Last Scott Standing

[Tapey]

{{Scott Pierce: START}}

{{1 hour after game starts}}

How long have I been walking?

Scott wondered around aimlessly across the town. His legs were starting to feel numb, and the backpack he’s carrying was surely not helping. He didn’t know how long had this been going on. All he remembered was him waking up in a casual, small house with concrete white walls. There was a bag near him, containing some supplies and a pistol. He took the bag out, and that’s it. He then wondered across the town, hoping to find someone, or at least, a sign of life. It’s been nearly forever for him, and yet, no results.

Feeling desperate, he took out the pistol he got, and stared at it while walking. A lot of questions came up to his mind.

Do I really have to kill someone?

What if I don’t want to?

Is there any other way to get out of here?

Sadly, he couldn’t answer any of those questions. He started to feel more exhausted as he stepped forward. That’s when he knew he was going up a hill. As he continued to walk forward, he saw a tombstone right in front of him.

And there was another one next to it.

And more of them.

Of course, Scott thought.The cemetery

For him, this is not a good sign.

The cemetery was exactly what he expected: dead, lifeless, and sorrowful. He wanted to turn away, but he was too tired to do so. Might as well sit here and rest, he thought, even though deep down he knew this is not a good spot to rest.

As he was about to sit down, he saw a body lying across the graveyard. The body seemed familiar, but he couldn’t tell who it was. Curious, he moved forward to the body, only to find it was Scott Wallace.

How could he forgot his name?

People often mistaken both of them, along with the other Scott’s in his class. It was hilarious for him.

But the shocking part wasn’t him finally found a friend, but the other Scott he found was already lying there, lifeless, as blood was nearly everywhere around him.

“Gahh!” He screamed in fright, as he lost balance and fell backwards.

This is the first classmate he met.

And the first corpse he saw from this dreaded program.

[Bowser]

(James Bagstad Continued from Cannery Blues)

It had been roughly an hour since James had left the cannery, and still Mary was nowhere to be seen. Granted this wasn't exactly a shock, he had gone in a totally different direction than Mary had when she ran off so the odds of meeting her again were slim. Hell the odds of seeing her alive at all again were slim. But still, a part James had hoped that he would run into her again. If only so they could part on at least somewhat better terms.

Though after James killed Paxton right in front of her, she likely didn't want anything to do with him anymore.

He couldn't blame her if she did, actually. He was pretty pissed at himself too. Yeah he hadn't meant to do it, but Paxton's death was 100% avoidable. Even if Pax had tried to kill him, James could of done literally anything other than what he did and everyone would have left with their lives. Hell Paxton wasn't even actually a threat, the man left the safety on and forgot to load his damn gun, so his death was meaningless in the long run! There was no reason for him to die. But yet his body still laid there in the cannery, bloodly and unmoving on the locker room floor. All because of James' own stupidity.

If nothing else though, his initial problem of being unarmed was no longer an issue. Though he would still rather have Paxton by his side than Paxton's shotgun in his hands.

Just as James had entered the graveyard though, he could hear another person screaming in terror nearby. Freezing in place, he couldn't help but to question if he should even rush in there. Sure, somebody may be in danger, but if they were to die he would be another step closer to home. Not to mention he would be risking both his life and the possibility of killing two people all before the first announcement were to drop. Nether of which were gambles he particularly wanted to take.

But even then...

"Fuck it" James said to himself, charging straight into action.

Within a minute, the sight of another person standing over what appeared to be a dead body came into view. James, as you would expect from somebody who had been in a death game for all of an hour, was naturally more than a little spooked by this.

"Jesus fuck!" James yelled out, jumping back as soon as he realized just what it was he was seeing. He just had to hope this guy hadn't been the one to do the deed.

[Blastinus*]

(Cole Peters continued from Conviction)

As expected, supplies had not been forthcoming on this island. Cole had picked over some of the ramshackle houses in his district, hoping that there had been some tools left behind, some writing supplies, or just some extra food. When that proved fruitless, he'd set his sights on the island proper and...well, here he was, staring at the fence surrounding this dreary place and pondering to himself whether it was electrified. Would whoever set it up bother with something like that? He couldn't tell. He'd never been in a graveyard before.

Well, he decided, it hardly mattered either way. He was already dead, after all. He reached out and grabbed the fence. Nothing happened. So far so good, he thought, and he climbed up and over in a few long strides. Boy Scouts had given him plenty of practice at climbing and maneuvering, so a simple chain-link fence didn't prove to be much of an obstacle.

"Should have put in some barbed wire," he muttered. "Would have actually made it a challenge."

He'd just finished dropping down on the other side when a scared cry echoed through the air. Cole didn't even think, taking off like a shot through the scattered gravestones, his shield raised and at the ready. What he was going to do once he got there, who could say? He'd never been very good at long-term scheming.

Clearing the other side of the gazebo, there he saw him, and the other him, both of which were staring at something, something that looked a lot like a...

"Oh my..." Cole swallowed an expletive and just looked at the other two men. He realized that he knew their names. James and Scott had never been close friends of his, but he'd seen them in the halls from time to time. As for the body...another Scott. He couldn't place which one. The odd angle of his neck showed how he died, but little else. The gazebo up above, and him lying below...Had he fallen, or was he pushed?

"What...what happened?" he asked, even as his eyes darted around for clues. There was no sign of a bag or a weapon. This man had been robbed; whether pre or post-mortem, Cole couldn't tell, but that was an incredibly worrying sign.

[Tapey]

Scott was still stunned on what he witnessed.

A corpse. A real, dead body, locating right in front of him.

And it wasn’t any random person’s corpse, it was someone he knew. An acquaintance.

And the worse part?

Who could’ve done it?

Scott started to think of names. Any names that might despised him so much, that they wanted to take him out forever.

But he couldn’t think of any.

Sure, Scott Wallace might be a huge prick towards a lot of people in school, but as far as he knew, nobody would hate him so much that they would end his life.

At least, he didn’t deserve this kind of brutality...

All out of sudden, his thoughts were interrupted by screams behind him. He was shocked for one moment, but he managed to calm himself down and turned around. He noticed that there were two other students standing behind him. He knew both of them, James Bagstad and Cole Peters. Somehow he felt relieved that he finally met more familiar faces, especially James. He had a strong bond of friendship with James in school and in the football team. As for Cole, well...they did met in school for a few times...

Scott imagined what he would’ve said when he met his classmates in this occasion. Instead of the usual upbeat “Hello!” while waving his hand, he stared at the two guys, and managed to spit a few words out of his mouth, “This isn’t real, right?”

[Bowser]

Okay, judging by the way Scott Pierce, otherwise known as not-dead Scott, was acting it looked as though he wasn't the one to kill Scott Wallace, who was clearly the Dead Scott in this situation. That was good, at least.

What wasn't so good though was the fact that this was the second dead body James had seen in the first hour of this 'game' alone. The first one being his own handy work somehow didn't make it any easier either. But still, the others didn't need to know that. Not yet anyway. They'll find out in a few hours, sure, but better that than now.

Thankfully though nether Cole nor Scott seemed to be playing. So at least nothing major would go down between the three boys before they had to part ways. Something he was rather happy about, especially after the Paxton situation. Scott was somebody he rather enjoyed personally, not to mention he was kind of hot, so he was glad he wouldn't have to fight him. Cole on the other hand he didn't know as well, but he knew he was at least a decent guy. So he didn't exactly mind not having to fight the boy either.

Suddenly, Scott asked the two boys a question. Wondering if any of this was real. James could only respond with a sullen "Yeah, it's real" as he moved over to the gazebo to inspect with Cole.

James wasn't exactly torn up about about Wallace's death. While the two had been friends for a long time, they had had a falling out of sorts in recent years. Mostly due to Wallace being too much of an ass for even James to handle. Still, he wasn't exactly happy about his death either having known the better person Scott was until recently.

Cole then asked what happened here, so James began I nspecting the area. As he did so, he noticed that one of the posts in the gazebo was broken for some mysterious reason. It didn't look like an old break either, telling James it had happened sometime around Wallace's demise. He couldn't quite see why though. Maybe Scott attacked somebody and broke it? But the way it was broken didn't appear like something that would happen in a fight either, so he was still pretty clueless here.

"Hmm, well there is that broken post up there. So that might be connected." James said, pointing out the sight to the others. "And as far as what happened... Hell if I know. Wallace was a dick so maybe it was self defense, but you never really know here.

James then turned to face Living-Scott and asked. "Was it like this when you got here?l

[Blastinus*]

Was this real? James already covered the question, so Cole nodded gravely and added a bitter, "Yeah..." If his father were here, he'd have probably just told this kid to suck it up, to face reality and move on. Life sucks. It sucks hard. And when it does, you either make something of it, or you give up and die. Cole had hated his father for his tough love approach, but he'd never been able to truly refute this.

Rather than bombard this poor kid with questions, Cole let James do the questioning and he instead followed up on his insights. The pole looked like it'd been demolished deliberately. Just to be sure, he took a kick at one of the gazebo's other posts, and as he expected, they were solid and relatively fresh. It would have taken a lot of punishment to crack through one of these things, especially since it didn't look like it'd been done with a sharp instrument, just sheer blunt force.

"Was someone tied here?" he pondered out loud. He leaned over the railing to look at the body below. If someone was attached to the post and kicked outwards...yes, it seemed possible. Maybe this Scott wasn't as hapless a victim as he'd first considered. If so, then was he tying people up to...

Cole shuddered instinctively at the thought. He wasn't a fool. He figured that at least someone would take advantage of this island's lack of consequences. But to do something like that...Maybe Scott was better off dead? He mentally backpedaled from that thought. Nobody deserved to die. To have their neck snapped like a twig and to be left to rot...he wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Considering the state of the other Scott, Cole chose to keep his conclusions to himself. "We should give him a burial," he said to the others as he stepped down the gazebo's steps. "I saw a fancy tomb on my way in to this place. We could lay him up there and give him some last rites. He deserves that at least."

[Tapey]

“Holy shit...” Scott muttered after hearing their answers. For now he definitely hoped all of this was nothing but a dream, a hallucination. That the other Scott wasn’t actually dead yet, but was still at school picking up on other nerds.

But then, reality is a cruel thing after all. Scott Wallace is gone forever, and the only thing he could do was to accept the fact that he was unlucky enough to witness his brutally damaged corpse. He looked at the body again, noticing his broken neck and a bruise on his chin. He started to convince himself that probably someone was just trying to defend themselves from Scott. That maybe, he tried to attack someone and got what he deserved.

Plus, he did seemed like someone who would start a fight.

“Was it like this when you got here?” Scott heard James question, as he was still sitting on the ground, facing the truth. He got up, felt a little less exhausted, and answered in a calm tone, “Yea, of course.”

He then noticed what James had been pointing at: A heavily damaged pole. Judging from the crack, he could tell that the pole was destructed by a large force. But who could possibly had the strength to create such damage?

Whoever that was, he knew he needed to get rid of them.

He then heard a suggestion. Something about a burial for dead Scott. “That sounds like a great idea.” After all the agony and struggle the dead Scott had probably been through, it’s time for him to rest in peace. He then walked to Scott Wallace’s body, and lift up both of his arms. This was his first time having contact with a dead body. The rotten smell from the corpse disgusted him, but he had no choice. He couldn’t just leave the body there.

“Uhm, can someone give me a hand here?” He asked for the boys for assistance to carry the dead body.

[Bowser]

James simply let out a sigh when Pierce asked for help carrying Wallace's body off to the tomb. On one hand, he figured it would be pretty pointless since odds on the team behind the Program would just remove his body anyway for... Whatever the hell they do with the bodies later. He wasn't sure if they returned the bodies to the families or disposed of in some other way, all he knew was that they weren't going to leave them laying around wherever they ended up at the end of the game. Not to mention out of all of the people here, Wallace was one of the last people who deserved the right to be buried by his classmates. He was a freaking jackass, and one of the few Patriots that James had ever cut out of his life for being too much of a toxic presence. So obviously, James really didn't want to go about burying him.

However, funerals were rarely for those whom had already died. Sure, the idea was that they were honoring the dead or what not, but in truth it was always just so those close to them would be able to say goodbye. Or give them some form of closure to what was likely nothing more than a tragedy to everyone near and dear to the departed. Something Cole and Pierce seemed to need considering the fact that the both of them wanted to go along with this.

So, James would help however he could, despite part of him not really wishing to go along with it.

"Yeah yeah I'm on it." He said, a little annoyed as he placed his gun back into his bag and moved over to Wallace's body. Grabbing his legs somewhere under Wallace's knee, James lifted him up to help Pierce move him along.

"Lead the way, Cole." James commanded before adding. "Oh, and uh... keep an eye out for us."

[Blastinus*]

"Sure, sure," Cole murmured, waving his hand in the general direction of their destination. He detected a hint of annoyance from James, which he understood. In truth, he didn't quite know why he was doing this himself. The best he could come up with was that leaving the body lying there felt...wrong, like they were treating it like some meaningless object to be discarded, when it used to be a living, breathing human being.

Morality was weird sometimes. It didn't always make sense.

The crypt, from the outside, seemed quite fancy. A lot of the graves were going to pot, but it seemed like someone was actually maintaining this outer facade, since it seemed very clean and void of dirt and grime.

It did, however, have a chain lock. That was to be expected, but it still elicited a surly "Typical" from him. He observed the shape of his shield. It was made of...steel, he was guessing? It seemed durable enough for the task. Holding it point down over the chain, he thrust it down as a makeshift wedge. The chain held, so he tried again, and again, until it finally bulged and snapped.

"Nothing to it," he remarked sheepishly, and yanked the doors open to find...a light switch? Something about modern technology in a tomb seemed wrong to him. He just chalked it up to watching too many adventure films.

Out of curiosity, he flicked the switch, and nothing happened. He guessed that the power wasn't running anymore, probably from some generator out back. Well, no point in wasting time investigating that. They'd just have to keep the doors open and see with the light of day.

As for the crypt itself, he'd been expecting some dusty tomb full of desiccated corpses. But no, the place was just as immaculate on the inside as it was on the exterior, with coffins placed neatly in nooks and on elevated slabs marked with plaques written in what he assumed was Spanish. Couldn't say much for the smell though, since despite the efforts of whoever had been maintaining this, it still had a musty stench to it.

Seemed like a fairly extended family was buried here, with more platforms and holes set aside for generations to come. This would be a nice resting place. Then maybe he could set his mind at ease for now.

[Tapey]

Damn...This place kinda reeks... Scott thought as he carried the corpse into the crypt. Not to mention it’s kinda dark in here...

But who was he to complain?

He did agree the idea of giving Wallace a proper burial.

As he stepped into the crypt, he was rather amused by the interior of the crypt. It was so...neat, despite being abandoned for years. The coffins were placed in a tidy manner, much different than what Scott had expected. All out of sudden, he felt like he was on a field trip to some Spanish graveyard...

He then saw a large hole dogged next to him. What was it for? Is it a preparation for any burial in the future? He never did know the answer, but Wallace’s body did somehow fit in the hole.

“Here.” Scott said to James, while lowering Wallace’s arms into the pit.

[Bowser]

'Wait why the hell is there already a hole?' James thought to himself as be began to lower Wallace's legs into the pit. Once he figured the body was deep enough he let go of the legs expecting Pierce to do the same on his end.

"Okay, now we just need to bury this guy and we can go." James said bluntly, not quite wanting to stick around for the stench any longer than necessary. "Could one of you two stand guard while we bury Wallace here?"

[Blastinus*]

A hole in the floor was a bit odd, Cole admitted, but for convenience's sake, it beat trying to dig one themselves. He was surprised to hear James calling for one of them to volunteer for guard duty, since he could tell by his body language that he was the one who wanted to do this burial thing least.

Scott was Scott's friend though, so it wasn't really a question. Cole limply raised one hand and said, "I'll holler if I see anyone." Not that it would do much good, he reflected, as he leaned against the doorframe. If they had to spontaneously get in a fight, they'd be fish in a barrel, packed inside an enclosed space.

But James was right. At least with a little warning, they had a shot of surviving an ambush, certainly more than if they all had their heads in the ground. So Cole kept an eye out, scanning the area for anyone trying to sneak up.

[Tapey]

“Be careful.” Scott reminded Cole after hearing his suggestion for being their guard. After witnessing a friend’s death, Scott was rather clear that anything could happen at this moment, and that includes a sudden ambush.

He started grabbing a handful of dirt in his hands and piled it on Scott’s dead body, burying him. Of course, soon after a few digging and burying, he was starting to feel exhausted from all the arm movements. He started to regret his opinion on burying Wallace.

Why do I even decided to do this in the first place...? He thought.

Lucky for him, with James’ help, the burial was almost done (or so he thought). He started to pick up speed, eager to get out of here after finishing the job. But still, he thought that maybe a tool could be helpful in this situation...

[Bowser]

Yeah it was clear this wasn't getting done anytime soon. They didn't exactly have any tools to work with and filling a person sized hole this deep wasn't a quick job even with them. So naturally the two of them would be at this for a while. Thankfully it didn't appear as though they were in any real danger in the crypt. It only had one entrance and Cole should be able to see people coming from a mile away, and since everyone here was armed (Well only kind of in Cole's case, but his isn't the worst draw to get) they could easily fight off anyone who tried to attack them. They should be fine.

However what wasn't fine with how much heavy lifting James and Pierce were doing trying to bury Wallace. Okay, sure, James mainly volunteered because he figured he could get this done quicker than Scott or Cole could, but as his back began burning in pain he couldn't help but to regret his decision to shove dirt into Wallace's face for ages.

Thankfully though, after roughly half an hour of work, the duo managed to finally finish the job and fully bury their former friend.

"Okay, that's done!" James said, letting out a light huff of exhaustion. "Cole, I can take over guard duty if you wanna say something to the departed before we all bounce."

[Blastinus*]

Half an hour, a long, tedious half an hour passed. The student body had an entire peninsula to roam around in, so why would they happen to show up here? At any rate, no one did. Yup. Not a single blessed soul. For half an hour. You don't think that's a long amount of time until you have to spend it doing absolutely nothing.

What a relief it was when James finally tagged in. Last words though...What was there to say? The dead Scott was most likely involved in some shady business in his last moments on Earth and Cole hardly knew him from school. But for the living Scott's sake, he supposed that he should play along for a bit.

"Be right back," he said, stifling a yawn. Slowly stepping inside, he marveled at the mound of dirt that used to be a man-sized hole. That was some impressive work for half an hour with just their bare hands.

Now then, what to say..."Rest in peace, Scott. May your next life be...better than this one." Lame, perhaps, but he had no idea what else to say. Clapping a hand on the other Scott's shoulder, he said with a weak smile, "Take your time. We'll be just outside."

Rejoining James, he scanned the cloudy sky for a bit and asked, "So...what's next? You sticking with us or...well...you know." He didn't want to say it outright, but this was a game of murder. Anyone could decide that they had...other plans for people. Best to just get it out in the open and deal with any lingering doubts right at the start.