As the ship got closer to Carpenters compound, Paul looked over and noticed Russell opening a bag. From inside it, he pulled out the stereo from Franks room.

"What are you doing?" asked Paul.

"Do you have any kind of larger speakers in this ship?" asked Russell.

"Yeah." said Paul.

"Well," said Russell "get em, and hook em up to this stereo." As Paul went to get the speakers, Amanda was looking at him with a confused look.

"What are you doing?" asked Amanda. Russell said nothing, as he saw Paul come back with very large speakers. A big smile came across Russells face, as he hooked them to the stereo.

"Well," said Russell "I'm pulling something out of the past that I know about."

"What's that?" asked Amanda.

"Well," said Russell "we're gonna do to Carpenter, what America did to Manuel Noriega."

"What's that?" asked Paul.

"You'll find out!" said Russell, with a smile "ready your weapons." Russell watched as Amanda, Paul, Kristen, and James pulled out their laser guns. Russell looked at his handgun, but decided to save those bullets for Carpenter. As he picked up a laser gun, he opened the cd player. Russell pulled out a cd jewel case, and opened it, taking out the Tupac CD. He placed it in the cd player, turned up the volume, and the bass. "God Bless The Dead" was playing, the volume and bass making everything VERY loud. Russell watched as soldiers of Carpenter came running out of the compound,laser guns firing. Russell motioned to the crew, they came to the open doors, and began firing at the soldiers. They watched as the laser blasts hit the soldiers

in the chest and head, causing blood to squirt everywhere as they fell to the ground.

"BRING US DOWN!" Russell yelled to Michelle, who was piloting the ship. As she brought the ship down, the crew noticed more soldiers coming towards them. Paul and Amanda began running side by side, as they fired at three of the soldiers. They watched as the soldiers fell to the ground in a puddle of their own blood. Paul and Amanda looked at each other, smiled, and did a high five.

"Watch out!" they heard Kristen yell, as they heard a shot, and saw two soldiers dead at their feet. They looked up, to see Michelle and Kristen holding laser guns. They all grouped together, and fired at about ten more soldiers. As these soldiers laid dead at their feet,

Russell checked to make sure noone was hurt.

"Wait a minute!" said Russell "Where the hell's James?"

As the crew looked around, they could find no sign of James. "Who saw him last?" asked Russell

"I did!" said Paul "He was running with us when we first started the attack, at one point I looked back and he was gone."

"Shit!" said Russell "This is just what we need. Well, we better try and find him if he hasn't gotten himself killed yet." Russell looked over at Kristen and Paul, who nodded at him. Laser guns in high ready, they proceeded to run inside the doors of Carpenters compound. As they moved further and further into the compound, they found wave after wave of soldiers coming at them.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" yelled Paul, as he shot another one of the soldiers. "It's like they knew we were coming!"

"Well," said Amanda "I'm sure the extra loud Tupac probably gave us away pretty quickly."

"Maybe," said Paul "but it just seems like they had all these soldiers waiting for us." As they kept moving on, they sound found themselves standing in front of several passageways.

"Shit!" said Paul, as he looked over at Michelle "Which way do we go?" Michelle looked over at Russell, who looked at them, then looked at the passageways.

"There's four passageways, and four of us." said Russell "The only thing we can do is each go through one, hopefully we'll find James, or at least a way to get to Carpenter." The crew split up, and each picked a passageway to walk through.

***

Amanda had been walking through her chosen passageway for some time now, and all she could see ahead of her was more darkness. She walked a little more, when all of a sudden she heard a noise. She tried to look around to see what it was, but only saw darkness.

"Damnit!" Amanda said to herself."I should have brought something to see in the dark with." She placed her hand inside her pocket, and could feel a glass frame. She pulled the object out of her pocket, and tried to see what it was. "My night vision glasses," said Amanda "I forgot I had

these." She put them on and looked around. She heard the noise again, and quickly turned around, laser gun in hand. As she looked around, she saw nothing. All of a sudden, she felt an arm wrap itself around her chest, and felt a blade press up against her neck. "What the.." said Amanda, a mix of surprise and fright in her voice.

"Just keep your goddamn mouth shut!" said the voice of her assailant. "You scream, and I slit your fucking throat!" The assailant pulled her along the passageway, passing points of dim lights. As they passed one of the dim lights, Amanda moved her eyes to look at her assailants face. Amanda looked up, to see James with a very pissed off look on his face.

"James?!" said a shocked Amanda. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked James "I'm taking you to Carpenter."

"But why?" asked Amanda.

"You're being used as bait to lure that dark skinned son of a bitch out! Carpenter wants him dead!"

"So how long have you been working for Carpenter?" asked Amanda.

"Been working for him for a couple of years now." said

James. "I've been informing him of everything we've been doing over the years. Up till now, he didn't see anything we were doing as a threat to him, because he said all the plans you all came up with were too stupid to work. It was only when that...black guy was thawed out, and befriended by Kristen did things start to go wrong. Now she's in love with him! I'm bringing him to Carpenter, because I want to see him dead!"

"Well," said Amanda "sounds like a good plan, but there was one thing you didn't count on."

"What's that?" asked James.

"This!" said Amanda, as she brought her foot up and kicked James in the crotch.

"AAAHH!" yelled James "YOU BITCH!" As he grabbed his crotch, he looked up to see Amanda running back the way she came.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had run back to the entrance of the passageways, where they all met up.

"Did you hear that?" asked Kristen.

"Sounded like James!" said Paul

"It was coming from this one." said Russell, as he pointed at passageway that Amanda had gone into. As they all walked inside, they could hear footsteps in the distance. They started running to find the source, when all of a sudden they felt someone run into them. Russell looked

down, to see Amanda on the ground, looking out of breath.

"Oh thank God!" said Amanda "I'm glad you're all here, James..he.."

"You found James?" said Michelle.

"Yeah," said Amanda "he..he's working for Carpenter, he was gonna use me to lead Russell to Carpenter so he could kill him!"

"That's crazy!" said Michelle "I know James is the jealous type..but working for Carpenter?"

As they looked at Amanda, they saw her head get quickly jerked back. When her head was brought back, they saw that her neck was opened up. The blood flowed down her neck, and stained her clothes. As she fell forward, a small puddle of blood formed around her.

"The fuck?!" said a shocked Paul. From out of the shadows stepped James, a crazed look on his face, and a bloody knife in his hand.

"This so crazy now Michelle?" asked James, as he held up the knife, the blood running from the blade onto his hand.

"James!" said Russell "What the hell are you doing?"

"Shut up!" said James "You've been the biggest pain in my ass this whole time. I was gonna wait and watch Carpenter kill you, but I think I'd find it more enjoyable if I did it." James put the knife away, and proceeded to pull out his laser gun. He aimed it at Russell, and prepared to take a shot. As he began to press on the trigger, a shot from another laser gun knocked his gun out of his hand. James held onto his hand, and looked over where the shot had come from. He saw Kristen holding her gun up, the barrel still pointed at James. He quickly turned around, and began running down the passageway corridor until he could no longer be seen.

After listening to the footsteps fade away, Russell walked over to Michelle, Paul, and Kristen, who were all knelt down in front of Amandas body. As tears rolled down Kristens cheek, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She looked up to see Russell, with a sad look upon his face.

"Well," said Paul, as he stood up. "Looks like that answers our question about James' alliance."

"What are you talking about?" asked Michelle.

"Well we may have a bit of a walk in front of us." said Russell "So, I think we have time to tell you the whole story."

"Wait!" said Kristen "What do we do about Amanda?"

"We have to leave her body here for now," said Russell "we'll get it on the way back, so we can give her a proper burial."

***

"And that is the whole story, O great leader!" said James, as he was knelt down at Carpenters feet.

"So they should be on their way?" asked Carpenter.

"Yes sir!" said James, still knelt down. "The two women, the man, and the dark skinned one."

"Good!" said Carpenter "Let them come...and stop kneeling."

"Yes sir!" said James, as he stood up and looked at Carpenter.

Christopher Carpenter was a man in his early 30s. He was about six foot even. He worked out a lot, because of this he had a very muscular form. He had green eyes, and his hair colour wasn't known because he had a shaved head. With the goatee he had, he resembled Derek Vinyard from the movie American History X.

***

"So," said Michelle, as they kept walking. "If all of you suspected this, why didn't you say anything to me?"

"Well...uh.." stammered Kristen.

"We..we just weren't sure at the time!" said Russell.

"Understandable I guess," said Michelle "but I wish I knew more about this before we explained our plans right in front of him."

"Well," said Russell "there's one fun thing about plans."

"What's that?" asked Paul.

"Factors can be added onto it at anytime." said Russell, with a smile.

"Like the stereo and Tupac?" said Kristen.

"Exactly!" said Russell.

"Hey," said Kristen, as she pointed ahead. "What's that?"

"What's what?" asked Paul. As he looked ahead, he saw a bright light at what looked like the end of the corridor.

"Looks like we found our exit!" said Russell, with a toothy smile.

"About damn time," laughed Paul "I was wondering how much longer we were gonna have to be walking through this damn thing!" They all followed behind Russell, as they walked towards the light. As Russell brought his laser gun up, everyone else followed suit. As they walked into the

light, they saw sixteen of Carpenters soldiers aiming guns at them. Between these rows of eight on each side, stood Carpenter, James standing beside him.

"So glad you could make it!" said Carpenter, as he walked up to them, a big smile on his face.

"Can the courtesy shit!" said Russell angrily.

"Well," said Carpenter "my grandfather told me you people had some nasty tempers, guess he was right!"

"You people?!" said Russell, as he went to pull out his gun. As he went to do this, he saw the soldiers aiming their laser guns at him.

"Yeah," said Carpenter "I don't think that's a good idea. Now if there are no more interruptions, I have to get ready to address the people." Carpenter looked at the soldiers "you may take them away." The soldiers pointed their guns at the crew, and started to lead them out of the room.

"WHY THE COVER UP OF THE HISTORY?" yelled Michelle, as they started being led out of the room. Carpenter lifted up his hand, indicating to the soldiers to stop. He walked over and placed his hand on Michelles chin, so they were eye to eye.

"Well my dear," said Carpenter "It's very simple, it goes back to when we had to go to this new earth. My grandfather decided that this new earth needed to be

CLEAN. So he decided to get rid of all the minorities, so this earth could have a fresh start. Obviously, when I took over I needed to make sure people didn't find out about this. My father, I loved him with all my heart, but he was never the smartest man. He left all the history alone, the existence of other races, what my grandfather did, all that stuff. I had to remove it, noone was to ever find out. It was working until you and your little crew, decided to check out Dead Earth, which you should know is illegal to go to. I figured even if you did find something, it could easily be destroyed. Everything got messed up, when you found that dark skinned guy...What did my grandfather call them...oh yeah...Nigger!"

"I said before," said Russell angrily "noone drops the N bomb!" he quickly pulled out the laser gun, and shot one of the soldiers in the head. This caused the rest of the crew to follow suit, and began shooting at the other soldiers. Carpenter and James stood in shock, as they saw

all sixteen soldiers, on the ground, dead and bleeding. As Russell put the final shot in one of the soldiers, he failed to notice Carpenter running up, grabbing Kristen, and throwing her at James. Russell heard a scream, and quickly turned around to see Kristen, with a knife pointed at her throat.

"JAMES!" yelled Russell angrily. "LET HER GO!"

"Kill her!" said Carpenter "the girl is obviously his weakness. James brought the knife right up to Kristens neck. As part of the blade pierced her neck, a bit of blood trickled down.

"Please," pleaded Kristen, a tear rolling down her cheek. "You don't want to do this!" James appeared to hesitate.

"DO IT YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" yelled Carpenter angrily. James removed his hand from Kristen, turned around, and threw the blade at Carpenter, the knife landing in his chest. Carpenter fell to his knees and hunched over.

A smile came across James' face, as he looked over at the crew. As Russell smiled back, James' expression turned from that of happiness, to pain. James looked behind him, to see the handle of his blade sticking out of his back. He brought up blood, as he fell forwards.

"That two timing son of a bitch!" said Carpenter, as he stood up. "He should have known better then to fuck with me!"

"You made a mistake too!" said Russell.

"Oh?" said Carpenter, as he walked up to Russell, gun in hand. "And what's that?"

"You fucked with an angry black man with a gun!" said Russell.

"What, this one?" asked Carpenter, as he pointed at the laser gun on the ground.

"No," said Russell "this one!" he quickly pulled out the handgun, and shot Carpenter in the head. Blood came seeping down Carpenters forehead, as he fell forwards. "Lasers," said Russell as he stood over Carpenters lifeless body. "Ain't no match for the cold hard steel of a twentieth century handgun." As they all stood over Carpenters body, they heard the crowd outside.

"What do we do about that?" asked Paul.

"Open the doors," said Russell "I have an idea!"

Paul opened doors that led to a patio where Carpenter would stand to make his announcements to the people. As he looked out, he saw lots of people with confused looks on their faces. He moved to the side, as Michelle and Kristen walked onto the patio too. They all moved to the side, as Russell came out, holding something behind his back. The crew could hear the shock of the crowd, as for the first time they saw a black man.

"THIS IS WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU'RE GREAT LEADER!" yelled Russell, as he held his hand out. In front of his hand, was the dismembered head of Christopher Carpenter, the blood dripping onto Russells foot. "CARPENTER HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU FOR YEARS!" As Russell listened to the crowd, he heard that people were doubting what he said.

"IT'S TRUE!" yelled Michelle "If you can just let me explain!" The crowd listened as Michelle began explaining everything.

***

TWO MONTHS LATER

There was silence in the cemetery, as Russell and Kristen stood in front of James' and Amandas graves. As they stood there, they could hear footsteps. Russell looked to the side, to see Paul coming towards them.

"Hey Paul," said Russell "what's the good word?"

"Same old," said Paul "the people love Michelle as their new leader, since finding out about all that shit Carpenter pulled."

"Well," said Russell "I'm sure she'll do a great job!"

"We have news too!" said Kristen, a smile on her face.

"What's that?" asked Paul.

"We want you to be the godfather." said Kristen.

"For who?" asked Paul.

Russell smiled, as he placed his hand on Kristens stomach, and rubbed in a circular motion.

"You mean?" said a surprised Paul.

"Yep!" said Kristen, a big smile on her face.

"I would be honoured too!" said Paul.

"Great," said Russell "we already asked Michelle to be the godmother."

"Well kid," said Paul, as he bent over and spoke into Kristens stomach. "Looks like you've got a bright future ahead for you!"

THE END