Stranded

After Draco had told everyone about his experience with the monstrous creature, they were all left speechless. 

The monster wanted them to feed it humans!? Who in their right mind would do that?

Amber stepped forward, "You have to be kidding, that's ridiculous! Isn't the monster sleeping now? Let's just run before it wakes back up." she said.

However, Draco shook his head. 

"You don't get it. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Who can say that they've had the chance to talk to a living progenitor?" he said, appealing to Amber's scientific mind. 

Draco looked towards the bone spurs sticking out of the sand in the distance. 

He continued, "It was saying that I smelled familiar, I think it has something to do with my pro-serum. All I know is that we could potentially befriend a progenitor. Monster or not, having such an ally would be helpful to our cause."

Draco could see that he was swaying some of the scientists, and the soldiers would have been willing to do anything for Draco. 

Except, Snow abruptly spoke up. She was clearly not on board.

"Draco, killing people is wrong! And you want to feed them to a monster? No way!" she yelled angrily. 

Draco chuckled when he heard Snow's outburst. 

He placed a hand on her white hair, and he took the time to brush some loose sand out of it. 

"Snow, people die all the time. This is the way of life, and besides, killing bad people is good." Draco explained to her. 

Snow was seemingly unconvinced, so Draco continued.

"We will only punish bad people, people that deserve it. We can save many lives while only taking a few." 

Snow finally relented, and she sighed lightly, "You promise? Promise me that you'll on hurt bad people." 

Draco nodded his head, "I promise." 

He didn't say who exactly he considered 'bad' people, but that was a conversation for a different time. 

After Snow had agreed to Draco's plan, Amber spoke up as well. 

"You can do what you want, but I will have no part in it. I will stay in your party as long as you give me an opportunity to study the progenitor." she said.

This was evidently how the other scientists felt, for Draco saw them all nodding their heads in agreement. 

"Of course! That was part of our initial agreement anyways." Draco replied. 

'Now, I wonder where we're going to get people for our task.' Draco thought to himself.

When Draco looked around, he realized something dismaying. 

'That f*cking creature, he destroyed all of our vehicles!' he realized. 

After all, their entire camp was sitting on top of Formica's back. Once the progenitor woke up all of their tents and vehicles sunk into the desert. 

All of their supplies, vehicles, and weapons were now buried under thousands of pounds of sand!

Draco also belatedly realized that the paralyzed Yougo was missing as well.

He assumed that the man had been buried alive under the sand during the commotion.

'Wait.. My treasure!' Draco suddenly thought, his heart beating rapidly. 

Draco ran over to where their camp was, and he looked around frantically for the giant chest containing his riches. 

Not only was all of Draco's money lost, but also the schematics he had found for manufacturing progenitor serum. 

Draco continued to look for almost thirty minutes, but he was about to give up. 

The sun was now rising, and he knew that his group wouldn't last long under the sun's intense heat without any shelter or supplies. 

However, as sunlight shone above Formica's resting spot, Draco's eye caught something sticking out of the ground. 

It was quite far from where their camp was, but Draco hurriedly ran over to it. 

Once Draco was there he saw that it was something black sticking out of the sand, and when he looked closer it looked familiar. 

Draco quickly got down and began to dig it out. 

The object revealed itself as Draco dug, and it became apparent that it was his crate filled with cash. 

Once most of the box was mostly out, Draco heaved and pulled it loose from the sand. 

Draco thought that his loot was gone forever, but words couldn't describe the relief in his heart when he saw that at least some of his riches weren't lost. 

He was lucky he had stored his documents in there as well. He previously considered leaving them inside his chest of gold, but he was glad he hadn't. 

Draco couldn't help it and burst out laughing. 

He laughed at the irony of it all, he laughed at the fact that he was still alive, and he laughed about how he was now stranded in the desert. 

When the group approached Draco and saw that he was laughing like a madman, they thought that he had gone crazy. 

"D-Draco, are you okay?" Snow asked, walking up behind Draco to lay a hand on his back. 

Draco turned around and smiled, "Never been better."

He looked at the group that was staring at him, they were all wondering what their next move was. 

"Come on, we need to get moving. We have a long journey ahead of us." Draco said, motioning at everyone to follow him. 

The group headed north, using the rising sun as a reference point to determine their direction. 

Draco didn't know where to go without a map, but he knew that the city of Benghazi was at least a few hundred more miles north of them. 

As the group began to walk, one of the scientists spotted something in the sand and called out to everyone. 

When Draco looked closer, he saw that a leather object was sticking out of the sand. 

"That's my whip!" Draco shouted, running up to pull it out of the sand. 

Suddenly, Draco had an idea. 

"Everyone, spread out and look through the sand for our supplies. Or anything of value for that matter." he said. 

The group moved out after that, combing through the surrounding desert to find anything of interest. 

A short while later Addo called out that he found something. 

Draco approached and helped him pull a small crate out of the sand. When they opened it up, they found that it contained packages of food. 

Another soldier found a box as well, but it only contained random camping supplies. 

No one else was able to find anything. Draco hoped someone would have at least found some water, but Draco still counted his blessings. 

The group formed back up and left the area carrying what they were able to salvage. 

The sun had now risen, and it beamed down on everyone with an intense heat that threatened to give the group heat stroke. 

They traveled for nearly an hour, but their pace slowed as the group inevitably got weary from the heat. 

As they walked through the desert, Draco knew they wouldn't make it much further without water. 

Another hour passed without incident, but the group's pace had now slowed to a crawl. 

Draco heard a panicked shout and turned around to see one of the scientists had passed out from heat exhaustion. 

He knew they wouldn't last long like this, for even he was slowly starting to be affected by the intense heat. 

Draco went over and picked up the unconscious scientist, and he carried him on his back as he led the group forward again. 

Draco's enhanced eyesight spotted a rather large sand dune in the distance. 

Its position meant that the sun was on the other side of it, and Draco saw that there was a small patch of shade beside it. 

Draco led the group to this sand dune, and once they reached it everyone collapsed as they rested against it. 

Snow seemed to be doing fine, all things considered. However, the scientists were worse off than the soldiers.

It took several minutes for everyone to stop panting, but even with the shade the heat was still miserable. 

The group sat against the dude for a long while, but Draco knew they had to move out again. They had no water, and no amount of rest would replenish their lost sweat. 

Draco understood that they had to find water soon, or all of his people would start dying from heat-stroke. 

While Draco was preparing to head back out, he saw movement off in the distance. 

It must've been a couple miles away, and Draco couldn't quite tell what it was. However, he was certain he saw a dark figure moving through the desert. 

"I think I see people!" Draco announced, drawing the attention of the group.