ENDWORLD: MOON RUN
Chapter 1: Welcome To Endworld

	This is it folks!  Here's where you will first get to see the 
Warriors.  A little advanced warning for those of you with weak 
stomachs and the faint of heart.  The Warriors tend to get a little...
. messy in their work.  Like Wolverine says, "There the best at what 
they do, but what they do isn't very nice."  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
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	"I'm telling you pards," the blond man said to his companions in a 
western drawl, as they slowly walked through the forest, "I saw 
something over here."

	The man with the long blond hair turned to his companions.  He had a 
big sweeping moustache, a lean build, and was dressed in buckskins 
with moccasins on his feet.  He also carried a pair of Colt Python 
revolvers around his waist.  "Hickok," the tallest of his companions 
said, "It's not that we don't believe you saw something..."

	He was cut off as another man who looked like he had Native American 
background quipped, "It's just that we think you've finally gone all 
the way around the bend, instead of just a little past it."

	"I'm not loco Geronimo," Hickok shot back, "I swear that I saw this 
really weird flash of light from the watch tower in the Home."

	To say the tall man was a giant, was an understatement.  He easily 
topped seven feet.  He had short cropped jet black hair, silver grey 
eyes, and layers and layers of rock hard muscle.  He was attired in 
green fatuige pants, a leather vest, and black boots.  He wore a pair 
of Bowie knives around his waist and held in his hand a Commando Arms 
Carbine with a 90-shot magazine.  "None the less," he said, "We 
haven't seen anything yet."

	Geronimo was a stocky Native American, dressed in green pants, and a 
green shirt, with an authentic Tomahawk in his belt.  He held in his 
hands a Vega automatic pistol, and he grinned wildly as he said, 
"They say that hallucinations are the first thing that happens when 
you lose your mind."

	Hickok shot back with, "You shouldn't be one to talk, you never had 
one.  Blade, we gotta keep looking, just for a little longer, please?
"

	The giant named Blade said, "It would help if we knew what we were 
looking for, when you rang the alarm you set off quite a panic.  With 
all the problems with the Technics, the Supiriors, the Trolls, 
mutates, and all the other things that are out here, the rest of the 
Family isn't going to like it if it turns out to be a false alarm."

	"Perhaps," the fourth man cut in, "We haven't been looking the right 
way."

	This man was diminutive and wiry, with handsome Oriental features 
and was dressed all in black with a katana sword in a scabbard draped 
around his waist.  His name was Riki-Tiki-Tavi.  He looked at the 
last member of their party and asked, "What do you think Ferret?"

	This last man was perhaps the strangest one of all.  He was just a 
little under four feet, but solidly built.  He had a thick coat of 
brown fur, small beady brown eyes, wore nothing more than a black 
loincloth, and had a large head with an even larger nose.  There was 
a very good reason that Ferret looked that way, he was a mutant.  "I 
don't know Riki," he answered in a low voice, "I don't.... wait a 
second!"

	Blade lifted the Commando and said, "What is it Ferret?"

	Ferret replied as he sniffed the air, "The wind just changed, 
(Sniff) I smell something, or someone to be more precise. (Sniff) 
Make that someones.  (Sniff) Six of them, five women, two pets 
(Sniff) and one man."

	Hikcok shook his head and looked down at the small mutant, before 
incredulously asking, "You can tell all that just by smelling?  You 
wouldn't be trying to pull our legs would you, you little critter."

	Ferret grinned and tapped his long snout, "The nose knows.  (Sniff) 
Wherever these people come from they still have personal hygiene.  
(Sniff) Five types of perfume, two types of flee shampoo and one type 
of cologne.  What now o' Fearless Leader Blade?"

	Blade thought for a second before ordering, "We'll approach them 
slowly.  Keep your weapons at your sides, but within reach.  If 
they're friendly we don't want to scare them, but if they're not we 
have to be ready.  Let's go Warriors."

	The other Warriors all nodded and cautiously moved through the brush.
  They reached a clearing and Ferret signaled that the mysterious 
group was there.  They slowly walked out into the open and then all 
of them tensed as they saw that the group they had been aproching was 
sprawled out on the ground in uncomfortable looking positions.  "What 
the Sam Hill happened here?!?" Hickok exclaimed.

	"Were they attacked?" Geronimo asked nervously.

	"I don't think so," Riki said, "I don't see any blood, or any sign 
of frenzied activity."

	"I don't smell any blood, gun powder, or mutates," Ferret said.

	Blade frowned in contemplation.  What had happened here?  Who were 
these people?  Could it be some kind of trap?  He signaled for the 
others to stay put and he moved towards the strange group.  He 
approached the closest one and kneeled down to get a closer look.  
She was lying face down on the ground.  She was dressed in some type 
of uniform that Blade couldn't identify with knee high boots, a short 
blue skirt, a white shirt, and a red bow.  She also had a very 
unusual hairstyle that consisted of two large buns on top of her 
blond head with two long pony tails that reached the small of her 
back.  He probed the girls neck and found a slow, but strong and 
steady pulse.  He also checked for any broken bones and relaxed a 
little when he didn't find any.

	Satisfied that the girl was in no immediate danger, he flipped her 
over onto her back to see who it was.  It was no one he recognized 
but he did see that she was still a child.  "So," a sarcastic voice 
said from behind,  "What's the deal with this little darlin'?"

	Blade looked over his shoulder and wasn't surprised that Hickok had 
approached him.  "First of all, I thought I told you to stay put," he 
replied calmly, "and second, I think we better help these people."

	"Oaky doky," Hickok said with a grim look, "I'll get the others."

	In less than a minute the Warriors had spread out and did checks on 
the other girls and the man.  Geronimo walked over to Blade and 
reported, "Well, they're all like the first one.  Physically they 
seem all right, but they're all unconscious and none of us are 
Healers, so we don't know if they have any internal injuries."

	Blade thought for a second and said, "What do you make of all this 
Geronimo?"

	"Five very young girls in very tight uniforms with very small skirts?
  Along with a guy in a tuxedo?  Might be a harem of some kind."

	"Come on now," Blade looked at his friend, "get serious.  The guy 
has got to be in his twenties and most of these girls can't be more 
than fourteen.  The one with the brown hair might be sixteen or 
seventeen, but still...."

	"Maybe he's the type of guy who's into that sort of thing."

	Blade had to give Geronimo that point.  With all the sick and 
deranged things he had seen in the past few years, this wouldn't be 
the worst, but still, his flesh crawled at the thought of it.  He was 
about to order that one of them should go back to the Home for help 
when Ferret tensed and growled out, "We've got company.  It's a 
mutate."

	Again, Blade's skin crawled.  By the Spirit how he HATED mutates.  
In the years following the Big Blast a.k.a. World War III, there had 
been all sorts of genetic horrors.  The radioactive fallout had 
resulted in things like strains of insects with giagantisum, all 
sorts of physical mutations for all animals, but the worst of all 
were the mutates.  Giant, pus covered, malformed, parodies of mammals,
 insects and reptiles that had an instinctive craving for living 
flesh.  Blade thought dowerly, "These unusual people must seem like 
an easy breakfast to it."

	He quickly picked up the bun headed girl and threw her over his 
shoulder, carrying her caveman style.  Then he picked up the man in 
the tuxedo and threw him over his other shoulder.  He then whispered 
to the others, "Change of plans.  Pick up one each and let's get out 
of here."

	"Umph," Hickok groaned as he lifted the tall brown haired girl in 
the green dress, "Geronimo.  Why do I have to carry the big one and 
you get the little one?"

	Geronimo, picked up the girl who had hair the same blue color as her 
dress, as he jokingly replied, "I thought you liked them big."

	Riki picked up the raven haired, red dressed one and asked, "What 
about the cats?  It would be wrong to leave these peoples pets here, 
if it could be avoided."

	"I've got 'em," Ferret answered as he picked up the last girl, who 
had an orange dress and normal waist length blond hair.  He also 
carried the two cats, one white, one black, in the crook of his left 
arm.

	"Okay everybody," Blade ordered when he saw they had accounted for 
all the people in the group, "let's move it for the Home."

	With that all five Warriors, with their eight passengers, started to 
run back the way they came.  As they ran through the trees they could 
hear a large form crashing through the underbrush behind them.  They 
were less then a mile from the Home but at the rate that the mutate 
was catching up with them they all knew a confrontation was 
inevitable.  "Blade," Hickok said from the back of the group, "You 
keep on running, I'll get this varmint."

	Blade yelled back, "Okay, but be careful."

	Hickok stopped running and whirled around.  He put the girl he was 
carrying down and at that moment, a distorted howl from a slime 
slicked throat pierced the air.  This mutate probably was a wolf 
before it had been changed.  The left half of its body looked like 
nothing more than a larger then normal grew wolf.  The right half was 
covered with all sorts of pus sores and malformed limbs.  Hickok saw 
the creature break cover and head for him at a full charge.  His 
hands were a blur as he drew his Pythons faster than previously 
thought humanly possible.  The two shots from the gun sounded as one, 
as the bullets hit the mutate, shattering both eyes in a spurt of 
blood.  The mutate fell to the ground spasiming, as Hickok picked up 
the girl again and ran back to catch up with the others as he thought,
 "Just great.  That varmint was probably part of a pack.  That 
gunshot will bring 'em as sure as ringing a dinner bell."

	The Warriors all reached the Home and as they ran past the 
drawbridge they heard the sound of shooting from the wall above them 
and once inside they saw that the mutate had been part of a pack, but 
its brothers and sisters would only eat lead, as a hail of bullets 
from the ramparts of the walls surrounding the Home decimated the 
hapless animals.

	The five Warriors all stood for a minute catching their breaths and 
other members of the Family approached them and asked all sorts of 
questions.

	"Who are those people?"

	"Where'd they come from?"

	"Who's their tailor?"

	"Forget who their tailor is.  Who does their hair?"

	Blade looked at the members of the Family and calmly replied, "As 
soon as we know, you'll know."

	"Now what?" Riki asked.

	"Now," Blade replied," we wait for these people to wake up so we can 
ask some questions.  Until then there's nothing else we can do for 
them."

	"I guess that's the most reasonable course," Geronimo said, "Could 
someone please go get some of the Healers?"

	One of the surrounding Family members ran off as she said, "I'll go 
get them."

	"Well, well," a lisping voice said, "What have we here?"

	Ferret looked up and said, "We found these people where Hickok saw 
his weird light show Lynx."

	Lynx was another mutant like Ferret.  He was about the same height, 
but he looked liked a living cat man.  He had grayish fur and a grey 
loincloth was his only clothing.  He smirked, showing sharp, pointy 
teeth and quipped, "Damn.  Now I gotta give Gremlin a portion of my 
food for a week now that I lost the bet that Hickok hasn't just lost 
it."

	"Why is it," Hickok asked, "That all of my pards think I'm gonna go 
loco?"

	"Not go insane," Geronimo quipped back with a grin, "just more 
insane than you already are."

	Hickok ignored the barb and then asked, "Hey Blade?"

	"Yeah." Blade answered.

	"We're safe, right?  I mean, we're in the Home and no mutates or any 
other problem is happening and there's Healers on the way, right?"

	"Yeah."

	"Then you think we can put these little ladies down somewhere now.  
They're starting to get heavy."


	END CHAPTER 1

	NEXT: CHAPTER 2: A RUDE AWAKENING

	The Sailors awake, and while some questions are answered, there are 
some that remain and some more are thrown in.  Don't you dare miss it.


May The Spirit Preserve You!