SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

Okay, that was definitely another light from somewhere further in the house. Francis couldn't tell exactly how far away it was, but that wasn't the important thing. What was important was that his ears hadn't betrayed him, and the guy was on the same floor as them. As well as that, he couldn't be too far away if his flashlight beam was visible, and most importantly, if they were willing to use their flashlight, it also meant they weren't trying to hide. If they weren't trying to hide, they were most likely harmless.

Swiftly after the light came a voice. Francis would probably have recognised it, now he was actively listening for somebody, but helpfully, the person had complied with Francis' request. Yoshikawa something-something. He was the gay kid in band, right? Francis didn't know a whole lot about him besides that, aside from one thing; the guy wouldn't hurt a fly. Hell, a fly'd have a better chance of hurting him.

Furthermore, Yoshikawa's weapon was simply some kind of firestarter. Useful, in a pinch, but deadly and dangerous? Not unless Francis suddenly decided standing stock still for hours was suddenly his sorta thing. All things considered, Yoshikawa was definitely a good guy to run into. Francis decided it would be perfectly fine to respond to his questions.

"Francis and Juhan" Francis shouted back. "Weapons are some fuckin' blanket and... uh..." Francis looked back at Juhan, a questioning look on his face. What was Juhan's weapon, actually? He wasn't sure if the guy had mentioned it or not. Could be useful, could be a game changer. Could be less so.

Could mean Francis had placed his trust in the wrong guy completely.

The boy spoke again and said his name. He wasn't that familiar with Yoshikawa. Juhan knew he was an anime fan, one that liked to cosplay, but beyond that, there weren't too many details he remembered about him. Yoshikawa didn't seem like one of those jocks. Doesn't exactly mean he's harmless, however.

At least he was nice enough to say his weapon. A firestarter sounded like it could be sort of useful. Not really as a weapon, but it could be used for... other things. Juhan wasn't sure what those other things could be. For keeping warm? Smoke signals? He'd figure it out later.

He seemed trustworthy, so Juhan decided it was perfectly safe to say what his weapon was. Besides, there wasn't any point in lying. Looked like Francis also wanted to know.

He finished Francis' sentence and said, "A party bag!" Just to show Francis he wasn't bluffing, he got it out of his duffel bag and showed him.

Takeshi nodded to himself. It seemed that he had little to worry about at the present moment. He called back to Francis and Juhan.

"These guys like their jokes...you guys have any idea how to get out of this building? We're going to run down our flashlights pretty quickly if we stay in here too long. Coming your way."

He started making his way out of the room he awoke in and down the hall toward the pair. Calling back and forth down a long hall was not the optimal way to communicate, especially as they had no idea of who might be outside...or inside with them. As this thought crossed his mind, he quickened his pace slightly and kept the beam focused in front of him. Haunted houses were creepy enough on their own. Abandoned haunted houses in which people would soon be dying were even creepier. He preferred to get out quickly while taking in as little of the decor as possible.

He was getting close enough to be able to distinguish between the boys. Both tall and thin. Blonde, one with long hair, one with rather short hair. Francis, Takeshi recalled, was an athlete, where Juhan was more academic. They were all somewhat musically inclined. Common ground was important. Common ground would keep them sane and at peace, at least for a little while he hoped.

So Juhan was definitely still trustworthy. Didn't mean Francis wasn't still pissed. A party bag. A motherfucking party bag. That was all Juhan had been given. All Juhan had to defend himself. Man, the guy had had a pretty shitty run of luck, even more so than Francis himself. And all they had to defend themselves were a blanket, a party bag and a fucking firestarter.

"Really? Fuckin' really?" Francis muttered to Juhan. "An' I thought the blanket was a piece of shit. This is fuckin' bullshit." As soon as they were outside, they'd need to look for something better with which to defend themselves. Maybe a tree branch or something heavy looking. Francis wasn't sure on how strong Juhan was, but carry an imposing enough object and people weren't likely to mess with you.

Takeshi was heading towards them now. He also had an additional point, about wasting the flashlight's batteries. It had been the most useful thing in his bag so far, and who knew when he'd have to use it again? Francis switched it off and put it back into his bag. The combined light from Juhan and Takeshi would, hopefully, be more than enough to see well with.

Francis was pleased to see that he had been thinking of the right guy once Takeshi came into view. Not that there was an abundance of Takeshis at school, but still. Francis nodded at him for a greeting, then scratched his head with his now free hand.

"Hey." Francis said. "And for your earlier question, we're still lookin' for an exit. Haven't seen anythin', though, asides from a fuckin' mummy and a bridge. We were actually headin' the way you just came from, though." Francis paused, picked up the blanket with his now free hand, and sighed.

"Right. Let's get movin'. You cool with doublin' back, Takeshi? This place can't go on forever. If there's nothin' that way, we'll just head back, alright?

Juhan couldn't agree more with Francis. He was tempted to just go back to punching the floor and screaming his lungs out, but that wouldn't help anyone. All he wanted to do now was just get out of this place, find some weapon which would be at least somewhat scary, and make a plan, any type of plan that would either get them out of there or... Juhan didn't want to consider playing their game. If they couldn't escape, then he'd simply have his last hurrah and try to do the things he never got to do, say his goodbyes.

For now, however, there was simply the issue of getting out. He simply announced, "I'll take the lead and try to find the exit. I don't want to spend one more second in this place so- gaah! What the heck?! Did they really have to put a zombie or a ghoul at every freakin' corner?!" He breathed in and out for 10 seconds while trying to calm himself down. He then continued. "Uh... sorry for that. Had to get some steam out. Just follow me, please?" Now his flashlight was focused on a wax statue of some ghost thing. Just another reason for getting out of here as soon as possible.

Takeshi turned back around and started back the way he came, following behind Juhan.

"They just kind of added all the monsters they could think of when they built this place I guess. Lot of wax figures. If we get some rope we could make giant candles. They might burn the place down, but somehow I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. When we find the exit anyhow." He looked at the statue and shook his head.

"Throw us into a stupid murder game, and dump us in a haunted house on top of it, because this just isn't stressful enough. I actually woke up in a casket. Somebody took the time to put me into a casket. Or maybe it was a coffin. I forget the difference. It was actually kind of comfortable. I'm sure we could do worse for places to make camp. Move some of the statues around to block room entrances and give some advanced warning. We should definitely figure out how to get out of here first though, and then see what we can find lying around. Water is going to be important, and if we can locate a source before anybody else is worrying about it, we'll be a lot better off I think."

He wasn't going to play, but he wasn't going to roll over and die either.

My life is sacred too, dammit.

So Juhan was going to take the lead in this search for the exit. Francis felt a little unsure at this decision. Juhan clearly wasn't the strongest guy in the world, and although Francis didn't exactly believe in superstitions, the guy had had a string of bad luck so far. On the other hand, it was probably best someone with a torch led the way, what with the whole 'actually having light' thing. Besides, despite his earlier freak out, Juhan was holding himself together admirably. He seemed to have a level head, for sure.

It was, of course, at this moment that Juhan yelled in shock at the wax statue of a ghost. Now that was just a bad omen. Francis couldn't help but sigh before laughing ruefully at the sight. Seriously, had he managed to trip over a black cat underneath a ladder and crashed into a stack of mirrors or something?

Takeshi mentioned using the wax figures as candles, which had a surreal threat to it, given his weapon was a firestarter. Francis was up for it, though. This house could go straight to hell. Better to do it once they were safely outside, though. The other boy carried on speaking, mentioning that he'd been placed in a coffin to wake up in. Seriously? That was just a dick move. Takeshi seemed pretty calm about it, but Francis wasn't going to lie, he'd probably have freaked if he realised he was in a coffin. He'd seen that film about the guy buried underground. That shit was freaky.

Francis shook his head and grimaced when Takeshi suggested they make camp inside the house. Yeah, given how well his morning inside it had been, Francis was really beginning to appreciate the place and it's stupid fucking mannequins.

"Fuck that, dude." Francis muttered. "Not about the water thing, that's important, but no offence, fuck stayin' in here. I don't wanna argue 'bout it here, either. Like you said, gettin' out of here's the priority, before we go about makin' any plans."

Francis kept on walking, his gaze following the torch beams for any sight out of this house.

Juhan almost laughed at Takeshi's proposition.

Stay here? They could've camped out right on the very edge of a cliff for all he cared, but it was going to take a lot of convincing to make him camp out here. First, it was dark. Second, it was a haunted house. Those were all the reasons he needed to get out of here. Sure, it could make a decent shelter if they did what Takeshi suggested and turned the statues into boundaries, but they couldn't stay there forever. There were still the danger zones to worry about. Besides, turning those ghosts and vampires into candles would just make this place all the more creepier. It's like he wanted to make this house perfect for a horror movie. Juhan would actually be happy if the candles ended up burning down the haunted house.

He made a slight gasp when Takeshi mentioned waking up in a coffin. That was just plain cruel. If they did that to Juhan, he was pretty sure it would end in broken nails, wet pants, puffy eyes, and a hoarse voice. He replied to both of them. "I'm not so sure about staying here. Sure, there are worse places, but there are probably way better hideouts than this place. Let's just talk about shelters and survival plans when we find the exit."

It was clear that all of them would probably agree on that, so Juhan continued walking ahead. Thankfully, the exit was just a few yards past that ghost thing. "Hey guys, speaking of exits, I found one! Wanna get out now and look around or something?"

He shrugged his shoulders and kept walking.

"Oh, believe me, I don't have my heart set on staying here in this creepy place. Just thoughts. Everything will be a danger zone at some point I'm sure, so it doesn't hurt to assess the potential of each place we visit. Oh? Exit? Wonderful."

Takeshi thought for a moment before responding to Juhan's question. "I think I remember seeing some kind of map when I was looking around inside my bag. We might want to plan out where we're going before we just step out the door. No telling what's going on out there. We might have to move quickly."

He fished around in his day pack until he found what was most likely his issued map. He unfolded it and set it down on the floor, shining his light on it and searching for something that resembled where they were.

"Okay, here we are. When we step out that door we should be in the abandoned amusement park. Might not be a bad place to do some salvage. It looks like all the water on the map is salt water, but the residential areas might have wells. If all else fails pray for rain and we can harvest the rainwater if we can find a few containers." Takeshi realized he was talking a lot, so he paused there to give his new companions an opportunity to weigh in.

"Thoughts?"

Shit, Danger Zones. Francis had completely forgotten about those. Compared to everything else that had happened to him so far, they had hardly registered on his radar. But the knowledge from what little of this bullshit he'd watched, what little he knew from other people, and what he'd been told in person just hours before suddenly awoke in his mind. Fucking fantastic. Yet another way for the terrorists to brutally murder anybody anytime they pleased. If he had something slightly heavier, and just five minutes with those guys...

At least both Juhan and Takeshi seemed to have similar thoughts about staying in the house, or rather not doing so. Although Takeshi did bring up another point about the rotating danger zones. If the worst came to the worst, and they needed to evacuate somewhere quickly, heading somewhere familiar was probably a safe bet, rather than anywhere new, even if it was dark and oh shit, there was the exit!

"Thank fuckin' Christ." Francis muttered. "Natural light and open spaces. Fuckin' paradise compared to this." Maybe that was a bit too far. They'd still have... well, everything to look out for. They'd have to stay vigilant. But compared to this dark and gloomy maze, anywhere was preferable. Besides, Francis was confident they'd be alright. They seemed to work together just fine. Besides, last time the terrorists had pulled this stunt, there'd been a rescue, hadn't there? Francis wasn't going to put all his hope in that happening again, but it was always a possibility. The government wouldn't let something like this go unpunished, right?

Takeshi had gotten his map out now, and had placed it on the floor, shining his flashlight down on it like some mechanical sun. Fair enough plan; better to do some planning in relative safety than outside in the unknown. Francis folded his arms and leaned against the doorway, looking down at the map. He nodded at Takeshi's words.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan. Pretty sure we've got water in our bags, but it can't hurt to get more, right? But we should definitely look around outside first, see if we can't get some better shit to defend ourselves with. And hell, there might be loadsa stuff the terrorists missed out there. Food, maybe? I dunno, but it's worth a shot, right?"

Juhan was surprised by how well things were going. It was only 45 minutes or so after they'd woken up, and they were already planning and working together. He was slightly disappointed by the fact that, no, they weren't going to tail it out of here immediately, Takeshi's reasoning made sense. Although it was unlikely that everyone outside had gone crazy and started stabbing each other with sticks and knives, there was a chance that there were a few players out and about already.

He waited for Francis to finish speaking before weighing in on their plans.

"Hey, by the way, are any of you guys good with making or improvising stuff? We could make some more useful weapons. Also, we should probably keep track of our food, ration it. What did you guys bring for the trip? I brought, I guess, around 50 Oreo cookies with me. How 'bout you guys?" He paused for a second or two before noticing something else on the map. His eyebrows raised and he gestured towards a spot near the coast on the map. "Hey guys, do you see this? They actually have a nuclear plant here. There can't be that many islands with nuclear plants. Do you think it'd make a nice shelter? Also, do you know any islands with nuclear plants? I mean, this could be the key to finding out where we are!" The cogs in his brain were starting to operate now, he got out his own map and took note of the various facilities on the island. He was excited now. For him, there was already a slight chance of escaping. Just a few more seconds and he'd think up something...

Takeshi checked his bag again. "Four bottles, about a liter each I'm guessing. That's not much. You can bet there will be some fights on this island over drinking water. We should be alright on food though," Takeshi said, looking at one of the bars a little closer. "These are survival rations, each one has a full day's worth of calories and they gave us quite a few. I'm eyeballing about ten of these. Should be enough to keep us from needing to take too many chances on whatever food got left behind."

His attention went back to the map. "Not sure how many have nuclear power plants, but I see a school here, which might give us a better indication of where we are. Unless it's just named after a dead president. Then we could be anywhere."

"I'm not sure what we'd find in the power plant that would be useful to us. Depends on how long it's been abandoned I suppose. Hope they cleaned out the waste before they left. Radiation sickness is really unpleasant I hear. Anyhow, I guess we should probably head to either the plant or the school after we get done here in the park. Maybe we'll find a sign that will tell us where we are, and if we're lucky something to help us survive a little longer."

Francis stood silently off to the side as the other two boys talked. He wouldn't say he was 'more of a doer than a thinker', exactly. He could do both, no problem. It just seemed, in his opinion, more profitable for all of them to listen to each other in turn before chipping in, rather than barging in with his opinions straight away.

Besides, Juhan was doing enough talking for all three of them anyway. Francis was almost surprised the guy didn't have to pause for breath after speaking. He'd asked whether anyone was good at constructing weapons, what food everyone had, whether they knew of any islands with nuclear plants, whether it'd make a nice shelter and possibly what the mass of the sun was. Francis suspected it might have been lost somewhere in Juhan's speech. Francis scratched the back of his neck, trying to remember what food he'd put in his bag. He wasn't exactly willing to play another round of shuffle-the-bags to find out.

Next concern was about the power plant, and although Francis had to admit, the amount of islands with nuclear plants was probably just in the double digits, he shared Takeshi's thoughts on the matter. There were already hundreds of ways he could get hurt or killed, and Francis didn't want to add radiation poisoning to the list. It wasn't as if there would be anything useful in there either, Francis guessed.

"Think I've got some brownies in my bag, maybe somethin' else, maybe not. Can't remember." Francis shrugged, and moved away from the doorway, unfolding his arms. "And I'm not, like, an expert on improvisin' stuff and all that, but hell, it's not like we've got anythin' else to do here, is there? I could probably make somethin' vaguely serviceable as a weapon." Francis paused as he walked over to the map. He looked down at it for a few moments before speaking again.

"Personally, I think we should head for the school after we're all done here. Don't think there'll be much at the plant, whereas the school might. Food, paper, fuckin' kitchen knives maybe, whatever. Plus, the two things might correlate, y'know? I mean, even if the school's named after some dead guy, there's gotta be a tiny amount with that name located on an island with a nuclear plant, right? And if the name's more unique, fuckin' fantastic, we're a step ahead."

Francis adjusted the straps of his bags, and forced a positive, confident smile onto his face. He couldn't shift the feeling of nervousness, paranoia and despair inside of him, all around him, but the very least he could do was put on a brave face, for himself as much as his friends. Maybe he'd be able to trick himself into thinking everything was okay.

"We ready to roll, then?"

Juhan was thinking. The only island he knew which had a nuclear plant was Three Mile Island, and he seriously doubted the terrorists would place them there since that island is in the middle of Pennsylvania. Also, he was pretty sure people still worked there. Francis and Takeshi both had some points. Although he doubted that the previous inhabitants forgot to clean out the plant before decommissioning it, there was always a chance. And if they did leave the nuclear waste there, he doubted the terrorists would be considerate enough to clean it up for them.

He brightened up at the mention of energy bars and brownies. At least it meant one less problem to worry about. He was slightly disappointed at the fact that neither of them were good at craftsmanship, but they could probably manage with some large stick for the meanwhile. Or they could ste-

Yeah, a big stick would do.

After listening to both of them, he determined that the school would probably have more useful stuff and therefore be the better destination. Also, for all he knew, they might've left behind some maps or newspapers that would give them an idea of where they were.

Juhan gave a sigh of relief when Francis asked about leaving. He exclaimed, "As ready as I'll ever be!" He opened the door, and then had to close his eyes for a bit to adjust to the sudden burst of light. It felt great to be out in the sunshine. He saw a path leading to what he assumed would be the rest of the amusement park and started walking towards it. He stopped and looked behind just to make sure Takeshi and Francis were following. He then looked back at the haunted house for what would hopefully be the last time before continuing on the path.

((Juhan Levandi continued in The Real Folk Blues))

Takeshi nodded and folded his map, having a good idea about the general direction they needed to go to get where they were going.

"Sounds like a good plan to me. Sayonara, creepy house," Takeshi said as he walked through the door and into the sunlight which promised infinite possibilities. It lied of course. The only possibilities on this island were death and hope that they'd get their big damn rescue in a couple of days.

If we can make it through the first few. That time limit is going to make some people nervous.

((Takeshi continued in The Real Folk Blues))