Never Known Questions

[Ciel]

Scout stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at the older girl, Kaitlyn.

"Trade."

Scout scanned the others with a hard squint. They were trading with each other? She sneered.

"What the fuck is there to trade? Don't we have -"

Her gaze turned. The boy, Alan, started squakin' about a team up. Some rebel bullshit, Scout nearly snorted at the name he used. She was tempted to outline why a "badass rebel alliance' wasn't going to work and how pushing the issue was going to get him killed. But, honestly, she already gave someone the exact same advice. Also, Alan actually sounded cheerful. Rubbed her the wrong way.

So she kept it brief.

"You're an idiot."

She turned back to Kaitlyn.

"We all have basically the same shit, yeah? The goons went through our bags and took anything we could use to get a leg up."

Scout rolled her shoulders. On closer inspection, the ginger was only using her right arm. Her bag was slung over her right shoulder. Scout's left sleeve was tied to her right, giving the impression she was using both arms. Strange. Very strange.

"So unless you have a gun, and I know you don't have one, you ain't got shit, far as I'm concerned."

Scout Pfeiffer was not known for her tactfulness.

[D/N]

(minor GMing of Lili agreeing to trade has been agreed upon)

Wha.

This bitch.

"...I don't have a gun but you don't have a clue what I do have, short stuff. You wanna find out? You wanna see how we can trade?"

She looked over at Lili.

"Third of a loaf. Final offer, and I'll even let you rip it so you know I don't cheat you."

And Lili agreed.

"Boom. Trade."

That was how it was done. That was how you built it up. And this runt with a Jersey accent -- her name was Scout something Kaitlyn remembered and that was a retarded name -- comes by and says you can't do that? What a failure in life she was.

She zipped open her bag and grabbed a loaf of bread, tossing it to Lily.

Because even though Kaitlyn wasn't some kind of prepper like her dad, even though she would admit she could be total disorganization fifty car pileup at times, Kaitlyn was still one thing -- Kaitlyn was many things actually, and this wasn't even one of the most prominent of them -- but Kaitlyn packed shit. Kaitlyn was ready.

Kaitlyn had beef jerky. And it would be delicious.

Kaitlyn had a badass windbreaker. Bet all you others would be wanting that at night, huh? Well, it'll cost you. Hypothetically speaking.

Katilyn had deodorant. Because she sweated. She knew that. She'd be fresh as a daisy a week from now.

Kaitlyn was already picking up shields. Look, she was picking it up now. It wasn't even that heavy, really.

Kaitlyn was loaded for bear.

And Kaitlyn was gonna get more. Not right now, probably. But maybe. Who knew what this girl would do?

Only one way to find out.

"So either join Alan's badass rebel group, or piss off, or tell me what you've got, or maybe trade your weapon for my foot up your ass."

Note that Kaitlyn sure hadn't said she was going to join yet. To be honest, she had absolutely no clue what answer she'd give.

[MethodicalSlacker]

[Minor GMing of Alan approved]

Lili caught Alan's protein bars without any struggle, but the plastic light saber bounced off of her side and onto the floor. Luckily, Alan hadn't thrown it so hard for it to hurt, but Lili was less than happy about having to reach over to pick up the plastic toy. A bar and a penny, huh? Lili thought as she picked up the light saber, Shit, I'm not sure if I have one of those. After putting the light saber and extra bars into her bag, she dug around  for any loose change, hoping to find the right coinage. As she did so, Kaitlyn continued to bargain with her, and the two settled on a third of a loaf. When Kaitlyn threw the bread to her, Lili's head was still pointed down into her bag. The loaf bounced off of the back of her hair and into the day pack in front of her, landing with a thud. Lili looked up, saw Kaitlyn talking to Scout, and looked back down again. It wasn't worth fighting over. Eventually, Lili found a stray coin lodged in between her first-aid kit and a water bottle, and she picked it up to inspect it.

It was a quarter. Lili sighed, taking a protein bar out of her bag to go with the trade, then looked back into her bag for something else she could give to make up for her lack of proper coinage. So far, Alan seemed to be an unpredictable guy, given that he offered to spice up the deal without any kind of prompt. Maybe he'd appreciate some kind of random offering? Lili opened her first aid kit and closed her eyes, picking something up out of the box at random. When she felt it in her hands, she opened her eyes and smiled. She hoped this would do. Lili zipped up her bag and stood up to face Alan.

"Alright, I have a protein bar, but I don't have a penny," Lili said, shrugging, "So I hope that if I give you a quarter it'll be fine. Oh, and I'll throw in some...tweezers, too." She walked over to Alan and gently placed the supplies into his open palm. He didn't resist as she closed his fingers around the items gently, so she patted his closed fist reassuringly. Alan made a mock angry face at her, but didn't do anything else to retaliate. Lili just smiled back: she figured that it would be a good way to show that she didn't mean any harm. Made sense to her, at least.

Lili went back to her bag and peeled off a third of the loaf of bread, tossing the rest back to Kaitlyn along with a protein bar. As far as she could tell, she threw accurately, but she didn't pay too much attention to whether or not she caught it. Kaitlyn hadn't paid much attention, so why should she, right?

Right. She zipped up her bag.

The toll gate had lifted, and Lili had stepped through.

"Alright, Kaitlyn, that should be it," She said, standing up with her bag slung over her shoulder, "I think I'm gonna go on my way now, if that's fine. We've made our trade, right? So it should be fine." She started to walk away, going in the direction that she had started in before she was interrupted, towards the side with the radio tower. She hoped that she could meet someone she knew on the other side, someone that she could deal with, someone she could partner up with. She was looking for a way out, a place where she needed to be, and she hadn't found it yet. She didn't know if she would find it, ever. She passed Scout silently, walking on into the distance, the metal bridge clacking beneath her feet.

She barely noticed the pair of white shoes just next to the edge of the bridge, twinkling in the corner of her vision. Curious, she stopped walking onward and investigated. The shoes themselves didn't look damaged in any way, and they were neatly arranged next to each other. Not too far over to the side was an abandoned bag similar to the one she was carrying over her shoulder. Lili found this ordeal odd. She wondered who would just leave a pair of shoes sitting on the side of a bridge, unattended...

...facing the sea.

Lili got down on her hands and knees next to the shoes and looked over the side of the bridge, her fingers grasping the edge of the precipice. The bridge's cold metal floor sent chills down her spine, and she shivered as a slight breeze blew around her, her own nervous impulses threatening to send her off careening toward the deep blue waters below. She knew that she was checking something with a forgone conclusion, a secret betrayed by the abandoned bag, but she had to make sure just in case.

But she saw nothing.

Lili breathed a sigh of relief. At least, she thought it was a sigh of relief. Was it a sigh of panic? She couldn't figure it out. Lili shook her head back and forth involuntarily, trying to get any bad thoughts or feeling out of her brain. Confused, she picked up the shoes, just in case. She didn't know what they were just in case for, but she thought she might as well take them with her anyways. No harm in doing so, right? Right. She knew it to be true. She left the bag alone. She figured that there were people who needed the stuff inside more than she did, and she didn't feel right staying around any longer.

Lili took one last look back at the toll booth setup, and kept on walking, singing to herself once more as she went.

"Spot the rot, spot the rot, spot the rot we say..."

[Lili Williams continued in Heel-and-Toe.]

[Zetsu]

Fucking Kaitlyn, stealing his thunder, fucking Lili leaving the group. Yeah. This wasn't looking so hot.

So. Um. Words, right? That's what Alan had. Millions of words echoing around in his head, but none of them seemed like they'd do any good here.

"You're full of shit." That was for Scout.

"You think you're being so smart and pragmatic, huh? So realistic, so much smarter than all us little rebels."

Fuck, directly arguing with someone. Newsflash, kids: that doesn't actually accomplish anything. You don't actually make any good arguments here, because like hell you're gonna actually convince them. All you can do is push them off balance and keep the bastard there. Fat lot of good being a purist is gonna serve him now, though.

"Cuz as far as I'm concerned, you just told me you're gonna play the game, and it's two on one, kid."

Bet you don't like that, huh? Shrimpy little ginger kid, thinking she's some badass survivor.

"Yeah, you can leave the badass rebel alliance. You can live for now, because, like, killing you before you've done anything is really sketch, but please fuck the fuck off."

The wind picked up a little. Aw, yeah. Did Alan have a badass cape billowing in the wind, there? Fucking symbolic shit going on? No? How about this: ginger shrimp pulls a gun out of nowhere and blows them all to hell because maybe, just maybe, there wasn't an argument to win there.

Fat chance. He was fucking invincible.

[Ciel]

The fuck did he just say? That she was full of shit? Did he just say that? It didn't matter what else he said.  Asshole decided to be a smart aleck and Scout snapped.

She cleared the difference almost immediately, got up in the boy's face.

"You want I should slap the taste out of your mouth?"

Pretty faced piece of shit, thinking that he could run his mouth like back home. Who did he think he was, Jesus H. Christ? Prick picked the wrong day to start a war, especially one he wasn't going to be able to finish. Scout wasn't a boxer, she had only in a handful of fights up until that point. She knew how to slug someone in the face though, and she was in a very bad mood. Give her a fucking excuse to knock your block off.

Granted, it was kind of hard to look tough when she was a foot shorter than Big Jaw. Then again, size wasn't everything.

... She was acting on impulse again. Stupid.

"Tch." Scout took a step back, away from Big Jaw. "Whatever. Do what you want. I don't care."

She pulled her arm through her sleeve and shoved both hands into her pants pockets. She grilled the boy, eyes tight, teeth clenched. She wanted to clock him. It wasn't like she'd get in trouble for punching someone, right? Hitting him would be more trouble than it was worth though, and she knew it. She had a plan, one that did not involve her spazzing out on some random fuck.

"But real talk?" Scout said. "You aren't gonna get far if you run your gums like that at everyone."

Turning her head, Scout glanced at the girl, the one insisting on trading. She made the move to walk off.

"Try not to get yourselves killed."

Big Jaw could run his mouth all he wanted. Scout wasn't going to turn back. She was out.

(Scout Pfeiffer continued in Two Mules for Sister Sara.)

[D/N]

Short Jersey wasn't fooling anyone. Not Kaitlyn, not Alan, not... well Lili went and fucked off herself so who knew, maybe she'd be fooled. Probably would be fooled.

Of course, that didn't mean Kaitlyn had to reserve herself from clubbing the girl in the back of the head with her shield when she was dumb enough to turn her back on Kaitlyn and get in Alan's face like that. But steady, girl.

As Scout marched off to wherever meaningless people went in this island, Kaitlyn saw that Lili's bread and protein bar had landed right on top of her open bag. She poked them into the abyss with her foot, then zipped up the bag.

To be honest, that trade had only been fair for her at best. Alan had ruined it, he really had.

He owed her one.

"So," she said after a moment. "You going anywhere in particular?"

(Kaitlyn Greene continued in Until All Our Yesterdays Are Lighted Fools...)

[Zetsu]

And the asshole was gone. All according to plan, right?

And right now, his plan consisted of going absolutely nowhere in particular. Except that plan was a goner, now, because fuck he had to have an answer he couldn't be caught with his pants down like this. He was the bullshit god, right? You don't catch the bullshit god with his pants down. Fuck you, Kaitlyn, for ruining a perfectly good plan.

"Bell tower. Find a group there. Get this thing off the ground, get the show on the road, whatever ya wanna call it. Start putting some bite behind this bark."

He pointed at his mouth, threw his shit into his bag, and marched off like someone who knew what he was doing. Which he did. Know what he was doing, I mean.

I mean, how hard was it to spot a fucking bell tower, right?

((Alan Banks continued elsewhere))