First Contact - POW - Non - Challenge

"Hey, Brown! Hand me that crowbar." growled Bob Burrows. He raised an eyebrow as Dana Brown gingerly handed the tool over, wiping her hand on her pants. "What's your problem, Brown? Afraid of a little dirt?"

Dana finished wiping up and began digging through the rest of the tools. She grinned at Burrows, "Nah, just don't like having my hands in gerrag poop. It's all over down here. During the rainy season we could probably drown in gerrag pee, too. Really nasty down here, Bob."

"Well, don't worry about that, Brown. We'll be out of here before the rainy season hits, long before." Burrows turned back to his work. A minute later rocks tumbled down and settled around his feet, a few narrowly missing his head.

"Ok, you and Grant get rid of these. We're making some progress. At this rate we should be out before tomorrow night." Burrows stepped out to let Brown and Grant into the crowded area at the base of the rock wall, to clear the rubble.

Wiping his face he surveyed their work so far. The makeshift camp housed what was left of the patrol. The cave-in cost them five members of the party, including Head Linguist Sandra Rowe and left two wounded, Rowan Burrows and Harry Rowland. It had been a harrowing time for them all.

Burrows turned his attention to the two wounded scientists. Sammie Harper didn't look good, with internal bleeding. Rowan Burrows, his daughter, had been so excited to be making first contact. Now she had a broken arm and a large contusion on her brow. As he sat smoothing her furrowed brow, he thought back to the beginning to the day. There had been high hopes of this first off-world attempt to contact an alien race. They had studied the planet's inhabitants, a race who called themselves rrangeurds, which the linguists translated to mean the same as humans calling themselves people.

The landing party touched down in a small clearing away from the settlement just before dawn. They disembarked, cloaked the ship and entered the cave to await sunrise. The thinking was to enter town, at midmorning, as though they were traders from another settlement. Securing the cave they found remains of inhabitation and decided to investigate. The quake hit and the ceiling had collapsed on their party. Now, the hopes of making first contact was fading fast.

"Hey Burrows, get over here! There's something on the other side. Someone's digging in!" Brown hollered. "I think we're being rescued."

Burrows hurried to the rock fall. He could hear sounds, voices coming through the rubble. "Hey! We are in here!" He and Brown began to tear at the rocks, throwing them as fast as they could. An opening appeared, they were dazzled by the daylight pouring in.

"Oh, thank God! Rowe! Sandra! How did you get out there? Huh?" Burrows found himself face to face with an alien being as he pulled himself up to the hole they opened.

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This is a weekly short story (500 word limit) challenge using a specific 3-letter word, shown highlighted. This weeks word, is . If you like this story you might like some of my other writings which you can find at http://aries18.gather.com/. If you think you would enjoy this kind of a challenge, please join our group at http://playonwords.gather.com/. We have a great group owner, Ernie, who makes this so much fun! There are prizes, awards and lots of writing fun! Give us a try. You won't regret it! If poetry is more your thing, Ernie has a group for that too, a sister group called Poetry Play on Words at http://poetrypow.gather.com/