Bats & Rats & Blind Cave Salamanders

[selphie_trabia†]

((Tiffany Chanders Start))

Tiffany had spent the previous day lying low, hoping that nobody would notice her, eating her food and thinking about her game plan. She still didn't have one at the moment, but one thing was for certain...

Tiffany Veronica Chanders was going to win.

She didn't really know how she'd win. She wasn't sure she'd quite be able to kill someone and in a game like this, wasn't killing an all-important skill? Perhaps she'd be able to find a place to hole up and hide, letting all her classmates kill each other then killing the survivor. Then again, maybe not – any person who'd managed to survive that long would probably be an expert of killing by the time he got to Tiffany.

Still, she'd figure it out. She had plenty of time. In the meantime, she needed to find a new safe place to hide. She'd run away from her previous hiding place, the area outside the Groundskeeper's Hut, after some sort of weird screaming fight broke out in it. Not that it was a particularly safe place to have been to begin with, but it wasn't that bad. Thankfully, the students inside were too busy fighting each other or something to notice her presence.

Tiffany crawled into the tunnels ahead of her, turning her torch on to see where she was going. This was a little more like it. If she didn't get lost in here, she'd probably be able to keep safe for a long time.

[Killer_Moth†]

So, the girls were not in a good place right now. Damn. They were useless to him then. Still, he didn't want to get it out that he was killing people. It would make getting allies harder when it came to it. He could just leave them, but he had nowhere to go.

How long had it been since he would have just abandoned the pair of them and walked on. He was getting sentimental and soft now that school was closing. What did these girls mean to him? Nothing. And if he helped them, he would probably end up getting caught up in trouble down the line. Still, he wasn't going to abandon them here.

"OK. We are getting out of here." Quince leant down to Jessie, extending his arms to her, hoping that she would let herself get pulled up, so that she would start to move. "I reckon we can keep following this slope up. Don't know if it'll get us out, but it's better than the alternative. Anybody got something we can use to mark our path, make sure we don't go over old ground?"

[xylophonefairy†]

Helen shrugged at Charles as Raidon pointed her in the correct direction, scratching nape of her neck at the same time, her eyes looking where he pointed. She shuddered briefly, the ethereal darkness was offputting, and though she trusted Raidon just about enough that she was intending to go in that direction, at any rate she had no better offers, the blackness and sound of voices around the next corner wasn't making her want to move. In actuality, she felt safe where she was.

"Well, I guess there's places to go. People to try not to see," she said, forcing herself to be more lighthearted than she really felt. Turning to go in the direction that she'd been directed, she took a few steps, then paused, and turned back arround again, dithering over what to best say next. "You can come with, if you want to I mean," she added hastily. "But don't feel pressured to."

Without looking to see if he did get up and follow (because, truth be told, she'd have been relatively crushed if he'd chosen sitting in a dank tunnel over her sparkling wit), Helen took about ten paces forwards, rounded a corner, and up a shortish passage to her right, came upon Gloria, Jessie and Quincy. Her eyes adjusted badly to the dark, and she pushed her glasses up her nose, despite them not having slipped anywhere, and were now poking into her eyeballs a little. Still she could make them out, and recognised them, though their names were a little bit fuzzy. That was the problem with a grade as large as theirs, close to three hundred students, and Helen reckoned she'd only ever spoken to about half of them.

Catching the end of what Quincy said, as he stuck out his arms to help up what looked like a very hysterical Gloria, Helen butted in, wanting to help them out. Now was too early on in the game to be making enemies with each other, though she wasn't entirely sure she liked the look of Quincy. Perhaps because he didn't seem to be panicked (though, bizzarrely, neither was she), and because he was male and she didn't know him. Males seemed more threatening in this environment.

"Apparently," Helen said conversationally, "if we keep on going up this tunnel," she used her hand to indicate the way in which they should move, "and take the next left, it'll bring us to a beach-" her voice faltered slightly, feeling very stupid all of a sudden for no specific reason. Her cheeks were growing warm and she was glad it was dark and they couldn't really see her blush. "We could, er, build sandcastles or something I guess."

[Lexi†]

It was at that exact time when she was sitting in the tunnels, listening to the nearly frantic girl next to her and the boy offering assistance, that Jessie decided if she had a choice, she would never venture underground again. If she could just make it out to see the sunlight one more time, she would be much happier for it, maybe she would even give se silent thanks that she had a sky and a sun and the clouds and all that nature stuff to come see. For all she knew, they could have boobytrapped the caves to collapse or explode on some students to cut the numbers down substantially if some of the players didn't seem to be keen on killing. But all that mattered for Jessie was getting the hell out of there at that precise moment (and she hoped that using the H word wouldn't be too much of a bad thing in her mind, it was a most stressful time). Still, she turned to Quincy for answers as Gloria seemed to debate whether to leave the tunnels to herself.

"Gloria, if we don't go, what if this place turns into a dangerzone and we can't find our way out. We will be safer on the surface I swear" she said, concern in her voice. Grabbing Quincys outstretched arm to pull herself up, she offered her arm in tandem for Gloria to pull herself up as well. If they stuck together, they would find it easier to make it out of the tunnels and into daylight.

"Thanks Quincy and I did get given this magazine, maybe I can rip pages out as we go, so if we see any scrunched up pieces of gloss, we know that we are going in a circle, but upwards sounds good to me" Jessie replied to his question, shining her flashlight into her bag to fetch the magazine. But the random voice made her jump a little, the flashlight spinning around to illuminate the newcomer to the group. The girl with the glasses, Helen something? Jessie was sure she was in her maths group last year. It sounded like a good plan till the sandcastle bit, but anything to get out of this tunnel.

"Ok, we can go build some sandcastles then I guess, but lets just get out of here already."

[ThoDuSt]

Charles stood up and followed Helen down the tunnel. He hadn't been sure that they would find the other voices that they were hearing when they reached the end of the tunnel, but the girl's intuition proved correct.

He stayed silent as they tried to convince one of the girls to go to the surface. He suddenly felt the need to speak up.

"Listen, okay, you're no safer down here than you are up on the surface. But if we're on the surface we can at least see where everything is, you know?" He argued, "So come on, the exit's supposed to be this way!"

He motioned with his hand and walked down the tunnel, stopping when he got to the area he had been before. He should wait until everyone got there before continuing.

[Moth†]

Jessie was right...Gloria didn't want to go outside, where it'd be more crowded and the odds of getting killed were more and more likely, but Jessie was right. Trying to stifle her sobs, choking on them a few times, she allowed herself to be helped to her feet. Gloria swayed a bit when she stood, bracing herself against the wall of the tunnel for a few moments, head bowed. Calm down...don't make anyone here angry... she thought to herself, trying not to panic, not to cry much longer.

"T-t-tear up...u-up maga-gazines?" she repeated, lifting her head a little, wiping her runny nose--getting her sleeve wet, but she didn't care. There was even more important things--worse things--to be worried about. "B-but what...what i-i-if someone e-else finds...f-finds them?" she whimpered. They'd follow them out, a crazy person would, and blow their brains out. Or behead them. And the same person would follow the footprints they left on the beach, and...

Gloria shook her head, suddenly diving into her daypack, shoving things aside in a desperate search for her weapon. She didn't want to take it out, didn't want to use it, but if it was in the name of self-defense...Maybe I can just...just incapacitate them. I don't have to kill anyone, do I? I can just hurt someone--not seriously!--and run away. Yeah... She finally found something, pulling out the weapon assigned to her--a gun.

Trying her damndest not to scream in horror, Gloria tightened her grip on it, shaking violently. Whoever it was that assigned weapons...they had a really, really bad sense of humor. "I...I wanna g-go...go now... Wa-wanna go home..." she whispered, rising to her feet again, bag on her back, gun held in two trembling hands.

[selphie_trabia†]

Tiffany walked into the caves, confident, full of calm. She stopped in her tracks when she heard voices - whimpering, cryiing and...

Hm... is that Quincy Jones?

Tiffany smirked, the smile spreading as she tried to stifle her laughter. A pathetic peon like Quincy didn't even stand a chance – she'd have him twisted around her little finger soon enough. She'd already been making moves on him since his girlfriend whatshername dumped him publically at the prom.

Tiffany quickly smothered her smile and called out into the darkness of the cave.

"Quincy? Is that you?" she said, affecting a frightened voice, "I...it's me... Tiffany... Thank goodness you're okay..."

[Killer_Moth†]

Quince rolled his eyes at the sandcastles comment. They were in a nasty situation, and she was making jokes. He hoped that nobody saw his reaction in the dim light. At least Helen was offering useful suggestions, like directions. But there was something about it that he didn't like. "Apparently? Where you getting your info from, Helen?" The fact that there was another guy who appeared behind her immediately put him on the defensive. He wasn't getting a threat vibe, but it paid to be cautious.

At least Jessie was being useful and helpful. "OK. We can use the magazines. But sparingly. If Helen's wrong about where we go, we don't want to end up running out." The plan was good, solid. One that they could use. Maybe he could hang around with this group for a while. At least Jessie was trying to take charge of them. Good, it meant that he didn't have to.

Then there was Gloria, still sobbing on the ground. Quince was willing to write her off as dead weight, and half tempted to just off her there and then. He'd seen enough films to know what a liability she was. "And Gloria, we need to find a way out of here. If you want to stay here and take your chances that's one thing. But if they make this a danger zone, I'd rather not be caught looking for an escape while my head blows up, you hear." Harsh, but he hoped it would shock some sense into her. Or at least scare her the right way, to get her up and moving with them. He didn't have time to worry about a scared girls feelings.

He picked up his backpack, and hoisted it onto his shoulders. He noticed Gloria was getting up, and then noticed what she was holding. Damn, maybe he had been too hard on her after all. "Gloria, what are you doing? You don't want to be pointing that thing at anybody. Not now. We'll get you out of here, and then..." He didn't want to promise that they would get home. But that gun. It could give him the edge. He didn't know what his own weapon was, he admitted to himself, but a girl like that waving a gun around was not going to help anybody. "Give me the gun. I'll look after you."

And then there was a familiar voice. "Felicia?" No, he'd hoped too soon. It was Tiffany. Still, he was glad to see her, and that she was ok. She'd been such a good friend after Prom. He wanted to run to her, hug her, reassure her that it would all be ok from here. But he couldn't. Not while Gloria was still armed. "Tiffany. Really good to see you too babe. You got a way out of here?"

[xylophonefairy†]

Helen jerked a thumb over her left shoulder, back in the direction she and Charles (whom she was relieved to see had followed her) had come from.

"Raidon," she said, not knowing if they knew who he was or not. "He's... well he was in my biology class one year, anyway who he is isn't important," she waved her hands in front of her as though she were wiping a slate clean. "He came from there, and told us the way out, then went off in a different direction..." she said trailing off with a shrug. It wasn't the most convincing story now that she said it out loud, and frowned, scratching the back of her neck, feeling awkward.

"But for what it's worth," she added, "I do trust him. And I don't know that we have anything to lose by-" she stopped abruptly mid sentence as Gloria started waving a gun around. Her eyes widened, which had the dual effect of making her glasses fall back onto her nose from where she had pushed them into her eyes, and immediately making them water in the dusty conditions. God, please don't let anyone think I'm crying... She watched Quincy try to reason with her, and try and get the gun off her (Naturally all for her own good Helen thought with a frown) before being distracted by another new arrival. But she still had that gun.

Ignoring Tiffany, who had always come off badly to her (though that might just have been jealousy seeing as the girl always seemed to have the latest, well, everything), Helen turned her mind back to the panicked Gloria, beginning to feel her patience ebbing away.
"For fuck's sake," she said irritably. "Put the gun down, we're trying to fucking help you! Pull yourself together, or to be quite honest, I have no qualms about leaving you here," that might have been a bit harsh, but she didn't doubt that's what everyone else wanted to say. Still she moved on quickly, turning to Jessie in the hopes that her brief outburst might be forgotten.

"I like the tearing up magazines idea, if we just use tiny bits to show where we've decided to go, it might work. Nobody would know but us what they meant," the last bit she directed at Gloria, with a thin, but honest smile, wanting the gun bearing girl back on her good side. Her mind reeled back to girl scouts when they had gone hiking and learnt woodland symbols. Turn left, turn right, straight on, given up and gone home. They'd only needed to learn four to get the badge, now she wished she'd learnt them all.

[ThoDuSt]

"What's taking so long?" Charles whispered to himself impatiently. "With what they were saying I thought we'd be leaving soon."

Charles started anxiously pacing in the small intersection.

"They wouldn't mind if I waited at the surface, would they? We're supposed to be pretty close and I need to see some sunlight...."

He stopped and thought a moment. Finally coming to a decision, he checked to make sure he had all his things.

"Let's see... It was this way right?"

Then, full of confidence, Charles Richard Dawson strode steadily down the tunnel in front of him... unfortunately for him that tunnel was not the one he had been told about, and he was heading deeper into the tunnels.

((Charles Richard Dawson continued in instinct•algorithm))

[selphie_trabia†]

Tiffany gave Quincy's group a shy smile, though she was grinning inwardly. Helping the group out of the tunnels would establish her position as a leader and if things continued this way, they'd soon become dependent on her.

"Glad you asked. I just came from outside. I'll be more than happy to help you guys get out of here." she said, "Are you sure you want to go out there? There's fighting... and stuff..."

Without even waiting for a reply, she turned around, "You can follow me."

As if to lead the group onward, Tiffany began to run through the tunnels, retracing her steps and stopping every few metres to let the others catch up.

"C'mon! It isn't far now!" she said as she continued on, through the twists and turns of the tunnel.

Soon, she was back out in the sunshine...

((Tiffany Chanders continued in Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows...))

[Moth†]

Oh God, they didn't think....GLoria's eyes went wider, and she shook her head wildly, turning the gun to aim at the ground. "N-No...No, i-it's not wh-wh-what...what y-you think!" She took a nervous step backwards, swallowing, trying to calm her rapidly-beating heart. She wasn't trying to hurt anyone--not anyone here! They weren't doing anything to her...they just wanted to help, she would never--!

"I-It's not...n-not for you! I-It's...o-others...out-outside..the b-bad ones...I-It's just s-self-defense!" she stuttered, shaking her head again. Keeping the gun pointed at her feet, she hugged it closer to her chest, looking at everyone in turn desperately. "I..self-defense...outside...n-not you, n-never y-y-you all..." she whispered, hoping everyone understood.

She saw another girl--someone she hadn't really noticed--start to walk out of the tunnels...she'd lead them to a way out, right?

[Killer_Moth†]

Quince had really had about enough of this. The longer they stood debating every single point gave somebody more chance to sneak up and attack. That was something he'd rather avoid. As for Gloria and her gun, he wanted that piece, and was reasonably certain that he could take it from her if he really wanted to. The problem was everybody else. While he figured he had as good a chance of coming out ahead as of being shot, he still didn't like those odds.

"OK. You keep it. But if you want it to do the most good, then I figure I'll be less likely to hit one of us with it. Now come on, enough already. Let's move." He could always find a better way to get the gun at another time. Now would just be too much hassle.

He grinned at Tiffany and her worries about 'the outside world'. "Fighting I can handle. You should know that." He turned from the rest of the group and followed Tiffany as she led him into the light.

((Quincy Jones cont'd in Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows))

[Lexi†]

Jessie had to stop herself from panicking when she saw Gloria pull out the gun from her backpack, the torchs light flickering up and down its cold metallic surface. In her mind, Jessie saw the scared girl go from being someone who needed help to someone who was a risk to herself and the people around her. Ok, scared was one thing but scared and armed was something completly dangerous. How many news stories had she seen or heard about people who attacked an intruder and killed them only to find out they were unarmed and then ended up being prosecuted for it?

The answer was that fear and a deadly weapon made a potent and violent mixture. Stepping back slightly until she felt the rocky wall behind her, Jessie listened to the other people around her as they set off to find the way out of the tunnels. Opening up the glossy magazine, Jessie ripped half a page out, scrunched it and dropped it on the floor, before facing the way the others had left.

"Its ok Gloria, you know what, when we make it outside things will be a lot better yeah? We will be able to get some fresh air and get clean and figure out where we are, but we need to get outside, ok? Now just keep the gun pointed downwards so you don't accidently hurt someone? Self defence is good, but you don't want to hurt someone incase you get shocked, ok?" she said to the scared girl as she followed Quincy out of the area.

"Just follow me yeah, we will be fine!"

((Jessie continued in Promise))

[xylophonefairy†]

As Jessie started to move, Helen figured it might be a good time for her to get out of the tunnels as well. The darkness was beginning to press in on her, and she wanted nothing more than to see the sky. To see clouds and stars, sun and moon, natural things. Things that the whole world could see. The same sky that somewhere in the world her parents and her sister were looking at, hoping that she was okay. She wondered if they knew, already. Had the campsite reported them missing yet? She had no idea what the time was, it could have been days, minutes, the tunnels seemed to last forever. Choking back sudden tears that were hidden by the dark, she rushed past Jessie and Quincy in her eagerness to get out of the tunnels.

That was not a place she had any intention of going back to. Bad feelings were bred in places where your senses were compromised.

"It's not fair," she found herself muttering as she walked alone along the tunnels, though the others weren't too far away, and they were all going in the same direction. "It's not fucking fair!" her voice broke into a hiccupont he last word, and she banged his fist against the wall. Hitting a rock, it smarted, then began to bleed gently. Clutching her left fist with her right, Helen stopped walking and squeezed her eyes shut for a second, before fumbling along again. "Fuckity fuck fuck fuck," she moaned as she walked along, clutching her really not bery badly injured hand. Once she was out in the open she could bandage it. And turning where Raidon had told her to, light began to appear. Sunlight. Daylight. A reddish sky, it was later than she thought it was. Her mood suddenly lifted as quickly as it had dropped, and she turned back to the others.

"Hey!" she shouted, her voice still a little sniffly from the tears. "Hey guys, we're almost out!"

Relieved to see it, she made a run for the beach, determined that things would be better now.

((Helen Wilson continued in Day of the Dove))