Shapeless in the Dark Again

[MurderWeasel]

((Jewel Evans continued from TV2: The Third Announcement))

Despite it having been her intention from the first, Jewel felt a little guilt and regret over missing her own party. Evening was impending, and with it a drop in temperature likely to force her indoors, and so she was occupying herself with a walk through trees and shrubs, moving along the dirt hiking trail and paying little mind to anything but her surroundings. This attention was twofold: enjoyment of scenery and care for ambush or opportunity. The pistol rested in Jewel's hand, reloaded. Her palm stung less now, the bandages changed. Her hearing was not normal. It was close enough.

The dirt crunched beneath her feet and she wondered how many of them were left and how many were searching for her and how many still clung to the most common form of resistance, that stubborn insistence that they would be nobody's entertainment. A breeze tickled at her and made her shiver, and the corners of her lips perked up. This part of the resort was pretty, even in its artificiality; clearly the path was made to showcase the best elements of the wild without challenging or upsetting any guests for whom such things were unusual.

After a few minutes more, Jewel turned off the beaten dirt, heading into the trees. She wove between them, keeping track in her head of the relative distance and direction of the buildings she'd abandoned, keeping her senses peeled. It could be hard to focus on focusing. Fatigue nipped at her, not tiredness per se but rather the fatigue of having fought for the first time in her life. Her arms ached, and the burn on her midriff stung, and she found a large tree to lean against, shielded from view from the path.

For a few seconds, Jewel closed her eyes and looked at the blackness she found there. She turned her attention inwards and then outwards, listening to the sounds of the world. Wind whistling through the trees, making her shiver. Birds chirping, some distance away because they'd taken flight before her approach. Was that gunfire?

She opened her eyes again and squatted down at the base of the tree, resting for a moment.

[MurderWeasel]

The moment passed.

Around her on all sides, nothing happened. Jewel's legs tingled with immobility, so she stood and rolled her shoulders as the corners of her lips lifted. The breeze raised goosebumps up her arms and down her back and she did not shiver this time but rather hugged herself, arms rubbing against bare skin between shirt and skirt, pulling the lab coat closer around her. The sounds that might have been gunfire had ceased in reality, but her mind conjured echoes and ripples around her now, and those brought the ringing and buzzing back to her, and her smile died.

There was nothing here for her except a little beauty. It was getting colder. Soon it would be too dark to see.

Jewel turned and followed that mental compass she'd kept so clear even while resting, back towards where all the others were waiting for her.

((Jewel Evans continued in But It Always Feels the Same))