JUST WATCH: THIS ONE MISTAKE COSTS THIS GUY HIS ACTUAL LIFE (NOT A PRANK)

[Wham Yubeesling]

Pros to heading back to the village:

• Big place. Real easy to hide. Hunker down. Figure out what to do next.
• Lots of routes. If someone were to go right after Jaxon and Jaxon wanted to run, it’d be easy to pull a shakeoff. Make the other guy lose him.
• Lots of things to loot. Jaxon hadn’t gotten very far into scavenging before the other two had the great idea of going towards where the bullets were. Like, seriously, what the fuck had that been? Were it not maybe possibly actually really fucked up, Jaxon would’ve said the two of ‘em deserved what happened next.
• But the point was that there was maybe some shit Jaxon could look for while he was here. Looked like this place hadn’t really been cleaned before Jack or whoever dropped everybody here, so maybe he could angle for something a little better than poison ivy gloves. Keep his mind off things.

Cons of heading back to the village:

• Adrian and Philia, according to the announcements, had both made it out of that shootout alive.
• Adrian and Philia could be pretty pissed at him for throwing them to the wolves.
• Philia — miss 'we need to work together to not kill people!' — had actually killed somebody over the past twelve hours. Probably didn't need much of a reason to kill him too, given, uh, point #2.

But, like, counterpoint, it was nightfall, and Jaxon managed to get one of Adrian’s smoke bombs, so worst came to worst he could just throw it and bail again and he’d be gone before they could catch up. And with that in mind, well…

Jaxon was slinking the streets. Walking the back alleys, or, well, the kind of thing that passed for a back alley ‘round here. He was mainly walking behind the church, looking around, trying to make it back to the place he was first looking before Adrian and Philia went and got themselves shocked, and-

-and that was a person. Right there in the open. Approaching him.

“Shit,” he whispered, under his breath, while making moves to slowly walk away as the other guy got closer.

[Ohm]

A day of wandering. A day of running. Looking over his shoulder to see if he was still there, trying to keep up. Whatever piece of fictional justice that kept that boy going to see that crutch back in Artie's hands.

It would all be for nothing. Harun had stopped once he had gotten to the rainforest, hiding about alongside the trees, listening for the trail behind to go dark. Once it was clear that it did, he circled back and wandered across the bridge once more as it was getting darker out. He settled for the village.

He had not been there before. He had heard things from it: sounds from its direction and from the announcements. Dark recollections of someone taking so much joy from it all. It was hard to see in the dark, but it was unmistakable once he got there. Windows were destroyed. Splotches of blood on the ground.

A girl laid on the ground. Red hair. Pale white like a sheet ghost. Face broken open from the throat to the jaw. It was not someone he could recognize. It laid there all unnatural-like like someone had been messing with it. Harun stared at it for a bit before he moved past it; whatever was there was probably taken.

But it didn't take long before his eyes were transfixed on another person: this one standing. Staring back. His eyes bore into this person who stood across him in the dark, and he quickly moved into position.

Harun fixed his walk, leaned on the crutch, and proceeded to shuffle towards the boy.

[Wham Yubeesling]

Okay, so, classification: dude was approaching on a crutch. Very slowly. This wasn’t gonna be a situation where the other guy was gonna attack or chase him down if Jaxon tried to bail. Which was good news. Meant that Jaxon could only really benefit from staying here. Checking this guy out. Seeing whether he had anything worth taking. Whether it’d be a fair fight. How hard it’d be to take his crutch, dump him on the ground, and leave them for the fucking vultures…

…

He stopped walking backwards. Let him approach. Waited for him to be more than just an outline in the darkness before:

“Hey.”

[Ohm]

Harun shuffled closer and closer, keeping his slight hunch going on the crutch. A bit of make-believe on the leg to sell it. The darkness around him would help with that. He kept his neutral face going.

The boy did nothing as he got close enough to see, allowing him a better look at the prospect standing in the dark. He was around his height if Harun wasn't leaning, and although faint in the darkness, he looked similar to him, in a way the others hadn't.

"Hey." He responded, trying to keep a casual tone.

The guy gave him the creeps. A far different vibe from the weirdos he'd seen days ago. Maybe thinking the same thing he was. Hell, Harun was banking on it.

His fingers tightened their grip at the clutch handle.

"What's up?"

[Wham Yubeesling]

“Nothin’ much.”

Bit of a stupid answer — Jaxon was pretty sure everybody still here had gone through something much at this point. He just kinda said the normal answer because that was the first thing that came into this head. He shook his head. This guy was on fucking crutches instead of maybe just trying to hide out he decided to just approach the nearest dude he saw? No. Nothing normal ‘bout this. Whether this guy was a weirdo, an idiot, or something worse… Jaxon needed to gauge that. Keep this conversation going. Figure out what he was going to do next.

“Just tryin’ to survive. You?”

Man this felt unnatural.

[Ohm]

"Dealing with it." He said, while rubbing the end of the crutch into the dirt. Listening to the sounds it made out into the dark village.

It was not much of an answer, but the boy hadn't given one to begin. He knew that game all too well and how to play it. So, if that was how it was going to be, that was fine.

Harun had a way of dealing with that.

"Ever wondered why they called Sailors limeys?"

[Wham Yubeesling]

Jaxon just kinda stared at the other dude for a second.

"No?"

[Ohm]

"They drank lime juice," he said while moving a little bit closer. Drove his crutch carefully forward before settling it into the dirt.

A slow, careful dredge into it before he stopped scratching the end of the crutch into the ground.

"Why's that, you think?"

[Wham Yubeesling]

"I dunno."

Kinda came out blunt. Maybe a bit ruder than was smart, but, like, the two of 'em were outside, open season for any sniper or whatever that Jaxon knew for a fact was out there. If there was a fuckin' point to all this, Jaxon wanted this guy to get to it.

Or, at least, maybe get a little closer. Enough range for Jaxon to lunge out and sweep that crutch from under him before he could react. Get this conversation to somewhere actually productive.

"You see anybody die out here?"

[Ohm]

"It was to stop infection while they were out there, at sea." He continued, despite the other boy's lack of interest. Let the words hang in the air for a bit. The hope for it to work was there, especially after Artie tripped down that river days ago.

When he asked about the dead and what Harun had seen, it made him wish it would work faster.

"A few." He turned to look away for a bit, a grimace at the bitter memory resurfacing. Both of his hands were on the crutch handle, fierce grip.

[Wham Yubeesling]

So

So this guy was telling Jaxon that he'd seen someone die. He'd seen that American kid or whoever get shot in the fucking face right in front of him. He'd, presumably, seen somebody else get killed here, too. One way or another, he'd just confirmed he'd seen death. One way or another, he knew just how fuckin' serious this game was, and he was... what, standing out here, right in the open, keeping Jaxon from finding cover? Talking about fuckin' lime juice or something? Acting like this was a joke?

Yeah. Taking this guy down would be easy. Would make everything here feel just a little bit better.

Without a word, Jaxon lunged forward. Both hands moved to grab the crutch.

[ItzToxie]

The scope moved along the town, before resting to a point where two individuals were centered within it. The barrel of the AWP was resting on a hand resting on an elbow resting on a table. The other moved away from the trigger and grip, and rested itself lazily along the buttstock.

The eye behind the scope recognized both individuals within it. The nose below it snorted in amusement. The mouth below the nose curled up in a grin. It spoke. "Let's see you poes back up the checks your mouths are cashing."

His finger tapped the buttstock over and over. Ajay had all night.

[Ohm]

Harun let his eyes off the prize, and now he would pay for it. He could hear the boy move, and before he could react, his greedy hands were reaching for the handle, trying to clamp around it. A quick turn on his part once he realized what was happening. That it was finally happening. A tug of war ensued between them, and the crutch was the prize. A spin here and there as the two fought for control over the only weapon that was out.

The two were even on that front.

It must have looked stupid to anyone watching, seeing two guys fighting over a crutch like this, but it was all he had unless that curse worked. Which, it would be nice if he just keeled over from a heart attack right about now? No?

Ok. So he decided on an idea. He let go of the crutch, and the boy reeled backward, trying to get the crutch under his control. As he tried that, Harun quickly reared his right arm and launched it at his face.

[Wham Yubeesling]

Okay, so, Jaxon would cop to one thing: he should've tried to poison ivy this guy's face rather than try and grab the crutch. Hadn't really worked with Adrian, but maybe he'd just been built different. Maybe he should've at least tried to stun this guy before going for the weapon.

'Cause this guy knew what to do in a tug-of-war. He'd just let go. Let Jaxon nearly knock himself over. Punched him in the face while he was trying to recover. Pain briefly took over all his senses, and he was pretty sure he'd broken something in his jaw given the fuckin' crack he heard inside his head, but at that point he'd been able to recover. Keep his feet on the ground.

Without thinking, he ducked down, swung the crutch out, and tried to sweep the other guy off the ground.

[Ohm]

A cracking sound echoed in the air as Harun's fist made contact, sending the other boy backward stumbling. He couldn't tell if the sound was from his jaw or his teeth. Whatever it is, he got some damage.

All he had to was capitalize on it.

But as Harun moved in to do so, his opponent, meanwhile, had kept his feet grounded. Suddenly, he ducked and the crutch swept across the ground towards his right leg. It caught him and sent him almost sideways onto the ground.

His left fist hit the ground as he caught himself. It left him kneeling, wincing from the pain, and he tried to stabilize himself and quickly get up, but before he could do so, the other boy plowed into him, sending them both sprawling across the ground with the other boy on top, and he forced the crutch over his throat.

He could feel it push against him, and he gasped for air. That only made it worse as the other boy took that as an invitation to press harder.