If We Could Have Tomorrow In Technicolor

[Courtography]

Hannah had tried to spend the rest of her day resting, but whenever she thought she was close to actual rest, she'd remember something. Sometimes it was that she probably wouldn't see her parents or friends again. Or that Irene was dead. Noah's reassurances hadn't been enough to get rid of that whole feeling, no matter how much she wanted it to.

At one point she'd tried to say something to the nearby camera, to pass on a message to her parents. She felt like it just came out as a mess. She wasn't sure how to communicate how important they were to her, not just because, well, they were her parents, but also that they were mostly good parents. She knew that not all parents in Arizona would have had as good of reactions to her coming out as they did. But the words didn't come out right, and she wasn't sure anyone would understand what she was trying to say.

Then she had cried a bit. It was just all so damn frustrating.

She flinched when she heard the knock on the door.

"Yeah. I'm fine," she lied, trying to put a bit of false cheer into it.

She didn't want to drag Noah down with her.

[Laurels]

Noah smiled when Hannah replied. He was just glad she was still alive in there. He probably would have heard something if she was attacked, and he could fear the worst if she was unresponsive anyways. He leaned his head against the door to her room for a moment and sighed. At least one person was still here with him.

He opened the door and peered inside.

"Hey, so," he began. "What do you feel like doing? Want to go looking around a bit? I think I've done all I need to."

[Malloon]

(Benjamin Lichter continues from Calvin and Hobbes)

It was strange, how sometimes you didn't know much you cared about someone, until they were gone. Then it hurt. When Ben had first heard that Irene was dead, well, he hadn't taken it well. Quite badly, in fact. Because Irene, she was more than just a face in the crowd, or the face of a corpse. She was, or had been, a friend.

And he hadn't known she'd been on the trip too.

He'd broken down when he heard her name. He'd already lost count of how many times he'd cried while on the island, but he hadn't cared. He had been outside the asylum, having a pee, when the announcment hit. He'd tensed up in worry, but part of him thought he didn't need to, that the last few announcements hadn't been an issue, and that this one would be the same. He had been wrong. He had barely managed to get back to where he had slept before the tears came.

Day four on the island had been uneventful. He'd seen people from afar, heard gunshots, avoided a corpse or two, etc., but nothing that he wasn't getting used to. At least, that was what he had hoped, following the third time in a row he'd been startled and had almost bolted. It was the "almost": He'd flinched like a startled cat, but he hadn't run. Any ragged laugh or sob that had escaped him didn't count, as long as he hadn't run. He hadn't run, no he hadn't. He had been in control. "I am in control!" he had told himself, and he had believed it. And since he had been in control, he had reasoned that he could go search for Maxim in places where he hadn't looked yet. Such as in the asylum! Which had been nearby, such luck!

It was telling that the first thing he had done was choose a room and bar the door the best he could. He had slept on the floor that night, for lack of a bed.

It had been uncomfortable, but the night hadn't lasted forever. When the need to pee arose he had waited until he couldn't ignore it any more, then slipped outside. There had been no such care coming back in, though it hadn't seemed to matter. No one had followed him.

After the crying came the silence. And after that, the rising awareness of just how uncomfortable the floor was. Then the restlessness, the unwillingness to sit still. The grief had still been raw, but there's only so long a person can face it head on. It lingered, and would return later, but there were other things to tend to: survival, hunger, fear.

Life went on, as bitter as it had become.

Ben walked up the first flight of stairs he found. He had a plan in mind: Work your way from the bottom to the top. Search every knook and cranny, but don't get spotted yourself. Remember to go slowly. Listen behind you and ahead. Find Maxim, and get the hell out of here.

Slowly, pressing himself against the wall, he ascended the staircase. One foot, then the next. "Easy does it," he murmured softly. Then he heard a voice, coming from the corridor at the top of the stairs. He froze. It sounded like it was talking to someone. It sounded calm, friendly. He didn't recognise it, but it didn't sound like Maxim. His hands shook. Did he dare? No! It was too risky! So, careful to not make a sound, he turned, and slowly started walking back down the stairs.

[Courtography]

"I..."

She wasn't sure. She hated being in the room. It had started to feel like a prison. Maybe it had felt that way to some other people a long time ago, but she wasn't entirely sure on the exact nature of how asylums worked in the past. Although old movies had always made them look horrible, it also made everyone in them look pretty awful too. And sure some mentally ill people had problems, a lot of it was people just not understanding. Her ADHD didn't make her a monster and it was hard for her to consider judging people with more severe disorders too harshly. Even if she couldn't really understand.

The problem was that she wasn't sure if being anywhere on the island would be better. It was filled with dead friends and classmates and fuck, she was probably going to die on it. She probably should find Livvie though. That could maybe maybe maybe make up for Irene.

"Yeah, look around, of course!" she responded, putting some false cheer into her voice.

"Just let me grab my stuff and things."

She went and picked up her bag and the board. It wasn't much, but it's what she had.

[Laurels]

"Great," Noah said at Hannah's response. "I'll meet you by the stairs."

Noah hurried back into his ward. He walked over to his bag and swung it over his shoulder. He looked over at the camera in the corner. He hadn't really said anything to his family in the last few hours. He had told a lot of weird jokes that involved assholes and semen, but nothing truly profound or sentimental was uttered. Noah closed his eyes and breathed in. He opened his eyes, and spoke.

"Hey, Mom. I lasted five days here. That's longer than I did in little league, so I hope you're proud of me."

Noah smirked. He then composed himself and then continued to speak.

"Let me make this quick. Listen, I don't know what's gonna happen, but if I don't come back, please take care of everyone. I know Grandma and Grandpa will be sad, but could you try to be strong for them? You were always the badass matriarch our house needed, so I hope you can keep everyone going."

"Um, Dad. Angie. I hope you guys can be there for my mom if she needs help. Please also make sure Ella's okay. I can't imagine how she's processing this shit. But she's a trooper, so I hope you can explain it to her well."

"Oh, and as for my stuff, maybe you guys can auction it off to raise money for Ella's college. Wait, no, just give her my college fund. Odds are I won't need it any more. She's probably Harvard-bound anyways and could use the cash."

"I'll think of other things to say the next time I get a quiet moment with the cameras. Until then...um..."

Noah flashed a peace sign to the camera.

"Peace, I guess. There isn't any here, but surely you guys have some."

Noah walked out of the ward, with a spring in his step. He didn't see Hannah out there, so maybe she was coming. As he approached the steps, he could have sworn he heard something nearby. Whatever it was, his grip on Sawlaska tightened.

[Malloon]

Two. Two voices. Then walking. Ben resisted the urge to run and, after a moment, the walking stopped. He let out a slight sigh, then continued. He was already halfway down the stairs. If he kept this up, he would be gone before they even knew he was there. His left hand trailing along the wall, he continued descending.

He was near the bottom when he heard someone approaching the top of the stairs. Alarmed, he caught his heel on the edge of a step, which unbalanced him and made him stomp his boot slightly on the next one. His left hand shot forward, sending a painting that hung on the wall swinging. "No no no no no no please please please..." he expressed silently, while freezing in place, the painting slowly coming to a standstill. He hoped against all hope that no one had heard that.

[Courtography]

Hannah sighed as she finished grabbing her things. The rest of the island was sure to be horrible, but so had been staying in that room for the past day. She picked up the backpack and put it over her shoulders. It was lighter than it had been. She was worn out enough that it didn't reassure her much, especially since it was mostly lighter from her eating her way through a large part of her food supply.

She moved her head to the left and felt the satisfying pop from her neck. She hadn't realized how stiff everything had gotten. Maybe it would have been worth it to have kept doing her exercises even in this situation. But she hadn't, and she didn't feel like telling Noah to wait up because she needed to stretch.

She walked into the hall and saw Noah clutching that...thing. He seemed to be focused on something.

"Noah, uh, what's up?"

It was casual, but still asked a question. Hopefully the answer was that nothing was going on and she was just imagining it.

[Laurels]

"I think someone's there," Noah said to Hannah.

Noah approached the top of the stairs. He could sort of see a figure at the bottom of them. The person had made quite a racket, and he wasn't sure who it was, but whoever it was, he needed to figure out who they were and what they were doing.

"Hannah, stay back just in case," Noah said to his companion.

Noah hollered down the stairs.

"Hey, we're not playing, so we'd like it if you weren't either!" he said to the person down there. "Is that cool with you?"

Oh god, why did I just say that shit? Please don't kill me for saying something that stupid.

[Malloon]

Ben didn't dare to move. The figures were at the top of the stairs now, talking, but he didn't know if they could see him, it was so dark. His plan hadn't failed yet - he hadn't been spotted, technically. They couldn't be sure that he was there.

At least, that was what he thought. Then one of the two - a guy - hollered down the stairs at him. Ben jumped, and almost ran out of fright again. "Hey, we're not playing," said the guy, "so we'd like it if you weren't either! Is that cool with you?"

"Playing?" thought Ben. Was that what people were calling it? And they weren't... playing?

Well, good to know. Ben stayed put for a few more seconds, then realized that he should either answer them or go. He couldn't just stay standing there in the dark waiting for them to go. Because that wasn't going to happen. So he turned around. There were indeed two people there, at the top of the stairs - and one of them was holding a club or something.

"Run! They're armed and in a group! Run, you idiot!", came the inevitable outcry in his head. But something stopped him doing that. He hadn't talked to anybody all day, and only to the girl with the eye-patch the day before. He wanted to talk to people. He felt... lonely.

So he said the first thing that came to mind: "Who-- who are you?"

[Courtography]

Noah thought there had been someone there and he had been right.

Who were they? Hannah thought it was a funny question. They all went to school together, if whoever the boy was wanted to know who they were he could have just shown himself and then they all could have recognized one another, and that would have been that. They had only gone to school together for literal years.

It was fine though. He was probably just scared. They were all scared, even if Hannah couldn't understand why anyone would be scared of her. She was just a very tired teenage girl at this point, not a malevolent ghost, or a crazed killer, or any dangerous kind of person.

"It's Hannah and Noah," she chimed in. That should explain things, there weren't that many other Noah's or Hannah's in their class, were there?

She didn't think so.

[Laurels]

"Yeah, what she said," Noah said in response to Hannah answering the guy's question.

Noah couldn't really make the guy out in the darkness. He probably was just scared or something. Noah couldn't blame him. Noah also couldn't believe they'd run into some jittery guy right when they decided to leave the comfort of their wards. But that seemed to be how this universe worked, so Noah was going to roll with it.

"Yeah, that's who we are. Who are you?" he asked.

[Malloon]

"It's Hannah and Noah," came the reply, this time from the other person, a girl, probably Hannah. "Yeah, what she said," the guy who was probably Noah chimed in.  "Yeah, that's who we are.  Who are you?"

Ben didn't really know a Hannah or a Noah. So that didn't help. But he didn't remember any Hannah or Noah from the announcements (though that didn't say much) and he was already talking to them, and he could run at any time and - oh god the girl was armed too!

Breath. "Huuuuuuuhuu." Breath. "Huuuuuuuhuu." "Focus, Ben", he thought. They weren't attacking him. They weren't being aggressive. They weren't even being rude. Just be nice.

"I'm, uh, Ben. Ben Lichter. I-- I don't know you, sorry. Please don't come closer. I can see you're armed and I don't know you, so... please. I'd like to talk, though."

Ben gulped. Compromise. That was the best he could do. He hoped he hadn't just wrecked his chance at a conversation.

[Courtography]

Hannah wasn't sure what to think when she heard it was Ben Litcher out there. That's mostly because she could barely remember him at all. He was pretty well a face in the crowd she could attach a name to and not much else. She thought that maybe they were in a class together at some point, but even that wasn't something she wanted to commit to.

She glanced over at Noah.

"I can talk," she responded, while rolling her eyes a little bit, making sure that only Noah could see that part.

Sure she could talk, but she wasn't sure what they would talk about other than the obvious case of being in that situation being awful.

[Laurels]

Ben Lichter. He had a weird nickname, didn't he? Squirrel, or something. Noah knew he wouldn't be able to take him seriously with a nickname like that, so he was just going to call him Ben. He seemed pretty startled and paranoid, which was definitely what they didn't need right now. Hannah said she'd talk to him, so Noah stepped back.

"Okay," Noah said to Hannah. "But keep your distance, lest Squirrelfriend decides to retaliate."

Noah took a step back from the stairs. If this was going to go wrong, Noah wasn't sure Sawlaska could help him and Hannah. But maybe Hannah was good to talking to squirrels like this guy, so perhaps it'd all work out with everyone walking away happily and alive.

[Malloon]

Hannah said she would talk! Relief washed over Ben because of that - then Noah said a few words to her, and stepped out of sight. Ben's eyes narrowed. His inner voice had immediately begun voicing suggestions of where he might be going and what he might be doing, and Ben couldn't help but find some of them plausible. Such as the one that wondered if there was another way downstairs, so that Noah might sneak up from behind, while Hannah distracted him and...

Ben shook his head vigourously a few times. "No!", he thought. "It's that kind of paranoia that drove away the girl with the eye-patch."

And has kept you alive until now.

"Oh, shup up," he grumbled aloud. The voice didn't reply.

So instead he turned to the girl, fixed her the most welcoming smile he could muster, though he wasn't sure she could see it, and spoke: "Thanks. I've been a bit lonely these past few days. How... er, how are you? I mean, apart from... you know."