SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

Aaaaaaaaaand actually no, guess this girl was gonna have to fuck that plan because woah, shit, Other Girl (been a while since this girl had seen someone she didn’t know) was wayyyyyyy faster than she looked. Girl here had to jump back a little, low-key throw herself backwards just so she didn’t wham into Other Girl. Once her motion had ceased, her right leg near-planted in the ground behind her, she stood still. Seemed to look past Terra, to a bag left on the ground behind her. Once she’d finished, however, the girl seemed to turn her attention back to her. There was a moment of silence from her, as Reuben gave his piece, but then:

“Yeah, uh, what he said. Fuck that shit,” she said, shrugging, jingling the whip in her hand. “I mean, like, I was hopin’ to take a trip ta hell even before this. Maybe this’ll help put me on the fast track.”

"Then do it!" Terra roared. "Go to hell, if that's what you want! Pay the cost with my blood! But I'm not moving! I'm not budging!"

She felt like she was on firm ground again. For all her fears, for all her doubts, this was where God had put her. He had used her restless need for movement to bring her here, to stop a crime from taking place. Desiree had escaped, and this strange girl snarled and threatened, but she could hear the strain and desperation in Reuben's voice.

"You know this isn't okay, Reuben," she said, addressing him directly. "Threatening people like this. Are you really gonna kill someone? Why? God's not the only one watching. Is that who you wanna be? And..." She felt a catch in her throat, a forming sob that somehow did not diminish her rage. "There's gotta be a better way."

Desiree had disappeared into the trees. No point in chasing her now. Reuben clenched his fist in frustration as Terra railed on, trying to sacrifice herself for some reason or other. She accused him, tried to cut through to his heart with her words, and the grip on his knife tightened further. His entire body was shaking, his breathing was heavy, and he was beginning to rock back and forth.

What did she think, that he had chosen this role that he'd been given, that he'd jumped at the opportunity to murder people? No, this was the logical path, this was the only road that led to freedom. Fat chance waiting for a rescue that would never come. If it did, they'd just blow the collars and cover their tracks. There was no justice in this scenario, no heroes waiting to lead everyone to safety. Nor could he try to hide, to cower in some corner somewhere. His food would run out, he'd waste away, and when he inevitably emerged, the people who had been playing the game and keeping themselves fed and well-supplied would cut him down like a flimsy reed.

If he wanted to survive, he had to be proactive. He had to get stronger, he had to gather supplies, and the only way to do that was to play. This wasn't who he wanted to be, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered but moving forward, whatever it took. Whatever the cost.

"You think there's a better way..." he chuckled humorlessly, his head lowered, then he snapped up, gazing right at her with narrowed, determined eyes. "There IS no other way!" he cried, and lunged forward, thrusting his knife towards her...blindly...madly. He didn't even care if he connected, as long as it made this woman leave him alone.

”Woah,” the girl said, putting her hand up to her mouth in faux-shock, regardless of how the tone of her voice felt more legitimate, betrayed something real. “You really just tell me to kill myself? Thought you type were supposed ta preach love an...-”

She stopped, dropped the topic, as the other two started talking past her. There was a second’s pause on her part as Reuben responded, before moving out of his way as he charged (hey, pretty sure Bonnie didn’t get the shit stabbed outta her by Clyde, this girl wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to her either), moving past Terra to pick up the bag Desiree left behind, and then turning around, coming back to swing it at Terra.

She snapped one withering glare to the other girl as she strode past her. "Sin is sin!" she hissed. "I want you to be better!"

But her head whipped back to Reuben, sullen and unsure. She could see her words hitting him. She almost relaxed. To sin was human, after all; only forgiveness was truly divine. She would be here for him to reclaim the rightful path. A tenuous connnection, formed of an idle activity, suddenly in service to the glory of God? Surely this miserable island would be conducive ground for such a miracle.

"You think there's a better way..." he started, with a bleak chuckle, and she heard in that bleakness her chance. If he saw how fruitless and how bitter his course was, surely he would see where had erred, surely-

His head snapped up, gazing right at her with narrowed, determined eyes. "There IS no other way!"

He charged, with his knife in hand. She moved without thinking, throwing one hand up an taking a frantic, clumsy step backwards. Suddenly she was falling backwards, her vision rimmed in darkness, everything terribly slow. She felt a strange, sharp coldness along her left palm. She didn't know how else to describe it: it was line a line of absence across her nerves, killing any real feeling. She might have thought it fear, or illness, or some other mundane explanation. But when she hit the ground, the blood from the gash dribbled onto her chest. Slowly, in disbelief, she rotated her hand to stare at the long cut in her palm, the blood wealing up out of the pink meat.

Her meat. Her flesh.

She was distantly aware of movement out of the corner of her. She was distantly aware of a hard object by her right hand. Her hand curled around the same rock Desiree had thrown. Distantly, she looked up at Reuben, her throat hoarse and raw, the rock clutched and flying before she'd even thought about it. Distantly, she twitched, buried her cut hand in the dirt, and took off at a sprint, back into the woods. Distantly, she felt the crack of the other girl's whip against her back, a blinding pain that made her stumble but did not make her stop.

She could not stop. Someone had tried to cut her. Someone had tried to kill her. Either God didn't see, or God didn't care.

[Terra Johnson continued in Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin'

Reuben’s lunge had been awkward and slow. Weighed down as he was by his bags, he barely managed to connect with Terra’s palm before she tumbled backwards. Worse, in the time it took for him to catch himself and not fall forward with her, she’d found herself a weapon...and sent it sailing towards his face.

He’d had the nightmares before, of seeing doom approaching and knowing he couldn’t do a thing about it. The rock was coming quickly, far too quickly, and as he was still getting his feet under him, there was no way he could get out of the way in time.

He raised his left arm, the one not holding the dripping blade, and cried out as a sharp pain flared around the impact site. He winced and fell onto his rear, feeling wetness dripping down his arm, and by the time he looked up towards his attacker, she was already gone, vanishing into the trees as well as Desiree had.

He pulled himself to his feet, turning his arm painfully to see the damage. Thank goodness, it was only a harsh scrape, no worse than if he’d taken a bad fall onto the sidewalk. He’d need to wash it and put a bandage on it, but it’d heal in a few days and it wouldn’t get in the way. Nothing like what he’d done to Terra, or Teresa for that...

Oh, right, Teresa! He turned to look at her, and yup, that looked like a nasty nosebleed. But at the same time, that bag hanging from her hand...that wasn’t one of hers.

Mission accomplished, he guessed.

“Well, not a total loss,” he said humorlessly as he wiped his knife on a hanging leaf. He placed it in his bag, swapping it out for the hard case that held his medical supplies. “I’m...sorry for flaking out. She...I...sorry.”

What else could be said? He’d screwed up, let himself be goaded into doing something stupid. What Terra said was right, though perhaps not entirely. Who knew if God was watching, but millions of people definitely were, and that was pressing on him. What were they thinking right now?

Well, that wasn’t hard to imagine. He’d just charged screaming at a girl with a knife. He’d tried to rob a girl and said out loud that he’d rather murder her instead.

He was the bad guy.

There was a whump as the bag hit Terra’s back. All motion from it stopped, as if it had hit a brick wall. Blood was drawn with Reuben’s knife, and Terra started to run away. There seemed to be an opportunity for the girl to follow — a second where it seemed like she would — but she didn’t move, only watched as Terra disappeared from sight.

And man, like… man holy shit that felt like fuckin’ something. Girl here didn’t even know how to describe it. It was like… fuck, she didn’t know. It was kinda like when this girl did her dance at a party or a class or whatever and then stopped doin’ her dance — there’d kinda be like, a second spent goin’ slow mo as she flopped down and then her blood would start pumpin’. Her skin would feel like it was flyin’ through thin air. Her body would tell her ‘yo, girl, you can like, jump up and kick the moon’ and for a second this girl would like, actually wanna do that. Feelin’ never lasted — nothin’ good ever did — but man was it ever worth’ havin. Kinda got forgotten in the whole mess that was this girl’s life but hey, when it came, it was fuckin’ welcomed.

But like, go back to square one. Take that feeling. Take that feeling and have it come after a rock gets thrown into your fuckin’ face and have it come after you take a swing at a girl yourself.

Magnify that feeling by a hundred and you probably knew how this girl felt right now.

“Yo,” the girl said, a breathy tone in her voice as she put her hands on her knees. “We did it. Holy shit we did it.”

There were the beginnings of a laugh, but they disappeared before there could be any payoff. She brought her hand up to her mouth, wiped it.

“Might need ta work on our, ah, strategy a bit more, yeah,” she said, looking at her now outstretched arm, at the blood that smeared her fingertips. “Prolly could’a done that without lettin’ ‘em hit us back if we played that a little better.”

“Yeah...no kidding,” Reuben replied, feeling a bit of mirth creep in. Teresa was so pumped about their first caper, so excited that they’d managed to score a bag, that it was almost infectious. Seeing her act this happy practically forced a smile onto his face, only tainted a bit by him needing to bandage his arm.

Wash, disinfect, wrap. The terrorists had been stingy with the food but this case was nigh to bursting with all kinds of tools and bandages and such. They even included a lighter for some reason. Reuben wasn’t complaining. They could find some use for that down the line.

“So what I’m thinking,” he said as he tossed Teresa some gauze for her nose, “is that the ‘Good Morning’ routine...it’s not going to work a second time. We should try...umm...” He scratched his chin. What could they do instead? He wasn’t graceful enough for a sneak attack, and their weapons weren’t big enough to kill someone quickly. But what if...

“Hey uh...what did Desiree get? Maybe she had a chainsaw or...you know, anything that’s not a knife.” It was a longshot, but if her bag had something useful, they could work from there.

“Yeah. Everyone’ll prolly be all woken up by now, so…” The girl closed her mouth. Brought her lips inwards, as if she was about to kiss the air. Real reason why that plan wouldn’t work was because Reub here kinda couldn’t lie for shit, but eh. This girl had no problem with tha- well, nah, actually. Might be a problem down the line, but hey, they weren’t down that line yet. She had to like, take this one day atta time. Shoot the shit with Reub a little before their shit got shot. Last part didn’t really fit with the ‘take this slow’ plan but actually yeah it kinda did. Maybe. Girl’d need to be like Delphi before she could tell that. “Still think it’s a good idea to, like, have us both go at people at different angles. Stops ‘em from just goin’ the other way if one of us tries to jump on ‘em.”

The girl paused. Looked around the wilderness. She seemed to be looking at the background itself rather than anything inside it, but there was no reason why it couldn’t have been both.

“...Oh right. Yeah. Day. Lemme see” Her head snapped towards Reuben, before bobbing down to look at the backpack in her hands and then opening it. There were a few seconds spent in place, as she sifted through it. “Um, looks like the same shit we got in our bags, and…”

She stopped, for a second. Grabbed something from within the bag.

Smiled.

“Hands up, capiche,” she said, before pointing what was very obviously a water pistol at him.

A water pistol. Of all the kids to mug on the island, they had to pick the one who'd been handed an absolute lemon. It wasn't even a super soaker or something that could really shoot out water, just a dinky little squirt gun.

"Oh no, don't shoot," Reuben deadpanned, and then heaved an irritated sigh. "Well, at least we'll have plenty of food and water. Let's see..."

He went silent and began miming hand gestures in midair as he was visualizing their ambush play, seeing how they could better implement it. The angle they used was too close together, meaning that people could run interference or disappear into the underbrush. On the other hand, if they approached directly from opposite sides, someone could just make a break to the left or the right. And it's not like Reuben could stop them if they did.

"I think maybe..." he mused out loud, "instead of coming to them, maybe THEY should come to us...like, we set a trap of some kind. If we had a bait or..." his eyes drifted to the spare bag. Yeah...they had some good bait right there. But they'd need to find a good place to set up, someplace with only one access point. And besides, being out here in the open was starting to make him uneasy, because of something else that he'd noticed when watching the show.

"Y'know what, we should probably get moving. If those two start talking, these woods are going to be full of...well, call them what they are, player-killers." One thing that never failed on the show in previous seasons was that once the first kills came rolling in, there'd be these busybody kids who figured they could get some kind of a righteous kill by hunting players. A righteous kill...as if there was ever such a thing.

"So...yeah, let's walk and talk. I've got a plan." Hoisting up his own bags, he gave one more cursory inspection of his arm. He didn't want to go toe to toe with someone again, not if he could help it. At least, not until they had a gun. A real gun.

(Reuben Walters continued elsewhere)

Man, this girl was kinda hopin’ Reub would, like, think it was an actual gun or somethin’. Freak out. Go all flight n’ fight and stuff. Woulda been a whole laugh to see him all like that, but... eh, whatever. Wasn’t too hard a loss to like, not. The girl watched him, as he talked. Tilted her head to the side a little.

“Uh, might need you to go through it again, but I think I get what you’re sayin’.” She looked at Desiree’s bag, now in her hands. She tried to look behind her, at the bag that was on her back. Girl wasn’t really sure how much of the shit in there could get pooled into their own bags and she wasn’t sure whether there was shit she’d feel okay losin’, but...

Eh. His plan seemed fun enough. Kinda dangerous, for sure, but hey, she wanted the biscuit? Ain’t no choice but ta risk it.

((G31, continued elsewhere))