie cracked back.

"Yeah, I guess I didn't really think about that!  Ha Ha!  I'd still like to give one a go though.  I'm so hungry I feel like I could eat the whole damn thing!"

"I've got an idea for that tomorrow.  It might not work, so don't get your hopes up... but we can try just the same," Ellen stated.

"Boy! You're getting to be just as cryptic as Ma and her precious magic disk over there," Connie snarked.

"No one could cook a turkey like Greta did," Sandra said sullenly.  The girls suddenly got quiet, the mood shifting drastically.

"She was always so happy when she was cooking," Maggie added.

"That big blonde German could drink any one of us under the table, too," Connie said with a sad sort of laugh.

"Austria," Maggie corrected.

"What?" Connie asked.

"Greta was from Austria... how do you not know that after all these years?" Maggie asked with a surprised grin on her face.

"It's the same thing, idn'it?  Connie asked, genuinely confused.

"No!" Maggie exclaimed with a chuckle, "they're two different countries!  They speak the same language but Austria is not a part of the German Empire."

"Like I said, same thing," Connie shot back with a smirk.

"They speak English in Britain... is America the same thing as England, Connie?"  Sandra teased.  Connie just rolled her eyes in response.

"How do YOU know all this, Ma?"  Connie sneered.

"Because she told me and I listened, smart-ass!"  Ma countered.

Connie bowed her head in defeat and chuckled to herself, "huh... I guess ya learn somethin' new everyday."

 
As the sun dropped behind the mountains, the group continued to chat and reminisce.  It wasn't long before it got dark, so they made their way inside the can.  It was still warm inside,  but not nearly as hot as it was earlier.  They removed their paper ponchos and curled up together.  Once again, an exhausted sleep came easy.


End Part 11
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:04 am

Part 12-"Connie McCormack:  Dragon Slayer" 


Ellen was the first to wake the next morning.  She nudged the rest out of their slumber so they could make sure to collect as much water as possible.  They struggled to their feet and threw their new scripture-paper ponchos over themselves, then made their way out of their temporary home.  They began collecting drops of water from the surfaces of as many bottles as possible and drinking their fill.  Maggie's hunch about the broken bottle base proved to work.  Drops of dew had formed all over its surface, easily collected and deposited at the back of the can.

"Do you think you can carry that, Connie?"  Maggie asked.  "If we get in a bad spot and can't find any water, we might get a few drops out of this in the mornings."

"Yeah, maybe... it's not that heavy.  It's just kind of awkward.  If only we could find some string or twine... I might be able to carry it on my back."

"Well, we've got plenty of trash to search through today, let's just focus on getting as much water as we can right now," Maggie said.

"You're the boss, little lady," Connie cracked and gave Maggie a gentle nudge in the shoulder with her hip, knocking Maggie off balance.
 
By the time they'd finished cupping water into the can, the pool was twice as big as it was the day before.  Going thirsty would not be an issue that day, but two full days without food was really taking its toll.

Ellen was hoping she could end that.

"Connie... I've got an idea as to how we can get something to eat... but I'm gonna need your help," she asked, sheepishly.

"I’m all ears, El..." 

"The lizards running around here... I think we might be able to catch one," Ellen replied.

"I don't know El... they're purdy goddamn fast.  I don't think we'd be able to chase one down."

"Right, I know... but what if we trap one under one of these cans?  If we split up into two groups and Maggie and Sandra make a lot of noise while searching the next section of the heap, they could scare one of those things towards us.  It might seek shelter under a propped up can.  And that's when we push it down flat and we have our meal."

"That sounds great, but how do we get back into the can to kill it?"

"That's why I need you.  I need you hidden inside the can.  Do you think you could kill it if you were in a small space with it?” Ellen took Connie’s hand and gave her a slight pout. “You've always been the only real fighter among us.  If anyone can do this, it's you."

Connie looked down from Ellen's eyes to the ground, feeling herself blush with the compliment.  "You still have that glass shard from last night?"  Connie asked.

Ellen walked back inside the can and returned with the sliver of glass.  She'd wrapped the end of it with a strip of bible paper to create a loose handle for the crude dagger.  She held it out with both hands and Connie accepted it.

"You two get all that?"  Connie asked, addressing Maggie and Sandra.  Both nodded.

Ellen grabbed the glass dagger from Connie and then disappeared in the direction of the book.  When she returned she had another full sheet of paper rolled up under her arm.  She let the sheet unroll and then cut a long, narrow strip from it.

"Alright... so what we need to do is prop that can up on the edge with something," she said as she gestured towards one that was already sitting upside down. The label was weathered, but the words 'baking powder' were still readable.

There were chips of wood lying all around so Sandra handed Ellen one that was about as long as her arm, "will this work?"

"I think so... as long as it'll hold the can's weight," Ellen replied.

Maggie, Connie and Sandra tipped the can back with relative ease as Ellen laid the paper down inside and then balanced the wood chip between the paper and the can's rim.

"Alright... slowly let it go," Ellen instructed. The can balanced perfectly.

"Now... Connie, you crawl inside and wait.  The second we corral one of those lizards in there, you pull on the end of the paper and the can will drop.  Then it's just you and the animal."

Connie looked under the lip of the can and then turned back to Ellen, "fuck... it's gonna get really goddamn hot in there..."

"I'll be sure and bring you as much water as you need.  You aren't worth losing over a meal, Connie."  Ellen said.

Connie felt herself blush again and turned away so Ellen wouldn't see.  She pulled her poncho over her head and handed it to Ellen.  Ellen, surprised by the act, averted her eyes.

"What're you dong?" Ellen asked.

"No sense in getting the paper soggy with sweat and blood is there?  Besides, it'll just get in the way."  Connie noticed Ellen was trying not to look at her naked body... and grinned.  "I've been been running around naked as the day I was born for two days and NOW you're getting uncomfortable with it?  Ha ha!"

Now Ellen was the one blushing.

"Never you worry, sweet El... if this works I may just let you have your way with me!"  Connie joked, offering a playful wink.

Ellen just stared at the ground, flushed with embarrassment as Connie carefully crawled under the can.  She propped herself up against the back in the shadows and took the edge of the paper strip in her hands.

"I'm all set it here," she informed the others, the enclosure of the can making her voice echo and muffle at the same time, "let's just hope you don't end up having 'roast redhead' for dinner instead."

Ellen reached under the lip and handed the dagger to Connie, "don't forget this."

"Thanks... it'd hate to have to choke one of those things to death... shit!"  Connie exclaimed.

Maggie, Sandra and Ellen picked up pebbles and then began the search a new section of garbage.  They waited until they had reached the outskirts of the dump and then began tapping on the massive glass bottles and tin cans around them as they continued their search.  

Connie could hear them in the distance, the tapping being amplified by the walls of the can's interior.  The sound reminded her of better days, when Heaven was bustling and the sounds of picks hitting rocks reverberated off the canyon walls.  She thought of her husband, his weather beaten good looks and charming smile.  She would never share her feelings with the others, but her heart still ached for him everyday.

As it approached noon, Connie began to sweat profusely.  The heat inside the can was almost unbearable.  Ellen had abandoned her search several times to bring her water.  The water was necessary, but hardly refreshing as it warmed inside the can they'd been living in.  Still, she was grateful to have it. 

Only the occasional skinny lizard ran by, not even stopping to inspect the trap.  Connie wasn't sure how much longer she could stay inside. Then, as if it was manna sent from heaven itself, a large flat bellied lizard ran out from between a pair of giant bottles laying on their sides.  It had a row of spikes lining the back of its head. Connie instantly recognized it as a horned toad, only it was clearly bigger than her.  Ellen suddenly appeared close behind it, creeping forward with caution.  The lizard had proved to be much slower than the skinny ones and she'd been trying to maneuver it back to camp.  The scaly creature finally scuttled out into the open space where Ellen, with arms outstretched, continued to will it towards Connie.

Connie's pulse began to quicken, her body filling with adrenaline.  In the years since her husband's passing she'd learned to love a good fight, having spent so much time working in a brothel with rowdy, horny men.  The satisfaction and rush of smashing a bottle over the head of a man trying to harm her or the other girls was unparalleled in her mind.  This of course would be a different experience altogether.  She clutched at the paper, wringing it in her hands... sweat stung her eyes as it dripped from her brow.

The lizard’s head shadowed slightly as it peeked under the can.  Connie sat absolutely still.  Its body was about halfway in when it stopped.  Connie's eyes grew wide with anticipation, she began to shake with excitement.  Suddenly she saw Ellen's feet appear behind the giant lizard on a dead run.  Ellen held her poncho shut at the sides and slide kicked the oversized reptile the rest of the way into the can.

"CONNIE NOW!"  She screamed.

Connie yanked at the paper, releasing the wooden prop.  She immediately found herself shrouded in darkness.  Only a small amount of light penetrated from under the lip of the can.  She kicked herself for not anticipating having to fight this creature in the dark.  She felt around on the ground until her hand found the glass dagger and then sprung to her feet.  

Connie could hear it scratching at the wall of the can for a way out.  She leapt towards the sound and sunk the glass into its leathery skin.  She wrapped her free arm around its neck as it began to kick wildly.  She had to hold her head back to avoid hitting her face on its boney, spiked neck plate.  It dragged her across the ground as she continued stabbing at it over and over.  Suddenly he giant lizard rolled in an attempt to shake Connie from its back.  Connie found herself disoriented and reached out for the first thing her hand could grasp.  It just so happened to be the lizard's tail.  She struggled back to her feet and yanked on the reptile's tail, trying to drag it back away from the wall.  Connie fell backwards and hit her head against the wall of the can.  The lizard had shook its own tail loose in to escape Connie.  the appendage continued to wiggle as she gripped it in her hands.  

Connie caught a glint of light hitting brown colored glass and dove for the dagger.  She grew exhausted quickly, despite the adrenaline rush, due to the intense heat inside the can.  With one last bolt of energy she leapt onto its back, reached around its head and buried the dagger beneath its mouth... forcing it upwards into its brain.  She jumped off the lizard and fell backwards against the side of the can, sliding down onto her butt, completely spent.  She watched as the lizard’s silhouette continued to thrash and twitch... until there was nothing but quiet and the sound of her own labored breathing.

"Connie!  Connie!  Are you ok?!  Connie, answer me!"  Ellen screamed through the metal throughout the entire ordeal.  When it got quiet and there was still no response, she began to panic.  "CONNIE!  GOD PLEASE...!  CONNIE!"  She continued as she pounded on the sides of the cylinder.

Sandra and Maggie appeared in the clearing, having heard the commotion coming from camp.  Ellen caught them out of the corner of her eye and called them for aid.

"Help me!  Something's wrong!  Please!"  She shouted.

Sandra and Maggie came on a dead run and, combined with Ellen lifting the bottom of the can, their forward momentum toppled the can completely over.  All three stood with their mouths agape at what lie underneath.  

The great lizard was laying on its back, drops of blood were dripping out of its neck and soaking into the ground.  Connie was laying on her side with her elbow resting on its soft underbelly.  The dust kicked up in the scuffle had settled and stuck to her sweaty, naked body.  She looked pleased with herself and was inspecting the dirt under her nails on her free hand.

"Oh hello, ladies!  What've you lot been up to?"  She said with a smirk.

Sandra and Maggie covered their mouths to try and contain their laughter.  Ellen was less than amused.

"I thought you were dead, you fucking bitch!"  She screamed at Connie.   Tears poured down her cheeks.

"Hey hey, sorry I just wanted to sc-," Connie was cut off as Ellen dropped to her knees and clutched the sweaty redhead in a relieved embrace.

"Please!  Please don't do that ever again!  I don't know what I would have done if...". Ellen stopped herself and hugged Connie tighter.

Connie patted Ellen on the back to let her know she was fine and to free herself from Ellen's panicked clutches, "easy El, I can't breath."

Ellen released her and then looked Connie in the eyes while wiping her tears across her wrist.

"I'm sorry... it was a bad joke... I didn't mean to upset you,” Connie said with a gentle pat on Ellen’s cheek, “... but look, El!  Your plan worked like a charm!"  Connie leaned up, presenting their prize.

"Wooo!  Well done you two!"  Maggie exclaimed.  She and Sandra both began applauding.

"Thank Connie... she did the work," Ellen said, still looking into Connie's eyes.

"Nah... it was your idea, El.  I was glad to help.  To be perfectly honest... with all we've been through the past couple of days... it felt kind of good to take it out on this bastard," Connie quipped while giving Ellen a couple more gentle pats on the cheek.

Ellen dipped her head and blushed again.

"So now what do we do with it?"  Sandra asked.

Ellen looked over her shoulder to Sandra, "we gut it and cut it up, of course."

Connie yanked the glass dagger out of the lizard's neck, blood having soaked the paper handle in deep red.  She handed it, handle first, to Ellen, "wanna do the honors, El?"

Ellen feigned a smile and stood up.  She took the dagger from Connie and waited while the tired redhead and Sandra lifted the creature up.  She cut it from the base of the tail to its throat as its guts fell out onto the ground.  The sight was enough to make Sandra sick, but the sound it made as it splatted onto the dirt gave her dry heaves. Having had nothing to eat for two days, there was nothing to expel.

After it was gutted, the four women took turns carving off appendages to conserve energy in the heat of the afternoon.  Once sufficiently separated, Ellen and Sandra worked a can lid back and forth until it separated from the rest of the container.  They carried it back to camp and set it down next to the glass bottle base.  It was extremely hot, having set out in the heat for hours. The pair had to wrap their hands in paper to get it back.  Ellen immediately began laying the meat out on the lid in hopes that it would be hot enough to cook it.

This is when a new problem presented itself.  Massive flies had already claimed the gut pile at the edge of camp and would most certainly be attracted to the rest.

"Connie, you've done more than your fair share today... could you stay here at camp and just scare the flies away from our meal?  Maybe turn the meat over occasionally, too?"  Ellen asked.  "This way I can go help Maggie and Sandra check the rest of the trash faster."

"Suits me just fine, El... I ain't never been much around the kitchen though," Connie replied with a smile.

"Shit!  That reminds me... we got so distracted by the lizard... wait until you see what Maggie and I found!"  Sandra exclaimed.  

She grabbed Maggie by the hand and the two of them disappeared behind a mountain of trash.  Connie and Ellen looked at each other and shrugged as they continued spacing out the meat.  Before long Sandra appeared again as she packed a clear, rectangular bottle back to camp.  It was tiny by normal standards, perhaps it held powder or some kind snake oil salesman's tonic.  'Guaranteed to make you ran faster, jump higher, and make you more attractive to women,' Sandra thought to herself when she found it.  The bottle was nearly as big as her torso with only her bare legs unobscured beneath it.  Maggie's head then appeared behind a wooden cylinder that she was rolling in front of her.  The cylinder was a spool with a small amount of thread still attached.

"Well I'll be goddamned...," Connie muttered as a smile began to creep across her face, "I can't believe it."

Maggie rolled the spool up near the entrance to the can and flipped it on its flat end.  Sandra dropped the bottle on top of broken bottle base, then sat down on Maggie’s spool.  

"I think... there's enough... thread left... on this thing... to rig up... some way... to pack this stuff," Maggie said, panting.  She stepped inside the hot can to get some water and then returned.  

"And we can pack the water we collect tomorrow morning in this," Sandra added proudly.

"You think we can carry that thing when it's full of water?"  Ellen asked.

"We're gonna have to try," Maggie answered, "I know it's easy for me to say because it's as tall as I am and there's no way I'm gonna be able to pack it.... so the three of you'll have to take turns with the loads."  She hung her head, frustrated with being so much smaller than them.  "I'm sorry... I wish I could do more... I really do."

Connie bent over and lifted Maggie's chin up, smiling at the tiny brunette, "I already told you not to give it a second thought, Ma."  She then gave Maggie a light tap on the jaw with her knuckles and stood back up.

"It's easier said than done... I've only ever felt this helpless twice before in my whole life. I hate it.  It feels awful to tell the rest of you what you need to do, but be completely unable to do it myself."

"We're doing what we have to to survive, Ma... not because you told us to do it," Ellen added.  "You could be small enough to fit in our palm, Ma... and we'd still look up to you.  

Maggie was so touched by Ellen’s words that she had to fight back tears, precious moisture she didn’t want to waste.  She stiffened her lips and smiled at her friends, "I love you...

“...you bunch of ol' whores..."

All four busted out laughing and joined in a group hug.

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

Although Sandra, Ellen and Maggie spent the last hours of the afternoon searching the remaining areas of the dump, it didn't yield anything more.  There could have been useful items buried deep under the piles, but the moving of the massive bottles and cans was all but impossible for them at their size.  Even if they could move one bottle as a collective, the risk of having a mountain of trash collapse on them was too great.  The sun began to set and the three women returned to camp to reunite with Connie, who'd been very busy keeping flies the size of groundhogs off of their prized meal.  Still in the buff I might add.

"How'd it go?"  Connie asked.

"Nothing.... if I never have to stare at another giant whiskey bottle again... it'll be too soon," Sandra huffed as she plopped herself down on the spool.  She looked at the dismembered lizard parts spread out on the can lid and licked her dry lips, the delicious smell teasing her.  "Is any of it... is it food yet?"

"I think so... I figured out the scaly side didn't really heat up much so I just left the insides on the metal.  I cut it all off the bones into smaller pieces so it'd cook faster.  The scales actually seemed to keep the heat in.  There's no scald on it like frying a bird, but it's really hot.  I guess beggars can't be choosers.  Who's feelin' brave?"  Connie quipped.

They stared back and forth at one another to see who would jump at it first.  They were absolutely starving by this point, but the thought of having their hopes crushed by something that could prove to be inedible clawed at all of their minds.  

Maggie, always the reluctant leader, stepped up to the makeshift grill and picked up a slab of meat... stared up into Connie's eyes... and then winced them shut as she bit deep into the hot flesh.  The scales proved to be like bitting into shoe leather, but the meat was soft and pulled away from the scales easily.  She chewed slowly and then swallowed.  She opened her eyes... and smiled.

"You won't believe this... it tastes like chicken!"

The others' eyes grew wide and each dived towards the jagged lid to grab their own slab of lizard hide like hungry piranhas.  They tore at the delicious meat with their teeth and gobbled down bite after bite after bite.  The sheer joy they felt at that moment was immeasurable. 

The rest of the evening was spent as the previous one was.  They sat around the can lid, joking and laughing, only this night they were consuming well earned food, tossing the inedible scales aside.  Connie had cut the jaw from the lizard's head and was clowning around wearing the skull like a hat.  Maggie was the only quiet one.  She watched her friends with a sense of pride she'd never felt before.  They should be dead.  She knew this whole heartedly.  If it were anyone else, she thought, they would have died the first day.  But not her girls.  They'd already been through hell in their lives and they'd come out the other side.  They'd figured out how to be independent and strong.  She was more determined than ever not to let this new hell define them, to beat them.

"Hey El' toss me another chunk of horned toad, will ya,"" Connie ordered more than asked.

"Jesus Connie... you've had four already!"  Sandra said with a laugh.

"Yeah well... I reckon we don't know when we'll get to eat like this again so I'm fixin' to stuff myself 'til I explode."

"There's so much of it left... it's a shame to let it all go to waste," Sandra added.

"We don't have to leave it.  We can wrap it in more scripture paper and carry rations on us now that we have 'rope'," Ellen informed them, pointing at the spool of thread.  "We just have to ration it well.  The most important thing is still finding water... and with Maggie's disk... we might get by."

"So... does this mean we leave tomorrow?"  Maggie asked, finally joining the conversation.

The others stared at her in silence... then at one another.  The heap was... just that, a garbage heap.  It smelled horrible, there was all manner of vermin present, and the threat of bleeding to death on the broken glass that littered the ground was constant.  But it also provided them with shelter, water, and food.  In two and a half days they'd grown oddly attached to the place, something none of them had realized until Maggie proposed leaving.  No one really knew what to say.

"I'm not issuing an order here, ladies.  This place is as far from perfect as it gets, but it is providing for us.  If you want we can try and make a go of it here for as long as we can.  Maybe some of our former customers didn't hear about the fire and they may pass this way... they could help us."

The others said nothing... their attention locked on Maggie.

"But there's no guarantee of that.  I'm certain no one is searching for us and they most certainly won't be looking for us in the garbage dump of an abandoned town that no longer exists."  She continued, "and we may make it through the summer and even the fall, but the winter... we don't stand a chance.  The nights will kill us... that is if hungry scavengers don't do it first."

Still silence.

"So again I ask... do we leave or stay?"

"Let's vote on it," Sandra suggested.

"Alright... all in favor of leaving tomorrow... raise your hand."

Some raised quickly, some apprehensively... but it was unanimous.

"I guess that's it then... we collect as much water as we can and then pack up and leave in the morning," Maggie said sullenly.  She was terrified of what lay ahead for them, but she also knew that if anyone could do this, her girls could.

They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes as everyone let their decision sink in.  Then, never to be outdone, Connie dropped some levity.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ Ma, you reeeeealy know how to kill a good time don't you."

Maggie just shook her head and laughed.  The others did the same.

As it grew darker and colder, they packed up the remaining meat and carried it inside the tin can with them.  Sandra pulled the lid closed and they all removed their ponchos.  They huddled together at the back of the can under a sheet of scripture for the last time.


End Part 12
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Sun Mar 14, 2021 11:16 pm

Part 13-"On The Road Again" 


It was quiet in camp the next morning.  The four tiny women went about gathering up the dew dripping off the surrounding bottles in the clearing, not saying much at all.  They deposited them into the small bottle Sandra had found the previous day as quickly as possible.  The bottle itself provided them with moisture as well.  It had been placed in the center of broken bottle base the previous night in hopes that dew would form and drip down onto the base to be easily collected.  It worked! They gathered enough to fill the bottle about half way. This was fine because any more and it would prove too difficult to carry.  Ellen stuffed a wad of bible paper into the mouth to prevent spilling and evaporation.

Afterwards Maggie began unspooling the dark blue thread and working out a way to pack the things they need.  She still felt guilty about being to small to pack anything herself.  Still, she was able to rig up straps that would make carrying the disc and the bottle easier for the other three, using Connie as a model.  Sandra was inside the can folding the remaining meat into manageable packages using paper from the good book.  Ellen was working out a way to fold up what would their tent when she had a simple, but brilliant idea.

"Holy shit!  I've been thinking about this all wrong!"  She exclaimed.  She began creasing a second and third fold lengthwise along the paper and then unfolded it so it stood up erect.  It's wasn't pretty, but it still stood on its own.

"I kept thinking about it like it was a regular cloth tent, but the paper is stiff enough for it to stand up even with a few extra folds in it!"  She began breaking it back down and rolled it up tightly.  When she had finished, it could have passed for a cigarette to a normal sized person.  She tied it closed with some thread and added a couple of shoulder straps and a waist strap, then slipped it onto the back of a surprised Maggie.  "There!  Now you're packing something just like the rest of us."

The rolled up tent rose from about Maggie's waist to a couple of feet (from her perspective) above and behind her head.  She shifted it around until it felt comfortable and tied the waist strap around her midsection.  She looked back up to Ellen, finally feeling like she was contributing, and smiled, "thank you, Ellen."  She began unspooling the last of the thread and wrapped it over and over again around her shoulder and waist like a bandolier. They would most certainly need it later.

Ellen then added some straps to the meat packages and slung them over her back.  Connie had the bottle base strapped to her back and Sandra had the small intact bottle strapped to hers.  When there seemed to be nothing left to do but make their exit, the three looked to Maggie for the go ahead.

"I guess we're off like a herd of turtles then...," she joked.  

Maggie knew how important it was to try and keep their spirits up from here on out.  She started towards the edge of the clearing with the others following one by one.  It wasn't long before they found the shallow valleys of the rutted wagon road again and were on their way towards an uncertain future.  As they marched along, like the world's smallest pack train, Maggie explained what she thought was the best course for survival.

"I think it best if we travel as much in the early morning and evenings as possible.  During the hottest parts of the day we'll rest, and for as long as necessary.  We have to conserve the water inside of us as much as what's in the bottle.  If anyone is too tired or too hot to walk, we stop.  Even if it means we can see where we camped the previous night... understood?"

"Yes, Ma!" The other three shouted sarcastically, like they always had before when she was running the hotel.  Maggie just shook her head and chuckled.

The three larger women were happy to let Maggie lead.  Her shorter gate, at half the others’ height, meant they could take their time to navigate the dry, rocky caliche.  After three days of near constant walking and searching in the trash, their poor bare feet were in a lot of pain... and it could take days, if not weeks, for calluses to form and offer them any kind of protection.  Ellen even tried wrapping her feet in strips of paper torn from the bottom of her poncho. It only took a few hundred yards before the fibers would shred and break.  Careful, slow and steady was the only option.

So they walked... and walked... and walked.

The four of them walked all through the morning and past midday.  The road snaked its way along in front of them, turning any which way it could to offer its much larger users the easiest grade possible through the canyon.  For three women less than five inches high, and one half of that, it was rugged and dangerous.  Not only was it extremely rocky and steep, but in the past when they'd traveled the road down to Kern's Junction, or elsewhere for that matter, they'd watch for rattlesnakes sunning themselves in the open space. They took great amusement in watching the bastards meet their ends under the wheels of the wagon.  Running into one of these now giant serpents was something every one of them was acutely aware of without needing to say it out loud.

"Hey Doe Eyes... how 'bout you sing us a song, eh?" Maggie called back from the front of the line.

"What?  Really, Ma?" Sandra called out from the back of the line like she was a kid getting called on in class.

"Yeah, Ma... you think that's such a great idea?" Connie asked.  "Shouldn't we be trying to stay as quiet as possible?"

"Well... I figure the rustlin' and crinklin' of our attire is gonna get heard by anything near us... some hungry critter might think we're food movin' about in the sage.  But if we sound enough like humans passing through, generally a nasty rattler might try to avoid us."  Maggie explained in her fake southern drawl.  She didn't even realize she was doing it, except maybe subconsciously that it may offer some small sliver of normalcy.  She wasn't sure of anything she was saying either, as she was no expert on snakes, but it all sounded good at least.

"I don't know, Ma... seems awful risky to me," Sandra replied.

"Come on... you sing perdier than a mornin' dove, Doe Eyes.  Sing us a song, if fer nothin' else than to pass the time and keep our minds off our aching feet," Maggie asked again.

"Alright... I guess... what do you want to hear, Ma?"  Sandra asked.

"How about 'LITTLE MAGGIE May'," Connie cracked, causing Ellen to do a spit take.

"Ha ha... hilarious, Connie," Maggie grumbled sarcastically.

"I know...," Sandra finally decided and then cleared her throat.  She began singing an upbeat tune, struggling initially to find the key, but soon proving she had quite a fine voice, indeed.

"I got a gal at the head of the creek
Go up to see her 'bout the middle of the week
Kiss her on the mouth, just as sweet as any wine
Wraps herself around me like a wet potato vine

Goin' up Cripple Creek, goin' in a run
Goin' up Cripple Creek to have a little fun
Goin' up Cripple Creek, goin' in a whirl
Goin' up Cripple Creek to see my girl

Girls on the Cripple Creek 'bout half grown
Jump on a boy like a dog on a bone
Roll my britches up to my knees
I'll wade ol' Cripple Creek when I please

(Repeats chorus)

Cripple Creek's wide and Cripple Creek's Deep
I'll wade ol' Cripple Creek before I sleep
Roads are rocky and the hillsides muddy
And I'm so drunk that I can't stand sturdy

(Repeats chorus)"

Sandra couldn't finish the last line before she started laughing.  The rest were already giggling as they walked.

"Never heard that one before, Doe eyes," Maggie said, struggling through her laughter.

"Yeah, no joke... I don't think I've ever heard you sing anything that bawdy!"  Laughed Connie.

"It was Greta's favorite," Sandra replied.

The laughter stopped, as did their cadence... the air around them suddenly feeling heavier.  Maggie, Ellen, and Connie looked back towards Sandra, expecting to see the lovely blonde woman in tears.  They only saw a woman looking forlornly at the ground... yet smiling, lost in remembrance of good times had with their departed friend. 

"We used to brush each others' hair at night.  When it was my turn to do hers she always wanted me to sing to her... that song would always make her giggle," Sandra expressed to her audience.  She finally lifted her gaze, somewhat surprised to find that she had the group's full attention.  She pressed her lips into a grin and nodded at them.  "I miss her so much.”

"We all do," Ellen assured her.  She walked up to Sandra and pulled her head towards her own and planted a kiss on her forehead.

Without saying anything more, they turned back towards the forward path and resumed walking.  It was quiet for a few awkward minutes, none of them really knowing what to say.  They too were thinking of good times spent with their fallen Greta.  Then Connie, never content to wallow in the sadder emotions, chimed in.

"Hey! I've got a song, too... wanna hear it?"  She offered as she adjusted the load on her back.

"Sure... if your plan is to cause every coyote in Nevada to howl out in pain!"  Ellen said, landing a rare case of busted chops on her loud-mouthed friend.  The weight in the air suddenly lifted.  No one was as surprised as Connie.

"No shit, Connie... you couldn't carry a tune if Mozart himself used your teeth as a piano!"  said Maggie, joining in on the ribbing.

Connie didn't care, she knew she dished it out more than anyone and she certainly didn't want to appear like she was unable to take it as well.  She shared her 'song' anyway...

"There once was a woman named Alice 
Who used a dynamite stick for a phallus
They found her vagina 
In North Carolina 
And her asshole in Buckingham Palace"

Suddenly the rest of them had trouble keeping from toppling over as they grabbed their knees in laughter.

"I told you it was a good one!"  Connie said proudly.

"That's not a song, Connie... it's a limerick!"  Sandra corrected through her laughter.

"It's a bunch of words strung together that rhyme, idn'it?"  Connie replied.  "Listen I've got a bunch of 'em!  There once was a man from Nantucket..."

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

By early afternoon the sun was too oppressive to carry on much more.  They found shade under the angled side of a discarded tram bucket, which to them was the size of a mill in itself.  It came to rest there, having fallen from the now static tram system that dangled high above them. It angled down the canyon walls where it would meet the lower mill and tipple near the rail line.  Since the day of the blast though, the tram hadn't moved and the crankshaft for the stamp battery hadn’t turned.  Occasionally, the wind would catch the hanging buckets, causing an eerie creaking sound... just adding to the ghostliness of the once bustling canyon.

The women removed their loads and dipped into the water supply, being careful not to use too much.  Ellen rationed out a few pieces of the now dry meat.  They sat down and propped themselves up against the warm rusting iron, all lined up in a row with their legs kicked out in front of them.  No one looked back in the direction they'd come from, not wanting to get discouraged by how far they really hadn't come.  They sat quietly for a spell... quiet enough even that Sandra dozed off resting her head against Ellen's shoulder.

"Hey El... I've been meanin' to ask ya somethin'," Connie whispered, not wanting to wake Sandra.

"Are you gonna make another joke about me fucking women, Connie?"  Ellen asked in irritation.  She was tired and hot and had little willpower left to put up with Connie's usual bullshit.

"No no no," Connie waved her off, "I don't need to know your favorite toppings on your tacos."

"Goddamnit Connie...," Ellen whisper-yelled back at her.

"Sorry, sorry... you just make it so easy sometimes," Connie quietly chuckled to herself.  "In all seriousness though... how’d you learn all that stuff back at the heap?"

"What stuff, Connie?"  Ellen sighed.

"You know... making us these fine Parisian garments... trapping that horned beastie... cooking with the sun... I was really impressed, El."

"Stop making fun of me, Connie... I mean it," Ellen sighed again.

"I swear I'm not... cross my heart... I really wanna know... is it cause you're a half-breed?"  Connie pressed.

"She said to knock it off, Connie... Jesus fucking Christ,"  Maggie interrupted, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"I'm being serious here, El.  We've known each other for years now, but I don't know that much about you 'cause you’re so goddamn quiet all the time.  Suddenly we find our selves the size of fuckin’... tin soldiers, and suddenly you're Davey Fuckin' Crocket!  Is it cause you're mom's an injun or somethin'?"

Ellen finally realized that, in her own brash, bigoted sort of way, Connie was actually being genuine.  "A little, I guess.  Mostly it was my father who taught me a lot.  He was a fur trapper... that's actually how he met my mom.  He stayed with her... OUR tribe for a time.  He always said he felt more at home with the red man than with the ‘constrictions of polite society’." Ellen made air quotes with her fingers as she repeated her father's words.  “They never had any boys... just me... so he would take me out hunting and fishing with him.  He taught me ways to survive in the wilderness.  He'd been taught by his father who had learned from tribes that he'd lived with as a trapper before him."

"Huh," Maggie said as she opened her eyes.  It dawned on her that she really didn't know that much about Ellen's past either.

"Are your parents still alive, El?"  Asked Connie.

"My mother is.  My father passed from yellow fever not long after I married Tom," Ellen replied.

"Does she... does she know...," Maggie struggled to ask what might be a hurtful question.

"Does she know what I do... or... did for a living?  No... I just wrote her from time to time and sent her money when I could.  I am who I am and I've done what I've done... and I'm fine with it... but I'm not about to break her heart."  Ellen looked to the sleeping Sandra on her shoulder and then at the palms of her hands.  "Don't suppose I'll ever see her again, will I?"

"I hope you do, El... I hope you do," Maggie said with sincerity and took Ellen's hand in hers.

A glint of mischievous joy suddenly shined in Connie's eyes, "hey El... I think your dad would be proud of ya..."

"How's that, Connie?"  Ellen inquired.

"Your pops was an expert at trappin' beaver... and you just love eating it!"  Connie began laughing at her own mean spirited joke before she'd even finished.  

Neither Ellen or Maggie found it amusing.

"For fuck sakes, you two... LIGHTEN UP!"

Sandra suddenly snorted herself awake, jostled conscious by Connie's laughter.  She looked around at the others, feeling like she just walked into the middle of a conversation.

"What'd I miss?"

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

After resting for about an hour or so, Maggie asked the others if they wanted to wait longer or continue in the dreadful heat.  As tends to happen, their muscles felt stiff from the long walk which made it hard to want to get moving again.  Maggie wasn't a slave driver and would have done whatever the group decided... but they knew they needed to keep going.  The more time they spent in the wilderness, the less likely they were to survive.  There was a delicate balance to be struck between not overly exerting themselves and haste.

As the sun set and the dark creeped ever closer, they decided to set up camp under a gigantic sage bush.  Ellen thought the branches surrounding the tent might help support it better.  Maggie dropped the tent from her back and began unrolling their accommodations for the night.  Being paper and not a cloth, it wanted to retain its curled form, so she and Connie rolled it back the opposite way to try and straighten it out.  It popped up nicely afterwards and the four of them placed rocks in each of the four corners to hold it down from any gust of wind that might carry it off.  The two end pieces were carefully tied to the main structure with some of the remaining thread through holes punched in with the glass dagger.  The lizard's blood combined with dirt had hardened the paper handle of the dagger almost like papier-mâché, making it much safer to hold.  The finished structure wasn't pretty, and it was definitely drafty, and it most certainly didn't offer the security that the can did... but it would have to do.   

After this they set up the bottle base with the smaller bottle on top like the night before.  Ellen rationed out some more lizard chunks, just enough to quell the girls' rumbling stomachs.  Even before the sun fully set, they packed inside the tent and disrobed.  The group huddled together for as much warmth as they could get once again and used their ponchos as blankets... for what they were worth.

There was an uneasy quiet amongst them.  This would be their biggest test yet... would they survive this night?  This would be the most exposed and vulnerable they'd been since the night of the fire.  


End Part 13
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:33 am

Part 14-"The Standoff" 


The morning chill hit Ellen's exposed back, waking her from a pleasant dream.  She pressed herself harder against the body she was spooning... half forgetting her current predicament in her grogginess.  As reality crept back into her brain, she realized it was Connie she was grinding against.  Connie and Sandra both had their arms wrapped around little Maggie who was sandwiched between them, easily the coziest spot possible.  Cozy as far as only having a sheet of paper between them and the rocky ground could possibly be that is.

They'd bundled together for several nights now to share body heat, but this was the first morning that it was light enough for Ellen to see... to appreciate laying next to a beautiful, naked woman.  Despite her timid nature, she had always been more sexually adventurous than the other women... something Connie had poked fun at relentlessly.  Yet laying there next to the stunning redhead's dirty, sun-reddened, yet still fair and smooth skin... she felt her body flush with warmth and chills at the same time.  As much as she wanted to, Ellen resisted running her fingers through Connie's hair... maybe even slipping her fingers between her own thighs.  She knew it would only result in more cruel teasing... or worse.  Instead she rolled away and struggled to get to her aching feet.  She threw her poncho over her head and pushed her way out of the tent's flap... stealing one last glance of Connie before exiting.  

It was Connie who next felt the cold on her back and awoke to the crinkling sound of Ellen's footsteps across the bottom of the tent.  She gently shook Maggie and Sandra awake, "you two alive?"

Both of their eyes fluttered open, followed by deep yawns.  Relieved, Connie stretched her arms and sore legs as the others two did the same.

"Where's El?"  Maggie asked, feeling a whisper of panic tightening her chest.

"She's just outside the tent," Connie responded, "we better go see if she needs help.  I hope to god there's some dew on that glass... I'd hate to have hauled that thing all day for nothing."

They had no way of measuring it, but the previous day's miserable slog may have been many miles for them, but they had not yet completed a single mile from the perspective of normal size.  In fact, it was barely half of that.  The canyon was widening more now though, and the descent was beginning to flatten out into the valley.

As Maggie, Connie and Sandra exited the tent they were greeted by Ellen, who was already using her hands to squeegee the small drops of dew into more manageable pools.

"Mornin' girls," Ellen said groggily.  "Come get it while it's still cold."

"Mornin' El," Maggie replied through another yawn, "thanks for takin' care of that."

The four of them crouched around the disc and sipped in a couple of drops each and then took turns scooping what was left into the bottle... which wasn't much.

"Let's get packed up as quick as we can and get as many miles as we can behind us before it gets hot," ordered Maggie.  

“Yes, Ma,” the other three replied with almost no energy in their voices.

With the tent rolled back up and tied to Maggie's back, the others decided to switch loads for the day.  Connie took the bottle, Ellen the disk, and Sandra the food supply.  The whole process didn't take but a few minutes and they were ready to proceed onwards.

The road began to straighten ahead of them, making covering more terrain easier than the winding path behind them.  It also made their impossible task seem that much more... impossible.  Finally seeing down into the valley was like being able to see across the whole state of Nevada.  The desert stretched on... and on... and on There was just so damn much of it.  The road led down towards the mill and then split north and south alongside the railroad tracks.  

"My god... the mill is still so far away," Sandra muttered, "we could walk for days, Jesus... I hope not weeks more before we get there."

"I know, Doe Eyes... we just have to chip away at the miles a little at a time.  Try not to think about it... just focus on the next steps.  Maybe another song?"  Maggie tried to comfort Sandra as best as she could... even though she was felt the exact same way.

"No thanks, Ma... I've never felt like singing less in my life," Sandra replied.

They continued to march forward, the mood hanging heavy over them.

"What about you, Connie... you have any more nuggets of wisdom for us?"  Maggie asked.

"Sorry, Ma... fresh out."

More quiet... only the sound of the gravel shifting under their feet with each step.  Maggie knew she needed to say something.  She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to address the group.

"We're not going to do this," she said sternly to the three much larger women.  All three were taken aback by Maggie's sudden intensity.

"We are not women who just roll over and take it on the chin.  Yes, this seems impossible, but so was turning an abandoned hotel in a fucking ghost town into a booming business.  We may have had to sell our bodies to do so, but we did it on OUR terms.  We made grown men weak and beg... that's no small feat either, ladies." 

The others remained stunned and silent.

"We will do this, mark my words.  The desert will not beat us.  We could have given up when our children and husbands died, but we didn't.  We'll conquer this road because no man, especially whatever cruel god that allowed this shit to happen, is going to stop us.  Do you understand me?" Maggie pointed at each of them, emphasizing each syllable.

"Damn straight, Ma!"  Connie exclaimed.  Ellen and Sandra both stiffened their lips and nodded.

Maggie turned back around and began walking with her head held high.  The others looked at each other and smiled before they began following her.

"You ever think of going into politics, Ma?  With you in Washington we'd have the vote in no time!"  Connie joked.

"You're goddamn right we would!"  Maggie shouted, raising a finger proudly over her head.

"That is if they'd let a retired whore on the floor of congress," Sandra quipped.

"Is it any different than what any of those gubmint fuckers are doing already?"  Connie added.

"They'd need binoculars just to see her!"  Ellen said, joining in.

The four of them laughed heartily... finally ready to face the day's challenges head on.

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

The sound of Sandra humming a tune she'd forgotten the words to created a sort of calm... even peacefulness as they pressed ever forward. 

Maggie found herself finally being able to marvel at the grand scale of her surroundings, the details of their new world that her given size now afforded her. She'd never really noticed it before, but the desert was revealing itself to be quite beautiful.  And getting reduced to little more than two inches tall was all it took to appreciate it.  The detail in everything around her was so much more pronounced. 

The way the smell of the giant sage bushes, like strange roundish trees, filled the air... the way the tiny quartz crystals and pyrites in the rocks glimmered in the sun... the occasional ground squirrel popping it's head out of its burrow, confused by the strange parade it was seeing.  Even the giant rattlesnake coiled up in the middle of the road ahead...

"HOLLY FUCK!"  Maggie shouted, snapping out of her trance.  

The others were too preoccupied with their foot placement in the rocky earth to notice themselves.  They also hadn't noticed that Maggie had stopped cold in her tracks and one by one, piled up on top of their tiny leader.  Maggie struggled to free herself, unable to breath under the stack of much larger women.  Even as she managed to free herself, she barked at the others, "get down... don't... fucking... move!"

She pointed ahead to monster in their path.  The other girls' eyes grew wide with fear, holding their breath.  It was like seeing something out of old world fantasy... a great dragon guarding the path like a sentinel.  The diamonds lining the length of its back signaled it was a particularly deadly villain, indeed.

"What the fuck do we do?"  Sandra whispered.

"I don't know... just stay still and quiet," Maggie whispered back.  Suddenly the idea of making human noise to scare the serpent away seemed ridiculous when actually having to stare one down.  It didn't matter what they sounded like... or looked like... they were nothing more than food to this thing.

The great snake was facing away from them so there was uncertainty as to whether it had seen them.  It's tongue was still visible, flicking in and out of its mouth... tasting, or rather, smelling its surroundings.  Other than that, it was absolutely motionless.  

The four women were laying on their stomachs in one of the wheel ruts, peering over the center mound.  Not a particularly safe place to hide in the unlikely event of a wagon, or even a lone rider, coming up the road.  They were stuck.  

Hours passed as the heat pounded on them brutally.  They were completely exposed to the sun's unforgiving rays.  Their calves and ankles starting to burn, being the only parts of them not covered by the paper ponchos.  There was nothing to be done about it though, all they could do is wait in fear.  

After nearly four agonizing hours the snake's head began to move, its tongue flicking wildly.  It slowly circled around from on top of its coiled body in the direction of the four terrified women.

Had it sensed them?

The diamond-backed dragon slowly uncoiled from its position and began slithering towards them.  The girls were on the verge of complete panic, even the usually cool headed Connie.  She gripped the glass dagger in her hand, ready to go down slashing... but hoping to god it didn't come to that.  Primal instinct was taking over... it was either fight or flight, and there really was no winning this fight.

"Don't run yet," Maggie whispered, "we have to be sure it's coming for us.  If we run now it'll know for sure that we're here.  I don't know if we can outrun it.  If it comes for us, we scatter... understood?"

The others nodded nervously.

The women were shaking in a state of all consuming horror by this point as the snake weaved its way closer... closer... closer.  Maggie's heart was racing out of control.  She gripped the hands of her friends waiting to give the signal to disperse... it was the only way that any of them had a chance of getting away.

The snake suddenly halted its advance on the far side of the center berm.  The women didn't move, their eyes unblinking.  It cocked its head backwards and rose up, its tongue still tickling the air.  It's powerful body, like one gigantic muscle, could overwhelm them with minimal effort.  This leviathan of the desert sands towered above them... and there was no way now that it could be unaware of their presence.

This was it.  Maggie, breathing heavily and sweating bullets, was about to give the order.  Her mouth opened... her hand raised...

The scaled horror's gaze shifted slightly to the left and struck over the top of them with such speed that none could react.  The snake pulled back, wrapping itself around the ground squirrel it had clenched in its fangs.  The furry creature writhed and screamed in its final death throes.  The speed with which the rattler landed its deadly bite seemed impossible for something of its size.  The ground squirrel was much larger than any one of the women, making it a far more suitable feast for a titan such as this.

Maggie had frozen.

Her legs felt like they'd lost the bones to hold them up.  She was so stricken with terror that she couldn't even hear the others shouting at her.

"Maggie!  Maggie!  Run! Now!"  Connie shouted at the unresponsive brunette.

Maggie could barely turn her head towards the others.  She was so frightened that her very sanity was hanging by a thread.  She didn’t even notice the trickling of urine she'd released down her legs. 

Ellen looked into Maggie's thousand yard stare.  She rushed to pick Maggie up in her arms and, despite the load that already burdened her, carry her out of there if need be.

"Come on, Ma... it has its meal... now's our chance," said Ellen as calmly as she could, given her own shaken state.  She could feel Maggie's little body shaking against hers.  Maggie still said nothing.

The four of them made their escape over the center mound and down into the opposing rut.  Even with the loads on their backs... even as the jagged rocks cut and scraped at their already battered feet, they ran faster and faster.   By the time the adrenaline stopped pumping and were forced to catch their breath, they'd left the scaled behemoth over a mile (from their perspective) behind them.  Each took refuge behind a large rock and dropped their packs.  They collapsed to the ground with their backs against the rock, still sucking wind, their hearts pounding like four little jackhammers.  Connie repeatedly peaked around the rock to make sure the beast didn't follow them.  It hadn't.

As their pulses slowed they began to process their fear.  Connie just sat quietly, staring wide-eyed into space.  Sandra was in tears, hiding her face in folded arms resting on her knees.  Ellen had her hands full with Maggie.  Anytime she would shift or move, Maggie would grip her tighter and hyperventilate... screaming out in maddened terror.

Ellen tapped on Connie's shoulder and mouthed to her without any sound, "set up camp."

Connie was still in a daze, but nodded.  She got to her feet, feeling her knees shaking and weak beneath her.  She ran her fingers through Sandra's hair and when the beautiful blonde looked up to her with her big, sad eyes, Connie offered her a hand to help her to her feet.  Connie began to remove the tent from Maggie's back, causing the much smaller woman to clench up and scream out again.

"Ma... Maggie... it's just me... it's Connie...."

Connie felt a tear roll down her cheek.  She tried to stroke Maggie's hair like Sandra's, but Maggie would just begin screaming again.  Ellen felt like a parent with an upset child she couldn’t figure out how to comfort.  Connie pulled the rolled up tent away as quickly as she could.  Maggie had her legs wrapped around Ellen's waist by this point, her sanity all but lost.  Ellen just held her tighter while gesturing to the others to get what needed to be done finished.

With camp in place at the base of the granite boulder, the three larger women mostly just sat quietly, staring at Maggie's back as she still clung to Ellen.  Connie and Sandra couldn't help but worry if this was it for Maggie... if she'd completely lost it.  The silence went mostly unbroken with the exception of the occasional coyote's howl or whimper from Maggie. 

Darkness descended and the four entered their fragile shelter for the night.  Ellen was forced to sleep in her poncho, unable to pry the still terrified Maggie from her chest.  The other two flanked her sides as they tried to mentally shake off what they'd experienced.

The nightmares made a restful night impossible.


End Part 14
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:13 pm

Part 15-"Ants in a Hill"  


Ellen was the first to awake the next morning... or so she thought.  She was glad to see her poncho hadn't torn in the night from sleeping in it.  That's when she realized Maggie wasn't laying on top of her.  She slowly got up trying not to wake the other two... unsuccessfully.  Sandra and Connie shivered and then just shifted themselves closer together and embraced as they fell back to sleep almost instantly.

Ellen quietly rose to her feet and exited the tent.  Maggie's poncho was laying discarded near the opening.  Ellen felt her heart starting to race with panic... where was Maggie?  She could tell the Maggie had already squeegeed what little water there was off the bottle and pooled it up on the disc.  She continued to walk around the boulder, her eyes darting back and fourth looking for Maggie.  As Ellen rounded the opposite side she finally spotted her.  Maggie was sitting on a small rock, a large boulder to her.  Her back was to Ellen, but she could tell Maggie had her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Maggie... are... are you ok?"  Ellen asked quietly as she cautiously approached.

She heard Maggie sniff and could see she was desperately trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes before Ellen could see her crying.  Ellen halted as she reached Maggie's side.  Maggie didn't look up... her attention remained focus ahead. A large anthill lay about fifty yards away and that’s when Ellen noticed the numerous red, foot long ants scurrying about the area.

"I don't think we should be here, Ma...," Ellen said, worried.

"Ain't that the understatement of the century," Maggie mumbled back.

"No... I mean... these ants... they could..."

"I've been sitting here for a while now.  They haven't bothered me," said Maggie, emotionlessly.

Ellen put a hand on Maggie's bare back and began rubbing it, "is everything alright, Ma? Please... talk to me."

Maggie remained silent.

"Please, Maggie... I know yesterday was horrible... but we still need you," Ellen pleaded. She began to feel sick with worry.

Maggie continued to stare at the army of red insects as the tiny creatures tried to drag a dead wasp into their earthen colony.  "What do you need me for?" She asked, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.

"What'd you mean, Maggie?  You're... you're..."

"I almost got us killed yesterday, El," Maggie inturupted in the same monotone voice.  

"What?!" Ellen replied.

"I thought I knew what to do... I thought maybe... it doesn't matter.  It was all bullshit.  Everything that comes out of my mouth is fucking bullshit.  I even fake an accent, El. I’m completely full of shit.”

“Ma...”

“I fucking froze, Ellen," Maggie continued, sounding disgusted with herself.  "I've always been terrified by snakes... and when that nightmare got close...  I... I... couldn't move.  I didn't know what to do.  I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, Ellen.  I don't understand why any of you put up with me pushing you around.  I'm... I'm fucking useless."  Maggie's somber demeanor finally gave way to a cascade of tears.

"You've got us this far, Ma," Ellen tried to assure her.

"No... YOU have.  Connie has.  Fuck, even silver-spoon-fed Sandra has.  Every decision I've made has been the wrong one... and all of us continue to suffer for it.” Maggie buried her face back between her knees. 

“Greta is dead because of me.  She sacrificed herself to save me, and what have I done to deserve it?! Fuck, El... I couldn't even help collect dew into the goddamned bottle this morning because I'm too... fucking... small.” 

“Maggie, please...”

“I don't know what I'm doing, El... you...," Maggie paused for a moment and then looked Ellen straight in the eye. "You should lead from now on... and the three of you should leave me behind."

"Well, that certainly isn't going to happen," Ellen replied, seeming almost offended. "And none of this is your fault."

"You're sweet, El... but you don't know what you're talking about," Maggie countered as she wiped the tears away on her arm.

"Seems to be my recollection that we've voted on about every decision since the start of this, Maggie.  If we're making the wrong choices, we're ALL making them.” Ellen stretched her arms out wide in frustration with Maggie.

“We got lucky yesterday... and the day before... and the day before that.  Every day that we're still here, every day that we’re still alive we've gotten lucky.  All we can do is hope our luck doesn't run out."

Maggie stared into Ellen's haunting green eyes, "this is why you should lead us.  You know how to survive out here.  You're holding it together, El.  I'm just falling apart... and I’m gonna get you all killed."

"You think I'm holding it together?!  When that snake lifted its head yesterday I wanted to drop to my knees and beg it for mercy, Maggie!  It makes no sense, but none of us were thinking straight.  To tell the truth... if I didn't have you clutching to me, it would have been the other girls dragging my dead weight out of there."

Maggie continued to listen, her eyes never leaving Ellen's.

"You were upset... I was upset... you didn't even see Connie and Sandra.  Doe Eyes was in tears and Connie... I've never seen Connie look the way she did.  The terror in her eyes.  We dealt with it the best we could." 

Ellen continued, "but you know what's important?  We're still alive," she said as she stroked the length of Maggie's hair.

"But what if that's not enough?  The thought of losing any one of you... any more of you... I don't think I could take it, El."

"And that's why we follow you, Ma... because you care so deeply about us... because you take all of our troubles on yourself as if they were your own.  You always have.  You were our rock after the deaths of our children, and after the explosion... the rest of us gave up long before you did. That's what the best leaders do."  

Ellen nudged Maggie with her hip to signal her to slide closer.  Maggie obliged.  Then Ellen put her arm around her shoulder.  They both stared out at the ant colony and watched the tiny creatures go about their business.

"Just look them, Ma... they're ridiculously tiny, but they work together for the good of the colony.  That's exactly what we have to do."

There was a long moment of silence before Maggie finally broke it, "you know... I think that's the most I've ever heard you speak in one sitting, El."  She looked back into Ellen's eyes as they shared a quick, relieving laugh.  

Then more quiet... only now, it felt somewhat peaceful.

An ant appeared from around the back of the rock they were perched on.  It stopped directly in front of them and looked up... then scurried away back towards the hill.

"They're so small, El...," Maggie began, "yet... they have a place in this world...

...what'd ya suppose ours is?"

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

After about another half an hour, Ellen and Maggie decided they need to go wake the others up and get on their way.  They rounded the back of the boulder only to be greeted by Sandra and Connie. The pair had been secretly listening to nearly all of their earlier conversation.  They had already rolled up the tent and had the straps tied on, ready for Maggie.  Sandra clutched Maggie's poncho in her hands.

"We took care of the water already... everything's ready to go... whenever you give the word, Ma," said Connie.

Maggie hung her head... the tears beginning to fall again, "I'm so, so sorry Connie... Sandra... I'm so sorry about yesterday... can you ever forgive me?"

"Not sure we can do that, Ma...," Connie began. She looked down her nose at the tiny brunette, pausing before her usual mischievous grin appeared, "being as there's nothin' ta forgive, is there?"

Sandra knelt down and hugged the diminutive Maggie and then pulled the poncho over her head.  She planted a kiss on Maggie's forehead before standing back up.  Maggie looked up into the eyes of each of the three women surrounding her.

"I don't deserve you... any of you... you're truly the best friends I've ever known. The best women I’ve ever known."

Connie stepped forward and ran her hand vigorously through Maggie's hair, further messing what was already less than presentable, "ah shucks, Half Pint... you ain't so bad yer self.  Now if we're done with all this mushy bullshit, can we get some miles behind us before the fuckin’ sun starts cookin' us like game hens?"

Connie lugged the water bottle onto her back and then headed towards the road.  Sandra slung the glass disk over her own and followed next.  Ellen looked down at Maggie and gave her a comforting grin, which Maggie feigned in return.  Ellen picked up the dwindling supply of meat then offered Maggie her hand, which she gladly took.

So once again, these pocket-sized pilgrims was marching towards their seemingly impossible goal.  They were near the mouth of the canyon now, and by the end of the day the wide, vastness of the valley would greet them.  The mill was still a couple of days off though. Their water supply was not holding out and the food was dwindling as well.  Hopes that there might still be supplies left over from before the mill's abandonment kept them moving forward. Not like there was anywhere else to go but forward.


End Part 15
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:24 pm

Part 16-"That Which Former Industry Provides" 


Day six.

The immense wooden frame mill filled the view of the four miniature travelers.  Already an imposing building by normal standards, it stretched far into the sky above them.  The building sat on an inclined slope, the last before the valley flattened out.  The structure stretched on below their perch at the top level as well.  A railroad siding lay far below on the valley floor. 

Each of the thick support timbers holding up the structure were so wide that all four women could have laid down head to toe and not come close to meeting the width of a single post.  It would go on to stand for over a hundred years before finally being destroyed by a wildfire sometime before the turn of the current century.

Indeed, the four of them were awestruck by this edifice that seemed to be built by gods, but they were also exhausted, thirsty, and starving.  The dew that was collected the previous two mornings wasn't keeping up with their needs.  Ellen was forced to cut the, now less than appetizing and already minuscule, meat rations in half.  The risk of botulism from continuing to consume the days old meat was growing with every bite taken.  

The two day trip between their post-snake encounter campsite and the mill offered little in the way of shade, the giant sage bushes offering only the slightest escape from the damning sun.  The supplies on their backs felt heavier with every agonizing step.  It was particularly hard on the much smaller Maggie, who lagged behind for most of it.  There wasn't much being said amongst them... and to be fair, there wasn't much to say.

Massive chunks of rusting metal scattered the ground.  Nuts, bolts, nails and discarded drill bits littered the caliche in every direction... the last remnants of industry in the wilderness.  Waste rock from the mine skirted the edifice, crushed by the four heavy stamp batteries within. Truly a testament to the richness of The Cornish Mine in its heyday.

Still, the assortment of twisting weathered cable, building materials and discarded cans made for a difficult course to negotiate.  A single cut on the bottom of the foot from an errant nail could result in lockjaw and slow, painful death.  Maggie had hoped there'd be glass bottles around to collect dew from, but there was no such luck.  Seems the old foreman didn't approve of drinking on the job... who'd a thunk.

Even as ghostly as the place was, a rhythmic booming could be heard echoing through the edifice.  As the women traversed the obstacle course of rust towards the back of the building, the repetitive banging grew louder and louder.  If it had been a few days prior the women would have been cautious and reluctant, but hopes that it could be someone... anyone... inside overshadowed the fear.  As they rounded a corner they were greeted by an underwhelming sight.

Nothing more than a door banging against its frame as the wind hit it.

More disappointment.  

Nevertheless... they still had to search inside in the event that maybe something useful had been left behind.  The door had to be stopped from its ear shattering banging before anything else could be done or risk being crushed by it.  They took turns boosting one another up the pair of steps to the door, along with a rusted nail as long as Maggie was tall.  The sound was so loud by this point that they were forced to cover their ears with each slam, a small windstorm kicked up along with each repetition.  Once the final step was reached, Connie and Sandra jammed the nail under the massive door as it opened wide enough to do so.  It stopped instantly.

The long wooden planks of the floor stretched out before them.  They were rough hewn, but a welcome change to walk on from the miserable desert.  Stacks and stacks of boxes containing drill core samples were piled up like unstable buildings in a rickety city.  Abandoned books lay stacked in no particular fashion near a desk built into the wall.  A separate doorway led into the main processing area where a pair of giant tram buckets could be seen hanging from the ceiling.  

As they ventured further inside, the little women left four sets of tiny tracks in the floor's untouched layer of dust.  They stopped in the middle of the room to take it all in.  Each dropped their loads to the floor and rested, glad to be free from the sun that had persistently beat on them for days.  Connie even stretched out on her back and jokingly made dust angels in the unkept floor, much to the other's amusement.

"D'ya suppose there might be somethin' up there?"  Sandra asked, pointing to the top of the desk high above them.

"Only one way to find out...," Connie replied.  She pulled her tattered poncho over her head and tossed it to the floor.  The others looked at her in surprise.  "What?  I'm just gonna rip the damn thing if I try climbing in it."

Maggie and Sandra just smiled and shrugged... Ellen tried to look like she wasn't enjoying the view.  Connie walked toward one of the towering stacks of books, discarded records of a more prosperous past.  The others followed her as she reached the base.  

"I'll go up first to see if there's a safe route to the top.  No need to wear all of us out if it's a bust," Connie volunteered. 

She began her ascent.  The books weren't stacked neatly in any way so she was able to pull herself up level by level, but this also made them unstable.  Connie could feel the tower shifting ever so slightly with each book she climbed.  It only took a few minutes for the tiny, naked redhead to reach the top of the stack, but it was taxing.  She was really feeling the effects of malnourishment and dehydration and had to stop for a while.  The others watched from below, biting their nails nervously.

"EVERYTHING ALRIGHT UP THERE, CONNIE?!"  Maggie shouted.  She was answered with an outstretched arm hanging over the edge of the book giving them a thumbs up.

Once Connie'd caught her second wind, she tried to piece together a map in her head of how she was going to reach the desk top, still a ways above her and with a large chasm between.  A horizontal two by four entwined with the framework of the wall offered her a bridge of sorts.  She pressed herself against the wall, trying not to look at the dizzying drop in front of her, and slowly shuffled herself across one step at a time.  There was so much dust accumulated on its surface that she could feel it building up around her feet as she slid them along. It worried Connie that it might make her trip. Even as cocky and sure as she always presented herself to the others, she was no fan of heights and could feel her heart racing in her chest.

She made it the foot or more length to the desk where she found there was a cobwebbed space between the desk and the wall.  She inspected the dark space to be sure there were no eight legged surprises present.   When satisfied she wouldn't get bit, Connie pressed her back against the desk and her feet against the wall, pinning herself for leverage.  She was able to walk and slide herself up the remaining height to the top.  Once there she collapsed in a cloud on the dust coated desk top, exhausted once again.

"I MADE IT!"  Connie shouted down to the others.

"DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?!"  Maggie shouted back.

"Jesus... give a girl a chance to catch her breath," Connie grumbled to herself.

She stood up, covered head to toe in dust, and looked around.  Same room... different perspective.  Her attention moved to the desk top.  There were some old writing tools, taller than she was, sitting in a glass next to an ink well.  Several giant sheets of paper with numbers and figures she didn't understand.  There was a honeycombed shelving unit stretching up the back of the desk with various tools in each slot.  In the back corner there was an empty dynamite box laying on its side.  There... there inside the box was something that nearly brought her to tears.

After several minutes of no response from Connie, Maggie began to worry, "HEY... CONNIE... YOU ALRIGHT UP THERE?!"

After a few more seconds the crazy redhead appeared at the edge of the desk, "EVERYONE GIT UNDER THE DESK!  I'M NOT SURE WHERE THIS FUCKER'S GONNA LAND!"

The three of them did as they were instructed and ran beneath the towering structure.  They heard a sort of scraping sound above them... then a thud... followed by what sounded like rolling echoing through the desk.  When the sound stopped a massive can fell from the sky and landed with a hard metallic thump on the floor, causing the three women to fall backwards and scream in surprise. As the can rolled to a stop, five letters became clearly visible...

BEANS

"Oh my god... FOOD!" Sandra shouted.  She leapt to her feet and bolted towards the gigantic cylinder.  Maggie and Ellen weren't far behind.

Once they reached the can, the three of them managed to turn the cylinder up on its end.  They stood back and basked in its glory.  Sandra then gave Ellen a boost so she could crawl on top.

"Hey... this is great, but how do we get into it?!"  Ellen queried to no one in particular.

"GLAD YOU ASKED!" Connie replied from above.  "STAND BACK!"

After some more scraping sounds, a gigantic can opener came crashing to the ground.

"Holy shit!"  Ellen exclaimed.

"THAT'S NOT ALL, LADIES!"  Connie called down again.  She picked up a cardboard box and tossed it over the edge as well.  When it hit, the inner box slid open, scattering a dozen or so matches across the floor.  A white candle fell after it, separating from its stand as it struck the floor.  There was only about half a stick left, but plenty for people of their stature.  "It's hot beans for dinner tonight, my friends!"

Connie carefully made her way back down to the others.  The climb up was much easier than the climb down, having no choice but to acknowledge the daunting height to find her footing.  When she finally found the floor, she sat down against the binding of a book and watched as her friends rushed to greet her, seeing the first smiles on their faces in days.  Connie felt a sense of pride as she let her body relax.

Ellen was the first to arrive.  She dropped to her knees and hugged Connie tightly, thanking her without speaking.  Sandra arrived next, carrying Connie's poncho with her.  She handed it to Connie who was still locked in an embrace with Ellen.

"Thank you Connie... so much," Sandra said, getting choked up in the process.

Maggie wasn't far behind Sandra.  She walked up along side Connie, still being able to look the redhead in the eye even though Connie was sitting.  She placed a hand on her shoulder, "you may have just saved our lives, Connie."

"Alright alright...," Connie said pushing Ellen off of her.  She was clearly uncomfortable with the well earned praise she was receiving.  "Let me just sit here for a few more minutes and we'll go figure out how to get that thing open."

Ellen pulled back, but kissed Connie on the lips before getting up.  Connie wasn't sure, but she thought she may have caught something in Ellen's eyes... something in the way she looked at her.  She didn't concern herself with it though, only with regaining the strength she was going to need to help the others open the can.  Once Connie could stand again, they returned to their prize.  They stood around it in a circle, marveling at the gift fate had given them.

"How the hell did you lift that thing, Connie?  To get it on its side to roll it off the desk, I mean.  It took all three of us to lift it," Sandra asked.

"It was sitting in a dynamite box... I just pushed it to the edge of that and then it knocked over fairly easily when it was teetering at an angle."

The can opener wasn't the convenient rotary type we'd use today.  It was primitive, not much more than a handle with a metal claw on the end.  Even with the three taller girls lifting on the handle, there wasn't enough leverage to breech the can, only slightly lift it.  Then Maggie had the idea of moving the can towards one of the books laying on the floor, that way they could get some pressure on top of the opener.  After rolling the can towards one of the dusty books and setting it back up straight, they were able to puncture a hole in the lid.  It was extremely difficult and took all four of them to pull off.  The smell of beans suddenly filled the air around them, making their neglected stomachs growl in anticipation.  It took another half an hour of taking turns working the opener around the lid until they could finally pry it open.

The can not only held the life saving beans, but water.  The beans were soaking in it as a part of the preservation process.  From on top of the book the four of them took turns slurping down handfuls of the ever so precious fluid.  When their thirst had finally been quenched, they scooped handful after handful into their water bottle, filling it for the very first time.  It was heavy, but both Sandra and Connie thought they could manage it.

Maggie just barely managed set the candle holder right and then Ellen and Sandra slid the candle back onto its base.  The three of them dragged it towards the book where Connie was waiting, leaning on a match as long as her leg.  She had already collected the scattered matches and returned them to their box while the others were working on the candle.  She placed a foot on the matchbox to hold it in place as she struck the match along its side.  The sudden flash and intense heat was more than she had expected and nearly dropped the match on the other girls.  Luckily, she caught herself and then leaned over the edge and lit the candle's wick.  This would not only be the first properly cooked meal they'd had in days, but the first night they would have a source of heat other than each other's bodies.  The other three women joined Connie on top of the book.

Once the fire was blazing before them, Ellen pulled a single slippery bean out of the opening, being careful not to fall into the can.  Connie had to restrain herself from pushing Ellen in, chuckling to herself instead.  Ellen set the wet bean down on the book and then signaled to Connie...

"Hand me that used match, would ya?"

Connie kicked it towards Ellen, still fantasizing about seeing Ellen's legs comedically sticking straight up out of the can.  Pinning the bean between her feet, Ellen jammed the match stick into the center of the oblong seed and then lifted the skewered squishy oval up for all to see with a smile on her face.

"Like roasting wieners!" She declared.  

Ellen held it out over the flame which, when only cooking a single bean, took almost no time at all.  Then Connie cut it up into four equal pieces with her trusty glass dagger and divvied the hot slices out into anxious waiting hands.  It wasn't long before Ellen was roasting another bean over the fire as the first was inhaled by the hungry women nearly as quickly as it had been cooked.  

A bean is a simple, unremarkable thing... but to four tiny women, it may have been the single most important meal of their lives.  And they were deeply grateful for it.  As the sun fell in the west, they huddled on top of the book, watching the flame flicker on the candle as though it were a campfire, laughing and telling stories... as has been traditional at such gatherings since man first harnessed the flame.


End Part 16
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Axtwyt » Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:53 am

Really loving this story. Didn’t think a western SW story could ever work this well, but you’re doing it!

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:12 am

Axtwyt wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:53 am
Really loving this story. Didn’t think a western SW story could ever work this well, but you’re doing it!
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I know it's a weird idea, but that's what really made me want to do it. Most of the enjoyment I get out of writing is taking a really ridiculous premise and trying to make it compelling. I guess it's up to you guys whether or not I've pulled it off.
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Tue Mar 16, 2021 11:40 pm

Part 17-"Campfire Stories" 

"Ellen... can you roast another one please?" Sandra asked, sheepishly.

Ellen nodded and leaned into the can to pull out the fourth bean they would consume that night.  Connie's continuing fantasy of knocking Ellen into the can had evolved into full on plotting.  She slowly crept to her feet and sneaked up behind Ellen, who was struggling to grip a slippery bean.  She caught Maggie and Sandra staring at her, both of them recognizing the all too familiar look of mischief in Connie's eyes.  Connie raised her forefinger to her lips and winked.  The other two smiled back and complied.

Just as Ellen had finally won her battle with the slimy bean, she felt hands wrap around her ankles.  Before she could even react, she found herself lifted upside down, face first into the can.  She swallowed a mouthful of water trying to right herself, her legs kicking wildly in the air.  The giant seeds around her held her packed in the can like she was one of them.  She screamed, feeling like she was going to drown.  Ellen felt another tug on her ankle as Connie yanked her back out.  She coughed the water up from her lungs and glared at Connie, who was doubled over in laughter... as were Maggie and Sandra.

"For Christ's sake, Connie, you could have drowned me!" Ellen scolded followed by another coughing fit.

"Oh Christ!  Stop!  Wouldn't that be an epitaph!  'Here lies Ellen Rhodes... Died by Chilli'!"  Connie joked through her laughter.

"Goddamnit, Connie... that's it!"  Ellen screamed.

"...she will be missed by every lesbian between here and Sacramento!"  Connie prodded mercilessly, her laugh becoming almost maniacal.

Ellen reached back into the can and lifted out the first bean she could get her hands on and tossed it as hard as she could at Connie, hitting her square in the face with a wet splat and knocking the redhead on her back.  Sandra and Maggie's eyes grew wide with surprise and were now rolling around on the book's cover, their sides hurting with laughter.  Ellen's rage suddenly subsided as she saw the other girls' reactions.  She started laughing herself looking down at Connie's wet face.  The moistened dust on Connie's visage looked like smeared makeup and Ellen covered her mouth to hide her reaction to the amusing sight.

Connie's eyes filled with fire as she slowly and dramatically climbed back to her feet, her fists clenched into balls.  She could smell blood in her sinuses from her sore nose.  She pulled her arm back like she was going to hit Ellen so quickly that it scared the timid, dark haired beauty.  She too ended up flat on her ass.  Maggie and Sandra quit laughing, seeing that things were escalating rapidly.  They sat and watched in silence as the seconds felt like years... waiting for the fight to begin, one that felt like it was a long time coming.  Connie positioned herself over Ellen, their eyes locked... Connie's full of rage, Ellen's with fear.  Connie pulled her arm back slowly this time and Ellen closed her eyes, waiting for the blow.

It didn't come.

She nervously opened an eye to see Connie's amused face with a crooked grin and her arm extended to offer Ellen help to her feet.  Ellen breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her eyes at Connie, then accepted her hand.  As Ellen stood up though, the already tattered paper poncho she was wearing ripped at the shoulder.  The makeshift frock had gotten waterlogged and stuck to the book, leaving Ellen standing there stark naked with streaks of mud dripping down her body.

"Pppffftthahahah!" Maggie blurted out and rolled onto her back in laughter, which proved contagious.

Connie covered the laughter escaping from her own mouth while Ellen tried to cover herself with her arms.

"Thanks a lot, Connie... now what am I supposed to do?!"  Ellen chastised.

Connie looked about the room, pointing out the piles of books and down at the book beneath her feet, "gee... where will we ever find more paper to make a new poncho for you, El?!"  She said with gleeful sarcasm.

Ellen blushed with embarrassment.

"Here if it makes you feel any better...," Connie suddenly pulled her own poncho over her head and offered it to Ellen.  Ellen silently accepted it, averting her eyes from Connie's naked form by staring at the book cover beneath her.  She wrapped her arms around the paper and held it to her chest.  She was genuinely surprised by such a kind gesture from the likes of Connie.

There was just something about Connie that Ellen always felt drawn to.  Perhaps it was her confidence as much as her beauty, her Devil may care attitude and sharpened tongue.  Only Ellen really knew for sure.

And despite Connie's constant prodding and teasing, she had been very protective of Ellen.  If Ellen was in trouble with a violent client, Connie was always the first there to put a stop to it... which endeared her greatly to Ellen.  She loved Connie's gorgeous curly red hair and fair, freckled skin.  Perhaps Connie was right, maybe she was a lesbian. At least bi-sexual anyway, she did truly love her husband after all. But more recently, Ellen tended to enjoy her rare female partners more than the dirty, rough, and predictable miners.  The women were so much softer... so much more generous. 

Ellen felt the only admiration of Connie she could afford was from afar, fearing the fiery redhead would find no shortage of entertainment in knowing how she felt... potentially breaking Ellen's heart.  It could be so much worse than just teasing.  Lest we forget that this was the sexually repressive 1800s and getting outed could have landed her in an asylum.  Being a half breed had won her no battles either.  But... as extreme as their current situation was, finding the same sex attractive had become the least of her problems.

"So what?  You're just gonna run around here nekkid the rest of the night?"  Maggie asked.  She was still trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard.

"You buncha prudes act like we haven’t been runnin’ around Nevada in our birthday suits for days now! The only one of you who wants any of this is 'Our Lady of the Soggy Beans' over here," Connie thumbed towards Ellen with one hand while crudely grabbing at her own sex with the other.

"Shut up, Connie," Ellen said timidly without looking up from the ground.

"Alright, alright... you know I'm just fuckin' with you, El," Connie conceded.

"I know... I can take a joke, Connie.  It's just... sometimes you're a lot meaner than you realize... I--," Ellen stopped herself.

Connie saw that she'd said something that really got to Ellen, which was not her intent.  She sat down next to the others in the dim light of the candle, her legs spread out with her elbows resting on them.  She lifted a hand towards Ellen, "I'm sorry, El... really... come on. Sit down here next to me."

Ellen was skeptical, but took Connie's hand anyway and took a seat next to her.  Connie wrapped an arm around Ellen and pulled her closer.  Ellen felt a chill roll up her back as their bare skin touched at the sides.  It meant nothing to Connie... it meant everything to Ellen.

"I am sorry, El," Connie said in as serious a tone as she could muster, "but you do make it so easy sometimes."
 
Connie looked into Ellen's eyes and winked at her, then gave her a gentle nudge with her body. She then stuffed another chunk of bean into her mouth.  Ellen just shyly smiled and then stared down at her feet, enjoying being close to Connie, but also trying to control her growing arousal.  It wasn't the first time they'd held each other on this journey, but something about it felt different to her.

"Christ, what I wouldn't give for a bath!"  Sandra suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere.  She flopped onto her back and gazed up into the darkness above her.  "I hope The Doc has a teeny tiny washtub for us when we get there.  I might just soak in it for days!"

Maggie suddenly had a thought pop into her head that she'd never even considered, "hey, Doe Eyes?  I can't believe after all this time I never thought to ask this... how do you know there's a doctor in Kern's Junction?"

Sandra sat back up and replied, "Really?"

Maggie nodded.  Ellen and Connie were listening intently.

"He's a customer... a repeat customer.  You don't know The Doc?!"

Maggie shook her head.  Sandra looked to the other two who shrugged.

"Doctor Hank Johnson?  He was at the hotel almost every weekend.  How do you not know him?"  Sandra asked, dumbfounded.

"He must just come to see you, Doe Eyes," Maggie answered.

"Yeah I'll bet he does," Connie joked as she gave Ellen a gentle elbow in the rib.  "You get it?  'Come'?"  

Ellen ignored her.

"I've never actually had sex with him," Sandra said like it was the most natural thing in the world for a prostitute not to fulfill her paid duties.

All three of the other women looked at her with disbelief painted on their faces, their mouths hanging slack.

"What'dya mean you haven't fucked him, Doe Eyes?  That doesn't make any sense," asked Connie.  "You said he was there almost every week!"

Sandra looked to each of the other women who were desperate to hear her answer.  An embarrassed smile stretched across her face, partially lit by the flickering candle flame.  

"He likes my stockings," she answered, realizing how ridiculous the words sounded coming out of her mouth.

The others sat in stunned silence, eager for more details.

"He likes to unlace my boots and remove them from my feet very slowly," she began.  "Once he takes a few deep breaths from the insides of each boot, he slides his hands gently up my legs to my thighs to unhook my garter belt.  He then pulls my stockings off with his teeth.  Once both removed, he lays down on the floor with my stockings draped across his face and has me work my toes in and out of his mouth."

The others couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"Holy shit, Doe Eyes, " Maggie gasped, "is there something wrong with him?  I mean, he's a doctor..."

Sandra just shrugged her shoulders, "I think it's kind of sweet actually."

The others blinked their widened eyes in even greater disbelief.

"He's just trying to be happy... like anyone else.  We should all be so lucky.  The difference between him and the rest of us is that he KNOWS what makes him happy.  It's... unconventional... weird even, yes... but he literally seems to worship me.  Calls me his 'Goddess'...  it's... cute.”  Sandra added, “he's handsome and pays damn well, too."

"I'll be goddamned...," Maggie said, genuinely lost for any other words.

"Fuck!  All I ever get are dirty drunken miners who shoot their loads faster than they can git their trousers off... and you've got a guy paying you to suck your toes... un-fucking believable," Connie chuckled to herself.  She lifted her foot up to admire her own once pretty, but now dirty, cut-up and callused toes.  "What'dya think, El?  Wanna have a go at 'em?"

Ellen sat up straight long enough to punch Connie in the side and then lowered her head back down on Connie's shoulder.

"He's not the only one," Sandra interrupted.  She had their full attention once again.

"Wait... are all your customers just into your feet?"  Maggie asked.

"What? No, no... I mean I don't have sex with lots of the men who come for my services.  I guess CAME to see me.  I need to stop thinking like I'm... like WE'RE still those people.  That's not our life anymore.”

There was a moment of almost mournful silence amongst the group as the realization rang true.  

"Anyway... like I was saying, I do sleep with most of my clients, but I bet a third of them are just... lonely.  They spend six days a week in a hole... deep underground... in the dark.  At night, they mostly have to sleep on floors or thin blankets in the local boarding houses.  Just the thought of laying in a soft bed next to a caring woman... that's all some of them really want.  Someone to talk to, to hold them, to run their fingers through their hair.  To have a warm lap to rest their head in while I caress their cheek."  

Sandra continued, "I had one gentleman who had seen three of his friends disappear in a cave in deep inside The Lone Tree Mine in Dirksville.  He was so traumatized by the event tha all he wanted to do is bury his face in my stomach and cry.  All so no one else in the boarding house would see him deal with his pain."  The realization that the others were not having these experiences had never occurred to Sandra.  "The rest of you... you haven't done anything like this?"

All three shook their heads.

"I understand why they come to you, Sandra," Maggie said.  "You've all called me 'Ma' for years now... but you, Sandra... you've always had a sort of... calming, angelic... I don’t know...motherly(?) glow about you.  You've always been empathetic to us, and I'm sure those poor men could sense it, too."

Sandra wiped a tear away from her eye, being genuinely moved by Maggie's kind words.  She put her hand over Maggie's much smaller one and smiled, "thank you, Maggie."

The four of them sat in silence for a little while, enjoying the calming crackle and glow of the candle.  Well, all of them except for Connie of course.  Silence in a group setting always made her uncomfortable.  It's probably why she cracked wise so much.

"Anyone have any scary stories?"  She asked the group.

Ellen lifted her head from Connie's shoulder and looked at the redhead in confused disbelief.  That's when Connie noticed the others were doing the same.

"You can't be serious?"  Ellen asked.

"What?  You pampered prima-donnas never told scary stories by a campfire before?"

Sandra scowled at Connie, "Sure... I got one... you ever hear the one about four shrunken women who were nearly eaten by a rattlesnake as long as an iron horse before?"

Connie knew instantly she'd opened up a can of worms.  She stared at Ellen hoping for her to step in, but Ellen only fanned the flames.

"Hey, I've got one, too... it's about a tiny redhead who nearly died when a rockslide gave way beneath her," Ellen said, looking back at Connie with feigned hurt in her eyes.  "Or when those same shrunken women's friend died helplessly in a fire."

"Ok... I get it... you can stop now," Connie pleaded.

"If you don't like that one, I've got another about monsters that came from god-knows-where to shrink people, put them in cages and stash them away inside an abandoned mine... that spooky enough for ya, Connie?"  Sandra wasn't really mad, just wanting to give Connie a taste of her own medicine.

"I'm sorry... I'll shut my trap... you're right... we've seen enough horror already.  We don't need anymore.  Please... just stop.  I'm sorry."

Ellen thought she could see tears beginning to well in Connie's eyes, even though she'd never let any one of them see they were getting to her.  She realized this time she and Sandra were the ones taking it too far.

"What'dya suppose they were?"  Asked Maggie, cutting in.  "The creatures... the 'Tommyknockers'?"

The others looked at her with fear in their eyes.  None of them wanted to have this conversation except for Maggie.

"We haven't talked about it at all... haven't the rest of you wondered about it?"  Maggie asked her unappreciative audience.
"They obviously weren't human.  They could die so they weren't ghosts... so I guess they weren't actually Tommyknockers.  Are there more of them?  Is there a secret city of those things underground, shrinking and taking people for... for... god knows what?"  Maggie continued speculating, "and who says that's where they even come from.  Maybe they were down there trying to escape the heat of the dessert.  They could be from anywhere...  they could be around us all the time and we don't even know it."

Ellen grabbed Connie's hand under the poncho she had clutched to her breast.  Sandra squeezed at Maggie's hand to get her attention.  As if in a daze, Maggie broke her concentration on the flame in front of her and turned her attention to Sandra.  Sandra only shook her head and then nodded towards the other two.  Maggie turned back to see Ellen physically shaking as she buried her head into Connie's shoulder.  Maggie felt her body flush with shame for pressing the issue.

"I... I apologize.  You're right, Connie... we've seen more horror in a week than most see in a lifetime.  Please forgive me."
Sandra scooted closer and put her arm around Maggie, who in turn rested her head against the side of the towering blonde's breast.  

They watched the fire a bit longer before deciding to blow it out and save what was left of the candle for the next day.  It took all four of them blowing as hard as they could to finally dowse the flame.  Then, as they had for several days, those who weren’t already disrobed removed their ponchos and snuggled up next to the others. The book was hard, but smooth... a welcome change from sleeping across thin paper on the rocky ground.  Even with heads filled with unsettling thoughts of nefarious humanoid plots, they drifted off to sleep.



End Part 17
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:07 am

Part 18-"Goodbye, Heaven" 


Maggie tried in vain to get a drink of water for herself the following morning.  She had woken up before the others for a change and her cottonmouth was unbearable.  Unfortunately she was just too small to get over the edge far enough to get a scoop without falling in or cutting herself on the jagged metal around the inside of the rim.  She'd have to wait for the others to help her, whenever they decided to get up.  She thought that maybe she could get the candle lit to get breakfast ready for the others.  She pulled a match out of the box that was as long as she was tall.  Alas... once again she was too small to get enough pressure on the match head to create the friction needed to spark the end.  Even if she had, the sudden burst of flame might be too much for her to handle and risk seriously burning herself.  She slumped down, her legs crossed in front of her and propped her head against her arm, feeling as overwhelmingly helpless and useless as ever.

Sandra awoke to the sound of Maggie scratching the match against the box.  When the sound suddenly stopped, she turned from one side to the other to find the tiny brunette sitting on the matchbox, appearing frustrated and sad.

"What's wrong, Ma?"  She whispered, not wanting to disturb Connie and Ellen.

Maggie jumped slightly, realizing she'd been caught sulking.  "Oh... uh... I was just... I was going to try to light the candle, but I can't get the match to light... must be a dud or somethin'," Maggie said, trying to cover for her own sense of ineptitude.

Sandra quietly stood up and stretched.  She picked up Maggie's match, placed a foot on the box, and ran the tip along the side.  A bright flash of flame and heat followed.  She leaned over the edge of the book to light the wick and then swung the match like a baseball bat to extinguish it.  Maggie planted her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her arms in embarrassment.  She only looked back up when she felt Sandra running her hand through her hair.

"Please don't feel embarrassed about asking for help, Maggie.  You know any one of us is glad to," Sandra assured her.

"I know... it doesn't make things any less frustrating though," Maggie replied.  "I can't even get a fucking drink of water without feeling like I have to sip it from one of your hands.  I hate feeling so helpless."

Sandra didn't reply, she only walked to the edge of the can, leaned in, and scooped out a few drops of water into her cupped hands and carried it back to Maggie.  She knelt down in front of Maggie and presented the water to her.  Maggie placed her own tiny hands under Sandra's and guided the tilt as she gulped down the bitter liquid.

"I mean it, Ma... there's no place for pride when we're just trying to survive."

Once again, Maggie was struck by the inner strength of one of her friends.  It only made her second guess her role once more, feeling like any one of them was better suited to lead than her... and that she was really just a burden on them.  She feigned a smile and a nod at Sandra and thanked her for the help.

"So what's the plan for today, boss?"  Sandra queried.

"Well... I don't know.  We have food here and shelter from the sun, I don't think there's really any rush to leave," Maggie replied.  "I think if we dry out the beans in the sun over by the door that they'll keep longer for travel.  We'll dry as many as one of you thinks they can carry, and we'll just stay here until the can is spent."

"Excellent idea, Ma," Sandra beamed.  She slurped down the handful of water that she'd got for herself while Maggie was speaking.

"At least I feel that, with what we have now, we can survive for a few more days."

Connie finally rolled away from Ellen's embrace and rubbed her eyes, "is someone gonna make breakfast... I'm starving."

Sandra and Maggie just exchanged a look and chuckled secretly amongst themselves.

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

It took four days to polish off the can of beans along with the water they were soaked in.  To say that all four of them were tired of the taste would be an understatement, but none dared speak it at risk of angering the divine or karmic. They spent the days prepping what they could and exploring the upper level of the vast, cavernous mill for anything else of use. 

Each woman had a brand new poncho cut from the former records of the mill, save for Maggie, who still donned a portion of the story of Adam and Eve from the trash Bible.  She would describe the much thicker paper of the record books as feeling like wearing a playing card.  It was so stiff and uncomfortable on her tiny frame that she decided to stick with what she had.  The rest though were now adorned with the names of men they'd never met and numbers who's significance they had no understanding of.  They tied them off at the waist with some of the remaining thread.

A new tent was cut from the paper also.  The thicker, more durable stock they'd hoped would provide them better protection from the frigid dessert nights.  A few matches would be rolled up inside it for Maggie to carry.  They'd also use several matches tied together with some paper into a sort of stretcher as a means to transport their food supply.

When the time came to leave, the same strange sense of sadness hit the group as they'd felt leaving the dump.  The mill had been good to them, just as the trash heap had... and they would miss the security it gave them as they once again entered into the wilderness and uncertainty.

The mill was also the last standing reminder of Heaven.  Despite all that they'd lost there, it was still home... and they would miss it.  After all, it was there that they found each other, and their dear departed Greta.  There wasn't a dry eye among them.  Even Connie, who took the lead to hide the tears that were trailing down her cheeks.  So many memories, both good and bad, bubbled to the surface.

The four brave women navigated the treacherous, rusty scrap that protruded from the ground, like the remnants of a locomotive crash, to reach the wagon road.  The last steep grade downhill towards the railroad tracks would prove graciously uneventful... no venomous serpentine monsters to avoid... no clawed and winged death descended from the sky... even the typically tortuous heat seemed to be stifled by a cool breeze blowing through the valley.

The only event of any significance would occur after midday.  The light breeze proved to be enough to set the local tumbleweeds into motion.   One of the dried out desert plants made its way along the valley floor and across the wagon road.  It appeared without warning and at such a speed none of them were able to react in time.  The mobile shrub was the size of a hot air ballon, and as it crossed their path, it hit Connie with enough force to knock her back several inches onto her backside.  She stood back up, and if one were to look closely, they might see smoke being emitted from Connie’s ears.  She stormed forward, escaping with only a few more scratches and a bruised ego.  The laughter coming from the others didn't help the later.  It did remind the rest of them to keep their eyes open to their surroundings, and not just to where they placed their next step.

The wagon road would mirror the train tracks the rest of the way into Kern's Junction... a straight, nearly even path for the remainder of the journey.  They wouldn't know it, but by the end of the day they would have a third of their trek behind them.


End Part 18
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Wed Mar 17, 2021 11:47 pm

Part 19-"Riders on the Heat Shimmer"


Day thirteen. 

It'd been two days since the four little women left the mill.  It was deathly hot, but that was of little surprise.  They were pleased, well... as pleased as the situation could allow, to have level ground and a straight path to follow.  They had plenty of food and a full water supply, even though the act of packing the bottle was less than desirable.  They took turns almost hourly instead of daily to manage the load.  They were also able to collect enough dew from the bottle base in the mornings to keep it full as well.  The halfway mark drew nearer and nearer.

Was it possible that they may pull this off?

The road stretched ahead for what seemed like forever, though.  The railroad grade to the right resembled a range of bluffs, not unlike those along the Missouri River. Each had crossed that great body of water in their respective wagon trains when coming out west.  A previous journey that felt like another lifetime ago.

Sandra was singing an old church hymn, ironic considering their former profession.  She was also the one carrying the water bottle at the time.  Singing helped distract her from her heavy burden.  Connie was packing the disk and Ellen was dragging the beans in the stretcher-like rig they'd constructed behind her.  Maggie was out in front, making sure to be very attentive to her surroundings.  She was determined not to put the girls in another situation like that with the snake.  This is when she noticed a strange forked structure protruding out of the railroad grade far ahead of them.  

"Hey!  What do you suppose that is?!"  She shouted back to the others.

"What?"  Connie panted back, unsure of what Maggie was referring to.  The disk was getting hot and she was grateful to have thicker material between her and the glass.

"That... up ahead... sticking out of the tracks.  What is that?"

Connie squinted her eyes and shaded her brow, "that is strange."

It wasn't until they got closer that it became obvious what the pair of monoliths were.  Forking up into the sky were two rails of upturned track.  Someone had pried them up.

Connie dropped her load to the ground and began to climb the side of the grade.  She looked back towards the others and motioned them to follow her, "well, come on then... let's go check it out."  The rest dropped their packs and scaled the side of the long, man made hill.  It wasn't too steep which allowed them to ascend it in a matter of minutes.  The good sections of track were taller than any one of them, bolted down to massive ties with spikes the length of a wagon.  What looked like metal walls stretched on for what seemed like infinity ahead and behind them... except for this spot.  They gaped upwards at the damaged section as they stopped to catch their breath.  The iron rails could have passed for a pair of twisted buildings rising into the sky like in New York City.

"Why would someone do this?" Ellen asked, "are they trying to derail the train?"

The reason why hit Maggie quickly, like a ton bricks, just as Ellen finished her question.

"No, El... they're bent up like that because someone wants the train to see the damaged track."  She looked back towards the mill, still visible and prominent far behind them.  "When the train comes around the mill there, the engineer will see the rails sticking up and lay on the breaks. Whoever did this, they want them to stop."

"Who?  Who's 'they'?"  Sandra asked.

Maggie and Connie shared a look of understanding without expressing it vocally and then...

"The Pepper Gang," said Connie.  "No one else around here would have the cojones to attempt something like this."

Ellen and Sandra's jaws dropped with the realization.

"Holy shit... but... why here... why an empty ore train?"  Ellen asked.

"Because they have those mountains to escape to.  They think they have Heaven to hide out in, and what used to be a rather fantastic brothel," Connie explained.  "I'm sure there's payroll on that train and I wager they were hoping to blow, at least some of it, on us."

"So they obviously don't know about the town yet?" Sandra asked, rhetorically.  "And how did we not hear them ripping up the track?"

"They must have done it days ago when we were still at the mill," Maggie replied.

"Look!"  Ellen cried out, "there... on the other side of the valley!"

The others spotted what Ellen was pointing at.  There was a cloud of dust rising above a mirage as men on horseback began to rise through the distortion.  They were still far off, but closing in fast.  The three women looked at each other, realizing what they'd just walked into.  Their silent acknowledgment of what was about to happen was broken by Maggie.

"Do you... do you feel that?"

The other three spun around towards the tiny brunette who was about to place her hand on the enormous rail.  As soon as she touched it vibrations could be felt through its surface.  Maggie was so small she could actually hear it vibrating.

A distant whistle suddenly echoed across the valley.

Maggie snapped her head towards the others and uttered a single word...

"Run."

Maggie darted across the massive rail tie and jumped over the edge.  Ignoring the pain from the landing, she ran as fast as her tiny legs could carry her down the hill.  The others followed behind her.  The rumbling of the train could be felt through the ground itself now.  The locomotive approached like a rolling earthquake.  The hooves of horses pounding the earth could be heard coming closer as well, but they soon faded under the ungodly roar of the steam engine.  

"Fuckin' Hell!  Connie exclaimed as they darted down the hill.  "Don't we just have the best fuckin' timing in the world!"

Maggie knew that if the train derailed there'd be no way they could get away in time... they'd most certainly be crushed in the pile up.  Closer and closer, louder and louder.  The train blew its whistle again, this time it was so loud that all of them had to cover their ears as they descended.  It wasn't until they were once again on level ground that the iron beast laid on the breaks, scraping its wheels across the rails as the engineer spotted the mangled track... possibly too late.  The women fell to the ground, clutching at their ears in pain that only got worse as the train closed on them.  They screamed out almost reflexively as it intensified.  The train's cow catcher hit the upturned rail causing more horrendously loud scraping to the situation.

Somehow, the engine stopped just in time, avoiding the worst disaster the district would have seen since the Cornish Mine explosion.  The four women were cowering together, balled up on the ground.  Maggie was the first to open her eyes and lift her head.  She lowered her hands from her ears for just a second to gauge just how loud the engine was that towered above her.  A powerful release of steam erupted from the boiler.  The engineer laid on the whistle again in a futile attempt to alert the people in Kern's Junction ahead that something was wrong.  The women screamed and writhed, like the world itself was being torn apart.

Enormous hoofed columns appeared from around the other side of the train.  Attached to the tops of the columns were mountainous saddled titans, rode by masked giants with guns drawn in the air.  The powerful hooves fell all around the insignificant foursome as if they weren't even there.  Maggie was desperately trying to get her friends to their feet to run to safety, pulling on their arms, pulling at their hair.  None of them budged.  They were in too much pain and far too frightened.  She pulled Connie's head up with all her strength and slapped her across the face to get her attention.  Maggie saw such fear in Connie's face as she'd never seen the woman express before.

"CONNIE!  IF WE DON'T MOVE WE... ARE... GOING... TO... DIE!"

Connie could barely hear Maggie amid the chaos, but the tiny woman tugging at her arm was enough to understand.  With the kind of strength one only has access to when adrenaline is pumping through their system, Connie grabbed Sandra and Ellen by the arms and yanked both women to their feet.  Another equestrian Goliath had appeared as it rounded the front of the train.  Connie instinctually dodged backwards, yanking the other two with her to narrowly avoid being crushed under the hoof of the speeding steed.  The displacement of earth from the rise of its hoof knocked all four women over in a tidal wave of dust.  Connie dragged them back to their feet, screaming in utter terror.

The earth continued to rumble with the arrival of a third and fourth bandit.  There were eight total, flanking either side of the train.  The four on the women's side spread out, one holding the engineer at gunpoint, the others making their way past the ore cars to the caboose where the payroll was surely stashed under heavy guard.

The overwhelming shock of being nearly trampled to death under the horses left the tiny quartet shaking, hulled up under a sage bush in hopes that it would be enough to protect them.  The ringing in their ears kept them from hearing anything the bandits were saying other than some muffled voices.  Ellen's eyes grew wide with realization of their biggest mistake... they'd left their supplies at the base of the grade.

"Oh shit!  Oh no...," she shouted.  None of the others could hear her through the fingers they had stuffed in their ears.  She tapped on Maggie's shoulder and pointed to the pile nearly a hundred yards away from them.  Every step of the mammoth horse that commanded the scene threatening to crush their only hope for survival.

The engineer was standing at the threshold of the engine with his arms raised.  He looked terrified, but he was facing their direction.  Sandra's desperation made her climb back to her feet and start jumping up and down, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"HERE!  DOWN HERE!  HELP US PLEASE!  LOOK DOWN HERE!  HELP!"

The others quickly realized what she was doing and joined suit in a desperate attempt to be heard.  It would be futile.  Their voices were simply too minuscule to be heard over the massive steam engine.  Their hearts sank, and as if that wasn't enough, the nervous horse was now fighting back against its rider.  Its hoof came crashing down on the glass bottle base, smashing it to pieces.

"No... oh no...," Maggie muttered, unable to hear herself speak.

There was no more time to simply hope nothing else would be destroyed.... if nothing else, they had to save the water.  Connie wasted no time.

For better or worse, the bullheaded ginger was always the first to rush into bad situations.  This time though, she was more terrified than she'd ever been in her life.  It didn't matter, she had to save her friends.  She took off from under the bush, the others screaming at her to come back.  She dashed across the rocky ground towards the gigantic horse, her body still fueled with adrenaline.  A hoof came crashing down right in her path... she didn't stop.  The hoof lifted again and came down hard to the right.  Connie poured all her strength into her sprint and slid onto the ground as she reached the bottle.  Her side was scraped up, but she powered through the pain.  She lifted the bottle onto her back and began huffing her way back to the others.  The bottle's weight and her own fear only fueled her determination more.  She grunted, even screamed at herself... pushing herself harder and harder.  The same hoof crashed down behind her and lifted just as quickly, sending another wave of dirt up behind her, knocking her forward onto her face.  She struggled back to her feet under the heavy bottle, but suddenly felt a pair of hands grab both of her arms.  It was both Sandra and Ellen, who'd rushed out to greet her.  They lifted her up and the three rushed back to the anxiously waiting Maggie under the bush.  Connie dropped the bottle and collapsed against the stem of the bush.

"Someone else... is packing that fucking thing.... the rest of the day," she panted. 

Once again, be it through bravery or outright stupidity... Connie had saved their lives.  Maggie threw her arms around Connie's neck and kissed her on the cheek. It would be hard to lose any of them, but if she lost Connie, Maggie wasn’t sure she could go on... or even want to.

The brief moment of relief was interrupted by the sound of gunfire coming from the far end of the train.  The bandits were shooting into the caboose and pistol fire was being returned from inside.  The bandits must have come out on top because they immediately boarded the train.  With his attention drawn towards the the commotion, the thief guarding the train operator let his guard down just long enough for the engineer to reach back inside the cab for a hidden weapon.  The bandit caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and put three rounds into the engineer.  The man crumpled and fell from the engine, landing on top of the girls' tent and food supply.

The sound of the three gunshots forced the little women's fingers further into their ears.  It was the loudest thing they'd ever heard in their lives. 

That is, except for Maggie... she didn't hear them at all.

Either the steam release from earlier or the close proximity of the blaring whistle had shattered her eardrums.  They were all to preoccupied with escaping to notice the blood trickling out of Maggie's ears.  She began beating at the sides of her head and yelling, desperately trying to hear herself.  All she could sense was vibration.  She dropped to her knees, clutching at her ears and began crying.  

The lone bandit rejoined his crew at the far end of the train, having no one left breathing to guard.  Before long their silhouettes could be seen carrying bags of money and taking off towards the mountains, whooping and hollering in a cloud of dust.

Cautiously, the women left the protection of the sagebrush and approached the massive form of the deceased engineer.  He was laying face down with one arm stretched out over his balding head.  Even having been shrunk for pair of weeks now, they still marveled at the enormity of the giant's hand and arm as they made their way towards his head.  His enormous eyes, frozen and unblinking, seemed to emote the last moments of fear he ever experienced.  Maggie, already in tears from the loss of her hearing was joined by the others.  Save for Connie, they wept for a man they'd never met, or perhaps because his death meant they had to continue on through the desert. 

It was then that, by some small stroke of luck, their supplies appeared.  The bottle base may have been smashed to bits, but the tent and bean stretcher were virtually untouched, save for a layer of desert dust coving them.  They lay just where light could be seen between the man's jaw and caller bone, almost protected if they didn’t know better.  Ellen and Maggie were able to drag them out with relative ease.

The ringing in the ears of those who could still hear prevented them from understanding one another for some time.  Connie motioned towards the stretcher, but Ellen grabbed her by the elbow and shook her head.  She placed her hand on Connie's cheek and then planted a soft, loving kiss on the other.  She stroked Connie's cheek before removing her hand, enjoying how soft Connie's skin felt beneath the coating of dirt.  She smiled at Connie, hoping she understood that she'd done more than enough that day and would not be carrying anything.  Connie's eyes filled with tears and she hugged Ellen tighter than she'd ever held another person... even her husband.  It seems the fear that nearly took her earlier, finally caught up with her. 

Sandra held the distraught Maggie against her side in a futile attempt to console the poor woman.  If they stayed for much longer the roar of the locomotive could certainly rob the rest of them of their hearing.  

Ellen tried to propose that they should stay close to the engine, or at least close enough that it wouldn't be so loud.  When the law finally showed up they'd have a chance to be found.  She tried her best to convey this to the others by mouthing the words slowly and miming with her hands.  Connie pointed out to her that when the law showed up, there'd be more than just a handful of horses this time and that they'd run a much higher risk of getting killed.  They both looked to Maggie for a decision, but she was in no state to be a leader at the time.  Sandra sided with Connie and they accepted that as the tie breaker.

Without another thought, they packed up their gear and resumed their trek up the road; Sandra with the water bottle in the lead, Maggie with her tent next, then Ellen and Connie walking side by side.  Ellen dragged the stretcher while Connie held one of her hands on the matchstick handle.  

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It took most of the remaining day for Connie, Ellen and Sandra to regain some of their hearing through the constant ringing in their heads.  They had put some distance between themselves and the train, no longer filling the air with its thunderous sound.  Its rumble could still be heard and felt far behind them.  

Maggie had fallen behind the others, still clutching the sides of her aching head and feeling like she was underwater.  As reluctant as she already was to lead their group, having her hearing stolen from her was nearly enough to push her over the edge of madness.  She was the smallest person on earth, which would have been enough to drive anyone insane, but now she was deaf on top of that... and she still had to be the one the others looked to for guidance.  These thoughts swam and spun through her head over and over again as she stumbled along.

A large boulder presented itself on the edge of the wagon rut they were traversing and they had to make a choice to slide into the deep rut or walk into the thickening forest of sagebrush to the side.  The choice seemed like a simple one.  Sandra lead them around the massive chunk of granite, possibly deposited there sometime after the last ice age.  

The sun was beginning to set and the group's minds were on setting up camp soon.  The day was not yet done and it seems the desert was far from finished with them.  Their decision to leave the site of the train robbery, and even how to navigate this boulder, would prove costly.  As Connie, Ellen, and Maggie rounded the shadowed side of the boulder, the last thing they expected was for Sandra to have vanished.


End Part 19
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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Bloodthirstybutcher
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Re: Burning Heaven

Post by Bloodthirstybutcher » Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:33 am

Part 20-"The Life and Times of Sandra Bingham"  


Sandra Mary Forsyth Bingham truly was the last person someone would expect to choose a life of prostitution.  Even before that, none would have expected her to choose a life of relative poverty with a lowly hard rock miner.  Her father, Sanford Forsyth, was a mining baron... and a shrewd one at that.  Sandra had grown up in affluence in New York City, never wanting for anything... that is... except for adventure.  

Sandra found the societal life dull, as any child would, but she never seemed to grow out of it.  When her father would leave to inspect his mines out west, Sandra would beg and plead for him to take her along.  It wasn't until she became a teenager that he finally relented.  She would accompany him on his trips through Colorado, Utah and Nevada where he had holdings.  She took great pride in bringing gifts of whisky and sweets from back east for the hard working miners.  Even before she was dubbed 'Doe Eyes' by a different set of admirers, the rough and weary diggers nicknamed the beautiful blonde woman 'The Angel of the Tailings,' affectionately.  The disappointment in their faces could not be hidden when for one reason or another she was unable to make a trip.

Sandra also had no shortage of smarts.  She would attend college at Oxford and graduate near the top of her class.  She had her pick of schools stateside, but once again, the chance for travel and adventure was too alluring.  She did four years overseas and then returned to learn the family business from her father.  She resumed her trips out west with him, still bringing supplies and other luxuries for her father's workers.  He hated that she continued to do this, feeling that coddling the help would make them soft and greedy.  But, he also saw the other side and supposed it was better than having the men striking over conditions and pay, which at the time were terrible everywhere.

This is how she met Samuel.

Samuel Bingham was a simple man from simple upbringing.  His father was a miner and his father before him dug coal in England before immigrating to The States.  He was strong, cut and inherited his father's good looks. 

Samuel was catching the last train out of a mine in Central City at the end of his shift when he and his fellow crew members were met by the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.  She sat on a wagon full of whiskey with the same warm and calming grin that Maggie and the gang would get to know later on.  The sweeting sun basked her in an otherworldly glow.  It was love at first sight.

"Two of these cases are for you boys... drinks are on me tonight!"  She exclaimed.

Samuel cared nothing for whiskey, but he couldn't take his eyes of off Sandra.  She also took notice of this good looking man who wasn't indulging in her gifts.

"No taste for whiskey, mister?"  She asked.

"No mayam," Samuel replied, "nothin' harder than milk for me."  He removed his cap out of politeness and began wringing it in his hands.

"Cows are a bit hard to come by in these parts," Sandra joked, "what would a good mama's boy such as yourself ask of me?"  She held her chin high with what could be the faintest of grins fighting to become something more.

Samuel removed a soiled rag from his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his neck and face.  "Nothing more than to kiss your lovely hand, miss..."

"My name's Sandra, and yours?"

"Samuel... Samuel Bingham, mayam."

With her hand outstretched, Sandra smiled, "pleasure to met you, Mr. Bingham."

Samuel lifted her hand to his face and kissed the back of her palm, his eyes never leaving hers.  "Sam is good enough, Miss Sandra."

He released her hand, enjoying the feel of her unblemished skin as it slid out of his own rough and calloused fingers.  The pair continued staring into each other's eyes while the rest of the crew unboxed their spirits and gawked at what was unfolding.  Sparks truly seemed to be flying.

"You wouldn't want to accompany me on a walk, would ya Ms. Sandra?"

Sandra finally released the smile she was eager to give the curious young man, "you know what Mr. Samuel Bingham... that sounds like a lovely idea."  

Samuel raised his arm again and offered his hand to assist the lovely woman down from the wagon...

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"SANDRA REACH UP!"  Connie shouted into the dark abyss.  

Sandra felt dazed having hit her head as she fell.  She found herself at the bottom of a hole at the base of the boulder.  The fading sun and stretching shadows had obscured it just enough that when she rounded the granite wall, she stepped right into it.  Her right side scraped against the walls of the pit, tearing away her paper frock and some of her skin with it.  She landed hard on her left ankle and heard it crack as she crumpled to the ground.  Had her sudden disappearance not caused the others to stop in confusion, they most certainly would have toppled in after her.

"I'm trying!  I can't reach!"  Sandra shouted back, her voice echoing against the walls of the hole.

"Can't you stand up?!" Ellen called back.

"No... my ankle... I think it's broken!"  Sandra replied.  She tried pushing herself up with her hands against the walls... 

...that's when she felt the strange, sticky coating that clung to her hands as she tried to pull them away.  Her heart began to race with fear.

"Hey... HEY!  GET ME OUTTA HERE... QUICK!"  Her panicked shouting echoed off the walls.

Maggie uncoiled the small amount of thread she still had left and tied a loop around at the end.  She handed it to Connie who lowered it down to Sandra's waiting hand.

"Alright, Doe Eyes... just loop that around your wrist and we'll pull you up."

Sandra nodded as she stared upwards at the three dark silhouettes crouched around the mouth of the hole.  She stuck her hand through the loop and pulled it tight, tugging at the string twice to let them know she was ready.

A sort of skittering... dragging sound from deep down further in the hole snapped Sandra's attention away from her friends and into the terrifying darkness angling below her. She knew then that this wasn't just a hole... it was a burrow.  As a shape sped towards her, light just barely catching the glint in its dark eyes, Sandra let out a blood curdling scream...

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"Absolutely not!  My god Sandra, have you lost your damn head?!"

"No, papa... I love him... and he loves me!  Why can't you just be happy for me?!"

"Why?!  WHY?!  I've tolerated your coddling of those barbarians since you were a child, but I certainly will not have my daughter marrying one!"

"He's a good man, papa.  He's honest and kind... and he loves me with all his heart.  Why should anything else matter?!"

"My god, I can just see the headlines now 'Forsyth Heir Absconds with Employee.'  Are you trying to ruin the reputation of this family?!  And with a man you've conversed with almost entirely through correspondence?! Good Christ, Sandra!"

"Why would you think that, papa?!  I love you!  I love this family! I don't understand why you can't just be happy for me!”

"I'm finished discussing this, Sandra.  Go to your room!  And forget about ever talking to that... that... gold digger again.  Ha!  A gold digging gold digger, how about that!"

"He's not like that, papa!"

"I said go to your room!"

Sandra clenched her fists.  Her tears cascaded down her cheeks.  She'd never felt hurt like this in her entire life, especially from the man she looked up to.  But she was not about to let even her father, or her standing in social circles, keep her from the man she loved.

"I'm not a little girl anymore, papa.  I'm going to marry Samuel.  I'd hoped it would be with your blessing, but if not... so be it."  Sandra grabbed her coat and purse and wiped the tears from her face.

Her father turned his back on her and leaned against the fireplace mantle.  He fidgeted with the poker, stabbing it against the flaming logs.

"If you leave this house... you're cut off, understand me.  I will not be disobeyed.  And I promise you this... when I find this man, I WILL have him killed.  I hope you're ready for that, my sweet Sandra.  'Angel of the Tailings' indeed."

Sandra eyed her father, the man she loved and respected, in shocked horror.  Could this really be the same person who raised her?  

"I love you, papa.  I wish you...," Sandra stopped and closed her eyes.  "Maybe what the papers say about you is true.  I never would have believed it before today, but you truly are a ruthless sonofabitch!"

Sandra's father turned to face his daughter, his eyes burning with rage, "get out."

Sandra almost didn't recognize him as her father, this was a complete stranger to her, "papa... father..."

"I SAID... GET... OOOUUUUT!"

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"GET ME OUT OF HERE, NOW!"

Sandra's survival instincts kicked in and she jumped at the walls of the burrow, only to crumple again as her ankle rolled beneath her.  It was then that the mysterious horror revealed itself into the dying light.  It's blond, spindly legs gripped the walls of the tunnel.  It's many small, unblinking eyes fixed on its prey.  Sharp, deadly fangs hungered for whatever this gift was that had dropped into its trap.

The other women above fell backwards in complete terror as the massive arachnid came into view.  Sandra turned on her knees and launched herself as hard as she could against the walls again, clawing and scraping to get out... screaming for her very life.  Connie regained her composure and began tugging at the thread wrapped around Sandra's wrist.

"Help me, goddamnit!" Connie shouted at the others.

The tarantula jumped at the struggling woman with tremendous speed, knocking her to the ground with its many legs.  Sandra continued screaming as it dragged her under its fangs for the death blow.  She could hear the pinging sounds of its venom filled daggers hitting the glass bottle strapped to her back, searching for a weak point.

Suddenly she felt pain in her wrist as the thread tightened and she was dragged out from under the monstrosity.  The spider recoiled, unsure if this strange morsel from above was dinner after all. 

Sandra was nearly at the rim, her arms reaching for the outstretched hands of her friends, when the eight legged vampire attacked again.  It dragged Sandra back down into the hole as her friends tried desperately to hold onto the thread.  Their palms burned as Sandra’s lifeline pulled through their hands back down into the burrow.

The tarantula had Sandra pinned under its bulky torso again, biting at the bottle.  Sandra continued to scream, pinned helplessly under its powerful limbs.  The prickly hairs of its underbelly poked into her skin, making her itch terribly on the backs of her legs.

Connie, Ellen and Maggie were losing the tug of war battle for Sandra's life.  They filled the air with their own screaming, trying with all their might to save their friend.  Connie looked back to Maggie, tears of pain and fear dripping down her face.  That's when she saw their last chance.  She let go of the string and ripped a match out from Maggie's pack.  As fast as she could, she struck it against the granite wall next to them. 

Nothing... only the slightest smell of surfer in the air.

"Goddamnit!  Please fucking work!"  She chastised the wooden stick in her hands.

She struck it again and this time it flashed to life.  She dropped it into the hole where it landed on the spiders back, singeing some of the dark hair on its back.  It recoiled and dropped Sandra, skittering backwards into its lair.

Sandra struggled back onto her one good foot and resumed clawing at the earthen walls that surrounded her, trying to to frantically climb out of her death trap.  Connie, Ellen and Maggie continued to drag her up with the thread.  Through no shortage of sweat and blood, Sandra was finally able to get one arm high enough for the others to grab hold and pull her towards freedom.  Sandra's head appeared above ground, then her naked torso. 

"Oh god... oh thank you... oh god...," Sandra chanted over and over, breaking into tears.

She sobbed uncontrollably, curling up into a ball under the weight of the water bottle.  Connie began to pull the heavy object off of the terrified blonde when four hairy, spindly legs reached from out of the burrow.  The spider appeared again, like a whale breaching the surface of the ocean.  It came down with all of its force to knock Sandra backwards.  Sandra let out one last scream as she fell back into the burrow, with the monster's prickly appendages wrapped around her.  She hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her.  

Sandra was now laying face up... the heavy bottle keeping her pinned to the ground while she gasped for air.  Before she could even react, the hungry spider revealed its fangs.  Tiny droplets of venom beaded at the tips... and then it drove them into her chest.  The others looked on in silence and horrible disbelief.  Sandra gasped for air as the spider pumped its deadly juices into her quivering body.  She couldn't speak... she couldn't breath... all she could do is plead for salvation with her big, angelic eyes.

In one swift move, the tarantula dragged Sandra into its silken grotto to enjoy its hard fought meal in peace.  The last thing the others saw of Sandra was her outstretched arm disappearing underground...

...taking the water bottle with her.

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Sandra was about to turn back into her humble, one room cottage to retrieve the wash basin for the week's worth of laundry.  She'd just seen Samuel off to work, kissing him goodbye as she had every day for the last four years.  She leaned against the frame of the door, taking in the bustling scene that was Heaven in the morning.  

The couple and moved there, hoping to avoid her father's promise to end Samuel's life, should he ever catch up with them.  In four hard but wonderful years, he'd failed.  The Nevada desert wasn't the most ideal place by any means and the loss of her only child was extremely hard on her.  But they'd managed to make a home and friends there.  She thought about what she'd given up for the love of her life... and felt peace.

She continued to watch the people go on about their early day business.  Shop keepers opening their doors, children running off to school late as the bell rang through the canyon.  She hoped to try and have another one soon, but Samuel wasn't quite ready to bring another child into the world... especially if they were going to have to continue living on the run from her father.

Sandra looked at the clock on her wall and realized she'd been standing in the door frame for nearly half an hour.  "My, oh my... where did the time go," she chuckled to herself as she walked inside to retrieve the wash basin.  

What felt like an earthquake suddenly rocked the entire town.  Sandra was making her way down the steps with the basin when it hit, sending her tumbling down the porch steps and face down into the dirt.  She lifted her face out of the dust just as the school bell began ringing again, this time it wasn’t for the children.  Her heart sank... her stomach twisted with fear as she saw the dust cloud rising from the gaping maw of the mine.

The morning was August 4th... 1892.


End Part 20
"People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people, Jeremy."

-Super Hans, Peep Show

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