An Amity Revived
Chapter Seven
It was not that he was stupid. It was not that he didn't care. It was not that he thought that the job did not concern him. It was just that he was too damned worn out from the previous journey! Panboukin was not in the mood to deal with another so soon. Call that weak, as some might say, but he needed sleep despite the fact he had plenty of it while he was dead.
He only made it for about five minutes before he felt himself collapsing out of exhaustion. A simple pebble in his way made him lose balance momentarily; for a second he thought that he was drunk, although he hadn't consumed anything for the longest time. After that obstacle, he didn't move forward or backwards. He just stayed where he was for a few minutes while his eyes unintentionally closed, and he forced them back open. That was when he decided to head back to the landing site.
Panboukin didn't even think about flying to look for the extra crater of Bardock's. His sleepiness was only part of the reason why he didn't bother. The other part of his need for thought was his lack of concentration on anything, which was not caused by his drowsy self. It strayed all the way from the past events to his last moments --something he did not enjoy, just like the others. Most of the time, however, nothing rang through his mind. He just stared in the distance as if he was daydreaming. However, that was not possible with this Saiya-jin. At least he told himself it was not possible with him.
A flying rock flew and drilled into his cheek. It bounced off and made a tiny crater in the soil, almost like a miniature meteor crashing into the surface of a planet. He felt the small flick and only followed the rock down to the ground. He sighed, and then swiveled around to start to walk back. Then he finally remembered: he can fly!
So Panboukin lifted off the ground quickly, speeding off towards the landing site. He really didn't have to; after all, it was only several hundred meters away. He arrived there in ten seconds. The four empty space pods vibrated absolute silence, with the exception of the howling winds. It wasn't this bad before, but time can change climates. He knew that much. However, it shouldn't be this bad after they had cleared out the life here. Shouldn't the Planet Trade have moved in already and have inhabited this planet by now?
No matter. He was tired and he needed sleep. He can worry about that stuff later with the others.
Panboukin slid down in the crater to the sphere that was awaiting him. The time between his death and the present time must have been long; after all, the spacepod was coated with light brown ashes and buried two inches deep into the soil, which had strayed into the man-made cavity over time. It was still soft as the Saiya-jin's footsteps made imprints showing his trail. Soft yet firm. What else was new, he paid no attention to it. The word 'sleep' rang in his head too much.
The overweight Saiya-jin took a step in front of his space transport and saw the door still open. Surprisingly, the tanned chair resting in there was still in good shape. Perfect shape. Perhaps he hadn't been dead for as long as he thought. That wasn't the total amount of the surprise. The computer and the controls seemed to be dusted. Not stuck. It seemed almost new, as if there had been a barrier around the small one-man ship the entire time the planet had been deprived of life forms. It was too strange.
"At least I won't have to worry about comfort," he muttered, hauling himself inside. Sure enough, the chair had not yet lost its velvety touch. It was satisfying enough to sit in and get a good rest without disturbances. And almost instantly after closing the pod's door did he fall asleep.
About damned time.
There was only one building that had not been totaled from the Saiya-jin's invasion. It further from any of the eventful times for any members of the Planet Trade that had been on the planet, so no one noticed it. It wasn't even a Planet Trade building either. The design was too different. Celipa immediately knew it had to be the Meatsei-jin's structure.
That made her very suspicious.
The building wasn't very tall. It was probably about twice the height of the young woman. The windows seemed to have grown much bigger than the first time she's seen them. The lonesome entrance's length was half the size of the building and the width was only half of that. Just by looking inside of it, she could tell that the hallways were dark; however, there were holes practically everywhere. The outer rims of these openings made the concrete crumble little by little, which caused small cracks here and there all across the walls. The building overall looked very unstable.
Nonetheless, Celipa found it necessary to enter the near-demolished building. The main reason was curiosity: what did these inhabitants do to keep this building standing through were-monkeys, hurricanes of sand and rock, and erosion?
Or maybe the team had missed some Meatsei-jin...
Of course not!
When she stepped inside, she saw that the inhabitants did not have a love for furniture. Either that, or there were some things that did not survive the changes of the planet in this building. The halls were barren, for there were no chairs, beds, tables, or computer-generated items anywhere to be found. All she found were strings of surviving organisms lying around. Bacteria became visible against the surfaces of the walls, and the insects had claimed this decomposing structure their home. Besides that, there was not a trace of other survivors elsewhere in the corridors.
Celipa calmly walked on the crunching floor, making only noises of a dirt clod disintegrating underneath her moving feet. She was disappointed that there was nowhere comfortable to rest, but that was not a major concern for her. The sun was already coming up, but that was only because she traveled east where the sun comes up first. There wasn't much to offer at dawn; however, the light was enough to prevent her from running into unseen walls.
Her hands lightly swept across an outer wall that enclosed the entire building from most harm. Without gloves, the walls scratched her fingertips and made very tiny marks on them. The concrete used to make these structures obviously wasn't smooth. It was almost as if they were designed on the raw dirt, with the tiny pebbles still in place. It told nothing of the buildings' stability. How would texture affect the hold of this dwelling?
Another window passed. This time Celipa stopped and placed her forearm on the sill. Her fingers curled slightly, with only the fingertips resting on the bottom edge of the window. With apathetic eyes she stared outside, surveying the land from inside the victim's home. Pride approached her feelings, which enabled her to mask her previous feelings of hatred and irritation. A small smirk lifted her face up while her pupils trailed from one side to another.
There was yet another tornado in the distance, but smaller than others that have occurred. It just passed on along the horizon, never causing extra amounts of wind and dust. Not a sound was made. Everything was silent now save the tiny breathing of the Saiya-jin, soon followed by words that could not be made out. She stood upright from where she was and investigated the building further. The building was what caused her distraction; she was not about to leave until she received answers. Maybe the Meatsei-jin's architecture will come in handy someday.
As she continued on, she noticed nothing unusual of the building besides the lack of furniture. What further came to her disappointment was the fact that she'd have to tear the building up piece by piece to the backbone if she wanted to know what kept this building up. Celipa did not have the patience for that. Not only as a Saiya-jin, but also as an uninterested being in this field. When she wanted answers, she wanted them whenever she asked for them. Unfortunately, she was a mere third class female; therefore her satisfactions must come from actually receiving an answer, even if they reached her ten years later. Now, if she were royalty or elite, things would have been a tad different.
"Oh, this was just a waste of my time," she growled lowly, turning to the opening next to her in the wall. It was the size of two normal-sized windows pasted together, enough for her to fit through without troubles.
Right when she stuck a leg out of the hole, she heard a noise of crumpling paper. Irritated yet curious, she twisted her head to the side, while her front was facing the edge of the opening. Afterwards, there was a complete silence. For a couple moments she stayed, watching, listening, and waiting for something else to occur. Of course that never happened, so she completed her turn-around and ambled out the hole.
Just when Celipa was about to lift off, she heard another noise. This time, it was a loud blaring sound, echoing around. If she thought she had learned her lesson about being jumpy over every noise a desolate setting gave, she figured that she should relearn it. At that moment, she spun around on her heel, swinging her arms across as she went. She stood ready as she dug a foot deeper into the soil, tightening both fists, waiting for a remaining inhabitant to come jump at her from all sides.
But that was not the case at the moment. There were no inhabitants left who stood on top of the food chain. None. At the most there were insects, monerans, and fungi, but nothing more, nothing less.
Or so she thought.
At that moment, she learned the true reason why the building could be held up for many years. It had nothing to do with an inhabitant or the structure of the building. It was something much, much worse. And it was something that she would regret meddling into.