SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

((Alba Reyes continued from The Ten Duel Commandments))

"Hi, Brendan," Alba said, staring at the body laying under the sheets on the bed. "I didn't think I'd be back so soon."

Alba sighed. She really didn't expect to come back here. It was a random thought that brought her and Fiyori back to this room. She and Fiyori were making their way out of the asylum, away from the lab where Caedyn's body rested, when Alba thought about their supplies. They had gone through quite a bit in the last few days, and the recent incident took away a bit more of their medical supplies. Not only that, but food and water was becoming more and more depleted, and Alba wanted to ensure they could hold out for the remainder of the game.

That's when she remembered something: Brendan had a bag that she completely left behind in the wards when he died. He had a kit, food, and water still in the bag. He also had a gun, which was still probably stashed in. They made their way back upstairs and soon found the ward. Sure enough, Brendan's bag was still in the room, right where Alba forgot it.

"Hey, can you check the bag? Is everything still there?" she asked Fiyori.

She turned back to Brendan and stared at it. It was still hard to believe he had been dead for a whole day.

Brendan had been a handsome boy. He was Fiyori's friend, and as a friend without any strings attached she saw him as that. Still, he had been handsome and Fiyori could not deny that slight sliver of sexual attraction.

No, she did not look at that body. Didn't feel like it.

For her, he'd always remain handsome. For her, he'd never be that smelling mess of organs.

"Yes." Fiyori replied.

She opened it, and looked at it's contents. A bit of food, or what the terrorists called food. A bit of water. A bit of ... A gun. Not a bit, the whole weapon.

Fiyori nodded, not realising Alba might not have seen that.

"Oh good," Alba said, turning back to Fiyori. "I was worried someone might have taken the gun or something else."

Alba sighed a little bit, then brushed some hair back.

"Fiyori, I know you want to kill Jae, and I'm fine going along with you to look for him."

Alba stopped a bit and rubber her neck. She pushed the collar up a bit and rubbed the area underneath.

"But once he's dead, then what? Are you going after anyone else?"

"Well there's Kimiko."

Fiyori's eyes lingered on the bag in front of her a bit longer. The water was useful. So was the food, and so were the medical supplies. She had no need for Brendan's gun. Alba had a firearm already, Fiyori had two as well. She did not know about Alba, but seeing Brendan's gun and knowing it was his was somewhat sickening.

Strange, but strange is the world.

Fiyori raised to her feet and turned to Alba.

"Then, I thought I tried surviving until the end, and then..." She thought of how she should end the sentence. She discarded the first concept, but quickly came up with another question. "Well, throwing the question right back at ya."

"I see," Alba said.

Alba raised her head back and balanced on her heels.

"I mean, I guess the same. If we can, I'd like to survive as long as possible. Personally, I'd hope we never have to see Jae and Kimiko ever again, whether someone else kills them or they kill each other. I know I shouldn't think that way, but I guess that'd help us."

Alba adjusted herself.

"Fiyori, if we're the last two people here, what would you do then?"

"You want to survive, I want to survive - but only one can." Fiyori shrugged. "Draw the conclusion."

As a matter of fact, Fiyori felt no desire to kill Alba. No desire to even harm her. Even if the only edge between survival and death had been Alba, Fiyori was yet unsure as to whether she could get rid of her.

Secretly, she hoped someone else would solve that problem.

That was one of those things, where Alba would've probably said or thought that this shouldn't be, but should is not a word that works on the island. Truly, it did not work anywhere but it became most apparent on the island.

"...to be fair with you, I hope someone else kills you. I like you too much."

Fiyori shrugged again.

Alba nodded when Fiyori asked her to draw the conclusion. It made sense, a bit. She didn't know Fiyori that well before this game, and their one tie was lying under a sheet on the bed in the room. She could expect a partnership to last while it mattered, but she shouldn't rule out that Fiyori would turn on her. Friends had already turned against her, so why wouldn't Fiyori?

At least Fiyori hoped someone else would kill Alba first.

"Yeah, I'd actually prefer the same. Not that I'd want you to die, but, y'know."

Alba walked over to the wall by the doorway and pressed her back to it.

"Is it weird to be thinking this casually about our deaths? I mean, before all of this I was just thinking about getting a part time job this summer and what I'd do for my seventeenth birthday."

Alba paused. The thought seemed so far away from everything here, but it still made her think of home.

"I'm never going to turn seventeen, am I?"

Fiyori traced Alba walking to the wall and leaning against it. As she made her solemn comment, Fiyori nodded, and did the same. She walked towards the other side of the doorway, and leaned against that part of the wall. Then, she turned her head towards Alba, her arms crossed.

"Not with that attitude."

She smiled a bit. Not 'cause it was a particular funny or insightful comment. No, it was fairly hypocritical. After all, who was the one who wanted to die all the time and ended up living with that attitude, at least so far? Yea, kinda weird. But still...

What the hell was Fiyori supposed to say?

"Since I can remember, I really wanted to die." She continued bluntly. "At least, my plans were to jump myself off - dunno - Hoover Dam or something after graduation." Fiyori shrugged once again. Then, after a split second of silence she broke out in laughter. "Guess I ain't ever doing that either, eh?"

After her spirits died down a bit again, Fiyori tried her best to conclude her hazy point.

"If you turn seventeen or not... well, not really in your power if you think about it. But I have a feeling we'll know tomorrow evening."

Alba listened quietly as Fiyori spoke. It was hard to believe Fiyori had been contemplating suicide for some time. Alba didn't know anyone who had attempted or gone through with suicide. It sounded like this island had gotten Fiyori to work through those thoughts since she wanted to survive now. Maybe it hadn't, but Fiyori's attitude told Alba she was beyond such thoughts.

Maybe Alba did just need an attitude change and that was all it would take to survive. She knew how to fire the gun, she had killed already, and she had seen enough good people die that she had to know that she had to be willing to take charge of a dangerous situation.

Still, there was one thing Fiyori said that she didn't get.

"What's happening tomorrow night?"

"Hm? Oh well, I haven't counted, but I think we should be less then twenty students left by now."

That fact - or assumed fact - appeared way harsher now that she spoke it out aloud. Fiyori begun massaging her temples.

"It's just a feeling I got so don't quote me on it but I feel this will all be over by tomorrow."

Did that seem realistic? Now, Fiyori didn't particularly care. But given that she had already talked about it, she felt it should be.

There were like, what, 100 students on the trip. Every day, eight or nine of them died. Given the announcements today, they were on day ten. In other words, eighty to ninety students died, leaving ten to twenty alive.

She'd have appreciated some help from the ominous voice at this point.

Still, if she wasn't catastrophically wrong, nine-ish will day again that day, and on the other day... well, then it would have whittled down to one.

Yea, just about right?

It was strange to think there had to be around twenty or so kids left. Maybe the math wasn't perfect, but if the rate over ten days was as Fiyori suggested, it would be reasonable to think 80 or 90% of the abducted students were dead. How Alba, Fiyori, and whoever else was left managed to outlive all those people was hard to imagine. It wasn't like Alba did anything particularly special, but to think that she could last so long in this game was hard to believe.

"Well, it would be nice to make it to tomorrow night," Alba said.

Alba rubbed the back of her neck.

"At the very least, that's a fine measure. Like how people say to make it to the weekend after a rough week, or something similar? I guess that can work for us. 'Make it to tomorrow night.' Sounds good to me."

Alba stretched a bit.

"So how do we make it to tomorrow night?"

Fiyori looked at Alba, bit her lips a bit and nodded. It was a fine measure indeed. Make it to tomorrow night. Just as Fiyori so often said to herself 'make it to the next weekend' when school got too annoying.

So how would they make it to tomorrow night?

Well, for one this could've been taken as asking for tactics. For some sort of survival strategy Fiyori'd propose and Alba improved and then they both (successfully, maybe?) executed.

Of course, there was something else she'd rather do but alas...

"Copious amounts of alcohol, but the pub's closed as it seems. Would've been nice to hammer ourself and play a few drinking games."

She did not mention that the last time she drank something from the pub's reservoir she got so pissed at Olivia that she shot her.

Though maybe that was exactly what she would have needed.

"In lieu of that, maybe it's time to get some battle plans ready?"

"I've never actually tried alcohol. Never even at a party. I guess I figured it'd be fine to wait until I was 21, but oh well."

Alba stretched a bit as Fiyori suggested battle strategy.

"I guess we can. I mean, it's a little hard since we don't know where anyone is, nor do we have a way to lure specific people to a location."

Alba hummed to herself.

"I mean, I guess we can discuss weaponry. Obviously, I've got this rifle. I've also got some stuff from Kaitlyn, like an uzi and a bomb. And now we've got Brendan's gun too."

"What do you have again?"

Well, that was surprising. Why it surprised Fiyori was surprising in itself but oh well, oh well. To think that Alba had never gotten the opportunity to enjoy the blurry haze of being drunk. That light-headed feeling, the confidence in oneself, and the loss of one's fine motor skills. Truly the grandest feelings in the world. More reason to fetch Alba and get her to the pub, but there was the problem with the danger zone again.

Fiyori rubbed her chin.

"Well, I've got this fancy gun with a scope on it. You know, the one with which I shot Caedyn. And Liv."

Aside from the Raging Bull, she also had another fire arm, but she had yet to use it in any capacity.

"Then there's this weird sci-fi gun, but it looks weird so I haven't worked with it yet. Finally, I kinda have a few lock picks left?"

Fiyori scratched her head. She could have sworn there was a shovel as well, but then she remembered that it was Georgia Lee's. Not worth the trouble picking it up, to be honest.

"Okay, so we're pretty well armed, all things considered," Alba said.

Alba tapped her finger against the side of the rifle.

"I mean. What do we think? Are people heading for the asylum, or staying outside it? Cause that could determine where and how far we move."

Alba stepped a bit away from the wall.

"We could search the asylum in areas, or we could go outside. What do you think?"