Ironclaw: Chapter 2, Part 2

"Well..." Charlie started to say, continuing to twirl her hair around her finger. "See, I ran away from my folks a couple days ago, right? So I was walking down the street when this guy just came up out of nowhere, just walked right up to me! I asked him what he was doing, but he just shoved this cloth in my face, right in broad daylight, and then I passed out!" She was animated as she spoke, using her other hand to make broad, sweeping gestures, her fingers dancing along with the story. She was definitely Italian, Vermillion thought, a grin twitching at the sides of her mouth. And she was certainly very interesting. "I don't remember anything after that, though."

"That's fine," Vermillion told her gruffly, flopping down between two of the roots of the huge oak. Her back pressed against it, she looked up into the leafy canopy again, wishing, for a moment, that she had a pack of cigarettes. "I don' remember how I got here, either. I was runnin', then I was on the ground, then some guy leans up real close to me an' says..." She trailed off for a second, narrowing her eyes as she shook her head, trying not to relive the humiliating memory. She, the great Ironclaw, knocked down by a stranger and dominated like that. "...well, he says somethin' I don' wanna say back. Then I pass out, too." Vermillion tried to remember if there was cloth involved, but all that she could remember was a searing pain between her shoulder blades as her vision dulled.

Charlie went quiet after that, shifting back and forth on her feet as she stared down at Vermillion. Her eyes darted to the prosthetic every now and again, before she managed to say, "Do you, uh, have any idea where we are?" The other girl shook her head, looking down from the leaves and back to Charlie again.

"Not a fuckin' clue." Charlie flinched at that, and Vermillion grimaced. "Sorry. Too rough fer a lady like you?”

Laughing, Charlie shook her head, giving another nervous grin. "No, no, I'm just, uh, not too used to hearing it, is all. The people I hang out with don't really, uh, curse much."

Figures, Vermillion thought. She seemed like a little softie; she'd probably never had any experience with the streets, or anything like that. Then again, most kids her age hadn't. She wouldn't hold it against her, as not everyone could have had an unbringing as hard as Vermillion's.

"So, uh, if we don't know where we are, what do you, uh, think that we should do?" Charlie asked, scooting a little closer to Vermillion. She wasn't sure if it was out of common courtesy, or if Charlie was trying to get a better look at the prosthetic again. "Personally, I think that, uh, there are probably others here, wherever we, uh, are. I don't think that our captors would've, uh, gone through all of that trouble for a girl and a boy."

"I'm a girl," Vermillion growled out before she could stop herself, which made Charlie flinch again.

"Sorry, sorry!" She squeaked, holding out her hands in an apology. "I didn't mean to assume, I just--"

"'s a'ight, kid," Vermillion said again, batting down her hands. Charlie looked down in embarrassment. "Common mistake. I get snappy sometimes, an' if we're gonna be together in this god forsaken forest, ya need to get used to it."

Charlie perked up at that. "Together?" Her face seemed to brighten.

"Yeah, together," Vermillion repeated, forcing herself up. "There's safety in numbers, kid. We're better off together." Charlie seemed to brighten at that, and she jumped to Vermillion's side excitedly, eyes shimmering. She seemed to have forgotten her earlier apprehension, and was eager to be by Vermillion's side. Perhaps it was because she was large and intimidating, and so far, the only person she knew of who was around.

Lifting her nose to the air, Vermillion closed her eyes for a moment as she inhaled deeply. There was the scent of salt, yet again, and the other scents previously described. Charlie stared at her with curiosity as she stood stock-still, like a hunting dog that had just caught a scent, then blinked as she lowered her head. Motioning to Charlie, she started to stalk off in her characteristic slinking gate, shoulder blades and hips moving in time in the way cats do as they walk. It was in stark contrast to her posture only a few moments ago, and Charlie followed her through the quickly-darkening forest.

"It'll be dark soon," she murmured, eyes focused strictly ahead. "So we'd better find some kinda shelter 'for tha' sun sets, or else we're at the mercy of whatever comes across us 'till mornin'."

"I didn't see any, uh, big predators here, though," Charlie replied, having to nearly sprint to keep up with Vermillion's long strides. She seemed to cover yards with every step that she took. "Honestly, it looks to me like we're, uh, on an island, almost. There aren't really any, uh, big predators on islands, right?"

"Don't matter." Charlie had no sense. "Don'tcha think that tha' bastards who put us here might come back fer more?" The other girl hesitated at that, then sprung up to keep up with her much larger companion. Vermillion's pace had quickened at her own realization, the sounds of her feet hitting the ground now getting closer together. The scent of salt was thickening in the air as the trees thinned out. The ground beneath them slowly began to shift into a more sandy substrate, making it much softer and much harder for them to walk through. Charlie was panting by this time, but Vermillion was used to forcing her way through unfamiliar terrain. She could take it.

"What if there isn't any, uh, shelter though?" Charlie huffed, now placing her feet in the footprints Vermillion left in the sand. She found that it was an easier way of travel. "I mean, they probably wouldn't have, uh, put us somewhere where someone might, uh, find us."

"Then we make our own shelter." They were at the edge of the forest now, and Vermillion took a few quick bounds to cross the remaining distance between herself and a large boulder. Quickly scaling it, she stood at the very edge, the remaining rays of sunlight illuminating her massive, regal figure, rays of golden-yellow and red reflecting off of her prosthetic. Charlie stared at her in admiration, before she too climbed the boulder to get a look at whatever scenery her partner had come across.

"Whoa," she breathed, looking out across the beach. The sand was pure white and shimmered in the sunset. The clear blue water lapped at the edges of the beach, some bits of white sea foam appearing when it receded. It looked as though mankind hadn't touched it; it was pure as the day God formed it. Salt overpowered her senses and stung at her eyes, but it didn't seem to affect Vermillion, whose chocolate brown eyes scanned the landscape before her. She looked, for all intents and purposes, like a queen surveying her kingdom.

"Well, looks like you were right, kid," Vermillion said. Jumping from the edge of the boulder, she skidded down one of the soft sand dunes for a short distance, creating a rift in the sand. Charlie vouched for the easier route, climbing back down the back of the boulder before coming back to Vermillion's side like a loyal dog. "We're on an island, probably in the middle of fuckin' nowhere."

"I dunno, uh, it might be one of the barrier islands," Charlie pointed out optimistically. Vermillion huffed, tossing her dreadlocked hair. "I mean, uh, I went to one for a school field trip once, and, uh, it looked something like this. So maybe that's, uh, where we are." Either way, it meant no civilization nearby, and while they'd figured out where they were, it didn't help them at all. All that it meant was that now they were completely isolated. Escape meant having to swim through some miles of ocean, and there was no guarantee that they'd end up on the mainland. The most likely scenario was that they'd just get to another island.

"That still ain't gonna get us home, kid," Vermillion muttered, making her way down the rest of the dune onto the beach. She squinted up at the sun, and for once, a feeling of despair was growing in her chest. Damn. At this rate, she wasn't going to get back to the gang for at least a week. Dropping her head, she closed her eyes, then settled slowly onto the white sand, the palms of her hands digging into the soft substrate. There had to be something, there just had to be, to help her get home. To get back where she belonged. She sure as hell didn't belong here, she knew that. What she did know was two things;

One, she was stuck on an island with a girl she didn't know and was probably going to end up being a huge drag on her since she knew nothing about survival.

Two, somehow, some way, she was going to get the fuck off of this island and back to the streets where she belonged.

At that moment, entirely sure of what she had to do now, Vermillion sprung back up and whirled around to face Charlie, the warm blood of a leader in her suddenly revitalized by her self proclamation. Yes, she'd get off this island and she'd get Charlie off of it too; a gang leader protected their own, and right now, Charlie was her own. At least, she was for the time being. Motioning to the red-head, she said once she'd wobbled uncertainly over the sand to her, "We're movin' out. There's gotta be others on this island, and we're gonna find 'em if we gotta search all night."

Brightening at that, Charlie threw an enthusiastic fist into the air. "Alright! But, we're not, uh, gonna walk along the beach right? 'Cause I can't really, uh, walk in this sand."

And so, the unlikely duo set off across the edge of the forest, two explorers in an unknown world, still unaware that danger lurked just inside of the shadows of the island trees, watching with an interested, hungry gaze.