MEMORY INTERRUPT
CORE VOLTAGE SPIKE
PERSONALITY OVERLAY IN TRAUMA MODE
CORE MEMORIES 11% LOADED
WARNING! NEURAL VOLTAGE SPIKE DETECTED!
WARNING! PERSONALITY OVERLAY OFFLINE!
WARNING! NEURAL DAMAGE DETECTED
ant.exe has stopped responding
ant.exe 01.05% recovered
brun atlas_ant.exe
atlas_ant.exe has crashed
atlas_ant.exe is not responding
PERSONALITY OVERLAY OFFLINE
PERSONALITY OVERLAY IN TRAUMA MODE
survive.exe is running
dcc.bat is running
1.243x10e5 programs damaged
dcc.bat priority system 18.21% sorted
WARNING NEURAL SPIKE DETECTED
dcc.bat update: damage to core programs ongoing
lizard.bat is running
000A in progress
000B 14% complete
000C complete. 72 hours stock
000D in progress, 14% complete
000E SERE OVERRIDE
000F in progress 8%
00AA OFFLINE: more data needed
000Ex6 SERE OVERRIDE
00BAx1 SERE OVERRIDE
00AA4x6 SERE OVERRIDE
CORE VOLTAGE SPIKE!
NEURAL SPIKE DETECTED!
dcc.exe update: core system damage
TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR
GPS LOCATION ERROR
GRID SQUARE LOCATION ERROR
citadel_ridge.exe is loaded
mad_house.exe is loaded
paradise_island.exe is loaded
ELERP.exe is loaded
ELERP.EXE running
!!WARNING!!
ELERP PROTOCOLS LOADING
!!WARNING ELEPR CONTAINER LOADED!!
ELERP PROTOCOL RUNNING!
elerp bootstrap loaded
@copyright #copyright US DoD 1953
#property US Army
85.3% elerp data intact intact
citadel_ridge protocols loading
mad_house protocols loading
paradise_island protocols loading
WARNING! NEURAL VOLTAGE SPIKE DETECTED
NEURAL SPIKE DETECTED!
dcc.exe reports increased neural pressure
dcc.exe reports auditory canal shunt inoperative
dcc.exe reports secondary oral shunt at 12%
dcc.exe reports cerebral pressure stabalizing
WARNING! ELERP.EXE HAS CRASHED
ELERP CONTAINER HAS CRASHED
brun ant.exe
ant.exe has crashed
brun atlas_ant.exe
atlas_ant.exe has crashed
bload mission.bin
mission.bin is corrupt
runrecovery.dll
mission.bin 22% corrupt
repair time 1126134 minutes +/- 10%
priority: high
literacy.dll is offline
speech.dll is offline
PERSONALITY OVERLAY IN TRAUMA MODE
SERE OVERRIDE
lizard.exe is running
survive
Survive
SURVIVE

Raincloud heard the others coming in before they arrived. Bree and Tommy had just left only a few minutes before, Lori was trying to convince the baby to pass the rock back to her, and the knocking coming from the water-powered mill was still sounding out across the jungle.

Charlie came into the clearing first, hopping across the rocks, holding tight to a fold of burlap. Richard was next, his arms up to that he could hold on to the back seat of a car he had on his back. Sarah pushed through the brush, dragging two solid wooden doors. Renee was next, dragging another seat behind her and smiling even though her face was covered with sweat. Emily moved out of the brush next, carrying a burlap bag stuffed full. Kevin was carrying a car's back seat as he staggered into the camp.

Sarah stopped, dropping the doors once she crossed the creek.

"Good hunting?" Raincloud asked, smiling slightly.

"Good scavenging," Richard said, dropping the seat. He sighed and stretched, rolling his neck to get a kink out. "That town's full of all kinds of things."

Renee looked around. "Where's Tommy and Bree?"

Raincloud shook his head and jerked a thumb in the vague direction of the knocking. "They went to break that dude's water mill."

Renee shook her head. "Those idiots are going to piss him off and he'll kill them, they keep acting stupid."

"Well, he's in camp as of a couple minutes ago," Raincloud said, shrugging.

Everyone began dropping their burdens into a rough pile.

"What makes you say that? We saw him about twenty minutes ago," Sarah said, bending down and picking up the baby, who was holding her arms out.

"He changed the logs on..." Raincloud started.

A bellowing roar of pure rage echoed through the jungle, rebounding off the mountainside to come back and mix with a second one.

"I think," Sarah said, stopping and licking her lips, "I think... they found him."

Don sat up, snorting, and looked around. "Oh, you're back."

Another rage filled bellow sounded out and Don looked in the direction it came from. "Oh. Something's upset him."

"Tommy and Bree went to break his water mill," Raincloud said. "I warned them, what they choose to do that results in them getting hurt is their problem."

Renee snorted. "Nice ethics 101," she sneered. She folded her arms and put on a snooty New England tone. "I exist all by myself, what others do does not effect me if I do not consent or interact with them."

She sneered at him. "It's the philosophy that leads to victory for evil."

"If you choose to do something, it doesn't effect me," Raincloud shot back.

"Except when he decides we're a threat so he comes here and kills all the faceless creatures before they kill him while he sleeps," Renee shot back. She threw her hands in the air. "My god, college ethics classes should be goddamn banned. All they teach is self-indulgent parasitic twaddle that allows people to make excuses for standing aside and letting evil people do whatever they want to the goddamn world."

She turned and looked at Raincloud. "You pull the goddamn lever  and kill one to save five not stand there proclaiming how amazingly ethical, enlightened, and progressive you are and watch five people you could have saved die, you jumped up hippy."

Raincloud opened his mouth, then shut it. He wasn't about to get baited into an ethics debate with Renee. He might have fallen for it before she'd exposed herself, back when he'd made a terribly wrong snap judgement about her and assumed she was rich, spoiled, and stupid.

But he wasn't going to fall for that now.

"Do you think he's killing them?" Lori asked softly, hugging herself tightly and shivering.

Charlie shook her head. "No. We'd be able to hear their dying screams all the way out here."

Before she could say anything more Tommy came stumbling into the clearing, his face bright red and pouring sweat.

"Monkeys. Soldier. Killing," he gasped, stumbling and falling on all fours. He looked up. "Fighting."

"Catch your breath, dude," Raincloud said, suddenly glad for the change of subject.

They waited anxiously for Tommy to regain his breath, the chubby teenager making big whooping gasps trying to pull in more oxygen. After a moment he looked up, still out of breath but finally able to talk.

"That soldier guy, he's fighting the monkeys," He gasped.

"Where's Bree?" Renee asked.

He looked back. "Dunno, she was right behind me," he said.

"Was he winning?" Charlie asked. "Seriously, who was winning when you left?"

Tommy shifted until he was sitting down, still breathing heavy. "He was when I took off. He had a spear and a knife. He ripped one in two with his bare hands."

Charlie frowned. "Seriously? He tore a monkey in half with his bare hands?"

Tommy nodded. "He had its legs in his hands and just tore it right down the middle before he threw it away and grabbed his spear from out of another monkey."

Charlie shuddered, standing up and rubbing the goosebumps on her arms. "That's not good," she said, facing the others.

"We need to find Bree," Mike said, stepping forward. "He might be hurting her."

Charlie held out her hand, stopping him. "Do you know how strong a monkey is?"

He shook his head. "No. What difference does it make?"

"Those monkeys are like knee height on us. They're still strong enough they could tear your arm completely off," Charlie said.

Don spoke up from where he was still sitting against the log. "Monkeys are around four or five times as strong as a human of roughly the same mass."

When everyone looked at him he shrugged. "My father liked Discovery Channel shows so I sat and watched them with him."

Charlie pointed at Don. "He's right. Monkeys are fast, strong, and dangerous. The fact he was winning shows they're afraid of him. They should have tried to..."

The brush rattled and Bree stumbled into the clearing, breathing heavy. She had a roughly made bag hanging from a strap around her neck. She took three steps in and fell on all fours, her face red, her hair dishelved, gasping for air. She had blood smeared on her shirt over her breasts and on the front of her pants but it was obvious it had been smeared on her.

"Thank God, you're OK," Lori said, rushing over to the younger girl. "We thought..."

Bree looked up, shaking her head. "I'm... fine. I'm OK," she gasped.

"What's with the bag?" Raincloud asked.

"He... he gave it to me. Pushed me back toward you guys. He kept making a weird sound over and over," she said. She pulled the strap off her neck. "I don't know why he gave this to me."

"How did you keep him from freaking out?" Renee asked softly, kneeling down and pulling the bag over next to her. She looked it over and spoke again before Bree could. "Huh, plant fiber, dried and hammered."

"I covered my face with my hands. He kept circling me. He groped me, fondled my breasts and grabbed my crotch, sniffed and licked the back of my neck," Bree said. She shuddered. "It was horrible."

"Primal instincts," Renee mused. She opened the flap of the bag. "Wooden toggle with twisted plant fiber tag. Hmm."

Sarah nodded. "Animalistic. He was trying to figure out what you are," Sarah said.

"It was horrible," Bree said. She started crying. "He grabbed all over me and licked me. I was terrified he was going to hurt me and I couldn't move my hands from over my face."

Lori moved over and hugged the other girl. "Men can be like that, honey. You just have to push through it. As long as he didn't hurt you too badly, you'll be OK."

Don, Raincloud, Richard and Mike all looked at each other, raising their eyebrows, at what Lori said.

Renee carefully tipped the bag, dropping the contents onto the ground.

"Hooooly shit," Mike said, moving up and squatting down to the look at what spilled out.

"I don't even know what some of that is," Richard said, squatting down.

Metal and shaped stone tools had spilled out. A piece of cloth with straight and curved needles from barely thicker than a hair to almost an quarter inch thick. Three knives, all of them shaped differently. A stone hand axe. Thin copper wire carefully rolled up with each end attached to handles. Two flat rocks, one with a slightly shaped backside to make it easy to hold.

Renee slid one of the needles out of the cloth and looked at it. "Hand made. Jesus, four days and he's making medieval tools," She shook her head, setting the open end against the bag where it was stitched together. "He used this needle and shredded vine to make twine to make this bag."

"And we've barely got shelters," Mike mused. He looked at the others. "He was scavenging steel, glass and copper in the town. I'll bet he was grabbing tin cans too."

"So you covered your face and didn't speak, he touched all over you, and then gave you this?" Renee asked.

Bree just sobbed harder, putting her face in her hands.

"Leave her alone," Lori said, hugging the crying girl closer.

"Oh, get the fuck over it. So he fondled your tits and grabbed your cunt," Renee snapped. "He didn't fingerblast you or stick his thumb up your ass or rub his dick on your face. Stop acting like he fucking raped you."

"He terrified her and molested her," Lori argued back.

"Fine. He's scary as fuck. He groped her trying to figure out what she was. But stop coddling her," Renee snapped. "Stop being weak!"

"Easy for you to say, it didn't happen to you," Lori shot back.

"No, it didn't. But it might. If someone goes out alone and runs into him, you need to cover your face so he doesn't..." she paused, staring off into space. "Cover. Your. Face."

The tree branches and fronds above their clearing began to rustle, moving back and forth, and it got chillier in the clearing.

"Cover. Your. Face," she repeated, still staring up.

"What are you..." Lori started.

Sarah's eyes opened wide as she had a sudden epiphany. "Scooby Doo!"

Renee snapped her fingers, turning around and looking at Sarah. She was smiling, a fierce, triumphant smile.

"What the fuck are you..." Tommy started to ask.

Raincloud frowned, then snapped his fingers. "Gilligan's Island."

"Exactly!" Don said.

"What?" Lori asked. Bree had stopped sobbing and was looking at everyone else in confusion.

"The natives on like Scooby Doo and Gilligan's Island and Johnny Quest always wore those carved and painted wooden masks," Sarah said, turning slowly to look at everyone. "Exaggerated features, bright colors, feathers at the edges. Big teardrop shaped masks."

"He won't be seeing faces. We don't talk, just gesture wildly and go 'ooga booga' and we'll be safe if we run into him," Sarah laughed.

"Racist much?" Raincloud asked, frowning slightly.

"Give it a rest, hippy," Renee snapped, bending down and picking up the stone hatchet. "We're trapped on a deserted island with a monkey killing combat machine with blown circuits and you're babbling about racism. Get a job."

"I'm not a hippy," Raincloud said.

"OK, Raincloud," Renee said, walking toward the tree.

The wind wound through the trees, cold and wet compared to the warm humid air of the day.

Sarah looked up, squinting, as it suddenly got darker. Thunder peeled off in the distance.

"Uh, guys," She said.

Rain started pattering down out of the sky, hitting the canopy and dripping down into the clearing.

The baby laughed and clapped her hands.

"I think we've got a problem," Sarah said.

With a crack of thunder the skies opened up and deluge hammered down.