Reverie

[Espi]

((Gwen O'Connor's story continues from All Our Yesterdays))

It had started raining just as they'd arrived, so at the time it had seemed to Gwen like the hospital was a sanctuary.

When they'd entered, they'd had to pass two corpses full of bullet holes, relatively recent but not fresh either. They'd decided to not settle near them, going up to a higher floor instead to avoid the decaying corpses. Gwen was depressed by the discovery, especially since she recognized Alex from the lighthouse when she'd woken up in the closet.

She was the only one of those three in the lighthouse who was still alive, since Daniel had been killed days ago. It was terrifying how going with either of them might've meant death for her, too.

It was shortly after she'd set her bags down with an exhausted sigh and sat down on an old cot that she smelled something, detected a strange odor drifting inwards from near the bathroom down the hallway.

Gwen would probably always regret walking down that hallway. She'd been curious, morbidly so, and tragically so. She'd walked down it, away from the others, and slowly approached the source.

When she saw the body, the still-warm, mutilated pulp of a boy she'd never recognize now even if she'd known Ray, she screamed.

And screamed.

And didn't stop.

[BROseidon†]

((Virgil continued from All Our Yesterdays))

Virgil looked down at the two corpses as they entered the lobby. He needed to brace himself for any bad reaction Michelle might have; she was having a hard enough time dealing with everything out on the island, and Kam having killed two people only made things...

Wait.

That was Alex Ripley, wasn't it?

Hadn't Alex been one of the people Kam had shot? Virgil didn't expect such a reality to hit so suddenly. Hopefully Michelle wouldn't notice. He needed her to stay calm so that he could protect her. So that he could protect all of them.

"Hey guys, if I die before you, can y'all make sure I get some kind of a proper burial?" Virgil wasn't quite sure what prompted the sudden question. Seeing the two bodies, though, laying out in the middle of the lobby was unsettling. The lack of closure, the lack of respect.

Like gladiators in the arena, to be cleaned once all was said and done.

"Or maybe once it clears up we can give these two a burial. They deserve it, right?"

The group made its way upstairs, and they found themselves in the patient care ward. Virgil dropped his bags, glad to get the weight off his shoulders; he could feel his body atrophying with the lack of protein. He was big, and they seemed to have given everyone the same amount of food. He was gonna be in for a rough time. Gwen then wandered off. Then there was a scream.

Fuck.

Gwen.

Was there someone there?

Virgil picked up his gun and ran towards the scream, flicking the safety off as he ran. He still heard the scream, which still meant she was alive. He turned a corner with his gun raised and...

Gwen stood still, screaming. Virgil paused for a second as he figured out what was going on. He flicked the safety back on and lowered the gun, walking towards Gwen.

All he could think to do was hug her.

[Ruggahissy]

((Michelle Wexler continued from All Our Yesterdays))

Michelle brought up the rear, hurrying everyone into the hospital and out of the rain like they were her children. She had put up the hood on her red sweater to avoid getting too wet. She slowly removed it as she looked around the eerie hospital.

It smelled terrible. She zipped her hoodie up to her neck and noticed the two people who had been shot. More than noticed, she recognized.

Oh Kam

They had seen Daniel with a bullet in his head on the first day and dwelling on these poor kids, unless one of them had a particularly strong connection to them, would help no one.  She pushed the others to keep moving by walking past them. Virgil asked if they would bury him and if they would bury the people.

"No." She said it simply and quietly, but with force.

They made their way upstairs and Michelle went straight to the medical cabinets. Someone had already been through it, but whoever it was didn't look very carefully. Things were thrown around, but a lot of it could be used. She started opening up extra first aid kits and putting gauze, medical tape, antiseptic and suturing materials into her bag. In one cabinet she found iodine. Michelle opened the bottle and could tell it was old and no longer as strong as it had once been. It must have been there for years. Who knew how effective it would be now. No one in their party was hurt except for her.

Her thoughts were cut off by Gwen's screaming. Michelle dropped the iodine and went running towards her. She looked around and found Gwen being embraced by Virgil. The two were standing over a boy on the floor with his face caved in. Michelle looked at him for a moment. She wasn't shy about injuries as long as it wasn't an eye thing because eye injuries really weirded her out. She had been on ride-alongs with EMTs. Once while she was on duty they were called to an ice rink where someone had slashed open their leg on an ice skate.

Michelle covered her mouth and looked away for a moment moment, then regained control of herself. He'd died recently.

She briskly went back to the supply room, grabbed a sheet and returned.

"We were too late to help. Probably by just a few minutes," she said as she threw the sheet over the body.

Michelle walked over and put a hand on Gwen's shoulder, moving it up and down.

"We're not burying anyone. Not him, not the people downstairs and not you," she said softly to Virgil. "Burials take time. They take energy. They are emotionally draining and demoralizing. They leave us vulnerable. A burial is a waste of every resource we have left. It gives them nothing and takes what little we have left from us," she said while looking at the white figure on the floor. "We can put sheets over the couple downstairs when we leave, but that's it."

She looked at the two of them. No injuries that needed attending to. The rain was starting to become stronger, the pattering of water more frequent. "When you guys are ready, go look for the kitchen. Hospitals have food, some of which is designed to last. It doesn't taste good, but it lasts."

Michelle heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed her eyes.

[Espi]

The blood. Virgil wrapped his arms around her. The smears of flesh and brain matter. Michelle touched her shoulder. The caved in skull. They wouldn't be burying the bodies, Michelle said; too much energy for nothing. The fresh stench of death. It was all too much for Gwen.

After four days of relative comfort and safety, she was faced with this atrocity of a crime against a human life and she couldn't handle it.

Gwen sobbed into Virgil's shoulder.

"I don't wanna die..." Gwen whispered through her tears. "I don't want this to be me, I can't...if it works, and they blow all the collars, this'll be all that's left." She wiped snot from her nose and tears from her eyes. "But if it doesn't, it might be anyways, someone like Theo or Hansel or, or even now Rosemary and Maddie, they'll kill us."

"I wanna go home." She broke into fresh sobs.

[BROseidon†]

Virgil didn't know how to respond. He was always bad at dealing with this sort of emotion. If he needed to get a group amped, he could do it. But to talk someone down from the edge of despair? Virgil had no idea what to say. On top of it, Michelle had said they wouldn't bury the dead. She was being pragmatic where he had been soft. Maybe Virgil was underestimating her.

Virgil tried to say something, but words couldn't come out of his mouth. He tried to say something, anything, but he just couldn't.

He turned his head to Michelle and nodded it back towards Gwen. Hopefully she'd get the message.

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle noticed the nod. She bit her lip and nodded back at Virgil. She stepped forward and gently took Gwen from Virgil, holding her by the shoulders. Michelle tilted her head down and looked up at Gwen as she reached out and brushed the other girl's bangs behind her ear.

"Shhhh." She swept her thumb across Gwen's cheek, catching some of the tears.

"I know that it's hard and I know you're scared. This isn't what you want to hear, but there is no more home for us. There isn't, but that doesn't mean there isn't anymore us for home. Everyone back home, all the people you love. They are so proud of you, Gwen," she said earnestly. "They are so so proud. People who aren't as strong have already fallen. There are kids who are killing people or ones that have just broken down and gone bonkers, but that's not you or us. You stuck by your principals when it would have been easier to fold and start killing or haul up in a dumpster crying. That makes you stronger than the toughest football player."

[Espi]

Gwen listened to Michelle's words, sniffling. A novel idea, chubby little Gwen being so strong, but it made her feel better. In a way, she felt like a little kid again from how Michelle was taking care of her, but it wasn't in a bad, condescended or looked-down-on way. She felt a little more naïve optimism of youth, like maybe, just maybe, things would turn out okay. It'd be alright, if she just held it together.

And wasn't that the point? She just had to hold it together, just keep herself from falling apart and everything would turn out, if not alright, then better because of it. She might not make it home again, but...but that didn't mean she was lost.

"Thanks, guys." She tried to smile, blinked, and smiled again more easily before wrapping Michelle in a big hug.

When Gwen let go, she decided to try and talk about something else. It might take her mind off things. "So uh, how long should we stay here? If it keeps raining, other people might come in for the same reason we did, and they might not be friendly."

That didn't really help take her mind off things, sadly.

[BROseidon†]

Michelle got his message. Good. Virgil thought about what Michelle said, about how they were stronger than those who had fallen, and stronger than those who had lost it.

Were they?

They'd avoided conflict up until now. They were running, looking for people, but nobody had attacked them yet. What was going to happen when someone did?

Could Virgil shoot them?

He didn't want to dwell on it too long. He didn't want to remember that he was the gladiator. The terrorists were fucking Nero playing his goddamn fiddle while Rome burned, and he was a pleb trying to escape. And there was nothing he could do about it.

"We stay here it stops raining, then we search for more people." Virgil said. And if someone unpleasant came around...

Virgil still had his gun.

[Ruggahissy]

Michelle returned Gwen's hug, biting her tongue when her injured arm was caught painfully between them. She smiled at Gwen, but her smile didn't reach up to her eyes and neither did Gwen's.

She nodded in agreement with Virgil's plan and rubbed her eyes with her palm before sweeping it back over her hair. This was the fourth day now she hadn't washed it. At the top her scalp was starting to get greasy and her normally vibrant, bouncy honey curls were limp, slightly tangled waves.

"We'll go look in the hospital kitchen. Hospital food isn't good, but it's made to last. And it's something else besides the calorie bricks," she said with the same weary half-smile.

We're going to make it. We have to. We're going to make it. We're going to make it she intoned in her head like a holy orison, pleading to keep her head above the rising waters of pessimism.


She took Gwen's hand with her free hand and took one step. She looked back to check on the other girl. She still looked distressed. Perhaps it was out of desperation or to keep herself afloat as much as Gwen, but Michelle began to sing. She began to sing her favorite song.

"Why are there s-so many songs about rainbows?" she warbled quietly in her terrible singing voice.

"And what's on the oooooother side? Rainbows are visions, they're only illusions. And rainbows have nothing to hiiiiddeee. So we've been told and some chose to believe it, but I know they're wrong, wait and see. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection...."


She looked cautiously at the other two and nodded at them.

[Espi]

Just keep moving on, don't let things bog you down, stay strong, things will always get better. There was nothing Gwen could do to improve the situation, so she might as well keep going and hope for the best.

She took Michelle's hand and followed after her.

Then a moment later Michelle began singing, and she was apparently not a great singer, and Gwen found herself smiling much more earnestly.

She remembered the words of the song, too. It was from the Muppet movie, one of her favorites when she was little even though it was a lot older than her. She vaguely knew the words, too, after so long. Just hearing it made her a little sad, but also happy.

It took a little bit. She didn't like her singing voice much, and she could never get to high notes if she sung along to songs. Gwen wasn't big on singing.

But eventually she managed to sing along with Michelle.

[BROseidon†]

Michelle made sense. They needed food; Virgil was a big guy. There were a lot of big guys in the class, but Virgil has probably already dropped a few pounds, and things were only going to get worse going forward.

He followed the pair towards the kitchen, shotgun in hand. He was keeping alert. He was their last line of defense. Virgil stayed vigilant, zoning out the world around him until he heard something coming from his comrades. Terrible singing.

Michelle nodded at him. Gwen was singing. Virgil smiled back.

[MurderWeasel]

((Adam Morgan continued from Poor Unfortunate Souls))

Moving around nonstop seemed like a good idea until the fatigue set in. It seemed a tolerable idea even after that, but then it started to rain. Now, it was all just miserable. Adam had finally given up on bouncing the sword against his leg, returning it to its sheath so as to protect it from the rain. Wouldn't do to give someone tetanus while chopping them up.

The hospital was the nearest building when the rain started. Adam didn't exactly relish the idea of going in. It was probably the building that had seen the most death before the abduction, and now it was almost certain to draw the desperate, those people who were on their ways out and scrambling in a last-ditch attempt to save themselves from whatever awful wounds they'd sustained. Killers might come for easy pickings, gunning to win the Best Kill Award while minimizing the risk to themselves. There was precious little Adam and Maynard could do to help with any of these situations, so it wasn't like going in would have some noble motive to it.

On the other hand, it was raining. Adam's jacket was waterproofed, but he'd lost track of the poncho he usually kept for this sort of weather somewhere, and his hair was sticking to his forehead. It was cold. Maynard was probably feeling it too. They could avoid the worst of it if they headed to the second floor, and Adam could see a fire escape that seemed like a straight shot. The ladder was old and rusted, but at some point it had come loose, so he could access it from the ground without jumping for it. They could be in and out and anyone standing guard downstairs would never even know.

"Feel like getting somewhere dry for a little?" he asked. It was Maynard's call, but Adam was all ready to go warm up a little.

[Sansa]

((Maynard Hurst continued from Poor Unfortunate Souls))

At first, Maynard had thought that getting a decent rest the night before might pay him dividends in the hours to come. However, this had very quickly proven not to be the case. The stitch that'd intermittently plagued him over the past few days had returned in force, though Maynard had been forced to pay it little mind once it started raining.

He'd never been one to dress for practical purposes. Sure he liked looking nice and presentable, but it wasn't as if he was a connoisseur of fashion or anything like that. Just that he'd always had a fondness for his baggy jeans and the waistcoats he'd wheedled out of local second-hand stores, no matter how inconvenient they could be on occasion.

Like right at this very minute.

Maynard stepped forward, adjusting the weight of his dufflebag on his shoulder as Adam spoke. The hospital sounded like a good place to stay - it'd probably be a lot better furnished than the offices had been, and there was a possibility of there being extra rations or the like in the building - though that was a bit unlikely; the place had probably scoured time and time again before they'd arrived.

He shivered as yet another trickle of rain ran its way down his back. He was pretty much drenched from head to toe though, so it didn't make all that much of a difference to him. As with Adam, his own hair had stuck to his skin, baby hairs scattered over the breadth of his forehead. Yeah, he could do with a rest and a drying off, and if it was what Adam wanted he wasn't about to complain.

"Sure," Maynard replied almost instantly to Adam's query, a hint of breathlessness punctuating the word. He stepped forward a little more so that he was positioned at Adam's side, and followed the other boy's line of vision with his own. The ladder seemed a sensible method of entering the building - Adam thought it was, so it had to be, didn't it? But Maynard had never been the best at climbing anything, his childhood clumsiness causing accidents left, right, and centre, so he viewed the task with a slight amount of uncertainty.

"You wanna go up the ladder, right?" He said, a trace of apprehension creeping into his voice. "Do you think you could maybe go first? I'm just, just a little nervous about it is all."

[Ruggahissy]

They sang along. Well, it would be more accurate to say Gwen sang along and Virgil kind of swaying a little and not objecting, but she'd take that! The song was like a fuzzy blanket around her chilly shoulders as she started rifling around the hospital kitchen.


"What's so amazING!? That keeps us stargazING!?" she sang, going louder and higher on the last syllables.


There were a few boxes and cans. Michelle turned them over and blew the dust off of them to read the labels. She'd found a few packages of fruit punch flavored drink mix powder and 7 cans of beans. The fruit punch powder mix was for sure good. Canned goods had a shelf life of somewhere between five and a hundred years.

An outside observer would say that searching for ancient food to avoid further starving in a hospital full of death people on a murder island that was also raining is pretty depressing. However, having this small task and finding something like beans felt like finding treasure to Michelle. The sweet children's song made her forget for a few seconds about the outside of the hospital and even the outside of the room. It was escapist, but she didn't care.

"Someday we'll find it! The rainbow connection! The lovers, the dreamers and meeee."

Breathless, Michelle turned to Gwen to see if she'd turned up the same bounty she'd found.

"Lookee lookee," she said smiling broadly and shaking one of her bean cans.

Michelle stood up and struggled to hold all her cans with her one hand while also trying to talk to Gwen. She placed on the of the bean cans on the top of her head and stood up straight.

"So what did you fi...."

Somewhere past the noise of rain, there was a noise. She whipped her head to look at Virgil and sent the can tumbling off her head.

"Do you hear something?" she whispered.

[Espi]

Gwen had a great time singing and searching, which was funny given her condition only a few moments ago. She was surprised by how well she remembered the lyrics; it'd been a long time since she'd heard the song, but it stuck with her. Funny how things worked like that sometimes.

As they went around the decrepit kitchen, Gwen found some cans of beef broth, which she picked up with a bit of distaste. She also found some canned asparagus, a can of fruit juice and some powdered milk. She gathered the various containers in her arms and moved back over to Michelle.

She oohed at all the bean cans Michelle found, and began to laugh as Michelle placed one on her head. Then she heard an odd sound, which seemed to come from below. Gwen nodded as Michelle asked. "Yeah. Do you...think it was a person?"

Gwen wasn't sure if she hoped there were people.