Ave Imperator, Morituri Te Salutant

[BROseidon†]

((Virgil Jefferson-Davis continued from Sleep, My Dear))

Virgil didn't want to walk too far.

This was a logical conclusion to have made. There were a large number of reasons for not wanting to walk far. First, walking far meant moving closer and closer inland, which would mean running into more people. More people meant more chances to be killed. Second, he wasn't particularly mobile. He was carrying two heavy bags and a shotgun, so he wouldn't be able to escape easily if he were attacked. Third, he needed to save his energy. A big guy like him was going to starve fast out there, given that he'd not be able to eat his normal four thousand calories a day.

Virgil hadn't thought of any of these things, though. Virgil just wanted to get Michelle's arm in a sling as quickly as possible.

By the time the pair had reached the ropes course, Virgil figured they had walked far enough to get away from the action. Nobody seemed to be around, which was good. They could rest, fix up Michelle's arm, and then... Virgil hadn't thought that far ahead.

Virgil walked over to the base of one of the towers. Michelle wouldn't be able to climb that right now. Still, it made a decent resting place.

"So, uh, why don't I take a look in my bag and see what I can use to make a sling." Virgil set down his bags and his gun, and he began unzipping the black duffel.

[Ruggahissy]

((Michelle Wexler continued from Sleep, My Dear))

Michelle walked up behind Virgil, struggling under her issued bag now that she had to concentrate on not moving her arm. She tried to make it look like it wasn't bothering her. Thankfully they went somewhere not far and...rather odd. A ropes course.

"That's just like you to take me somewhere I can't play," she said, looking up at the course. "There should be a triangle bandage in the first aid kit to make a sling." She removed a package from her kit and tore it open with her teeth, unfolding a large triangle piece of cloth. She bent her arm in towards her chest, a movement that didn't cause pain, and threw one part of the cloth over her shoulder. It was then she realized she'd never done this to herself. She also realized she needed help tying the sling.

She looked up at the gray sky. The criss crossing ropes filled her frame of vision like a web. Michelle blinked and her eyes welled up.

We have to come to terms. We're going to die.

"Thank you," she said shakily. "For not telling them. I didn't want to....I don't know. Worry them I guess. In that moment I thought....I thought that I didn't want to see my friends get hurt and also that I didn't want to ever hurt anyone. I wanted to remove myself before something would happen and this place would change me. I realize now that it won't."

Michelle looked at Virgil, eyes still wet, but fierce and determined.

"I will never let this place take that from me. It is the most important thing in the world to me and I've never even thought about it before today. I know who I am. I know that I will die here and-" she faltered. Michelle swallowed. "-I'm okay with that." She started crying again and her ferocity melted a little.

"The only thing that makes sense is for all of us to come together and prove them wrong about us. Virgil, we have to run out the timer as a class and die together."

[BROseidon†]

"No problem." Virgil said in response to Michelle thanking her. He didn't really know what to say to follow it up. That they didn't need to know that she was considering jumping off the cliff? That she was having a really hard time dealing with all of this? They all were, right?

Virgil didn't know what to make of Michelle's plan. Sure, they could vow not to kill anyone else to make sure that everyone's collars got blown. It actually sounded like a really solid plan. Let the terrorists know that they weren't going to succumb to their twisted game. Let them know that Aurora was better than that. Still, there was a nagging feeling that Virgil couldn't shake.

"That makes sense to you and me, but, like, I don't know how feasible that is." Virgil's voice sound softer than it normally did. His normally confident, preppy tone was mollified by the hopelessness he was feeling. "There are people on this trip who are going to start playing. It's happened four times before. It'll happen with us." Virgil paused for a second. "We could go around trying to rally people, but we can't find everybody. At least not yet."

Virgil knelt down. Michelle wasn't going to be able to apply that bandage by herself, and Virgil had seen triangle bandages applied a few times. Virgil would be able to take orders, to make the sling. They could talk about... plans... after.

"Let me help with that bandage. Once we wrap up the shoulder, we can talk about what we're going to do. What we can do."

They were dead anyways. Might as well figure out how they were going to spend their last week, right?

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle moved her long curls to the side and bunched them together in her hand. She lowered her head and exposed the back of her neck.

"Just tie the top near my neck to the other end near my elbow."

Michelle closed her eyes and sighed deeply, head down, waiting for him to finish tying and speaking. He sounded so low.

"This will really cut into my job at the Thai massage parlor, tying massages together."

Maybe that would cheer him? It was no telling how well puns went over with people who weren't her. He said that other people would play. Play....as if it were a game. She frowned.

"I know there are some kids who will become desperate and they won't be able to see the forrest through the er....trees I guess," she said looking around. "I know some of them won't like it, but I think most of the people, given the time to think calmly would see it's the right thing."

Michelle grabbed one of Virgil's hands and was quiet a moment before continuing.

"I think we should destroy the weapons."

[BROseidon†]

Virgil followed Michelle's instructions, tying the bandage over her arm. He tied it so that her arm would remain snug against her chest. Maybe this was too tight? Virgil didn't have any frame of reference for how tight was too tight.

"Okay, done. Just let me know if it's too tight."

Michelle then cracked a silly joke, at which Virgil chuckled. She was trying to remain a little positive, it seemed. That was good. Positivity could only help, right?

Maybe Michelle was right. Maybe people would come around. If they could just move around, if they could rally a large enough group and the wait out the clock...

No. Destroying the weapons would not help that.

"Uh, I think that is not a good idea. We need to get a group together, committed to ending this through peace. If we don't have any weapons, anyone who doesn't like our idea can, well..."

Virgil paused for a second.

"I don't want to die. At least not like that."

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle tried to wiggle her arm around. It didn't move much, which was pretty much the intended purpose of the sling. She relaxed, secure in the knowledge that she just had to let her arm lay there and heal. Well, be less sore. It would never heal. Remembering that depressed her.

But you're going to die anyway so who cares about your arm I guess?

She wasn't sure if that made her more or less depressed.

"You, you're too trusting. I'm all for gathering everyone together in a big group and all sitting down in some big room like the one they- uh, the one from before and then waiting. But it only takes a small handful of people to topple that. It's like Jenga," she said, miming removing the blocks and placing them on top of each other. " It may be 80% of the people might listen to us, but there's that last 20%. I don't want the weapons if that's what you think. It'd take them apart or throw them into the ocean or up in trees."

She stopped and it was quiet again. Birds chirped somewhere. She looked down at her flip flops.

"Thank you for the sling," she said to her shoes. "You've already done more for me than I can pay back for. I understand if you don't want to come with me, but I'm doing this with or without you."

[BROseidon†]

Oh. Virgil had misunderstood her. She meant destroy the weapons later. Not now. Later.

Could that plan work? Could they really gather everybody up and get all of them to relinquish their weapons? Could they get everybody who remained to legitimately lay down their arms?

Probably not. This plan was probably going to require bloodshed along the way to make it work. But they had to try. And Virgil wasn't going to let Michelle do it on her own. She didn't have a gun. All it would take would be one player, one person who wanted to survive and was willing to sacrifice his humanity to do so, to put an end to Michelle and her plan. He had a shotgun. He didn't want to kill with it, but he could at least help her. At least help end this through peace.

"I'm coming with you to round people up. I'm not sure how much everyone will listen, but we need to try, right? I at least have a gun to protect the group; you're dead if you run into one killer."

Virgil paused for a second. He didn't know whether he should add the bit about being unsure of whether this would work. He decided against it. They'd sort out the details as they went.

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle looked at his rifle. Her eyes went wide and then she frowned quite severely. "No, no gun. Take the bullets out at least." She sighed and her look softened. "I want to be able to do this just be appealing to reason. By talking to people. I think people are reasonable."

She crossed one arm over her shoulder and turned away. Michelle was met face to face with another blinking camera stuck in a bush. At first she was shocked, then she forgot that she was upset and stared it down. A few seconds passed before she realized how stupid it was to stare down a blinking camera light and blinked a few times herself.

"These cameras," she muttered. "It's so important for them to get all this for whatever stupid point they're trying to make."

Then she stopped, struck by something. Michelle absently ran a finger over the collar around her neck and gazed at the camera.

"Last time some kids did something or....something and like, some people found the island and rescued some of them. They found the island while this stuff was on tv."

Michelle turned back to Virgil and continued on her train of thought. "Hey. Okay. So say you're a terrorist organization and it's super important for you to broadcast your survival thingy to make some point or something. So you do it a few times and the last time you bite it and someone finds the kids during the airing and that's no bueno for you. So you wait a few years and do it again, but how do you make sure that someone doesn't come interrupt your party in the middle again?"

[BROseidon†]

Michelle was being unreasonable. Even though she was aware that others might actually start killing, but she wanted him to keep his gun unloaded? That was stupid. He had a gun. He might as well have the extra protection.

"I haven't even loaded it yet. Shells will stay in the bag." A simple lie couldn't hurt. He'd just find a chance later to load the thing. After he figured out how to load the goddamn thing. Maybe there were instructions inside the bag? Hopefully he just wouldn't have to use it.

Virgil listened to Michelle continue, and she seemed to be rambling. Virgil didn't understand why this was so important to Michelle. Was she thinking of escape? The terrorists had had years to put in to place security measures. They knew a lot more about what was going on then they did. They held the power, the authority. He and Michelle and all of the students on the trip were merely pawns.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened last time, so I don't know what they would have felt the need to fix." Virgil paused for a second, and he realized something.

"This is a bad conversation to be having. They can hear us, probably. We don't want to give them any ideas that they might have though of." Sure, the terrorists had probably thought of everything, but there was still no reason to take the risk.

[Ruggahissy]

"OOoohhhhoOOhhhh!" Michelle shook her head in frustration and eventually fell off the bench, flat on her back. She was getting too upset. Michelle sighed and once again found herself staring up at the rope course.

"You have a party and you tell everyone about the party. Imagine the party and you've got a pointy hat and noise maker," she said waving her left arm around. "When you have the party, people you don't want to show up do show up, so like, imagine Adonis or Cody came or something. They act like jerks and spill stuff on your carpet and ruin the night. Next time you throw a party you don't tell them about it so that they don't show up and then they don't find out about it until the next day when it's too late anyway and your carpet gets to stay clean."

She took a moment and then pulled herself back up. Michelle eyed the bag. Virgil said the bullets or whatever went into the gun was still in there. She supposed that was fine, but was hesitant.

"'kay. I trust you," she said quietly, nodding at the gun. "If I'm right and the terrorists won't tell the jerks about the party until the next day, then.....there would just be no reason to....worry?" she said, holding onto the collar.

[Espi]

[[Gwen O'Connor's story continues from Tower of Alexandria]]

Walking was hard.

By the time Gwen had left the bedroom apparently located in a lighthouse, she was getting kind of pumped. She was going to find Maynard, who probably had a fantastic plan, hopefully. Her mood was improved by discarding her weapon; she felt freed of the burden of violence, ready to find peace and crap.

Of course, she miscalculated her endurance and found herself exhausted a short distance after leaving. That killed her energy.

Eventually, while trying to find a shelter to rest in, Gwen noticed that she'd happened upon a "ropes course" according to the map. That might provide a bit of shelter to rest in!

Unfortunately, she quickly happened upon the realization that she'd happened upon people. She heard talking coming from nearby. Gwen quickly decided that these two (or more) might have clues to her friend's locations. So, she walked from the treeline and smiled at them. "Hi, I'm Gwen, O'Connor but I don't think we have any other Gwens in school. Michelle and...Vergil, right? You guys okay?"

Gwen suddenly felt like she was coming on kind of strong. But that was fine, right? It was obvious she was harmless. Nobody was going to attack her or her friends, they were all harmless-looking.

[BROseidon†]

Michelle's began her explanation, and Virgil followed along intently. Virgil imagined the party. Well, not the way Michelle imagined it. He imagined it with booze and dancing and hooking up and. Anyways, hey! Why was she saying Cody was bad to have at a party? Cody was great to have at a party; he guaranteed that the party would be interesting without actually causing problems the way Adonis or Travis would.

Regardless of the discrepancies in her metaphor, Michelle made a lot of sense. The simplest thing for the terrorists to do would be to delay the broadcast. There was no reason to hide it; the terrorists probably already knew this and had already accounted for this. So his parents weren't going to even know about any of this until he was already dead. Virgil couldn't help but feel down.

"Yeah, that makes sense. Anyways, we should consolidate things into fewer bags before we get moving. Ditch the stuff we don't need, y'know?"

Before Virgil could start unpacking the bags, he heard another voice. Virgil turned towards the girl that introduced herself; it was one of the goth chicks. Virgil didn't know her, but she seemed friendly enough. Maybe it was time to test if Michelle's plan could work.

"Uh, yeah, we're fine." She would notice the sling soon enough, and he and Michelle could explain what happened then. "What's up with you?"

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle watched Virgil's face fall as he took in her metaphor and processed what it was she really meant. It was obvious he agreed with her. He didn't tell her that it was nonsense. She bit her lip and nodded.

That's what I was afraid of.

He proposed lightening the load which only made sense now that she was a little broken. She got down on the ground to where her bag was and started unzipping.

"'kay. I don't need most of this stuff. Mostly just the first aid kit and the food and water. I've got my hoodie and I guess we've got each other if we get cold."

Michelle was a touchy feely sort who didn't see anything strange about cuddling with friends or kissing people she really liked on the cheek, so occasionally she overstepped boundaries without realizing it. The thought occurred to her and she added an addendum.

"Oh, if it's not weird or anything."

Normally her friends just kind of let her do as she pleased. She'd sometimes shove her feet under Kam's butt if they were sitting on the couch because her poor circulation meant her limbs got coldish and butt contact warmed them right up. Thinking of Kam was beginning to bring down her spirits, but someone else showed up and thankfully seemed pretty friendly.

Michelle nodded in the affirmative, their names were in fact Virgil and Michelle.

"Yeah...we're okay-ish."

She wiggled her right side of her body to indicate that there was something somewhat not-okay.

"I had an accident and this guy....he like, tried to help kindda and then my arm came out of the thing," she said pointing to her shoulder. "But..but he was just too excited to help," she said, her lip wobbling. "Oh and I yelled at him. I was so mean to him and he only wanted to help and Dave jumped off the cliff I tripped on!"

Michelle clutched Virgil's sleeve and she looked teary-eyed again. "Virgil! Remind me to say sorry to Chris if we see him again."

Gwen was still standing there though. Michelle cleared her throat and awkwardly wiped her face. "Um, so yeah."

[Espi]

Gwen...needed a second to process Michelle. So for now, she smiled and nodded as she went through the other girl's words. Okay, They're okay? Good start. She'd had an accident, and someone tried to help her but they somehow hurt her? She pointed to her shouder...maybe she'd wrenched it somehow? She was moving it gingerly...

David.

Jumped.

Off.

A.

Cliff.

"Wait, what?!" Gwen gasped, dropping her bag. "David...David who? Who jumped off a cliff? Was it a big cliff or a little cliff?"

No, maybe she was wrong, and maybe he wasn't dead in some ravine, whoever he was, murdered by the game, not even a person, just that the killer was fate itself personally killing him. Well, the potential of screaming horrid dead, Gwen needed to keep calm, and try and figure out what had happened on the island so far.

"Oh uh, sorry, I kind of freaked out a little bit. You guys are okay, then, good. Do you have any ideas for a plan?" Gwen needed a plan right now, something to keep her calm, keep her from panicking, going crazy, whatever happened to people in this game, Gwen wasn't sure she avoided it at all costs.

[BROseidon†]

Virgil did not need the reminder that Dave had jumped off the cliff.

At the time, so much had been going on. He had been pulling Michelle up and everybody else had come and he remembered his shotgun and he needed to get the fuck out of there. Now the adrenaline had finally died down. Everything was normal, expect Dave was dead.

Virgil's chest felt hollow. He had known Dave. They hadn't been close, but they knew each other. Dave had always seemed like a nice, cheery guy. And now he was dead. He would never see his family again. He would never feel the Seattle mist.

He would never feel the rush of being on the rugby pitch again. Never feel the wind as he sprinted towards the try line. Never feel the impact of hitting a back and forcing him to the ground. Never have the comfort of knowing his team had his back, and never have the honor of supporting his team. He would never read any lyric or epic poems again, never indulge in the greatest pleasure of ingesting words beautifully arranged on the page. He would never take another shot, or shotgun another beer.

He was just as dead as Dave was, and now it was a matter of making one final stand.

"Yeah, Dave Russell jumped off a cliff. There's no way he survived that. He's... dead." Virgil said. He didn't know what else to say.

"But we're okay, or about as okay as we can be in this situation, I guess. Plan now is to consolidate everything into a manageable load and try to find people. Try to put an end to this through peace. They said they'd blow our collars if nobody killed; let's force them to make that choice."

As Virgil said this, a gunshot rang out. It was loud. Very loud. Very nearby.

Virgil froze.