The Thirteenth Colony (State Humans/Country Humans)

Chapter 20: Confidence Man

Just a quick warning, this chapter has a bit of blood in it. I mostly keep it a bit vague but if this sort of stuff really unsettles you, you might be best skipping this chapter.

The first thing that hit Georgia when he opened the door was the smell. It stunk worse than anything he had ever experienced. Trying his best to ignore it, he went inside. Standing in the doorway, it was clear that a struggle had taken place in the house. Broken glass, cuts on the wall, and knocked over furniture littered the ground.

Turing around to inspect the nails he'd seen from the other side of the door, he instantly froze. His eyes were almost on level with a pale face pointed towards the floor. Holding back his vomit, Georgia began to realise what had happened.

Those nails he'd seen on the other side of the door? They had been rammed through the poor woman's arms. 'And that means the dried crimson stuff on the doorknob was...' He felt all the color drain from his face.

As if the sight wasn't gruesome enough, there was also a series of animal bite marks in the victims neck. They were to small to belong to a human or dog. They had to have belonged to a shark or a gator.

'A gator couldn't have done this though... so who did.' Mentally shrugging aside the question, Georgia went outside.

Quickly deciding it didn't matter who did it now, he walked outside, if for no other reason than to get away from the grizzly scene. Sighing, Georgia scanned the property for some sort of tool shed. Seeing nothing, he walked over to a spot in the shade of a tree.

Squatting down, he quickly set to work moving handfuls of Earth out of the way.

Same Time

Missouri couldn't remember the last time he had gone on a pure joy ride. His schedule for the past days had always consisted of marching at a relatively slow, constant pace. He hadn't realised how much he missed the pure freedom of riding his mare around without a care in the world.

He felt a small pang of guilt for ditching Florida like that, but he really did need to clear his head. "Besides, can't risk him seeing the surprise." He mumbled to himself with a grin.

Six Days Ago

Missouri stared intently at the landscape infront of him as he made another careful stroke with his pencil. He'd been unable to sleep that night, instead deciding to try drawing the local landscape in his diary.

"Not half bad. Draw that yourself?" Missouri nearly jumped from surprise at the Spanish accented voice that came from behind him. Turning around he saw Florida's blue and green eyes peering back at him through the darkness.

"Do you always have to sneak up on people like that?" Florida just shrugged in response, "I'm an assassin. It kind of comes with the territory."

"Whatever, shouldn't you be asleep right now?" In his head, Missouri was praying Florida wouldn't notice the diary he'd been drawing in.

"I'm bored though, and not all of us can just doodle in our notebook for fun."

'Guess god isn't answering prayers today.' Missouri said in his head. "Sooo," Florida began, "Mind if I take a look?"

Before Missouri could answer, Florida already had the diary in his hand. He winced as he waited for a barrage of insults.

"Hey, these aren't half bad." Florida said, flipping through a few pages. Without realizing he was speaking out loud, Missouri blurted out, "What!"

Florida turned towards his friend. He seemed confused for a moment, then a look of realization dawned on him, "Ahh I see. You got self confidence problems." The older colony let out a chuckle, "Tell me, what inspired you to start drawing."

"We had some paintings back at the manor. Every now and then a we'd buy a new one at the market. Getting a new painting always made my day, but we only got them every now and then. So I figured that if I learned to draw, I could get a new one anytime I wanted."

"And if you saw a painting that looked like this." Florida said, holding out a page in the book containing a drawing of the French army in marching formation on a humid day. "Would it have inspired you?"

The younger colony began to say no, then he took another look at the painting. Putting himself in the shoes of his younger self seeing the drawing framed on his wall, he closed his mouth. Then, after a minute, he shook his head.

Florida grinned his gator tooth smile at the artist, "You've got talent, a unique style, the only thing your missing is self respect."

"How do you know so much about this anyway. You draw too?"

Florida stared forward at that, like Missouri wasn't even there. His usual vaguely ominous smile was gone, his mouth was closed, and his gator teeth were hidden. After a moment, he replied in a distant, melancholy voice, "We did, once. A long time ago. Back when there was a we."

Six Days Later

Ever since that bit of advice, Missouri was finally able to get what he wanted in the first place: The ability to make art whenever he wanted. So, as a bit of a thanks, Missouri was making something for him.

The thing in question, was a painting depicting his friend riding one his gators through the swamp. he'd already finished most of it, the only thing he had left was a bit of coloring and shading. He just needed a spot to do it.

Missouri was snapped out of his thoughts when he spotted something in the distance. It looked like a guy digging with his hands under a tree. Deciding that he might as well check it out, he began to ride up too the person. As he drew closer, he realized it wasn't just a person, it was a country or colony. And if it wasn't Florida, Louisiana, or Quebec, then that means they have to be English.

He quickly ran through his options in his head. If he kept riding past the colony, they would probably start asking questions, which could lead to the English finding out just how close to Savannah his army really was. On the other hand, if he turned around now, it would seem suspicious, and likely have the same effect as ignoring the person. That left one option.

Yep, another cliff hanger. Sorry about that but this chapter was already getting long and I didn't want to make it super big or try to cram the plot into a small chapter.

Anyway, it's been a while, hasn't it? I was a bit busy to write and I had writers block anyway, which left such a long ball in time I eventually just decided, 'screw it,' and posted it even though I'm not to happy with this chapter. I'm really excited to get back to writing though, I came up with a lot of ideas while I was away, and I can't wait to write them.

Anyway, I may be posting a new book soon, so be on the lookout for that.

Also, I don't think the idea of Florida riding a alligator has been drawn yet, so if someone decides to draw that, I'd like a fee of ten Vietnamese Dong. (Editor Chad here, I reread that and I noticed the joke didn't come across to well, so just to be clear, feel free to use this idea, its in the public domain.)

Anyway, I'm not an artist, and I know that a lot of people in this community are, so I'm sorry if I sounded dumb talking about drawing.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to go back to posting every Wednesday but no promises.

Last "Week"'s Joke: What happens when you get slapped across the face really fast? It hertz...

This Week's Joke: Which country has the fastest growing population in it's capital?