Uphill and Against the Wind

[Pippi]

((Oh bloody hell, this did not need to be this late. Major apologies))

Amanda was first to speak up, saying that he and Leo were indeed welcome to tag along with her and Martin. Roy smiled and nodded. Inside, however he was unbelievably thankful for this. He wasn’t sure how long he’d have been able to survive completely alone, with a broken arm and a useless weapon.

Well, almost useless. I can still use these arrows, if I have to...

Leo was next to speak, asking everyone where they should start. It was a good question, one Roy had been thinking about too. That, however, was the problem; Roy didn’t know where to start, and the growing silence suggested no-one else did either. Thankfully, Amanda spoke up after a short pause suggesting they looked around the building, which was apparently a Sherriff’s office.

Guess that explains why there’s a jail cell here, and why it’s so well looked after.

Roy wasn’t entirely sure that The Sherriff that they’d heard on the announcements would leave his personal belongings in somewhere so obvious, but then again, no-one really knew anything about him; for all they knew, he could be an absent minded old man. An absent minded, evil twisted old man. Roy nodded at Amanda’s suggestion, and then Martin spoke up. Roy could tell he was taking up the leadership role, which was fine with Roy. He knew Martin could keep a level head, and he wasn’t sure that he himself would be able to be a very good leader with a broken arm.

Everyone started to move, apart from Roy, who just stood there, rather awkwardly, unsure of what to do. Martin had suggested someone stand outside and keep watch, but again, Roy knew he would be unable to do so with a broken arm. Luckily, Martin had a brainwave; switching weapons. Well, weapons was kinda stretching it. A rolling pin didn’t really qualify as a weapon. Still, it was kinda like a baseball bat, and Roy knew he could swing one of those with considerable force. Roy nodded, removed his bow from his bag, and started removing arrows from his pockets.

“Sure, that’d work. Now, uh, there’s tw-uh... ten arrows here, okay?”

Roy had been thinking, and realised that, just in case something happened to the rolling pin, it’d be useful to have a backup weapon. With that in mind, Roy had only revealed ten of the twelve arrows he’d been given. It was more than enough for Martin, and Roy hoped he wouldn’t notice his slip up, or notice there were two arrows obscured by his coat.

Roy was about to hand the arrows and bow over to Martin, when he felt an itch on his neck. Mumbling a "sorry", he placed the bow and arrows on the ground, then reached up to his neck to scratch it. At least, he tried to. His collar was placed directly on the area that itched the most. Roy realised that he still wasn’t sure of the purpose of the collars. “Just, uh, just a quick question.” He said. “Anyone know anything ‘bout these collars, aside from the fact that they itch like hell?”

[Courtography]

Amanda listened as she went back to near the cabinets to actually look for something other than keys this time. Switching weapons and a guard? Was that really necessary? No one would do that, but she wouldn't argue. The Sheriff never said who they had to kill, maybe she was wrong all along and they had to kill random other people. Still something she didn't want to do, but yeah.

Collars? What collars? Her hand went to her neck. Leather? "I don't know," she said in a scared tone. This was bad. They weren't dogs. "Does anyone remember anything about them?"

[Acidic*]

Since the others were blabbering on about something Leo tuned them out, thinking about a video he once saw on the internet. Then Martin asked him to look for more shit with him. He obviously didn't know about the quota, or how it had been filled for today. Regardless, Leo shrugged.

"Whatever." But when weapons came up he remained silent. A plunger was a shitty weapon, but it seemed no one noticed and Martin was trading with Roy. Leo snickered on the inside at Roy's weapon, it was still funny to him. Then Roy mentioned the collars. Even though Leo himself didn't notice them he held his hand back, acting as if he know about them the whole time.

"The idiot over the speakers said there would be a 'surprise' when we woke up." God knows how twisted this 'tard was. Whatever, he'd goto jail and everyone would have something interesting to talk about the next few weeks at school.

[Cash Money*]

Roy took him up on the offer. "Sure, that'd work. Now, uh, there's uh... ten arrows here, okay?" Considering the retrievability of arrows, that would be more than enough. People started to scramble to look for things, but they were momentarily stopped when Roy set down his arrows and felt the collar on his neck, asking whether anyone knew anything about them. Only Leo remembered what the Sheriff had said on the train, though.

"The idiot over the speakers said there would be a 'surprise' when we woke up."

Oh great. Nobody ever meant anything good when you could hear the quotation marks on their breath. What kind of surprise could they possibly be serving? Maybe they were tracking their location? There was a hell of a lot of metal on these collars - there might be some sort of discreet tracking device on them. He hadn't seen many modern movies, but the few he had taught him that tracking devices could be ridiculously small. If that was the case, any number of surprises could be lurking around the corner, knowing exactly where they were. He said, "They might be tracking us. Whatever that's for, it can't be good." In that case, all the better to have somebody at the door. He gave Roy his rolling pin, set the bow and arrows in the office corner with his backpack to give himself free hands, and started to search the desk.

[Pippi]

To Roy’s irritation, and slight surprise, everyone else seemed even more clueless about the collars than he was. Amanda sounded scared, instantly reaching up to her neck to feel the leather. Didn’t she even realise we had them? Although, I can’t exactly blame her. We don’t know what they do, and there are more important things on hand... maybe...

Leo was next to speak, sounding bored at the whole thing. Roy’s annoyance at him flared again. Although, what he said did shake Roy. Could the collars be the “surprise” this Sheriff was talking about? And if so, exactly what was it they did?

Martin put forward one possibility; that the collars were tracking devices. That was certainly a possibility, and a very unwelcoming one. Roy did not want some complete stranger knowing exactly where he was at all times. As he was thinking this, another thought jumped into his head; a thought Roy immediately turned into speech.

“But... if they are tracking devices, couldn’t we just... take them off?” he said. “We could just slice ‘em open and dump them somewhere... So they’ve probably got some sort of measure against that. Like, maybe they only work if they touch skin? And they send a bunch of hired goons to attack anyone without a collar.”

Roy shook his head. He was getting off topic. It seemed no-one knew for sure what the collars actually did, and his ideas weren’t helping. Although he had to admit, they would make for a good story. Maybe if I get out of here alive...

As Roy took the rolling pin from Martin, it occurred to him that offering to be the “bodyguard and brute force” of the group would further reinforce Leo, Amanda, and pretty much everyone’s belief that he was just another dumb jock. That was, surprisingly enough, okay by him. If they were going to underestimate him, it was their loss, not his.

Roy weighed the rolling pin in his hand for a moment, before securing his bag, and heading outside. As he walked down the corridor to the front door, he turned and said “Don’t be too long, okay? We need to be prepared for anything.” Then he continued onwards, and out the front door.

Instantly, Roy missed the relative coolness of inside the sheriff’s office. He didn’t know how anyone had managed to live in a town located here... wherever here was. Just imagine waking up to blistering heat and blinding light. Give me Canada any day... preferably today, actually...

Roy still had a little fatigue left in him from the sleeping gas, so he sat down on the doorstep of the office, removing his bag in the process. He held the rolling pin loosely in his right hand, ready to swing it if the need arose. Roy leaned backwards against the doorframe, and sighed.

“I am so fucking scared right now...”

[Courtography]

Amanda stopped looking through the cabinets to listen on the collar discussion. This was not good. No one knew anything about them, and all the guesses sounded scary. And there had to be some reason for them.

Amanda still didn't like that they were going to ditch Roy outside with nothing but a rolling pin, not that anything would happen, but still. Her metal rod, a tire iron now that she thought about it, would be better than that. Still, he'd be fine, no big deal.

She kept searching through the cabinets.

[Acidic*]

A crippled body guard, srsly? Even with the lack of urgency Leo had with the situation he figured they could do better. Hell, he'd be better than Roy. Then again it was fucking hot out there, and this was a joke. So without any words he went to the first room he saw, which he was sure none of the group had been in before.

Because I had to find the keys. He thought as he looked around the room. The hell did these guys think they'd find? The Punk'd camera crew? Whatever. He went to some file cabinets giving the first one a soft tug to see if it'd open. It did, it opened wide with folder teeth, with each having paper fillings. Like I'm looking through all these. Rolling his eyes he closed the drawer.

[Cash Money*]

Martin found several desk drawers on the back of the desk, each of them empty. He got to the one on the bottom, tugging it like he had all the others, and found it was locked. "Hey, I found it!"

He took one of the keys (upon closer inspection, both were identical, down to the numbers stamped on the sides) and stuck it in the lock, turning it surprisingly easily. He pulled the drawer open, spotting several stacks of papers.

Yes, he thought, something to tell us what's going on arou- what?!

He picked up a stack and flipped through it. Blank. Every page was blank. The sheets looked like they had been used. They were not stacked in neat reams as if they had just been bought from the local office supply store and unwrapped. They looked like they had been put there by human hands over the course of years of file keeping. But it was as if someone had washed all of the ink clean off.

He held a few sheets up for all to see. "Nothing but blank paper." He tested the other key to make sure it was identical - yep, it was. He tested the other cabinet locks to make sure they didn't use different keys - no, they didn't. He figured that if they had paper, the least they could do was write on it.

"Anybody find a pen or something? We might take notes." Or doodle. Or do something remotely normal.

[Courtography]

(skipping with permission from Pippin)

Amanda had searched through the cabinets. All of the cabinets. Nothing useful at all. She had wasted so much time when they could have been looking for more people to add to their group.

"I found nothing at all. Want me to get Roy?"

[Acidic*]

((Oh shit, sorry. I was being retarded.))

After making a lazy scan for writing material, Leo shrugged. There was nothing in sight, so that was the end of his search. Leaning against a wall as Amanda asked about getting Roy. Leo didn't even bother making a joke in his head about leaving him out there.

Yawning, Leo's head made the natural movement of tilting back until his hat hit the wall. Why is this still on? Yet he wouldn't remove it, even if it made the sweat production 20% more efficient. Staring at the ceiling, waiting for nothing to happen. He didn't want to get out of his warmer clothing, but this heat was being pretty fucking convincing. They better have given us some water.

He reached in his bag behind him, his arm being at an awkward angel while doing so, and grabbed randomly when his hand got hold of something metal. Pulling it out he felt the water move in it. Thank God. Leo thought, taking a small drink.

[Cash Money*]

Martin took a look around the room. One by one, everyone had finished their searches, and they hadn't seen anything. Not even a pen. Dang it. Martin figured he'd take a few sheets with him anyway. About 5 would do. Someone might have a pen somewhere later. He felt compelled to speak up - he was the impromptu leader, after all.

"Okay, so I think we should search the town for people. If we don't see anybody, we should hit the outer edge of town next. There are houses there, and judging from the one I woke up in, those weren't cleaned out so much as this one. I mean, they even erased all the writing on this paper," he said, holding the sheets up once more. He then remembered Amanda's idea from earlier. "At some point we should probably hit the river too, I guess - we shouldn't get dehydrated." He ducked down in the corner of the room to put his paper up and to fish out his canteen - now that he mentioned it, he was actually pretty thirsty.

He took an extended sip, not wanting to deplete it too quickly. Already the water tasted better than he was used to, despite the metallic tinge to it. He was used to having a thick plastic bottle to carry around with him. It had proven handy, given his lifestyle, and he had gotten used to it. And yet this tasted better. Not because it had an objectively better taste, but because he actually needed some water for once. He was used to drinking like a fish to stay hydrated; this could definitely be a problem, and a corresponding twinge of unease passed through him, leaping just out of sight of his mind's eye. Those twinges were getting more frequent, but he did his best to look the other way for the sake of the others.

"Any other ideas?"

[Pippi]

((Less-than-stellar and late reply is a go, apologies to all D:))

Roy sat and waited. And waited. And waited. The sun was burning his pale skin, and he was sure that if it wasn’t for the mop of ginger hair in front of his eyes, the light would be blinding him. Roy had removed a canister of water from his bag, and drank some of itThe street was empty, and almost silent, although Roy could occasionally hear brief snippets of speech from, he guessed, other buildings. He was tempted to quickly wander off in search of more people he knew, but instantly removed that thought from his mind. He would never abandon Martin or Amanda... Leo, maybe, but for the moment, he was with them, so Roy would stay for him too.

God, this is boring though. Fuck. Why the fuck do I have to do this anyway? Why couldn’t I have called in sick today?

Roy’s thoughts were cut off when he noticed tumbleweed rolling along the ground in front of him. He followed its journey with mild fascination, a quiet “...huh.” passing his lips. He’d always thought tumbleweed only tumbled in movies, but there it was. Roy was grateful for it in a way. It briefly took his mind off of his situation.

And still he sat there, waiting for nobody. The sun continued to beat down on him. Despite this, Roy didn’t remove his beloved coat, instead opting to simply undo the zip. His neck was beginning to ache from staying in one position for so long, Roy looked down, and remembered just which T-Shirt he’d put on that morning.

“... great. Just fucking perfect. Crippled AND I have a literal target on me.” Roy muttered, placing his head in his hand. He could feel sweat on his brow, accumulating on his hair and bandana. He needed to go back inside, if only for a second. Roy stood up, placing his water canister in his left hand, and using his right arm and the rolling pin to steady himself. He realised just how sweaty his palms were, so he wiped them on his coat, but that did little to remove the uncomfortable, clammy feeling from them.

Roy stepped back inside the Sherriff’s Office, instantly grateful for the relative coolness. He dropped the rolling pin, swapped the water canister from his left hand to his right, and took a quick drink from it. Wiping his mouth, Roy yelled down the corridor to Martin, Amanda and Leo.

“Hey, guys! You found anything yet? You gonna be much longer?”

[Courtography]

She shrugged at the mention of any other plans. Amanda didn't have plans now. She would like it if they kept looking for people. If they got most of the class together, anyone who was thinking about doing the unthinkable would never actually go through with it. "We could search the rest of the town I guess."

Then Roy was back. "We haven't found anything. We should probably search somewhere else. There's nothing here."

Right, need to find more people, it would be best.

[Acidic*]

Fuuuuuuuck. But I dun' wanna go back into that. By that, he meant the heat. Leo gave a distasteful look past Roy to the door. Roy could think it was for him, but fuck him. Roy could roast. Heh, Roy Roast. Okay, that cheered Leo up a bit.

Regardless, he hated it out there. But it'd suck not having any meat shields around, so he may have to just deal with it. Taking off his hat Leo tried to think of an excuse to stay here. But that was difficult. So he kept quiet, as not to give them another reason to leave.

Then he had an idea, but he didn't think it would work. So not to gain any attention he slowly moved his hand to his pocket. He was looking for his cell. Maybe the 'tards left them with the kids. Sure, it'd be stupid of them to do that. But what kind of fucking genius would kidnap a train full of kids.

It wasn't there, shit. This meant going back outside, didn't it?

[Cash Money*]

Martin didn't have to wait long for answers. Amanda agreed with him. She was rather tentative about it, which Martin found odd because she kept getting to talk before he did. This time it was in response to Roy coming back inside. He would have wondered at Roy not having gotten the sense they were done already, but he quickly thought differently. That just meant he was doing his part properly, Martin realized.

Martin said, "Alright, let's go." He stepped outside, feeling the oppressive heat and venturing out into...

((Martin Ricco continued in The Great Elsewhere))