Eep.

[Brackie]

"Stacy, Stacy, no, you can't...please, I can't keep going without you."

"..."

"I...please Stacy, I don't know how, if you're gone..."

"..."

"Please, I...I just need someone with me, I've never been on my own before, not even back then. I had you, and I had Sapphire, and-and then I had Brendan, and...I don't know where they are now. I-I-you can't leave me alone Stacy, I...I can't do it like that."

"..."

"Stacy, p-please, wake up."

"..."

"Stacy?"

"..."

"Stacy..."

Before anyone knew it, Sarah's face was buried in the front of the road's newest body, the fabric now soaked with a new bodily fluid, her tears.

No.

Stacy was gone, the one person who she thought she could make it with her, in her hardest of hearts, was no more.










It seemed like forever until someone else started to speak, for all Sarah knew it was forever.

And that someone was responsible for all of this.

Remy.

The boy who...who used to be her friend.

It all fell together in Sarah's mind as she looked over it a second time. Gloria wasn't responsible for what happened, it was Remy. Remy had to have held that knife, Remy had to have plunged it through the poor girl's arm, and Remy...really was responsible for all this death.

He was speaking. Words were going through about protecting her. Sarah's rage, toppled with the grief of her most recent and tragic loss, fumed her vision and clouded her hearing. She didn't want to listen to those words, those lying words from a boy she thought was a good person. But in the end, he was just like everyone else. He was going to kill, and Sarah couldn't forgive that. She could barely look past what he'd done to Gloria.

In the few seconds before an inevitable (at least not inevitable in her mind) pop occurred, Sarah turned her head towards him, taking a few moments in a desperate attempt to try and talk, try to tell him what she thought. He wasn't her friend anymore, at least the boy that was once her friend back in Saint Paul. The tears soaked her skin, magnifying minuscule patterns across her face like shining diamonds.

She didn't want to speak to him.

Silly girl.

The only opportunity she ever had.

Remy's body jolted mid-sentence, and even before she had a chance to let out a gasp, he fell to the dirt.

Sarah couldn't help it. She screamed in horror, as the boy started twitching ever so slightly as the cracked wound where the back of his head used to be pulsed torrents of blood and etchings of bone. Her hands grew faint, and Sarah wanted to puke, all the little nerves spun around tenfold and they urged her to succumb to the nausea. But there was nothing to expel, nothing to give up to the road, and nothing to stop her from screaming at the sudden shock to the system.

And it didn't stop. Her choking sobs were slightly muffled as she ignored the world, focused solely on the patch of dirt beside her and her once friends as she buried her head beneath her sleeves.

No voice broke through the barrier she set up for herself.

[Moth†]

This wasn't good. Not good at all...

Everyone's voices were starting to becoming less clear, more like random noise and echoes. Gloria didn't know much about medicine, but she did know that if one's head was in pain and one couldn't quite understand people's words, then it was a very bad sign.

"H-heeeeh...." she stuttered, trying to plead for help. Why wasn't her tongue working? Panicking, she tried again. "Haaah....Miiii...."

This wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to sound like that. She wasn't supposed to be in pain--well, her head wasn't supposed to be. Her arm felt numb now. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? No pain was good because something was healed, was it? Or maybe...no, it was bad because...

Don't....do....dying people...d-don't fee....pain....

Why were even her thoughts slow? Why was she stuttering in her head? That wasn't normal! "Heeh...heeeh...lp..." she begged, tongue feeling heavy, eyes unfocused. Not good. Not good. Bad....very bad.

How hard was she hit anyway?!

"Hey, Glory, do you want to go for a hike?"

"Yeah!" Gloria smiled, pulling her boots on, tying the laces and fumbling a bit in her eagerness. "Do you want me to get--" Her question was cut off by her dad holding up his backpack; she could see the bags of trailmix, the packed sandwiches, the juiceboxes and waterbottles inside. And he'd managed to sneak in a box of Chips Ahoy.

"Don't tell your Mom, okay?" her dad laughed, winking.

Gloria laughed, letting her father pull her to her feet, slipping on a backpack that came from seemingly nowhere, taking his hand as they ran for the front door. "I found a new trail I wanna try, okay?!"

Behind her glasses, Gloria just stared ahead blankly, tears slowly drying. "D.....daaaa...?"

Soon as they opened the front door, the trail seemed to already be there. That was an odd thing to happen, but Gloria didn't even question it. She just laughed, feeling lighter than she had in years, racing ahead on the path before turning around to let her dad catch up. "Come on! Don't slow down now!"

"..........dad...."

...
...
...

----

G051--Gloria Benson: DECEASED

[ThoDuSt]

The smirk was quickly wiped from her face. More people were coming, and one of them picked up a dropped gun. Ericka couldn't see the people, or their gun, from where she was standing, but any gun pointed at her was the bad kind. The person wanted them to put down their bags and weapons... Really?

Ericka put her hands in the air, "Okay. Please let me say some things before I even consider putting down my bag and weapon. First of all, a lot of people seem to be moving through this exact location, many of them armed, and if one of them is hostile and I've done what you asked I'll be killed! Second, the last two people I saw pointing guns at each other were the dead girl near the sobbing girl and the dead girl that had the machine gun somewhere near you. Needless to say, that didn't work out so well for them."

She let out a deep sigh, trying to keep herself calm, "What I'm trying to say is that I don't want to die, and I'm afraid that's what will happen if I put this gun down, and I know that will happen if we keep pointing these at each other. We can continue to talk without disarming ourselves or opening fire.... Please."

[Sunnybunny]

This was the second threeway standoff Samya had been in a threeawy standoff. She would laugh about it . . . but it really wasn't all that funny.

"Zach, that's mean. Stop being a jerkface for five minutes?" She stuck her tongue out at him, not bothering to drop her aim or turn to look at him. Still, it was the most normal thing she'd said in a while.

Mr Kwong taught her to analyze an arguement, to see the truth. She didn't trust the girl, really. She wanted to be able to trust her, but she just didn't. After all, Kris had been her friend, and . . .

Yeah, she was paranoid. She wondered if her mommy and granny were watching her still. Right now she just wanted a big hug from them. Not to be a coward, the good cop to Zach's apparent bad cop.

Apparent. Because while Zach was bigger, scarier, and had a huge gun, Sammy was pretty sure he wasn't willing to shoot.

"You really think we can have a conversation where everyone stays calm? We won't shoot you for no reason, but . . . I still think you need to disarm. At least drop the bag?"

And Samya might not be the biggest or bravest, and she wanted to cry because she was sure people were dying . . . but she didn't have the same point of veiw Zach did on not firing. She leveled her aim to Erica's stomach. Slighly less scary than holding to at her head.

[Ciel†]

"You stop being a jerkface." He replied to Sam. Bitch.

Zach didn't realize the wounded girl. Hell, he was surprised. He sure as hell didn't notice her when he first got here. Zach was more staring down at Kari to really notice or... care. So when he heard the boy plead for help, Zach took notice. It definitely helped that Micheal looked like a wounded puppy. He looked like he was almost ready to cry. Zach couldn't just ignore that. Shit. Why did Micheal have to go and make him feel bad? Asshole. Zach turned to Sam, who was in the middle of some exposition shit that Zach didn't care much for.

"Sam. Go... like, do something about that."

He didn't sound too broken up. Which, frankly, was the honest truth. He didn't really care.

He turned back to the girl with the gun.

"Oh. So you only killed her." Zach motioned to Kari. He nodded. Made sense. He didn't understand everything but, on that same token, he didn't really care to understand everything. "Well, if it makes you sleep better at night, I still want you to drop your shit."

He let that sink in.

"... what? You seriously think I'm laying the law on you? You killed one of the people I was traveling with, so that means I want revenge? Eye for an eye? Well. You're wrong. Dead wrong."

Zach looked away for just a moment. "You just said you don't want to die. Sure. I don't either..." He scoffed. "But really. Do you honestly think I give a shit about your circumstances?" He blinked. "Some real dirty circumstances I figure. Any middle-aged woman with a hankie and an abusive husband would be crying for you. They'd know that this is your only choice. But I know it ain't. It ain't your only choice. Don't go talking about this being your only option. That's the copout the serial killers on this island use to get away with the shit that they do.

"I don't give a shit if you killed someone. Boo hoo, it's your choice. S'long as you don't get up in my shit, then I won't get up in yours. So I ain't telling you to drop your shit just to secure my own safety."

Zach sighed.

"I'm telling you to drop your shit because I'm robbing your ass blind. Bankrobbers don't rob schools or libraries, they rob banks cuz that's where the money is."

Zach adjusted his aim.

"And that leads me right back to where we started. Drop your shit. Everything."

[Brackie]

((Okay I'm kinda at a loss as if my girl's inactive atm, so I'm just going to nothing-post just to get the thread rolling))

Time passed, and Sarah wasn't sure whether or not she was still alive. Her own little cocoon of silence, faux-safety, and destitute solitude was just a false web of lies, but she didn't want to give it up. Not for anything. Anyone.

There were voices out there. But she couldn't deal with that. Not now. Never. She just wanted to spend these precious few moments of grief on her own. It was all she had now.

[ThoDuSt]

Ericka dropped her bag and, arms still above her head, turned to the person talking to her.

"You didn't listen to single word I said, did you?" She asked, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, it doesn't matter, as long as I survive, and maybe find get some leftover rations from the people here who won't be needing them, you can think whatever you want."

[SOTF_Help]

((Sorry for the disturbance. Inactivity squad here.))

They just kept up their awful drama, while Micheal watched Gloria bleed. It became more and more evident that she wasn't going to be getting back up. The shooters were all standing around, talking. They seemed totally casual for standing in the middle of a bloodbath of proportions not unlike those of a particularly nasty FPS. Gloria slipped away, and there wasn't a thing he could do. He hadn't done his job. He'd let the party down, and no reset button could make this better.

The only decent thing was that everyone was so caught up in their own drama that they ignored Micheal entirely. He felt awful about leaving the body of a comrade behind, but in this case, survival came first. He'd just been smacked in the face by the reality of the situation, and dissociating wasn't quite working.

But the little stick-up drama didn't involve him. He figured they'd leave him be as long as he didn't take his bag while sneaking off. Yeah, that was the ticket. Just slip away.

So, leaving his bag but taking his Wolverine claws, Micheal did just that as expeditiously as he could manage.

((Micheal Raynor continued Not Too Far Away))

[Ciel†]

"Nope," Zach responded, taking the bag in his hand. "I didn't give a shit then, certainly don't give a shit now. Probably won't give a shit 'bout anything really."

He took the bag, wrenched the pistol into his hand. He kept the empty machine gun pressed to her head, just in case she wanted to do some kung fu shit and backflip. Zach didn't know what the fuck these people were capable of! He didn't want to take any chances. SO he examined the pistol in his hand. Unloaded the clip.

Then a thought occured. if you could drop the shit, you deserved to live. It meant you were sane. That you knew what the fuck you were doing. Doesn't matter who she killed, as long as she was sane enough to drop her shit, she was sane enough not to fuck with Zach Jamis.

No Zach. That's a terrible idea. And all the terrible ideas in the world were the ones that always saw the light of day. So, yeah, rock on.

Zach dropped the pistol without another thought.

"Here. I'm an understanding guy." He almost laughed at the possibility of that being true. "Maybe you go hunt some poor sap down, drill a hole in head and take his crap. Or maybe you could kill yourself, or everyone else, or maybe not everyone else. Maybe you can just go running out in the open shooting everywhere and get yourself killed. Frankly I can't - " He threw the clips on the ground, with a loud grunt. "find myself giving a fuck about what you end up doing, just so long as you don't screw with me or Sam."

He didn't need to reiterate. He turned to Sam.

"Sam. We're done here."

And then Zach left.

(Zach Jamis continued in No Such Thing as a Perfect Plan)

[Brackie]

((EXPRESSPOSTINGBEFOREDEADLINE GOOOOO))

You need to get up.

I don't want to.

You need to run.

There's no point.

You need to get out of here, away from that girl.

What's the point? Stacy's dead. Remy's dead. They were my friends, my best friends. There's no point in going on without them, what do I have?

You need to live.

What do I really have to live for without them?

You didn't say that, I didn't hear you say that. What did you say? There's always something to live for, always. You have a life, you have a family, you have everything waiting for you if you can just get up off your knees and fight for it.

No.

Did I just hear that correctly?

No.

Say that again.

"No..."

Sarah Tan was still on the ground when she noticed she was finally alone. The people who were keeping her sparing company were now well and truly gone, the boy who held the small girl having trotted off elsewhere while another boy was making tracks of his own. The girl, the one with the gun, Remy's killer, was distracted.

This had to be it. This had to be her one chance to get out of here. No other way, no other time would allow it.

But she was so tired, so weak, so wrought with trauma and emotion that she didn't want to move, leave her only two friends to the dust. No one would treat them like humans anymore, no one would look at them and see faces, only...only things. Bodies. Her two best friends no longer, to anyone.

She had to do it though. There was no choice. Either she ran, or everything they did for her, everything she did for them, would be rendered as pointless as a shaggy dog story. It was for them, for their fleeting memories, that she finally tried to escape.

The small girl glimpsed the scene beyond through her arms, wrapped around her head on the ground like some sort of magician's act without the magician. They felt tight, the tiny muscles inside were aching. She loosened them a little. Just a bit. This was enough for the tautness to relieve itself, to give her body feeling. She looked again at the retreating figures, and figured that this was her one and only chance for escape.

Her legs weren't as sore, but they sure didn't help her run any faster. She scuffled over to her bag, zipped it closed, and saw just beyond it, something shining in the dirt.

Stacy's gun.

Her eyes recoiled from the thing, that thing that caused so much pain. If Stacy hadn't shot, then she and Remy would still be alive. If that thing was just thrown into the depths of the ocean the moment someone saw it, there would be no more pain for her.

But she knew what she had to do.

If Sarah didn't take it, then there was no doubt over who would take it after she left.

Her hands scooped it up and slotted it into her bag, but now, she had to run. There was so much time wasted over antagonism, so many chances dancing like ballerinas in front of her eyes that could end up badly. The small girl got to her feet, and not even giving the murderous girl the satisfaction of seeing her fear, ran as fast as she could in the other direction.

((Sarah Tan continues in You Are On a Rock Floating Through Space))

[ThoDuSt]

Ericka was shocked as the gathering dispersed into the surroundings without any further discussion. She glanced at the area to make sure no one was waiting in ambush and also to take stack of what was left behind.

[SOTF_Help]

Zach left. Samya was in no hurry to be left behind. She jogged after him.

Unfortunately, fatigue was wearing on her. While she kept up for a time, she managed to lose sight of Zach around one of the small hills, and soon found herself alone again.

((Samya Franklin continued Refraction))

[ThoDuSt]

After she confirmed that she was now alone, Ericka knelt down and picked her gun and it's clips up from off of the ground. After reloading, she proceeded to loot anything of use she could find in the bags or on the bodies: the food and water was to be expected, there was a little more than she anticipated maybe, but she certainly wasn't about to complain about that; the boy she killed had dropped a knife, which could easily prove useful, especially if she dropped the one she already carried; and even more surprisingly, the girl who was already dying when Ericka arrived on the scene was carrying a gun, and the boy who was grieving over her neglected to take it!

Feeling luckier than she had any right to, Ericka packed her new belongings into her bag. Making sure the safety of the new gun was on, she wrapped it and any ammo she could find for it in a shirt from one of the bodies and tucked it away in her bag.

She took another quick scan of the area, to make sure she didn't leave anything behind, and then walked off.

((Ericka Bradley continued in Tempting Fate))