Nikki stumbled along through the jungle, getting more irritated by the minute. She didn't like walking this much, ever. She just wanted to sit down and not move for a very long time. She couldn't, however, because she'd lost the path a long time ago. One minute she was following the path, if you could even call it that, and then the next minute she was pushing through thick patches of bushes that were half as tall as she was. She was tired, she was sweaty, and the various bug bites and scratches she'd gotten on her skin were itching, and she was very thirsty. Oh, and she was carrying her day pack on one shoulder, and that really freaking big stupid sword on the other. She'd tried to cut through the undergrowth with it at first, and it was only after it got tangled in a particularly twisted bush that she realized that it didn't have bladed sides.
She fervently wished that she was back at home, watching Desperate Housewives. She wished even more that she was on Wisteria Lane, with it's perfectly-mowed lawns, large streets, and gigantic houses with lots of comfy--
“WAAAAAA!” she screamed, as she tripped over a large tree root, falling face-first into cold water. The water wasn't more than a couple feet deep so she was able to quickly push herself up, coughing, spluttering, gasping, and swearing. She hastily stood up, and took a look around her.
She was standing in the edge of a gigantic lake that as far as she could tell was completely surrounded by the jungle. What kind of moronic idea was it to have a lake in the middle of a freaking jungle without even having any kind of banks or beaches around it? She glared down at the lake, then roughly grabbed her day pack, and threw it up onto dryish land. She then grabbed the sword, and heaved it over next to her day pack. She then finally hoisted herself up by the same tree root that she'd tripped over earlier, and sat down.
Well, this sucks, she thought sourly to herself. Sighing, she pulled her day pack over to her and tugged on the zipper. It unzipped partway, then got stuck. Grimacing, she tugged harder. It still didn't budge. She finally gave it a big yank, and the zipper disconnected from one side. “Motherfucker,” Nikki grumbled to herself. She stuck her hand in and dug around for a minute, until hand found the soggy mass of Blood Price. Grumbling, she set about finding the page she was on (her bookmark had fallen out). Upon finding it, she adjusted herself on the tree root and began to read.
Well, This Sucks
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Spindarene
- Posts: 252
- Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:34 pm
[April Stone, continued from Someday, You'll Go Through the Rain.]
April sat hunched over the edge of the lake with her left arm submerged in the murky water, watching the ripples she made as she swished her bag around, half-heartedly trying to clean out the vomit. She felt the bag take in water, and was oddly reminded of a toy she had when she was a child. It was almost impossible to get April to part with anything when she was younger and one of the things her parents constantly tried to get her to part with was a small, blue robot that April was now fairly sure was a novelty bottle of bubble bath an aunt had given her for a birthday present. As she remembered it, she used to fill it up with bath water and then empty it. It used to keep her entertained for minutes on end.
God, she thought. I was such a weird child.
Reaching for a bottle of water with her off-hand, April pulled it up to her face. She unscrewed the cap with her teeth and spat it on the ground next to her, next to her gun. She quickly drank the contents of the bottle and threw that onto the shore next to her, where she had kept her gun. About a half-mile before she approached the lake, April had started to throw things away when her arms and back started to ache. Her bag was practically empty when she reached the shore. All she had with her now was the map in the pocket of her jeans, her first-aid kit, a plastic container that held what was left of her food, and her colt. The colt was covered in dirt, and April wasn’t sure if it was jammed.
April hefted the bag out of the water and turned it over, shaking it until the greenish water stopped pouring out. Silt and mud lined the bottom of the bag now, but April had already decided that she would rather have a damp bag than one filled with vomit. The bag was canvas, which meant- if her jeans were any indictation- that it would take the better part of the day to dry, but the lake was nothing if not well-hidden, so April figured she had time to wait. She dropped the bag down on the wet mud and stood up, tightening her makeshift bandanna and brushing her hair from her eyes.
Then she heard something. A rustling in the trees. Not loudly, but there was definitely close-by. She tried to figure out where the sound was coming from to no avail. So she wrapped her fingers around the grip of her pistol and stood up, pointing it at the water.
“Hey!” April yelled. “Who’s there?”
April panicked, swinging the gun around wildly, her thumb catching on the thumb release of the pistol and dropping the magazine onto the ground. She ducked down to pick it back up and slammed it into the butt of her pistol. In her confusion, she had somehow failed to notice that her right arm was now the home of two thick, black leeches.
April sat hunched over the edge of the lake with her left arm submerged in the murky water, watching the ripples she made as she swished her bag around, half-heartedly trying to clean out the vomit. She felt the bag take in water, and was oddly reminded of a toy she had when she was a child. It was almost impossible to get April to part with anything when she was younger and one of the things her parents constantly tried to get her to part with was a small, blue robot that April was now fairly sure was a novelty bottle of bubble bath an aunt had given her for a birthday present. As she remembered it, she used to fill it up with bath water and then empty it. It used to keep her entertained for minutes on end.
God, she thought. I was such a weird child.
Reaching for a bottle of water with her off-hand, April pulled it up to her face. She unscrewed the cap with her teeth and spat it on the ground next to her, next to her gun. She quickly drank the contents of the bottle and threw that onto the shore next to her, where she had kept her gun. About a half-mile before she approached the lake, April had started to throw things away when her arms and back started to ache. Her bag was practically empty when she reached the shore. All she had with her now was the map in the pocket of her jeans, her first-aid kit, a plastic container that held what was left of her food, and her colt. The colt was covered in dirt, and April wasn’t sure if it was jammed.
April hefted the bag out of the water and turned it over, shaking it until the greenish water stopped pouring out. Silt and mud lined the bottom of the bag now, but April had already decided that she would rather have a damp bag than one filled with vomit. The bag was canvas, which meant- if her jeans were any indictation- that it would take the better part of the day to dry, but the lake was nothing if not well-hidden, so April figured she had time to wait. She dropped the bag down on the wet mud and stood up, tightening her makeshift bandanna and brushing her hair from her eyes.
Then she heard something. A rustling in the trees. Not loudly, but there was definitely close-by. She tried to figure out where the sound was coming from to no avail. So she wrapped her fingers around the grip of her pistol and stood up, pointing it at the water.
“Hey!” April yelled. “Who’s there?”
April panicked, swinging the gun around wildly, her thumb catching on the thumb release of the pistol and dropping the magazine onto the ground. She ducked down to pick it back up and slammed it into the butt of her pistol. In her confusion, she had somehow failed to notice that her right arm was now the home of two thick, black leeches.
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the former handler Macha.
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Spindarene
- Posts: 252
- Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:34 pm
Nikki spent the rest of the day reading. She finished Blood Price, then wished bitterly that she'd brought the sequel with her. Of course, when she'd packed her bag, she hadn't been expecting to be dragged out to this stupid island and fight to the death with a bunch of her classmates. At some point she thought she heard someone call out "Hey! Who's there?" but she ignored it. She sat and sulked against the tree for a while, then gradually drifted off to sleep.
The next morning she was woken suddenly by a loud voice. “Good morning kiddies. You've all survived your first night away from home...” Nikki blinked and blearily looked around in search of the voice. It took her a few seconds to realize that it coming from an intercom. He was listing all the students that had been killed. He sounded so...happy about it. More than that. Gleeful? Whatever it was, it was really creeping her out. And was this for real? Were five of her classmates seriously dead? Or was this whole thing some kind of sick joke? She didn't know anyone who had this nasty of a sense of humor, but apparently anything was possible.
Uh-oh. “Oh, and before I forget, keep away from the Inland Lake and the Eastern Shore for the next day. Those are the danger zones I was telling you about. Remember, linger and your necks explode. It'll be messy and painful. Later. Try not to die to quickly.” Nikki sat straight up, her heart pounding. Danger zone...the lake was a danger zone. Hang on, then why wasn't she dead? She thought for a minute. What was it he'd said in the beginning? Something about ten minutes... She quickly dug around in her bag for her phone. Once she found it she quickly pushed one of the buttons, to make the screen light up. Nothing happened. She tried again. And again. The screen remained stubbornly black.
“Fuck!” she yelled, and threw it on the ground. The lake must have killed it. She sat back against the tree thinking. If he was serious, they were going to blow her up any minute. She remembered how that guy had blown off that one kid's head on the bus. Holy shit, he was serious.
She suddenly jumped to her feet, grabbed her bag and her sword, and ran as fast as she could away from the lake. Even with her running as fast as she thought she could run, it was slow going. She had to fight her way through dense undergrowth and dense bushes, and more than once she tripped and fell on her face. She jumped up right away though and kept running, clutching her bag in one hand and her sword in the other. She'd never really exercised much at home, and was a bit overweight, so she was soon breathing heavily and in a very bad mood. But she just kept running.
After what seemed like forever to her she came to a tiny clearing and collapsed all fours in the grass, panting. Her face felt very hot, and her whole body was covered in sweat. Part of her wanted to keep running, to make sure she wouldn't get blown up, but the other part of her wanted to stay there and never move again. So she stayed there and waited, expecting that any second her collar would blow her head off.
She waited like that for what she guessed to be five minutes. Nothing happened. If they were going to kill her, they would have done so by now. She breathed a huge sigh of relief and laid down on the grass, shaking. She didn't know what was going on, but she really wanted to go home. She continued to lay there for a while, and her shaking subsided. Before she knew it, she'd fallen back asleep.
((Nicole Campbell continued in Cream Cheese and Salsa))
The next morning she was woken suddenly by a loud voice. “Good morning kiddies. You've all survived your first night away from home...” Nikki blinked and blearily looked around in search of the voice. It took her a few seconds to realize that it coming from an intercom. He was listing all the students that had been killed. He sounded so...happy about it. More than that. Gleeful? Whatever it was, it was really creeping her out. And was this for real? Were five of her classmates seriously dead? Or was this whole thing some kind of sick joke? She didn't know anyone who had this nasty of a sense of humor, but apparently anything was possible.
Uh-oh. “Oh, and before I forget, keep away from the Inland Lake and the Eastern Shore for the next day. Those are the danger zones I was telling you about. Remember, linger and your necks explode. It'll be messy and painful. Later. Try not to die to quickly.” Nikki sat straight up, her heart pounding. Danger zone...the lake was a danger zone. Hang on, then why wasn't she dead? She thought for a minute. What was it he'd said in the beginning? Something about ten minutes... She quickly dug around in her bag for her phone. Once she found it she quickly pushed one of the buttons, to make the screen light up. Nothing happened. She tried again. And again. The screen remained stubbornly black.
“Fuck!” she yelled, and threw it on the ground. The lake must have killed it. She sat back against the tree thinking. If he was serious, they were going to blow her up any minute. She remembered how that guy had blown off that one kid's head on the bus. Holy shit, he was serious.
She suddenly jumped to her feet, grabbed her bag and her sword, and ran as fast as she could away from the lake. Even with her running as fast as she thought she could run, it was slow going. She had to fight her way through dense undergrowth and dense bushes, and more than once she tripped and fell on her face. She jumped up right away though and kept running, clutching her bag in one hand and her sword in the other. She'd never really exercised much at home, and was a bit overweight, so she was soon breathing heavily and in a very bad mood. But she just kept running.
After what seemed like forever to her she came to a tiny clearing and collapsed all fours in the grass, panting. Her face felt very hot, and her whole body was covered in sweat. Part of her wanted to keep running, to make sure she wouldn't get blown up, but the other part of her wanted to stay there and never move again. So she stayed there and waited, expecting that any second her collar would blow her head off.
She waited like that for what she guessed to be five minutes. Nothing happened. If they were going to kill her, they would have done so by now. She breathed a huge sigh of relief and laid down on the grass, shaking. She didn't know what was going on, but she really wanted to go home. She continued to lay there for a while, and her shaking subsided. Before she knew it, she'd fallen back asleep.
((Nicole Campbell continued in Cream Cheese and Salsa))
April’s heart raced and her finger twitched ever so slightly, lingering on the trigger for just a moment before she changed her mind. She exhaled sharply and lowered her gun, wiggling her pointer finger free from the trigger guard so as not to cause an accident. The trigger pull was too heavy for her to pull by accident, but it was too much of a safety risk to ignore. It had been hours since sunset, and the lake itself was shrouded in a heavy darkness. There was a dank smell in the air, and April was convinced for a brief moment that the Creature from the Black Lagoon was going to emerge from the water and abduct her, if it didn’t kill her first. It took a while for her eyes to adjust, and even then, she could only make out vague silhouettes that she half-thought to be the product of her sleep-deprived paranoia. She knew in the back of her mind that she was right, but that didn’t stop her from raising her gun on occasion, and yelling obscenities at shadows.
She took to breathing exercises in an attempt to calm herself. She filled her lungs with a mouthful of air, and exhaled through her nostrils, producing a forced, stuffy sound that she decided was the product of a mild allergy to pollen. I am not in the jungle, she thought. I am not alone in the dark, and I am not scared.
It only half worked. She found herself focusing less on her breaths and almost hyper-aware of the environment surrounding her. The shadows began to dance, and she began to see bright eyes staring at her from the lake that she was sure were not really there. Pulling her knees close to her chest, April buried her head between them, tears welling at the corner of her eyes. One or two managed to streak down her face, staining her cheeks. She closed her eyes, and struggled to get an hour of sleep.
April awoke in the same position she had fallen asleep in, which was a first for her. Her head was a blur, but it was better than it had been. She looked up, and noticed the two small lacerations on her arm and cursed. Leeches. She signed and rubbed her sore arm, noting all the other bumps and scrapes, beginning to regret cutting up her shirt. It made sense at the time. She stood up and found the leeches on the ground. April squashed them with short, angry stomps. She then looked down at her handywork with her jaw agape. She had never killed anything before. Bugs, maybe, but never intentionally. She campaigned against this sort of thing, and she was horrified by the fact that after killing them, she felt better. Tears welled at her eyes as the first announcement began. The tinny reverb of cheap loudspeakers echoed in her ears as the names were read off and her crying got worse. She began to pack what she could in her damp bag. She wanted to get a headstart on the danger zones.
Her collar started to beep and she smiled slightly because she had been proven right.
[April Stone, continued in Electric Sun.]
She took to breathing exercises in an attempt to calm herself. She filled her lungs with a mouthful of air, and exhaled through her nostrils, producing a forced, stuffy sound that she decided was the product of a mild allergy to pollen. I am not in the jungle, she thought. I am not alone in the dark, and I am not scared.
It only half worked. She found herself focusing less on her breaths and almost hyper-aware of the environment surrounding her. The shadows began to dance, and she began to see bright eyes staring at her from the lake that she was sure were not really there. Pulling her knees close to her chest, April buried her head between them, tears welling at the corner of her eyes. One or two managed to streak down her face, staining her cheeks. She closed her eyes, and struggled to get an hour of sleep.
April awoke in the same position she had fallen asleep in, which was a first for her. Her head was a blur, but it was better than it had been. She looked up, and noticed the two small lacerations on her arm and cursed. Leeches. She signed and rubbed her sore arm, noting all the other bumps and scrapes, beginning to regret cutting up her shirt. It made sense at the time. She stood up and found the leeches on the ground. April squashed them with short, angry stomps. She then looked down at her handywork with her jaw agape. She had never killed anything before. Bugs, maybe, but never intentionally. She campaigned against this sort of thing, and she was horrified by the fact that after killing them, she felt better. Tears welled at her eyes as the first announcement began. The tinny reverb of cheap loudspeakers echoed in her ears as the names were read off and her crying got worse. She began to pack what she could in her damp bag. She wanted to get a headstart on the danger zones.
Her collar started to beep and she smiled slightly because she had been proven right.
[April Stone, continued in Electric Sun.]
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the former handler Macha.