Hmmmn

[Rattlesnake]

((Kari Nichols continued from Ghosts))

Kari looked out across the water, sparkling and shimmering in the sun. Somewhere out there was home. ...Maybe. She knew this was the northern beach, which meant that the water lay to the north of her. She was probably staring out towards the polar ice cap or something stupid like that, imagining sailing off in that direction and thinking that Minnesota lay that way. She might have mentioned it aloud, had her companion not been named Zach Jamis. As it was, she simply pulled out the Rubik's cube she'd been scrambling in her pocket.

The little colored squares whirled around too fast for the untrained eye to see. But from her vantage point, it couldn't be clearer. No thoughts or even words broke her mind's silence. There was merely cognizance of the puzzle as her hands threw themselves into algorithms that were truly no more than muscle memory - she'd tried them experimentally one step at a time and got lost halfway through as often as not. She rotated the last layer, launched into the permutation algorithm-

-sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her legs and letting the cube dangle unsolved between her knees. She flipped it over a couple of times to validate her guess at where it had gone wrong. She was so, so tired. Which was why she'd switched a couple pieces inadvertently, slotted in a yellow where a white should have gone. Starting to scramble again, she looked down at the sand beneath her driftwood perch, and then sidelong to Zach.

[Ciel†]

(Zach Jamis continued from Ghosts)

Home? Please. Zach wanted to go home as much as any other teenager trapped on kill island. He just didn't give a shit. Had Kari spoke to him about her desires, well, he would have listened, MAYBE. He wouldn't agree with her though, just to save face. No one thought like him. Zach was his own person, and the day he actually found something in common with Kari Nichols would be the day he dug his own grave. At least that was the case in his own mind.

Like most of Zach's past endeavors, he gave up on looking for Mizore ten minutes after they had left the cave. The odds of them ever running across her were staggering, and while Zach wasn't the type to count numbers, even he had to shake his head and give up. So now here they were, sitting on the beach for no reason at all. Zach almost forgot that Kari was with him. He stared out at the beach just as she did. His face was unreadable, which was nothing unusual. You'd never guess he was feeling depressed.

He had lit another cigarette. Zach knew he was running out. Shit. He wish he had packed a whole plastic bag of these things. Maybe he'd go down to the cornerstore and steal a bunch from the nearest pothead fuck. It was a better waste of time than this... this... waiting. He sort of wished Kari was some loon who wanted to drink people's blood because at least that would give him something constructive to tackle. Two pacifists just sitting around... that wasn't exciting. Though Zach was never Mister Exciting back home.

Kari was looking at him. He didn't need to turn his head, he could just feel it. Zach kept looking out at the ocean, pulling the stick out of his mouth.

"Got something on my back, or do yah just like staring at people?"

[Rattlesnake]

Kari quickly resumed looking at the cube in her hands, then gradually lifted her gaze back onto the ocean as she absentmindedly scrambled it. She didn't know what it was, but there was something about the situation that she found oddly comforting. Here she was, sitting on a log, being snarked at by Zach Jamis. Never in a million years did she envision their little bit of repose. She almost laughed, but a bit of churned-up sand caught her eye and the mirth died in her throat.

"Umm, no, I was just thinking..." She winced. That was something she needed to strike out of her "trying to converse with Zach Jamis" strategy. Anyways... "Well, this is just kind of where my, uh, 'game'" (such a horrible word to use...) "...started. Those could even be my footprints over there. Carol was there. I heard her screaming and I ran over to see what was going on. She doesn't - um, didn't like water at all." Kari slipped the cube back into her pocket.

"And now she's dead," she said simply, pathetically. "And Simon, too. They were so nice, and I left them for just a few minutes while they were sleeping, just to see what was going on. And it didn't take very long-"

She blinked a few times. "Umm, sorry, this breeze is drying out my eyes. But here, if you look at the map, Mizore said she'd be heading for the Parish, didn't she? If we're where I think we are, she should be somewhere nearby."

She proffered her map, fighting to keep it flat and readable while it flapped it her hands like a paper bird. There was no real doubt as to where exactly they were on it. She'd been pushing North the whole time since they'd left their sanctuary, suggesting forks and turning ever so slightly towards their goal while she pretended to be just as aimless as her companion. They'd find Mizore, listen to her explain what business had pulled her so urgently away, do some talking and laughing, take a celebratory nap under the safe umbrella of 64 high-velocity rounds. It would all work out in the end, thanks to the magic of persistence. She'd made a grave mistake with her last group. And that was something she couldn't afford to repeat.

[Ciel†]

She saw him wince. He sneered at her. C'mon, don't be such a chicken. Just talk to him? Zach hated people who were <i>scared</i> of him. Maybe that was why he always dressed in black. Whatever. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it onto the sand. The kind of thing a tree hugger would scold him over. Not like he cared. He grumbled to himself, looking over at Kari again.

Zach did not feel anything for Kari when she went on and on about how her friends die. Sounded sad? So what? Sad things were just that - sad. If you let them bother you too much then you can't think of anything else, and it affects you. Jesus, didn't Kari KNOW this? How dumb could she be to forget that?! He wasn't going to tell her, she should have remembered that on her own. He crossed his arms and gave a shrug.

"Yeah, well, s'going to happen. If you let it -"

Maybe when Sam dies, then you could talk like you know what you're talking about?

Fuck. He didn't need to think about that.

Zach held his hand to his head. He could criticize her. Tell her her plan was fucking stupid, that she was stupid and that she should just shut up but... he had no energy to do that. Instead he hovered over her shoulder and gave her a shrug. "Are you sure we could find her?" He asked, a spike of hope in his voice. Just a spike.

[Sunnybunny]

((Samya Franklin countined from Can't I Just Die a Disney Death?))

Samya wasn't dead.

Alive wasn't the word for it either. She was a zombie, for lack of better words. No singing, no trail mix, no misguided ideas of heroism. She just wandered around. No, she didn't care that more of her classmates were dead. She really was past it. Except Zach, but he'd probably made it off the island by now. Riding a shark.

She cracked her first smile at that. It was small, but it was there.

Somehow, she'd made it to the beach. The air was nice. Nicer than she deserved, but she was too out of it to go somewhere else. Except there were people. What to do?

Samya pulled out her gun. Either they'd assume she was a player and hurt her, or run away. Both options sounded better than failing anyone else. Some people just shouldn't be around other people. People like her. Bubbly happy Samya was still on the bus. This was her ghost.

Not even bothering to look and see who the people were, and not quite close enough to make out features, she pointed. Waited. She was still covered in blood, and hell, she looked like she could kill someone. Manic, lunatic, her thoughts swirled around like so many spectors.

Why did she smell cigarette smoke?

[Rattlesnake]

Talking to Zach required a certain something to avoid acting on the growing urge to beat his face inside-out. A special kind of patience that Kari was running out of. Rapidly.

She couldn't say that she cared, really, if he was actually listening to her. She couldn't really expect him, or anyone else for that matter, to sit through her depressing rambling. And she wasn't speaking for his benefit, anyways. It was for herself, all for herself. Catharsis, getting it off her chest, whatever you wanted to call it. Some things needed to be said, some for one reason, and some for another. Forcing the reality of everything onto her brain, but eliminating her guilt by acknowledging that it existed, because if she felt guilty, then that meant she was still doing ok, right?

And then Zach pulled out what amounted to a verbal punch in the face. He said that it was inveitable that everyone had died, that she'd let it happen. That was so, so...

Well, she had said it first. Maybe he was just agreeing with her.

No, came the though surfing on a roiling anger that washed all thoughts of sleep away, He did that on purpose. Being an idiot for idiocy's sake. She turned back to him, trying to keep her shaking hands off the gun. She opened her mouth to speak. She'd gotten a great beginning to a tirade down, and if she could fill in the rest while she spoke-

"Are you sure we could find her?"

Find who? The last person I've met that's still alive? The one that's about to die anyways, because, hey, I can't-

Right. Mizore. She had half a mind just to walk off, try to say something snarky and piercing, leave Mizore to be Zach's problem. But Zach wasn't the one who had turned ever northward, hinting and leading the way to where Mizore said she'd be, to save another life. If Zach didn't care about her, at least Kari could. She was the one packing lead, anyway.

That settled it. "Well," she said deliberately, "In a word, yes. She said she'd be in the Parish, so maybe she's in the Parish. And if she's not, well, you found her once and we can find her again, unless you want to let something happen." She turned her head further, to address him more straight-on. Something caught her eye. Something short and bloody. And armed.

In an instant, she was standing on the sand, gun raised to her shoulder, trying to focus on one set of sights out of the several swirling in front of her face. "Oi! What do you want?"

[Ciel†]

He really couldn't tell that Kairi's blood was pumping. Not like he cared about how she felt. They were stuck together. If she didn't like it, then she could either just walk away or deal with it. Zach was always like this, to everyone he met, even his friends. He was never going to change that. Not for her. Not for anyone. That was true back home and it was damn true here.

Sympathy was not something Zach was excellent in. Not something he cared for, but that was neither here nor there.

Neither here nor there? When the fuck did Zach ever say that?

Zach mentally growled as Kairi said that it was possible to find Mizore. It was something he needed to hear, at the very least. Thankfully she didn't go all balistic and scream how it would be impossible to find Mizore at this stage, that Zach was insane and that she didn't have to put up with this shit. Which of course he was sure she wanted to say in the first place. Instead she tried, and that was practically all Zach needed.

She trailed off. Zach let his cigarette shuffle in his mouth, from one side of his jaw to the other. It didn't really hit him right away that she was staring at something other than Zach. When it did hit him, he pointed it out to her, kindly

"The hell are you staring at?" He asked, deadpan. "I got something on my face?"

She ignored him. That might have pissed him off but that was when she lifted her gun and Zach, well, the only thing Zach could do was to spin around on his heels. That when he saw it, saw her and she wasn't looking so hot. In fact she looked like complete shit. Looked out of her fucking mind too, like someone took a tireiron to the wrong side of her head and now she couldn't think rationally. For all he knew she thought Zach was a floating triangle or something. But that didn't matter, not even one fucking bit. He knew who this girl was, knew her damn well, and he was thinking only one thing -

Oh. Sam was here. Cool.

Completely ignoring the blood, her disheveled look and pretty much and indicator that something was wrong, Zach pushed Kairi's gun down. He spoke with his cigarette in his mouth.

"You're late. Was waiting for fucking days."

[Sunnybunny]

What did she want? Okay, that was just a dumb question to beat ALL the dumb questions. She wanted to go home, okay? More and more too, she wanted to just fire her gun because that would get people to shut up and leave her alone. But that was mean, and even if she was this side of homicidal manic, Samya Franklin was not a mean girl. But this was pushing it.

"I want you to go away, alright! Just, ugh, get out of here!"

She saw the gun. She wasn't scared, and walked closer, slowly. Another time, she would have giggled because zombies aren't supposed to be packing heat, so she was cheating. Hand on the trigger she-

saw the gun go down, which was really weird. She actually stopped and tilted her head to see what the hell was going on here.

"You're late. Was waiting for fucking days."

"What? You mean to tell me that's all you have to say? Zach Jamis, you're an . . .", she responded without even thinking. And then it hit her that she was arguing with Zach again. Her expression changed a thousand times, trying to process that Zach was still alive, and right here! And that she was still a coward, and he'd be ashamed of that. And she was so lonely, and why did she just realise that now?

She's not a good friend, but she's not running away anymore. Still snapped in a bad way, but some light comes back in her eyes, and she puts the gun on safety, then back in her bag.

"You're not hurt!" She runs up to the pair, uncertain of what's next. At least he ended up with someone that could protect him, even if she was probably ready to kill him by now. Sammy knew very well how vexing Zach could be.

"I knew you'd be alright, you damn jerk."

[Rattlesnake]

Kari's left hand squeezed the safety lever in a menacing fashion, or what she at least hoped was a menacing fashion, as menacing as something that nobody would actually notice could be. It made her feel dangerous and in control, which was important. And it made the gun actually work, which was potentially even more important. At any rate-

The muzzle drooped towards the sand. She suspected Zach must know something about the threat in front of her that she didn't, a suspicion he confirmed by greeting her like - well, like Zach Jamis. As if she'd showed up half an hour late for a date or something. Kari's head spun. Part of her wanted to put the gun back up. Squeeze the trigger and watch the horrible, unending tension explode. Make everything black and white again, kill or be killed, put and end to the days of sitting and waiting and searching and speculating. Replace it with danger, excitement, something other than just waiting to die.

The space of a breath, and it all swirled mercifully out of her mind. She was just Kari, and he was just Zach, and Samya was just Samya, and all the blood was just something or other that she'd work out, but the point was that she felt calm again, glad to lose the weight of the gun from her arms. Happy, she supposed, that Samya was right. They weren't hurt.

She was ready to voice her thoughts, apologize for menacing Samya, suggest they go check out the Parish. The announcements came on.

Her head spun again. They were apparently almost exactly halfway through.
Half the competition gone, without firing a shot!
No.
Half of the senior class, murdered.
She scarcely had time to dwell on that meeting forever ago where she'd met three dead people. Or two, if Rein still lived. She had no clue how he'd fare with the group dying around him. Probably ended up trusting the wrong person. But that didn't matter, because her collar was beeping, and there was nothing to do except make a run for it, bent once more by the game that kept jerking her around but that, so far, had given her completely a miss.

So far.

((Kari Nichols continued in Eep.))

[Sunnybunny]

((Ciely, if you want me to edit this I will, kay?))

Half the class was dead. That . . . it was horrifying. Samya gulped loudly. The names rolled by (even the ones she saw, images flashing in her mind) and she felt dizzy. For one cruel second, she was so glad that SHE wasn't on the announcements for anything . . . and then hated herself for it.

BEEP

That was new. That was really new. She didn't have time to think about how freaking scary it was. She just nudged . . . no, she grabbed, tugged, pulled Zach to her, to get the hell out of here, because they weren't dying like this.

Okay, maybe she deserved to. But she still owed Zach . . . and something in her desparately wanted to live, still. They took off, following Kari to . . .

((Samya Franklin and Zach Jamis countinued in Eep.))