Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ The Timepiece ❯ The path ahead ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 24

Silence hung heavily in the atmosphere as Joe and Yuki sat on the ground staring at the path that the Triceratops disappeared down.

It was Joe who recovered from the shock first. He pushed himself up from the ground, dusted the back of his pants and then offered Yuki his hand. "Come on, Yuki. Since we are already here, we might as well get the best out of it. Not everybody could have the opportunity to spend a few days in the time of the dinosaurs."

Yuki looked up at him stunned. "You are taking to it quite well, Joe!"

Joe shrugged, "When one has been through life and death as many times as I have, there are not many things that can throw one off balance. Come on."

Yuki nodded and gave him her hand. In one smooth movement, he pulled her to standing. "What should we do now?" Yuki asked as she stood up. Before Joe could answer, a low rumbling noise was heard.

"Oh my gosh! What's that?" Yuki exclaimed, alarmed.

Joe gave a small laugh, while looking a bit sheepish, "Umm… I'm afraid that's my call for lunch." Yuki responded with a smile while her tummy responded with a similar low rumbling. Joe and Yuki exchanged a glance and both of them doubled up laughing.

"Well, let's go in and check out what food our host had prepared for our little vacation." Joe said, extending his arm to Yuki. Yuki told his arm and they made their way through the cockpit into the storage area. The storage area or Storeroom was just a small shelf-lined cabin at the back of the cockpit. On the left middle shelf was a box of toothpaste like `meals'. Yuki picked one up, sniffed at it and gave it to Joe, "Steak with mashed potato and mixed veggies, want this?"

"Ewwww!" Joe exclaimed, screwing his nose. "Is this what you guys eat all the time?" He reached over and took the tube from Yuki as she laughed at his expression. "Not all the time, Joe. Just on the trips." She replied.

"Do we really have to eat this?" Joe asked, screwing his nose some more.

Yuki opened a tube and started sucking on it, "I am too hungry to care for now. But we might be able to catch a fish or something else to eat next meal. How about dinosaur sashimi?"

Joe was about to retort when his stomach rumbled again. He raised his hands in surrender and said, "Okay! What the heck! At least we won't have to die of starvation. Not yet!" He then followed Yuki's example and started sucking his `meal'. "Actually, it does not taste too bad. Just that I still find real food more to my taste."

Yuki snickered, "Yeah, tell me about that! This is no match for real food."

Joe raised his brows at her as he finished his tube, "What do you know about real food? You've most likely grown up on this yucky stuffs." He reached for another one and soon finished it as well.

Yuki stuck her tongue out at him as she finished hers, "You got that wrong, Joe. My dad is a mighty good cook."

Joe shrugged as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He laughed when Yuki screwed her nose at that. "Come on, stop screwing that pretty little nose or you'd get wrinkles on it soon. Let's go do some exploring." He led her towards the entrance through the cockpit.

"Wait Joe!"

"Yes?" Joe turned back to see her frowning.

"I am just wondering if we should get rid of this…um... body first."

Joe shrugged, "Up to you? Wouldn't it disappear on it's own?"

"It would but not before we do. So unless you want to sleep with him tonight, we'd better bury him or something." Yuki replied.

Joe was about to tease Yuki a bit regarding spending the night with Scorpio's dead body when he caught sight of the look in Yuki's eyes. He bit his tongue and instructed Yuki to meet him outside with the spade from the storeroom. As soon as Yuki disappeared to the back of the cockpit, he threw the corpse onto his shoulder and took it outside.

It was wet outside but the sun was out. It looked as if it had just stopped raining. Joe walked over to a nice tall tree and deposited the corpse at the foot of it. Soon, Yuki came out with two spades.

"It's rather wet and muddy here, Yuki. Why don't you rest under the tree for a while, I can handle the digging on my own." Joe nodded towards the tree where he had rested the corpse. Yuki looked towards the corpse and grimaced, "No thanks, Joe, I'd rather do some digging with you." She picked up one of the spades and drove it into the ground.

The sun was getting hotter and hotter. The two diggers soon became covered with mud and sweat. They continue digging in silence until the grave was quite ready. Joe straightened and stretched, "You just wait here, I'll get it." Yuki nodded and watched him went over and dragged it over. He then cast the body into the hole and quickly fill the mud back in. When that was done, Joe muttered a short prayer over Scorpio's grave out of habit.

Joe looked up at Yuki when he was done. She seemed to be deep in thought. He did not want to disturb her thoughts, but her disheveled hair and muddy face compounded with her serious expression made her look very funny. Joe tried hard not to laugh but failed miserably. Yuki looked up at him puzzled, but when she saw his face, she could not help doubling up in laughter as well.

"Well, well…looks like we both need some cleaning up." Joe smirked after catching his breathe. Yuki merely nodded. She was still unable to control her laughter. Joe took her back inside and found some towels in the Storeroom. But when they made it to the showers, they found that it was not working.

"What now?" Yuki asked.

"Let's see if there's any water source nearby. We need to find that out anyway. That is, if we are still around and alive when the drinking water on this ship runs out."

Yuki nodded, "Let's bring the water purifier with us, so we can drink some water there if we want to."

They went back to the Storeroom and put the towels and the water purifier into a bag. "Too bad we don't have a change of clothes here," sighed Yuki, looking at her originally white uniform that looked brownish gray now from the adventures she had shared with it.

Joe smirked, "Women and their appearances. Come on, let's go. We won't be able to find anything after it gets dark." He took Yuki's hand and led her outside.

"Which way are we going?" Yuki asked timidly looking around. Every direction seemed to lead into the woods and they all looked the same to her.

"Where the Triceratops went. It was very early when we saw them, they were probably heading for their morning drink." Joe suggested.

Yuki nods, "Sounds logical to me. Let's go then."

Joe took her small white hand in his again and together they followed the path where the Triceratops had disappeared down earlier in the day.

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