crude end

[Amigo]

This is your 100th reply!

 

[Fierlin1182]

Thanks Amigo! I'll be looking to write some more soon. It's raining, and I'm not looking forward to going sightseeing today.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Stacey suddenly heard the shouts clearer, coming from the centre of the island.
"Someone's just landed on the eastern beach!" yelled a male voice.
Stacey cursed under her breath, tried to locate where the voice could be coming from, before ducking behind a rock. The island was empty! There was nothing there, just trees... and trees... and oh, was that a tree?
Brad Southton walked out of a hole in the ground and Stacey sucked in her breath.
Underground! They'd hidden GlideCorp underground! She cursed at her stupidity.
Sheila must have known they were planning to come, and sent their plane down. It must've been a stroke of pure luck that they were sent down less than three miles from the coast of GC island.
"There's nobody there. Bits of plane yes... looks like things went to plan. Back to work, fellas, the show's over."
Stacey growled. Sheila was such a coward! She couldn't even do her own dirty deeds herself!
She leaned round the rock and watched Brad vanishing back into the GlideCorp entrance.

Something grabbed her leg.
"AAAARGH!!!!" she screamed.
"Shut up, you doofus," Carson hissed. "The currents must've carried us over. They picked a really crappy spot for their precious refinery, didn't they?"
"Glad to see you too."

 

[Symphony]

 

[Fierlin1182]

Stacey helped Carson haul himself up onto one of the rocks on the coastline.
"Shhh," Stacey hissed.
"Shhh?!" Carson replied. "There's nobody here to hear us. Listen to the racket coming from that thing."
Stacey shot him a warning glance. "The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if there are mikes planted all over the island so someone can surface every time a seal farts."
The two of them got up and caught their breath, heading over to the steel hatch door where Brian had disappeared. Carson leaned down to lift it up a few centimeters. There was nobody in sight, and Brian's voice could be heard emanating from a far end of the refinery.
There were precious few staff around.
"The 1000 lost jobs. They must have been axed here! A small oil quality problem was turned into a massive one..."
Carson slowly inched up the latched door and set it down on the sand.
"You first. You're less likely to fall."
Carson leant his head over the edge so he could get a good view of the surroundings as Stacey went down backwards. "All clear."
Stacey was down that ladder in less than a minute. She had never been so terrified in her life, even when visiting the CEO of BHP Billiton to pull off a multi-million dollar deal.
"Your turn." She crouched behind a small boiler and waited for Carson to almost fall head first down the ladder.
"Who the bluidy 'ell's that?!?!" came a strong Scottish-accented voice from nearby. That actually tripped Carson up. He positively went flying.
"What is it, Steve?" Brian's voice.
"Dunno, some a$$ has just fell down the entrance ladder!" Steve.
Stacey quickly ducked down further until she was hidden. She used this opportunity to really look around.... and she was amazed by what she saw. As Carson was being confronted less than five feet away, she took in the view. A massive, million gallon oil reserve hidden underground... and acres of humming, roaring machinery turning it into jet fuel and byproducts for UAL's use. Too few staff to monitor the operations, the place was practically deserted. The place had once been alive and bustling... but now it seemed to be running on tired legs. Stacey was worried. There were going to be more plane disasters if this went on.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Suddenly, commotion broke out from near where Stacey was crouching.
"Get your hands off me!!" Carson yelled. Stacey peered around the boiler to find him struggling furiously against Brian and who she assumed was Steve. "Good God!" she whispered under her breath.
Finally, Carson, being the tallest and strongest man Stacey had probably ever met, kicked Brian where it hurt and punched the Scotsman in the face. "Watch it, laddie!" he shouted, face growing red. He leapt over Brian's body as Carson ran off and disappeared between two angrily hissing machines. Stacey knew GlideCorp had gone into alert mode. She was going to get hurt if she didn't move, she could hear the shouts growing closer already.
Diving through a small gap nearby, she found herself teetering on the edge of the crude reservoir.
"HELP!" she shrieked, losing her footing and toppling into the sticky black liquid.
Carson and her eyes met for just a second, before she went under. Kicking furiously but not going anywhere, Stacey floundered and thought that she finally knew what it felt like to be a seabird in an oilspill. And then, as if God had not forgotten her, she found a pipe. The pipe led towards the surface: it was one of the ones used to pump the crude to the refinery. Slowly inching her way up, not daring to let go, Stacey surfaced and scooped the disgusting oil out of her mouth so she could breathe. Still running blind, she could hear something that sounded like Carson's voice shouting at her.

Carson, over on the south "bank" of the reservoir, had Steve and about three other men coming at him from different directions.
"Stacey!!! Don't move!!" he yelled, diving underneath a nearby bank of storage containers. Underneath, he found obvious evidence of drug use on the job, and scrunched up his nose in horror. What sort of a DUMP was Sheila smith running? This was a public hazard! Sliding on his belly, he emerged on the other end to a pair of legs. He reached out and whacked them from behind the knees with a length of steel he'd located nearby, and the owner of the legs sank to the ground moaning.
Pulling himself off the ground, Carson looked around frantically for the reservoir's location. The enormous forest of machinery was impossible to navigate in without understanding the signage. Another man suddenly grabbed him from behind and wrapped an arm round his neck. Carson's adrenaline kicked in even more and, remembering from self defence training, stomped hard on his assailan't foot, hearing the bones crunch satisfactorily.

Stacey had hauled herself up onto the side of the reservoir, feeling like she weighed a ton. The oil clung to her clothes and hair, but she had managed to clear it away from her eyes with a thick pile of documents on a nearby table. Carson was running towards her. her head spun: what was going on/ That's when Brian Southton grabbed onto her from behind and something jabbed her in the arm...

 

[Fierlin1182]

Stacey couldn't feel any particular pain, so she guessed it wasn't a knife. Brian's fingers, most likely.
"Got you," he said calmly, giving no indication that his balls had just gotten a mighty whack less than five minutes ago.
Stacey knew she looked horrific, covered in sticky black oil. It was oozing all over Brian's hands, she could see.
"Trying to bust out the only thing that's keeping our airline afloat, huh?"
"How about we try honesty," she snapped. "Hundreds of people have died because of this little game of yours."
Brian laughed. "Game? My dear, it's called business."
He really drew out a knife this time. "Now, what're we going to do with you? Can't have you ratting us out, can we?"
Stacey looked around wildly for Carson, who had decided to make himself hidden. I will not panic.
"There are others who know," she spun, buying for time. Where the hell was Carson?!
Brian didn't even blink. "I see. Well, search all they want, they're not going to be able to find us. They aren't the ones who planted tracking devices in my briefcase, are they? This place isn't even-"
But Stacey heard no more. Her head was spinning. It was Brian! Brian found the bugs! Sheila Smith probably didn't even know anything about it. It was Brian from the very start... He must have tampered with their plane. It was him!
"It was you," she spat, interrupting him mid-sentence.
He smirked. "Indeed, it was. Sheila, the little coward, wouldn't let me do anything to you."
"At least someone around here has a heart."
"Sheila was rather bothered about laying off staff and having hundreds of people killed by her airline too."
"I should've known, dammit! It was YOU!"
"And soon, for the sake of the airline, I'm going to take out the top spot. We have no time for weaklings like Sheila Smith anymore."
There was a heavy silence.
"You're going to KILL Sheila?!"
It was at this moment that Carson chose to strike. He launched himself at Brian from behind, knocking him off balance and the knife into the crude pond. But it was done: Stacey and Carson knew enough already.
Brian gave a shout and fell onto the ground, looking ready to put up a fight. Stacey cowered behind some nearby machinery as the two men rolled on the ground, punching each other in the face. Dangerously close to the edge, Brian lost his balance...
Stacey felt more than heard him fall. There was a big gloop... and then Brian was covered, head to toe, in the same oil she was, his mouth above the surface and gasping for air.
"Come on. We have to get out of here." Carson panted. Brian was already hauling himself out of the reservoir.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Fourteen years ago

Katy walked out of the university with her head held high. She was the owner of a sophisticated degree, and had huge ambitions for her future. She was one day going to be a powerful, respected woman...
But first things first, she was going to officially change her name. With several job interviews lined up, she figured now would be a better time than ever.

And that's how Katy became...

 

[crazyaboutchickens]

 

[Fierlin1182]

The entrance hatch door to GlideCorp flew open.

Sheila Smith stood at the top of the ladder and her jaw fell open.
There was Brian Southton, one of her top executives, struggling out of the crude oil reservoir, and another strange woman covered in the stuff cowering behind a nearby boiler. And what was the guy in the suit doing?! She'd never seen him before in her life.
"Brian! What is going on?!" she shouted.
But it only took one look into Brian's eyes: they were so full of hatred and greed that she immediately knew: it was them.
Despite Brian's attempts, they had made it to GlideCorp and were going to expose UAL to the world.

Brian was one of Sheila's most respected board members, and so she had never seen this side of him before. Holding this knife, he was glaring and lunging towards that defenceless woman.... Stacey Mansfield. Sheila knew Stacey, back when she had built up her empire around her. Stacey was someone she had admired, being that young girl in university with the dreams and ambition. She had wanted to be like Stacey.

And here was her hero, helpless, covered in disgusting oil, totally at the mercy of one horrendous man.
And suddenly she was back there again. She was Katy, thirteen years old, and facing the full wrath of her father. The chair flying... the hitting... the stench of alcohol on his breath.

For the first time in over thirty years, Sheila Smith felt vulnerable.
She also felt like maybe it was time to finally take a stand for what she believed in.
Brian was not yet out of the reservoir. She knew now that this man was evil, just like her dad. Only concerned about himself. And somehow she felt like her life was in danger.

That was when she realised. Brian with the knife was not heading for Stacey. Brian was heading straight for her.
Thinking on her feet, Sheila pulled a cigarette lighter out of her pocket, and, taking a breath, threw it into the reservoir. The sound of the flames drowned out Brian's shouts.

There was everything Sheila had ever worked for, gone up in flames. "Come on!" she waved frantically to Stacey and Carson, who too had oil on his body. "Quickly!"
Her future... her airline...
Sheila turned her back on it all. The lies. It was time to stop running.