Survivors

“You want to do what!?” yelled Luke.

It was a couple of hours later and they were back at the base.

“We’ve got to go back and help that man” insisted Holly.

“If you weren’t paying attention a little while ago, they shot at us” shrieked Joe. “Especially me!” He went on gently touching the cut on his bum.

“Yes” said Holly with exaggerated patience “I know I was there. But if you’d been paying attention it wasn’t the man kneeling on the floor with his hands on his head that shot at you was it!”.

“No” replied Joe “But so what, I don’t care I was shot at, and more importantly I was hit!”

“Well you should care!” went on Holly. “Wasn’t it you who wanted to go after the rabbit man in the first place. As an act of mercy as I remember it”.

“That was before they shot at us” shouted Joe.

“It wasn’t him that shot at us” Holly shouted back with more venom than they had ever heard from her before.

Joe was finding Holly more and more puzzling. Since they had begun to share the odd kiss and a cuddle, she seemed to get more angry and exasperated with him than she ever had in the past. It was as if the more she showed him she liked him the more she felt able to let rip. On balance, and Joe had spent time thinking about this, he’d decided he still liked the nice bits of the change in their relationship enough to put up with the bits that were ... more confusing!

“Luke, what do you think?” Holly asked with a little more composure.

“I vote for going back” he replied.

“Have you both gone stark raving mad?” yelled Joe. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. We don’t know this man at all, and his mates shot at us, why on earth would you want to go back?”

“Because, that man on his knees could just as easily have been one of us that they found wandering around” said Holly. “What if we’d stumbled into those people with the crossbows instead of meeting Bretnel. Who’s to say we wouldn’t have ended up tied up like him and lord knows what else”.

“But ...” Started Joe

“No Joe, no” said Holly emphatically “I won’t listen to anything else, because whatever you say will be wrong, or stupid or both, so just shut up!”.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds during which it was obvious that Joe was struggling hard not to say anything.

“One thing” said Luke “What do we do when we find him?”

“We bring him back to the base” replied Holly.

“That’s what I thought you were going to say” said Luke “So my question is, what do we tell Bretnel. Not only about why we are bringing a stranger back to the base, but how we found him, and where we found him”.

Holly looked stumped for a few seconds then she said with all the stubbornness she could manage “We tell him the truth”.

“I thought you’d say that as well” replied Luke now with an almost unbearable air of smugness. “And you’re absolutely right, telling the truth and being honest are really important. Darius taught us that along with so many other good things” he went on, barely restraining a grin.

“What are you getting at Luke?” snapped Holly.

“I was just wondering that’s all, do we tell Bretnel the truth now, or after we get back with the rabbit man? Because if we’re going to be all good and honest and truthful surely we should tell him before we go, surely we should go and tell him now! That was what you meant wasn’t it Holly?” he said almost sneering.

“I meant after, and you know damn well I meant after”.

“Good! I can’t wait to see Bretnel’s face when you tell him. In fact I’m really looking forward to it. He thinks you’re such a goody goody, it’s going to come as quite a shock to him that you could be so ... naughty!”

“You can be such a bastard sometimes” hissed Holly.

“Don’t be like that” said Luke still grinning. “I suggest we get up really early tomorrow and head off out before we need to answer any difficult questions”. Luke stood up “Make sure you kids don’t stay up too late and please don’t wake me up when you come to bed”. And with that he sauntered off grinning to himself.

“Sometimes!” said Holly “I’d like to punch his face in!”