I Want To Get Off Mr. Bones' Wild Ride!

[KamiKaze]

((Miranda Millers continued from No Whammies))

A gentle poke with the spear.

He didn't respond.

Of course Mark didn't respond. He was dead. The announcement said so. And it was clear that with the cart crushing his body he was gone. Miranda just had to touch him with the spear, just to confirm it to herself.

Mark was another dead body she had seen recently. Unlike Kaitlyn, he wasn't as fresh; Miranda grimaced a bit as a few flies danced on his arms. The smell wasn't great, either. It smelled like a rotted version of the jerky diminishing from her bag. It wasn't something she liked seeing, smelling, or knowing about in any sense. It was still hard for her mind to process.

Freak roller coaster accident, huh.

She looked up at the wooden structure towering over her.. Miranda couldn't help but wonder how that happened. The roller coaster didn't seem to be operational. Though, the fact that there was an amusement park here only proved further and further that those morons responsible for this had a sick sense of humor. Oh, they were supposed to go to Disneyland? Why not send them somewhere where there's some sort of run-down theme park? It was like dangling a carrot just out of reach. Maybe they picked it because of that reason. They were sick fucks, after all.

Miranda tried to remember what Mark Little was like. He was on the baseball team... and that was about it. They weren't the type to interact much. She couldn't even get an idea of who he was, based off her memories.

Feeling nauseous from the smell, she slipped away from what was left of Mark, resting herself on the side of a bench nearby the roller coaster. She made it a bit to make sure he wasn't in sight.

Well, it wasn't just the smell making her feel ill. Her head still throbbed from the blow to her head. She wondered if Baxter injured something in her skull. Hopefully it wasn't major and she could just sleep it off. Otherwise, if she did have something wrong with her head, she would have no help.

Just like how Kaitlyn, Naomi, Mark, Mike, Stacey, and most likely Baxter did.

The announcements had come on just as she left the wheat field. While she was mainly focused on running away, she got the jist of it. Mara and Summer had killed. They didn't kill just any person either. Mara had run into Mike again and stabbed him, while Summer had killed Naomi. Stacey had been shoved off a hill, by Yukiko.

Her mind went back to prom. Did Summer really attack Naomi, and Mara Mike? Were those the same people she talked to at Mara's house that evening as they got ready to go to prom? Summer really was the kind of person to attack someone else that was there that evening. And she didn't know what was worse: that she had a basic idea of  why she would attack Naomi, based off her knowledge from personally dealing with Summer in the past, or that she was rewarded for it.

And Mara? Mara killed Mike. She had seen the two of them earlier. Did he go after her? Was the act Mara putting on that: an act?

And from her guess, Baxter wasn't alive anymore either. The announcement said to stay away from a homestead. At first, Miranda didn't pay the phrase any mind, until she pulled out her map to get an idea of where she was on the island. The area she had ran away from, it turns out, was the homestead in question. She had stabbed Baxter in the leg, and the announcement came on just as she got out. Someone with a hurt leg couldn't get too far.

Was that another kill from her?

She was certainly responsible if he didn't make it.

If he didn't, it was likely she was going to find out. Just like how the rest of the island knew she killed Kaitlyn.

It was strange, knowing that everyone around her was either killing or being killed. It was tempting to grieve, especially for Naomi. It was equally tempting to swear revenge and hunt Summer down like something out of Kill Bill. But she knew that it was useless. Summer was probably off somewhere, munching on her donuts and gloating about how she killed Naomi. It was a sickening thought to picture it.

What could she do, though? Miranda had killed too. It wasn't like she hadn't woken up and thought about killing before.

Once again, though, this sort of thing still hurt.

It would be a matter of time before she heard Summer and Mara's names on the announcement again, as well as Kat and Finn's. Heck, it was almost definite her own name would come up again. Her friends and classmates were disappearing.

Who were her friends, anyways? Miranda had thought about her life before the island a bit. For a good portion of her life, it was always about impressing someone. The right clothes made people like you. The right smile made people comfortable. You better have something witty to say, as well. The thing was, Miranda tried, but there was always someone better. Take Naomi, for instance. Naomi managed to become senior president. While Miranda wasn't able to vote for anyone, she didn't think Naomi was a bad choice at all. While she could get a little condescending, she was a very smart, charismatic woman. It wasn't surprising she would win. Kat was the basketball team captain. Mara was in pageants, also on the student council. Heck, even Laura and Jasper had something to be envied.

And what did Miranda have? Well, she was on the track team, but Cammie always did better. She still envied her to this day. And Veronica, of all people, was the track captain. Miranda was into fashion, but there were always combinations she was envious of. Unlike others she knew, Miranda didn't do as well at school. She could talk well, but she always said something dumb.

So, how much was it her befriending someone and more her trying to impress them?

It was clear that a lot of people around her had something much better than her, something she would have wanted for herself. She tried to get those somethings, but she never did. She was probably never going to. So she tried to present herself like how the people who did get those somethings acted. They were confident, smart, beautiful. It was something she too wanted.

If it was all just her trying to impress everyone, then it was strange to realize that those same people she tried to make like her either made the same decision as her or got killed before they did so. In a way, it was a bizarre form of equality. The island apparently didn't care if you were class president, or smart, or pretty. All it cared about was whether or not you survived.

Miranda had spent a large portion of time trying to impress these people. Really, there was a lot of things she never told anyone about, or at least didn't mention as often. Miranda, for example, loved anime. There were a lot of great shows she found herself watching, and it wasn't like how people said it was. It wasn't just tentacles, or people fighting for multiple episodes. It was something she enjoyed. Games could be fun as well. But heaven forbid she mention something like that. How many people would give her a weird look if she started talking about some magical girl anime?

Or, for that matter, about Dolores? Miranda was never able to mention anything about her to everyone. Sure, she ranted about her a few times, but it was usually something that seemed minor to everyone else. They never understood the context for why she acted that way around her, or why she seemed to get on her nerves. In hindsight, she was slipping in and out of denial. She wanted to be with her, but she could never fully admit it to herself. And that was probably why Dolores didn't want to be around her.

However, much like how the island didn't care if you were liked beforehand, it didn't care about what you watched or who you slept with. It was something no one cared about anymore. At school, it was something everyone cared about. However, once you're here, no one cares. It was strangely liberating, to know that there was very little she could be judged for anymore. Really, she had already done the ultimate thing she could be judged for, so there wasn't much to lose at this point. She killed, everyone else killed, tell us more about the obvious.

Oh, she should probably get her head checked out somehow.

Miranda unzipped her bag, and found her first aid kit. Was there something in here that could help her head? Miranda found aspirin and ibuprofen. However, she heard somewhere that it was a good idea to avoid certain pain relievers if your head is injured. She wasn't sure what kind, so she didn't want to risk it..

A few strands of hair brushed down her face as she continued looking, and she couldn't help but notice how stringy and dirty it looked. That was really her hair. She hadn't been taking good care of it. What's more, it was probably going to be in her face. It didn't help that long hair, she realized, was something someone could grab.

Just as she reached that thought, a pair of scissors had touched her hands.

Miranda pulled them out, inspecting them. After another thought, she slid the red hairband off her head.

Well, she was going to miss having long hair.


It took some time, to get her hair as short as possible. Her head still hurt, and she still felt nauseous. The scissors were small as well, and had trouble cutting through. But soon, a small pile of brown hair had formed in her lap. She didn't really care if it looked uneven, or if it showed off the growing purple bruise on the side of her forehead which matched a smaller one on her shoulder. What mattered was that there wasn't as much to grab, be dirty, or in her face.

Besides, it was time she got a new look.

She still didn't want to risk the pills. It wasn't worth possibly making it worse over making the pain go away.

Miranda put the first aid kit back, and quietly pulled out what remained of the jerky. Only one piece left. Unless she won something, she probably wasn't going to taste something like this again. Slowly, she chewed on the piece, enjoying the taste. It was going to be something else she missed.

Soon the jerky had disappeared down her throat. And that was the end of jerky.

Miranda looked at the ground, thinking a bit more. It was probably okay to go soon, now that she was rested. She still felt tired and ill, but she felt like she could keep going. It still felt like she was going to die here, alone, at that. Miranda had seen the number on the bag they had given her which contained her initial supplies, and it referred to her as G019. Nineteen didn't seem like a number she would see in another context, but if she was lucky and played it smart, she might.

Miranda lifted herself off the bench, and lifted her bag over her shoulder, only to pause as she picked up the spear.

She knew she was going to have to use it again, but that wasn't the thought that came to mind right now. Instead, she remembered how before the first announcement she had toyed with the idea of naming it something like in war movies. The thought came back to her, and she had just thought of a name. At first, it seemed even more dumb now after everything that had happened. It was something she used to kill people, and not only that, but the reference was something people would giggle at.

Well, she just thought no one would judge her over this, right? She already did much worse things.


So Miranda picked up Kyoko the spear. Kyoko was the name of a character from an anime that she had liked back home, and the spear made her think of her. At least she would be thinking of a cool character while she was here, maybe lighten her mood a bit. She got the feeling she wouldn't use the name much, but it still felt like a good name for it.


By this point, it was just one woman with her spear named after an anime character, a few supplies, her one, possibly two, kills,  and herself. She wasn't sure what would happen if she ran into Mara, or Kat, or Finn, or Summer, or anyone else. A number of things could happen.

But whatever happened, she was ready for it. Miranda had very little to lose by this point.

((Miranda Millers continued in Out of the Frying Pan...))