D.R.E.A.M.

[Maraoone]

((Joanne Coleman continued from Don't Stray Off The Path and it had been far too late to not stray off the path because the path had strayed from her)) and had there even been a path in the first place? Had there been a point to finding or staying on a path? All Joanne saw, all Joanne knew at this point was the breathing foliage that surrounded encompassed suffocated her. She knew they hated her, she knew they didn't like her, and she thought that meant they didn't want her around and the feeling was mutual, so she ran, and ran, and had been running since a point in time, it was pointless to try to refer to a point in time, all she knew was running, but the forest wouldn't let her go, and she realized that it never would let her go, but to surrender was to quit, and Joanne! wasn't! a quitter!

Kenzie and Billy were supposed to be with her, but they weren't, so she supposed the forest had encompassed them as well, completely, irrevocably. Swallowed them, taken them into its roots. With that in mind, being in the middle of such an enormous, undefeatable enemy, it was a question of not if, but when she would quit, but again, Joanne! wasn't! a quitter! and it was pointless to try to find a point in time, because she didn't even know what time really meant at this point, maybe it was pointless to consider the concept of time at all, so there was nothing to ask. Nothing to question. All there was left to do was to do, was to run, and so that's what she did.

And running, well, it had been tiring! Coach Oppenheimer—may he go fuck himself—would be proud of her for once, as well as Coach Skinner—queen, all respect to her—except they wouldn't because they were dead, and the thought was supposed to stop her in her tracks, but it didn't, because if she stopped, the roots would swallow her and grab her to the place where the coaches and Billy and Kenzie maybe ended up, and why was she thinking of this so casually? Their deaths, and yes, she was thinking of death without stopping, she was thinking of the five letter word, let her spell it out for you—

"D—E—A—T—H," she shouted into the trees, in between pants, mid-run—

she was thinking of that word without stopping, and had that meant she had numbed to it? It was supposed to matter, it was supposed to scare and terrify like it had before, like it had in the opening moments, but it didn't matter, it was just a D and an E and an A and a T and an H, the cheerleaders shout in the background, Madison and Lori would be proud of her (would she make more morally dubious people proud in the future? like the terrorists? thoughts for later, she supposed, she could only think so much, doubt so much), but yeah, it was just that, and it didn't terrify her anymore, and that didn't scare her, but it bothered her, she should be bothered, she wanted to be bothered, she—

((Her foot caught on a root.))