The Wonders of Memory

[T-Fox*]

((Raymond Pietrowski continued from A Whisper in the Wind))

((Danger Zone post cleared by Hallucinogenic due to away posting. Set before the announcement.))

Again, the cable car had come and gone long ago. The first thing he had done once he got to the mountaintop which held the broken and destroyed equipment was sit. Sit in the same place this all started two days ago. And he closed his eyes, just thinking. Replaying the past two days in his head, moment for moment... for bloody moment. Mainly he dwelled on Kiera's passing. What could he have done differently? He was at fault... He hadn't killed the girl when he had the chance. He hadn't saved her.

If this was a story, it would all come to a climactic battle between Ray and Taryn for revenge.

This wasn't a story though. And he was probably going to die. He couldn't leave everyone back home hanging, not knowing what had happened. Some cast aways wrote messages in a bottle. But he had no paper, no pen. He just had the bottle.

Not practical, but it was something to keep his mind off of the pain.

And as the gears turned and the sun went down, an idea slowly formed in his mind. There was still a roll of gauze in his first aid kit, and that shit soaked up blood really, really well.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this wouldn't work. But he still pulled out his empty water bottle, his first aid kit, and his knife. He clenched his teeth, and pricked a small hole in his finger. No massive crystal of blood. That was a start. Suicide by super power wouldn't have exactly been the best thing in the world to accomplish here.

Hell, even if he did win... "win"... they probably wouldn't let him go home anyways. He was probably a freak of nature, just like every other kid on this island. The only people who felt his pain, the only people in the world he could relate to, and they were killing each other off. How ridiculous it was.

Either way.

With fresh blood flowing from his finger, he began to write in large, mis-shaped letters.

"Trav, You wouldn't believe what happened to me if I tried to tell you. Just know I'm pulling for you. Graduate, move on with your life, and don't forget me. Ray."

Thank got the Gauze was long. The pair of medical scizors didn't like to do their job, but eventually he got the thing cut free. On the back, he scrawled five letters. "LHSCT"

With that, the gauze was jammed into the now dry bottle, having been left open for the two hours it took him to come up with what to say. He only had one shot after all. Better make it right. Best to not explain all the crazy. Make it believable for him if it ever got to him.

It would never get to him, would it?

A cap on the bottle. A casting into the river that flowed to the mountain's west. Hoping for the right waters. And there he sat, just thinking. Before he knew it, the sun was up, and that bitch was talking to him again. An entire day wasted, just getting over his damn self.

Unfortunately he'd have to move. The Radio Tower was a danger zone now. God, were these people following him around? Every single place he wanted to be would blow him up.

He shook his head. Time to do what he came to do.

He stood, and walked towards that door. Closer... It seemed like he would never close the gap. But he did. A quick glance, the cable car was just starting up. He probably had five minutes. Slipping in the door, he forced back the tears as he looked on the ground where he had first met that cute Boston girl. She was even close enough that they could have hung out if they'd gotten away.

There was no way he was getting away.

He just stared at the spot, contemplating letting the explosion take his life. He couldn't though. He had to try and get home.

Spinning on his heel, he made the cable car just in time to slip off to parts unknown to breathe his dying breath.

((Raymond Pietrowski Jr. continued in The Second Kill is the Hardest))

Little did Ray know once he had left, but that piece of paper he had lost when he first woke up was stuck right to the control panel, not five feet from him. "STONE TRANSFORMATION".

Maybe that would have helped on his journey, maybe it wouldn't have. He would never know. Sitting there, almost like a ward, warning people as to the pain that had occurred here in the name of mad science.