Rabbit Heart

[Laurels]

((G007: Rachael Langdon: Start))

Rachael pulled the bag next to her and set it on her lap. It had to be like that Danya man explained. There had to be some provisions and possibly something to defend herself in the bag. She unzipped the bag and began to ruffle through it.

Okay, there's the hoodie I packed. Extra shirts, water, food bars? What are these? Never had them. Okay, let's see what else.......what?

Rachael pulled the small device out of her bag. She gave it a quick look over. It had to be her weapon. There was no way around it. She didn't like math a whole lot, and yet there was a calculator in her bag. It couldn't be hers, she had no reason to bring a calculator to Disneyland. Rachael put the calculator back in her bag and sighed.

Rachael had been awake for a few minutes now. There wasn't a whole lot of light where she was, but she could see she was in a barn somewhere. The kidnappers had placed her in the hayloft. She already had some pieces of hay on her clothes and in her hair, something that was a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.

She finished zipping her bag up and stood up.

Okay, I should try to figure out where I am. Yeah, that sounds right. There's probably a few places I could hide out. That man said rescue attempts were unlikely, but maybe there's a chance it will happen again. I mean, someone would have to know we're missing.

Rachael scanned around the barn and noticed the ladder on the far end of the hayloft. She began to walk towards the ladder, hearing the creaking sound of the wood beneath her feet. She tried to move more gingerly, keeping her hands close to her body.

Come on, you can do this. You can manage to-

In a moment, Rachael felt the floor sink beneath her right foot. Her heart momentarily stopped beating and she found herself quickly descending through the floor, letting out a loud scream as she did. She reached out and managed to get a slight grip on the wooden planks on the loft. She had  fallen through a weak spot on the hayloft. She was struggling to prevent herself from falling. She found herself inching closer to falling and landing on the barn floor bellow.

Rachael let the duffel bag fall drop. She needed to pull herself up quickly, and the bag just complicated matters. She was having trouble holding on, and she feared a fall could break her ankle or worse.

"Help! Help!" she began to cry out, the action almost instinctual to her.

She found herself scraping her fingernails against the wood as she tried to pull herself up. Her legs continued to sway in the air. If anyone did come, she hoped it was someone who would be friendly.

[CondorTalon]

This was a laugh wasn't it? Ha ha, very funny. You guys were a real group of comedians.

No, nevermind the fact that he was now stuck on a death trap of an island while being forced to kill his classmates with an almost nil chance of surviving...

But what the fuck was this?

B048 - Corey Esposito: START

Corey had stared at his weapon for a few minutes, before simply throwing it on the ground. If that was his "weapon" he was absolutely screwed now, wasn't he? Not even taking into account that he had no idea how to use a gun in real life, at least having an actual weapon would mean he'dhave something to defend himself with. Even though he didn't want to think that anyone could take part in this twisted game, the fact remained that he'd seen the previous versions. Snippets of them, and he knew.

"Shit," he hissed.

He took a look around. He'd awoken, propped up against some kind of barn, and now he was scanning the area. The horizon was dotted with a few buildings, and wheat. Lots and lots of wheat.

He'd shouldered his bag and had taken a few steps when he heard a loud cracking sound, coming from the barn. This was followed by a scream for help.

"Whoa now!" he shouted, before running into the barn.

As he entered the barn, he saw the girl dangling from the ceiling. Well, no, he recognized her. Rachael Langdon, someone who he wasn't that friendly with, but that wasn't what was important right now.

"Hey, hey. I'm here. I'm going to catch you, alright?"

[Laurels]

Rachael continued to struggle. She was sure she was close to losing and sort of grip she had on the loft floor. She was also sure the broken wood was poking her in the stomach. It wasn't enough to tear her shirt, but it was frustrating and making it hard to concentrate as the wood pressed against her chest.

She heard someone below say he would catch her. She couldn't recognize the voice in the moment, but he was offering to catch her instead of taking her bag and running.

"Okay, hol-"

Before she could say anything, she felt her grip loosen. In a moment, she felt weightless. It was brief though, but she knew she was falling.

She let out a small cry, and prayed the boy would catch her.

[CondorTalon]

It seemed that she couldn't hold on much longer. She started to fall, and Corey rushed in to catch her. He wasn't in the optimal position to catch her correctly, however, and as she landed in his arms, he only managed to hold her for a few seconds before he lost his balance and fell.

"Ow..." he said, as he landed on his back.

He lifted his head up.

"Sorry... sorry about that," he said, before coughing a few times. The fall knocked the wind out of him, so he took a few deep breaths.

"Are you alright?"

[Laurels]

Amazingly, he caught her. Rachael let out a gasp as she felt herself land in his arms. She would have found the moment to be something out of one of her favorite novels, but the illusion was destroyed when he stumbled and fell. She rolled out on the floor of the barn before sitting up.

"Sorry about that," she said, looking at the boy who caught her.

Rachael didn't know Corey Esposito that well, but she was relieved to see someone who was friendly. She looked back up at the hayloft.

"The floor j-just broke and I..."

Rachael felt herself become flushed as she stuttered an explanation to Corey. The whole thing was pretty frightening and sudden that she still had yet to regain her composure. That's when a thought came to her.

Oh God, what's going to happen here is much worse than this, isn't it?

Rachael looked down and covered her face with her hands. The whole reality of everything that was happening came to her, and she couldn't hold back her tears.

[CondorTalon]

Corey was at a loss for what to do when Rachael started crying. He didn't think that an experience like that was that frightening, but maybe... maybe she was crying for some other reason? Corey fidgeted, trying to figure out what he could do. He wanted to say something.

"Hey... don't..." he sputtered. The words that came out of his mouth sounded unnatural.

"Listen, it's going to be fine, right? Everything's going to be alright."

That was a complete lie. This situation they were in was the complete opposite of alright.

But he had to say something.

[Laurels]

Rachael rubbed her eyes as Corey tried to comfort her. She was glad he was trying to comfort her. She needed someone like that right now.

"How?" she asked Corey. "How will it get better?"

She looked up at Corey.

"What are the odds that we'll all survive? What are the chances we'll be rescued like those other kids?"

She directed to the hole she fell through.

"At any moment, we can die. We're all walking on unstable earth here, and it can crumble in an instant."

Rachael quickly sniffled.

"I'm sorry. I just can't believe this is happening."

[CondorTalon]

"That's..." he started, before falling silent.

She was right, and there was nothing he could really say.

He sat down beside Rachael, and looked out the door. He'd lost himself in thought. Rachael was right, there was a very slim chance that any one of them would make it out alive. The chance of being rescued was even slimmer. Corey was sure he was not going to make it out alive.

But if that was the case, was he giving up? Awaiting death? Was that what he was doing?

"I'm sorry. I just can't believe this is happening."

"Yeah. Me neither. I'm hoping that I'm going to wake up, and find myself back in my own bed. But..."

He took in a deep breath.

"Are you... are you afraid of death?" he asked. It was something that popped into his head and out his mouth before he could stop it.

"Sorry, it's a weird question I know, but..."

[Laurels]

Rachael took in Corey's question. It was a good point to consider. She never pondered too much on her own mortality. It was always easier to focus on the mortality of fictional characters who could be killed and resurrected in many ways. For her, it was permanent, and she never really considered how she might go.

"Well, yes, I am afraid of death," she said to Corey. "Who wouldn't be?"

She shuffled a bit on the floor in order to get in a more comfortable sitting position.

"I mean, there's so much I want to do," she said. "Go to college, get a real career, publish a novel, maybe get married and have a family. I'll probably never be able to do any of that now, and I don't think there's any real reason for that to be taken from me."

She looked Corey in the eyes.

"Corey, do you have any regrets?"

[CondorTalon]

"Regrets?" he asked, throwing the word around his head. He didn't really have anything that he regretted not doing, and nothing he rgretted doing, either. At least, nothing major. He guessed that what she meant was, did he have any regrets for the future.

"Not really," he finally said. "I mean, nothing major. Sure, there are a few things I've wanted to do.But... I've never actually planned much for the future."

He smiled, a pitiful smile.

"But as for death... I... well yeah, dying scares me. I don't want to dying in a horrifying, painful way... Sorry, that's probably not what you want to hear, huh?"

He stood up, taking a couple of steps forward.

"I'm not scared though. Because death never comes," he started, recalling as best he could the particular Reddit quote that had talked about death.

"Death is always in the future. You'll never experience death because at that moment you die. You are always alive."

That quote was never more relevant to him than it was right now.

He turned around, to Rachael again.

"Uh... sorry, that probably all just flew over your head, didn't it?"

[Laurels]

Rachael listened carefully as Corey responded. Surprisingly, he made a lot of sense with his statement of only being alive and not really experiencing death. She began to hope that death would be sudden and definite, just so she wouldn't have to suffer for long. It was pretty deluded to think that she would get a death with no pain, but she felt there was always a chance.

"No, I got it," she said.

Rachael rubbed her eyes again. She then stood up, making sure to stretch her back and her legs.

"So, I guess we figure out where to go and what to do now," she noted. "Any ideas?"

[CondorTalon]

"We find more people," he said simply. "Get a group of people and stick together. We can keep each other safe, right? Keep watches during the night, share rations if need be, you know?"

He made his way to the door of the barn. "If we can avoid moving around too much, we'll have a better chance of setting up fortifications." He put his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from sun.

"Don't go around killing people, obviously. But... if someone comes and attack us, we'll have to deal with them, you know? If that has to involve lethal self-defense, that's nothing that can be helped. I... just hope nothing comes to that."

He turned back to Rachael again.

"For now, though, let's get out of here."

He turned back to the fields, hiding his smile.

"It smells like shit in here."

((Corey Esposito continued in The Heavy Weapons Guy.))

[Laurels]

Corey sounded like he had a good plan. There had to be a lot of places on the island they could hide out in, maybe some places to scavenge. As long as they weren't forced out by the danger zones, they might be able to survive for a while. Maybe they'd find some allies with better weapons than Rachael's calculator, just to deal with those who are playing, like Corey said.

"Alright, I'm good for that."

Rachael picked her bag up and swung it over her shoulder. Corey made a crack about the smell of the barn, something that gave Rachael a small smile as she followed him out of the barn.

Maybe this won't be too terrible.

((Rachael Langdon continued in The Heavy Weapons Guy))