(This is breaking post order like whoa, but I'm also about to go inactive and need to get out of the way before i go Away) She hadn't even realized there could be a wrong answer. But of course there was, and of course Oscar had found it, of course Oscar could and would expound for hours on why he wa...

How many more times was this going to happen? There wasn't even any If I stay to it. If Zoe stayed, if she stood stalwart on this newly hallowed ground, it'd happen here and it'd happen soon and it'd happen with these people. But to say her goodbyes and try her luck somewhere else, what would that s...

Never was about where the car would take them. Only math in Zoe's head, only three and two makes five, only the hope that three and two would now make five. Math is how we stay alive, we add and add and add, more of us together, more of us friends, more of us not killing. And when whoever comes on t...

On some faraway corner of the island, Andi driving and Gray shotgun and they're fast, strong, invincible, here in their fortress called Jalopy . But on this corner of the island, it won't start and it won't start and it won't start till she blames him, yells at him, and then they give up on more tha...

Zoe Leverett continued from Waking Up at the Beginning of Time Something of a pleasant metronome as the driftwood intoned its command, just a forward forward forward forward forward droning from now till the still-distant sunset, rang out in a rhythm that Zoe had honestly considered timing her strid...

It made him look more like a leader, the plank of driftwood, if you ignored that it wasn't a fasces and never would be, nor a scepter, nor a sword, just a board of wood whose shortcomings we'd have to ignore, but o, so much willful ignorance to be done on this island, and so generous a leader to giv...

Hesitation spoke so softly, so hopeful the overtures to stay, stay. And if over this hill we go, for the sake of a taller tower, might we make it with heads held high and a worth-it-after-all? Seemed so distant, faint little figment rising off from below, seemed so false and fickle with its worth-it...

Yes, but what was home. O, but she could give it such a good shot. Here's something silly like a ziggurat, something out of sandstone with its gardens hanging down, bent low in reverence of four silhouettes so spare they could be stick figures, and beneath it in a calculated crayon its title: Home ....

She'd wished for a frame worth freezing, maybe, and forgotten all about it. Zoe on the shore, we've seen her like this before, her hands are empty, harmless. And his bent knee, arm out. And he's friendly, charming, up in his tower you can maybe hear his silence say Milady . And if she took his hand,...

G029 Zoe Leverett start. Sing a song for your favorite child soldiers, shoulders holding steady all along the battle line and here's a cheer for the righteous, cheer for the wicked, cheer for those who won't play a part as they stand so ready to play their parts, leaving only these: the lonely, the ...

Preconditions are for ... Cowards, for weasels, for Jeremy. Who's the bravest man in the room, biggest gun in his hand, threatening I'll walk , shouting I'm a coward in the loudest way of all? Nothing louder, nothing bolder, than that moment where you get up, stand tall, and run. Nothing more comman...

Don't be shy now. "Dude, that's bullshit, Aaron isn't even- you didn't even answer. You weren't always on this island. Come on, eighteen years worth of cool stuff and you've got nothing? Go." A whirlwind of impotent childlike rage wishing so hard she had the strength left to yell at him an...

And everything within her begged at once that if she was gonna fall, if she was gonna admit to that bit of mortality, if she was gonna give up on the hope of poking her belly and cracking her neck and realizing she wasn't dying after all, could she at least fall backwards? Fall away. From him and hi...

You shot me. Nothing else to say. Nothing but stillness in the air and a ringing in her ears. And the boy in front of her, this silhouette standing so still. Wished he would move just so she could know time was still going. Just blink. Just anything. He blinked. Okay. Still going. Still breathing. H...

(Charlie DuClare continued from Lies Lies Lies ) Playing hide and seek with a miracle. Where is it? Behind that tree, over that hill, probably maybe- nope! Good guess, though. Good guess and keep searching, checking anywhere for evidence of anything. Anything. It would be alright if she turned over ...