Terre Schaefer and Angela Gomez have been eliminated.
|------------|
She expected it to slink. It doesn't. It shudders. An animal control van bungles through the desert, towing behind it a cloud of uprooted whatever-was-there-before. Dell thinks she watches it spit out a lizard. That's one way to control an animal, she supposes. She tucks towards the shallow to wipe her nose. The truck rounds her in a grand circle, but only because that's all it can handle. It's chicken wire and chain link tied together by barbed wire. Dell is unraveling. She gets up after her feet and walks towards the driver side waving her hands away in crosses and shoos.
"No no no!" she says to the crack in the shaded window which someone on the inside allowed. "This isn't just some rabid squirrel, no offense. What would you-" As the immediacy of her protests dwindles, the car door opens at out comes a very beige man. Dell steps back to get a look at him and rests her hands on her hips. "Now what would you do if someone called and said say a cheetah was on the loose? Who would you send out then?"
"Animal control. As long as it's an animal, that's our purview."
"Or fish." The voice slides across the hood of the car, and Dell swivels in her stance to meet it.
"Right," the beige man agrees with his co-worker. "Animals or fish."
Some of the dust is settling now. Dell ducks to wipe her nose again. "With all due respect, sirs, I'm only telling you this because I know it to be true. We tried to do the same thing."
They nod. "Is the horse over here?" They let out an arm towards the stains and let Dell confirm it for them.
"Yeah. Down there in the shallow."
One of them slides back into their van and is quick to begin backing it up to the edge of the red rocks. The other is more deliberate, and he walks to where he was directed while sweeping a black stick before him. He isn't as beige as he is, but he's still pretty beige. He grabs some sort of winch which hangs from the back of the truck and takes a half-step into the shallow. Dell watches his eyes search for and then meet hers. She grimaces, and in turn, he swallows. "Ready for me to go down?" He knew the answer already. He sinks.
The other He is leaning out of his seat, working some sort of lever from the inside which is connected to the some sort of wench that his counterpart is wrapping around Girlie. He sees it even before Dell does, and a whole while before the one preoccupied with the wench. He dives the rest of the way into his van and comes back brandishing a black stick of his own.
In a snap, the rock gets a little bit redder and he watches himself get strewn about elsewheres. "Aw heck," he says, and drops his stick in favor of the personal pistol at his hip. He shoots the ground before him and the gun, still whirling and twirling in every direction, falls from his hands. There is a crack, and a splash of vibrant color. When that fades, he too is elsewheres.
Dell is already driving their van. She started out running from, but is already chasing, the jackalope.
|-SEMIFINALS-|
Just like you heard in all the legends, it's the one and only song task! Your inspiration for this entry is in the header for this chapter: Ennio Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold. For those of you that don't know, your objective is to write an entry that reflects the nature of this song onto the page. This is most often reflected in the mood and pacing of the piece. Other than that, you are free to go wherever your story takes you. Enjoy!
|-WORD LIMIT-|
None.
|-STAKES-|
All of you will be up for votes this task. My influence on the proceeding will be softer than oft. Specifically, I will have a ranked-choice vote where the highest ranked entry will receive 3 votes from me then 2 then 1 then 0 in descending order. This will all be kept private. The 2 residents with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated.
|-DEADLINE-|
Monday, July 26th, 10:00 PM EST
