Bloom Nobly, in a Transient Life

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla drew in another breath. Almost certainly, somewhere else someone had already pulled the trigger. Or whatever the analogy would be for different weapons. What kind of weapons were usually assigned here anyway? All she saw were guns. Contrary to what was said, they had everything to be afraid of. Just because she knew the names to faces of some of her classmates doesn't mean she was safe. Quite the opposite if it was the other way around- imagine if Wyatt knew who she was, felt in the mood to beat some nerd up, like he probably was. Just the thought of it made her bones lock into place in fear.

And then... even for the people she did know. In the past few minutes she had already learned one unpleasant thing about herself, and no doubt that experience was mirrored throughout her class- and no doubt, some people haven't been so keen to say no, for any number of reasons. The other guy might be thinking the same, she imagined.

It was getting worse around her as they spoke, and almost certainly will get worse for her. It's just that for once, fate smiled on her. A cruel and devious smile, but a smile nonetheless.

At least she got the two boys' names. Max, she may have heard his name somewhere before, but she couldn't remember. When Lucas introduced himself... it flashed back to her for a moment. She never really enjoyed explaining what asexuality was to people, and she enjoyed it even less so when trying to, at the same time, assure the person who had just asked her out that it had nothing to do with him. Okay it had something to do with him, Lucas was the very definition of a manslut and his reputation preceded him. It wasn't like she could just say that though.

"Right. And I'm Camilla." she introduced herself. Only fair. She had the temptation to add the answer's still no by the way but that would be pointlessly mean, even for their situation.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Max nodded his head once.

"I see," he answered, "when you put it that way, this all does sound rather terrifying."

What was his in-road? How long could he play dumb before the urge would arise to tear his hair out in frustration? Of course he understood that most people would be afraid. An imbecile could figure that out, and the literal imbecile in their senior class likely already had. He had spent time considering exactly why the paranoia outlined by Lucas had not quite affected him, while on his path of traversal here, earlier in the morning. Max's running interpretation was a combination of his intelligence and his virtuousness were saving him from being paralyzed by the current pandemic of terror, but as the current resident of his own skull he knew that was not all there was to it.

Perhaps he was over-thinking things.

Max winced before he could stop himself. He did not much like the common notion of over-thinking. In his opinion, it would do the common rhetorical charlatan better to curb their emotional state to prevent over-feeling. However, in his current situation, the idea was prudent. If Max were to accept that the current emotional state of his classmates was that of fear, then rationality was the last thing on their minds. Deft conversational maneuvering was a strategy that was in temporary need of recall to the proverbial back burner. His erstwhile commitment to argumentation and rhetoric was in need of suspension in favor of being forthright and direct. There was little time to mince words, to beat around the bush. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

And desperate measures entailed philosophical probing.

"Hey," he said, staring at his shoes, "we're probably not going to survive this, right? Help rarely arrives, in these situations, yes?"

"So, how are you two gonna spend your last days?"

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Lucas smiled and Camilla and winked in her direction. He already knew her name, but if she wanted to introduce herself, who was he to judge?

Lucas turned his attention from the pretty girl back to Max as he asked what they planned to do with their possible last days. Bit of a downer, Lucas thought. He treated death as if it was a certainty. Statistically possible? Depressingly so, but not a 100% certainty. Lucas had some level of optimism even if he was painfully aware of just how bad things could get by end of this. Him dying? He hadn't quite come to terms with that and he would prefer not to think about it too much. A bit ironic to think about it, really. He enjoyed works that were violent, dark, and depressing, and here he was shying away from trying to think on it.

Lucas sighed. Max at least deserved some kind of answer to his question.

"Well, go look for my girlfriend for one thing." he admitted, looking a bit sheepish. "She's somewhere out there is this place and I'd rather spend what's left of my time with her. Got to tell her a few things and I'd feel pretty shitty if I don't get to say 'em, ya know?" He paused for a moment before adding, "Then go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?"

Lucas chuckled to himself for a moment before clearing his throat.

"And, uh, before I forget..." He turned to a camera to address it. "Hey, Mercedes? If you're watching this — which if anyone from my family was going to watch this sadistic crap to make sure I'm okay, it'd be you — let the rest of our family know I love them, and I'm sorry if I go off the deep end at some point while stuck here. And take care of my girlfriend Camille if she gets out of here but I don't, will ya? Pretty sure you monitor my social media feeds, so don't go acting like you don't know who I'm talking about." Lucas smiled at the camera, wondering if his eldest sister was actually watching this at the moment. Maybe she was too busy keeping the family afloat while they grieve over him being kidnapped. Mercedes was always tough like that. "Love ya, big sis."

Lucas let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the other two. "Right, got that base covered. So what about you two? Any last things you want to do?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Max was right. Their days were numbered, but the amount of things she wanted to do and the amount of things she could do were not in tune. She never had time to think about what she would do in the last days of her life lately, though she figured she'd rather spend them... free. If none of her responsibilities mattered anymore, there was no reason to maintain the high standard for herself she always had, then she'd gladly throw them off. And-

Well, there were all sorts of things Camilla never got the opportunity to say, and sometimes she ended up being right about the virtues of staying quiet. Conveniently following her current train of thought, all that vanished with the wink Lucas gave her.

"The answer's still no, by the way," she stated, gently but firmly. Even at what was in all certainty the end of her life, she had to uphold a moral behavioral standard if nothing else.

After she said that she hoped she wouldn't have to go through her whole explanation again since he clearly did not remember it. Or she didn't make herself clear. Lately she had become the unintentional master of dancing around the issue. Damn, had she still not told the gardening club and Julien she was headed for Knoxville? Emphasis on was, there was little chance that would happen now, and telling them now would be pointless. Her point still stood, though.

Lucas gave his speech to the camera, to let his family know he loves them, to apologize in advance for going nuts- wait, what?- to take care of his girlfriend who was- oh right, that was Camille Bellgarde, the smut writer. Like attracts like, it seems, but was an unfortunate situation for Camilla Bell. Hold on, if he has a girlfriend who he obvious cares about why was he making a pass at her? Oh dear, did she misinterpret his words? Camilla, you idiot.

Perhaps, she could also make a small statement to her family. So she turned to the camera and opened her mouth.

Hey mom. Fuck you! Jesus Christ that was way too harsh. She was still her mother, and cared enough to be a vindictive little bitch during the divorce case and get full custody and simultaneously screw over Dad so badly he moved back to Nashville for his own parents' support.

So yeah Camilla was only a little bit bitter. And that bitterness probably twisted events but so what? Both of her parents would do that anyway.

Yet her mouth still hung open, for how long? Embarrassingly long.

She thought about asking Auntie to take care of her flytrap- it was an old guy, almost 10 years now. Actually not just that flytrap, her whole garden still needed tending, and Mom wouldn't be nearly as good at it as Auntie. She took a breath in, and somehow the words just spilled out.

"Hey Auntie. Love you. I... could you maybe take care of the garden? Bring some of the plants in with yours. Especially the flytrap. But now that's said... just... why don't you go watch something on tv instead? Or call Mom? Hell, I know you guys aren't on the best terms, but maybe Dad too. Anything other than this."

[MethodicalSlacker]

Max turned his face askew so that the others had no line of sight on his countenance, and rolled his eyes. Perhaps it was unfair and unkind of him to look down upon these addresses to the camera, since he had engaged the camera for a rousing slightly-more-than-ten-minutes an hour or so before, but these messages were trite and unnecessary. He had tacked on his own, true, but that was for ulterior purposes, more for the sake of his parent's image than his own.

And Misty...

He sighed. Lucas had a significant other that he wished to address a message to. Fine. That was workable. Camilla said nothing to him. This was also adequate, if sub-optimal. Max felt ready and able to present his message then. At best, he'd sway one or both of these people. At worst, they would not join him. What fault could they find in his nobility? He anticipated briefly the possibility that Camilla or Lucas might pose the idea that it was not Max's place to play judge, jury, and executioner. He could hear their cloying voices telling him that each human being was entitled to their own manner of living, that all ideals were worth living for. Worse still, he pictured them taking it lying down. People were going to play the game, and it was none of their business to interfere. He'd waste no time trying to unseat the hold of these ideas in the mind. Better to move on to greener pastures than to continue tilling deadened soil.

"I have people I want to see, too," Max said, turning his face back towards the group and nodding, "and I think that you should get to see your girlfriend Lucas. Everyone should get a chance to see who they want to see."

His expression fell.

"But there are people out there that don't care about those things. They've started playing, I su—guess you would call it. They would deny others the chance to reunite with loved ones for the sake of their own survival, just to get ahead, even if their own chances are slim.

"Shouldn't we try to stop them?" Max asked, eyes now wide and expression now bright, gesticulating too with his hands. "The players, I mean; shouldn't somebody rise to challenge them, so that people can find each other and go peacefully?"

Not his personal logic for doing so, but it'd have to do.

"That's what I think I need to do," he said, calming somewhat.

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Lucas nodded in thought as he listen to Camilla's addressed to the camera, asking her aunt to tend to her garden. This girl really liked to garden, didn't she? In retrospect maybe he should have asked his sister to upload his (probably) last film project onto his YouTube channel. Or maybe that would be too uncomfortable given the subject matter of the project.

His attention was drawn back to Max as he sighed. Perhaps he didn't like the responses — or in Camilla's case, the lack of one — to his question about what they would want to do with their last days. Then Max started talking, saying that Lucas should see his girlfriend. Lucas just nodded to that and let him continue speaking his mind. He listened politely as Max started into a speech about how others would prevent people from reuniting with loved ones and that someone should stop them. Evidently that someone was gonna be Max.

Lucas nodded, mulling over his thoughts. Lucas allowed a sort of hush fall in the room as he considered Max's words, thinking them over before finally speaking.

"So, what? You're suggesting we go around acting like the Punisher and kill people who decided to do what those want us to do?" Lucas pointed at the camera for emphasis. "No offense, but I'd rather not go looking for trouble? If a fight comes my way, sure, I'll defend myself but I'm not going to actively hunt people down."

Lucas sighed. "Look, this place is dangerous and all that, and if you want me to tag along, then sure. Safety in numbers and shit, plus I've got an actual gun and you have that toothy... pole... thing. So, it might be good to have me around in your little Monster Squad. At least for a little bit, until I find my girlfriend."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla only just realized she hadn't actually addressed Max, and she instinctively opened her mouth. Immediately, she shut it again. There was no point to answering a question that the conversation had left in the dust. That's not how it worked. She wished it was how it worked, but that was a selfish wish. But right now, the focus was on Max's proposal. Basically, they'd go around killing those who had decided to kill. When she put it like that, it was difficult to see what made them morally superior. Not killing was something ingrained in humans, wasn't it? Though from what she had heard and seen of Survival of the Fittest, people could be goaded into doing the unthinkable... alarmingly easily.

Like going on a vigilante killing spree.

She internally shivered at the thought, and prevented it from infecting her posture by grasping onto the handle of her bag even tighter. She could almost feel her knuckles going white. Hot. Stressed.

"Look, I have people I want to see too," she started, almost spontaneously, an answer to a dead question. Oh god. She had to follow up from here otherwise she'd turn into a blubbering mess again, make a fool of herself. Why did she care so much about that, now? Sooner or later they were going to all be dead and nobody would be around to remember her stupid attempts at being social.

"Declyn, Drew..." she muttered under her breath.

She just had to think about this whole player-hunting thing. But the answer in her heart was clear. No, don't do it. She couldn't do it. It wouldn't bring her back to Chattanooga, it wouldn't bring the others back-

"But... well... I mean..."

She should just say it. What's the worst those two could do?

Kill her?

"I mean if you want me to come along...!"
No, backtrack!
"I just don't think that this whole player-hunting thing..."
Again, all she had to do was take a deep breath in. Let it out slowly.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Gulp.

It won't bring them back. She could work with that.

"Look. Assuming we do somehow track down and well... kill all the players is what you seem to be getting at. Then what? We'd still be stuck on this island. And like you said, little hope of rescue. I... don't want you to misunderstand. It would be wonderful if everyone got to see who they wanted to see. But that won't bring us back to Chattanooga, to our family. And don't they deserve to see us as much as..."

She shook her head. Safety in numbers, safety in numbers...

"I... guess I can still come along. Won't be much use though. All I have is..."

She cast a glance at the extra bag that had been cast aside during her panic attack post Lucas' introduction. It sat alongside a dropped box of crackers and the two walkie-talkies she set aside. Weakly, she lifted her arm and pointed at the haphazardly strewn materials.

"...those."

[MethodicalSlacker]

Max composed his face into a smile he hoped was not so bright as to be off-putting.

"Glad to have you along!" he addressed Lucas, "We'll make searching for your girlfriend our top priority for today. There are supposed to be announcements tomorrow, and we'll learn then of any players among us."

In all truthfulness, Lucas was far more valuable than Camila. His shotgun turned Max's principled promise from a dreaded virtue signal to an actionable ideology. The man-catcher's mandibles brought the bark; the shotgun shells would provide the bite. Camilla would likely make decent company and a fine travelling companion, and her communication devices had great strategic value, but if she desired to spend her last remaining days somewhere else then Max would not endeavor to stop her.

Indeed, she almost immediately appeared to raise some concern with the prospective arrangement of the group as player hunters. Her line of questioning portrayed itself ostensibly—though Max was almost certain that Camilla's problems were more complex that they appeared—as difficulty understanding the exact goal, or endgame, of their noble quest. True, there would be only one of them remaining at the end of the ordeal, but—

His grin fell away, replaced by a look of stoic determination as he now faced Camilla and prepared to address her with an (abbreviated) explanation of his internal reasoning.

"It's simply the most moral way to conduct ourselves," he explained, unable to help himself. "Those who seek to harm others are, it goes without saying, doing evil deeds. Those who sit idly by and hide—or worse, watch—as these atrocities are committed are culpable to these actions."

Max caught himself, then. He had almost strayed past the Rubicon of diction, there. If he had grown any more verbose...

"I can't just sit somewhere and sulk and listen as my friends and classmates are slaughtered," Max resumed, "I want to intervene and help people. If we all must die here, I want to do so in the middle of helping others to live just a little bit longer."

He walked the step it took to get closer to Camilla and lightly placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, smiling again though more earnestly and softly than before.

"If you decide to not come with us, that's okay. But I'd like to have you with us—those walkie talkies may not be good weapons, but I can think of so, so many ways that they'd be helpful to us."

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Lucas smiled awkwardly at Max, nodding his head hesitantly. He was appreciative that Max was willing to go out and look for his girlfriend first today. He wondered if Camille was alright. Did she find others and grouped with them like he had? He'd hope so. He so desperately wanted her to be okay. But what if she had gone off the deep end like some people no doubt will? What if she was a player? That thought didn't put him at ease, especially with Max's monologuing about going after those people. It wasn't an idea he was sure he could get use to.

"If you are sure, man." Lucas shrugged, putting away his instruction book. "Again, I'm not exactly eager to go looking for a fight. You want to help me find my girl? Sure, okay, thanks. But going around killing people because they snapped under the pressure of having a figurative gun to their head? I don't know, it just doesn't sit right with me."

Lucas shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, these are people we've known for years. I can't just flip a switch and go and kill them, even if they do horrible things here." He looked over to Camilla, looking to her for some sort of support before turning his attention back to Max and continuing. "And it just seems like a sort of slippery slope, ya know? I mean, when does it stop being killing for the sake of others and start being killing for the sake of yourself? Not saying you will, but this is a bit of a tense situation and anything could happen."

He looked to his gun again with a grimace, holding it with both his hands. This was a goddamn terrible situation. What would his family say if they could talk to him right now?

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

At the last part of Max's monologue, Camilla suddenly looked up- looked him in the eye. Even a hand on the shoulder was rather surprising for her, and she backed away from it, so that her shoulder was now free.

He had a point, didn't he? It would be wrong to stand idly by while others are out trying to kill their classmates- like they were doing, but... no, no buts, they were going to do the same thing, and she had to remember why she objected in the first place, and Lucas was right in that both victim and killer were people they'd have known for some time. But if people really were trying to hurt her friends... her lips curled into a frown, quivering slightly, at the sight in her mind. She couldn't bear to see them dead, hurt, being hunted- any of them.

She wondered, how were they doing now, the gardening club? Were they managing? Declyn, all she wanted was for him to take care of himself, especially now, and maybe he was sticking with Drew? She hoped they both found someone, and maybe so would Diego, the poor kid, and Theo- man, she should have invited them on the caving trip. Now their latest shared experience would be dying together in this horrible place. Say, wouldn't it be funny if they were all together and she was the only one who wasn't there with them? That would be sad. For her, maybe. But it would mean they had a better chance of staying safe. In numbers. Camilla should adhere to that too.

She let out a sigh, and lowered herself so that she was kneeling beside the discarded objects.

"I'll stick with you guys, then," she quietly confirmed, laying her duffel bag down and zipping it open. "Just a moment, please."

She carefully picked up and placed the walkie talkies in the bag, along with the cracker tin.

"Fair warning, I haven't seen any extra batteries for these things, and uh. I don't think there are a lot of batteries on this island."

It was then she looked to the extra bag- lugging another one around would be cumbersome, considering it didn't carry much extra stuff. She had since figured out it didn't hold anything she could defend herself with, but maybe there was an extra use for something in there. All she'd bothered to pick up last time was an empty keychain, and that was the first thing that greeted her when she opened the bag again- along with a flower shaped pendant that-

Camilla blinked, and quietly placed both those objects in her main duffel bag, before standing up.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"I'm glad of that," Max said with a smile to Camilla's declaration of allegiance, "happy to have you with us."

His unflinching resolve was not shaken when she moved away from his hand. It was an uncharacteristic risk for him to take, but the modus operandi, currently, was acting in an uncharacteristic manner. Lucas' sustained expression of disapproval was somewhat worrying, given his current ownership of the lone lethal weapon among the trio. Conceding that they put his needs above the current mission was ultimately harmless. Ideally, they would conserve energy in the stables, but being on the move could have strategic purposes. It prevented them from becoming sitting ducks, primarily. Secondarily, it took them potentially to more recruits. At the very least, he had Camilla. Probably.

"On the second day—tomorrow—and even likely the third, I did not imagine repaying murder with murder," he explained, "it would be sufficient, at that point, to simply disarm them. The man-catcher is good for that sort of thing."

Max shrugged his shoulders. More concessions, though this one was fairly empty. It was likely that, upon confronting a murderer, they would lash out in kind. In that event, the self-defense defense could be invoked at least once for Lucas' sake. Max did not appreciate the sheer number of concessions he had given up in the course of this conversation, but if he was going to begin to dwell on his mistakes instead of simply accepting them as they came, he should have started a while ago.

"Shall we get moving, then?" Max asked, "we have an entire island to search for one among many. It's that we begin while it's still early."

And with that, he collected his bag and his man-catcher and made to step outside. He decided to pretend to struggle with figuring out how to fit the man-catcher through the door for a couple of seconds, but not any longer than that. That was something he would have found endearing, were he to view it as an observer.

It was explicitly human.

[Max Rudolph continued in ][.]

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Lucas let out a sigh of relief. So they wouldn't jump straight to murdering people and would just disarm them for now. That was good, he'd rather not be put into the position where he'd have to shoot Ivy in the face. Thinking on that, he made a mental note of trying to look for some of his other friends after they find his girlfriend — specifically Ivy and Myles after. While Lucas knew those two could be hard to deal with most days, they were still his friends and he needed to make an effort to ensure that someone with a less than favorable opinion of them didn't try anything while they were stuck on this island.

For now, he would focus on looking for Camille. He felt pretty good about things so far, even if his nerves were still a little shot over recent events. At least he had Max and Camilla here helping him. He'd probably snap under the pressure sooner rather than later had he not run into them first.

But they were heading out now, and Lucas followed after Max while trying to figure out how he was suppose to load his gun. He still needed to come up with a name for his shotgun. He took a moment to think on the name — it had to be something badass, worthy of a shotgun — and after a few seconds passed and he approached the exit of the stable with Max and Camilla, he found the name he was looking for.

"I think I'm gonna call my gun 'King Ghidorah'." Lucas announced, practically beaming with pride over his choice of weapon name.

((Lucas Abernathy continued in ][...))

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Max walked out the door, hesitating with the toothy gun thing. It wasn't a challenge. He got in here with it, didn't he? Lucas followed him. There wasn't much else Camilla could do except follow them, too.

Lucas named his gun. Was that one of those godzilla monsters or something? She needed to watch more movies. No, no, she should have watched more movies in the past. Oh well, he seemed happy with it.

Outside, the grass gently rippled. There seemed to be a path nearby. Maybe that was the most obvious way to go, but she wasn't sure about that either. Camilla had to admit that was beautiful, in its own way. They had a wide, open island to wander, and she wondered what else there was to see. If only she had dad's camera. Of course this was still life or death, but that wasn't the island's fault. Besides, lots of things are beautiful and deadly at the same time. Many colourful flowers were highly toxic. Though that wasn't quite the same as getting shot at.

No, nothing like that was like getting shot at. That was just poetic garbage to distract herself from the fact that she had basically no chance at surviving here. Wasn't it?

She stopped in her tracks, but quickly resumed, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

"Where to...?"

[Camilla Bell continued in ][]