4 The Factory

[SOTF: Discord]

Once upon a time, the factory was where most of the men living on the island worked. Its closure marked the beginning of the end for the island.
Nowadays, the factory is a ruin, having been untouched for over ten years. Still, someone who dares to enter the building would find the inside in surprisingly good condition. The factory consists of a big hall where the actual work was done, a small break room, a few offices still filled with paperwork that was deemed no longer useful and left behind, some other miscellaneous rooms and dark hallways connecting all of it.

[SOTF: Discord]

[+] Searching

DerArknight — 09/26/2021 2:42 PM
Name: Searching
Time: Day One
Status: Closed

DerArknight — 09/26/2021 2:47 PM
((Seth Kent continued from And so, it begins...))

He really should have taken a better look through his backpack.

By the time that Seth realized he had been gifted with a compass, he had already travelled in the wrong direction for at least an hour. So much for checking out the city!

But on the other hand, this path had brought him somewhere else: a big building that clearly used to be a factory for something loomed before him. Most windows were smashed in and the gigantic building could have easily housed an airplane. But there would have been not enough place for the plane to leave, so this was definitely not a hangar.

Seth decided to check this place out. Maybe there was something that could help him get his damn collar off? Or maybe others had been drawn to this place, which was one of the few signs of civilization on the island?

With big steps, Seth made his way to a door. He pushed it open.

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 09/26/2021 2:51 PM
A hastily aimed gunshot greeted Seth.

(Eduardo Salinas: START)

“Stay back, whoever’s there!” Eduardo was not having a good day, man. You wake up, see your teacher get domed like it’s some cartel video or gore video or whatever, then you get thrown into some random island and wake up in a factory that looks like it’s from the 50s or some shit. Man, Eduardo just wanted to go home and surf.

But right now, he was more focused on whoever was on the other side of the door. He had no clue who they were, who they could be; maybe they wanted to kill him. So, hiding behind a table he had kicked over, cautiously peering over it at the door, gun held in trembling hands, Eduardo waited for a reply.

DerArknight — 09/26/2021 2:59 PM
"Whoa."

The gunshot made Seth stumble a few steps back. With how calm and abandoned the factory looked, he had not expected a greeting.

But unlike his first encounter, this time the voice reminded him of someone.

"Eduardo? It's me, Seth." He corrected his glasses. "I am not here to fight. I didn't even know you are here. Sorry for that."

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 09/27/2021 2:44 AM
“If you’re not here to fight then, uh… Just put your goddamn hands up!” Maybe he was panicking, but that seemed reasonable when you know, your teacher got shot in the face? Anyway, he didn’t trust Seth. He was a nice guy, probably, they didn’t talk much, but who knew who would be following that madman’s ideology?

Laurels | Flora — 09/27/2021 7:45 AM
((G009: Cosima Love: Start))

Cosima pushed past the branches around her. She had been wandering around for a while, and this factory looked to be the first real landmark she had seen since waking up. Cosima let out a long groan. Her choppy blonde bangs obscured her heavily mascaraed eyes that reflected her feelings of disgust and annoyance.

It was bad enough she was kidnapped. It was bad enough she was sent to some island. It was bad enough this was some kinda rich person death game. It was bad enough she was given a curtain as a weapon. But the real issue was that her fucking classmates were going to be the ones to kill her. No fucking way.

After tearing a hole in the curtain to make a poncho, draping over the long sleeved shirt and floor length skirt she had been wearing, Cosima had trudged through the forest hoping to find somewhere to hide indoors. She wasn't much of a nature person, preferring to stay locked in her bedroom listening to music and sketching, so getting out was imperative.

As she approached the building, she heard some shouting nearby. She hid in a nearby bush and looked near the entrance to the factory. One boy was holding a gun to another. Cosima kept quiet, hoping the boys wouldn't hear her or glance over to see the gremlin in the bushes.

She covered her mouth just to add extra silence to the scene. If she was lucky, they'd take each other out and she could g et the spoils. If not, she'd probably have to engage in cardio, which was something she really didn't want to do.

DerArknight — 09/27/2021 1:06 PM
"Okay, okay. If it makes you calm down."

Seth obeyed. Everything else could have easily gotten him shot. And once he was shot, escaping this place would be much harder.

He focused on Eduardo, not realizing they were no longer alone.

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 09/27/2021 1:56 PM
"Alright." Hands shaking, Eduardo lowered the revolver, letting out a little sigh as he ran a hand through his short black hair. Man, alright. Alright. Nobody's trying to kill you, Eduardo. Seth wasn't, at the least, but who knows what the hell anyone else is thinking?

"Sorry, I just... Fuck. What the fuck? Who the hell is that Victor asshole, running around and taking us from the beach trip and blowing our teacher's heads off?" He spat out, tone filled with vitrol. He had just wanted to go surfing, man. He had even been wearing a wetsuit under his t-shirt and jeans and everything. But now it was just uncomfortable. Asshole.

Laurels | Flora — 09/28/2021 6:13 PM
The boys were still arguing, but it looked like one of them was lowering the gun. Cosima still kept an eye on them. After all, pleasant situations could just as easily turn sour.

DerArknight — 09/29/2021 12:31 PM
After the awkward meeting with Guy Under The Bed, Seth was glad that Eduardo seemed down to a normal conversation.

"That's what I would like to know too," he answered in response to Eduardo's rant. "To be honest, I don't believe this Danya is the only culprit, this has to be the doing of a bigger group.

"But I don't see how forcing us to kill each other would benefit anyone. Unless this is some sick TV show exclusive for rich guys with enough money to bribe the police."

After stating his opinion, Seth felt like now would be a moment as good as any to ask the important question. He slowly lowered his left hand and corrected the glasses on his nose before continuing.

"In any case, if we want to find out more, we have to get out of here. I am going to assemble a team to get the collars gone and then we kick Danya's ass!

"Are you with me?"

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 09/29/2021 2:38 PM
Now, Eduardo didn’t know what to think about Seth’s proposal. It seemed almost kinda naive. Like, they kidnapped them, shot the teacher and gave them all a buncha weapons and told them to kill but one random high school student could save the day. It was like those comics that Maria loved. And Eduardo always thought they were unrealistic

“Sorry, bro, but I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy. Guy clearly doesn’t care about killing people so I don’t see why he would let us go. Betcha he’s got snipers or something ready to take us out if we get our collars off.” Eduardo shrugged, still holding the gun.

The idea came to Eduardo that he could do it. Shoot Seth and be done with it. Nobody was watching, who was gonna know if he shot some dude? He held off, though. No murderer assholes here.

Laurels | Flora — 10/02/2021 3:36 PM
"Yeah, on second thought," Cosima muttered to herself.

She reached down and found a small rock. While it would be easy and better for her to let the one dude shoot the other, it would be better to move things along.

After all, as long as she wasn't shot, all the better.
She grabbed the rock and chucked it at the side of the factory, hoping the sudden sound would stir the boys to action.

DerArknight — 10/03/2021 1:06 PM
Eduardo saying no was kind of a letdown. Seth hoped to assemble a team quickly before anyone could get some weird ideas about actually killing people. But there was nothing he could do. Even if he had a gun, he could hardly force Eduardo to work together.

"Okay man, your decision. But if you change your mind-"

SMASH!

One of the remaining windows of the building gave in and fell into pieces.

"What the heck!" Seth exclaimed. Then he looked at Eduardo.

"A friend of yours?"

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 10/04/2021 7:47 AM
Seth didn't seem mad about the whole saying no thing, but what was he gonna do, get mad at him? Eduardo had the gun. He had the power, even if he didn't wanna use it. Well, he might have to, but that didn't matter. A window smashed outta nowhere, and Eduardo brought the revolver up to aim at the smashed window. "Come out or I'm gonna... gonna shoot your damn friend!" Seth probably wasn't the asshole's friend, but it seemed like a good enough bluff.

Laurels | Flora — 10/04/2021 7:49 AM
Cosima covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. Amazing. They really thought someone was inside the factory.

"Dumbasses," she thought to herself.

DerArknight — 10/04/2021 10:53 AM
Even with Seth's question being left unanswered, Eduardo's reaction painted a pretty clear picture. Whoever had smashed in the window was an unknown entity to him as well.

Seth also hoped that Eduardo's threat was just a bluff or something. Because he was not planning on getting shot over a misunderstanding.

A look to the window told him that there was no one standing next to it, neither from inside nor outside. Also there were no footprints, meaning that-

Wait! If the window had been smashed in from the inside, shouldn't there be glass shards lying on the outside?

But there were none. Which meant...

"Psst! Eduardo." Seth spoke as quietly as he assumed was possible without making himself inaudible to the other boy. "Whoever did this has to be somewhere in the forest. And they don't seem to be on either side."

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 10/04/2021 2:21 PM
It looked like Seth had an idea of what to do. Which was good. Eduardo didn't wanna shoot him, and they weren't even really affiliated with each other - well, presumably. "I just wanted to go surfing." Eduardo growled, aiming the gun at the bushes surrounding the factory. "Do you wanna split up? We'll cover more ground if we do that."

Laurels | Flora — 10/04/2021 7:38 PM
They weren't fighting anymore.

Crap.

The dude with the gun was gesturing to the bushes.

"Okay, time to fly," Cosima muttered to herself.

Cosima began to slowly crawl out of the bush, hoping to keep the noise down. Like hell was she going to get a bullet in the brain for breaking a window. Like hell she was dying here. Not when there was so much more cool shit for her to do back home.

DerArknight — 10/05/2021 12:36 PM
After thinking about it for a second, Seth nodded.

"Good idea." He pointed at the window. "One of us pretends to check out the window while looking for the culprit while the other bushwacks a little bit out of sight.

"I can do the window-checking." He added after a moment.

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 10/17/2021 7:48 AM
"Alright. I'll go look at the bushes." Eduardo nodded. "Just come out and I won't fucking hurt you." He would maybe hurt them.

Laurels | Flora — 10/17/2021 9:06 AM
Cosima continued to slowly crawl backwards. She didn't really have much time to get out before she was seen.

Fortunately for her, there was a tree nearby. All she had to do was crawl behind it, then she could stand off and vanish into the woods.

It was so easy, Cosima was sure she'd be impossible to find.

Cosima crawled, then felt herself reach the tree. She began to stand up and try to press her back to the tree. However, as she got into position, she suddenly backed into a protruding root. In her attempt to achieve balance, Cosima foudn herself falling backwards, landing on her back.

As she heard some dry sticks break underneath her, she knew she had made just enough noise to probably give herself away.

"Shit shit shit" she muttered to herself.

DerArknight — 10/18/2021 8:45 AM
Seth was glad that Eduardo was cooperating, Maybe he could get the ball rolling and form a bond so Eduardo might end up working with him after all?

But before that could happen, they had to investigate the mysterious stone-thrower.

The mysterious stone-thrower who had just given their position away.

Eduardo made a threat that Seth wasn't completely okay with, but he wasn't going to argue in this situation.

"Don't be afraid." He spoke instead. "We are not angry or anything. We are all in quite a mess, so we shouldn't be fighting among each other."

Laurels | Flora — 10/22/2021 3:03 PM
"Yeah right," Cosima muttered to herself as she quickly hurried back to her feet.

Forget stealth. She needed to fuck off now.

Without even giving them a chance to find her, Cosima bolted off in the first direction her eyes locked on away from the factory. She tried snaking around the trees in case either of those turds began shooting at her.

Either way, she was gone.

((Cosima Love continued elsewhere))

Amy Carlson | Eduardo Salinas — 10/22/2021 3:10 PM
"Oh shi-" Without any warning, a girl got up from the bushes where Eduardo had heard the branches cracking, and made a run for it. He should have been quicker. Even still, as he raised the gun and pulled the trigger, the girl ducked and dived throughout the trees, and the shots he fired missed. The first one hit a tree, the second shot sheared a tree branch off with a crack, and the third one flew into the sky.

"Seth! SETH! She's getting- Go after her!" Shoving the gun back into his waistband, Eduardo ran after the girl, almost tripping over the treebranch. Wearing a wetsuit was probably a bad idea, but fuck, man, he had just wanted to go to the beach. Even if it was a shitty NY beach.

((Eduardo Salinas continued elsewhere))

DerArknight — 10/23/2021 7:33 PM
All of a sudden, both the mysterious stone-thrower and Eduardo were running into the woods. Seth took a second to follow them.

But unfortunately, his stamina and speed proved to be worse than the competition. After all, the only sport he did was ping pong, which didn't require much running.

After maybe one minute of running, he had lost both of them.

Shit!

Out of breath, Seth decided to give up the chase and return to the big building.

Maybe he would find something worthwhile there.

((Seth Kent continued elsewhere))

[SOTF: Discord]

[+] Vinyls and Regrets

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 10/24/2021 4:57 AM
Name: Vinyls and Regrets
Time: Night One
Status: Closed

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 10/24/2021 4:59 AM
Ashley stared at the vinyl cover in her hands. Eyes going across the image of a half-naked woman posing for the photographer. Names were scribbled across the frame, unknown to her what significance they held. Maybe it was a good collector's item; to be seated in a prominent place on someone's shelf as proof of their mettle. She was never one for that type of fanaticism. Always seemed like a waste of money.

"Do you think she knew how many people would see her like this?" No one answered. No one probably had the answer to that.

Ashley had found a quaint little office room for herself in this building. It was comfy despite the stacks of paper left behind on the table; and the other telltale signs of life before her arrival.

It scared her when she got here at first; an ominous nature steeped out from the building towards her when she looked at it from the outside, but the inside was a different story after she found the courage to open the door. It was surprisingly... okay indoors, though there were signs that someone had been there.

If the table turned over wasn't a giveaway, then the hole in the wall certainly was.

Warning signs. Glaring, big ones that said to get out of there. To walk out and find some other place to hunker down for the night. Instead, she carried on and found herself in this office.

For now, her home.

It did feel weird looking around like this. Someone cared for this place once, but would they again after this?

Did it matter?

"Anyone wants to listen to Surfer Rosa?" She asked out loud to an empty room.

Jokes were all that she could offer; it was all that she could allow in her mind. Everything else had a path that led to questions and thinking about things that would, frankly, be depressing as fuck.

almostinhuman | Monica, Douglas — 10/25/2021 7:54 PM
((Monica Reed continued from you are a stranger here))

She hadn't expected night to fall so fast, nor had she expected the island to get so cold.

Trudging through the moonlit forest along a crumbling road with a scattered, chilly breeze nipping at them took its toll. And trudging they were; Monica had slowed her pace considerably for Anh and Ava. Even once they'd found a proper road, the pair seemed ill-equipped for traveling such a distance, especially with the conditions as they were. She was glad to have them, despite that; Anh in particular, after his little revelation.

On the way, announcements blared out from unseen speakers, placed even out here in the woods. Eight dead, out of however many found themselves trapped here. She wasn't sure if that was a fast or slow death toll; either way, it wasn't reassuring.

She also had a name for that boy on the beach now, much as she wished she didn't. At least neither Brody nor Nigel were among them. Others - both victim and villain - were mostly only somewhat familiar.

It wasn't long after that when they'd finally arrive at their destination. The factory looked about as rough as she'd assumed it would, given the state of the town and the connecting roads. Hopefully things weren't quite so dire inside. She didn't want this to have turned out to be a wild goose chase.

"Well," she said with a sigh, "looks like we made it."

She shined her flashlight through one of the windows and tried to look inside. No dice, from this distance. She'd have to approach.

"We should hunker down now. We can search in earnest in the morning."

Yona || Ahn/Theo — 10/30/2021 10:04 AM
It's kind of fucked up, isn't it?

''You think they'll just kill us themselves?

Just blow the collars?

Whatever they're doing, there's some kind of messed up point they're tryna prove. And if they just kill us before we try, that means whatever they're trying, they're willing to interfere. There's gotta be a reason why they're making us do the killing ourselves.

Every game has, like, rules and shit, right? And we have to play within them. But the thing is, we don't know what they want from us, but they have to want something. There's a reason why they got a whole fuckin city, flew us to here, and all that. We've gotta be important, one way or another, to them, right?

Fuck. My brain hurts from thinking. Ugh.''

almostinhuman | Monica, Douglas — 11/05/2021 9:14 AM
Y'know, she was glad to have Anh around, really. He was smarter than he'd first appeared, he was the only one of them with any real ideas on how to get the collars off, and he wasn't high anymore. He was an asset, for sure.

But boy, was he ever a downer.

"Try not to freak yourself out, Anh," she replied, giving a sympathetic glance. "Paralysis isn't gonna help anyone."

His line of thinking wasn't exactly wrong, in all honesty. But they couldn't afford to worry about whys and maybes and what-ifs. They were on far too tight a schedule for that.

"Y'all can hang back for a bit, keep an eye out. I'll go ahead and check if the building's clear."

She walked to one of the windows, flashlight in hand, hoping to get a better look inside.

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 11/06/2021 5:41 AM
Ashley found herself having stepped up from her chair and started fiddling with the various pieces of paper on the desk. She left her vinyl copy beside her on the desk as she did so.

It was more of a distraction than anything with a purpose behind it. There had not been much of that behind her actions that day. Sure, hiding out was clever and all that, but at the same time she didn't have anything.

Maybe they would be disappointed in that, her parents, that is. They were never satisfied with anything that she did. Whether it was her grades, her hobbies, or the people she would associate with, any form of praise was to be kept close to her chest and treasured. Ashley didn't know why she did; maybe it was proving that she was worth something to them that she struggled with to herself. She was not the best with words and speeches; her siblings had her beat on that. Nor was she the best with the tone of her singing; her classmates had her there. It got even worse if she tried to sing while playing guitar. The chords were there in her mind's eye, but transitioning that to her fingers was the difficult part. It would all get warbled, and the words were all wrong.

Oh, that old familiar feeling was already settling in. Better find something else to poke at for the next half hour.

Wait, is that a light coming from one of the windows?

Without thinking about it, Ashley quickly grabbed the vinyl off the table, lifted her right arm back as far as she could- one of her feet lifting up a bit as she did so, leaving her on one leg- before chucking it as hard as she could at the light.

almostinhuman | Monica, Douglas — 11/06/2021 12:43 PM
The windows were all smashed in, but despite that, the interior seemed in better shape than the exterior. It wasn't exactly pristine, and there was clear signs of tampering with the interior machinery, but at least some things were still intact in there. She moved to another window, looking into some sort of office space.

Wait, she could see something moving in the-

THWACK

A black shape shot out from the darkness and shattered against Monica's face. She reeled back, dropping the flashlight, and collapsed to her knees, clutching her bleeding face.

"FUCK!"

Yona || Ahn/Theo — 11/06/2021 8:39 PM
"What happened?"

He probably sounded a bit sleepy. But cheerful. Probably. He wanted to take a nap.

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 11/10/2021 6:37 AM
The surfer had made its impact and cries of pain echoed out from the dark. Ashley stood there petrified as a sudden burst of a curse rang out from the window, and a smaller, more mellow sound. Maybe someone else.

She quickly scooped up her bag and held it tighter. Tighter than she'd ever held something before.

"Uh, sorry!" She called out, hiding before the desk; slightly crouched. If anything erupted from the dark, she'd make a run for it.

almostinhuman | Monica, Douglas — 11/10/2021 10:52 AM
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

Just when she'd thought she had the panic under control, it returned with renewed fervor. Her heart raced, roaring in her ears. She'd been so goddamn stupid, just poking her head in the window like that. She was just lucky they hadn't had a gun.

She wasn't certain how bad the damage was. It stung like hell and bled profusely, so that certainly wasn't encouraging. It hadn't nicked her in the eye, at least, and none of the shrapnel from whatever that fucker had thrown was lodged under her skin or anything.

On someone else, she might've been able to treat this injury; they had first aid kits, and she knew at least some of the fundamentals. But she could hardly properly handle a wound on her own fucking face.

Whoever'd thrown it stammered out an apology for it. If she'd been out here, Monica would've slapped her.

"F-fucking bitch," she muttered, still too shaken to make it intimidating.

"Anh, Av-va" She squinted through the darkness and the blood dripping into her eye, towards where she'd left them. "I-I'm bleeding. Help."

Yona || Ahn/Theo — 11/10/2021 11:07 AM
Hey, listen, if they didn't call for him, he's not getting involved. Less he does, the better. As long as he wouldn't die. Y'know.

So Ahn tried his best to not Be There

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 11/14/2021 6:21 PM
Names and curses piped from the window. Ashley stared at it through the darkness from her half-crouch at the desk. More than one was here, friends of someone she had hurt, and they would probably not accept an excuse of it being inadvertent.

She could run, but if they caught up to her... she did not want to imagine what could happen.

Maybe...

Carefully, Ashley zipped open her bag, fished out her flashlight from her bag; strapping it around her shoulder once she zipped it back up and moved slowly towards the window.

"I'm, uh, look. I'm really sorry about that; you just, you know, really spooked me there." She said as she aimed her flashlight at the mirror where the sounds came from.

almostinhuman | Monica, Douglas — 11/16/2021 4:40 PM
Monica ignored the girl's apology; the first one had been enough to make it clear it was an accident. She was still pissed, but at least they probably weren't in danger. With her flashlight, she scanned the ground for the thrown object, finding the pieces of...

...

Was that a fucking record?

"Look, just... don't fucking do it again."

She'd reacted so hysterically to that, of all things. How goddamn embarrassing.

Still, this shit hurt a lot, and the bleeding hadn't slowed. And her allies had barely responded at all to this little episode.

"Y'all, we're leaving for now. Someone's here. We'll come back in the morning."

((Monica Reed continued elsewhere))

Yona || Ahn/Theo — 11/18/2021 8:09 PM
''Aight.''

((You know. He followed Monica. Like a little fuckin indecisive bitch.))

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 11/18/2021 8:20 PM
The cries and curses stopped, instead they decided to leave. Muffled footsteps from the outside told her vaguely where they were going. So, when given the chance, Ashley grabbed her bag and left the factory in the dead of night. She was not taking chances with this crew.

((Ashley Wight continued elsewhere))

[SOTF: Discord]

[+] Big Iron On Her Hip

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/08/2022 10:40 AM
Name: Big Iron On (Her) Hip
Time: Night Two
Status: Closed

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/08/2022 10:51 AM
((Arizona Ranger, Ottla Redding continued from No One Dared To Make A Slip))

The girls had finally found some shelter. They were tired, hungry, and cold.

Arizona was busy trying to start a fire. Ottla twirled the golf club in her hands, before setting it aside and putting their bags away. She rummaged through her pack for some food.

"You hungry? I could really use something to eat."

"My hunger is insatiable, my stomach is a vast chasm yearning for souls."

"So that's a no then."

"I-I didn't say that, yes I am hungry."

Ottla chuckled. So cute. So adorable when she got flustered.

"We should be safe here for the night. Hopefully... hopefully nothing bad happens again like the announcement."

Arizona stopped her efforts for a moment. So many people dead, and for what?

"Yeah, I hope so too."

DerArknight — 02/12/2022 9:50 AM
((Rose Everest continued from Cave of Remembrance))

So this is the factory, huh? Rose thought as she and Claude stood in front of the bulky building, protected by the a big tree.

During the last hours, the pair had mostly traversed the northern parts of the island. Eventually they had entered the forest since it offered cover from both snipers and the rain that was beginning to set in. But when the rain became stronger - and according to the last announcement, is was going to get worse - they had to settle on finding a better shelter. Like the abandoned factory marked on their maps, for example.

Unfortunately, the light in one of the windows told them that someone else had had the same idea.

During the time spent together, they had chatted a lot to fill in the time. Rose had told a few true and many made-up stories about her home in Arizona, and Claude had told her stories of similar credibility about his peers in New York. One thing that they had never spoken about was what to do when they ran into other people. Judging from Claude having killed someone, Rose figured it might not be pretty.

"So, how are we going to approach this?" She asked her temporary companion.

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/12/2022 2:52 PM
((Claude Sanders continued from Cave of Remembrance))

They had ventured out of the caves with Claude leading the way; he let go of her hand around then. He got to see the knife that she had on her before they moved on. He had to make sure she was speaking the truth before he would travel with her.

They stood out in the open. Drizzle of raindrops on the two as Claude crossed his arms as Rose slipped the knife out into her hands. She held it out in front of herself. He could not tell what kind of knife it was, but it had some weird handle on it. It was not long before it was back in

With that done and dusted, they went together. To pass the time the twosome would talk about their lives before this. Tell stories of friends and family. Classmates and acquaintances. Some of them did get pretty far on the believability scale, and others, well, some bits here and there changed. His excuse on the ready was faulty memory, just in case.

There was a worry of snipers around, and the rain had gotten worse. So the forest was the way for the now. It was close to the river, a bit too close for comfort. At least for Claude. But some protection was needed in these parts, and it was the best, at least until they saw this place.

The two of them stood in front of the massive structure. Studying it, gauging how good of a spot it was. It was very different from the caves in a big way, an upgrade in squatters' rights. And yet... There was an ominous sense to this place. The layer of rain on top did not help with that feeling.

Neither that some lights were on. They had company.

Rose wanted to know what they should do. The answer was kind of obvious, but Claude was not sure how ready she was to be pushed into that just yet.

"Well, they haven't got rights to the whole thing. I'll take a look." He said before leaving her by the tree and carefully manoeuvred himself over to the door before opening it with his left hand.

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/14/2022 5:31 PM
The fire kept them warm, though the rain didn't seem like it would make for a great start the next day. Things were not great overall, but they had shelter at least.

But that wasn't enough.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You wanna dance or something?"

Arizona could dance, and she quite enjoyed it. Ottla could not dance, but her efforts were fun for both of them.

Arizona smiled. Even in this place, Texas only had thoughts of her.

"I'd love to. Though I have to ask Texas, what exactly do you plan on doing this time? I hope you don't end up on the ground again."

Ottla smiled and took Arizona's hand as they began to dance.

"I'll figure something out. I'm not always gonna stay a bad dancer. Who knows, maybe I've secretly been training all this time and I'll blow you away with my skills."

"Ho? I would surely like to see that. Come then, show me how high your power level is now. Blow me away with your Flame Style dancing."

The two of them shut out the rain, the cold, and the reality outside their bubble. For a moment, they could forget where they were. For a moment, they were safe and together.

Arizona held Texas close and made a wish, to any god or elder power that would listen, that their moment would last forever.

It was one moment in time, but maybe it could last. Maybe they really could stretch time into eternity, and stay here forever.

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/15/2022 6:53 AM
Claude stalked the halls of the factory. Careful, deliberate steps were taken in almost complete silence interrupted by the torrent of rain outside. But sounds echoed further ahead told him that company was around. He shimmied along the wall, his right hand shaking while holding the piece. The metal felt cold to the touch despite the warmth that should be there from his fierce, unyielding grip.

He needed to get used to it. It was all the protection he had for now.

Once the sound was close enough, beyond a doorway, Claude put his back against the wall and peeked into the room. He could see two girls holding each other. Wait, they were dancing?

Slow steps to start, arms caked around each other. One was a blonde dressed in full black with some weeb shit on the front from what he could see, and an eye patch too. The other one was smaller and had long, brown hair, less special than the first girl. Whatever names they had escaped his mind currently. But he could note that both were smaller than him, and neither looked armed in that instance.

He could just walk in. He had a gun, he had the strength, the element of surprise, and everything. And yet... He felt his breath almost stop at the thought of going in. He had already taken a life before, what was so different now?

And then the piece the taller girl was rocking shined almost as bright as the sun in his eyes. For now, it was not worth it. Instead, he stood there for a bit, watching the pair, he could see the bags were off to the side. Out of mind, out of sight.

He trusted these girls about as much as he trusted Rose. Kill two birds with one stone. Claude quickly skulked back to the entrance and waved at Rose to get her ass indoors. It was time to set things into gear.

DerArknight — 02/15/2022 3:20 PM
Rose watched as Claude made his way through the rain and entered the factory.

A few seconds after he disappeared, she realised that no one was watching her right now, and relaxed a little. Being with Claude felt slightly safer than being alone, but also kinda tiring. Nervously, she took out her weapon. The terrorists had been "kind" enough to include a single slip of paper explaining how to shoot and reload the knife. Just pull the pin, then the trigger. The reloading seemed kinda complex, so Rose hoped she wouldn't have to do it.

But what else was she going to do with this knife apart from using it?

Rose hated to admit it, but what she called her plan currently amounted to "stick with Claude and hope you two don't run into trouble while everyone else does the work". But what was she going to do once it came down to the two of them? Would she be able to use her weapon?

In other news, what if Claude was thinking the same? He already had killed, so he was unlikely to hesitate like she would.

...

Maybe this whole team was a bad idea. maybe she should just do an U-turn and walk away while Claude had a chat with whoever was inside the building.

Or maybe this would screw her over even more.

If he could see her, her father would probably scold Rose for not making up her mind. He had always told her about the importance to make decisions when it mattered.

Before she could decide whether or not she wanted to stay, the decision was made for her. Claude returned and signalled for her to follow him. The gun was in his hand. If she tried to run now, he could just shoot her.

Rose quickly made her way through the rain, entering the factory.

"Are they trouble?" She asked in a hushed voice, too unsure to speak louder.

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/15/2022 6:28 PM

This was nice, they had a moment to themselves and they indulged in it. Arizona held Ottla close.

"Not bad Texas, not bad at all. You have gotten better. You must have had a good teacher."

The stayed together for a moment longer, unaware of anything else outside.

"Oh not at all. My teacher just sort of threw me in the deep end." The both of them laughed and smiled. "Still, I suppose I didn't do too bad did I, teach?"

The fire started dying down, and a small gust of wind caused it to flicker.

"I think that's a sign we should get to other things."

"I'll take care of it."

"And I will dutifully watch. Let me know how I can pester you to go faster."

As Arizona began to head toward the fire, Ottla said, "Hang on a sec, let me have the gun. I'll keep a lookout for us."

"Are you sure? With the rain like this, I'm pretty sure anyone smart already found shelter. We didn't see anybody else here."

Arizona hesitated, but Ottla insisted.

"It's fine. Here, we'll trade. Iron for iron, huh?"

They exchanged weapons.

"Besides, now I'll have something to do. I feel kinda useless as is, not even able to help out."

She saw Arizona begin to protest, but Ottla shut her down.

"It'll be fine. I promise, I'll protect us."

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/16/2022 6:00 AM
"Trouble?" He started with a grin on his face, if only she had seen what these chuckle-fucks were doing there. He closed the door behind Rose, slowly as to make as little noise as possible before continuing.

"Rose, they were busy dancing." He pulled his head from side to side, hearing some small cracks here and there as he did so before looking down at his "partner".

"Right now that is what they are doing. And that leaves them very free for some good ole fashioned robbery. Their bags were left off to the side, and I figure, hey, out of the two of us, you're smaller, you'd get those bags off of 'em."

DerArknight — 02/17/2022 9:46 AM
Why would anyone start dancing in this place?

Rose was unsure if she even wanted to know the answer. More important was Claude's proposal. She had already guessed the two of them wouldn't be heroes, but was stealing really okay?

And isn't this talk about me being smaller just an excuse?

Still, he had the gun and as much as she hated it, she needed him more than he needed her. At least at the moment.

"I want you to stay close and be ready if things go awry. Can you do that?"

Of course he could, it wasn't an herculean task. But she figured nudging his ego might be a good motivator.

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/18/2022 9:31 AM

Arizona wondered if maybe now was the time to tell Texas she had only the one bullet and that wasn't just a 'cool guys only use one bullet' thing. She was a little embarrassed to think about what Ottla might say, so she didn't tell her.

Instead she focused on the fire. The poor thing was struggling to survive. Not her best work, all things considered. Still, for what little firewood they had gathered in the forest it wasn't bad.

"I'm not sure whether or not we'll need it tonight. We haven't seen anyone all day or night so far, and I doubt anyone is gonna show up now."

"Still doesn't hurt to be careful."

Ottla spun the chamber of the gun over and over. Only one bullet in. She wondered if this was some thing from some anime Arizona hadn't show her yet.

Kinda dumb, but the good kinda dumb.

Still wouldn't hurt to have some extra ammo on hand. Just in case. Only as a precaution. Simply intended as a deterrent to future hostilities. Other convoluted sentences with similar sentiment.

"Do you have any more ammo, by any chance?"

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/18/2022 10:38 AM
"Yeah, yeah, I'll stand outside." Claude had a frown on his face. He did not want to be close to that room if the weird girl does something stupid with the gun. He had no idea whether or not she had experience handling that sort of thing and considering how carefree they were to dance and shit? Would that be far from reality?

"As long as you get those bags, then I'm cool," He said as he went back to slinking through the halls. This time with Rose in tow. It was lip-service, really. He could easily do this himself if he went in with the gun, but if one girl has a piece, maybe the other has too.

As they went further down the halls and the closer they got. The sound from earlier had died down a bit; maybe they were done dancing or whatever? They could still hear voices, faint and a bit unclear, but no more distinctive taps across the floor.

"That room. You see it?" He whispered; he then paused before turning back. Rose almost bumped into him as a result. Claude did not notice. Instead, he raised his hand and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb towards the room.

"They are in there. You know what to do."

DerArknight — 02/18/2022 6:24 PM
Yes, she did.

The door Claude pointed at was maybe ten meters ahead of them. Rose could clearly see the light of a fire coming out of the room, paired with two female voices.

After giving Claude a confirming nod that he probably couldn't see in the darkness, Rose left him behind and crouched along the wall, hoping to make only slightly more noise than she imagined. However, the voices in the room seemed to be occupied with themselves. Thankfully.

Rose reached the door, which was open. She risked a look.

It truly were two girls. One of them looked pretty normal aside from the gun she was fiddling with. The other was doing an awkward fashion statement coupled with an eye-patch that looked way too tacky to be practical.

And of course there were the girls backpacks, lying around five meters away from the door.

Eventually the girls looked in other directions. Rose exited the safety of the dark and closed in on the backpack with swift but stealthy steps.

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/19/2022 9:13 AM

"Well, see, t-the thing is..."

"I'll just check your bag. Knowing you, there's probably the rest of them just shoved away because one bullet is cool or something."

"W-wait! I—"

The fire began to flicker and fade, drawing her attention away.

"Dammit. Hold on."

Ottla turned to make her way toward the bags.

She saw the other girl by the bags.

"What the hell?"

She raised the gun.

"Hold up!"

"Texas!"

Arizona left the fire.

She saw the other girl's knife.

"Put the knife down!"

DerArknight — 02/19/2022 10:12 AM
Shit!

It had all seemed so easy. One moment the two girls were busy chatting about whatever, while Rose was already standing right next to the backpacks, reaching for the closest one. In the next, the normal-looking girl suddenly turned around and caught her red handed.

"What the hell?" The girl exclaimed.

"Uh... I..."

Before Rose could even come up with an excuse, the girl had already aimed the gun at her.

"Hold up! Put the knife down!"

For a second, Rose froze. But then her brain fully comprehended the orders, and she slowly bend down. "Sure."

There was no way she was letting go of her weapon. By trying to steal the backpacks, Rose had crashed any hope of a peaceful interaction. So she had to strike and run.

Back in the rain, she had already unlocked the knife. Now all she had to do was press the trigger.

"I am going to lay it on the ground, okay?" In a pose that made it easy for the girls to see her hands, she crouched and sunk the knife down.

"Then we can-"

In the middle of her own sentence, she pressed the trigger while holding the knife in an angle that was hopefully pointed at her opponent.

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/19/2022 10:27 AM
The girl complied, surprisingly. Maybe Ottla had overreacted. Then again, this girl was trying to steal their stuff.

The girl was in the middle of negotiating when she pressed something. Ottla didn't have time to process what that was for before she felt the blade lodge in her chest.

She didn't know what had just happened. She was vaguely aware that her finger pulled the trigger on impact, a reflex. She half-stepped back, only to lose her balance and fall back instead.

Arizona caught her, yelling something. Her name? Something else? She didn't know. She wasn't really listening right now.

Just trying to figure out what happened.

She dropped the gun and felt for the blade. Arizona stopped her and took her hand instead.

Why are your hands so cold?

She wanted to say that.

What came out was a little gasp and a feeling of drifting away.

She was so tired all of a sudden.

She just needed to close her eyes and rest.

Just for a little bit.

Arizona could wake her up later.

She would be fine. Just fine.

That's the lie she told herself, as she drifted off to sleep.

G018 OTTLA REDDING — ELIMINATED

DerArknight — 02/20/2022 5:09 PM
For a moment, everything was perfect.

Since she hadn't tested the knife, Rose had feared it might not work properly, but it proofed without a doubt to be the real deal when the blade shot out and lodged itself deep inside the chest of the girl. Sorry. Nothing personal.

But then the girl's weapon let out a scream and a blitz and Rose's right shoulder seemed to explode and she was shoved backwards by the impact and fell on her butt and dropped even further and there came blood out of her shoulder and where the fuck was Claude and she tried to stop the bleeding by holding her left hand over it and she couldn't even feel her right arm anymore and and and.

Rose screamed.

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/20/2022 5:25 PM
Everything went wrong. Claude thought it would all go fine if the smaller one went in. Small = stealthy, right? Well, a bit into Rose wandering into the room and Claude sucking in air with nothing better to do, he heard yelling... from the room Rose was in.

His right hand clenched around the handle as he sidled closer to the door. Rose had been caught out inside. Claude did not look into the room should they decide to have eyes on the door. They still had a gun, after all.

He'd been shot at once, and he was not aching to relive that experience.

But the yelling soon turned to screams. There was a gunshot. Claude decided the hell with it and peaked into the room.

"What'n'the'fuck!?" He yelled out, eyes glaring through the room to see Rose bleeding on the floor from her shoulder. One of the girls, the smaller one. She was also bleeding across the room. He quickly barged in and ran over to Rose while pointing his gun at the duo.

"Move and you die! Understand?!" He was at her side, but at this point, he could not tell how serious her injury was. It would be checked at when they were safe from here. A quick glance at her face told him she was not taking it well. No shit, no one was going to take that easy.

"Can you get up? Or do I need to carry your ass out?"

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 02/21/2022 10:12 AM
"TEXAS!"

Arizona screamed as the top of her lungs, helplessly watching it all go down. When Ottla teetered back, she caught her and held her in her arms.

She sobbed and cried and kept cradling Ottla, taking her hand in her own. "Ottla, Ottla no! Stay with me, stay awake! Please talk to me, please say something!"

Ottla didn't say anything, only gasping out her remaining breath. Arizona watched in horror, seeing her love and best friend die in her arms.

"Ottla"

The rest of the room came flooding into her attention. The screaming girl, the shouting boy. The blood staining her hands and clothes. The smoke from the now dead fire.

She didn't respond to the threat. She didn't move a muscle. She just held Ottla's dead body.

Her heart felt hollow. Her eyes couldn't stop shedding tears. Her hands trembled.

She didn't care what they did. They didn't matter to her. Nothing mattered to her. Not anymore.

Nothing.

Ottla was gone.

What was there even left?

DerArknight — 02/22/2022 1:11 PM
Someone new entered the room and screamed something. Rose barely registered it. But then the person turned to her and she finally recognised Claude.

He asked if she could get up. Technically she could, but not in any fast way. Her right arm had stopped responding and her left hand was still pressing down to lessen the blood flow. A bit. Maybe. Rose wasn't even sure if she was pressing on the right place.

As a result, she had both her arms full. Her legs, however, seemed unhurt.

"I can... walk." She managed to press out between the pain. "Just help me... up."

Ashley Wright/Claude Sanders — 02/24/2022 12:16 PM
Claude crouched down, reaching over to Rose with his right hand, and roughly put it underneath her left arm. It had been busy cupping that wound of hers. But with some direction, he manoeuvred it to his shoulder where it slunk over like a fish out of water. He had to duck his head down pretty deep to do that, but the girl, the odd one over yonder, was too busy grieving to do much right now.

From what he could see anyway.

"Ok, here's what we do. I'm gonna count to 3, and then we're gonna go up slowly, alright? Just keep breathing, and it will be fine."

Small comforts like that Claude had never been good at, but better than never. Right now, he needed to get Rose out of here before she managed to bleed to death or something like that.

"1..." He started, and he could feel her tense up.

"2..." A shake in her arm in contrast to his stern grip.

"3!" And up she went. She was making some noises doing so, probably not a better experience, but it was either that or waiting for this girl to get any resolve for revenge.

Although looking at her, it was more likely that Rose would die before she'd get done crying her eyes out.

He tucked his gun in his pants and sidled his left hand down to a nearby bag. They were not leaving empty-handed. Pulled the strap up to his left shoulder before putting his left hand back on hers.

"C'mon. Let's go!" He said as he proceeded to lead her out of the room. It was difficult as there was some stumbling in her steps, and the bag continually threatened to slip down from his shoulder. But Claude held firm and sturdy steps on his part kept them going.

Wherever they were going, it needed to be some shelter nearby that could take 'em.

((Claude Sander continued in Business Decisions))

DerArknight — 02/25/2022 1:06 PM
Moving her arm away made the pain go worse.

Rose was unsure what exactly Claude was saying, but it sounded like he was... counting? She only had a moment to realise and prepare before he lifted her off the ground. It hurt, but there was little time as Claude half-carried and half-dragged her out of the room.

The rain felt almost comfortable after that.

((Rose Everest continued in Business Decisions))

LS | Arizona Walker'Texas'Ranger — 03/02/2022 6:29 PM
She didn't know how long it had been. She didn't know or care when the other two people left. She just set to work laying Ottla to rest as soon as she stopped crying.

She arranged her straight with arms folded, covering her wound. She didn't try to take the blade out of her chest, she didn't have anything to help with precision and didn't want to cut her any more.

She looked like she was sleeping, or that was what Arizona hoped it would look like from afar. She couldn't really tell if she did it right.

She took Ottla's bag, the bag that they had left and placed it next to her. She took the empty gun and the golf club and lay them on top of the bag.

With that done, she lay down next to Texas, kissed her forehead and tried to fall asleep.

The rain outside, the cold night, the dead fire, and the blood on her hands kept sleep from her.

She didn't care.

She lay down next to Ottla and shut out reality.

In the morning, she would move on.

For now, she needed to stay here.

((Arizona Ranger continued elsewhere))