Why didn't you do it for me? Why didn't you do it for us?

[Lilith]

The Bloodied Girl was aware that her gunshot had attracted vultures even if her ears were buzzing into deafness and her eyes were bloodshot into the darkness. She kept her arm extended, pointing Ajay as he ran with the limp body of Rainbow.

The Girl’s shoulders relaxed. She wasn’t going to follow. It was enough for the moment. She couldn’t burn herself out. She had other things to do. She couldn’t burn the candle by both ends when she could barely manage to keep a small amount of light within her.

She moved laterally, to the side. She slumped and she slugged. The Bloodied Girl choked up on more air. She could feel blood and fire in her throat. She tried to swallow, but she couldn’t do the gesture as if it stopped in the middle of it.

The Bloodied Girl tried the process again, and her throat could only choke again. She tried to breathe. She wheezed. It was high pitched like a whistle.

She had to get the exit.

[ItzToxie]

This was fucked in practically every way possible. The fact that shooting was going on outside meant this whole area was a death trap for one. Then the fact that laying low here was impossible due to the fact the only other living occupant wanted him dead and was better armed than him. Then there was the obvious one of Ajay using the corpse of the closest person he could consider trustworthy as a human shield, because she was all he had between him and Seychelle.

Two options. Kill Seychelle, take her gear and lie low. Grab the spear and get out.

Now he risked getting shot either way. Someone was firing a big fucking gun somewhere outside and he didn’t know if he’d just walk out into a shooting gallery and get wasted then and there after everything.

Either way he was probably going to get shot and he had to make a decision just now or he was definitely going to get shot.

Fuck it. Cut it and keep running. As he got closer to his exit, he tossed Rainbow at Seychelle, and dived for his spear. Grabbing it, he scrambled to his feet from the prime and booked it to the back door, ducking behind the preacher’s podium along the way. He tucked his head and stayed low, running faster than he’d ever done in his life, even faster than from the polisie.

He barged through the door, slipping on his feet as he turned a corner, and pulling himself off the ground just as fast. He ran down the alleyway only to stop and see an armed group standing by the fountain.

“Shit!” He skidded to a halt. “Go back go back!” He spoke, as if to convince himself, as he scrambled back down the alleyway, trying to find a different route.

[DerArknight]

Everything seemed to work out just fine. When they reached the fountain, the shots had stopped, implying that they would be too late to save anyone, but fast enough to hopefully loot some bodies. Which was a win in Fabiano's eyes. More weapons could be really useful, after all.

And then a bullet went right above him, close enough to send his cap flying from his head.

"Shit!"

Overtaking Philia, he made the short distance to the fountain. The bullet had ended up to his left, so the shooter had to be somewhere to the right. Thinking this, Fabiano dived to the left side of the fountain.

Then he remembered he wasn't alone. Hence he turned to the others, still in in a ducked postition.

He waved with one arm in their direction. "Come on, we gotta-"

[Wham Yubeesling]

We gotta?

Nah. He gotta. Jaxon wasn’t the one who decided to run right towards where the gunshots were. Jaxon wasn’t the guy actually getting shot at. And Jaxon wasn’t going to be the loser who went down for a dude who’d tried to beat the shit out of him not even a day ago. Nuh-uh. He was fucking bailing. And he was making sure that whoever in the distance there didn’t try and take a potshot at him as a compromise for not getting Adrian here.

So before Adrian could finish his sentence Jaxon moved. Put one poison ivy hand on Adrian’s outstretched arm. Made the other poison ivy hand grab his hair. Pulled him close, got a hand onto his face for a second, before flinging him onto the open ground and running in the other direction.

[WorldFat]

"Holy Shit!"

Philia instinctively ducks her head as Adrians hat gets a hole blown through it. That could've been his head! Or worse, hers! Adrian soon overtakes Philia, and Philia follows, diving into cover with Adrian.

But just as she turns to Jaxon, she seems him ultimately betray her trust for the remainder of her, probably short, life.

"Jaxon?!" As Adrian is pulled out of cover, Philia would try her damndest to pull Adrian back into cover, not caring about that Jaxon fucker.

She is not going to lose a friend. She will save her friend.

[Catche Jagger]

((Jen Mara Tuiqamea continued from Welcome to the Outside World))

It had been difficult at times, keeping up with Leander after they left the farmhouse. Her body still hurt, a dull roar across her form which occasionally peaked into localized screams before dispersing once again. Still, he’d been good about not wandering off, maintaining her pace when necessary. That was why Jen was so confused when they reached the fishing village.

As if possessed, Leander seemed to simply float off without a word, driven by some mysterious force or mission to do… something. Though kind to her, Jen hadn’t gotten the impression of much warmth in her new friend’s manner. Was this just how he was to people?

Maybe she’d missed something. Again.

Jen blinked. She just needed to ask him, after all. But the matter suddenly became far more urgent when she heard a gunshot from his position.

She moved with a slight limp as she picked up speed, getting to her friend as fast as she could manage.

“Leander? What’s going on?” Jen asked quickly, trying to keep her voice quiet and her thoughts focused and clear.

[MurderWeasel]

"I found your friend from the stairs," Leander replied. "Figured we could make sure he doesn't pull something similar on anyone else."

He didn't look at Jen as he spoke. All his attention was fixed in the reticle, where he'd come closer than he'd expected, and both closer and farther than he'd hoped. The boy disappeared into cover, and Leander pressed his lips together. All that time, hyping himself up, and this was what came of it.

"I might need—"

And then the boy returned to Leander's world, courtesy of a shove from one of the others. It looked like they were struggling with each other.

That was all it took for the last wisps of doubt to evaporate. Even if this guy wasn't the one, it was clear there was no love lost between him and his companions. If they were so willing to throw him to wolves, then Leander was simply delivering what was inevitable either way. He let the crosshairs track, took a breath, and pulled the trigger.

This time, he didn't wait to see the results. Instead, he stood, rolled his shoulders, and held out the pack and the shotgun towards Jen.

"I'm going to try for another angle," he said. "Hang onto this? Maybe find somewhere to lay low—they might check out the noise."

This wasn't precisely the plan they'd agreed to, but extenuating circumstances had come up, and it always paid to be flexible and display initiative. And besides, they were far away from the group pinned by the fountain. If any of them headed their way, there'd be plenty of time to fade away and try again later, especially travelling light.

With a quick nod to Jen, Leander turned and took a step towards his next spot. He had his eye on a porch about half a block over.

[Lilith]

She hurried, she coughed, she ran faster than she thought she could move, she spat more blood. She rinsed and she repeated the measure and the movement with her blood and its circulation until she was by the edge of the church.

This was stupid. This was so stupid. She coughed again. She bit her lip. She coughed through her lips. The Bloodied Girl became bloodier, but not enough to become her new title. She coughed again.

She looked back. She should have killed Ajay.

She ran.

And before the Bloodied Girl had even realized, she was gone.

((The Bloodied Girl has left the thread.))

[DerArknight]

Before Fabiano realized what had happened, he was already stumbling to the ground, landing on his back.

His arm and face started to burn, just like back in his first encounter with Jaxon.

Said Jaxon was making a speedy exit.

"Fuck you!" Fabiano screamed, throwing the smoke bomb after him. It might have actually meant anything if the bomb had been activated.

And then things got much worse.

His outstretched arm was jerked away with some blood splattering around. The bullet didn't even truly hit. it was just a grazing shot that still managed to rip a chunk of his flesh off while passing by. Such was the power of a Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Police.

Not that Fabiano would have had time to be impressed while he lay on the ground screaming.

He needed to get back into cover. Using whatever power he had left, Fabiano rolled on his stomach, brought himself up into a position similar to the sprinters in the olympics and pushed himself off the ground, managing the one-meter-trip back behind the fountain. There he wasted no moment ripping open his backpack, taking out the medkit and putting whatever looked like it might help on his wound.

It was then that he remembered he wasn't alone.

"Philia, the fuck are you waiting for? Return fire!"

[WorldFat]

Philia widened her eyes, as part of Adrians fucking arm had been disconnected from his body.

She was too late. It was all her fault. Why couldn't she have just been faster? Such a usele- "Return-return what?!" Philia remembered she had a gun, but...

"F-Fire at- no! I won't I-" She can't. "I won't." She's not strong enough. What a loser.

"If we stay down we can - let me help you dress your wound - let me-"

Philia set her gun down for a moment, beside her and between herself and Adrian. She reached out to help him dress his wounds, trying to be as helpful as she can. Philia absolutely refuses to kill someone. And it's not like she can see the shooter anyways.

Surely, though, Adrian would stay in cover? Right?

Right?

[Catche Jagger]

“Adrian…?”

Leander said that he was here, somewhere out beyond the scope of his gun, one of the figures in the distance that, to Jen, remained unidentifiable. But she didn’t doubt Leander’s words. No, that wasn’t the reason for the lump in her throat.

Maybe it was Leander being cool-headed again, but he seemed to move with greater ease than Jen could have as he fired the gun again. She flinched.

The crack of the weapon was followed by a scream that seemed to rise up from the commotion. The voice sounded like it could have been Adrian’s, but it also could have been someone else. Before Jen could say anything he handed her the shotgun and told her to lay low. He was going to take another shot.

Jen wanted to stop him, to clear this up, to actually talk about any of it, but phrasings jumbled in her brain and couldn’t make their way to her mouth. Leander turned from her. He was going to make his move with or without her. Leander had saved her, but this was…

“Are you sure?” She finally found something solid to hold onto, and so she repeated it, a bit louder.

“Are you sure, Leander?”

[MurderWeasel]

"Sure enough."

Like that, Leander was off, darting away from Jen with the AWP cradled in his arms, searching for the next point from which to continue the attack. It was like the rainforest again, blowing a fruit into sticky chunks if he was lucky, making a lot of noise and little impact if he wasn't, then moving on to the next opportunity. Thinking about it like that, there was nothing terrible about it, nothing to make him hesitate. Jen's words wouldn't slow him down.

That porch he'd been looking at didn't actually have a very clear firing line, so he kept running past it, always paying attention to each footstep so he wouldn't trip and tumble to the ground, mess up his legs, or—maybe worse—the rifle. He turned a corner, into an alley between two old buildings, and jogged down it, getting closer to where the targets were.

Not too close, of course. Just enough to draw a bead.

[Wham Yubeesling]

And while all that was happening, well…

Well, nothing seemed to happen. Just that next time Adrian and Philia were to look behind themselves, they’d notice that they were only two of them now, and that that blue capsule that had been thrown after Jaxon was nowhere to be seen.

((continued elsewhere))

[DerArknight]

The good news was that Philia helped him with his wound. Helped him press something against it to stop the bleeding while wrapping some bandages around his arm. It still hurt, but he would survive.

But then there were the bad news.

Seriously?

"Philia, you don't get it. This is probably a sniper. Jaxon-" Fabiano looked around to make sure that the other boy had truly left the scene "-could only escape because the shot was aimed at me. Right now we are in the middle of an open field, only shielded by a freaking fountain. Whoever our enemy is won't leave such easy prey alone. We have to do something to scare them away.

"You don't even need to hit anyone. Just show them we have a weapon and are willing to use it."

[ItzToxie]

Yeah that was another shot popping off. This place was turning into a war zone and by the sounds of things, Ajay wasn’t getting backup on either side. Best to dip the fuck out.


He turned down another alleyway. He remembered the route he took to get there, before he came across the girl in the fountain.

An alleyway between two old buildings, perfect way to ditch this shithole. Just had to round the corner and he was on the home stretch.