((Benny Lightfield continued from Rebel Without a Clue))
The three high school students continued hobbling west. All three shared a grudge and leg injuries of varying severity. There was something bizarre about how the game had altered all of their priorities. It went without saying, as much as Benny would have loved to deny it, that there was no way back at this point. Benny could dream of rescue all he wanted if he wanted, but that would be a waste. Thinking about where they were going was a much more practical option. But even that wasn't much to think about. West was the direction they had somehow settled on (maybe it was because Sycanus ran that way?), and other than that there was no real reason to ponder the precise meaning or destination of their trek. So Benny instead fell into a dull cycle of paranoia. Checking the horizon and his traveling partners for anything suspicious was a routine, and any time things got uneventful, he would scare himself through another rotation in order to keep things interesting.
The sun started to rise in the sky behind them. The group stopped to eat, taking a moment to enjoy the short window of time between the freezing night and the scorching day. Benny pulled out a can of Spam. He'd been eager to tear into it earlier, simply because of its connections to Monty Python, but either common sense or Ramona - he couldn't remember which - reminded him that leftovers probably wouldn't keep well if he decided not to eat the whole thing, so he stuck to the jerky and other unnameable excuses for food. But he was hungry enough now for the full can. He popped the top open, peeled the lid back, and was met immediately with an unnaturally pink, flat surface. How the hell were you supposed to eat this? The instructions suggested hitting it until it plopped out, but there was nothing to plop onto, at least nothing free from a thick layer of dust. He poked it. The surface gave under pressure much too easily. He was able to eat it using fingers for a spoon. Thoroughly grossed out and reminded of something he didn't care to mention, but grateful for the sustenance (even as the saltiness made him thirsty for water he needed to ration), he distracted himself by thinking about it as a theoretical entity. What made Spam funny? Was it the word? The fact that it only counted as meat under the most dire of circumstances, such as this? The cube shape it came in? Thoughts like those helped Benny stop treating the ground like it was brandishing a knife, at least for a little while.
They kept walking. The sun flew behind them in a slow arc, like a malevolent vulture, waiting to bleach their bones as soon as it could get a good bead on them. Up ahead there was speck of something. It wasn't moving or shooting anyone yet, but Benny kept a close eye on it in case it did. The speck got bigger as they approached, and two littler specks split off from it. One had an arrow sticking out of it. The other, surrounded by a red spot.
Buick, hork, urp up, toss a sidewalk pizza, drive the porcelain bus, sing to your shoes, reverse your peristalsis, make a tribute to Disney, join the Daniel Boone club. All perfectly silly names for what Benny very nearly wanted to do right then and there. He would have been able to name them all and many more, for stupid euphemisms were one of his stocks in trade, except that it is very hard to be in the mood to shout your groceries and to be in the mood to tell everyone about the phrase "shout your groceries" at the same time. Benny hadn't seen a dead body before. Sure, he'd gotten a glimpse of one earlier, but that one had been turned to human hamburger, and Benny wasn't in the mood to look then. He'd ran right by another one more recently, but he was in hot pursuit at the time. This though, this was unavoidable. Two dead people, one of whom was clearly recognizable as Samantha Atterman, the other on the other side of a barbed wire fence, soon to be unrecognizable as Martha Stock. It didn't smell quite as bad as Benny feared because the desert acted like a natural mummification system, slowly drying everything out, but that only took the lightest of edges off a very heavy situation.
Benny regained control of his digestion, just barely, and then managed a gasp of "oh my god." He kept hobbling towards them, for reasons even he couldn't say. Did he actually want to be closer to the bodies?
...The answer to that question proved slightly harder than he thought. For they were like the proverbial train wreck that was impossible to look away from. Benny hated trains just then. It felt good to have something arbitrary to be indignant about. Being angry at the real targets would have taken too much effort. And yet, as Benny crossed the entrance to the fenced in area of the post, he got an answer to his question. And disturbingly, it was yes.
Martha looked ever-so-slightly peaceful next to what was obviously the beginnings of a grave meant for her. Not as peaceful as one might hope - the hole in her didn't help - but she was slightly less distressed-looking than Benny had expected. Somehow, the grave said something to him that appealed to his inner dramatist. He turned to the other two, and said, "If *cough* you wanted to go inside and check it out, you can do that. I'll be *hack* out here." The smell was getting worse, making him cough, but he didn't mind.
He laid down on the hot sand on the other side of the grave from Martha. It threatened to burn his skin, but that was a minor detail. He wanted to feel what she wasn't feeling in order to try to make sense of everything. Like Hamlet if he tried to use Yorick's skull as a ventriloquist dummy, Benny merely wanted to come to terms with death via the art of imitation. So Benny lay there for a minute, seeing nothing but orange as the sun bored through his eyelids, arms crossed like a pharaoh, letting his own demise wave hello from the shortening horizon.
Bring Me the Head of Simon Mattheson
-
Cash Money*
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2018 4:14 am
Bring Me the Head of Simon Mattheson
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the handler Cash Money. While this handler hasn't been around in quite a while, should they return and wish to take custody of this account and/or its posts, they are welcome to do so by contacting staff.
((Cameo Conroy continues from Rebel Without A Clue))
Cameo didn't know why they'd stopped here. It was desolate, it was in ruin, and it was very much dead. That didn't even say as much for the bodies littered around like marbles. At least the names were empty and meaningless to her.
Katie helped her along the path to the doorway while Benny inspected a body. As soon as the air sunk from hot and windy to just hot, she noticed the smell of the bodies wasn't just a luxury spent outside. There were dead people here.
One of them looked very familiar.
It was that girl. The one who ran, with a throat missing and a bear lying vacantly beside the body. Her hands weren't grasped around it anymore, instead they were near the throat, or lack thereof. Someone had sure done a number up there. It should have been her to do that.
She wasn't really sure how to deal with this new bit of information. There were ways, but stupid ways. Cameo removed her arm from Katie's shoulder and hobbled over. Her wounds twitched with pain, but she kept on hobbling.
There wasn't really much sense to what she did. She just felt like doing it.
The teddy was no longer a teddy, as Cameo had just plucked it from the floor and pulled at each end. The neck stitchings tore cleanly off as stuffing billowed from the insides and it became limp and soggy. This was one of the ways she'd learned to deal with it. But she wasn't quite sure if she was up to the other.
Every sense in her body urge her to take her weapon and make sure nobody would ever recognise this insane little girl again. She wanted to tenderise her body with the golf club, until there was no girl anymore, only blood and gore. She wanted it. She could have sworn she needed it.
But not today. Anger suppressed was anger to be released sooner down the line.
Cameo had spent an unconscionable amount of time staring at the body once the bear became nothing, and turned back to Katie.
"We should go."
Cameo didn't know why they'd stopped here. It was desolate, it was in ruin, and it was very much dead. That didn't even say as much for the bodies littered around like marbles. At least the names were empty and meaningless to her.
Katie helped her along the path to the doorway while Benny inspected a body. As soon as the air sunk from hot and windy to just hot, she noticed the smell of the bodies wasn't just a luxury spent outside. There were dead people here.
One of them looked very familiar.
It was that girl. The one who ran, with a throat missing and a bear lying vacantly beside the body. Her hands weren't grasped around it anymore, instead they were near the throat, or lack thereof. Someone had sure done a number up there. It should have been her to do that.
She wasn't really sure how to deal with this new bit of information. There were ways, but stupid ways. Cameo removed her arm from Katie's shoulder and hobbled over. Her wounds twitched with pain, but she kept on hobbling.
There wasn't really much sense to what she did. She just felt like doing it.
The teddy was no longer a teddy, as Cameo had just plucked it from the floor and pulled at each end. The neck stitchings tore cleanly off as stuffing billowed from the insides and it became limp and soggy. This was one of the ways she'd learned to deal with it. But she wasn't quite sure if she was up to the other.
Every sense in her body urge her to take her weapon and make sure nobody would ever recognise this insane little girl again. She wanted to tenderise her body with the golf club, until there was no girl anymore, only blood and gore. She wanted it. She could have sworn she needed it.
But not today. Anger suppressed was anger to be released sooner down the line.
Cameo had spent an unconscionable amount of time staring at the body once the bear became nothing, and turned back to Katie.
"We should go."
((Katie Tanaka continued from Rebel Without a Clue))
No. No no no no.
Her mind had fizzled out a bit after the conversation with Jacqueline. How couldn't it? Simon Mattheson. Good boy. Sycanus did something to him. Sycanus. She couldn't believe it.
As they walked with Jacqueline in tow, Katie tried her best to focus on finding Simon. She kept trying to tell herself that she couldn't let him get away with what he had done. No one was going to get away with that sort of behavior. Not Simon. Not Rebecca. And not Delilah.
But she thought, and each time she tried to focus all her hatred on Simon, Jacqueline's words got to her.
Simon. Simon used to be a good person.
At one point, Katie began to fantasize a bit. It started with her grabbing Benny's gun, and then finding Simon. He would point his gun at her, but he wasn't fast enough. She pulled the trigger, and Simon's head would always explode like a porcelain vase. Her mind replayed the scenario, and she would idly think about how exactly it would go.
And then she remembered Jacqueline's words.
He wasn't hurting anyone.
He was fine the last time I was him yesterday.
Then the fantasy changed. Simon, in her mind's eye, was now scared. His face was contorted in fear, tears screaming down his face as he held his guns with shaking hands. It horrified her, but she kept pulling the trigger. She could hear him scream in pain. It didn't satisfy her at all. It... it scared her.
That was the worst thing about wanting revenge. When you learn more about the person you want to track down. When you realize that they weren't some kind of monster at all. When you talk to someone who was friends with them. When you realize someone loves them.
When you realize that in the end, that's still a person.
Needless to say, Katie now had her doubts.
She still was sure she could never forgive Simon. But now... now she wasn't sure if she could get her revenge. Not just him, either. Delilah and Rebecca. Rebecca, she knew from the theater club. Could she really hurt one of her clubmates? Sure, she wasn't an actress herself, but Rebecca was still part of the group, so that meant... Katie knew her. She wouldn't be dealing with some kind of bandit. She was dealing with Rebecca. And Delilah wasn't a bandit. She was still on tech duty for the theater. She was still Delilah Rivers.
It was easier pretending they were some kind of bandits she needed to avenge her friends and classmates on. But when reality hit, it hit hard.
To make matters worse, she didn't know what she felt about Sycanus anymore. Her mind went back to the saloon, and she couldn't help but beat herself up a bit. She let her in. She invited her inside, and that's when Simon showed up. He wasn't trying to kill everyone inside, he was trying to kill her specifically. And Jacqueline said that Simon saw her trying to play. And Katie, Katie, being fucking stupid by trying to be a fucking decent human being, pretty much let her in.
She could only wonder why she didn't try to hurt them the entire time she was with them. Maybe she was trying to get something out of them. Who knew.
It was too late now, though.
As they walked inside the trading post, Katie was met with a foul stench. Slightly clenching her eyes a bit from the smell and dust, her eyes slowly got a more clear view of the scene.
Bodies. Everywhere.
That was... that was Martha and Samantha, wasn't it?
Jacqueline hobbled off, and looked at another one of the bodies. Samantha. Martha. Katie remembered them. They couldn't talk, or go to school, or do what they wanted anymore. They stayed lifeless, like limp ragdolls. Someone had tried to make a grave for Martha, judging by the look of things. So that was a sign she, at least, didn't die alone.
That's when she saw Eoin and Vivian next. She... she didn't want to look.
Katie felt like throwing up. And that's before she saw the last two bodies, one of which Jacqueline was looking at.
Oz Stevenson had a few wounds on his body. Obviously, he had been shot several times. But as her eyes wandered to the body directly across from him...
A brown, ripped apart teddy laid beside her, as if it had died with her. Her hands were raised to her slit throat, her eyes widened permanently.
Sycanus Appletin and Oz Stevenson killed each other. That was her only guess, based on the shotgun wounds and the blood on an ice skate laying nearby.
Katie felt herself gag a bit, as her eyes got a little misty. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to do anything. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to see all her friends again.
But it was a reminder. A reminder of why exactly she wanted revenge in the first place. This was the harsh reality. People were dying. It had to be stopped. They were killing each other out there, and she didn't want to lose anyone else, nor have the bandits getting away with it.
Why was she even still calling them bandits anyways? That was pathetic. Pathetic pathetic. That was back when she didn't take this seriously, for fuck's sake.
Katie could only nod as she heard Jacqueline saying they needed to leave, feeling herself get wary from hunger. She didn't eat much due to her losing most of her supplies, but she didn't feel like asking Jacqueline or Benny for food. Instead, her stomach rumbled each time she saw them eating, even the raw Spam. She had thought of hunting a bit, and so each time they stopped she tried to work on making a "knife". Well, it wasn't a "knife" in the kitchen sense. It was more a palm-sized stone (flint, by her guess), that she kept trying to grind to a point. While it was steadily getting to a point over the past few hours, she didn't think it was sharp enough. Could she potentially stab someone with it? If she was strong enough, yes. But slice? No, she didn't think so, at least not yet. But at least she was trying. After all, knives were probably one of the best things you could have in the wilderness, even if they were just rocks that a dumb girl had tried to sharpen and only barely succeeded at all. This "knife", for lack of a better word, now rested in the waistband of her once white skort.
But the point remained. Even now, in front of all the dead bodies... Katie couldn't help but think of food. Sometimes she would think about ham. Her parents always had this recipe for ham and pasta, and it was amazing. She missed it so. Ham came up a lot in her thoughts. She missed ham. Katie briefly closed her eyes, feeling exhausted.
No, no thinking about food. Why was she thinking about food here? People were dying. She felt sick seeing them. And now she was hungry. Really. That was... she didn't know anymore. Maybe she stopped caring. Maybe she was dying. Maybe... she didn't even know.
As her mind drifted away from food, she nodded again, and that's when she heard a small hiss.
It was small at first, and Katie didn't realize what it was. But it got louder, and she turned her head. A long, thin object laid on the ground near Benny, the hiss coming from it. It looked alive, and after looking over the object a bit that's when she realized. Her eyes slowly widened, and she felt more alert, only because of fear.
"No..."
Even in her mind's haze, she recognized what that was. It was a rattlesnake. Not only that, but Katie saw how it was coiled up, and heard how it was hissing. It... it... didn't like Benny there, so it could...
Katie knew rattlesnakes were dangerous. A single bite meant death. She had encountered rattlesnakes a few times on her hikes, but she usually ignored them. Normally, she would leave them alone, since they didn't bite unless they were threatened. But her mind was hazed, and she, of course wasn't thinking clearly. Her heart began to race again. Benny could easily be bitten. Benny could easily get hurt. Benny could... oh god, what could she do?
"BENNY LOOK OUT!"
No. No no no no.
Her mind had fizzled out a bit after the conversation with Jacqueline. How couldn't it? Simon Mattheson. Good boy. Sycanus did something to him. Sycanus. She couldn't believe it.
As they walked with Jacqueline in tow, Katie tried her best to focus on finding Simon. She kept trying to tell herself that she couldn't let him get away with what he had done. No one was going to get away with that sort of behavior. Not Simon. Not Rebecca. And not Delilah.
But she thought, and each time she tried to focus all her hatred on Simon, Jacqueline's words got to her.
Simon. Simon used to be a good person.
At one point, Katie began to fantasize a bit. It started with her grabbing Benny's gun, and then finding Simon. He would point his gun at her, but he wasn't fast enough. She pulled the trigger, and Simon's head would always explode like a porcelain vase. Her mind replayed the scenario, and she would idly think about how exactly it would go.
And then she remembered Jacqueline's words.
He wasn't hurting anyone.
He was fine the last time I was him yesterday.
Then the fantasy changed. Simon, in her mind's eye, was now scared. His face was contorted in fear, tears screaming down his face as he held his guns with shaking hands. It horrified her, but she kept pulling the trigger. She could hear him scream in pain. It didn't satisfy her at all. It... it scared her.
That was the worst thing about wanting revenge. When you learn more about the person you want to track down. When you realize that they weren't some kind of monster at all. When you talk to someone who was friends with them. When you realize someone loves them.
When you realize that in the end, that's still a person.
Needless to say, Katie now had her doubts.
She still was sure she could never forgive Simon. But now... now she wasn't sure if she could get her revenge. Not just him, either. Delilah and Rebecca. Rebecca, she knew from the theater club. Could she really hurt one of her clubmates? Sure, she wasn't an actress herself, but Rebecca was still part of the group, so that meant... Katie knew her. She wouldn't be dealing with some kind of bandit. She was dealing with Rebecca. And Delilah wasn't a bandit. She was still on tech duty for the theater. She was still Delilah Rivers.
It was easier pretending they were some kind of bandits she needed to avenge her friends and classmates on. But when reality hit, it hit hard.
To make matters worse, she didn't know what she felt about Sycanus anymore. Her mind went back to the saloon, and she couldn't help but beat herself up a bit. She let her in. She invited her inside, and that's when Simon showed up. He wasn't trying to kill everyone inside, he was trying to kill her specifically. And Jacqueline said that Simon saw her trying to play. And Katie, Katie, being fucking stupid by trying to be a fucking decent human being, pretty much let her in.
She could only wonder why she didn't try to hurt them the entire time she was with them. Maybe she was trying to get something out of them. Who knew.
It was too late now, though.
As they walked inside the trading post, Katie was met with a foul stench. Slightly clenching her eyes a bit from the smell and dust, her eyes slowly got a more clear view of the scene.
Bodies. Everywhere.
That was... that was Martha and Samantha, wasn't it?
Jacqueline hobbled off, and looked at another one of the bodies. Samantha. Martha. Katie remembered them. They couldn't talk, or go to school, or do what they wanted anymore. They stayed lifeless, like limp ragdolls. Someone had tried to make a grave for Martha, judging by the look of things. So that was a sign she, at least, didn't die alone.
That's when she saw Eoin and Vivian next. She... she didn't want to look.
Katie felt like throwing up. And that's before she saw the last two bodies, one of which Jacqueline was looking at.
Oz Stevenson had a few wounds on his body. Obviously, he had been shot several times. But as her eyes wandered to the body directly across from him...
A brown, ripped apart teddy laid beside her, as if it had died with her. Her hands were raised to her slit throat, her eyes widened permanently.
Sycanus Appletin and Oz Stevenson killed each other. That was her only guess, based on the shotgun wounds and the blood on an ice skate laying nearby.
Katie felt herself gag a bit, as her eyes got a little misty. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to do anything. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to see all her friends again.
But it was a reminder. A reminder of why exactly she wanted revenge in the first place. This was the harsh reality. People were dying. It had to be stopped. They were killing each other out there, and she didn't want to lose anyone else, nor have the bandits getting away with it.
Why was she even still calling them bandits anyways? That was pathetic. Pathetic pathetic. That was back when she didn't take this seriously, for fuck's sake.
Katie could only nod as she heard Jacqueline saying they needed to leave, feeling herself get wary from hunger. She didn't eat much due to her losing most of her supplies, but she didn't feel like asking Jacqueline or Benny for food. Instead, her stomach rumbled each time she saw them eating, even the raw Spam. She had thought of hunting a bit, and so each time they stopped she tried to work on making a "knife". Well, it wasn't a "knife" in the kitchen sense. It was more a palm-sized stone (flint, by her guess), that she kept trying to grind to a point. While it was steadily getting to a point over the past few hours, she didn't think it was sharp enough. Could she potentially stab someone with it? If she was strong enough, yes. But slice? No, she didn't think so, at least not yet. But at least she was trying. After all, knives were probably one of the best things you could have in the wilderness, even if they were just rocks that a dumb girl had tried to sharpen and only barely succeeded at all. This "knife", for lack of a better word, now rested in the waistband of her once white skort.
But the point remained. Even now, in front of all the dead bodies... Katie couldn't help but think of food. Sometimes she would think about ham. Her parents always had this recipe for ham and pasta, and it was amazing. She missed it so. Ham came up a lot in her thoughts. She missed ham. Katie briefly closed her eyes, feeling exhausted.
No, no thinking about food. Why was she thinking about food here? People were dying. She felt sick seeing them. And now she was hungry. Really. That was... she didn't know anymore. Maybe she stopped caring. Maybe she was dying. Maybe... she didn't even know.
As her mind drifted away from food, she nodded again, and that's when she heard a small hiss.
It was small at first, and Katie didn't realize what it was. But it got louder, and she turned her head. A long, thin object laid on the ground near Benny, the hiss coming from it. It looked alive, and after looking over the object a bit that's when she realized. Her eyes slowly widened, and she felt more alert, only because of fear.
"No..."
Even in her mind's haze, she recognized what that was. It was a rattlesnake. Not only that, but Katie saw how it was coiled up, and heard how it was hissing. It... it... didn't like Benny there, so it could...
Katie knew rattlesnakes were dangerous. A single bite meant death. She had encountered rattlesnakes a few times on her hikes, but she usually ignored them. Normally, she would leave them alone, since they didn't bite unless they were threatened. But her mind was hazed, and she, of course wasn't thinking clearly. Her heart began to race again. Benny could easily be bitten. Benny could easily get hurt. Benny could... oh god, what could she do?
"BENNY LOOK OUT!"
-
Cash Money*
- Posts: 58
- Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2018 4:14 am
Martha, unsurprisingly, had no answers. Dead girls tell no tales. But Benny had initially expected some kind of epiphany from her. Maybe it was just the quest to find some sense of meaning in what was, for all involved but the winner, a meaningless series of events. Ultimately, though, Benny realized she knew less than he did. Yes, she knew what it was like to die, but not what it was like for her friends to die, and that was the part Benny was really struggling with. She got a bullet to the chest from someone who would then go on to die from an unstated cause. If anything, he should have been asking Bruce for an epiphany. He knew two things Benny didn't: what it was like to die and what it was like to kill. Still, though, he didn't have any dead friends, while Benny had too many. He wondered what Ramona was thinking. Maybe she was... no. He refused to believe she was thinking at all. She would be in too much pain from thinking about what she could have done better, or if she was in heaven, from seeing the rest of the Alderbrook Class of 2013 killing each other off. She was probably getting mad as hell at God for not doing anything... didn't he just tell himself to stop thinking about that? It wasn't making anything any bet-
"BENNY LOOK OUT!"
He flinched. He was very lucky he didn't do anything more than that; the rattlesnake might have interpreted that as an attack and struck. His eyes shot wide open. Fully expecting the sun to be glinting off a dagger aimed straight at his heart, he was confused when he saw nothing but blue sky.
That was when he heard the rattle.
It was a stock sound effect he'd heard countless times, accompanied by a hiss, only this time there was no hiss, and the rattle sound was right in his ear, like it had snuck up on him deliberately and whispered, with deathly gravity, "I'm gonna kill you." It almost hurt to have such a trebly sound so close to his ear (a fleeting thought of Ken Danielson, bleeding out with his earplugs in, crossed his mind because of the association - would he ever lead a normal life if he got out of here with memories dogging him like that?), and Benny tensed up from fear. Trying to accept death had, ironically, gotten him killed, and it was best if he just kept still and awaited the inevitable-
A brainwave struck. The snake was to one side of him; the rave was on the other. Couldn't he just roll into the grave? If it worked, he'd be in the clear, if not, he'd already be halfway to buried properly. It wouldn't be nice to steal Martha's grave, though. Party foul.
Benny took the opportunity before he even had time to think much about it. Somewhere in his head, the Indiana Jones theme played, and it was appropriate. The roll took about half a rotation more than he had expected, and the sensation of freefall lasted a split second longer than he had planned before he landed with a dusty thud on his side. He hoped his left arm wasn't injured, and he hoped the snake hadn't jumped in there with him.
From above, the sounds of violence sounded slightly muffled through the layers of hard packed dust. Benny hoped it wasn't trying to come after him or hurt any of them, but like a certain incident he wouldn't care to remember, he could do nothing but lie there and hope nobody got exploded bitten.
Finally, a victory cry. Well, maybe not a cry, more like an exhausted statement of fact. "I got him." It was Katie.
Benny sat up in the grave. It was hard, given the unprofessional quality of the work, and also because he felt like one wrong move and he'd be touching a corpse of indeterminate species. He surveyed the carnage, and thoroughly tired of his short stay, suggested, in the exact words of Cameo, "We should go." But not before adding, "...and maybe mop up the mess while we're here." Lame joke, but extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary punchlines, and Benny at least needed to lighten the mood a little.
((Benny Lightfield continued in Duck, You Sucker!))
"BENNY LOOK OUT!"
He flinched. He was very lucky he didn't do anything more than that; the rattlesnake might have interpreted that as an attack and struck. His eyes shot wide open. Fully expecting the sun to be glinting off a dagger aimed straight at his heart, he was confused when he saw nothing but blue sky.
That was when he heard the rattle.
It was a stock sound effect he'd heard countless times, accompanied by a hiss, only this time there was no hiss, and the rattle sound was right in his ear, like it had snuck up on him deliberately and whispered, with deathly gravity, "I'm gonna kill you." It almost hurt to have such a trebly sound so close to his ear (a fleeting thought of Ken Danielson, bleeding out with his earplugs in, crossed his mind because of the association - would he ever lead a normal life if he got out of here with memories dogging him like that?), and Benny tensed up from fear. Trying to accept death had, ironically, gotten him killed, and it was best if he just kept still and awaited the inevitable-
A brainwave struck. The snake was to one side of him; the rave was on the other. Couldn't he just roll into the grave? If it worked, he'd be in the clear, if not, he'd already be halfway to buried properly. It wouldn't be nice to steal Martha's grave, though. Party foul.
Benny took the opportunity before he even had time to think much about it. Somewhere in his head, the Indiana Jones theme played, and it was appropriate. The roll took about half a rotation more than he had expected, and the sensation of freefall lasted a split second longer than he had planned before he landed with a dusty thud on his side. He hoped his left arm wasn't injured, and he hoped the snake hadn't jumped in there with him.
From above, the sounds of violence sounded slightly muffled through the layers of hard packed dust. Benny hoped it wasn't trying to come after him or hurt any of them, but like a certain incident he wouldn't care to remember, he could do nothing but lie there and hope nobody got exploded bitten.
Finally, a victory cry. Well, maybe not a cry, more like an exhausted statement of fact. "I got him." It was Katie.
Benny sat up in the grave. It was hard, given the unprofessional quality of the work, and also because he felt like one wrong move and he'd be touching a corpse of indeterminate species. He surveyed the carnage, and thoroughly tired of his short stay, suggested, in the exact words of Cameo, "We should go." But not before adding, "...and maybe mop up the mess while we're here." Lame joke, but extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary punchlines, and Benny at least needed to lighten the mood a little.
((Benny Lightfield continued in Duck, You Sucker!))
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the handler Cash Money. While this handler hasn't been around in quite a while, should they return and wish to take custody of this account and/or its posts, they are welcome to do so by contacting staff.
((GMing of Cameo approved))
The snake twitched on the ground, its head semi-removed from its body. Even though it was dead, the mouth open and shut, as if it that was a way it could grasp onto the last few moments of life.
Katie panted from exhaustion, tears running down her face. The fight against the snake had given her a brief boost in adrenaline, making her more alert. But she got it. It was difficult, though.
What had happened was that after Benny got out of the way, falling into the ditch, the snake continued hissing. Katie ran forward, sharpened stone in hand. The snake had diverted its attention towards her, and in a panic she decided to attack it.
It was difficult, she had to admit. Several times she shouted in her panic. The snake had almost bitten her multiple times, lurching forward after posing to attack. The hissing had filled the air, and she distinctly remembered Jacqueline shouting a few times, but she couldn't make out what she was saying.
Eventually, though, she had stabbed it in the neck multiple times. It was definitely difficult to get to that point, and it squirmed as she gripped it by its neck and plunged the "knife" in. It worked surprisingly better than she realized.
So now she was staring at the partially beheaded snake, still twitching and flickering its tongue even in death.
With a bit more stabbing, the head came completely off within a minute. With that, she kicked it as far away as possible from the group.
She did it! She saved Benny by killing it! She didn't even know it was possible to kill a rattlesnake like that! Katie couldn't help but giggle to herself a bit, a small smile on her face.
Though... now that she thought of it, wouldn't it not attack them if she had just left it alone? And that sucked her out of the moment. She went through all that, all for nothing.
All to attack a scared animal. Not an evil one, a scared one.
Katie felt that depression come all over her again. She didn't need to do that, now that she was calming down a bit. She could have just gotten Benny away. Heck, he had gotten away fine. Was it really necessary? Was it really a good, intelligent thing to do.
She only had one thing to actually say.
"I got him", she said warily.
Benny emerged from the hole with some difficulty, and looked around, seeing the blood on the ground, the practically beheaded snake, and the blood all over her clothes.
A bit of silence, before Benny made the same request as Jacqueline to leave. She... she couldn't blame him. She wanted to get away from the dead bodies of her classmates as soon as possible. She just wanted to get away! She didn't want to be here.
She tried her best not to sob at the very thought. She was stuck here with a bunch of her classmates corpse and a dead snake. She didn't even want to kill a snake. She had just... panicked.
But they had to get out of here, now.
As Katie looked over the crime scene she had just created, she felt the distinct rumble in her stomach again. There was something kind of tasty about how the snake dripped fresh, warm blood all over the ground. Oh god, was she seriously thinking about somehow eating it? Sure, she had heard how some people had eaten rattlesnake, but seriously. Was she really that hungry?
Katie picked it up, the blood still dripping from its stump. Well, couldn't hurt to try.
This was how far she had gone. Killing a scared animal and planning to eat it afterwards. What's more, she had no idea if they could even cook it. But somehow, she was alright with the eating thing, or at least more so than the killing.
With a sigh, she slung it onto her shoulder, feeling the blood drip down. Turning to Jacqueline, she forced a smile, even if she didn't think it matched with what she felt. It probably didn't look so good; Katie knew she had dirt, grime and tears still pouring down it.
"Yum?"
Jacqueline did not have a happy look on her face. It was more roughly the look of "What the fuck is wrong with you?". Well, yeah. She had just witnessed her brutally killing a rattlesnake with her bare hands. This probably made their... alliance (for lack of a better word) a bit more awkward, didn't it?
Katie sighed again.
"Come on, let's go."
With that, without asking her she hooked Jacqueline's arm around her other shoulder, and they went off.
There was still plenty to do.
((Katie Tanaka and Cameo Conroy in Duck, You Sucker!))
The snake twitched on the ground, its head semi-removed from its body. Even though it was dead, the mouth open and shut, as if it that was a way it could grasp onto the last few moments of life.
Katie panted from exhaustion, tears running down her face. The fight against the snake had given her a brief boost in adrenaline, making her more alert. But she got it. It was difficult, though.
What had happened was that after Benny got out of the way, falling into the ditch, the snake continued hissing. Katie ran forward, sharpened stone in hand. The snake had diverted its attention towards her, and in a panic she decided to attack it.
It was difficult, she had to admit. Several times she shouted in her panic. The snake had almost bitten her multiple times, lurching forward after posing to attack. The hissing had filled the air, and she distinctly remembered Jacqueline shouting a few times, but she couldn't make out what she was saying.
Eventually, though, she had stabbed it in the neck multiple times. It was definitely difficult to get to that point, and it squirmed as she gripped it by its neck and plunged the "knife" in. It worked surprisingly better than she realized.
So now she was staring at the partially beheaded snake, still twitching and flickering its tongue even in death.
With a bit more stabbing, the head came completely off within a minute. With that, she kicked it as far away as possible from the group.
She did it! She saved Benny by killing it! She didn't even know it was possible to kill a rattlesnake like that! Katie couldn't help but giggle to herself a bit, a small smile on her face.
Though... now that she thought of it, wouldn't it not attack them if she had just left it alone? And that sucked her out of the moment. She went through all that, all for nothing.
All to attack a scared animal. Not an evil one, a scared one.
Katie felt that depression come all over her again. She didn't need to do that, now that she was calming down a bit. She could have just gotten Benny away. Heck, he had gotten away fine. Was it really necessary? Was it really a good, intelligent thing to do.
She only had one thing to actually say.
"I got him", she said warily.
Benny emerged from the hole with some difficulty, and looked around, seeing the blood on the ground, the practically beheaded snake, and the blood all over her clothes.
A bit of silence, before Benny made the same request as Jacqueline to leave. She... she couldn't blame him. She wanted to get away from the dead bodies of her classmates as soon as possible. She just wanted to get away! She didn't want to be here.
She tried her best not to sob at the very thought. She was stuck here with a bunch of her classmates corpse and a dead snake. She didn't even want to kill a snake. She had just... panicked.
But they had to get out of here, now.
As Katie looked over the crime scene she had just created, she felt the distinct rumble in her stomach again. There was something kind of tasty about how the snake dripped fresh, warm blood all over the ground. Oh god, was she seriously thinking about somehow eating it? Sure, she had heard how some people had eaten rattlesnake, but seriously. Was she really that hungry?
Katie picked it up, the blood still dripping from its stump. Well, couldn't hurt to try.
This was how far she had gone. Killing a scared animal and planning to eat it afterwards. What's more, she had no idea if they could even cook it. But somehow, she was alright with the eating thing, or at least more so than the killing.
With a sigh, she slung it onto her shoulder, feeling the blood drip down. Turning to Jacqueline, she forced a smile, even if she didn't think it matched with what she felt. It probably didn't look so good; Katie knew she had dirt, grime and tears still pouring down it.
"Yum?"
Jacqueline did not have a happy look on her face. It was more roughly the look of "What the fuck is wrong with you?". Well, yeah. She had just witnessed her brutally killing a rattlesnake with her bare hands. This probably made their... alliance (for lack of a better word) a bit more awkward, didn't it?
Katie sighed again.
"Come on, let's go."
With that, without asking her she hooked Jacqueline's arm around her other shoulder, and they went off.
There was still plenty to do.
((Katie Tanaka and Cameo Conroy in Duck, You Sucker!))