Follow Me, Don't Follow Me

[Macha*]

[April Stone, continued from Save Yourself, Serve Yourself.]

The tears had stopped by the time April stopped walking, but her eyes were now red, sore, stinging. She had been walking for what felt like hours, but how long it actually took for her to walk to wherever she was- it certainly wasn’t the Ski Resort, but whatever- was anyone’s guess. She had tried, at first, to keep track of time by humming songs, but had found herself quickly getting out of breath, so that idea had gone out of the window pretty quickly.

The walk hadn’t done what she had hoped it would, either. She was still confused, still trying to piece together not only what had happened to turn Zach into a killer and Jeanie into an unstable sociopath, but just trying to figure out what was going on with her school. That anyone from her school, let alone her classes, would kill anyone was just… ridiculous. But it was happening. Slowly, her school- and the Detroit school- were turning into killers. She was probably changing too, wasn’t she? She’d never notice it if she was, right? April stared up at a camera. Did she really want her family to watch her be changed by the island?

What would they remember her as?

April stared at the bandanna tied around her leg. Really, her life was in the hands of that sheet of fabric right now, wasn’t it? If she wanted out, all she had to do was untie it and she’d be out of the game- dead, but out of the game nonetheless. April wasn’t going to lie, here. She honestly considered it for a moment.

No.

She wasn’t going to do that. She was going to stay strong, if not for her own sake then for Peter and Jeanette’s. They didn’t need to hear her name on the announcements. Especially not Peter. Jeanette would cope, eventually, adapt, and probably have a chance of getting out. Peter wouldn’t. That’s why she needed to find him, soon. Then they could figure something out. Escape hadn’t happened in a few seasons, but that just made it all the more likely, right?

There. She had something to cling to, even if she didn’t have any idea where to start. Frankly, she wasn’t even sure she was smart enough to think of a way out. But, if she found someone who did, or could, then she- they- would have a chance of escaping.

“Well,” There was no one around. She was just talking to the camera. She’d finally lost it. She had a lot she was going to say, really. She had a lot to say to her parents, anyone at home watching, everyone, really. But would this even make air? By the time the rest of her speech came to her mind, it was down to one word.“Fuck.”

Wiping the stains from her cheeks, April closed her eyes and tried to get composure back. She wasn’t going to be able to keep it together forever, but she could at least put on a brave face for now.

In front of her, the forest sprawled out, dark, ominous and probably filled with about forty different kinds of things they’d thrown in specifically to kill anyone who walked in alone. Whether the others had followed her or not, April didn’t want to risk it. If her team didn’t come, she would wait until someone else did, or try and figure out where the Resort was. She’d think of something.

But for now, she could at least maintain the hope that her teammates had followed her, that they’d find Peter, and that they would figure something out. That was a stretch, but April kept it in her mind. It stopped her thinking about everything else at least.

Until then, April turned around, sat down, crossed her legs and hoped they’d notice her when they came.

[Cake]

A voice echoes quietly from April's collar...

"Not a good idea to just wander off alone like that. You and the other two brown team girls are the last three of the team left. It's best to stick with them. As for the two from red team, use the trust they have in you to get what you want from them. Their weapons for example."

[Casey The Undead*]

((Brenda Hernandez, continued from Save Yourself, Serve Yourself))

By the time Brenda had caught up with April, her entire body was achy, and she was thirsty and sweaty, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and take a long hot bath, but none of that mattered to her at all. Somewhere along the trek that took them to...somewhere- a forest, certainly not the Ski Resort, not that that mattered very much- Brenda had decided that the voice in her collar was right. April was her teammate, and she'd wandered off on her own, and Brenda knew that if April died Brenda would never forgive herself.

For a moment she wondered why she was so attached to someone she didn't even know, but she decided not to dwell on it. April, in some, small way, depended on Brenda. They were teammates. It was Brenda's job to get April off of the island.

Brenda searched for a moment before spotting April, who looked very tiny sitting alone on the forest floor. A slice of panic shot through Brenda. She had no idea why April was even upset, she had no way of comforting her, how was she supposed to help?

She thought of April sitting on the beach with her, and of her and April hugging Jhamel, even though he wasn't on their team. She didn't need to know why April was upset. She just needed to help.

Brenda sat next to April, not saying a word as she did so. The silence was nice, and comforting in a weird way. Brenda let several moments pass before doing anything.

Slowly, she put an arm around April's shoulders, and hugged her loosely. Brenda had a vague memory of her eldest brother doing the same thing to her when she was little.

"You should know, Sinsonte, that I'm going to get you home. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to get you home. I swear to you." Brenda was whispering, and she felt as if she was on the verge of tears.

There had to be a reason for being put on this island. There had to be a purpose.

If getting April home was her purpose, then Brenda was damn well going to do it, and there wasn't a person alive or dead who could stop her.

[Carrion Queen]

((Jeanette Buendia continued from Save Yourself, Serve Yourself ))

Jeanette's shoes pounded into the semi-hardened dirt of the forest floor. She kept a pace up, almost to the same tempo as the beating of her heart. She'd gone the wrong way a few times, ended up in circles, got turned around and had to keep going the way she thought she'd seen April go. The trees flew by, unflinching and hiding. She hadn't happened upon another soul in the forest.

Her knife was at the ready, a frantic hunter if she needed to be. If anyone found her who wasn't named after a month, she had already steeled herself to fight and kill. Jeanette was pretty, showy, and ruthless. She was a perfect product for the Survival of the Fittest television. Not a better entertainer could have been chosen if they'd called a casting for it. She was someone who would gut others with a pocket knife to make it out and after it was done, she could smile and sell lunch boxes and t-shirts on television.

She didn't dare call out to April. That would tell other people there was someone around and someone who was distracted by searching. Finally she found some foot prints in the dirt. Jeanette slowed to a trot, then a walk. The sound of voices weaved around the trees to her.

She swallowed and licked her lips. It hadn't occurred to her until now that she was thirsty. She bit her lip and wiped back a few wisps of hair that were affecting her peripheral vision. A few more steps in and she saw April and Brenda.

"April, you dumb coke whore," she said lightly. She tried to say it smoothly, but her searching and panic showed through. Her voice warbled. That wasn't the little star the network was banking on.

Smile wider, baby. You're gonna make 'em a million.

[Macha*]

She tried to block out the voice from her collar, chastising her and telling her that half her team was dead, and that the only way to succeed was to use the Red Team- use Jhamel and Jeanette. April had her reasons for walking away, and she wasn’t in the mood to discuss them with her neck, or betray the person who had just saved them from …Zach, or her best friend. She wouldn’t just up and do that. She wasn’t that kind of person.

Wait.

She’d walked off, on her own, assuming they would follow. At the beginning, they had.

How long had it been since she had seen them?

She pulled her legs to her chest, panic beginning to set in. How long had it been since she had seen the others? April assumed they were following her at the start, but as time went on she was beginning to get distant, and the realisation was beginning to set in that she might have been lost.

Her heart started to pound as her eyes darted frantically. Where were they? She couldn’t call out for them- she had no idea what was in the forest, but screaming wouldn’t help one bit. The panic turned into relief when Brenda appeared, but the sadness still remained. Brenda sat down, next to her, in silence, and that was how they stayed for a while.

Then, a warm arm wrapped around April, followed by a whisper, and one of April’s sincerest smiles. Picture perfect scene for the folks at home, right? April decided that she needed to stop caring about the people at home. It was only going to end badly. What mattered was on the island, not at home, and that was what she needed to think about. Even if her parents, even if her brother was watching.

But then someone else came. Jeanette. April thought the second person would be Jhamel, honestly. Not the hula dancer standing in front of her, calling her a dumb coke whore. She hadn’t left to carry out her plan to kill everyone not April or Peter, but there was still this worry in the back of her mind. They just had to talk this through. Get back on the same page. April moved Brenda’s arm off of her.

“Back in a sec,” she muttered to Brenda, scrambling to her feet, grabbing Jeanie, and pulling her just out of earshot.

“Jeanette, what are you playing at?” She shook her head, and exhaled sharply. She was starting to shake, but the words came out just as she wanted them to. “What the hell is your problem?”

[Carrion Queen]

"I already told you what I'm doing," she said in a tone much quieter and much harsher than she'd used since waking up on the island.

"I'm trying to save us the only way I know how. I suggest you get start thinking about survival or I'm not going to be able to get us both through this. Peter's dead. Now it's just you and me. Now put on a smile for the cameras," she said forcing the corners of April's mouth up, "and stop being irrational. Stay with your group and I'll get myself out and we'll be home hawking plushies of ourselves in no time."


Her hands moved from her hips to a crossed position in front of her. The girls were staring each other down. Jeanette only wanted to help. Her plan to kill ten people and leave April's team was all she could think to do.

[T-Fox*]

((Jhamel Thompson continued from Save Yourself, Serve Yourself.))

"Oh thank fucking Christ, there they are." an anxious, frustrated voice made itself known, the sound flying through the forest; hopefully to the ears of those just before him. He had been more than a little surprised when he had awoken to his allies all seeming to depart from the beach on which they had hunkered down in the night before, and unfortunately his brand new bruise wasn't doing his speed any favors. Every so often as the quintet trekked across the sprawling meadow that seemed to make up three-quarters of the land mass of this forsaken island, his vision blurred before him. Even without these dizzy spells, he already found himself falling behind, and eventually it proved to be just too much. One, two, three, four little figures, one by one, disappeared over the horizon, and with them so did Jhamel's ability to care. The five, when they had left the first beach they woke up on, traveled quite literally in a straight line across the land. Somehow he doubted they would do anything different.

This dizzy spell didn't seem to just be fading like the rest. His bag fell to the ground with a plop, and if one didn't know better, they could say that Jhamel did too. His knees struck the ground as he let his legs go limp, instantly tearing into the pack and retrieving a bottle of water. A dry, cracked hand slid to his scalp, fingers wrapping around the red fabric that had adorned it. The sweat had dried, and for some reason no more seemed to want to form. Oh what he wouldn't give to be cool right now.

The bandanna slid from his head, and accompanying it was a shrill, unpleasant beep coming right from his neck.

"Oh fuck you. Give a nigga a break."

Quite a bit more of the precious water than really should have been used poured from the open lip of the bottle, staining the already crimson sheet a deeper red. As the beeping seemed to become more intense, the accessory became deeper and deeper, almost a maroon. The beeping reached a crescendo, and without tempting fate for another moment, the fabric was whisked back onto his head in a single motion. The relief that the breeze suddenly afforded him caused him to fall flat on his ass, raising the still open bottle to his lips and swallowing the contents with alarming speed. The piece of now useless plastic was discarded, bouncing off of a nearby bench which had escaped his notice, coming to rest not a foot away from a small trash container. The irony didn't even dawn on him.

He glanced back over his shoulder, noting the single set of footprints which had been caused by the group's travel. They were only behind him, not in front. This should have raised alarm to his ability to find balance; yet instead he just played connect the dots. The last dot was just to continue the straight line. And again he continued.

---

Thankfully, his gamble had paid off, and through the thicket of trees were three indistinct figures, each step and bob of his head obscuring and revealing random parts of the forms. However, what other people would be stupid enough to form such a large group? The fourth had to be behind them, and frankly, he could have sworn he'd seen a flash of red on a girl's arm; perfect. That was Jeanette. That was them. Now all he had to do was catch up and figure out what the plan was from he-

Wait. April... Jeanette... Brenda...

"...Where in the fuck is Eloise?" He doubled over, resting his hands on his knees as he panted, finally coming to rest in the same clearing as the other three. Only three. That was bad. Someone was missing, and he knew for a fact that he didn't pass anyone on the way.

"I was bringing up the rear, and I didn't seen no sign of the girl. Where in the fuck did she get off to?"

As he looked back up, he could quite easily see that he was being ignored, and that there were much, much bigger fish to fry. Jeanette was doing some seriously strange shit, like stranger than she was doing earlier, which was seriously saying something. Jhamel could barley process what her posture could possibly be conveying, and he just stared on, dumbfounded, not saying a word. This had to be some weird ass dynamic that the two had. Jeanette was a weird bitch, why in the hell was this making him so jumpy? There was no reason for it. Either way though, even if what Jeanette was doing was somewhere in the realm of normal for what he had seen, what she was saying wasn't. What she was saying was cold. And her comment about the camera was... Just out of left field. Her knife was present; why couldn't he piece together what in the fuck was happening in front of him? His hand raised to the welt on his forehead where the wrench had struck him.

Oh god everything was fucking swimming.

[Macha*]

April took a deep breath. She had a lot to get off her chest, and knowing Jeanette she only had a short time to try and change her mind. She started to speak, but trailed off after a couple of words. She coughed quietly, collected her thoughts, and started over.

“Jeanette,” She began. “This isn’t saving us. This is killing your friends. Please, don’t do this. Not for Peter, not for me, not for anyone.”

She paused, collecting her thoughts. She was doing well, but she had to keep going.

“You’ve done nothing on this island but play to the cameras, Jeanie. I mean, look at yourself.” April pointed at the hula skirt. “That isn’t you, is it? Whoring across the island dressed as a hula girl?”

April realised then that she hadn’t even looked to see what was in her bag. Whatever, it didn’t matter much anyway. It wouldn’t help her now.

“The thing is, you’ve spent so long playing to the damn cameras that I don’t think you’ve even realised what you’re doing, Jeanette. You’re talking about killing people. Our classmates. You said it yourself, Peter’s dead. Do you really need to add to the trail of bodies?”

April took a step backwards. Her heart started to pound. Keep it up, girl, you’re doing good. She blinked away some forming tears and continued.

“Jeanie, you’ve spent so long playing to the cameras, but have you even thought once about your family in all of this? Your brother’s back at home, just turned 9, right? You invited me and Peter over for his birthday. Does he really need to grow up to find out that his older sister ended up a murderer? What about your dad? You don’t think his daughter killing half the Junior year wont cause a shitstorm for him?”

She wiped a stray tear from her eye. This was getting hard. But she had to finish this, she had to at least try, or she wouldn’t be able to live with herself- if she even lived.

“Listen, Jeanie.” She sighed. “If you’re still committed to this plan, then by all means, go and carve your way through all our friends, or Brenda and Jhamel’s friends, I don’t care. You wont have to go through me, or anything. Just go, I wont even stand in your way.”

“But please,” She took another step back, placed her hand on Jeanie’s arm. “Don’t ever say you’re doing this for me.”

She stood, for a moment, and waited for Jeanette’s response.

[Carrion Queen]

Jeanette looked at April as she spoke, fists pulled away from the other girl, clenched into tight balls near her side. Her pretty face was flushed red and she shook slightly, bringing to light how tiny she was for once.

April pointed to her. Jeanette looked down and saw the hula outfit she'd found in her bag and the knife in her hand. Her hand loosened and the knife dropped.

"But I..." the fierceness now dampened.

She dressed in the clothes they wanted her to dress in. She was loud and silly and ruthless and she smiled like they wanted her to. She was entertaining and sexy. Jeanette realized she'd become a perfect cog for Survival of the Fittest from the moment she'd woken up. Never once did she question the machine.

But her little brother had.

Jeanette looked at the ground, glaze eyed, for a moment before looking back up at April. She reached down to her bag and threw her old shirt on and then slipped her old skirt on. Jeanette grabbed April's face and kissed her.

"I'll show them my way and you show them yours," she whispered.

She turned and ran.

((Jeanette Buendia continued in Girls on Film ))

[T-Fox*]

His teammat- no, his friend had just spun on her heel and ran. Ran far, away into the thick of the woods.

"Jeanette, Wait!"

The words were far too little, far too late. What do you even do when someone runs away; possibly for th last time? Sure, he could be thinking of this in logistics. He was all alone on his team now. But fuck, who cared about that? Being in a gang wasn't arbitrarily assigned, you picked the motherfuckers you wanted to roll with.

Jhamel wanted to roll with these girls, simple as that. And now Jeanette was long gone.

"A-April... What was that?" He couldn't think of any words to even describe, even begin to question. What had just happened had obviously not been good. It hadn't looked like a fight, but then... What was it? Jeanette seemed a little off kilter from the moment he found her, did she sn- no, stop thinking like that.

There had to be something he could say, something he could do, but there really wasn't anything that could ease the loss of a homie like that. Shit, he was still sore over Anthony, Devonte, Jazmine. Holy shit, even hearing that Mariva was dead had shot a pang through him. She was a constant; if annoying presence around Detroit. Now they were all gone. All the real bangers were going fast. Jeanette was a real banger, he'd said so earlier that week, hadn't he?

Fuck no, that didn't mean what he thought it meant. Besides, Marcus was still running around out there somewhere, right? T-They'd all be just fine. Jeanette would do whatever-the-fuck she had to do and then they'd all get to have a big happy reunion.

Who was he kidding? The streets of Detroit didn't work that way, and SotF Version 65 was a massive simulation of that. Some of the shit he had heard on the announcements was more than enough to cement that. His focus fell to the pistol tucked into the elastic waistband of his bright red shorts. That really was what it was, wasn't it? So ironic then, that he'd fall into the game, that he of all people would end up on the red team.

And with that incredibly selfish thought, his eyes turned back to April. She... didn't look like she was in the best place right now; but what do you say to someone who just watched their life long friend run off into the woods, possibly never to return?

"April, I..."

What? He'd failed his gang, his posse, his friends, his whateverthefuck they could be called. Should be called. Mr. General, what were they called again; an "alliance of convenience"? Hasn't gone well, has it. It was his job to protect them all. Jeanette was gone. Eloise was gone.

He could still save Brenda and April. He could still find the others. It didn't have to go down like this. He had the gun, he had the power. He'd seen it so many times before. Whoever had the gun held all of the chips in the game, with the exception of one or two sneaky bastards on occasion. Just don't get stupid with it. But he couldn't tell them it would all be alright. It wouldn't. They could find Jeanette, or they might not. They might find Eloise, or they might not. But... They had to try, right?

Fuck, he couldn't leave the conversation on that.

"She's going to be fine."

A bold faced lie. Something that he could not back up. Just something to raise morale, something to fill the silence. Something hollow, something that shouldn't be said.

[Casey The Undead*]

Jeanette was there and gone in a flash, and something horrible plunged deep into Brenda's stomach. Jeanette was running off, that was bad. That's what the collar had said. Don't let your teammates run off.

But Jeanette wasn't on her team, now was she?

No. But she was part of this makeshift thing that they had now, and that was close enough. Brenda stood up, brushing herself off, and turned to April and Jhamel. She was about to ask if they ought to go after Jeanette when Jhamel's earlier words registered in her mind.

"...Where in the fuck is Eloise?"

"...Shit."

Brenda didn't swear often. She never really found a need. Swearing was, she always thought, something that people who lacked refined vocabularies did. Sadly, she now realized that swearing was really more of something that people did when real words weren't quite enough. And "shit" really summed up the situation right now.

"Eloise is...I swear I saw her..." Brenda trailed off. That was a lie. The last time she'd seen Eloise was on the beach. Everyone else had shown up, but Eloise hadn't. "Maybe she's just late." Brenda didn't believe it. Jhamel said he was taking up the rear which meant that Eloise...

"Shit!"

Panic settled into Brenda's veins. This was not good. Eloise was gone, and Jeanette had run off, and how was April going to take this, and Karen Ruiz was a killer, and her friends were dying, people were dying, and what if Jeanette or Eloise ran into Karen, or what if-

Brenda tried to breathe, tried to calm herself down. She had to be strong. She had promised April she'd be strong.

Don't let your teammates wander off. Soon you won't have a team.

The realization didn't hit Brenda like a brick or a snowball. It didn't even really hit Brenda at all. Instead, it sunk into her mind, coursing through every nerve in her body, through all of her veins and muscles, going as slowly as possible into Brenda thought that she was going to choke on it.

I swear to you Sinsonte, I swear to you, I'm going to get you home, if it's the last thing I do, I swear to you Sinsonte...

She'd spoken too soon. She made a promise she couldn't keep.

"I don't know what to do." Brenda was whispering, terror settling inside her. She couldn't save them. She had a nerf gun! How could she save anyone?

She looked up at Jhamel, praying to God that he had the answer somewhere. But she could see in his eyes that he didn't believe what he'd said. They aren't going to be fine. No one is.

Brenda stared at him, whispering again. "I don't know what to do. What are we going to do?"

She'd spoken much too soon.

Some hero she was.

[Macha*]

Jeanette grabbed her and then she kissed her and then she ran. Even to the end, she didn’t explain herself. She had calmed down, but she still ran. Despite everything April had said, she was still going through with her plan.

That killed April inside. Knowing that despite her best efforts, Jeanette was gone. That tore her up, that after all the time they had known each other, that this could happen.

The others shouted, tried to stop her, but she was long gone. The last time, probably, any of them would ever see her again, and they were shouting at her to come back.

"A-April... What was that?"

“I…” She blinked, “I don’t know what that was.”

The truth, of course, but it was one that she was still unwilling to accept. It sunk down in her empty stomach and made her feel sick. The problem was, now, what she was going to do next. Jeanette was gone, Eloise was gone, and April was conflicted. Jeanette was, after all, her best friend, despite everything else, and no matter what April said, she had to make sure that she was okay. She’d failed with Peter, and she wasn’t going to let it happen to Jeanette too.

She’s going to be fine, Jhamel told her. That wasn’t true. April knew that. There was no way Jeanette was going to be fine, not in the state she was in.

April took a deep breath. Brenda and Jhamel had been good to her, yeah, but Jeanette took priority over two people she barely knew, no matter what color bandana they were wearing. If April ran fast enough, she could catch up with Jeanie. But she couldn’t leave it much longer or the chance would be gone.

“No.” April made sure she had all of her things. “No she isn’t. She’s not fine at all. I’m going after her.”

She started to walk off, but spun on her heels, turned back to face them, and paused. Either way, this was probably going to be the last chance she was going to get to talk to Brenda and Jhamel.

“…Thanks,” She said. “For everything, Brenda. You too, Jhamel.”

A smile.

"I..." She shook her head. "Good luck, you two."

She waved goodbye, turned around, and ran.

She knew with some degree of certainty that she wasn’t coming back.

[April Stone, continued in April Showers]

[Casey The Undead*]

Brenda stared after April. This wasn't the way thing were supposed to happen. This wasn't the way Brenda had pictured things.

Soon you won't have a team...

"Jhamel." Brenda heard her voice crack, but it didn't feel as if she'd even said those words to begin with. She felt completely separated from her body, like she was running on autopilot. She swallowed, trying to steady herself. "Jhamel, we can't let her leave. I can't let her leave."

Her voice was shaking. Everything was shaking. This was bad. Brenda had promised, not even five minutes ago, to keep April safe. And now where was she? Dashing off after Jeanette, to God knows where, doing God knows what?

Eloise, Jeanette, April. One by one. Soon you won't have a team...

"Jhamel we can't let her go!" Brenda's voice raised an octave. Her hands shook. She was screaming into empty space in front of her like a madwoman. She needed to gain control back. She needed to calm down. Slowly, she took three deep breaths.

"We're going after her. She's my teammate, we're going after her. We can't...we can't let her..."

A sob rose in Brenda's throat and she fought to keep it back. If April died then what kind of person was Brenda? She'd sworn to help as many people as possible, and all she'd done was chase off Eloise, Jeanette, and April. She couldn't stop Karen from killing. She needed to help someone, she'd promised. Wasn't this God's plan?

Brenda turned helplessly to Jhamel, wondering if he had any idea what he was doing. She had the sinking feeling that no one really knew what they were doing. She blinked back tears.

"I'm going to find her, and then we're going to find Jeanette and Eloise and...and..."

Brenda faintly recalled a conversation she'd once had with her brother, after her Grandmother had died. You know, Brenda, why people keep saying that to you? Because that's what adults say when they're lying. That's what adults say when they don't know what to do, and when they're scared. They're just as scared as you are, Brenda, but they don't want you to know that. That's what they say when they want to protect you.

"And everything's going to be fine."

Brenda took off after April, hoping that she wouldn't lose the girl somewhere in the forest.

((Brenda Hernandez, continued in It's Easier to Leave Than To Be Left Behind))

[T-Fox*]

This had all gone to shit, far faster than it should have. It was only the second day, people shouldn't be running off like this. It wasn't the smart thing to do, at all. You don't just leave your crew. Protection lied in numbers, especially when only one out of five had a weapon. Eloise was gone, that was bad enough as it was. April was leaving now too. She rejected his reassurance, and left on her own, regardless of the danger it posed. He couldn't blame her one bit. Jeanette was her friend before all this shit started. Of course friends from before were gonna come first.

“…Thanks, For everything, Brenda. You too, Jhamel.”

But she really thought there was a way they were gonna sit here and let her go off on their own. Let the two of them go off on their own. And thank whoever was out there watching right now, Brenda didn't seem to disagree with him one damned bit.

However, the shock of it all happening so fast was still definitely screwing with his mind. So much so that he just could not come to words as Brenda made her first cry. Nor her second. However, he pushed himself to stand. His eyes, unfocused and dull just a moment before seemed to catch the light in just a fashion that would almost make them appear to gleam with a new life that wasn't there just a moment before.

"We're going after her. She's my teammate, we're going after her. We can't...we can't let her..."

He put his hands on her shoulders, and looked square at her, his pupils boring into hers.

"Brenda, girl, relax. We ain't letting her get out there on her own. She's one of us, and hell if I'm lettin' anyone down."

"I'm going to find her, and then we're going to find Jeanette and Eloise and...and..."

"And everything's going to be fine."
"And everything's going to be fine."

And this time, he meant it too. He couldn't make a promise that he'd find Jeanette, if she wasn't with April. He couldn't promise that he'd find Eloise. He couldn't make the promise that everything would be just fine, but somehow he just felt like it was all going to be alright. April was right on Jeanette's heels, and they were right on April's. They'd catch up, Jhamel would smack a little sense into his assigned teammate (metaphorically of course), and then they'd hike up their shit and hunt down Eloise. They'd regroup, and they'd... They'd do something. But fuck this game, and fuck anyone who wanted them dead, he'd keep them safe or die motherfucking trying.

((Jhamel Thompson continued in It's Easier to Leave than to be Left Behind.))