Halloween Story

[Carrack]

Joey's Skull

 

Kasr Woolten

 

 

Joey stood up for a moment from his chores to listen to his mother yell out the mess hall firing port, "Joethemal, you better dig that defensive firing position deep enough for your father to stand in, or you won't get any added protein with your meaty gruel tonight!" Joey went back to work with his entrenching tool. He was almost done, he just had to carve out a little step for his younger sister who was still at kinder-drill, and dig the grenade sumps.

 

The sumps were the hardest part. They were supposed to cover the width of the fighting position at each end, and be dug to the depth of his las rifle. They had to be angled to the side, then plummet straight down, so a heretic's grenade could be kicked into them and explode without sending shrapnel into his family. They were the hardest part to dig because he had to lay on the ground of the hole to use his entrenching tool, then stand up to throw the dirt in front of the hole, which was hard on his sore muscles after this morning's forced march. Besides the dirt was harder the deeper he dug, and roots from some old tree still crisscrossed the ground at that depth. Still, Joey liked added protein with his meaty gruel, so he got down and started to dig.

 

Joey's entrenching tool struck something hard. Something harder than the rocky dirt anyway. He reached down with his hand to brush aside the dirt from the root, and instead of old wood, he felt something smooth. He unlugged his bayonet from his las rifle to clear the dirt around the object, than thought better of it. Using his bayonet on dirt would not be proper of a Cadian, so he fixed it back to his las rifle and took out the knife from his mess kit. He used his mess knife to clear away the dirt around the smooth, roundish object and brought it out. It was a another skull. Joey set it aside for a moment and finished digging out the sumps.

 

As soon as he finished digging, Joey slotted his entrenching tool into its loop on the back of his ruck, and picked up his las rifle to man the position until his sister came home. Then he would supervise her concealing the position, and ensure she used the excess dirt to refill some of the family's sandbags. While he waited, Joey picked up the last skull with his non-firing hand and brushed the dirt away from its surface. He then shook out the clods from inside to get a better look at the last skull. It was roughly human shaped, only significantly larger. The brow was pronounced, and the bone thicker and denser than a man's. It weighed as much as a krak missile, as opposed to a man's typical frag grenade weight skull. The size wasn't the most unusual feature of the skull. What had first looked like an entry wound on the forehead, appeared far too smooth and even. The hole was of the same size as the eye sockets below. In fact, Joey was certain that was what the hole was, a third eye socket. Joey felt pride that one of his ancestors had killed this filthy mutant and tossed the skull into the pile of others he had unearthed with today's digging.

 

While he waited on his sister to march home, Joey arranged the skulls, again with his non-firing hand. There were seven of them. Joey had hoped for eight, his lucky number, for he dreamed of being inducted into the most honored regiment of all the Imperial Guard, the Cadian 8th, the Lord Castilian's Own. He formed a little pile, with the big mutant skull on top, a little monument to the brave Cadians and their vanquished foes who had died outside of his family's barracks over the years. He was proud of his little monument of skulls, it was like a little fortress with the mutant skull as its central tower. He shifted the skulls around so the eye sockets could represent firing ports for his monument. It was a perfect little fortress now, with interlocking fields of fire. Joey couldn't wait to show his sister when she came to help finish the defensive firing position, and then the rest of his family when they performed the bedtime drills.

 

Joey waited, sighting down his las rifle at likely avenues of approach, but he kept glancing at his skull fortress as he did. He searched for ways to improve it, for defensive works were never complete. He dug a triple trench network in front of it with his fingers, and added little tank traps he made from bits of roots he had unearthed. It still needed something else. Its front gate needed additional protection, it needed something to fill the gap between skulls that represented the entrance to the fortress. Joey looked around for a suitable chunk of root or bone fragment, but none fit.

 

Joey's mother ordered him to stay on alert from the mess hall without even sticking her head out the firing port. She intuitively knew he was not on task, which shamed him, so he went back to scanning his sector of fire. Still, the flawed fortress nagged at him, and was all he could think about while he manned his position.

 

Finally, Joey's sister, Revecca, came marching home from kinder-drill. Like a good little Cadian, she halted at the 300 meter marker and held her carbine up at the high port, this week's recognition gesture. Joey returned the gesture, then went back to panning his las rifle across his sector of fire, lingering his aim on his sister to check for signs of duress or compromise, as was custom. There were none. Yet he couldn't help but notice the size of his sister's head. Miraculously, her skull looked like it would be a perfect fit to the main gate of his skull fortress. He quickly dismissed such thoughts.

 

Joey challenged his sister at the 50 meter mark, with both the challenge word, "Violet", and with two fingers of his non-firing hand. His sister responded with, "Eyes", and one finger of her own, the correct responses to the day's challenges. Still, Joey didn't raise his barrel to let her pass. The nagging thoughts of his fortress coalesced into a voice in his head. It said, "Take her skull. Do it now, make the altar complete." Shocked by the voice in his head, he almost did what it told him to. Instead, Joey ignored the voice and raised his barrel high and wide, sweeping the little fortress of skulls down the piled dirt in front of the position. He then beckoned Revecca forward, and ordered her, "Pat down the loose dirt so it doesn't look like fresh digging. Then break up the silhouette with brush from the back drill field. Use some of the dirt to refill those old sandbags, too, and I'll check your work in a few minutes. I'm going inside to help mom with dinner mess." His sister immediately got to work.

 

After setting the mess table and washing his mess knife, Joey went to check on his sister. She was in the firing position, but facing the barracks, not her fields of fire. The barrel of her carbine was pointing directly at Joey. Behind her, was a pile of seven skulls, in the same fortress shape he had made himself. Revecca said, "Skulls for the Skull Throne, Joey." And fired.

 

[Tiger9gamer]

Nice job man! nice and spooky!

Guess khorn was feeling more subtle today then usual