And Knowledge Itself, is Power

[decoy73]

The Asian girl panicked as Simon spoke up. Given the fact that there was a fresh corpse a few feet away, it wasn't exactly unexpected. The way she panicked though, was. She immediately grabbed the rifle laying on the ground and pointed it at Simon.

"Leave me alooone!"

Simon flinched as ... nothing happened. The thing refused to fire. Simon didn't really care why so, just that he had been very lucky. Then the redhead spoke up, at least attempting to be calmer.

"What do you want? If you don't have anything of interest to say, then I suggest you leave." Simon looked at the redhead, then at the Asian and what was currently her rifle. Simon was going to have to be like Odysseus now, a role he had never been comfortable with, especially not with a gun pointed towards him.

"I ... I came here looking for supplies. I got into a fight and was hoping for some things that could better help me. Then I heard the screaming and now I'm here because I haven't had any friendly contact for almost a week." Great. He was rambling. He was never Odysseus - he could be Apollo, yes, he could be Ajax (of Salamis, not the wimpy guy from Locris) - his full name, after all, was Simon Ajax Telamon, and it was so for a reason, but the slick Odysseus, he'd never been too good at that.

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah's face was a mix of tears and incredulity. Supplies, he'd come for supplies? Fucking supplies. She'd almost shot him because of supplies. She'd almost shot him. She'd pulled the trigger, she'd tried to shoot him. She almost killed somebody.

holy fuck i what.

She channeled her fear and confusion into anger at the boy in front of her. She just wanted him to leave. If he left, everything would be fine, she'd calm down, he wouldn't see her shaking and freakiing out... more than she already was.

"Then, then go, look! F-f-fuck off!" Teeth bared, she gestured wildly away towards the infirmary.

[Rocky†]

Something about Simon was off-putting to say the least. She couldn't quite pinpoint why, but Bridget felt that sticking around him would be bad, to say the least. Sarah seemed to feel the same way, given her rather.... colourful reply. She couldn't recall if she'd ever seen her companion so pissed off. Bridget sighed. Might as well make sure this situation didn't turn out like.... like the last one.

"Look, you came looking for supplies? Great. The infirmary is over there." She pointed towards the building that had been their base for some time. "Feel free to have a look and see if you can find anything we haven't already. However, touch either one of our bags, and I will not be amused." Bridget considered making a more specific threat, but decided against it. That would just make things worse.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have someone to bury." With that, the redhead turned her back on Simon, picking up her nailboard from the ground. Using it as a makeshift shovel, she began to expand the hole she had started. She just hoped Simon would heed her words.

[decoy73]

"Then, then go, look! F-f-fuck off!" The girl with the sniper rifle very bluntly made her feelings clear.The redhead was somewhat more diplomatic.

"Look, you came looking for supplies? Great. The infirmary is over there." She pointed towards the building behind Simon. "Feel free to have a look and see if you can find anything we haven't already. However, touch either one of our bags, and I will not be amused. Now if you'll excuse us, we have someone to bury." With a gun being pointed at him and himself with only a tire iron and the desire to live, Simon backed away from the clearing and went into the Infirmary, searching for anything that could help.

Twenty minutes later, Simon walked out of the building, having received only a couple gauze packets and some low grade painkillers. He had essentially wasted his time even looking. No locker, no nothing. With two people who didn't want him around, and no real reason to stay, Simon turned in a random direction and walked away.

Talk about being unprepared.

((Simon Telamon continued in ... Because I Can't Make It On My Own))

[Gwbiii†]

The minute he'd turned his back on them, Sarah burst into fresh tears. Most of her body was shaking from the adrenaline, she closed her eyes to try to gather herself back together. It was only the scraping of nails on the ground behind her that stopped her breaking down completely. Again.

She turned, still crying, and crawled the small distance to bridget. She took her place next to her and started digging at the dirt with her hands. The grit got under her nails, dirtied her hands and after a few seconds she managed to think clearly enough to go and find an alternative.

Wiping her eyes again, she staggered away, leaving Bridget to keep digging. After stumbling through the trees for half a minute she found what she was looking for, trudging back with a sizeable, hooked branch. Without looking up at Bridget she kneeled again and started digging away, using both hands to drive the primitive adze through the ground.

All the while, she couldn't stop wondering why they had to dig at all.

They should have all been home by now.

[Rocky†]

Bridget glanced at Sarah as she crawled over and began to help her dig, before reapplying herself to the task. The grave was starting to reach a fairly good size, but still needed some more work. Thankfully Sarah had the idea to find something to assist in the digging, making the process much quicker. Not a word passed between the two girls as they applied themselves to the task. They developed a system, Bridget would break down the dirt, Sarah would scoop it out. They continued this until they had a decent sized hole, large enough for Mia to rest comfortably inside.

Bridget turned towards the body. After everything that happened, she didn't quite know what she felt any more. Walking over to Mia, the red haired girl draped the other girl's arms over her shoulders, hoisting her up. She was surprisingly light, which probably had something to do with the blood she had lost. Bridget took slow, methodical steps towards the grave, depositing her on her back.

After Bridget crossed Mia's arms, she took up her nail board again. With Sarah's help, they began to push the displaced dirt back into it's original position, covering Mia. Sarah briefly left for a moment, returning with a decently sized stone to place as a marker for their fallen classmate. Once they had completely filled the grave, Sarah placed the stone at the head. An unmarked grave for a friend soon forgotten.

Their work done, the two girls stood at the edge of the grave, Bridget fidgeting with her hands. She wished there was something more she could do. Something to help make up for what she did. Nothing would ever make up for her taking her life though. So all she could do was stand there, and pray.

"Suaimhneas siorai tabhair di, a Thiarna,
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
agus go lonrai solas suthain uirthi.
And may perpetual light shine upon her.
Go bhfaighe a hanam agus anamnacha na bhfirean trocaire o Dhia agus conai faoi shuaimhneas."
May her soul and the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah stared down at the shallow grave as she heard Bridget praying. Her eyes were red but she'd stopped crying a few moments before. If she could, she would have still been crying, it would have felt better than the numbness she felt now, gazing blankly at the makeshift headstone.

She wasn't even sure what she was thinking right then. Her thoughts strayed to the fact it shouldn't have happened, that Mia hadn't deserved to die, that it was all a pointless accident... An accident...

Momentarily glancing at Bridget's anguished face squashed the fleeting thought that threatened to take her attention. The idea that her friend might've been to blame. She didn't give it any more of her time.

Instead she focused on the fact that Mia was dead, that all the potential she'd had as a human being had been snuffed out without reason. With her mind as numb as it was right now she felt like she was trying to jam all her emotional bandwidth through a pocket calculator. Instead of trying to process it she just found herself running through the far too familiar names of all the people who had died. At least, the ones who she'd known closely enough to feel what the world had lost.

Vera, Reika, Carol, Raina, Raine, Richard...

Dozens of names circled in her head and she found herself repeating some of them over and over. The sheer number of dead was paralysing, and yet, something else seemed to be sneaking up in her mind. As if she'd seen something unusual but hadn't taken a second glance until too late. She looked up at Bridget, her heavy eyelids staying as they were for a few moments before realisation dawned and they widened, her mouth opening as if to say something. She quickly looked away at the ground again. The weakest smile played across her lips as thoughts began to form in her mind.

They weren't dead yet.

((Sarah and Bridget continued in Some People Care))