SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

The first bullet hit him straight in the chest. He fell back.

When he looked up, he saw Marcy walking over to him.

With tears and hatred in his eyes, he saw Marcy's gun aimed at his head.

The first shot did the job.

B055: Nick Ogilvie - Deceased

The second shot just made a mess.

For the second time in as many days there were hands guiding Marco that he did not recognize. He wanted to resist their pull away from the only touch that felt familiar. Pull, pull was too soft, it was a tearing, a rending, an act of malevolent maiming that would mar him irreversibly. Of course it made no sense to blame the hands around his arm for the abcess absence Marceline swole inside of him but he couldn't stop her, he, he had accepted, Nick had told him, Nick had made him promise without words that he wouldn't do say act but he'd promised nothing to these hands he'd asked nothing of these hands he wanted nothing from these hands he hated these hands these weak hands small naked helpless frail trembling drifting drifting drifting drifting drifting feeling no empty smooth grasping twitching worthless ugly dirty pathetic fragile shaky stop stop stop please back stop please

he couldn't

Nick blinking away tears

he couldn't

Marceline's aim steady at his chest

he couldn't

Katelynne half-guiding half-escorting him away

he couldn't

Marco's hand's spasming in repetitive, paralyzed instinct

No one cared. Least of all Marco. He couldn't. Marco's only path out of that room was to not care about the hands he wanted to scratch away, the gun he wanted to steal and fire until it was empty, the arms he wanted to collapse into sobbing, the body he wanted to force to some use or failing that annihilate because what good was it, what good had it been, what good would it ever be it could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not could not 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he couldn't. be. right now. he wouldn't. he wouldn't resist being pulled out the door. he wouldn't answer any of katelynne's questions as they made their way down the path. he wouldn't remember the gunshots echoing in the distance. he wouldn't choose where they were going next. he wouldn't. until he could. he promised. nick promised. it could be okay. it would be okay. he could be okay. he would be okay.

but it wasn't.

so he wasn't.

until it was.

((Marco Hart Continued In We Are The Last Of The Legion, The Last Of The Bastion, The Best Of The Bastards, And Slave To None))

Twin trails of smoke exited the dual barrels of the AF-2011, the vibrations from the gunfire leaving behind a distinctive, unpleasant tingling in Marceline's arms.

The high-pitched ringing in her ears that followed the deafening booms of the gunshots quickly faded, blending back into the ever-present, familiar tinnitus that she had begun to grow accustomed to, now slightly louder than it had been previously. She ejected the now partially-emptied magazine from the gun into her hand, swapping it for the full magazine that she had tucked away in her pocket. She would need to fully load it again, later, but for now it could wait. Nick's corpse lay on the ground beneath her, flecks of viscera and chunks of skull now painting the floor just behind his head. A familiar metallic stench filled her nostrils, growing worse as she watched blood pool underneath the body, in tandem with the slowly expanding sanguine circle on Nick's waistcoat.

She had hit both of her shots exactly where she had been aiming. Two bullets to the heart, and two bullets to the brain. She wondered if her father would be proud of her. After all, the self-defense lessons that he had taught his "little girl" to "keep her safe" in all his paranoia were finally paying off in a real, tangible way, and not just in his head.

She glanced at Nick's now lifeless eyes, one of which was bulging slightly out of the socket, and she felt an immediate, visceral sense of disgust. She turned her head away from him, unable to continue looking at the once-living thing now decorating the interior of the temple. Looking elsewhere, she didn't see his bag anywhere nearby. Presumably it had been stored elsewhere along with Hart's and Kirkpatrick's belongings. The knife that he had reached for earlier was still here, however, and she scooped it up off the ground and stowed it away.

The knife marked another trophy collected, from another victim. That was two people she had killed now, on her path to victory. In less than twenty-four hours she had already accomplished more in the name of her new goal than she had for any of her other goals every other day she had been trapped here, combined. This whole time, she had been hunting for success, and she finally found it. Did that say something about her, that she was more effective at playing the role of a villain than that of a hero? Or was being a villain just inherently easier, under the present circumstances?

She didn't know, and she wasn't sure.

She looked back at Nick's body, briefly. This time, just before she had shot him, she hadn't hesitated. Was that a sign that she was already getting used to killing her peers? She didn't like that thought, not one bit. She didn't want the act of taking a life to become easy. It was supposed to be a challenge that she had to push through out of necessity, not something she just did out of reflex. Though, maybe she wasn't quite that far gone yet, and the circumstances had just allowed her to build up the required fortitude in advance.

Or, maybe Nick's words had just made her angry. He had said that she wasn't a victim, that she was a collaborator, an executioner on the behalf of the terrorists. That was wrong, of course, and the mere accusation had made her furious. She was obviously a victim, same as everyone else. She never asked for this, nobody here was burdened with the blame for what happened. Society outside of this place even agreed with her on that. The previous survivors were all multi-time murderers, some of them even having kill counts high enough to make most serial killers blush. Despite that, none of them were ever prosecuted for what took place here, because they weren't really responsible, and neither was she.

There was something else he had said, though. He said that she was someone who thrived in this place. Maybe he had been right about that, she was even starting to think that herself, after all. Though, if this was where she thrived, and where she finally found success and a sense of direction, then she would accept that. She would use it to her advantage, and she would survive. After all, she had a promise to keep.

((For right now, though, she needed to rest and stay out of the sun for a little while. That was why she had come here in the first place, right?))