Snake in the Grass

[Iceblock]

((Samuel Wilson continued from Water Under the Bridge))

They hadn't found Delilah.

Sam supposed it had been too much to expect, heading off in her general direction without any clue at all where she had been going. She could have doubled back and evaded them, for all he knew.

He'd had stopped his run a couple times, shouted her name into the empty air. Hadn't really worked either. Just made him feel foolish. It wasn't as if she'd respond, either way.

She'd told them to stay away.

As for Clair, she'd been following him. He wasn't sure if it was because there was no feasible alternative, or maybe she was trying to find Delilah as well. It would make sense. She was Delilah's friend. That was why he was giving her the benefit of the doubt, despite what he'd heard about her in the past.

He'd seen the town in the distance, but he had changed course to avoid it. That was where Delilah thought he'd go. She'd avoid that place, and them.

It was hard, looking for someone that didn't want to be found.

Now, he weighed Delilah's bag in his hands, staring off into the expanse of cactus that lay before him. The grass and greenery looked a little inviting. The cacti didn't. She could be in there, though.

"This is a sight..." He looked back, towards Clair. "Looks rough to cross. Think she's in there?"

[CondorTalon]

((Clair Belvedere continued from Water Under The Bridge.))

Clair had been silent the entire time they had walked over to the cactus patch. To be fair, there really wasn't much to say. They'd been looking for Delilah, and Sam had called out a couple of times. No luck.

She'd followed behind Sam, because there was really nothing else to do. Besides they had a common goal, and Clair had supposed it was better to stick together.

But, as they came to the cactus patch, there was still no sign of Delilah. Clair was tired, she'd spent the majority of her time here walking with a heavy bag on her back.

"This is a sight... looks rough to cross. Think she's in there?"

Clair thought for a moment. True, Delilah ran off like she didn't have a destination in mind, and she might have come here randomly, but it also a stretch to say that she chose this location.

"I don't know," she said simply. She had to sit down.

"What do we do now?"

[Iceblock]

Sam rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion finally catching up. How long had he been running? An hour? Seemed impossible. Seemed irrelevant. The burning in his muscles told him nothing, just that the bruises weren't healed. They probably wouldn't until a few days later. He didn't have the luxury to wait.

"We keep looking." He shifted the weight of Delilah's bag over to his left hand, rested it on the ground. "We find other people. We convince them that there's got to be a way to get out of here. With so many people working together, we'll figure out a way."

He was surprised at how hoarse his voice was, how tired he sounded. He cleared his throat, looked at Clair again. She was sitting. She was probably as tired as he was.

"But, uh, maybe if we can't find her, she'll find us." A ridiculous hope if he had ever heard of one, but maybe Delilah would reconsider whatever it was that had led her to leave them. Maybe she'd thought she was a threat to them, or them to her. Sam couldn't quite figure it out. He'd have to ask her, if- no, when they met again.

Sam finally gave in to his body's demands, and sat, a little ways from Clair, not quite facing her, but enough so that he could watch her out of the corners of his vision. His eyes scanned the distant horizon, and eventually lit upon a particular cactus, one that seemed broken apart. He wondered if lightning had struck here, far in the past. He looked up, but there was nothing but a cloudless sky.

[CondorTalon]

"We keep looking." Sam declared. "We find other people. We convince them that there's got to be a way to get out of here. With so many people working together, we'll figure out a way."

Clair shifted her legs, crossing them. "Do you really think so? I mean..." She thought back to the scene on the bridge. She never imagined Delilah would do something like that. Even if... and what about people who weren't as... delicate as she was? What if no one wanted to go with the plan? Clair didn't want to think about anyone who was playing. If they stumbled on someone like that...

"But, uh, maybe if we can't find her, she'll find us," Sam said, before sitting down a bit away from her.

Jesus Christ, it was fucking hot. Clair took off her hoodie, tying it around her waist as best she could, considering she was sitting down. She stared out at the cactus patch wordlessly. It was a few minutes later that Clair suddenly realized that two people sitting unarmed in the middle of nowhere might not be the safest idea. She stood up, her legs still aching from the running and walking she did previously.

"I don't suppose you have... something to defend yourself with?" The words had barely left her mouth when she realized what a stupid question that was. Of course he didn't. If he did, that whole scene at the river wouldn't have happened. Maybe if...

"I mean... uh, sorry about that."

[Iceblock]

Sam shot a look at Clair as she stood up. She seemed restless. Or maybe just worried. Yeah, that had to be it. He was worried too, about Delilah, what she might have gotten herself into by now, wherever she'd gone. Clair also seemed to have doubts about his plan, ones that she didn't voice.

"Nah, all I got was maple syrup. What're you apologizing for?" He raised an eyebrow. "You weren't the one stopping a train and handing us all weapons to go kill each other."

Kill each other. That's what Delilah had done to Richard. That was what they were all supposed to do. He realized it didn't really matter if the game, the collars were real or not. Didn't matter if there was any actual enforcement coming from those cowboy terrorists. It was a psychological game. They hadn't even proposed any rewards for killing everyone else, just threatened death upon those who didn't start killing.

Richard, he thought, had given into that mindset. Everyone for themselves. Delilah had just made it worse, but he didn't really blame her. She'd been afraid. But Richard was still dead.

He didn't really want to dwell on it. He blew out a breath, shifted slightly, then got up as well. Time to keep looking, no matter how tired he was. Couldn't leave everything to chance.

"What do you say we head over there?" Sam pointed towards the broken cactus. "Looks as good a place as any."

[CondorTalon]

"Sure," Clair replied, looking over at the general direction Sam was pointing at. She noticed the broken cactus, and noted that someone must have struck it with great force. She decided to get a closer look. Carefully she made her way over there, being careful not to trip or fall. She came close, taking in the cactus, before turning back to Sam.

"What do you think happened?" she asked, before looking back at the cactus. It looked like someone had struck it, probably with somehing heavy. She brought her finger close to the cactus, then pulled it away when a spine poked her finger. She looked around her, and recalled what Sam had said earlier, when they had first come upon the cactus patch.

"This is a sight..."

Clair agreed. It truly was.

She then remembered why they were here in the first place. They were here to look for...

"Delilah!" she called out, and waited. No reply.

She tried again, louder this time.

"Delilah!!"

Still nothing.

She turned back to Sam.

"Nothing. She's not here," she said sadly, "or she's avoiding us... I don't know what's worse."

She looked down at the ground dejectedly.

[Iceblock]

Sam watched as Clair touched the cactus, then drew back.

"I was going to say lightning, but..." His eyes flickered over the cactus. "Doesn't look like it. Maybe someone from our class woke up here, let out their frustrations." The wound to the cactus looked fresh enough for that to be a possibility.

Either way, it wouldn't be Delilah. She had a sabre. Nothing that could cause this sort of blunt impact damage. Nothing that would split the cactus like that.

Clair was calling out to Delilah, like Sam had done while he had been running. Sam didn't expect much, and they didn't get much response. Delilah was probably avoiding them, and Clair pointed out that might be a possibility. At least Sam knew they were both on the same page now, both friends (acquaintances?) of Delilah, looking for her.

Sam nodded slightly, still looking at the cactus. "She told us to stay away. Reckon she'll change her mind, hopefully, but... all we can do is keep looking." He glanced over at Clair, took in her expression. "Hey. Clair. I'm sure she'll be fine."

It was kind of a lie, but one that he hoped would hold true. Besides, comforting Clair helped ease his own frustrations, his own misgivings about the whole situation. Distractions, and a goal. It was what he needed at the moment.

[CondorTalon]

"She told us to stay away. Reckon she'll change her mind, hopefully, but... all we can do is keep looking."

She supposed he was right. But it didn't change the fact that they hadn't found her yet, and that they probably wouldn't for a long time.

"Hey. Clair. I'm sure she'll be fine."

"I hope you're right... but where do we go now?" Clair asked.

She honestly didn't know. Sam had avoided going to the town, so he probably thought she wouldn't be there. But then where would she be? Should they just walk around randomly and hope to find her? There had to be a better way than that, right?

[Iceblock]

Sam thought about it for a second. Where would they go?

In truth, it was a decision not on where he was going to look, but on what he was looking for.

Finding Delilah, or finding others? Sam knew where the others would probably be. The town was safety. The town was where people would gather. There'd be supplies there, he thought. However, he'd already established that Delilah would probably avoid the town. She knew that was where he'd been planning to go from the start.

Or maybe, he could find a compromise.

He blew out a slow breath out of the corner of his mouth.

"The mines." Sam wiped a hand across his dry, chapped lips. He was saving the water bottles in his pack for later. But he'd probably need them soon. Rationing. He should have filled the bottles at the river. "I met her at the mines. Better than wandering. Maybe she's back there." He doubted it, didn't think she would go back to the dark, dusty confines of the tunnels. It was better than the town, though. At least this way, they still had a chance of fulfilling both goals, finding both Delilah and other people at the same time.

He'd made a decision. He hoped it was the right one. It put off the actual decision about what he was looking for; maybe soon he'd have to decide. He had a sneaking feeling that that was going to be the case.

[CondorTalon]

Sam had said that they should head to the mines. The mines? Clair thought for a second. If Sam had said that he met Delilah there, then there was a chance that she'd be there, right? Clair really hoped so. She took a look around, finding her bag off the side of the patch, where she had left it before she had walked through. She made her way back over there, opening up her bag and pulling out the map. She carefully examined the map and gathered her bearings, before shouldering her bag.

Then, she looked over at Sam.

"Um..." she started, but nothing came out of her mouth. She wanted to thank him, for staying around. Clair had just been abandoned by two potential allies within the first day. She was glad Sam was around, even if they didn't talk much. It was nice to have someone around to keep her company, someone who did shrink away or flinch at every action she did.

But then, nothing came out of her mouth, and she simply started walking, map in hand.

They'd find her.

Clair would find her.

((Clair Belvedere continued in Into The Earth.))

[Iceblock]

Clair looked at her map, then at him, and seemed about to say something. Then, she didn't, and she started leaving.

Sam raised an eyebrow.

To tell the truth, he still didn't quite know what to think about Clair. True, he'd heard the rumors that she'd been kind of a jerk before they all got landed in this desert. He hadn't really associated with her before; her name, her face, her reputation - that was about all he had known. She seemed nice enough now, though.

Maybe the desert changed people.

He thought of Richard.

Maybe it didn't. Maybe it just changed people into corpses.

So he'd reserved judgment on Clair, decided she was a negligible threat because she was being relatively passive, because she was Delilah's friend. He couldn't afford to do so from now on, with the others they met. Especially if - no, when - they gathered a group to get out of this place. There'd be a lot of people, a lot of variables. It didn't matter if the game was real or not; it just mattered if other people decided it was real, and they very well could.

He had to treat everyone as a potential traitor.

It was a grim thought, and one that he wasn't sure was completely justified. Maybe Richard was the only one dead. Maybe he just didn't have enough trust in his classmates.

Sam doubted it.

Clair was getting ahead. He hurried to catch up.

((Samuel Wilson continued in Into The Earth))