Dude! FO(U)RTIFIED!!! Pt. 4: A New Hope

[MethodicalSlacker]

Lucas Diaz sat outside the front door of the Temple and took a bite of the worst sandwich he had ever made.

It came to him as a fever dream would, while he was finishing the cleaning that had been interrupted last night when Tyrell showed up.

What if he took some of the bread, kinda sorta just tore it in half in two pieces, and put a protein bar in the middle?

Dumb.

Stupid.

Horrible.

Fucking-

-awful.

The worst decision he'd made in a long time.

But at this point, he had no choice but to finish it. With a heavy, forlorn sigh, he took a bite of the sandwich, grimacing as he chewed it up. There was still half a sandwich to eat. He looked wistfully out into the distance, into the heat. The Uzi sat between his legs, the bullet-comey-outy-hole pointed away from him, the safety toggled on. Could sandwich crumbs fuck up a gun? Not to his knowledge. There was a water bottle next to him, but he didn't bother taking a swig. Washing out the taste would just waste water, since he wasn't thirsty.

Again, he sighed.

This sandwich would taste awful no matter what he did, but it would've tasted better if Desiree was here, with some of her Cool Ranch Doritos.

[Lucas Diaz continued from i've got one foot in the darkness and the other one in a hello kitty roller skate.]

[Jilly]

((Katelynne Kirkpatrick returns from an outing in the spirit world))

"Lucas."

Katelynne stood in the doorway, eyes squinting and surveying the midday surroundings before moving closer to Lucas on the steps. Jesus, it was still way too hot. Felt like she was gonna melt into a molasses puddle on the spot.

When she got closer she just stood behind him, one hand cradling the collar radar as it continued to ping away.

Was he... what the heck was he eating? Looked like the kinda lunchroom abomination a bored second-grader would Frankenstein together.

She shook her head. Just another thing to try and block out.

"Sorry for interrupting you and your... lunch, but I just wanted to thank ya. For earlier. Both for helping me clean and letting me go find Princess. Also for watching Tyrell. Didn't have time considering all the craziness the last few days, so... yeah."

She gingerly set the radar down next to him and stood back a few paces. Her hands clasped together, wringing and rubbing anxiously against each other.

"So, uhm... what's your plan now? Still gonna go after Erika?"

[Cicada]

((Princess McQuillan continued from The Spirit World 2))

Somewhere deeper in the temple she briefly stirred from an abyssal slumber. She hadn't had enough time under to recover any of her strength, having slept the whole day since Kate had rescued her from... Megan's corpse, it had been Megan who was dead, and gone, and no longer with her.

She burned all over, and only misplaced belief in her own self-worth kept her from stripping off what was left of her clothes so she could shiver and sweat instead of sweat and shiver. That faith was an artifact, was it not? Came from a time where her friends were still alive and where she wasn't an invalid sunbathing in the flames of hell until her skin melted to the bone.

She had a soft beanie ball clutched in her hands, that vaguely looked like a rainbow when she could make it out from the riotous vomit of colors her world was at present day and present time. She would regularly be seized by the impulse to squeeze it's softness to pulp and scream until she puked. Reality ensued: she could press as hard as she could and barely shift what was functionally a stress ball, she couldn't make a sound, she didn't have anything left to upchuck.






She closed her eyes again. Why bother. Megan and Violet were closer in the next world than this one.

But she supposed she felt a bit guilty, leaving Kate alone with two idiot boys? Didn't stop her from letting darkness claim her once again.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Oh, hey Katelynne," Lucas said, as he suppressed every urge to just chuck the sandwich monstrosity in his hands right off the cliff.

It looked like she was here to give the radar back. She wasn't very good at hiding her disgust at his meal, and Lucas could sympathize with that. He wasn't very happy with himself right now. Well, he hadn't been in a while, but especially not in the present moment. Briefly he considered offering Katelynne a piece, but he couldn't even wish this suffering on anyone else ironically. This was a hell of his own design, and he was going to force himself to live through it. Bite. By. Bite.

"Oh, of course, and thank you for comforting me when I was bein' a little bitch," he replied, "because, uh, I dearly needed that."

And then the conversation shifted to the future.

"I mean, yeah, of course, I still want to go after her."

He picked up the collar tracker and put it in his pocket.

"I could honestly go and do that right now. I have a gun, and I have a tracker, so what's stopping me, right? It'd keep me from putting you guys in danger.

"Well, okay, if she killed me, she'd get the tracker, and that'd be pretty bad.

"Hmm."

Lucas stroked his chin thoughtfully. He didn't know exactly who he was kidding by doing that.

"What do you think?" he asked, looking Katelynne in the eye.

[Jilly]

Katelynne's warm grin resurfaced for a moment at Lucas's thanks.

She waited for him to finish and shrugged. She looked away from Lucas and tapped the floorboards with the toe of her boot a few times.

"Idunno. Think that's something that's only fair for you to decide on your own. I know we ain't talk much, but I really appreciate your company. But I won't stop you if you wanna hunt her down like the dog she is. Kinda feeling the same about Blaise now, myself. But I can't leave Princess, not right now."

She made sure to look him back in the eyes for this next bit.

"I don't think I'd call it 'fate' or that kinda malarkey, but I do think problems tend to work themselves out in the end. I bet my biscuit you're not alone with your Erika vendetta."

Her hand caressed the threshold of the door before she started to slink back inside. "Anyway, if you do decide to go, please let me know because I wanna give you a real send off. So, uhm... yeah. Enjoy your lunch."

---

Her eyes readjusted to the dim natural lighting of the temple, now rid of the cobwebs and marshmallows and menacing painting and all the other unsightly things that made the vibes even more oppressive.

But more importantly, Princess. She walked over to where she was lying down and resting, still limply holding onto the beanie thing. Her hand grazed and clutched Princess's forehead and arms. Still felt feverish, but couldn't tell if that heat and sweat was from how ungodly miserable the humidity was or if the claminess was whatever infection she was fighting off.

Regardless, it was about that time again. Katelynne quietly popped open the first aid and grabbed a thing of ibuprofen and a leftover bit of water. She gently shook Princess on the shoulder.

"Hey, sorry, it's time for another dose, okay?" Katelynne Nightingale whispered.

So many things to ask. She might've even missed the announcements, but now wasn't the time. They could officially dance on Quinn's grave and praise Arizona once Princess pulled through.

[Shiola]

For the first time in what must’ve been years, he slept easily. No nightmares, no lying awake for hours staring at the ceiling. It was peaceful. The best feeling he'd had in the last week was how he felt when he was asleep. Blissful nothing.

Waking up was hellish, and it took a while. His new comrades' efforts to mend his worst injuries did nothing for the pain, or the nausea. Dehydration plagued him, made him feel like he was moments away from coughing up dust. Yet after an hour spent bracing himself, focusing on keeping himself from freaking out and making anything worse, Tyrell managed to get it under control. Enough to stand back up, and wander over to find the others.

Princess was asleep nearby, with Katelynne knelt down beside her.

“You found her.” He said, his voice low and hoarse. She looked up at him, and he smiled faintly. There wasn’t much to talk about, at least not while they were trying to keep Princess in that happiest of places. Exchanging a nod with her, he then pressed further to the outside of the Temple.

Near to where Diaz must've been sleeping, Ty spotted what he believed to be his bag. Sticking out of one end was a familiar orange-grey bar of steel.

The crowbar. His issued weapon. "Hello, old friend." He remarked, retrieving it from the bag and testing the weight of it in his hand.

Guy's got a whole pack of weapons. I can at least hold onto this to keep from falling over.

Hearing voices up ahead, Ty continued walking over to where he eventually found Lucas.

((Tyrell Lahti continued from i've got one foot in the darkness and the other one in a hello kitty roller skate))

He couldn't help but offer his thoughts, having heard Diaz ponder going after Erika in the early hours of the morning. It was easy enough to tell he was still thinking about it.

"You know, I can't really see how going after someone on open ground after they killed like nine people with a sniper rifle is a great idea. Especially if they end up with that collar tracker. That wouldn't help."

Throat still dry, and his skin still kind of not looking the right shade, Ty produced a water bottle and took a satisfying, slightly agonizing gulp from it. Limping towards the doorway, he braced himself on the frame and gave Diaz an ernest look. Past the visible physical discomfort, he still managed something close to an air of calm. Good sleep, rations, people - this messed up, he was still in the best place he'd been since arriving here. Maybe not mentally, but there was a pretty low ceiling for that here.

“I know you have to do it. I kinda feel like I have to be there, and I know you’ve gotta do what you have to, but-

It wasn't like Ty wanted Erika to survive; he knew Diaz needed revenge, even if Ty's own appetite for it wasn't much there anymore. It felt right to help him, at least. More than anything, Ty couldn't help but agree that it shouldn't come at the cost of the rest of their little group. Still, going on a suicide mission and arming her with the radar would do precisely that.

"-you don't know where she is, and she's not the only dangerous person out there. I heard a bit of the announcements this morning, there are others. I don't know how you feel about everyone else in this place, but she's gonna keep going hard until she can't anymore. Doing that will wear her down. People fighting back will wear her down. When that happens she'll look for some high ground, somewhere to fall back to. Look where we are."

He paused, recalling faintly something a friend send him a few years ago, drawing tiny circles on the ground with the tip of the crowbar. A couple of liveleak videos, the kind of thing only an edgy teenager would ever think anyone wanted to see.

"If I remember correctly, they're gonna start making more and more of this island a danger zone as the days go on. So it's not a matter of if we'll run into her, but when. Right now, this place is ours."

It wasn't at all clear to him if any of this was sticking. Whether he'd listened the other night, when Ty told him how this all had to go down. Lucas' quest wasn't exactly the most rational thing in the world, though they didn't have a whole lot of options in this place that really fit the mold for perfectly justifiable, rational things to do.

Maybe Diaz just wasn’t in the mood to listen to a sardonic, battle-scarred multiple murderer advise caution and restraint.

[Cicada]

She almost didn't have the willpower to fight the searing agony anymore? Like a bath too hot slowly where the pain slowly became white noise- numbness. Kate's voice was about the only thing Princess could imagine could have called her back from the afterlife.

Princess' eyes snapped open instantaneously. She almost looked vital, alert. She stared out into space for a moment. Found Kate's eye, and clung onto it like she was drowning.

"Don't waste any on me."

Blunt. Hoarse, whispered, but a modicum of the old personality that had yet to sweat out of the soaked, stinky shell.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Bless Katelynne's heart, really. In admitting that Lucas had a point, she'd made a point that Lucas had barely considered. He was sort of ashamed that he hadn't considered it, considering that he generally liked Princess, but it was a point nonetheless; Princess was fucking hurt! Sick, or something! No way could Lucas put her in danger! Tyrell was also basically still bleeding, so that put Clout Gang 2 at 50% incapacitated. No way would he lead this force into battle. The longer this went on, the more like a solo endeavor it looked like. Katelynne retreated back into the temple, and Lucas said thank you to her for the well wishes and told her that she should probably eat something as well.

Then out came Tyrell.

"I wouldn't fight her in the open open," Lucas said, "because she'd fucking shred me, but I'd follow her. I don't know the radius of this thing yet, haven't had a chance to really test it, but I think I can keep my distance pretty well, and once I see her I won't have to rely on it as much."

Tyrell made a lot of sense most of the time, but unfortunately people who made sense could be wrong sometimes. Like right now. Lucas didn't really mind that Tyrell was using his crowbar as a glorified walking stick, given that he probably needed it. More than Lucas did, at least. It might work as something he could throw at somebody, but it wouldn't be good for anything else, probably. He was sure whatever close-up weapon that Erika had was bladed. Maybe she had a machete? Erika, typical kind of action girl, walking through the jungles of hellmurder island, rifle strapped on her back and machete cutting through the underbrush. Might be an entertaining mental image, if only for the absurdity of it all, if she hadn't been a murderer nine times over.

"I don't want to take her here, though," pouted Lucas, "because not only are you and Princess basically out of commission for a bit, but this is a corner that we've backed ourselves into, effectively. She probably figures that there are going to be people in here, and so she'll be ready to fight to take this place if she actually shows up. If I find her out in the wilderness, then I can take her by surprise."

He listened to Tyrell make his point about the danger zones and nodded. That was fair, and Lucas hadn't considered it, but it didn't really matter, given that—

"That's incredibly true, and all the more reason why finding her out there—"

He vaguely gestured towards the trees—

"—is important, because what if she sees that we're here and just waits for a danger zone to show up to force us out, then picks us off? Yeah? Can you see her doing that, because I think I can."

[Jilly]

Katelynne bent over in one swoop, right into Princess's ear and breathed down her sticky neck.

"I ain't asking you."

She pulled back and cleared her throat, staring daggers at Princess. She shoved the pill and the water bottle in her face.

She didn't say anything else.

[Shiola]

Nothing went according to plan, even if the plan was just vague inclinations and hope. If the island had taught Tyrell anything, it was that no matter how he expected a given situation to play out, there was always one factor he hadn’t considered, one element that would inevitably take him by surprise.

Realistically, if he was a passive observer to all of this, he wouldn’t bet against Erika. Not after the performance she’d given so far, and knowing that she had a pretty good physical skill-set that was a huge advantage to dealing with the island. They’d had so many conversations about where they’d travel to, where he’d inevitably reveal just how little he knew about travelling in the woods and wilderness. One of those talks out in a park ended up with the two of them nestled under a tree, listening through the same pair of headphones to The Outdoor Type by the Lemonheads.

I never said I’d like this. I don’t have to.

“You don’t know her.” Ty cut Lucas off, a spark of anger reanimating him after the morning spent cowed, tending to his injuries.

“Oh, you follow her, take her by surprise? Please. You’re still thinking you can beat her at her own game, what - because you want it more? She’s a fucking revenge fantasy to you. It’s in the way you talk. I get it, why you’re like that, problem is she’s not a fantasy, she’s a human being. Another one this fucking place destroyed. With strengths, and fears. Flaws. Things that, if you want actual revenge, then you learn to exploit and manipulate. You listen.”

Ty stood straight up from his place against the door frame, suddenly finding the spot at the precipice of the Temple to be more than a bit uncomfortable. He tapped the end of the crowbar on the ground, subtly punctuating the words he strung together for Lucas.

“I don’t give a shit about why you’re doing it. It won’t make you feel better, it won’t save you or anyone else. I’m trying to help you because she needs to die, and because you’re the one to do it. You get me? Because she needs to die. Not because you need to kill her. So you don’t get to fuck this up.”

He was inches from Lucas’ face. Realizing that fact, he stepped back and looked out at the road.

“It’s hot. Running around out there, you’ll get worn down, you’ll get tired, and you’ll get sloppy and die. If we get pushed out, we’re in trouble no matter who’s around. Right now we’ve got one road in, a cliff at our backs, and a roof over our heads. It is a corner, that’s the point. That’s why she’ll come here.”

With a sigh, he dragged himself back to some level of calm.

“You can’t beat an enemy you don’t understand. I get her, Just - just trust me, alright?”

He took a few steps down the stairs of the Temple, letting the sun wash over his bare shoulders. It didn’t help to lose his cool at Lucas, or to expect him to really listen to reason given the nature of the quest he’d set himself on.

Reason. Here, in this situation. That’s funny.

Ty eyed the gardens beside the Temple. There were some weird sculptures and markers, things he hadn’t bothered to have a look at before. He shot Lucas a melancholic look, very intentionally absent the anger he’d shown before.

“I need some air. Keep an eye on the radar, I’ll just be in the garden.”

((Tyrell Lahti continued in Untrust Us))

[Cicada]

Kate was greeted by the blankest of looks. Roadkill had more personality.

"I'm supposed to be the-... that's what I'm supposed to say?" Her voice got tinier by the syllable, deflating as it caught up with the remaining size of her life.

"I'm not gonna..."

Kate still wasn't saying anything. Her eyes looked like anger, which was a stupid turn of phrase because Princess couldn't think of anything else. Queer to see Kate look such a way. She'd probably never needed to weaponize her eyes? Never in their once upon a time. However long ago that'd been... hard to remember.

Princess nodded without moving her head. One hand, two, tried to cup the water being thrust at her face. Kate, mostly, did the work. The pill didn't go down easy- Princess managed to choke on water and what tasted like pus. One retch, two. Kate patted her forehead, and pulled away with an oven-burnt palm.

Princess wanted to say sorry, but she vaguely remembered she might have done that already... This time with feeling?

"... Did you ever think of a family? Like, starting one. You'd be a good mom."

She was a bit too gone to even realize that'd been a pretty awkward thing to say.

[Jilly]

Katelynne's glare melted like ice, returning to her natural expression with a huff as she caressed Princess's clammy hand. "Oh, I, uhm, I dunno. I always thought about it, but, uhm... I can't have kids. Had to go to the lady doctor last year because my mom was worried about me never 'starting', and she said something about how some of my parts didn't develop right. Like I got the right ingredients for the cake, but the oven's busted. Might be hogwash, but I dunno; just the way the good Lord put me together, I guess."

She shrugged as matter-of-factly as her words came out. "I think I'd like to adopt, though. There's so many kids out there that don't got real parents. How, uhm... how about you? About the starting a family thing?"

[MethodicalSlacker]

Tyrell's words cut into Lucas like a thousand long knives.

Every time Lucas opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, Tyrell just had more to say. Each sentence wormed its way under his skin like a splinter, each breath pushed the splinter further and further in. How had Lucas let himself forget who he was dealing with? Lucas knew that the reason for Tyrell speaking up wasn't for Lucas to feel bad, so why did he feel so terrible? It felt like Lucas had missed something obvious, and yet it also felt like Tyrell just wasn't understanding what he was saying. In that sense, he was back at square one, placed firmly in his greatest fear, speaking and not being heard.

So at the end of Tyrell's spiel, Lucas was still sat there at the base of the steps and watched silently, mouth slightly agape, as Tyrell struggled to walk around back to the garden. Dumbfounded.

He picked up what little was left of his sandwich and tossed it back in his bag. Keep an eye on the radar? Sure. Looked like there was someone in the garden, but if Tyrell wanted to check that for himself, he could do that. It wasn't Erika, and it wasn't someone Lucas knew to be dangerous. It's not like Lucas cared about him or anything.

Lucas put his hands on the back of his head and blew air out his mouth like a middle-aged father watching his son's fourth grade intramural soccer team being humiliated on the field, past the point of anger, firmly in the territory of wondering how things even got this bad.

Then he turned around and went back into the temple, picking his gun and bag up and taking them with him inside. Princess was still basically out of commission. She was talking to Katelynne about something that Lucas couldn't quite make out. Not because he was out of earshot, just because he didn't have the right context to try and put things together. If he tried, he'd just wind up getting things wrong. Again. He opened his mouth anyway, an attempt to interject, but stopped it before anything came out. There was a lightness in his chest, a keen awareness that whatever he'd thought was in there, hanging heavy, wasn't deserving of the same kind of weight as he'd thought. He was the one to kill Erika, but not because he wanted to. Just because he could.

"H-how's 'Cess holding up?" Lucas asked Katelynne from the doorway.

[Cicada]

Princess almost didn't get it, for a moment. Simply as Kate had put it, as she always did. Something about cake ingredients and the christian God whisked into the ill girl's melting brain puddle, raw eggs and all. Then Princess figured out what was being said.

Hand touch, tight. Princess didn't have the battery life to do much else, her neck was too bone stiff to even ratchet up for the surprised glare... Sad, that was all she could be. Without anything to show for it. If none of this island nonsense had ever transpired this was the sort of news Kate should have told her while they were sitting together on her bed. Serendipity poking her head out from the covers. Mint chocolate chip- a good quality one, maybe even Haagen Dazs if they were lucky. Princess would have cried or something. Caterwauled. The typical melodramatic bullshit Kate would have rolled her eyes at.

Princess guessed that wasn't happening.

"I thought I could have adopted, maybe. When me and-"

Almost said Violet, and almost didn't notice she almost said it.

"The wife had a little more money. Could've raised the children in something besides a trailer. That would've been nice."

Apparently she was just admitting to everyone that she was poverty mode now. Sure, why not. Everyone else in the universe already knew, why not her own remaining friend on Earth in the singular? For good measure.

She was tired again. Actually hadn't stopped being tired.

"Is that Lucas?" Too quietly said for him to hear.

"Tell him he sucks. Just a little."

She closed her eyes because the light was getting too bright. It had never really stopped being like a needle being stabbed into her eyeball. A soft groan, she rolled to one side but failed. Weird looking little flop underneath the used clothes she'd claimed as a blanket. That beanie ball she didn't know the reason for but that smelled familiar in a sad way remained firmly in her grip.

[Jilly]

Katelynne was learning so much more about Princess in this past week than she ever did in the last four years. There was always stuff Katelynne was curiously suspicious about, especially Princess never going into much detail about her family... never even seen her folks except maybe in in passing on parent-teacher night, but even then she couldn't recall if that was a made up memory or not. Never knew if she had any siblings or even a dog of some sort. Never knew she lived in a trailer.

Things were starting to make some sorta sense, now, or something. But even if her crown was made of mud, she was still a princess. That's all that mattered.

Katelynne ran her fingers through Princess's birdnest of hair, sweeping out the tangles as best she could. "I think you'd be a good mom, too. Or like the cool aunt dumping the best Christmas gifts." She chuckled, more out of nervous habit than anything.

Katelynne turned to address Lucas standing by the front door, her voice ticked up in volume, a compromise between not being too quiet for Lucas to not hear versus being too loud to rattle Princess's already stressed brain. "She's doing good and wants to let you know you kinda sorta suck a little."

She gently stroked the resting girl's knee and flashed a mischievous grin at her before continuing.

"Everything still okay out there?"