Tequila Skies, Gray Goodbyes

[Brackie]

((Catarina Markovitz continued from this might be the end of me (not clickbait)))

Catarina was standing in the middle of the office, circular saw in hand, ready to lunge. She hadn't changed the blade, in much the same way she hadn't changed her clothes since she woke up two days ago. She didn't see the point, at all. If she needed to run and get it, and then wave it at somebody, it probably wouldn't matter which blade she used. The little booklet said that the one she had in right now was made of diamonds, that they could cut through cement, and if she didn't have any real diamonds with her then what harm was there keeping this one on?

What the hell were those things made of, anyway? The furred monster on the screen, or whatever she heard crawl by after her escape from Esther, or the thing that Darren and Jarrett pretended they saw before they abandoned her? Were diamonds going to cut it? Literally?

All she had were goddamn questions. She hated having to ask.

She hadn't seen anyone, or anything, since she gathered her feelings and ran from the dormitories. Was she hurt? Absolutely not. Not anymore, at least. Catarina had never travelled this far from the town before, and it only got colder and colder the more she walked. The buildings were like wind tunnels, granted, but out here was just raw unfiltered snow and frost. Through the glint of the day and the white of the grey, she saw an office. No, that wasn't correct, actually - she saw the banner, waving above the office, having been somewhat knocked askew, with whatever words that used to be on it no longer showing from her path inwards. When she got closer, she saw covered windows, plastered with flyers like they were...retail stores. That had sales. But instead of promising 50% of whatever poor people wanted, it advertised beds, friends, and a call for help.

Nobody had been around to see the fool she'd made of herself when she knocked on the door and stood out the front for what had to have been several minutes. That was a blessing, at least.

When she finally came to her goddamn senses and walked in, she saw it was empty. Structurally, it looked worse than any building she'd stepped in for the past two days, with the walls and floor especially looking like it had been shelled. She saw a streak of blood across the ground in front of her, but no body at the end of it. A peculiar stench hung in the air, one that Catarina couldn't really get out with perfume. Seriously, she tried, she had a bottle in her bag she'd packed especially for the trip - her finger was tired, and there was a brief spot at the end of the streak that smelt like sandalwood and ylang-ylang, but it was still there. what was it?

Eventually, she'd let it go, which is why she was now standing in the centre of the room, in front of one of the desks, holding her sawblade.

This was the only time she'd held the sawblade. She almost considered it hers, if it weren't for the fact that nobody she loved or respected or was owed a favor gifted this to her. It was heavier than anything she'd held at the gym, so it wasn't like she was going to keep it on her all the time. But once she'd taken off her gloves, she got a grip.

A few practice swings made it clear that it wasn't going to be as much of a problem as she'd thought. It was clunky, yes, but there was always a time in her life she was practicing swinging a dumbbell at someone, and this shouldn't be any different. Just a bit heavier. At least she could use both her hands. She hadn't pulled the trigger, yet, test out its full capabilities. It was going to happen. At some point, she'd have to use this thing if she wanted to live. She didn't like the idea of it, but it's not like her clothes could get any filthier.

On her fifth lunge, with her third-loudest grunt, her finger bustled against the trigger of the saw, setting off a suddenly explosion of sound and vibrations from her hands. The surprise tripped her forward, and she fell into the desk with the saw in front. Something caught as she hung there, hands still vibrating, but with a depth to it that she hadn't experienced seconds before. Eventually, through closed eyes, it quietened down.

Catarina opened her eyes, hanging from the saw, and saw the that bottom of it had made its way through the top of the desk.

She blinked.

She tugged on it.

It didn't move, at least not in any meaningful way.

She felt her knuckles crack as she pulled herself to her feet, anger vibrating through the sides of her hands.

She sighed, loudly, then put her hands back on the saw.

She pulled the trigger once again, setting off the loud groaning noise once more.

[Primrosette]

PJ was not sure about anything anymore.

((PJ Summers continued from Like a bird perched on a live wire.))

PJ had just ended up travelling with Julia since it seemed like Tess hadn't followed them and it was too late for him to worry about her anymore. He had bigger things to worry about. And it wasn't just the chimera. Revenants. Some prototype called Vermiculus. What the hell had been going on while he was hidden away...? God, he had been really lucky to not find any of these monsters. He would honestly be screwed!

But he felt like he had to be responsible for once in his life. If he had to fight back to protect his companion, then he would do so for her. Not that he had told Julia that. He didn't want to make her feel awkward about some random guy trying to protect her with his gun. It was obvious that his gun wouldn't be enough to defend against those creatures.

He and Julia were heading to the union office. Sure, it might be a bad idea, but....

Something had to be done, right?

"Okay, let's-" PJ stopped speaking when he heard a noise inside of the cabin and he paused, letting out a few shaky breathes. "Okay, okay.... Maybe it's just another person...?"

He glanced at Julia with an unsure smile and he knew that he would have to make a decision quietly.

He sighed softly. He hated conflict with a burning passion.

"I'll go and check it out to see if it's safe. Stay here, Julia." He said, trying to sound reassuring.

He made his way over to the cabin more carefully and slowly. He didn't want to startle whoever was in there. He really didn't want to make things worse. He moved to the side of the door and he knocked on it gently, biting his lip nervously.

"H-Hello? I heard a noise in here. Are you okay in there...?" He asked worriedly.

[Spindarene]

((Julia Raymond continued from Like a bird perched on a live wire))

Julia didn’t want to admit to herself how good it had felt to be traveling with PJ. She barely knew him, but just having someone there beside her made her feel so much calmer, somehow. She felt like whatever dangers she faced now, she would no longer be doing it alone.

She wondered what had happened to Tess. She felt bad leaving Tess behind, but the other girl had seemed so out of it, and there were one or two moments where she thought that Tess had been looking suspiciously at her and PJ, like she didn’t trust them. Or like they shouldn’t be trusting her. Still, the other girl was clearly not in her right mind, and Julia felt bad for abandoning her. If they were in a normal situation, Julia liked to think that she would have gotten Tess the help she needed, but there was no help out here.

As PJ stopped outside the Union Office, so did Julia. She heard it too. A weird buzzing noise that sounded vaguely familiar, but that Julia couldn’t place. She felt like she should have protested when PJ went in to investigate, telling her to hang back and stay safe. She felt like she should have been better than letting her ally potentially head into danger while she just stood back and watched. However, she did as she was told. She was tired. She was tired of running into danger and thinking on her feet, and it was nice to have someone else take the reins for once. Plus, he had a gun and she didn’t. Nevertheless, she readied the Chimera’s spine in her hand as PJ stepped into the office and called out to whoever was inside.

[Brackie]

The saw buzzed as Catarina pulled it from the table. It had lodged itself in the table so easily she hadn't even felt it, and with the same engine running, it came out just as well. She'd never been handy, more or less letting other people do that part of being poor, but once she got out of here, she could see herself using this more. Just as long as there was safety involved.

So that was that, wasn't it? Eventually, she was going to have to use this on one of the monsters if she wanted to live. There would have to be death, somehow. Death was inevitable, as numerous husbands of wives past taught her, but if she played her cards right, it wouldn't be for her.

Other people, not so much.

There was a knock at the door, and a voice she didn't know. The last few hours were repeating themselves, only this time, there was someone inside to yell at her for being stupid.

Before Catarina took a single step towards the door, she stopped. Every single interaction she'd had with another person since she'd been on this island had ended badly. Anger led to an attempt to take advantage of her. Vulnerability led to her being discarded. Maybe...maybe she could make things different.

Maybe this time, she had to be the one in control.

After a few seconds silence, she strode loudly over to the door, and gave the lower half a swift, loud kick. It didn't give, because Catarina hadn't tried, but she knew if she'd wanted to try, that door would be gone. But, well, it wasn't meant to be like that.

It was a warning.

Catarina swiftly opened the door, table saw in hand. She looked at the pale man, then over at the pale woman. Then back to the pale man. Even with everyone she'd met so far, this was still the least caucasian she'd felt in years.

"If I'd been dangerous, you'd be dead," she said to the man, bringing forth her coldest voice. In her social life, she'd often saved this one for her most judgemental moments. Right now, it was doing pretty well as its own character.

She started walking back towards the desk she'd maimed.

"Get in here. Last one in? Close the door.

[Primrosette]

PJ had been fidgeting and glanced back at Julia a few times when the person inside was stomping loudly over to the door and he tensed up when he heard a thump on the other side of the door, making him inhaled sharply. He shook his head and he exhaled quickly, looking back at the door fully when it was opened up. He noticed that it was an older lady and he definitely didn't recognize her. Had he seen her on the cruise? Maybe? It was a bit hard to remember as he had been traumatized after losing one of the girls that he had loved deeply.

Before he could even talk, the lady had suddenly spoken to him in a cold tone and he felt himself closing his mouth quickly. He didn't want to cause any trouble for her and he just froze on what to say. What could he even say?

"S...Sorry." Was all that he could muster quietly and he blinked a few times in surprise. What did he feel like a kid getting somewhat scolded for not being more on guard? "Oh, uh.... Thank you for letting us in, um...?"

He could only sound like he was overwhelmed and he glanced back at Julia, waving his hand over to her. He then motioned for her to come over to the cabin and he glanced inside of the place, making sure to keep his eye on the woman. He keep the gun by his side, making sure that he didn't look too dangerous with it.

He stepped inside cautiously. "...We were actually trying to look for friendly people... Well, not really friendly. Just people that are not hostile." He glanced at the table that looked like it had gone through something traumatic. "...Oh man."

[Spindarene]

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman who looked like she’d had a fair amount of cosmetic surgery. Her vibe seemed to be one of annoyance combined with a slightly unhinged mental state, which was not helped by the giant saw in one of her hands. Julia felt hesitant to follow her into the building, but PJ was already stepping inside. Reluctantly, Julia followed him.

PJ looked a bit overwhelmed and was stammering over his words a little, so Julia decided to take over.

“I’m Julia,” she said, looking directly at the woman, hoping that her face conveyed the steely resolve that she was aiming for and not the anxiety and exhaustion that she was feeling. “And this is PJ. We’re just looking for a place to rest for a while.”

When PJ let out an exclamation, she turned her head to see what he was looking at and saw the table that had a deep, jagged gash in it. She looked from the table to the saw in the woman’s hands.

She was feeling less comfortable with this arrangement by the minute.

[Brackie]

"I said close the door."

Her cold voice carried through, still an act yet still strongly spoken. Catarina sat on the desk-table that everyone seemed so enamoured by; one leg to the ground, the other folded over.

"Pretty powerful, right? Went right in."

She released the saw from her hand and placed it on the wooden tabletop. She faced back towards the two new people and folded her arms.

"Julia. Peejay. I'm Catarina. I will be frank, I'd much rather get back to my family sooner rather than later, so if you could tell me what you've learned about those things out there."

A heavily implied 'so we can kill them' hung in the air.

How was Catarina doing at this whole thing? They seemed impressed, in awe of the power she exuded. A small well of fire formed in her stomach, whose sole purpose seemed to be to push a smile onto her face. But that didn't match up with her energy. Again, simply, she needed this. If she got angry, people yelled at her. If she was vulnerable, they treated her like nothing.

Awe and inspiration, that's what she needed. She wanted to say she had no experience surviving in a place like this, but the reality was she had two-and-a-half days experience surviving in a place like this. So to become awed and inspirational, she just had to pretend. Took what she knew about being a matriarch of the Seattle social scene, and just file off the particulars. Pretend she knew more than she did, but not everything. Be somebody they thought they could trust, especially when compared to the monsters. She couldn't be a leader, but she had to be a fount. She couldn't be the muscle, but she had to be relied upon.

She had to be wanted.

She had to be needed.

What else was it going to take for that?

[Primrosette]

PJ was still staring at the table while the lady commented on the damage that had been made to it and he suddenly felt a uncomfortable shiver go through his body. But then he was thinking about how the saw could possibly be somewhat helpful. Against the creatures that they are likely to run into at some point. He just hoped that they were able to get more people to help out. He needed to find someone with some good firepower. He never used a gun in his life, so it would be better if he practiced, right?

The woman told them her name and he was pretty sure that she said his name wrongly. But that didn't matter at all.

"Hey, Catarina. It's..." Nice to meet you. Don't even think of saying that, PJ! You fool! "Well, I wish we haven't met like this. But, well, life hasn't been very fair lately."

He paused for a brief moment and he turned to look at Julia, his eyes were dancing with sympathy.

"Julia actually had an encounter with the chimera. So I think it would be better to hear it from her." He said politely, feeling a wave of exhaustion taking over. He hadn't really slept much at all since Daniela died.

[Spindarene]

Julia fidgeted uncomfortably when the woman threw out a blasé comment about how much damage her saw had done to the table. PJ seemed uncomfortable too, and Julia’s grip tightened subtly around the Chimera spine in her hand.

However, the woman then began talking about the monsters, asking what they knew about them. Julia’s eyes narrowed briefly. She didn’t trust this woman. Changing the topic to the monsters felt like a decoy, lulling them into a false sense of security so that they would assume that her intention was to use the saw on the monsters. Julia didn’t quite believe it. The woman’s comment about the saw’s power felt a little bit too much like boasting, a little bit too much like a threat.

The problem was, PJ seemed to buy this woman’s motivation, and before she knew it Julia was being volunteered to recount her story of escaping the Chimera. Julia was more than a little annoyed with PJ, but she took a deep breath and began to recount her story as succinctly as she could.

“It can smell things. Like most predators, that seems to be its primary sense. I was hiding in a warehouse and it found me. I ran away, and it chased me. It can climb stairs, but it’s big, so I was able to get away. There was some scaffolding against the wall of the warehouse, so I climbed that and it was too big to follow me. So then I broke a window and got away. I went back to the warehouse later and found these.” She held up the spine in her hand. “It threw them at me when I was climbing the scaffolding. Luckily, most of them bounced off and none of them hit me. If they had, I would have been paralyzed. This end,” she pointed at the tip “is poisoned.” Julia took a deep breath before she continued.

“I don’t know how well that saw would work against it. As a last resort, maybe, but if it poisons you, you’d never get a chance to use it. I don’t know how much damage PJ’s gun would do to it, but that should probably be our first weapon of choice. The thing is, we shouldn’t be trying to fight it. We need to be in a place with lots of exits, so that if it finds us, we can run. It’ll chase us if we run, but it’s big and it has a hard time getting into small spaces. If we can find a place with lots of exits that would be too small for it to get through, we should hole up there and stay hidden.”

In the back of her mind, Julia wondered what she was doing with these people. She felt like she was getting pushed around, and she didn’t like it.

[Brackie]

Exactly, there were three of those things, weren't there? The Chimera was the one they all saw at the start, in the video, killing their professors. That must have meant the Revenant or the Vermiculus was what she heard before she met...

Catarina zoned out for a moment before returning to Julia's story. She often did so when the subject wasn't about her, or someone she knew, but it seemed important to hold up appearances and keep the pretense. And so, Julia's recount began. It was big, it could smell them, it could throw spines, which was what Julia seemed to be holding in her hand. Catarina had glanced down at the saw in her own hand upon the mention of its range. Julia didn't want to fight it, which, if Catarina had been in that same position, she probably would have had the same experience. But unfortunately, Julia had the most experience with them, so she wasn't going to be given that option if Catarina had anything to say about it. She needed underlings, and Julia was right there. PJ was also in the vicinity.

Overcome with an urge to backtalk Julia's less-than-sensible solution of hiding from a monster that could smell them, Catarina curled her bottom lip slightly, a wonderous feat given its relative size. But she instead nodded at every appropriate juncture.

"That is a lot of things you've learned."

She stood up from her seat on the tabletop, before straightening her posture.

"If you don't want to fight it, and you think I can't-" Catarina started, before taking a slight pause. The pause was forever in Catarina's world, because she was trying to deal with the assertation that she couldn't do something. It went by, as did the pause, "-fight it, then I think it's important we spread the information out as far as possible. Because someone out there needs to do it, and they need to know as much as possible."

Catarina walked by her two guests, before reaching the door.

"You can rest if you want. I'll keep watch."

She put her hand to the door handle, and closed the door that nobody had bothered to, behind them.

---

Many hours later...

[ItzToxie]

He’d killed at least one of them. He knew he got two, but he could confirm one of them KIA.

Carl kept running, even as his breath burned. His hands were numb, and the only reason he knew he was still holding the rifle was by looking down and physically seeing it. He had to keep running. He had to keep moving otherwise he would die.

He’d long since passed the village he was sure. He’d made a wrong turn somewhere. It was dark, even with the white snow in front of him, Carl could barely see in front of him now, the storm got worse.

Left, left, right left. He kept running. He didn’t stop. Either he’d come across shelter soon or the other side of the island. Whichever came first. Maybe he’d drop. Imagine that. All that buildup, all that fighting, giving the boys at Jay Ache that big ass scare, only to end up curled up under a tree, half buried like Jack fuckin’ Torrence.

It would be Carl’s lu-

His boot caught a rock, and he tumbled down. Falling, ground, falling ground. Didn’t hurt a bit. Too damn cold to feel.

Carl finally landed at the bottom of the quarry with a ‘poomf’. He’d have laughed if he hadn’t had the air knocked out of his lungs. He pushed up out of the snow. Found a familiar place…

He laughed then.


The door slammed open, and Carl slammed it closed behind him. He slid to the ground, shivering like a maniac, blued nose and lips, frost glued to the edges of his glasses and his mustache.

((Carl Kowalski continued from FUBAR.))

It didn’t take long for him to realize he wasn’t alone. One arm held his Dragunov close to his chest, the other pointed out open palmed. Despite it all, he found the ability to smile through chattering teeth.

“Gnkgnkgmnn- Y-YYou gu-uys here f-f-for the f-fflyers t-t-too?”

[Primrosette]

PJ had been looking through some papers that had been pretty useless as the writing on them had faded away or being mudded with dust and dirt. Gosh, what did he even think that he would find? Nothing in this place was going to help him or the girls or any other people that were still in danger out there. He needed to think of something, anything...! He felt so frustrated over how helpless and useless he was feeling.

He then heard a noise outside and he instantly tensed up, making sure to get his gun into his hands.

He then jumped when the door was opening loudly and then slammed shut. He almost couldn't breathe for a few seconds. His finger had almost went right to the trigger. God, he almost made a big mistake.

He noticed that the man who was definitely a lot more older than him, looked like he went through some hell. He made sure to lower his gun to his side and he took a few steps forward towards the man cautiously.

"Jesus. I could have just shot you, man. I'm glad that you weren't one of those monsters from outside." PJ let out a laugh due to how nervous and anxious he was feeling and then he looked a bit puzzled. "Flyers...?"

[Spindarene]

Julia jumped as the quiet that she was just beginning to get used to was shattered by a door slamming open and then immediately slamming shut again. Looking over, she saw a tall, slightly crazy-looking guy sitting on the floor in front of the door, grinning up at them despite looking terribly cold. He was clutching a long, thin, old-looking rifle.

Before Julia could think of something to say, PJ chimed in to mildly chide the guy for surprising them all, and respond to the man's bizarre question.

Julia was quickly becoming irritated with how trusting PJ was of everyone they met. Why did he assume that everyone was automatically friendly? Hadn't he been out there, hadn't he noticed what kind of situation they were in? Or had he been living under a rock the past what–three days?

Ignoring PJ's comments, Julia spoke directly to the man.

"Who are you?"

Her tone came out sharper than she’d intended, but fuck it. She didn't even care who he was, she already knew that she didn’t know him and she didn’t trust him, but it was the first thing that popped out of her mouth.

[Brackie]

Catarina hadn't really thought about the fact she was still carrying around her suitcase. She had been here for days, and yet her belongings had gone with her every step of the way. Things she didn't need, things that weren't going to help her live, all while people she once saw in the hallways of that ship disappeared and died. And yet, the luggage with rollers remained.

But she'd had time to think, over the rest of the day. The sun dipped in the sky, the two new people milled about and got their rest, and Catarina empied her suitcase. Everything she needed was in her bags, everything she didn't was in the corner. She could see the clothes, but everything else stopped being things that mattered, and instead became things that once were. Her suitcase sat on the nearest table by the window.

"PJ" and Julia had been up for a while, stuck in their milling stage. Catarina was about to go speak to them again, broach the subject of the monsters once more, when the door burst open and in burst a frozen man, chattering about the flyers. The things stuck in the windows that had caused Catarina to stand outside for longer than necessary. Yes, those things, that made her look like a fool. Speaking of fools, "PJ" began to talk to him with such a casualness only reserved for people who didn't really get where they were. Because as the man slid down the door's broadside, Catarina sprinted to the corner and grabbed all of her discarded clothing, suddenly about to receive some payoff for having packed for the triple the days of the trip.

As Julia questioned him like he was some sort of criminal, Catarina shuffled past with her clothing bundle that almost obscured her vision, and dumped it all onto the centre of the man's frame.

"We don't have a fire here, so this will have to do. Keep still, your body heat will catch up."

Catarina of course had no idea if it would help, of course, but again, as long as she just pretended she knew what she was doing, she would inspire confidence in all around her. She knelt down, knees screaming in protest, as she spread her spare woolens and jackets across the man's body.

"And yes, I was here for the flyers. They made me look like a damn fool, because I waited for so long for someone to answer the door and nobody was here. Whole place was deserted. Smelt like a fucking slaughterhouse to boot."

[ItzToxie]

…..”Th-Thank you…” Carl chittered after being covered in spare clothes.

He was silently shaking after that, not really replying to the rest of the questioning for a while.

Eventually the shivering slowed, as did Carl’s breathing.

“Th-the flyers. M-my bad. W-w-we s-sset them up; day one. T-thought rescue was comin’. G-got at-attacked that night. K-kept getting attacked. Bugs…the b-bear. R-rescue wasn’t coming.”

More shivering.

“Lost t-too many. Got mad. Can’t- can’t kill monsters. F-f-figured I was- I was dead anyway;

…G-Got, got even.”

He leaned his head up at the people who’d most likely saved his life. He’d probably just damned them by being here.

“I s-ss-shot the guys that t-took us here. Janus Hayes. I kn- I know I killed at least one of ‘em. If- if I’m not d-dead… I’ma- I’ma do it again…”