Out Run

[Kermit]

She shifted her body and turned her head, like she was looking back over her shoulder at Ximena.

"Yeah, a plan." She mumbled, expressionless. She made a circular gesture with her hand, indicating around at everything in the car. "We're probably in a death penalty state, and all of us except you, Yvette, and Alan -- we killed people. So, is there a plan?"

[Gundham]

"D-Death?"

Cecilia's face paled. Her heart began to race madly. "No! No! I do not kill! It is only... it is accidente!"

[Applesintime]

‘Come on. We wouldn’t be arrested for all of this shit, no fucking way! Or get the death penalty. If anything they’d give more of a shit about the people who like, abducted us and killed a bunch of people on the bus alone?” Stephen scoffed.

How many people had been on that bus, and how many had survived to get to the compound just to die there?

“Plus,” Stephen continued, “the furries are still out there. Maybe that dude killed them all, but in that case he’d probably vouch for us. They wouldn’t want this shit to happen again, you know?

[Kermit]

Astrid sighed in Stephen's general direction. She flipped her hair and then winced in pain.

"Okay, whatever, guy. Even then we can still be held liable in civil suits, like how they got OJ."

She then turned her head away from the backseat, faced forward for a second, and then swiveled her neck a bit so that her head was slightly directed at Cecilia.

"I believe you, and if you need, I'll back up your story if we get sent to court." She mumbled.

She then turned her head back around again to where it was facing earlier, aimed at the back of the car.

"What I'm saying is... okay. They said they'd upload the footage after we all died, right? And then they died or whatever before we all died, so that's not happening. And as far as we know we're the only people in the class who made it out." She mumbled, enunciating as much as one was able to when moving only half their mouth.

She paused for a moment to take a breath.

"So that means that, all of us together, we decide what the rest of the world knows. So we should probably figure that out."

[Catche Jagger]

Alan grimaced at Astrid’s proposal. Seemed like wishful thinking on her part, that she might dodge whatever happened out in the desert like it wasn’t all recorded. It was possible that her assessment of the situation was correct, but that was not a certainty.

“We don’t know what happened to them and we don’t know what happened to the footage from those cameras. Maybe the guy they said we were free leaked all of it. We don’t know shit.” He replied in a low voice, eyes fixed on what lay ahead.

“This shit is gonna be big and that means feds are gonna be involved. Maybe it’s selfish, but I ain’t interested in lying to them for you, particularly when they might just be able to dig up some video evidence of you stabbing somebody in the back. Sorry.” He continued to explain, taking a tone that was more matter-of-fact than apologetic.

“Til we know what’s up, I’m sticking to what happened. You can still fudge it, say you were stressed, that you couldn’t sleep, that it’s hard to control your gift, whatever. Maybe you can add some tragic shit from school. They won’t have footage of that, and most of the people that could contradict anything there are dead.” Alan’s voice grew a bit softer as he arrived at his conclusion, allowing the statement to hang on the air for a moment.

“Anyway, I hope we find somewhere with real fucking food before we get picked up.”

[Salic]

Claudia’s eyes opened again, and she felt that her arm was in a different place than she let it fall. She heard Alan’s comment about food and it made her giggle, though it probably sounded more like quick, raspy breaths rather than an actual laugh. The fattest guy here wanted some food, huh? A small grin split her face.

“Can you... turn the h-heat up? It’s s-so c-cold in here,” she requested in a shaky voice. From what little she could feel, she detected that her skin was far colder than it should be. Did they have the AC on max?

Her head tilted back again. She felt her eyes closing, and her rhythmic breathing returned.

[Applesintime]

Stephen pursed his lips tightly and didn't respond to Astrid, instead looking back down at Claudia, who'd woken to complain about being cold. He didn't know that much about what it felt like to die, but people in books and games and shit always said they felt cold when they were dying. But she wasn't going to die, she was gonna get to hospital and live, no matter what. Taking a deep breath, Stephen tried to remember some of the breathing exercises his mom taught him.

"Y-yeah, we'll turn it up. Don't worry." He clumsily wiped her brow with his shirt sleeve, briefly wondering why he did that because she wouldn't be sweating and she wasn't cold, but then Alan mentioned something about food and distracted him. For a moment, Stephen fantasised about McDonalds, or Olive Garden, or some delicious cold milk. Something that wasn't just plain fucking water or tasteless food bars.

"I mean, I'd rather get to a hospital. But hospital food's probably better than what we have."

[Kermit]

Astrid reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a bloody human incisor, which she then tossed onto Alan's lap.

[Applesintime]

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Stephen couldn’t just bite his lip this time.

[Gundham]

Cecilia watched the strange girl pull out a tooth and throw it at the heavyset boy. She edged a bit closer to the window, in case there were more body parts about to be thrown, tuning out the angry protest and all that followed it.

The car felt stifling now, way too small for the bodies crammed inside of it. She wanted out. Wanted to get out and run and keep running until all of this was far behind her. Kids were talking about court and death and jail and every time they spoke it sent her heart slamming and thumping against her ribcage like a bumblebee trying to fly through a pane of glass. She didn't want to talk about any of it, didn't want to even think about what was coming next. Didn't want to look at any of the other kids in the car.

The truth is, they weren't going to go through what she had gone through. It wouldn't be the same for them. They wouldn't have to go out in society knowing that half of the country actively supported their suffering. They wouldn't have to read opinion articles about how the terrorists weren't really to blame, they just were just doing a necessary job. They wouldn't hear the bowtied pendejo make that face like he was watching someone eat mayonnaise right out of the jar and ask, "If those kids hadn't insisted on going on field trips then the terrorists wouldn't have been forced to abduct them, right? Shouldn't we really be talking about regulating field trips instead? I'm just asking questions." They wouldn't walk down the street and nearly get run over by jacked-up pickup trucks flying "TERRORISTS 2020!" flags. They wouldn't watch the terrorists get away scot-free with what they had done to all these kids and go walking around in broad daylight, living in mansions and giving press interviews where they talked about how vital it was that they be put back in charge of terrorizing people.

The other kids said they'd support her, but they didn't know. They didn't know what it was going to be like for her. They believed that the government would sort things out, that there'd be laws and rules to protect them. And maybe that would be the case for the American kids. But it wouldn't be the same for her. They hadn't watched the system fail, over and over. They hadn't seen it fail on purpose just to increase their suffering. They were going to be messed up, but they were, ultimately, going to be taken care of.

Despite being surrounded by more people than she'd seen in the last five days, Cecilia felt more alone than ever.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena half-listened to the discussion due to her ongoing efforts to heal the passengers in the back taking much of her attention.

But she did get the general gist. She didn't want to contribute an opinion, hoping to keep the delicate balance inside the vehicle, but also wasn't sure if she could muster it. Stephen and Alan already covered her thoughts more succinctly anyway.

"Hey... calefacción," she said, hoping to help Claudia and accompanying the request with a visual signal, rubbing her shimmering hands together.

Through the growing haze in her head, she could tell that Cecilia was terrified and miserable.

Relatable.

Xiemna looked on for a moment, trying to think of what to say, if anything. It was possible that saying anything could just make things worse; not unusual for her. But, well, what was taking one more chance? Maybe they were sort of like sisters, in a way.

"Podrán cortar todas las floras, pero no podrán detener la primavera," she recited gently, for the two of them.

She noticed Astrid throw something at Alan and heard Stpehen. She scowled. Not having the strength to be too angry, but still displeased with Astrid's choice, Ximena poked her in the back of the neck with a brief spark of accelerated time. It was a bit like rubbing your socks on the carpet and then zapping someone. She then leaned back against her seat to continue concentrating on her work.

God, we need to find some place soon.

"Play nice," she warned, with her eyes closed.

[Kermit]

Astrid flinched and rubbed the back of her neck. Then she slumped forward, pressed her face into the fabric of the bag sitting on her lap, and silently began to cry.

[Catche Jagger]

Alan had been glad that the others in the car were keen to shift the conversation toward the topic of food and away from Astrid’s stupid plan of trying to lie to the feds.

Then, he saw Astrid move beside him and felt something tap against his track pants. Briefly glancing down, he saw a bloody tooth on his lap.

“What the f-?” Alan hissed, cutting himself off to prevent an outburst. Taking a deep breath, he used his bandaged hand to brush the tooth away. Luckily, both Stephen and Ximena cut in to reprimand her, removing the need for Alan to make some retort of his own. He was grateful for that.

Still, after facing repercussions, Astrid quickly hid her face, clearly distraught. However, Alan found that he felt little pity or sympathy for the girl. He’d already spent enough time dealing with an emotionally fragile, violent little shit. He had no interest in coddling another.

At least Crispin had the grace to sleep and not get into any shit now that they were out.

Rolling his eyes, Alan refrained from saying anything and kept his attention on the road.

[Applesintime]

Sighing, Stephen rested his head back on the headrest of the seat, looking out of the windscreen. At first, he saw nothing but sand and shrubbery. But then, blinking and leaning forwards, Stephen thought he saw something else. A sign. One of those gas station signs that had the price of gas on it, he could see the lights faintly.

"Hey. Hey, do you guys see that? It looks like a gas station!"

[ItzToxie]

“Wha-?”

There was the feint murmuring of voices that droned on in the black abyss that Crispy floated within. However the moment the words Gas Station arrived, they were emphasized, and very quickly he was sucked out of the darkness.

“Nnn-“

An eye opened. Crispy saw it.

“Ayo hold up-“

He blinked. It wasn’t a mirage.

“Oh shit dood!”

There was a grin forming. Civilization. That meant help. That meant they were free, that meant…

“Ay dawg pull over, I’m fuckin starving!”

Food.