Bump in the Night

[Limisios†]

Alan, there's a group over there. They seem friendly enough, so I think it's a good idea to check them out."

Before Alan could say anything in protest, Jimmy began walking towards the group. Alan was too scared to follow through fear of anyone attacking him so he took out his photo of him and Zoey and sat against one of the tree stumps. All the time he was thinking that she could be watching him now on the other end of a television screen, did she know that he was in danger? Was she trying to do something about it? Not that there was anything he could do. He stared at the photo trying to calm himself, listening for a gunshot or a scream as Jimmy called to the group.

"Are, uh...are you okay?"

Alan jumped slightly at hearing David's voice; he looked up sharply, half-expecting the barrel of a gun to be staring back at him. But thankfully it was just David looking down at him. Relieved Alan started to pick himself up and place the photo back into his pocket.

"Me? I'm just... I'm just fine. Did you come from that group of people over there? Are they... Safe?" Alan's hands began shaking again. "Not that I mean to imply that they are... It's just, my friend Jimmy went over to talk to them and I'm just... I just don't want to die, you understand? I don't... I don't want to die..." Alan was babbling so awfully that his words were starting to sound slightly incomprehensible. "But I'm sure you've got you're own survival to worry about... I won't keep you... I'll just sit here and wait for Jimmy to come back or... Something like that..." Alan was close to tears at this point but he held them back, he slumped on top of a tree stump, quivering all over. "I'll pray for you... I'll pray for us all... Pray for our sanity..."

[Gwbiii†]

Raina stared at the sky some more. There'd better be a heaven for those teachers somewhere. Some teacher's lounge up in the sky where the children weren't so annoying because they were dead and feeling humbled by the experience and all the tests marked themselves and the coffee and copying machines never broke. It sounded like fun, but it was about time she started to deal with reality.

She sat up again. What did she have? Not enough to get off the island alive, that was for sure. Leaning forward on her hands and knees she dragged the unfamiliar bag over before placing it on her crossed legs. The zipper was fiddly, she'd always had a certain amount of trouble with zippers and things but this one was distinctly more fiddly than the fiddly fiddle things she was used to.

fiddlesome mofo... GOT IT.

Inside the bag was... food, right; water, cool; first aid kit, useful? And a weapon, somewhere? She couldn't see it whatever it was.

It had to be one of those concealable spy guns or a jackknife or.. or even a laser pointer. She'd settle for a laser pointer. She wouldn't mind a green one, actually. And when the terrorists came by in their helicopter she could shine it in their eyes and they'd be all "aaargh" and crash. It would be so awesome. As she rummaged around in her bag it suddenly started singing at her.

~Nobody's perfect! I gotta work it!~

oh fuck.

~Again and again 'til I get it right!~

She located and pulled out the Hannah Montana singing pen as it finished its haunting melody. On the bright side at least it was an artist she felt a certain amount of nostalgia for. On the shadowy side she was sooooooo dead.

Unless she could find someone, maybe Bridget, or Miley Cyrus' one true best fan of all time who she could trade with. Hell, they'd probably kill to get it!

... That was probably the wrong turn of phrase and a little too close to the truth now she thought about it.

She clicked the pen again and held it up closer to her ear. Miming the words cheerfully. She wasn't sure whether it was because she found the words inspiring ~You live and you learn it!~ or because it reminded her how much time she was wasting, but somehow it motivated her to get moving. She pocketed the pen and stood up, wiggling her backpack until it felt comfy on her back and throwing the duffel bag over her shoulder.

She could finally get a proper look around at her surroundings, and the first thing she realised was that far from being in a wide expanse of conifers, the tree line was only 10 metres or so away up a slight slope. Behind her was steeper and woodier, so she decided it wouldn't hurt to take a peep out of the forest.

She carefully picked her way up to the treeline, shielding her eyes from the more powerful glare. As her eyes adjusted she saw that ahead seemed to be little more than scrub and tree stumps, to her right the hills seemed to have been eroded into something approximating cliffs. So typical of people to just cut down trees without thinking how they held everything together. behind and to the left the slopes rose to become mountainous. The cliffs and the mountains seemed to frame the panorama in front of her. across the stumps was a river at the edge of the logging zone, and as she followed its winding path, delineated by the forest on the other side, it flowed all the way down to the sea on the horizon. To say it was beautiful was an understatement, even amidst the desolation the scrub was reclaiming the felled woods.

To say it was occupied was also an understatement. In a clear spot not too far away she could see a bunch of people looking... standofish. Someone else was moving away from them and a couple were approaching them. Try as she might she couldn't make out their faces. She wasn't sure if it was the glare or if she'd developed prosopagnosia in the past few hours. That would suck. It'd be interesting, but definitely veeeery sucky.

She decided the smartest course of action was to watch and wait. If worst came to worst she could run through the forest behind her, and the lip of the hill would shield her for a while. She crouched down and kept an eye on the happenings below. She could definitely hear Alice Boucher though, she guessed no-one else in the school could shout vulgarities in French with quite the same enthusiasm. She also recognised Dawne as she walked up and past nearby, she didn't want to call out, with that other group so close. She looked from the group Alice had now appeared in, back to Dawne, and decided she'd much prefer Dawne for company.

She seemed to be heading up towards the mountain. It'd make for a good view, that was for sure, and once Raina caught up with her they'd be able to talk about psyche stuff on the way. Yay!

The 6 foot something crazily tall girl shuffled away from the lip of the hill, righted herself, and walked off in the direction of Dawne's general destination. With her longer legs it wouldn't take long to catch up with her in the woods...

((Raina Morales continued in It's A New Day.))

[decoy73]

"Y'all want in on Samurai Club or somethin'? Sorry guys, I can't help you out. Treasurer's office is that way, and she can hook you up with membership cards if you're interested. Five bucks, plus the cost of a badass sword." The tan guy (Julian) pointed in a random direction, then whispered something into the ears of the redheaded girl (Claire), who seemed irritated as hell. The other girl (Alice) wasn't really talking, mainly because she seemed to be bottling up a metric ton of emotion. One thing was for sure: Julian and Claire didn't seem all that interested in joining up. Only the second guy (David) said anything of substance, and he just seemed scared as hell (which, given the situation, wasn't very surprising).

"G-good. ... That's...good. I'll, uh...I'll leave." David picked up his bags and walked away from the group. As Jimmy took a quick look of his surroundings, he felt uncomfortable. The remaining three students were hiding something, and it was clear that they didn't want anybody else around (at least, it was clear to Jimmy - while they weren't overtly hostile, Julian and Claire definitely seemed to not want anybody joining them, while Alice was unknown but probably not in the best mood to ask). Great. This is awkward. Have to get out of here.

"Uh, nice. Sorry to intrude, I'll just be going that way." Jimmy motioned back in the direction that he had come from. He turned back to notice David talking to Alan. As he walked towards them, he noticed that Alan seemed incredibly stressed. Jimmy cursed silently. He had been so busy over finding other people that he had forgotten the one right next to him. He noticed David's posture and demeanor.

Friendly, scared, not a threat to play. Seems like one of the many good people in a bad spot. Then he noticed Alan.

"I'll pray for you... I'll pray for us all... Pray for our sanity..." Unlike David, who seemed to have some control over his fear, Alan, who was slumped over a tree stump, seemed like he was ready to break down (Again, while undesirable, Alan's reaction was completely understandable). Jimmy just walked over to Alan, and put his left hand on Alan's shoulder.

"Hey, Alan. It's okay. Nobody's going to hurt us. Everything will be fine." Jimmy tried to reassure Alan, although the statement he had just given was an obvious lie - barring a timely rescue by the US government (which couldn't be counted on - Danya had eluded the law at least four times previously) or a million-to-one collar failure (also unlikely - given that this was the fifth version that Jimmy knew about, it was almost a given that most of the kinks had been worked out of the collar design), almost the entirety of the Bayview senior class was irrevocably bound the to the horrible game of SOTF. Still, Jimmy knew that the worst thing he could do was give Alan any impression that Jimmy knew that the words coming out of his mouth were a lie. He quickly turned to offer a quick smile and his right hand to the other guy.

"Hey. I'm Jimmy. How are you holding up?"

Come on, Alan, keep it together ...

[Crash†]

Claire exhaled, taking a second to scan her ally after he'd finished delivering his oath. It was fortunate, sure, to have such a noble companion...but did she trust him? Even with his ability to quickly defuse hostile situations having already saved her once, she couldn't help but wonder exactly what Julian's intentions towards her were. After all, it wasn't as if they were best friends. They'd simply had the privilege of being blessed with each others' company after waking up on the island.

"Maybe he's got a crush on me or something..."

The auburn-haired girl smirked unknowingly, pondering the thought half-heartedly. That would be nice, wouldn't it? A guy who wasn't a total animal showing her a bit of affection. Even if she was that lucky, she doubted this was the time or the place to be thinking of such things.

And yet, the more she thought about Julian's proposal, the less reason she came up with to object. Regardless of whether or not he felt anything towards her, he was offering to keep her safe. How could she pass up an opportunity like that? Sure, his reckless abandon may have conflicted with her natural rationality once or twice already, but she'd just been offered a ticket to survival...at least for a while longer. The chances of her avoiding or conquering any problems they'd encounter were certainly higher if she had a trustworthy partner to work with.

And if he did in fact harbour some sort of feelings towards her, that only made it more likely that he'd protect her if push came to shove. How could she say no? It would only be until she found Aislyn, anyway.

"Well..." she began, breaking the awkward silence and taking a quick look across the field. She barely recognized the other individuals she was apparently surrounded by, and with each passing second of uncertainty she felt herself more inclined to latch onto somebody trustworthy. "...all right. That sounds good," she concluded, turning to him and providing direct eye contact.

"But you have to trust me a little more," she emphasized, casting a cursory glance at her gun before turning back towards Julian's face. "I'm not planning on using this unless I really have to."

Claire took the time while Julian was responding to get her first good look at him. The hispanic-looking boy seemed to take good care of himself, a quality which she prized in men. Combined with his sweet and cheerful disposition, quick wit, and athletic build, part of her couldn't help but wonder whether or not this was exactly the opportunity she'd been waiting to be presented with, even before their abduction onto the island.

She was forced to snap out of that train of thought, though, as quickly as she'd summoned it. She didn't want to be here anymore.

"...Right, let's get moving. I'd rather be somewhere a bit less exposed before sundown..." She observed, taking a quick glance across the field and finding an unoccupied area of the treeline. With Julian in tow, she trekked off through the forest.

(Claire Lambert continued in Can't Fall Down)

[Jonny†]

And she said yes. Well, of course she did. Thank you for accepting my protection, Claire. Now I can teach you the way of the samurai, which in Japanese is called "kawaii". And with that, the two of them set off skipping into the setting sun, holding hands. And before they knew it, they'd fallen in love, and the power of their love was so great that it turned their collars into dust (fairy dust, to be specific). And it was right about then that they realized they could fly (all they had to do was believe in themselves), so they took off soaring into the setting sun and zoomed their way back to Minnesota. And they got married and had seven babies and they lived happily ever after.

Or at least, that was what Claire obviously wanted. From the way she was checking Julian out, he could tell that she wanted at least four babies. But you could hardly blame her, especially considering- Wait, no. No no no. Shut up, be serious for a moment. Put on your serious face, Julian Avery. She actually was, maybe, just a little, just a teensy bit, checking him out. Which was appreciated, no doubt. But it was also... fuck. He had no idea whether she was actually starting to get attached to him, or how much, but that would not be a good thing. He'd help her find Aislyn to the best of his ability, sure. And he'd give her all the protection and emotional support she wanted on the way. But after that? Gone. Good luck, you two, but I've got some more worlds to save. More work to do. More people to reunite. More conflicts to defuse. And so he'd have to turn and leave. Gone. With a witty phrase and a charming smile, gone. Just like with Marybeth.

Well, no, not exactly. The key difference with Marybeth was that Marybeth was dumb as shit. And so messing with her head could only ever be a good thing, because the new mental course that your dickery nudged her towards was almost undoubtedly better than her previous one. Claire was... different. Claire was a good kid. Claire had, if Julian's memory of the grapevine served him well, had troubles with the wrong kind of boy in the past. And then a nice boy comes along and seems like he might be different, and then he turns around and leaves as soon as he's done with his obligation to her. Gone.

Julian didn't like it. But what the fuck else was he supposed to do?

"But you have to trust me a little more. I'm not planning on using this unless I really have to."

That was what she had told him, and it looked like she was expecting an answer. Something more substantial than the nod and the understanding look he'd given so far. "I gotcha, Claire. It's just... I dunno. When I seen your gun, something just came over me. I got a little crazy." He shrugged. "I ain't really used to it, y'know? So what you gotta do is pull your gun on me randomly while we're walking. Just point it at my face outta nowhere. Get me nice and conditioned to it."

There was more truth to Julian's confession than he would have liked to admit. What he'd done was nice and gallant, but it was also stupid and crazy and it wasn't even remotely necessary. If he'd stopped and thought about it a second more (what was that thought he'd been holding? Something about her being clever?), he'd have realized she wasn't going to shoot anyone. She pretty much had every opportunity to do it back at the church. Put a bullet in Teo's head while Julian was distracting him, pop Nick before he figured out what the fuck was going on. And then Julian himself would have been easy. Execution-style, maybe. She could have forced him onto his knees and snapped off a shitty one-liner of some sort.

But she hadn't.

So maybe he should trust her.

"Listen, though, Claire... I do trust you, a hundred percent. You tell me to stand down, I will. You tell me to watch your back, I will. Whatever you need. And I really mean it." Julian lifted his hand to cover his face and then lowered it again. "See? This is my serious face."

It was pretty much the same face as before.

He picked up his sword, picked up his bag, gave Claire a nod, and started to follow her. Wherever she would go.

(Julian Avery continued in Can't Fall Down)

[Grim Wolf]

David wished, dimly, that he could be more comforting. That he could tell the other boy it was okay, that he didn't have to pray for him, that they'd both survive and everything would be fine. Alan Rickhall was cracking up, and David wished he could be strong enough to sustain them both.

But he couldn't. In fact, Alan's weakness was at that moment freaking David out even more.

"They're good people," he managed, his throat tight. "They...they let me go. Even gave me my bag back." He hefted it, not smiling.

Jimmy appeared, introduced himself. Without thinking David took his hand, smiling. "Hey, Jimmy," David managed. "It's good to see you." He was looking at his feet, shifting uncomfortably; how many had died in the past few hours? How many more would die? And here was Alan Rickhall, praying.

Well, David had never been the religious type, and had probably made one too many cracks about God in his time to feel entirely comfortable with his own salvation. "Thanks," he said to Alan. "For, uh...for prayin' for me." He got to his feet, feeling jittery, on edge; he didn't want to be with these people, didn't want to get attached to him. If he got attached...

No one sticks around. Don't stick around.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly. "But I gotta run."

And he took off into the forest, relishing the burn in his muscles that erased all need for thought.

(David Meramac continued in Your Cross to Bear)

[Limisios†]

((Post order disruption with permission from Fullcircle.))

"Thanks, for Uh... Praying for me."

"What else can I do?" Alan said with a nervous laugh.

"I'm sorry. But I gotta run." David set off into the forest, leaving Alan to watch him depart while Jimmy tried to calm him down.

"I'm sorry for freaking you out like that. You shouldn't have to worry about me all the time; you've got your own survival to worry about. But I'm thankful that you're here all the same." Alan had just about calmed down by now and gave off a weak smile. "So I guess that the guys over there turned us down? What does that mean for us then? Do you think we should keep moving? Or should we stop for a bit to-"

Suddenly the nearby speakers jolted to life and a strange voice started spilling out of it. Alan listened as the voice listed off death after death until the speaker finally clicked into silence. Alan almost fell off the log he was sitting on; suddenly all the fear started flooding back to him. Took out the creased picture of him and Zoey and held it to his chest in fear.

"I told you!" He shouted in fear to Jimmy. "Didn't I tell you that people have already snapped? I knew it! We're both dead men. Soon we'll be buzzard food I tell you." He looked at the picture through his tears. "Zoey, I just hope that you're not watching me fall apart like this." He said to himself.

[decoy73]

((OOC: Sorry. Just ensuring that Jimmy stays active. Also, GMing of Alan Rickhall done with permission from Limisios))

David was clearly not in the mood to stay. He looked down while he took Jimmy's hand and then simply thanked them both and left. Jimmy just looked down. He knew that for all he knew, that was the last time they would see each other alive. Alan spoke, having calmed down from where he had been just a few minutes ago.

"I'm sorry for freaking you out like that. You shouldn't have to worry about me all the time; you've got your own survival to worry about. But I'm thankful that you're here all the same. So I guess that the guys over there turned us down? What does that mean for us then? Do you think we should keep moving? Or should we stop for a bit to-" Alan would have continued, if it weren't for the slow clapping that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

"Kids, I have to say that I'm truly impressed with your first day showing. Blood! Tragedy! Explosions! Mayhem! You've utterly smashed the record for first day kills; it makes an old man proud to see you all taking his instructions so thoroughly to heart! Congratulations to those of you that are still alive, because you've already outlasted 19 of your classmates."

Danya had decided to make his unwelcome debut into the game by revealing the first of the doomed. Most of the names weren't those that Jimmy knew much of (not that he didn't care about it or wish he could have stopped it - he just wasn't close to them). The only names which struck a bell were those of Eric Lorenz, who was widely known for being a racist and very unlikeable, Reiko Ishida, Bayview's resident celebrity (Did she kill because she was motivated to win or just scared?), Tony Russo, who had been on the football team with Jimmy (Not him. Tony was cool. He was nice to others. How did he deserve any of this?), and Steffan Kronwall, one of the school's star hockey players (as with Reiko, Jimmy wondered whether Steffan's kill was motivated by entitlement or self-defense).

The fact that 19 of his classmates were gone, victims of each other, put Jimmy into two minds about the situation: It's starting. People are getting scared. You and Alan could be next. Got to defend yourselves. (No! Don't think like that! There's still, what, 200 plus people remaining? How many of them are just scared people who want to go home? They deserve help, not death! If you lose it, you'll end up like John Rizzolo!) What? You mean you'll both be alive? To further complicate matters, Alan went back into a panic as he took out what looked like a photo and held it to his chest (What is that? It can't just be any photo. Is that motivation for him?)

"I told you! Didn't I tell you that people have already snapped? I knew it! We're both dead men. Soon we'll be buzzard food I tell you. ... Zoey, I just hope that you're not watching me fall apart like this." Jimmy dropped his sword and grabbed Alan by the shoulders.

"Alan, calm down! You heard the announcement! Only, what, ten people have killed! And who's to say that they did so deliberately? All Danya's doing is messing with us. He wants us scared. He wants us to kill." Jimmy exclaimed. "All we have to do is stay strong and find someone. Anyone that's not playing. We're going to be fine." Jimmy didn't want to admit it, but he needed Alan to stay strong not only for Alan's sake, but also for Jimmy himself. He knew that deep down inside, he was starting to crack.

[Limisios†]

"Alan, calm down! You heard the announcement! Only, what, ten people have killed! And who's to say that they did so deliberately? All Danya's doing is messing with us. He wants us scared. He wants us to kill." Jimmy exclaimed. "All we have to do is stay strong and find someone. Anyone that's not playing. We're going to be fine."

Alan began to calm down and dust himself off. "You're right," he started "You're completely right. We'll make it out of here, but we've got to keep moving, maybe look for some sort of shelter? I don't know what for but it sure sounds like a good plan." Alan laughed nervously while he picked up his map. "There's quite a few good indoor places, who knows maybe they'll be other people there." Alan began to walk off into the distance slowly, still examining the map and turned back to Jimmy. "Come on, I think I've got an idea." Alan said just before he tripped over an overgrown tree root, he picked himself up after a couple of seconds. "Maybe I should look where I'm going a bit more." He joked. He didn't know exactly what his plan was, but he hoped that it didn't involve killing anyone.

((Alan Rickhall continued in Dirty))

[decoy73]

((I apologize for the low-quality post. Just trying to get Jimmy out of here ...))

Thankfully, Alan calmed down. He was still nervous, but for the moment, he wasn't at the level of a psychological breakdown. It was then that Alan said something about finding shelter being their best option right now.

Huh. Makes sense. We can at least hide from bad weather. Lighthouse is out, though. Jimmy noted the announcement's mentioning of the lighthouse as a danger zone (thus obviously precluding anyone from taking shelter). Alan tripped over a tree root, but was able to make a lame joke about it (possibly a coping mechanism) as he walked off.

"Wait!" Jimmy picked up his sword and bags. "What type of idea are you thinking of?" He followed Alan to wherever they were going next, only slightly thankful that they had not been witness to any of the carnage so far ...

((Jimmy Robertson continued in Dirty))