He almost missed the sound of heavy footsteps sloshing through the mud. His own heartbeat pounded so loudly in his ears it seemed to dull all outside noises. He was 'stuck between a rock and a hard place', as his mother would say.
Well, more like stuck between a swamp and the underside of an alien spaceship, but hey, no need to get technical.
Mercury struggled to calm himself, convinced every living creature within a mile could hear his sharp, shaky breaths. The footsteps grew closer, until he was able to see their owner's legs through the darkness. Every fiber of his being was begging him to run, but he couldn't. The best he could do was very slowly inch backwards, away from the searching flashlight beams. From what he could see, the thing hunting him appeared to be a man; mud-caked boots that rose nearly to the knee, and dark military style cargo pants. Mercury continued to scoot backwards, using his elbows for leverage. His hiding spot was tight and even with his body pressed firmly into the mud, his back and shoulders brushed against the metal husk of the ship above him.
He had to be very careful. If he moved to fast, the sound of slurping mud would surely give him away. The man was just passing in front of him now, less then four feet away. Mercury held his breath, freezing in place. The man continued walking, flashlight sweeping back and forth. When he was a little further away, Mercury continued his retreat. He felt his shirt snag on something, but realized it too late. He heard an painfully loud ripping sound and gasped in surprise as a piece of metal raked across his lower back. Less then a second later, he was blinded by the harsh beam of a searchlight.
“I'll teach you to meddle in grown-up affairs, kid.”
Name- Ibn-Ramash: primary alias post Islamification -Erik Tan: secondary alias, birth name
Age- 32
Appearance
Species- Human
Faction- Holy Terror
Gender- Male
Sexuality- Heterosexual, anti-interracial (Believes in monogamy)
"So I found this journal off of the newest captive, blank, so I'll start using it. A scorching day in the Nevada desert landscape, probably a little over 100 degrees, sweltering to the point of turning us into sandstone. We were at our outpost miles upon miles away from the nearest town, at one of those ominous Native towns build into the sand and cliff sides. Of course, we modified it, there was an oil generator, some satisfactory furniture and we even put up a fence and a tower; they were nothing too grand but enough to spot an animal to hunt or the occasional passerby from a road about two miles out. As of our seventh week at this camp, we have captured four aliens and two heretics, the devil loving traitors. We haven't seen much this week, so I suppose it's time to clear house as we're running out of buildings to store them in, though I suppose we could double them up, why not? Anyways, there's nothing better to do, so I'll be on that." -Excerpt from Erik Tan's Journal
Erik put his journal in his coat, dusted with sand and gravel, and headed out of the cliff hut he called his house. Outside he blistered in the heated rays of the Sun as he sent for some men to bring the captives up against the cliff wall. A couple minutes later, the six prisoners of the camp we pulled and shoved across the burning sand up to the red stone wall of the cliff. They were put upon their knees with rifles put against the back of their heads; there would be no bags, no cloth blindfolds, there was no need for their mind's sanctity, their deaths would be swift and unnoticed.
"Gentleman, Lady, and Demons," Erik begins in a stern yet sarcastically friendly tone, "You have nothing to fear, nothing at all, as there is nothing left to fear, for you won't be able to feel fear much longer."
The human woman in the group started crying. "Excuse me ma'am, let me finish if you will, I assure you everything will turn out better than you expect."
"Now then, as I was saying..." he paused for a moment, "fire."
The squadron of Holy Terror Soldiers fires their rifles and the newly produced corpses fall upon the boiling sea of sand. "Now remove them," Erik ordered. The troops started hauling the bodies into a pile, once done, the bodies are lit aflame and the ashes scatter across the sands forever to be lost among the desert. The terror of this outpost began.
