The Taste of Salt

[Courtography]

(Caleb Bloch continued from I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner)

Caleb had spent the night ignoring his mentor's advice. He had not searched for his teammates or weapons. Instead he had spent his time on a lifeboat hiding under a couple life preservers and some rope. It had worked, but it had been difficult to lie still when he knew that some of the most vicious kids in school could be looking for any chance to gut him like a fish. The mentor must not have minded too much; Caleb was able to spend the night without interruption.

Now morning had come and with it had come the news that killers kept working even in the dark. He had been right to hide. Now had come the time to hide where few would dare to follow. The floating crates were a difficult area even for someone used to the water like him. It was difficult to keep steady while moving on the crates. The ocean was never fully still and the surface of the crates was slick from its spray.

It didn't matter. He'd rather be cold and wet than have to deal with the monsters lurking behind the faces of his classmates.

He stopped his movement away from the rest of the vessels of the flotilla to rest for a moment. The way he had to move across the surface of the crates was cramping his legs horribly. Besides, no one was out here anyway, it had just stopped being a danger zone. He sat cross legged on the crate, trying to keep his balance. If he leaned too much one way he'd fall in the water for sure, and he had an open package of crackers in his bag. Caleb wished he was sitting in his room at home, holding Cornelius the snake instead.

Instead that's when a wave came up and splashed his face. His eyes burned and he could feel the ocean's taste on his tongue.

[Sh4dE]

((Gus Thicke continued from Bro, I'm stoked you're here, man!))

Gustavo's quest of returning to Jasper and Shoshanna to tell them about Stokes' Shop and to get the cheese back to either trade it for something more valuable or to trade something else for a knife or anything that could cut the cheese had several complications.

The first complication being exhaustion. Gus didn't have any sleep and honestly carrying the cannonball the whole way made him even more exhausted. He considered dropping it, but you know, he had to stay armed just in case. So his journey had been stalled by him finding a secure place to sleep in and to sleep for a couple of hours until he was woken up by the announcements.

The announcements were the second complication that slowed him down, mostly because the deaths shocked him really hard. This time even harder than last time.

He knew Seth, poor Seth, that guy didn't deserve any of that. He apparently got killed by a duo of rich boys. Gus didn't really like rich people that much. Well, Cristo whom he had known was kind of alright, but he was dead now, too. Killed by Junji from earlier, even.

Even though he barely knew Leslie, his death shocked him even more than Seth's. What was even more maddening was who killed Leslie: It was Matias, a bully and asshole he knew back from the soccer days and even nowadays he seemed to be still quite an unlikeable jerk. Gus really didn't like Matias, and the whole killing Leslie thing wasn't changing that. Leslie just bailed and got himself killed by Matias! Unbelievable.

It was incredibly surreal to imagine that he had been alive hours ago. Nando always said Revenge Arcs were the best thing about SOTF and Gus temporarily got the feeling that kicking Matias in the crotch would solve the whole Leslie being dead thing, but he wasn't sure if he had any reason to avenge Leslie if Leslie had requested to be shot. Matias was still a jerk, though, so Gus still had plenty of reasons to not be friendly with him if he met him. Speaking of jerks, Eric also managed to kill Cassini. That stupid thief still owed him his equipment.

The third complication, and most important one was that he still had no map whatsoever so he had no orientation where the heck Shoshanna's ship was. At least it wasn't dark anymore, though, so he had a better vision than at nights. Unfortunately he found himself in front of a dead end of sorts, because there were Takeshi's Castle shenanigans going on in front of him with the cargo floats and he wasn't sure if he wanted to cross it. Especially not with his cannonball in hand. That would be difficult to balance.

He seriously considered just turning around and find another way, but luckily he saw a boy in front of him on a crate. He couldn't see the color of the bandana, either, so he just had to shout to start a conversation.

"Hey dude! What are you doing out there? Isn't it like super dangerous on these crates?"

[Courtography]

The plan wasn't working. Someone else insisted on being here.

Caleb turned his face towards the voice behind him. He couldn't see him. His eyes were forcing themselves shut in response to the burning from the saltwater. Was this where he was going to die?

Hopefully not. He had only been asked a question.

"That's the-"

He paused for a moment and spat downward, trying to get the salty taste out of his mouth. He knew from experience that this would do next to nothing, yet he did it anyway. What he needed to do was wash his mouth out with fresh water or something else to drink. But he probably couldn't afford to do that right now anyway, not with this guy confronting him and the limited amount of liquids in his supplies.

"That's the point. I didn't think anyone would come here."

He switched his posture so he was kneeling on the crate instead. He tentatively opened his left eye and squinted at the newcomer. He was blurry. That was the problem with squinting.

[Sh4dE]

That...that was actually pretty smart. If Gus had spawned here at the start of the game, maybe Eric wouldn't have been able to bother him.

Now the question was, how would he be able to go across the cargo floats without losing his cannonball or falling into the water. It seemed dangerous. Maybe the boy in front of him could help him solving that problem. He did recognise him now a little bit, he seemed familiar, but he couldn't place a name. He's like in the school band or something.

"I didn't plan to come here by choice, either. I don't have a map. I just walk around randomly."

He couldn't see the bandanna from that far away, so he tried to ask Caleb whether he was in Claudia's team.

"Uh, do you happen to be in the green team by any chance?"

[Courtography]

Okay, Caleb could see enough to tell that this guy was bigger than him. Other than that he couldn't tell much yet. He blinked his other eye open. It probably wouldn't help much to identify him, but Caleb still wanted to know who he was talking to. Asking was so active though. He wouldn't ask. No way. A killer could take advantage of him not recognizing them to attack him by surprise.

He brushed a little bit of wet hair out of his face. Some of it had come loose from the ponytail he had tied with the bandana. He would have to fix it later. It sticking to his forehead had annoyed him a bit.

"I'm uh, blue and white team I guess?"

He couldn't remember the name right now. He just knew those were the colors on the fabric they had given him.

Had he seen anyone on the green team?

Caleb didn't remember the bandanas of anyone he had met so far. That was a mistake. It could help him out. Maybe if he came across a notebook he'd write down people and teams in the future.

That mentor dude had told him to avoid the cruise ship. Maybe instead of acting like a mute idiot he should ask something back.

"Have you uh, been to the cruise ship? I heard it was bad."

[Sh4dE]

Aw, the dude wasn't in his team. So the only team member Gus knew was dead. Then Caleb asked him whether the cruise ship was bad. Gus wasn't sure what he meant by that.

"Bad in what way? Like in bad condition? Dirty? I woke up there and it looked pretty clean. Got assaulted by Eric, though!"

Oh yeah. Those were the times.

"You should stay away from Eric! He's a liar and a thief!"

Although, Caleb probably already knew that from the announcements.

[Courtography]

If he hadn't been kneeling he would have been tempted to step backwards in reaction to the guy becoming more animated.

"Maybe that's who he meant," he responded thoughtfully.

His vision had cleared up now. He recognized the guy. They went to school together. That wasn't the most helpful recollection. If they didn't go to school together they wouldn't be here. Caleb thought they were in the same grade but he wasn't completely confident about it.

Either way this guy didn't seem like a threat, but Caleb still thought it was best if he kept to himself.

"So uh, are you looking for anyone?"

No need to be a bitch about it though.

[Sh4dE]

"Who meant what?," Gus silently uttered to himself in confusion, inaudible because of the distance and the waves being louder than his question.

The dude was asking him whether he searched anyone.

"Yeah! I was in search of my team mate Leslie! But, uh, he's..."

Gus wasn't sure how to describe his situation.

"He's dead now. Apparently."

Then, he was reminded of the shop.

"Oh, by the way! There's a shop boat somewhere where you can trade items. I was there, too. It might be useful for you, too!"

[Courtography]

"Oh," Caleb responded to the revelation that the person the boy was looking for was dead. He had heard the announcements, of course, but he didn't feel very emotionally connected to the kids who had died so far. It shouldn't have been a surprise that other people did feel that way, but somehow it still came as a bit of a shock.

The shop boat could be useful, if he could tear himself away from his fear of moving to the more populated areas of their execution chambers. It was possible that he could trade his morphine for a weapon. Some of his classmates were sure to have hurt themselves by now. Some of them might even just want to die in the hazy world that he had heard painkillers could provide.

Or maybe he should keep them. That wouldn't be the worst way to go if some players cornered him somewhere.

He couldn't focus on that now. He might have an anxiety attack in front of this guy.

"I uh, that's cool, thanks."

Caleb didn't have anything else to share. He had been mostly successful in avoiding the rest of his classmates. This guy would probably figure that out soon and leave. Then Caleb would get to avoid being confrontational.

[Sh4dE]

Gus didn't have anything else to share, either. Well, he did have a lot of thoughts he could share, but you know, there wasn't really any need to waste his energy shouting them from the distance.

"Uh, I guess I'll return and look for another way to cross this thing."

Gus scratched his head. Yeah, he still wasn't that keen on stepping on those things. He really, really did not want to drown.

"So, I'll go now, unless you want to follow? I could show you where the shop is."

[backslash]

A voice speaks softly from Caleb's collar:

"Good morning, Miss Bloch. I'm sure you're bright enough to come to this conclusion on your own, but I am going to suggest not following contestants on other teams back to locations that they claim are safe."

[Courtography]

So this guy was finally getting the message and deciding to scram. That was just fine with Caleb.

"Yeah I'm gonna stick with my plan here. Good luck."

The wish of good luck was at least a little genuine. He seemed pleasant enough and Caleb didn't want him to die. They were on separate teams and that meant at least one of them had to die, ignoring unusual circumstances.

The mentor had chimed in to state the obvious. It was a little annoying, but maybe at some point the guy would say something useful, so he shouldn't be too rude.

"Yeah, is it a trap?" he whispered in reply.

He knew it was a bad idea, but it could be useful to know if it was a general recommendation or if there was a gang of psychos waiting to hack him to pieces at another location.

[Sh4dE]

"Oh, alright! Good luck with plan, too, dude!"

Caleb's plan of being in a place where no one else wanted to be, was actually pretty smart. Though if time passes he might get hungry. That reminded him.

"Oh, by the way, if you ever get like hungry and don't want to eat the food they gave us, we'll soon have a big fucking cheese wheel there, so you're welcome to come by and eat a piece!"

Gus smiled at Caleb and then moved back to the cruise ship to find a way around the floats.

((Gus Thicke continued in United 2))

[backslash]

The voice speaks again at a more normal volume once Gus has departed:

"The situation with the, ah, 'shop' doesn't look sustainable to me. At least one killer among them. I would stay away even without someone obviously trying to entice you back. Beyond that, how are you faring today?"

[Courtography]

If Caleb was stupid he would have followed the boy at the mention of cheese. He loved cheese. If his mom dragged him along when doing grocery shopping the main place he didn't complain about was Whole Foods. They had cheese samples and that was enough for him. Plus they had a bunch of silly things there that he could get a kick out of.

However he was not stupid. So instead of getting cheese and possibly getting a knife between his ribs he'd be out on the crates chatting with the mentor person. It wasn't nearly as exciting, but it was smarter.

"I'm fine I guess. Just trying to avoid the busy areas."

He probably wasn't showing up on camera much since he was laying low. That was probably stressing out his family members a bit. They probably wanted visual evidence on a regular basis that he was doing okay. Sadly, the best strategies to make it back would be boring, so they would just have to accept the extra stress.

If he made it out he would probably have to hear about how worried everyone was and deal with a lot of extra attention and fussing over.

There were worse things, of course. Being on SOTF for instance.