Red Rock

Chapter 8 Where Does the Sun Set? (Part 2)

The sun was well past noon, and Jacob and Sasha had just arrived back to camp from their venture. A crowd developed around them as they told the story of their enterprise. "We're not the only ones here," Sasha started. "We found three other ships having a hundred people in each of them and we know of six others."

"How do you know there are six other ships that you haven't even seen?" A man in a collared blue shirt asked.

"Mutual acquaintances," Sasha replied. "The people we met knew of other ships that landed near them and they knew of other ships that landed near them and etcetera."

"So could there possibly be even more ships close to us?" another member of the crowd asked.

"Highly unlikely," Jacob pitched in. "According to Akin's procedure ten ships are sent, each with one hundred to five thousand people inside depending on the area, and they're usually around ten kilometers apart."

"That seems kind of a far walk. How did you see three ships in only a few hours?" the blue collared man asked. "That's over thirty kilometers of walking!"

"Those distances are just minor details to Akin, I'm assuming. Trajectory mistakes are frequent. There are three ships within three miles of each-other in that forest over there. Two inside the forest and one just outside. Lots of berries and seeds too, we even saw a few deer."

"There are animals here?" someone in the crowd exclaimed looking side to side in bewilderment.

"Yes, everything here will be exactly like or extremely similar to conditions on Earth," Jacob responded. "The thing that we don't have is a society with predisposed positions and shoulders that we can stand on. So what we need to do right now is make one, starting by selecting a leader to guide our group in the right direction. Any volunteers?"

Eyes darted around, looking for the first person to raise their hand. Daire always fantasized about an opportunity like this arriving. In every scenario he imagined he had always taken the position and thrived off it. Cold feet get the best of him. "I'll be our leader," all eyes shifted to Sasha. "I'm the most qualified to lead our group."

"No you're not!" an overweight lady in her late-thirties yelled from afar, waddling her way to the front of the crowd. "You're not qualified at all to be any kind of leader."

Sasha's expression didn't change. "I served as a Private in the United American Army for eight years in Romania serving the rebellion. I have more than enough qualities to efficiently lead a small group of individuals to survive and to be self-sufficient."

"The Romanian war that we lost," the lady stated with her chin in the air.

"We did not lose. We withdrew when the United North American government was satisfied with the development of the rebellion."

"Satisfied?" the lady mocked. "Hundreds of thousands of Romanians died because of the failure of people like you to get the job done."

"That's hardly fair!" Daire objected.

"It's not about fairness. It's about leadership! And this lesbian is not fit to be our leader!" the lady finished coldly.

"How dare you!" Jessica snapped rushing toward the lady. "You ignorant bitch!" she yelled, being held back by Daire and Jacob who sensed the reaction from a mile away.

"You see!" The lady smiled pointing at Jessica as if she were poking a teddy bear. "Pure wrath! We cannot afford to have a leader tempted by such immorality such as homosexuality. There is no room here for gay influence."