The Proverbial War

The idiots gathered in deep discussion around the fire didn't even know why he had built the fire. Instinctively he'd known that they would congregate around it foolishly.

What need was there of a fire in such a warm climate, but they hadn't bothered themselves to ask that.

The only thing a fire was good for was to attract attention. If there was some form of threat down here be it from the animal or human kind in this sunken realm, those by the fire were most likely to be attacked first.

The idiots by the fire were bait meant to buy the time needed in a diversion in order for him and Kim to escape if need be. Yes, it was brutal and uncaring of him to set them up perhaps, but it was an effective means by which to survive.

In all fairness he hadn't been going to make the fire originally, but the ringleader of the group had ticked him off by his condescending attitude toward him. The man was a former Army Captain and when he'd inquired of Colt about his suspicion of Colt's military background, Colt had confirmed his time spent as a Marine with the rank of Sergeant.

That had been all that it took. The Captain had immediately looked down his aquiline nose at him and ordered him to go out and salvage supplies from the wreckage of the plane.

Colt had gone, but not because he'd been ordered to. He'd been planning on going anyway to look for supplies.

Most of what he'd brought back he'd dumped in a pile near the fire, while the others had talked and pigged out on what little usable food he'd managed to find in the wreckage. Without them noticing he'd rummaged through the supplies and picked out most of the handy devices and secured them away in a pack that now sat beside of him in the sand. The most namely device being the air marshal's handgun, along with a flare gun.

He'd overheard enough of the discussion going on over by the fire to deduce that after some sleep they planned to start out along the beach in search of human habitation. They intended to walk right out in the open along the beach!

Colt shook his head, the Captain should have known better. Another strange occurrence in this sunken world was that the water directly offshore was freshwater. Out where the plane wreckage was the water got more brackish and salty, but in close to the beach the water was pure drinking quality.

The freshwater along the shore meant that everything had to come to the shore to drink, which made the beachfront a place of likely confrontation with the creatures of this place. Having seen firsthand some of the creatures gnawing on the dead remains within the plane's fuselage had left him with little desire to see what other creatures this place may yet hold.