((GMing approved))
As Rebecca got herself back under control, she realized that nobody was saying anything. Wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, she caught sight of Jessica warily watching Logan.
Logan himself still seemed distraught and not aware of the potential danger that was developing.
Despite their assurances when they had shown up yesterday, Rebecca was not feeling like the store was a safe or secure location. Not for her and probably not for Logan anymore either. Anything that got them away from Joseph's body was probably an excellent idea.
Decision made, Rebecca levered herself to her feet with a grunt. Now was the time to ignore stiff knees and get the heck of out Dodge. She grabbed her things and awkwardly shouldered the bag while getting Logan's stuff. She shoved his bag at him, which seemed to get his attention. Without saying another word, Rebecca grabbed Logan by his wrist and led him out of the store.
She had no clue where they were going or if Jessica would follow. If she did, fine. But if not, that was okay too. The important thing was that Rebecca had Logan and the two of them were safe.
((Rebecca Kiesling and Logan Cagadon continued in Arcadia))
I Better Light Another Candle
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BetaKnight
- Posts: 428
- Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:05 am
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MK Kilmarnock
- Posts: 1931
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:28 am
- Location: On one of the coasts, generally
So... that definitely was a thing, alright.
Rebecca and Logan left, leaving Jessica alone with Joseph''s body. Maybe they thought she''d be behind them. Maybe they''d forgotten all about her in the panic of accidentally killing somebody. It was a funny way to think about it, actually. Whether or not they truly killed Joseph or whether it was merely an accident of his own doing (or undoing, really) was probably up to debate, but Jessica''s mind defaulted to them killing him. Wasn''t a good way to go about thinking of things, sure, but it was the way she did things right now.
Jessica pulled the boomerang out of her bag as though she'd need something to keep her safe from the corpse on the floor, as if he might get up at any moment to hunger for her brains. She inched closer and closer to the husk that was once Jospeh Chaplin, that aggravating goofball who wouldn''t shut up about how their plans were completely bunk or wondering if they could go somewhere else. Now here he was, in surreal silence, totally unlike how he was in life. Maybe that was why Jessica felt so numb to it all. It felt like this wasn''t happening, almost like the thing on the floor was just a wax likeness of Jospeh.
It occurred to her this was the first time she had ever seen a dead body.
A shiver went up her spine, and Jessica decided she couldn''t look at him for right now. She turned around, looking all around the store. She had the resources to herself, no longer having to be divided amongst four people. Still, she told herself, she couldn''t win the game by sitting in here forever. The fresh, still-warm body in the room was the first grim proof that this wasn''t just some damn camping trip without adult supervision.
Jessica would have to start killing people if she wanted to live. That, she felt, was the true consequence of what she had just seen. Time and time again she had heard on the announcements of her classmates kicking it... what an inappropriate way to devalue their lives, but thinking of it more seriously would have likely caused her pain. No, she couldn't allow herself to dwell on the lives lost. If she got too sad, she''d never win. She had to win. She had to go home. She had to kill.
Watching Joseph''s last moments, that had been a whole different ball-game from just hearing the names. There was something more to it, though. Now, through witnessing that one death, it gave a whole new brand of legitimacy to the names she heard before. They weren''t just names, they were real, living breathing classmates who had died just like Joseph. Maybe, in the future, some of them would have to be killed by her. She'd have to pretend not to care.
Whether or not she could do it was a question to be answered another time. For today, her goal was to get that body out of here. Deciding that spending her time cooped up in a building with a dead body wasn't on her list of dream vacation ideas, Jessica set about dragging and pushing Joseph's... 'generous' body out the back door of the convenience store. At first she needed to cover him with clothes, draping a shirt over his face to try and obscure him just a little to make this easier. It kept falling off though, time and time again showing her that face of his. Eventually, she just left it off. It was creepy, to be sure, but each time it shocked her less until dealing with the body was no longer such a big deal.
Once she finally had the place to herself, Jessica set about allocating resources for herself more greedily. She needed to take as much as she could with her, stuffing her daypack to the brim with anything that wasn't rotten... which wasn't a whole lot. Even the chips she managed to gank from this place before had been stale, and the snack cakes had a tendency to be dry and brick-like. Stuff of that sort was still edible, though. She knew enough to know what to take and to keep with her, what she could travel with. She was sure to grab some pads as well. She didn't have enough tampons to last her more than another day or so, given she only took a small box for, well, a trip to Disneyland. Some trip this had turned out to be.
After laughing at her own forced joke, she continued raiding. She also had to defend; throughout the day, Jessica heard noises. A crack out front, a rustling out back. Each and every time, her heart raced with the thoughts that maybe somebody was coming to break in, to take what they wanted or needed. If they found her in there, there was a very real chance they might kill her... well, that or she'd get the drop on them first. But what if they were friendly? What if they were only PRETENDING to be friendly? No, anybody who stepped in would have to die.
More plans, more thoughts. Jessica had forced herself into the mindset that she was now 'playing' this game, doing exactly what the terrorists wanted her to do according to that little freakshow of a video they showed them all in that auditorium. Then again, so what? If it was a choice between feeling like shit for a while or outright dying, well... morals could take a backseat.
Her work had run her so ragged that Jessica didn't regain consciousness until later on the next morning. She had to be pried forcefully from her rested state, having spent a very late night up and awake listening to the possible signs of any would-be intruder. Nobody came, but she was sure that if she nodded off, that would be when somebody burst through the front door, snuck in the back... hell, crashed through the roof. They'd get in somehow. But it wouldn't matter, because day was the day that she was supposed to be out of here, traveling and taking the more... proactive route.
She fully awoke to the sound of her collar beeping.
Jessica took but a couple seconds to process this, then leapt to her feet. There was a crash as her body toppled both from being unable to handle the sudden movement and because her feet weren't exactly under her in the moment of panic, but she was quickly back up, ignoring her bruised shin, and running towards the door.
No, shit, her daypack. If she was to last more than a minute outside this store that separated her from the hellhole that was the outdoors, she'd need that. But her collar was beeping, she needed... no, the daypack came first. Jessica sprinted back, grabbed it, and made haste back to the door.
Her hands trembled violently as she forced the door open, various 'come on, come on' and 'damn you, work! Damn it!' phrases being mumbled frantically under her breath. The door was opened and her eyes forced into a squint from the burst of light, but she was free. The beeping grew faster.
Jessica ran from the store, sprinting as far as her cramping legs would take her. Even though she was fleeing, though, the beeping wouldn't stop. Why the hell wasn't it stopping? Where did she need to be to make it stop? She only awoke to the beeping, did that mean she managed to sleep through the announcements? The beeping hastened in response.
Now her heartbeat was matching the beeping perfectly, pumping and racing and screaming out that somebody please just airlift her to somewhere she was allowed to be. There wasn't a living soul in sight, running along an empty stretch of road. She could see the ocean in the distance, a serviceable horizon. Maybe that was safe.
Jessica's wheezing breaths were cut short into a cold, wet gag when the device around her neck went off, tearing her throat open. In less than half a second, her body had slammed face-down against the asphalt, spilling her life from her neck. She couldn't breathe, feel, or hardly think as her mind quickly blanketed itself behind a painful haze. She hadn't been fast enough... she had the wits about her to know that.
As everything grew dark, Jessica had the tiny moment of time required to reflect on how death actually felt. She hoped it would be quick, be painless and leave her without fright. It did none of these things. Maybe she'd be dead within the minute, but it felt like an eternity thanks to the agony of the collar's 'pop!', having a deceptive amount of power in comparison to its rather subdued noise. What parts of her psyche weren't overcome by pain were saturated in absolute terror, the fear of death, not wanting to die. There was so much she could have done to prevent this, and she knew it.
Death did not come fast enough. It didn't even have that courtesy.
Jessica couldn't help but want to call 'bullshit' on whoever the fuckhead was who said it was like falling asleep.
G036 - Sanders, Jessica: DECEASED
Rebecca and Logan left, leaving Jessica alone with Joseph''s body. Maybe they thought she''d be behind them. Maybe they''d forgotten all about her in the panic of accidentally killing somebody. It was a funny way to think about it, actually. Whether or not they truly killed Joseph or whether it was merely an accident of his own doing (or undoing, really) was probably up to debate, but Jessica''s mind defaulted to them killing him. Wasn''t a good way to go about thinking of things, sure, but it was the way she did things right now.
Jessica pulled the boomerang out of her bag as though she'd need something to keep her safe from the corpse on the floor, as if he might get up at any moment to hunger for her brains. She inched closer and closer to the husk that was once Jospeh Chaplin, that aggravating goofball who wouldn''t shut up about how their plans were completely bunk or wondering if they could go somewhere else. Now here he was, in surreal silence, totally unlike how he was in life. Maybe that was why Jessica felt so numb to it all. It felt like this wasn''t happening, almost like the thing on the floor was just a wax likeness of Jospeh.
It occurred to her this was the first time she had ever seen a dead body.
A shiver went up her spine, and Jessica decided she couldn''t look at him for right now. She turned around, looking all around the store. She had the resources to herself, no longer having to be divided amongst four people. Still, she told herself, she couldn''t win the game by sitting in here forever. The fresh, still-warm body in the room was the first grim proof that this wasn''t just some damn camping trip without adult supervision.
Jessica would have to start killing people if she wanted to live. That, she felt, was the true consequence of what she had just seen. Time and time again she had heard on the announcements of her classmates kicking it... what an inappropriate way to devalue their lives, but thinking of it more seriously would have likely caused her pain. No, she couldn't allow herself to dwell on the lives lost. If she got too sad, she''d never win. She had to win. She had to go home. She had to kill.
Watching Joseph''s last moments, that had been a whole different ball-game from just hearing the names. There was something more to it, though. Now, through witnessing that one death, it gave a whole new brand of legitimacy to the names she heard before. They weren''t just names, they were real, living breathing classmates who had died just like Joseph. Maybe, in the future, some of them would have to be killed by her. She'd have to pretend not to care.
Whether or not she could do it was a question to be answered another time. For today, her goal was to get that body out of here. Deciding that spending her time cooped up in a building with a dead body wasn't on her list of dream vacation ideas, Jessica set about dragging and pushing Joseph's... 'generous' body out the back door of the convenience store. At first she needed to cover him with clothes, draping a shirt over his face to try and obscure him just a little to make this easier. It kept falling off though, time and time again showing her that face of his. Eventually, she just left it off. It was creepy, to be sure, but each time it shocked her less until dealing with the body was no longer such a big deal.
Once she finally had the place to herself, Jessica set about allocating resources for herself more greedily. She needed to take as much as she could with her, stuffing her daypack to the brim with anything that wasn't rotten... which wasn't a whole lot. Even the chips she managed to gank from this place before had been stale, and the snack cakes had a tendency to be dry and brick-like. Stuff of that sort was still edible, though. She knew enough to know what to take and to keep with her, what she could travel with. She was sure to grab some pads as well. She didn't have enough tampons to last her more than another day or so, given she only took a small box for, well, a trip to Disneyland. Some trip this had turned out to be.
After laughing at her own forced joke, she continued raiding. She also had to defend; throughout the day, Jessica heard noises. A crack out front, a rustling out back. Each and every time, her heart raced with the thoughts that maybe somebody was coming to break in, to take what they wanted or needed. If they found her in there, there was a very real chance they might kill her... well, that or she'd get the drop on them first. But what if they were friendly? What if they were only PRETENDING to be friendly? No, anybody who stepped in would have to die.
More plans, more thoughts. Jessica had forced herself into the mindset that she was now 'playing' this game, doing exactly what the terrorists wanted her to do according to that little freakshow of a video they showed them all in that auditorium. Then again, so what? If it was a choice between feeling like shit for a while or outright dying, well... morals could take a backseat.
Her work had run her so ragged that Jessica didn't regain consciousness until later on the next morning. She had to be pried forcefully from her rested state, having spent a very late night up and awake listening to the possible signs of any would-be intruder. Nobody came, but she was sure that if she nodded off, that would be when somebody burst through the front door, snuck in the back... hell, crashed through the roof. They'd get in somehow. But it wouldn't matter, because day was the day that she was supposed to be out of here, traveling and taking the more... proactive route.
She fully awoke to the sound of her collar beeping.
Jessica took but a couple seconds to process this, then leapt to her feet. There was a crash as her body toppled both from being unable to handle the sudden movement and because her feet weren't exactly under her in the moment of panic, but she was quickly back up, ignoring her bruised shin, and running towards the door.
No, shit, her daypack. If she was to last more than a minute outside this store that separated her from the hellhole that was the outdoors, she'd need that. But her collar was beeping, she needed... no, the daypack came first. Jessica sprinted back, grabbed it, and made haste back to the door.
Her hands trembled violently as she forced the door open, various 'come on, come on' and 'damn you, work! Damn it!' phrases being mumbled frantically under her breath. The door was opened and her eyes forced into a squint from the burst of light, but she was free. The beeping grew faster.
Jessica ran from the store, sprinting as far as her cramping legs would take her. Even though she was fleeing, though, the beeping wouldn't stop. Why the hell wasn't it stopping? Where did she need to be to make it stop? She only awoke to the beeping, did that mean she managed to sleep through the announcements? The beeping hastened in response.
Now her heartbeat was matching the beeping perfectly, pumping and racing and screaming out that somebody please just airlift her to somewhere she was allowed to be. There wasn't a living soul in sight, running along an empty stretch of road. She could see the ocean in the distance, a serviceable horizon. Maybe that was safe.
Jessica's wheezing breaths were cut short into a cold, wet gag when the device around her neck went off, tearing her throat open. In less than half a second, her body had slammed face-down against the asphalt, spilling her life from her neck. She couldn't breathe, feel, or hardly think as her mind quickly blanketed itself behind a painful haze. She hadn't been fast enough... she had the wits about her to know that.
As everything grew dark, Jessica had the tiny moment of time required to reflect on how death actually felt. She hoped it would be quick, be painless and leave her without fright. It did none of these things. Maybe she'd be dead within the minute, but it felt like an eternity thanks to the agony of the collar's 'pop!', having a deceptive amount of power in comparison to its rather subdued noise. What parts of her psyche weren't overcome by pain were saturated in absolute terror, the fear of death, not wanting to die. There was so much she could have done to prevent this, and she knew it.
Death did not come fast enough. It didn't even have that courtesy.
Jessica couldn't help but want to call 'bullshit' on whoever the fuckhead was who said it was like falling asleep.
G036 - Sanders, Jessica: DECEASED