Drip

[Courtography]

(Keith Bauer continued from Last Days)

The last twenty-something hours had been somewhat uneventful. They had looked around the asylum looking for Ty's girlfriend and Nancy's ass to kick, but had found neither. Keith didn't really want to find Nancy anyway, so that was fine. More than fine, really, not coming across murderers was probably the best way a day on the island could go at this point. Well, that and some motherfucking Navy SEALs showing up, shooting all the terrorists in the face, and taking the remaining teenagers back to America.

Keith was kind of doubting that would happen at this point.

Later he'd filled everyone's water bottles up in the rain. He didn't like the rain, it hardly ever rained in Kingman, and he really preferred it that way. But he had made himself useful, and the other two students hadn't abandoned him when he'd gone out to fill up the bottles. Not to mention neither of them got stabbed with swords while he had been gone, which was a huge improvement over the last time he'd intentionally gone off by himself.

And now they were at the docks and he had to admit it was a little chilly. Keith could feel goosebumps on his arms. He wished he had a jacket, but he didn't expect to need one to go on a field trip to a science museum.

The announcements had been as bad as expected. More people that had killed before had killed again, and then that Alessio guy had killed a couple people, and that Kaitlyn girl from the senior class had drugged someone to death. That sounded like an awful way to go, although Keith thought that dying at all sounded pretty horrible, no matter how it happened.

He looked out at the ocean from the docks. It looked rough, but with the rain that wasn't surprising. He'd only been to the ocean once before, as a kid. They'd gone on a family road trip to California, with five of them in a beat up minivan. Two of his older sisters had moved out at that point. The ocean had been pretty calm, the sun had been shining, and the sand had been warm. The downside had been that the beach had been crowded, with seagulls flying around trying to take people's food. It hadn't helped that some drunk old guy had thrown up on their stretch of beach at one point.

In contrast to that, the sky above this ocean was dark, and the only people on the island above the age of nineteen, were whatever terrorists were hiding around to deliver the best kill prizes and whatever other shit they had to do. He briefly wondered if they could get away with killing them instead of focusing on killing Nancy.

He really doubted it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a single large raindrop falling from the sky onto his nose.

Shit.

[Emprexx Plush]

((Ty Yazzie Continued From Last Days))

Fuck me running.

Ty'd gotten some sleep for the first time since he'd woke up here last night, but he didn't feel rested. Not after waking up to those announcements that kept him right on the edge. Isabel. Kimiko. Nancy. Now Alessio, fucking Alessio of all people. Didn't seem possible. He kinda wondered how many people were dead shocked to have not heard his name by now. From the way people looked at him back home, there were probably a few that figured he'd be one of the first to snap. Instead, they got all the quiet ones. Ain't that somethin'?

Hell, he almost didn't believe it himself. Alessio coming up felt like some kinda sick prank, or a misunderstanding. He was one of those twiggy kids who always shook his change loose if he so much as caught Ty's shadow.  Imagining him as a killer just didn't sit right. Didn't matter too much though. If he was causing trouble, he needed to be dealt with. Case closed.

Yeah. Better not to think about it too much. Life was easier that way.

Ty stared out into the docks and listened to the rain. Seemed like Keith and Liz didn't have a much better idea of what to do right now than he did. They just wanted a break out of the rain. Hard to search if you were soaking wet and fighting a cold. Maybe they'd get lucky and catch sight of a boat rolling in to pull their asses out of the fire. Hmmm. Now that led to all kinda places.

"You figure they'd surrender?" It was a half thought, but one that felt worth chasing. Maybe it'd tell them somethin' about how to do this. "Y'know, say the Navy rolled up right about now. All hands on deck, we're goin' home. Nancy, Isabel, Alessio...the ones that keep poppin' up in fuckin' berserk mode. You figure they'd go quietly?"

[Grim Wolf]

(Lizzie Luz continued from Last Days)

It was raining.  Sheets of water pouring down from on high.  They stayed out of it as best they could.  Keith even took the time to grab them some more water from the rain.  She appreciated that.

It didn't stop, but neither did they.

Lizzie was beginning to feel the rhythm of these strange dying days.  She had lurched on in a peculiar fashion, vertigo certainty to a flayed heart.  Fuck, when had she gotten poetic?  Was it the weed, or just the circumstances?  Maybe both?  Getting a little high when you could die anytime...

Her thoughts were wandering, just as much as they were.  One goal down, but more ahead.  Nancy Kyle, and the blood on her hands.  Bernadette, and the man determined to get her out.  Keith's friends.  

So many answers to find.

They slept, when it was time to sleep.  They rose, when it was time to wake.  There should have been some kinda distrust between them, but somehow they had fallen into easy camaraderie.  They talked, a little: they joked, a little.  They hadn't known each other well at Cochise, but so far this strange gathering seemed to be working out.

Or maybe it was just because she could feel the absences.  The holes that would never be filled.  Lettie, and so many others.  You don't notice the ground beneath your feet until it's gone, and when you're drowning you cling to anything solid you can find.

Lizzie was tired.

"I dunno," Lizzie said.  "I think so.  I mean...the Seals have pretty big guns, right?  Like, unless they're really crazy.  Which I...I mean, they could be."

And you're looking for one of them, Lizzie Luz.  What does that make you?

[Courtography]

More raindrops fell. The ocean was now blurred and out of focus from the drops of water now coating his lenses.

The question was one he didn't know the answer to.

He shivered. He wished he had a jacket again. Heck, he'd settle for a cheap plastic poncho if it came down to it. His clothes would probably be soaked again soon, like they had been when he woke up in that disturbing basement. That had been before he'd really processed what deep shit they were in. He hadn't seen anyone die then either. It amazed him a little how waking up in a flooded basement could have been an improvement over his current circumstances.

He still didn't have an answer, but he did have his own question.

"Shit, I don't know."

He knew that the terrorists had released last survivors in the past, and he didn't think they'd had any trouble with the law when they came home, but he wasn't completely sure. Then there were the rescued kids, way back when he was in elementary school. He knew even less about them. Some of them might have killed people.

"Do you remember what happened to those rescued kids, y'know back in, shit, like fourth grade?"

Keith hadn't been paying attention to that sort of thing back then. He'd been playing sports, riding his bike, just good kid stuff. He hadn't ever had it cross his mind that his life would be at risk less than a decade later.

[Emprexx Plush]

Unless they're really crazy. Y'know, multiple time murderer crazy. Lined up about right to him. Keith was steering them elsewhere though. Ty thought hard, but he never really paid much attention to the whole situation. Especially not then. He had enough to be worried about in his own backyard without spending the nights staring off about terrorists.

"Can't say it's ringing a bell," he admitted. "Why?" Did Keith figure someone was gonna come pull them out? Hell, maybe he remembered some way those kids high tailed it? It was worth stabbing at, at least.

[Grim Wolf]

"Wait, shit!" Lizzie said.  "I know this!  It was, uh...it was..."

She'd heard it.  She'd definitely heard it.  There had been some news broadcast or some talkshow or...god damn it, who was she thinking of?

She couldn't remember.  Like every other day, she hadn't cared about class.  She'd been looking outside, hoping to go where she wanted, with sunlight beating down and a strong breeze in her face.

"Shit," she muttered.  "I don't...I can't remember!"

She looked past them, across the churning grey ocean beneath the stormy sky.  Beautiful and primal in a way all her wanderings across Arizona had never been.  So fucking big.  It made her feel so fucking small.

"They lived, right?" she said.  "Maybe..."

Maybe we will, too.

[Courtography]

Keith almost laughed, except he didn't laugh very often. He was pretty sure the rescued kids had lived as well, but that wasn't what he was concerned about.

"Well uh, some of them might have killed, yeah?"

He thought that might be true.

"I think there'd act different if say, killers were pardoned, compared to letting them live, but putting their asses in jail."

It wasn't much of a thought. Anyone rational would probably take going to prison over dying, but if people were killing their classmates, then they probably weren't all that rational anymore.

Maybe Lizzie's plan to try and figure out why Nancy killed would be fruitless. Of course, he didn't say that. It wouldn't help.

[Emprexx Plush]

"I don't think they're goin' to jail."

That much he could remember. Nobody from this shithole had ever gone to jail as near as he could tell. It would have made sense, but even the winners were out and about near as he could tell. The ones who were around, at least. There was...at least one, right?

"I ain't ever heard of anyone going to jail for this. Even the murderers. There woulda been a whole circus for the trials if there were."

Ty stared out into the rain and clenched his fists up tight. "They get away with it. Whoever's getting out of here gets away with whatever they did."

[Courtography]

(skipping because I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again and inactivity hits later this week)

"Oh."

Keith wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, those who went around murdering their classmates needed to receive some sort of justice, or at least he thought so. On the other hand, the island was kind of a different circumstance, wasn't it? Maybe community service would be better than jail for the weird situation, to give back to the community after hurting it. Sure, he hadn't tried to kill anyone, and he liked to think he never would, he had to admit it was possible.

After all the rule that you had to kill to go home still existed and he really wanted to go home.

He still wasn't killing anyone though, well, not unless their plan to kill Nancy worked.

He really hoped it didn't.

"Well uh, shit."

[Grim Wolf]

That wasn't right. Getting away with it? So if boats sailed up right now to bust them out, Nancy fucking Kyle would walk fucking free. No, that wasn't okay. That wasn't...it wasn't...how could she get away with killing Lettie? And...and...!

She closed her eyes. So many dead. So many more who would die, before this was over.

"Maybe it's not our choice," Lizzie said. "Maybe...maybe there's a reason. I don't..."

It was hard to think like that, with the storm forming overhead and the rain dripping down in a slow, miserable drizzle. She kept staring out at the sea, hoping to reclaim some small part of her careless joy.

"Well," she said. "I guess...it would kinda suck, right? If you...if you gotta out here, and they..." She reached for the collar around her neck, shaking her head. "Astrid, remember?" she said to Ty. "It's gotta..."

Would Lizzie do it, in the end? Would she kill? She'd told Tara and Alex, she wouldn't, but that seemed like an awful long time ago, now.

She started walking towards the ocean. She didn't know what else to do.

[Emprexx Plush]

(All in favor of moving on to the next day?)

Ty let out a short snort. It was adding up for them too. Wasn't no pleasant way out of this one. No heroes, no salvation, no righteous judgement or reparation. That just wasn't how it was gonna work out for them this time. It was probably blowing their damn minds, but for Ty...hell. It felt a lot like home.

He called out to Lizzie as she started to walk away. "Ain't gonna find what you're lookin' for out there, Liz." Ty nodded back towards the island with his arms crossed. "Nancy's back there. They're all back there. Nothing's gonna stop 'em."

Ty paused as one of his fingers hooked under the chain around his neck and pulled it up. That blue ring Bee gave him was still there, right where he always kept it. From what he remembered, it was supposed to mean "Hope."

They needed a shit ton of that right now. He managed to get the chain unhooked and slipped it off. Got it nice and snug on his right ring finger. "Nothin' but people willin' to do the right thing. I'm sick of waitin'." With that, he turned and began to march back towards the rest of the island.

((Ty Yazzie Continued In Lay My Purple In The Grass))

[Courtography]

Everyone was understandably upset about the situation. The murderers getting by without consequences if they were rescued would be the worst part about it if it happened. It happening would still be better than not, though, since Keith really liked being alive. He could probably live with justice not being served if he got to stay alive. Not that he got a say in the matter, of course.

He followed Ty back towards the island. It seemed like killing Nancy was still the plan. He didn't like that. He didn't like the idea of being alone to be picked off by another Jasmine or Nancy even more. So he'd stay with his group even if the plan was bad. They were kind of growing on him anyway, which was surprising, but not unwelcome.

He felt more rain on his face.

Shit.

He kept walking.

(Keith Bauer continued in Lay My Purple on the Grass)

[Grim Wolf]

Rain on her face.  The ocean in front of her, churning and boiling beneath the grey sky, splattered by drizzle.

There are people out there.

Yes there were, somwhere far beyond her sight.

It's a big big universe...

So big.  So much bigger than any of them knew.  So much bigger than any of their wildest dreams let them believe.  Dr. Who didn't get it.  No one got it.  Just get out in the wilderness by yourself for awhile.  Listen to the illusion of silence that seems with hidden life you can't imagine.  Somewhere out there, someone was looking out over there own ocean vista, never imagining what was happening on this murderous, mad island.

"Ain't gonna find what you're looking for out there, Liz."

Ah, but it was a big god damn universe, Tyler.  All their flailing and all their fury were drops in the ocena, tiny ripples that soon vanished among the surf and the turmoil.  There world was this island, but there was a bigger world out there.

She could go there, if she wanted.  Or at least, try to get there, before the guillotine affixed to her neck slipped down and ended all her dreams of defiance.  But she could still do it.  She could plunge out into the storm, swim as far as her arms and legs would carry her.

She looked over her shoulder, saw them moving farther off.  She didn't want to follow. The idea of just stripping down and swimming out as far as she could was powerfully tempting, a siren song she didn't want to deny.

She squatted down and pressed her hand into the wet sand.  The sea slipped back, and covered her hand, cold and opague.  She was part of that bigger universe, just for an instant: part of those ripples, and that churning infinity.

She rose to her feet, and turned away, as the rain began to drizzle town.  Followed the retreating figures of the two men who'd agreed to help her on her idiot quest.  This was a small world, but there was meaning here.  Answers she didn't have.  Ripples she wasn't done trying to understand

(Lizzie Luz concluding in The Virgin Sea)