((Gavin Hunter continued from Calamity.))
((All writing credit to this post goes to Ghost of Ravenstar, Laurels, JillSandwich93, Randomness, and Firedog. All GMing was approved.))
((Note: This post had to be split into two parts as apparently Zetaboards doesn't like processing more than 30 pages of text in one go. Yes, it's that long.))
The apartment complexes that littered the south side of town were not the most charming of places to end up in. They were for the most part unsightly hulks of crumbling stone and corroded metal, standing (or swaying) as silent proof that even a supposedly affluent tourist community still needed its fair share of minimum-wage slaves to keep it operating efficiently. No other section of town had so quickly fallen into disrepair, for the buildings here had been designed using the cheapest materials and labour, leaving them far more susceptible to the elements than places like the mansions or the gated community.
The apartment complexes were, in short, not an idyllic place to spend the night in. However, they had the advantage of being anonymous. Nowhere else in the whole town presented so many good hiding places. A small group could hide here from a rampaging mob and expect them to have worked themselves to exhaustion before managing to search through even half of the ugly, square buildings which towered above them. A bloody murder could be going on in one of those buildings right this instant and nobody from the street would have had any way to tell.
Gavin Hunter led his little band of students down one of these streets now. He was tired; they all were. The extra supplies he had loaded them all down with had made the long trip from the shopping centre to the town harder than it needed to have been, and they had stopped several times to take breaks and ease the weight from their shoulders. But even with the breaks, he could tell that his band was starting to flag. His own back was starting to ache; he needed rest, like everybody else.
To this end, Gavin trudged on until he was standing at the entrance of the apartment block that stood closest to the great expanse of sand that marked the beginning of the western beach. It was there that Gavin was supposed to meet Karen Idel, and he chose this building as it had the best view of the area.
It was with a great sense of relief that he swung open the rusty courtyard gate and showed the rest of his group inside. The main doors to the block were hanging ajar, as Gavin had expected them to be. He suspected that most of the doors would be open, and any that weren't would be pathetically easy to break down after all these years.
Once they had all filed into the reception area, Gavin swung his cursedly heavy pack down off his shoulders and turned to address the rest of the group. Although nobody had officially appointed him as leader, he felt a strange obligation to make a speech. Therefore, he allowed himself to be the first to break the tired silence that had existed between them for some time now.
"We're here," he began somewhat inadequately, but then continued in a more confident voice. "I apologise for any discomfort you've endured during this trip, but I can only express my sincere thanks that you consented to help carry my supplies for me such a long way. If you'd be kind enough to leave them here for me, I'll cart them up to a room myself after I've picked one and had a brief rest. I might be going out again later, just to grab some more materials from a few of the shops we passed on the way down, but rest assured that I'll be back well before dark. Please, make yourselves comfortable, and thank you again for your help."
Gavin cleared his throat, feeling slightly awkward. The speech had been excessively formal, but sincere despite that. Unable to think of anything else much to say, and feeling a blush coming to his cheeks, he turned and slumped into the nearest chair in the lobby. It creaked alarming under his weight, but after a brief moment of architectural uncertainty, decided to remain intact. Gavin had no intention of moving again for a long while.
"It's fine. I'm just glad to help," Sophie said as she handed her bag over to Gavin. Removing the heavy bag from her shoulders was a relief. She figured she could jump a lot higher with the extra weight burned off. She wiggled her shoulders around as she looked at the area around her.
It wasn't the most scenic location they could have found to hide out in, but it would do for now. Gavin had shown her the sheet of paper, and they needed to wait for his friend, Karen, to show up tomorrow to discuss how to escape. Sophie found herself feeling extra giddy when she read the paper. These two really did have hopes of escaping. Sure, it seemed a bit rough from what Karen wrote, but perhaps Karen found the one kid who could remove the collars with ease.
Sophie sat on the floor of the reception area and removed the slippers. While they had ultimately served their purpose, they did provide a bit of discomfort. Her feet were covered, but the soles weren't the thickest, so she felt every impression on the ground as they walked. Her feet looked fine, but she needed to take a few minutes to rub them in order to remove the feeling of the ground's impressions.
Sophie began to rub her feet.
"Hey, does someone have something to drink? I'm a bit thirsty," she asked the others.
Alex felt glad that he was once again in an area that he could rest easily. His spirits had been greatly lifted with a simple piece of paper that had been shown to him on the way over. He was in a large group of friendly people and he genuinely believed he had a chance of surviving.
Alex put his duffel down and dug out a mostly finished bottle of water. He made sure Sophie was paying attention before tossing it to her and saying, "Here, this should have enough water for a few drinks." Alex had done a good job of rationing his water and though he had a dry mouth, he still had a few bottles left.
"Oh, thanks!" Sophie said as she caught the bottle. She took a quick sip and sighed in relief.
Finding a chair to sit down in Alex looked out across the group and let out a wide smile. He really thought that there was a chance they would all live.
Grace felt horrid seeing the others' fatigue as they placed their bags down. She had carried close to nothing a good portion of the way, only managing to get Gavin to pass the bag to her near the end of the park. It didn't seem fair to the rest of them who had carried their bags the entire way.
She slumped herself against a wall, searching through the bag for some food. Hunger was starting to set in. She hadn't eaten much, had she? One crummy ration bar and a tin of what had looked like baked beans but had ended up tasting sufficiently unlike it to make her worry.
"Anyone else want a can of... Well, I think this is tuna at least." she said, after peeking at a promising looking tin.
Megan threw her duffel bag by Gavin and collapsed to the floor, using it as a makeshift pillow. God, she was tired. Climbing that tower and getting lost in the woods on the first day was bad enough, but being a pack mule for Gavin's random shit was what broke the camel's back. Her clothes were one with her now. She thought about changing into the other set of clothes she had (minus the one she lent to Mirabella as a makeshift tissue and never got back) the night before, but it seemed like it was good intuition to hold off on it. Then again, what she really needed was a long, hot shower, but what can you do?
Megan lay there daydreaming as the people around her began to talk. Grace mentioned something about tuna, but Megan didn't feel ready to take the risk yet. She was hungry enough to eat at Arby's by this point, but the fact that some of the sell-by labels expired when she was like nine years old frightened her. As bad as getting shot at, or being stabbed, or bleeding out, or being pushed down a set of stairs was, botulism was terrifying. Maybe it was something silly to freak over, but she couldn't not think about it.
After a few moments to settle down, Megan opened her bag and grabbed the rest of the rations she worked on during the day. She stood up and walked down the hall away from the reception area. "I'm gonna take a look around. Make sure we're, ya know, alone; that kind of thing."
"I'll go with you if you like."
Gavin surprised himself by saying this. He was tired, emotionally as well as physically drained, wanting nothing more than to sleep for several hours. Yet he also knew there were still things he needed to do before the day was out, and any excuse to get up and keep moving was a good one so long as it helped stave off encroaching unconsciousness.
The chair creaked as he pushed himself upright again, the old wood protesting at the weight of his body straining joints that hadn't been disturbed in close to a decade. If he let himself fall asleep here, he'd wake up in agony. It was better to keep moving, despite his tiredness. The pretext of exploring the building made as good an excuse as any other.
Megan whipped around to see Gavin getting up from his chair. "Oh, no no no. I'll be okay," she shook her head while running up to him. She pushed him back down in the chair. "You should stay here, make sure no one takes our bags."
Megan scanned the room for the other companions. "...Not that it's like I don't trust anyone here! It's just, ya know, you'd be the hardest person to take down out of all of us. You found that gun, right? Just sit down, and I'll be back. Don't worry."
Gavin grudgingly let himself be pushed back down into his seat. "Alright then," he conceded grudgingly. "I'll try and keep my eyes open for a little while longer."
He softened his tone as Megan began to turn away. "Be careful, this place probably isn't very safe to be wandering around in. I wouldn't put my trust in the stability of the upper floors if I was you. Not after a decade of neglect, anyway."
Megan rolled her eyes as she kept walking. Yeah, yeah, Gavin.
Sophie stretched her arms in the air. Being a dancer, she knew she had to keep her limbs stretched and in good shape or else she could be in real trouble.
"Well, Grace, Alex, or I could go with you if you'd like," Sophie said to Megan. "There's not much else for us to do now other than take inventory of the canned goods, so I'm sure any of us would be willing to help."
"Yeah," Megan responded to Sophie. "Good point. Just one other person should be fine, 'case something happens. Anyone wanna go?"
"I'll go. I'd like to take a look around anyway," said Grace. It was a half lie, but she decided that helping out would be better. If she didn't go, she probably would just sit at the side doing nothing. Might as well do something while she still had some motivation.
Grace seemed cool enough, so Megan had no complaints. Then again, she did have a gun, so maybe it was the exact opposite.
"All right then. Grace and I will check the building out, so just sit tight." Megan nodded her head at Grace before making her way down the hall again. "Let's go."
Alex watched the two go off before raising his head off the back of the chair and looking at the two companions left in the room. It was clear that both of them were as tired as him but Alex wanted to make some sort of conversation. The best he could come up with was a half-hearted joke, "Either of you want to learn French?"
"Oh, I know a bit of French," Sophie said to Alex. "Mostly from songs my Mom taught me, like 'La vie en rose' and 'Le temps de l'amour.' I could teach you guys those songs as well."
Sophie chuckled. The idea of Gavin and Alex singing Edith Piaf or Francoise Hardy sounded pretty hilarious to her. Then again, she knew Alex had a decent voice from choir, and Gavin might secretly be Andrea Boccelli under the trenchcoat, so there was no telling what they would sound like.
"Not for me, thanks," Gavin said, raising a hand in a brief dismissal of the notion before letting it fall back to the arm of his chair with a thud and a creaking noise. "I don't particularly like French. My voice is too deep for it. I could probably manage a decent Heart of Oak if anybody is interested, though. Or the Russian National Anthem."
Alex thought about learning the songs but then replied, "I guess no to the music then, to be honest I didn't have the energy to teach any French either." Alex's stomach then began to grumble. Though he had been rationing his food so that he wouldn't be hungry, he realized that he had been doing it for someone that had a normal metabolism.
"Fuck, I haven't been eating enough food." Sophie seemed to be the closest to the canned foods so Alex addressed her next, "Can you throw me any food that looks like it might taste good and be filling?"
"Oh, sure," Sophie said.
Sophie began to search through the bag of canned food. Even though the food was long expired, there had to be something that would be slightly safe to eat.
Gavin spotted what Sophie was doing and raised himself up in his chair again, slowly flexing his muscles to work some life back into them. Then he bent forward and opened Megan's pack, plucking out an aluminium can and bringing it up to his ear. He shook it a few times, heard a faint sloshing sound, then placed it back inside the bag with a shrug.
"Probably more baked beans," he said disinterestedly, then lifted his head to look at the other two. "You can kind of tell what's inside by the way they sound and feel when you shake them. Soft stuff like baked beans just slosh about, but harder stuff like pineapple chunks or carrots tend to bump against the sides of the tin under your fingers. I learned that yesterday."
He grinned aimlessly and leant back in his chair, which obliged him with another creak of protest. It was nice to be talking about something other than personal issues or the violence of classmates.
Gavin's lesson in how to determine what was in the cans peaked Alex's interest, mostly just the part about the food though. "See if you can get me some pineapple chunks then. I really love those." Alex prepared his taste buds for the tropical taste he was hoping for; it would suck if what he got was something else and his flavors would be mixed up, but he wouldn't waste anything else he got.
"This place feels oddly like home when you forget what home feels like." Alex tried to use his imagination to fill in his computer and other amenities that he didn't have. "I'm sure if I could right now I would just be aimlessly browsing the internet, possibly reading some manga or watching anime. It's kind of funny to think that that was what I was doing just... however long ago." He thought about how long ago they had been abducted. He knew he had been on the island for two days, but he had no idea how long they had been kept unconscious before they woke them up and threw them out.
Alex stood up and moved over to Sophie to start looking through the cans with her. Unfortunately most of the cans he picked up were soft things when he tested them. Searching for a can wasn't really a two person job but it felt better to be close to someone than it did to be sitting alone.
"Yeah, how long do you think we've been missing?" Sophie asked as she looked at one of the cans. She was having trouble reading the faded label, but she decided to go ahead and open it.
"I mean, the authorities would have had to have noticed that we've gone missing, right? Should someone be looking for us?"
Sophie smelled the contents of the can. It smelled strange, but it slightly resembled tuna or canned crab.
"Maybe this stuff might be better on the crackers," she noted.
"We haven't been missing long," Gavin said decisively. "Keeping someone sedated for a long period of time leaves the muscles atrophied due to the physical inactivity, so we weren't unconscious for very long."
He raised a hand and scratched at his chin, feeling the thick crop of stubble that seemed to be growing at a rate of inches. "Plus I've only got about four days growth on my beard, since I shaved right before the trip. That means we've been gone less than a week, unless some terrorist was kind enough to give all the boys a shave before dropping them on the island."
Sophie chuckled. She could picture a squad of menacing terrorists giving all the boys in the class shaves in old-timey barber chairs using straight razors. She could then imagine the female terrorists giving all the girls pedicures and manicures while gossiping about how one male terrorist was totally cheating on a female terrorist. It was an image she'd love to have seen.
Alex looked over at the can Sophie had opened up and reached his hand over to take a small pinch of it. After doing so he took it to his mouth and tried to appreciate the flavor. It was definitely seafood-y, but with its considerable age it was hard to discern what it was.
"Yeah, this would be better on crackers. We can probably share one of the tins from the rations." Alex reached into what he thought was his duffel and took out a tin and opened it; doing so he held it out to Sophie. "Hungry?"
"Oh, definitely," Sophie said, reaching for a cracker from Alex's tin. She dipped the cracker in the can of Something and scooped some out. She lifted it up and quickly put the whole cracker in her mouth.
Sophie felt herself quickly gag, but she quickly chewed the cracker regardless. It has a metallic and sour taste to it, but it was still protein, so she had to be brave and swallow it all down.
"Mmmm," she said, wiping her mouth, "divine!"
"I'm sure it is," said Gavin with a small smirk. "I think I'll stick to the ration bars, personally. Bland beats ancient any day."
He shifted himself a little further upright, groaning slightly as he placed pressure on already strained muscles. It would've been nice to stay slumped in the chair a while longer, but time simply didn't permit it. With a substantial effort and much creaking from the chair beneath him, Gavin pushed himself to his feet and took a few experimental steps to get his circulation going again.
"When Megan comes back, I'm going out again," he explained. "I need to go see if there's a gardening supply store and a sporting goods store somewhere in town. They've got the last few supplies I need for my project."
------
Grace followed Megan down the hall into the interior of the building. The lighting was a little too dim for her taste but it was more than enough to see by.
Two girls exploring a dim hallway on the middle of Murder Island. It all seemed so surreal, like some movie set brought to life. And yet, it somehow seemed so ordinary at the same time, plain walls, a couple doors to who knows where and a concrete stairwell at the end of the hallway.
"So," she paused, not sure what to say. "You and Gavin are pretty close, huh? Have you guys known each other long?" she said, while trying one of the doors. The door didn't budge.
"Not really," Megan said as she tried to open one of the doors. No good here either. She kept walking along, checking for any doors that might still actually open. "I've only known him since the end of sophomore year, I think? Beginning of junior year? Something like that."
Megan tried to think back to when she first met Gavin, but she just couldn't remember. Jeez, was this like how getting old felt, that you can't remember something from just two years ago?
"Two years, huh? Feels like a long time to me." Grace looked down a moment.
Two years. It'd been that long since she had moved over from Mannheim. And in that time, she'd barely kept up with her old friends. They had been pretty close while she was there, but the moment she left, it was as if they didn't exist anymore. She was a bad friend, wasn't she?
"Yeah, I guess. Then again, I've only been in Seattle for, like, three years, and it sure as hell feels longer than that." Megan tried another door. And...no luck. The lock was jammed.
"Gah, looks like there's nothing here, wanna try upstairs?" Grace asked, irritated at all the locked doors. Why the hell was this island deserted anyway? They seemed to have time to prepare to leave given that they remembered to lock the doors. Why did they lock the doors in the first place?
Megan nodded her head. "Yeah, let's check out the upper floors." She thought about suggesting to break down the locked doors, but she had way enough physical exertion for one day.
A cursory look at the upper floors gave similar results, empty rooms and locked doors most of the way. Perhaps there were a couple things of interest kept hidden in pantries or closets, but for her part, Grace didn't search very thoroughly. It was good enough that there was no one else here.
There was only one door left: the access for the roof.
Megan turned the handle on the marked door with ease, and it opened up to the flat, gray landscape with a gorgeous view.
The late-afternoon skyline of the ocean and beach stunned Megan. The orange of the sky and beach touching the blue of the endless water was a sight to behold. The sea of buildings fading into trees wasn't a bad view either, but that beach... Even with its imperfections like the ugly ass ship cutting into the scenery from one angle, it was a vista.
Megan gazed past the shore's horizon, wondering if she and Grace would be the last people to see this.
"You know," Grace leaned against a guardrail. "The Nazi's had a theory about ruin value, or ruinenwert as they said. And so they built huge structures that would stand the test of time. I saw some of them in my couple years in Germany. Big hunks of junk. But the view of this town makes me think, maybe they were right about something."
Grace looked back up at Megan before laughing a little. "And you were looking in the other direction the whole time."
"...Hmm?" Megan broke from her trance and turned to Grace, who was facing the opposite side of the roof. "Oh, yeah." She looked back at the beach skyline. "You're a military kid, right? Were one of your parents stationed at Germany?"
"Yeah. My dad was stationed at Taylor Barracks for a couple years. Mannheim's a nice city. Nice people in camp too. Quite liked my time there.
"But the whole thing's gone now. They passed it back to the German government shortly after we moved back to the States. I've got no idea where half my friends are now."
"Tch. That blows." And here Megan thought she was really distanced from her old friends. Poor Grace had friends all the way across the Atlantic that she had no clue where they were. At least if Karen actually had a plan to escape and they all got off the island, Grace's old friends could easily find her.
Megan stepped to the other side of the roof where Grace was. The ruins of the town did have some sort of beauty to it. Maybe the Nazis were right about one thing.
"I bet Germany was cool. It probably didn't rain every other day like in Seattle, but I wouldn't know. I've never been out of the U.S. Plus, I'm terrible in Geography. I didn't even know there was a Mountain Time Zone until last month. God knows how I ever passed the 7th grade."
"l take it you never liked Geog. I never liked the subject or the teachers but somehow my grades still turned out alright. I don't know why but it was sort of irritating, really, doing well in a subject I hated."
Grace stared out at the town a little longer. If the building were a little taller she could probably be able to see the ocean on this side as well. It reminded her of the view from the Space Needle, the edge of the coast curving off into the distance.
"Yeah, Germany was great. Mild weather year round. The Rhine was cool too and we had a forest right across from the barracks. I never really got used to Seattle. The cold. The rain. The endless clouds. But you know what? Now that I'm stuck here I really miss it all."
"Yeah, me too." Megan looked over the city one last time and sighed. Too bad Francis or Bella or Theo or Hansel or anyone else weren't here to see this view.
Shit, that was right. Megan was going to have to say something to Alex, Grace, and Sophie about Francis before tomorrow's announcement. What should she do, though? Tell them each one-by-one? Together in a group? Put it off and just see what happened? This would be the perfect time to tell Grace, but how would she react?
After quite a bit of silence, Megan spoke up. Better now than never. "Grace... can I tell you something? You... uhm... have to promise to keep it to yourself, though. At least for right now." She started to chew her bottom lip.
"Hmm? Yeah, go ahead." Grace nodded. "Don't worry. I can keep a secret."
"You know Francis St. Ledger? Blonde guy, played on the soccer team, was nice when he wasn't a bi- ...uh, wasn't mad?"
"Sorta. Not really well though. Why?"
"Oh. Well, uh, anyway, you could say we found each other last night. This morning, though, we got into a fight, and... well... it happened so fast... uhm, we were arguing, and he was grabbing me trying to calm me down, and I wouldn't listen to him and... and..."
Megan swallowed hot spit and mumbled out, "I ...I pushed him down a set of stairs." Whelp, here we go.
"What? I- I don't... You... Um... " Grace's sentence was followed by equally incoherent hand gestures. Grace looked at her hands for a moment, caught aback by the what Megan had said.
"Is he-" Grace didn't need to finish the sentence. If Megan was saying this that meant that Francis was clearly dead. But she had to ask anyway.
"You really- He's really... d-dead?" The last word felt wrong, as if simply saying cut right through her.
After a brief moment of silence, Megan nodded her head. "But it was an accident. He grabbed me here," Megan wrapped her free right hand around her left arm. "He did it twice, and I wanted him to let me go, so I... well..." Her eyes fell down.
"I told Gavin about it back at the mall, which was...well, yeah. I haven't gotten the chance to tell Alex or Sophie yet, though, but I'm scared to. But, I have to tell them before tomorrow. These terrorists can spin swatting a fly into second-degree murder, and I damn well don't want for us to turn on each other; that's giving them exactly what they want!"
Megan clasped her hands together and stared through Grace's eyes. "You don't have to believe me; that's not what I want. But what I need is your trust. So, please... just trust me... please..."
"I understand. I think I do anyway." Grace looked back at Megan.
"I think you're a good person. And sometimes, sometimes good people sometimes do horrible things without meaning to."
"So I think I'm gonna trust you. I mean, I sorta don't really have another option do I?" She put a hand on Megan's shoulder. "I'll help you out with the others if you need me too, but I think they'd understand. 'sides, you've got Gavin on your side too."
Megan let out a sigh of relief. "Th..." She nodded her head. "...Thanks, Grace." That certainly went better than expected.
After some time, Megan broke from Grace's grasp and headed for the door back down to the apartments. "We should probably get back before Gavin's separation anxiety sets in."
"Yeah. We should go." Grace took a final glance at the landscape before her. How much longer would they be stuck here?
Leaving that question hanging, Grace went for the door back into the building.
------
Grace and Megan returned to the reception area of the apartment building where the others were waiting. "We're back," said Megan.
Sophie turned and waved as Grace and Megan returned.
"Welcome back!"
That's when she remembered something. Gavin said he was going to go out looking for tools. She might be able to make his job a little easier. Sophie pulled her bag over and began to search through it.
Gavin smiled to the two girls as they returned from their explorations. Since he was already standing, he walked towards the two to make his greetings.
"Welcome back," he said warmly. "Did you find anything useful?"
"Uh uh, we-" Megan began.
"Hey Gavin," Sophie said at that exact moment, "I know you need tools. Is this one you might need?"
Gavin half-turned in order to add Sophie to his field of vision, then realised she was holding a monkey wrench out to him. He examined it critically. The wrench was big, large enough to make a decent bludgeoning weapon in a pinch, which made sense considering that it was supposed to be used for exactly that purpose. He frowned, then glanced over to his (really Xavier's) pack, which had his lead pipe stuffed into it. If nothing else, the monkey wrench wouldn't be in danger of deforming after a few good whacks.
"Sure, thanks," he said gratefully, reaching out to take the offered tool from Sophie's hands. "You can have my lead pipe in exchange if you like. It's not as versatile as a monkey wrench, but it'll probably make you a better weapon."
"Oh, sure," Sophie said, taking the lead pipe from Gavin in exchange for the monkey wrench. She placed the pipe in her bag and zipped it up.
Once he had the wrench in his hands, Gavin switched his attention back to the two girls. "I'm sorry. Please, go on."
Megan continued with the report. "We didn't really find anything. Lots of doors are either locked or have broken locks. But, hey, at least we're the only people in here." She looked at Grace, in case she wanted to add anything.
"Maybe there's some food stashed away or something, but nothing obvious at least. On the plus side though, some of the rooms on the second floor still have beds."
"Awesome," Sophie said. "We ought to move into the rooms just so we're not in the open."
"Yeah," Megan shook her head in agreement. "Gavin, have you gone out yet?"
"I was waiting until you got back," Gavin answered. "Did you need anything before I leave?"
"Well... if you could pick up some moon pies while you're out, that'd be great. I've been craving one all day."
Gavin couldn't help but crack a small smile at the levity. "I'll see what I can do. No promises though. Shops close early around here."
Alex realized that he had been quietly eating away at the food in the can with his crackers. There hadn't been much room for him to interject anything into the conversation but he thought of something to say. "So, do any of the beds look like they are actually comfortable?"
"Not really, depends on your definition of comfortable. But we can't quite afford to be picky, right?" Grace replied.
Alex thought about that for a second, could they not afford to be picky? Probably not, but if you couldn't be picky about things in what might be the last days of your life, when was the time that you could? "Maybe you can't afford to be picky, but I'll have you know that unless my bed is up to the right specifications I will personally find the manager of this building and file a complaint about the quality of living." Alex smiled afterwards to let it be known that he was joking, if it wasn't obvious by the way he talked.
Seeing as everybody seemed to be decently settled by this point, Gavin decided to make his exit. He walked over to Xavier's pack and hoisted it on his shoulder, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. Then he began to make his way towards the main doors of the complex.
Halfway to the doors he paused, a thought striking him. He turned around in the hallway, his gaze falling on Megan again. "Hey, about those moon pies, I'm not sure I'll be able to spare the time to make a dedicated search for them, sure you don't want to come along and see to it that I don't miss them?"
"I was really just kidding with the moon pies, but sure, I can tag along," Megan shrugged. "You need a parole officer, anyway." She walked to join Gavin, only stopping to look at Grace before meeting up with him in the hallway.
Gavin smiled and laughed heartily at Megan's comment, the first completely unironic gesture of amusement he could remember making on the island. He waited in the hallway for her to join him, turning to push the main doors ajar as she drew level with him. "Ladies first, of course."
"Right." Megan moved behind Gavin and slid her hand between him and the door. "After you," Megan smirked.
"Oh, what rapier wit," Gavin groaned, rolling his eyes theatrically. Still, he couldn't suppress a slight smirk at the jab as he slid past Megan and out into the cool evening air beyond.
Megan followed behind Gavin and gave a quick "We'll be back" before shutting the door.
After Gavin and Megan left, Sophie suggested that she, Alex, and Grace try to rest in one of the apartments. They had spent a long time walking and carrying heavy bags, so they could probably use the time to try and rest and maybe clean themselves a bit. She hoped that the water still worked in the buildings (or at the very least was still clear colored), so it might be nice to bathe while she can. At the very least, putting themselves behind a locked door might be best for all of them.
Sophie walked the halls of the apartment building before stopping at one.
"Hey, how about we rest here?"
"Sounds as good as anything." Grace said, deciding to settle down on a couch for now. Let them decide who gets the nice beds while she could simply fall asleep here. She would probably regret the decision when she woke up, but she could live with that for now.
Alex nodded his head in agreement with Grace. Once inside the apartment Alex pulled his down comforter out of his duffel and wrapped it around himself. Afterwards he tossed his duffel to the side and started walking to a bed. Once there he flopped down and began rolling around and stretching to allow himself to relax. Finishing so he then rolled back up inside of his comforter and let his head back before declaring, "I am not moving from this spot and no one can make me."
Sophie walked over to the other bed and jumped on top. Once on, she pulled the slippers off and tossed them to the side. She laid on her back and looked at the ceiling.
"Well, this will do nicely," she told the others. "Who's up for a nap?"
Sophie closed her eyes and began to relax her body. In a few minutes, she was fast asleep.
Alex silently nodded his head in agreement even though no one else would see it. Afterwards, he too fell asleep.
((Alexander De Gaulle, Grace Faraday & Sophie McDowell continued in Mischief Managed.))