Electric Dreams

[Ohm]

((Serena Waters continued from How Can I Take Off This Mask?))

After driving away from the Vehicle depot, they had made their way over to the Helipad. It had been late at day when they had left and camped down there. turning off the car to save fuel and to get some sleep in peace.

Well, that's she hoped for anyway as she fell into the bliss of sleep.

She found herself standing on a street with the faulty light and abandoned bike on the side, rust covering it all over. Looking around  she noticed the house, a house she never thought she'd see again. She saw the car standing to the side, a volkswagen with a recognisable scratch on the side made not too long ago. A broken basketball hoop on the garage door torn and tattered from years of use.  

There were no sounds as she approached the house, no familiar sound of the neighboor dog losing his marbles over something, the wind blowing the leaves of the tree, not even her footsteps as she came closer and closer to the front door.  Her hand trembling as it reached out for the handle as she opened it and looked in.

Home.

As she entered what used to feel like sanctuary, a place to hide from all the bad things in the world like an impenetrable fortress, it now had a feeling of unease and emptiness inside. Almost as if she wasn't welcome there anymore. Even so, she pressed onward.

"Mom?" She said as she entered the the living room and saw everything was still there, but the feeling of emptiness hung in the air, it grew as she continued her way over to the kitchen.

"Dad?" She continued her way upstairs looking at all the photos along the wall. Several of Jordan were still there, but those of her were gone.

"Jordan?" Still no response as she looked into the rooms on the floor one by one. When she looked into his room. Nothing there.

Parents room. Nothing there.

When she finally went over to her own door, the handle wouldn't turn. Trying to force the door open, she heard a familiar voice in the air.

"You're not supposed to be here."

SCHREEE

She heard the familiar sound in the night as the crackle came through the air like a whip to her ears, forcing herself awake as she listened to a voice she'd come to hate mouth off about a fire in the Staff Area.

A Fire? Great, as if it wasn't enough to kill people, they were burning the island down as well. She thought as she rested her head on the wheel, turning it to look at her travel partners. Aiden snoring in the seat opposite her and Mel in the back. They had been lucky to pick her up along the way.

She opened the door and closed it, before taking the opportunity to stretch. This must have been how her dad felt after trips.

[Iceblock†]

((Melanie Beckett continued from Man in Three-Piece Suit Eating Omelette with Hands))

There were a lot of unfair things in the world. Here was one: she'd gotten to sleep in the back of the car.

Mel turned over and groaned at the sound of the announcements, then sat up, setting Elmo down on the seat next to her.

She could paint yesterday's scene in her mind easily, though the days here dragged on and blurred together otherwise. There she'd been, ragged-looking, her lips chapped and an almost delirious lack of focus in her eyes, hunched over to catch her breath after climbing slopes for so long. Then her head had tilted, her brow furrowed, because somewhere in earshot she'd caught a sound that was out of place here and yet clearly understandable. The sound of a car engine. Anyone could have known what it was, but she had felt an instant of certainty that no one else here knew as well as her what it meant.

They'd reunited. And they'd let her sleep in the back of the car, with leg room and all, when they deserved just as much or more to do so themselves.

As the announcements continued, she looked out the window and tried to distract herself from what came next. Astrid's name was second. By the time Alvaro was mentioned, she had lost count.

Now was a good time to muse on the unfair.

How was she still here after making so many reckless choices when Astrid wasn't? And Alvaro had protected his own life so desperately when they'd cornered him, only to die a day later.

She was still here, even still with people she wanted to be with, and she hadn't even been trying. She was glad to be alive - but it wasn't fair.

Even that wasn't likely to last much longer, not when she was out of food and water. She hadn't been rationing at all, had just eaten whatever she'd felt like whenever they'd settled down to have meals. It hadn't seemed important at the time. Maybe she hadn't expected to live long enough for it to matter.

Yesterday, when she'd gotten her bag back, she'd checked. There was one food bar left. No water.

At least it didn't seem like the others had noticed. Aiden hadn't taken up her offer of her jacket way back when she'd offered it (yes, maybe she was still a little hung up on that). Same deal, then. She wasn't going to leech off the supplies he or Serena still had left if she could help it. She would find another way. Couldn't be that hard.

Until then, she supposed she was dying. Like Serena and Aiden, like everyone else here, just at a faster rate - not counting the likely violent end - and slightly more uncomfortably, too. The headache coming on reminded her of that.

Mel leaned forward, rose up just enough to rest her elbows on the shoulders of Serena's seat and peek her head over the headrest.

"Doing okay?"

[D/N]

So he woke up and listened to the announcements until Mel peeked her head over the seat.

"I'm fine. Been snoring again, aint I?"

Just lightening up things again.

He guessed he was happy that Alvaro was dead and gone. So fuck it, Aiden was a callous kind a guy.

"Though funny, I don't know why I figured havin a car was gonna be some big deal. We can't even drive it around the whole place cause I don't think there's a gas station round here, you know?"

He looked out the window.

"Actually I think we all kinda suck at this."

And he smiled.

They shoulda done better. Really now. He couldn't go and let himself be happy with fuckin' surviving anymore, now could he?

"Cause I've had a couple days to think... and I don't know if I got anythin."

But maybe just another minute more.

[Ohm]

As she stood there stretching, she thought about the announcement, Alvaro was dead, coward ran away and got shot by Scout. She'd heard about her, she was in the grade below and had some out there interests. Serena'd probably have to thank her for that, saved her the trouble of having to deal with him. A callous thought for sure, but she'd lost any sympathy for him when he gunned down Irene. There were still plenty of killers around, Isabel for example that had to be dealt with. She couldn't be preoccupied with just one. They all had to be dealt with. Even Al.

Oh Al...What happened to you? Wasn't it just the first day he was too terrified to stand up, let alone listen to her. She forced him up on his feet, made him listen to her rhetoric, let him walk away when he did...What had she unleashed on her classmates? She was the Frankenstein to his monster, and she would have to put a stop to it.

And Jeremy. It was bad enough that Brendan went and killed, then of course it comes out he killed Junko. it gets harder day by day to justify it to herself that her friends could do something like this. That didn't stop Brendan or Al  but... she had to see him, for all she knew it could have been an accident or something along those lines, she just couldn't fathom him being a killer, not Jeremy who'd spend most of his time joking around with her or ramble about his favorite Survivor winners. Not him too please.

When she was done stretching she looked around the area, mostly as an excuse to formulate her thoughts towards planning. Now what? She got the car and a group with her now, situation was ideal. Yet, she didn't feel all too well about it. Since Al, she hasn't seen any of her friends and every day the announcements put the fear in her, would she hear about Penelope being dead? Or Raina? Or Jeremy... She had to find them. At all costs.

She turned around and noticed the other two were now awake. She could hear their conversation going on as she thought about it, getting the car was a big deal, but there were loads of things they now had to keep in mind, gas, any semblance of stealth being gone and that they would have to give it up eventually. For now though, they had a good tool for intimidation. Opening the door and gave off a smile as she said "Good to see you both up, hope you both had a better sleep than I did." It was weird how these two were becoming more and more familiar to her now, back home they probably would have left high school with just small talk inbetween them . If there was one good thing about this contest, if only one small thing, it was getting to know them better.

[Iceblock†]

"Hey," Mel said, grinning at Serena despite how shitty she felt in general. "You bet - but I had the advantage, so..."

"Anyway, it's not about how practical a car is, if we need gas or if we gotta fix a tire or whatever." She dangled her arms over the seat and pressed her cheek against the back of the headrest, fixing Aiden right in her line of sight. He still looked like hell. She probably wasn't smelling like roses, either. "It's about the experience, y'know? We can drive. It's... freedom, sorta. I didn't think I'd ever get to do this kind of thing ever again."

No roads out of here, really, just another highway to nowhere. But Serena finding this car - that was an opening to a whole new bunch of possibilities. They could do a lot of crazy things before their gas and their lives ran out.

"Haven't really been thinking at all about it, but that makes the most sense to me, I guess."

Cameron. Sandy. Astrid. She didn't have anyone else to abandon, anyone else to fail to find. She was flighty and thoughtless and far too lucky, and this was probably as far as she was going to go. So if they had to suck, they might as well suck the best they could.

She'd just have to, y'know, rephrase that a little better before she said it out loud.

[Iceblock†]

Then, Mel sat back down.

It was odd, in a way. The jeep they were in was hardly a shield, or any sort of defense against what was happening out there. If anything, it made them more of a target.

But even if they didn't do more, even if they didn't try to experience a fraction of what this car offered them, she could feel almost okay with it.

It was still something closed off, a bubble against reality. If she ignored the hunger pangs and the dryness of her throat, she could imagine sitting here forever, letting the world pass by.

For the first time, she allowed herself to think of her family. They weren't watching. Not now, not later. Not ever. She was pretty sure. Not totally sure, but pretty sure. Elizabeth wouldn't stand for it. Her dad at least listened to her. Besides, they needed to set an example for Logan. Maybe he'd stop getting into fights eventually. And her mom... she would get that degree she wanted. She'd make something of herself. Ah, maybe that was something to regret - that she would not be able to see her mom graduate.

The corner of her mouth lifted, unbidden. The thought had been both sad and funny, and she could not pin down why.

There was no real point in thinking of them more. There was no real point in thinking about Astrid, about Sandy, if all it would do was make her miss them.

Still, it felt right. So that couldn't be all. There was probably a reason she was missing, some sort of logical puzzle piece that'd slid out of the box and underneath the couch never to be seen again, but she trusted her feelings right now, in this moment of relative peace.

The moment passed, of course, and then she was just sitting there again, hungry and dirty and thirsty and tired. Well, she wasn't really cut out for this sort of introspection, anyway.

[D/N]

"We can't."

That finally came out. They'd been sitting in the car; they'd been relaxing for a bit now. Him and Serena and Mel. Just the three of them, as Aiden was now kinda figuring it'd be till the end.

And by this time they all knew the end was gonna come sooner rather than later, didn't they?

"Look, I... sorry girls just like it's like I'm feeling... we're feeling fine about being alive, about waiting... waiting to be killed here, aren't we?"

Aiden was sitting there, and more than feeling it. Fuck all, he was up and embracing it now, wasn't he?

"Since I got this gun half the time I've been thinking about taking off and turning it on me."

He guessed that kinda killed the mood.

"I ain't gonna, not so long as I'm with you two but... we just need one thing to do so it all ain't so fuckin' hopeless, ya know? We got guns and we got a car. We ain't got no food, at least I'm running out.

"I dunno. Maybe we try to go out in some blaze of glory or something."

What that meant... maybe Mel or Serena might have an idea.

[Ohm]

She listened as they spoke out, Mel talking about the car and it's practicality and Aiden and...futility it seemed? Depressing shit is what she got out of it.

"It isn't practical in the long run and stealth is impossible with it..." She looked outside the window for a bit, thought she saw someone sneaking by before she continued. "But if we're smart about how we use it, then we got a god shield for ourselves and a good way of chasing people off." The idea of it made her sick and even more so of the one brewing in her head. Ever since that day she saw Irene die right in front of her.

But it was what Aiden started talking about that got her to think, truly think about engaging in it. For days now she had no direction. They had the jeep, they had a gun. In Survivor they'd be in a power position, they have something the rest don't and the ability to execute it. Go down in the blaze of glory was better than sitting around crying about futility and unfairness of it all.

"I've been thinking, outside of seeing my friends. I really didn't have an idea of what to do."  She was looking down on her hands holding the wheel, she felt them shake as if she were freezing.   "But seeing that... thing kill her upfront made me realise something."

What has she done here except run? She hadn't found any of them and they could all die before she would find them. Then what? More running? What was her goal? Did she really have any?  The jeep idea came up to get al up from being stupid which in hindsight, probably should have left him there.

"Their not gonna stop." Her fingers clung to the wheel and dug in as the thoughts of them crossed her mind. How many more had to die for them to be satisfied?

"...You guys saw with him right? Alvaro had already killed someone by that point, you only need one to go home."

Isabel, Kimiko, Fury, Tarquin. Alessio... All of them had killed more than once, and were showing no signs of stopping. They can't let them win.

"We have this and the gun, I say we make sure people get the right idea. Act like a mass murderer, then you're expendable." The thought crossed her mind, she didn't really have to do this or strong arm them into doing this and it would be a betrayal to what she had been taught at school, church and home, but after everything she's heard, everything she's seen. she can't let it go on anymore. They have to fight back. She looked at their faces, waiting for their reaction.

[Iceblock†]

Easy to get caught up in this rush. She knew obsession well enough.

"You know they're probably all going to die anyway, right?" Mel said.

Alvaro. Nancy. Two names, two people, two corpses. To be joined by more. To be joined by almost all, in the end.

"It's not about them winning. They want it that badly, to go through all that? They're picking too many fights. They're gonna be hurt from people fighting back. They're gonna feel at least a little guilty. I say if one of them lives in the end... they can have it."

"If we're doing this to stop people from being hurt by them, at least for a while... then okay," she said, her fingers fiddling with the edge of the armrest. "I'm with you. This stuff starts happening in front of us, let's wreck 'em, just like we did. We know where someone's hurting people for fun, let's go and find them. But hunting people down just to stop them from winning... I think we'll end up playing into the terrorists' hands."

She was talking too much, looking out the window again, not quite willing to meet Serena's eyes. Trying to look for what it meant to live, when all that was left were ways to die. The back of her hand brushed Elmo; she put him into her lap without a thought.

"They want us to kill each other. You think it matters how right we are?"

[D/N]

"I'unno if it matters. Y'know? Does it?"

His eyes fluttered a bit.

"I mean God knows back home I was the last guy to get all mopey like this and I apologize, but no... Mel, I don't think it really matters if we're right. But I do think... fuck it. I think that if we're gonna die anyways we might as well make it something that at least MIGHT be right, you feel?"

Aiden turned in the passenger seat to look at Serena.

"I say we drive around, see what we can see. Don't go lookin' for a fight yeah, but one's gotta come to us sooner or later."

[Ohm]

She sat there once again in silence as she listened to Mel and Aiden giving their take on what she said. Mel was firmly against to the point she wouldn't look Serena in the eyes as she said her feelings on it, Serena wouldn't keep it a sercet that it miffed her, she got why she weren't exactly on board with getting back at them, but she finally had an idea, a purpose here on this stupid island. It was far better than what she had been doing up to this point. Hiding and cowering in fear of the killers.

Aiden was more into it it seemed. He looked at her and said they could drive around, see what needed to be done. She liked that response a hell of a lot more. "Alright then, let's keep our eyes on lookout for these people." Of couse, she would have to keep her mind open for the possibilty. Things were only going to get more difficult from here on and she would have to be ready to pull the trigger, even if they weren't.

She started the engine up as she looked over at Mel still staring out the window, she was miffed by her response, but that didn't mean she didn't care for what she had to say. She was the one who had talked her into the idea of finding him, least she could do is acknowledge what she had to say.

"I get what your saying Mel, and I mean it when I say I don't like it either, but what else can we do? After what happened back there...I can't let something like that happen again." It didn't matter anymore if it was being in the right in doing so, it was about making sure they don't end up having a serial killer go home, like Isabel. If someone was going to win, they would make sure it was someone who deserved it.

((Serena Waters continued in You thought it was Kimiko but it was me, Jerry!))

[Iceblock†]

Mel kept looking out the window.

Hunting these killers down... that was right enough. More right than killing for many other reasons. So that wasn't what she had meant.

It was participating in this, following what the terrorists laid out for them. It didn't matter why - it was locking themselves in, sticking themselves inside this new order made just for them. To be given two major choices: kill, don't kill - and to accept those choices, to pick one, or even both in time, and plan the rest of their lives around that.

Her feelings on that had never changed.

Maybe they'd never really understood why she was so determined to defy the terrorists this way. Maybe because she'd never even showed them that she wanted to, except for that one moment, with her feet in the sand and an ocean spread out in front of her.

There had just been her and them, the sea and the sky. It'd been almost enough for her to feel free.

But the rest of the time, it just looked like she was waiting to die. Serena and Aiden had a point, too. They wanted more than this. Needed it, really. She wasn't in the right to keep sticking her petty little private war on them.

The car started. Looked like she was going along for the ride.

((Melanie Beckett continued in You thought it was Kimiko but it was me, Jerry!))

[D/N]

Aiden tightened his grip on the gun. He thought a moment about whether he wanted to say anything at first before changin' his mind real quick and glancing out the window himself. Ah, Mel was doing the same thing.

Mel wasn't quite into this. Not that he even needed to tell; she was makin' it obvious enough. But hey, it was the sort of thing you had your doubts about. One thing to mull it over. Another entirely to actually do somethin' about it. Granted, they'd at least given it a go with Alvaro but... again. One thing in the eye of the storm, as they say. Another thing if there were to drive up and see Alvaro sittin' around somewhere. And if he wasn't dead now. But Alvaro, Isabel, someone else, what were they gonna do? Stop the car, announce 'emselves the local posse, and gun them down?

He chuckled at that. Yeah, the three of them?

Aiden quickly turned his head around to Melanie. Looked like she was brooding in the back a bit.

"Hey Mel. I say don't worry. I mean odds are we don't do anything. Haven't done anything much yet, have we? Betcha those fuckers hate that we of all people ended up with the car. The Three Nothings."

He smiled. Hopefully they both saw the humor in it all.

"Anyway, we're just driving around."

(Aiden Slattery continued elsewhere)