[b]Alex Clark - The Outpost[/b]

He had wanted to report Rudy's 'loss' to Enrique, but he couldn't get a hold of the man, and knowing of his temper, decided to wait it out untill tomorrow. He spent the evening alone at his cabin, and only heard through the walls of his small home that the councilmeeting of that night had been quite the fiasco again. It mattered strangely little for him. He still found it really weird to sleep in this cabin. He had received it after the previous owner had been killed during their raid on Haywood, and it still made him uncomfortable to sleep here.

But he did. Briefly. The smell of smoke and the screams of men tore him out of a dreamless sleep, and a few confused moments in his dark cabin later he found his way outside. Two cabins were ablaze. He began helping the men in extinguishing the fire at first, without any succes. The first cabin's roof had already collapsed and there had been a rapid conclusion that it was unsalvageble. Saving the inhabitants of the second cabin was all they had to do now. As they hacked at the door in order to get it open, for it jammed due to the heat of the fire or something blocking it from the inside, a large splinter got stuck in his forearm as they worked. He yelped and retrieved his hand in surprise, and before he knew it another man had taken over his place while he patched up his arm with some alcohol and some bandage. He could hear screams of pain or fear, and hoped that it was from a bystander and not from whoever was inside. By the time he returned Enrique, still heavily coughing was outside of the house, whose roof had also collapsed. It had been Enrique's house he realized, and immediately spotted that Amanda was not there. Only now did he realize that the screaming had stopped. Slamming his fist against a cabin wall next to him he realized that out of two burning cabins they had managed to save only one man. Next to Enrique lived Myriah, the woman he had visted only a few hours before to tell her about Rudy's decision. Now dead. He cursed and watched the house burn when one of the scouts bumped into him as he walked away. He saw several others walk away from the fire too, but he himself felt drawn to the raging inferno that was burning down two cabins, now safely stopped from spreading by the people of the Outpost.

Untill he heard the cars leaving.