Dead End

[LordB†]

((James Wade continued from Wandering))

Wonderful, we're out of the forest and into the shitty caves. You do know how to pick 'em, James.

The pair of them had been walking for some time since they had finally reached the end of the biking trails. Not much had been said en-route, and James was still seriously bothered by the eerie quietness that the island had. At home he had often fallen asleep with the distant noises of the city outside, but it was here that he realised how devoid of life this place was. Well, aside from the hundred-odd potential killers wandering round. He tried not to dwell on the thought too much; he couldn't afford to get worried in case he had a panic attack. Then he'd be in trouble.

"Well, this place looks lovely," he said aloud, half to himself. If there was anyone in the caves then they would have probably heard him over the sound of waves crashing against rock.

While this wasn't exactly an ideal place to stay, the flaming pits of Hell were better than the endless forest he'd woken up in. They might be lucky enough to stumble upon supplies or friendly classmates if they were lucky, though he didn't much like the look of this place. Still, they had made some progress, and he really needed to pee now. James sat on a rock, carefully setting down the Clue board game he'd been assigned as a weapon next to him. He called back to his armed companion, who had led the way for most of their journey here. She hadn't shot him yet or lost her temper at his cluelessness about what to do, something that he was taking as a definite plus.

"Not sure what we'll find down here, but I think it might be worth taking a look around."

[Casey the Undead†]

((B064 -- Ian Valmont -- START))

Ian jolted awake at the sound of voices.

Well, actually, that wasn't quite right. He'd been awake for a little bit -- he'd actually been up and walking, even. But he didn't wander far from where he'd woken up, and wound up sitting against a rock face. The cuffs of his jeans were wet, but he couldn't be bothered to move. He hadn't seen anyone yet, and until he did he made no plans to move. There was something unappealing about walking blindly around when anyone could choose to kill you at any moment. So Ian sat, and Ian waited. He was starting to drift in and out, the sun hitting his brow and relaxing him into a lull. He wondered if it would be easier to fall asleep and let the tide carry him away, if it would hurt more or less than whatever death was likely bounding around the corner. He stopped thinking about it near as soon as he started. That road led to trouble, and the sun was so nice, and the waves so soothing, and there was no trouble here.

But then there were voices.

Ian found himself awake again in a moment, heartbeat accelerated and eyes snapped open. Someone was talking -- but not to him, not yet at least.

Ian struggle a bit as he tried to stand, shielding his eyes against the sun. James Wade was talking to someone Ian couldn't quite recognize -- though whether that was his own memory failing him or the haze of the sun, he couldn't say. He stared at the pack at his feet, at James off in the distance. Cherry bombs could take anyone by surprise -- toss them right and they could even hurt someone, maybe. But Ian didn't have anything besides the Cherry Bombs, and who knew what James had, or what James wanted, or what James was doing.

Benefit of the doubt, Ian thought, and then found himself calling out to James. "Hey! James! Dude!" He stuttered, realizing he had nothing else to say. Instead, Ian settled for a half-formed wave, sternly ignoring his growing sense of dread.

[Arscapi†]

((Kathryn Nguyen continued from Wandering))

Kathryn strolled along behind James, taking in the scenery as she went. It had been a long time since she'd spent any time wandering through nature. Although her room was now decorated primarily with landscapes, pictures really didn't do nature justice. Her grandmother would have loved this place. They might even have been able to get through a walk without her finding fault with something Kathryn had done. Of course, her yoga pants would probably bring about a lecture. Bianca found herself smiling, in spite of the situation. Her brain provided her a picture of her grandmother ranting at the TV screen over her granddaughter's choice in clothing.

She was a little worried when she'd wandered past the danger signs, but then let out a low chuckle. Danya had assured them that their lives were now in constant danger. And if she didn't believe that, the new necklace she'd acquired had driven home the point loud and clear.

Kathryn rolled her eyes and groaned as James made yet another clue pun. "Hopefully not a lot of people will wander down this way," she said encouragingly. However, no sooner had the words left her mouth when another classmate appeared. Well, she assumed he was there by the voice.

She stepped out from behind James and found herself looking at Ian the artist. That's how she thought of him anyway.

"Hey, Ian," she said offering him her friendliest smile.

[LordB†]

For the second time today, James had nearly walked right into someone. He had been absent-mindedly talking to Kathryn when another classmate appeared, calling his name.

Looking over, he saw Ian Valmont standing nearby, looking at the pair of them. Kathryn responded before he could, as James quickly looked him over. He didn't appear to have any noticeable weapons, though he found himself holding the Clue box to his chest with one arm as some kind of rudimentary, if useless shield. Well, he seems friendly enough, he thought, secure in the knowledge that the pair of them had superior firepower. Ian didn't seem like the type that would go around murdering his classmates, though anything was possible in this game. Still, James put on what he hoped was a friendly smile like Kathryn had done.

"Hey there, Ian."

James glanced around the area his fellow classmate had seemingly woken up in, and smirked. By comparison, the forest was better than this place, and he still wanted to burn the place down after wandering through it for so long. Since he hadn't attacked them and had always seemed like a decent guy in his books, James thought that it might be a good idea to eztend the olive branch and expand their little group. Well, the more the merrier, I suppose. He let out a low whistle as he took in the surroundings once more.

"Well, looks like they dumped you in one of the crappier locations, by the looks of it."

[Pippi]

((Amy Bachelor continued from Good Morning, You Bastards))

It was official: planning ahead, using maps and compasses and all that was completely worthless. Randomly picking a direction and following it was the way to go. Despite the good mood she had been, and still was, in, Amy had half-expected her and Venice to have spent several hours wandering through the dense forest, getting ever more frustrated and tired, before they ended up collapsing in exhaustion right next to the original tower. Or something equally as shitty as that.

Instead, they'd only had to walk for... well, Amy wasn't entirely sure how long they'd been walking for. She never wore a watch, and she'd discovered during the walk that her pockets had been ransacked of her phone and iPod, both of which she used for timekeeping. She guessed it was so no-one would be able to contact the outside world, but still. It was a dark spot on an otherwise promising morning.

The point was, it had only been a surprisingly short amount of time before Amy and Venice had emerged from the borders of the forest. Amy had had to blink several times as she walked out from the maze of trunks and leaves. It had been fairly bright in the forest, but the overgrown branches and leaves had blocked out a lot of the sunlight. Once Amy had gotten adjusted to natural light, she saw, not too far off, the imposing figure of a lighthouse. This was excellent on two accounts; firstly, it meant they were near a coast, so they could dispose of the axe sooner rather than later. Secondly, it meant they'd be able to know where they were next time Amy checked the map. A lighthouse was a much better landmark than some tower in some forest, after all.

Amy strode ahead towards the lighthouse, with a confident air that showed no signs of dissipating. She honestly hadn't expected to feel so secure upon waking up however long ago it was. Part of it was, she had to admit, an act, a way of making herself and everyone around her calmer in some way about the situation. She couldn't shake the feeling that, at any moment, everything could come crashing down around her. But Amy also honestly felt as if everything would end up alright, no matter what the terrorists had said. They'd manage to escape or someone would come and rescue them, or something. Amy wasn't counting any possibility out yet.

A rusted metal sign a fair distance away from the lighthouse caught Amy's eye. The words were faded and covered in rust, but it didn't take a genius to work out that it said "DANGER". Under normal circumstances, Amy would have ignored it and carried on walking. But over the sound of the waves, she could hear the sound of voices. Civil voices as well, by the noticeable lack of shouting and such. Amy couldn't tell exactly who they were thanks to the crash of waves, but there were definitely people at the base of the cliff. After a brief moment of searching, Amy saw what appeared to be a dirt path leading down to where the voices were coming from.

"Hey, Venice." Amy muttered, voice low. If they were moving on, it would be best if nobody heard them, after all. "You hear those people down there? Think we should go and say hi? They sound peaceful, and it'd be easier to get rid of the axe there, but..." Amy tailed off and shrugged. People were fickle creatures, after all. It would be all too easy for her confident mood to end soon enough.

[Un-Persona†]

((Venice Pennington-Johannes: G016 -V5- continued from Good Morning, You Bastards))

That didn't take too long. It was a good thing Amy knew where she was going, as Venice was sure if it was herself who had to navigate, she would have gotten the two lost. A lighthouse was also a good place to sleep. But the day was still in the early morning, so that could be dealt with later. She thought she could see some people up there, but while the lighthouse was large, it was still too hard to see.

The axe head still bouncing around, Venice couldn't wait to get rid of it. Lessened the chance of someone trying to use it or hurting herself with it. Besides, this thing was heavy on her mind, and she probably couldn't use it well. Not to mention, it would get some weight off her shoulders.

She was whistling a tune of random notes to an imaginary song that she made up on the way here. She stopped when Amy called her name. Peering over to look down at the dirt path, she saw that there was about 3 people down there, two boys and a girl. Amy wanted Venice's opinion on whether or not to talk to them or not.

"Um...Well, I don't think it would hurt, but I'm fine with whatever you're thinking of."

She placed her palm on the blade, just itching to throw it into the ocean.

[Casey the Undead†]

Ian nodded at Kathryn, grinning. "Sup Kat? I mean," he shrugged a bit sheepishly, "besides the obvious, I guess." He scratched the back of his neck, wondering why this whole thing felt so awkward. Ian wasn't terrible at the whole making-new-friends thing, and these weren't even new people just -- new circumstances, really. Awkward new circumstances. Ian wasn't going to kill anyone, he knew that much. There was no way he had the stomach for it. I might get desperate enough entered his mind, and he shooed it away with calm ferocity.

"And yeah," he laughed a bit. "This is not exactly the Ritz, or whatever. But I mean, could be worse." He shrugged again, and then cursed internally for it. Stop shrugging, stop fidgeting stop being nervous, you look like a moron! A moron who is totally guilty of something! "I guess they could have dropped us in the ocean, right?"

Ian highly doubted they would have, as it probably would have defeated the purpose. Ian hadn't had any exposure to SotF before, but he got the gist from the terror on the plane earlier. The point was for some sort of sick entertainment. You couldn't get any entertainment if you drowned your contestants before the game even started. Would that be merciful? He wondered. To kill us in our sleep in the ocean, before we ever got a chance to see our friends turn to monsters, turn to corpses, turn to dust? It troubled him that he was thinking such things.

It troubled him more that he didn't really have an answer.

"Well," Ian said, pulling himself back to reality. He gestured at James' chest. "Is that Clue you've got there? Because I'm not gonna lie, Clue is my game. I used to play it with my grandfather." He always wanted to be Professor Plum, Ian recalled. Lamest character ever, but he beat me every time. He turned to Kat with half a smile. "It'd be kind of ironic if you got a candlestick. Then again, we're all wearing black so I guess we couldn't really be anyone. One of you could pass for Mrs. White, maybe." He laughed a bit, shaking his head. "I accuse Colonel James at the Cove with Kat's candlestick!"

[Arscapi†]

Kathryn disagreed with James, she didn't think this place looked that bad. With the exception of the danger sign they'd ignored it was beautiful, in a rocky, wild ocean sort of way. She laughed lightly at Ian's commentary. We in a life-threatening situation and he's worried about starting a game of Clue. She had to admit it felt good, she'd been on edge since she'd awoken.

"Couldn't I be Mrs. Peacock instead, it's a much prettier color," she asked. "Why is that do you suppose; that Mrs. White is often dressed in black? They did that in the movie. Although it doesn't matter because I didn't get a candlestick." She thought for a moment. "Although one of the weapons is a gun right, which works for me. What about you Ian, what did you get? A lead pipe maybe."

[LordB†]

James had very little idea about what the others were talking about. He'd never played Clue in his life; most games he'd played involved a controller and a television. Oh, so the board game had a movie as well? That's just weird. Still, he hadn't actually opened the box since he'd first woken up in the woods. While Ian and Kathryn talked, he opened it up and peered at the contents. The 'Colonel' Ian had mentioned seemed to be your stereotypical upper-class English gent. James wasn't surprised, really.

"So guys," he began, quickly looking down at the box again. "I've got a rope, a candle stick, a revolver, a lead pipe in this box."

He paused for a second before giving a nervous smile. "...and they're all about two centimetres long and made of plastic, I'm afraid." He imagined their reactions if he'd actually pulled those weapons out of the box. Probably not a good idea, considering Kathryn's gun and Ian's....whatever Ian had. He didn't want to make them too jumpy, especially with the game going on.

"Are we going to play then?" He looked at the others in turn. "Clue, I mean, not the uh, Game game." James rattled the box.

It was incredibly surreal. Here they were on an island in the middle of nowhere, with collars around their necks and orders to kill everyone else to 'win'. Yet they were discussing something as silly and menial as bloody Clue, a game James had very little interest in and still hadn't figured out how to use as an effective weapon. He'd just offered to play a board game with them, too. Though there was still some sort of smile on his face, he was certainly facepalming inside. Still, it could be worse.

[Pippi]

Hmmm, decisions, decisions. It was kinda cool being the designated leader for something, even if said something was only as mundane as deciding whether to climb down a cliff or not. Still, every decision had consequences, something Amy well knew. And although the choice seemed innocuous, the decision was a lot more complicated than it seemed.

On one hand, the cliff path was pretty steep and looked in bad shape, as well as leading down a cliff, something only Satan could have designed. Furthermore, she wasn't sure who was down there. Prior occurrences and traits at school meant very little in the grand scheme of things, but still. Right now, everyone's intentions were unknown, and even if nobody down there was planning to play, Amy definitely would have preferred friendly faces to greet her than Max or Nina.

Which directly lead to the other hand. Her friends could be down there, Mike could be down there, and even people she was only vaguely familiar with would be good enough. If Amy wanted to get off the island, which of course she did, then the more allies the better. Plus, the sooner they got rid of the axe, the better. Amy was getting increasingly more wary about having it hanging around. It was a sign of threat, and a danger to themselves.

Amy moved as close to the cliff edge as she dared, trying to listen to the voices from below. She couldn't hear the exact words any of them were saying, but the tone and dynamics hadn't changed. They still seemed to be talking civilly, and that was enough to tip the balance in Amy's mind.

"Right. I think it'll be okay to drop in and say hi... Hopefully not literally, though..."

Taking a deep breath to reassure herself, Amy began her descent down the dirt path. She had been right; the path was barely visible and worn away by time and who knew how many feet. The only hand holds were tufts of grass and solid-looking indents in the cliff face. At least the slow scramble-walk gave Amy a little time to think.

She thought about the island they had all been placed on. From what she'd seen on the map, the island was outfitted with a school, and amusement park, an aviary, and a whole bunch of other places to make life more enjoyable. People had lived here, gone about their daily lives on this very island. But one location had unnerved her, she would freely admit it. The nuclear plant. It was almost like this island was Perdido Beach, from Gone. There had obviously been people living here, so what had caused them to all leave? Had it been orderly, planned and safe? Or had some horrible incident occurred? Something to do with the power plant?

Okay, that wasn't very pleasant thinking material. Luckily, Amy was almost at the bottom, so her mind would instead be focused on the three people waiting for her. Of course, her feet would decide then was the best time to misstep, and Amy was forced to take the last few feet at a jog, unable to stop a yelp of surprise coming out of her mouth. She skidded to a halt a fair distance away from the trio. Letting out a sigh, Amy looked at them.

Ian. Arty type, mostly interested in graffiti, kinda reserved and clumsy but pretty cool aside. James. English like her if she remembered correctly. Equally quiet, but interested in reading and stuff like that, which was a plus in Amy's book. Finally, Kathryn. Very much into softball and with quite a temper, but most importantly, she liked Supernatural. That made her a-okay by Amy. None of them were Mike, or Claire or Yasmin or whoever, but she could have found a whole lot of worse people. Still, best to stay safe for now, despite the fact that James seemed to be holding nothing but a Cluedo box.

"Hey guys." Amy said, waving at the group. "Everything alright with you?" Both of her hands were raised, with one waving, and one holding the blackjack. Hopefully they'd get the message; We mean no harm, but try anything, and we'll fight back. Hopefully Venice wasn't too far behind.

[Un-Persona†]

Venice made a slight chuckle at Amy's 'literal' comment, even though she didn't find it funny. She did appreciate the attempt at lightening the atmosphere.

Walking alongside Amy, Venice could see the sporadic movements of the axe blade, almost like it wanted to toss itself out. She held  the top of it with her, thinking of whatever bad possibilities there were. This thing was starting to actually frighten her. Amy almost slipping didn't help.

Venice saw three people, not all instantly recognizable.

"Oh well," she thought "always good to make new friends"

Especially at this time, Venice needed all the friends she could possibly have. One of them had a board game, for Pete's sake. Great way to pass the time, wait for all this to blow over. Or blow up.

With a slightly cheerful smile and a wave, Venice gave a high pitched greeting.

"Hi!"

[LordB†]

asteiyfghedufnbla?!

That roughly equated to James' thought process at this time as he tried to think of what to say to Ian and Kathryn, holding up the box after his half-hearted attempt to start a board game, of all things. Though he was surprised to hear the arrival of someone or something behind him, part of him was glad that it got him out of the terrifyingly awkward situation he had been in seconds before. He already felt the heat rushing to his cheeks as he span round, clutching the Clue box to his chest protectively.

Okay, two more girls. They look harmless enough.

Well, except for the axe.

Would the Clue box be able to stop an axe blade? Of course it wouldn't, moron. This thing couldn't stop a determined sparrow, let alone an axe. Putting these thoughts aside and trying his best to maintain what remained of his composure, he gave what he hoped would be interpreted as a smile to the pair. He hadn't hung around with them at school, though James hadn't really hung around with many people. Still, from what little he knew about Venice and Amy, they didn't appear to be a pair of killers. It was strange to think that the island was the first place where he'd actually spoken up to so many people. Were it not for the whole 'kill all your classmates' thing, James might have actually began to enjoy himself.

"Oh, hey guys," he began, glancing fearfully at both the axe and the blackjack for a moment. "We're all friendly here."

[Casey the Undead†]

Ian laughed lightheartedly at Kathryn's Mrs. Peacock comment. "I guess blue is prettier. And I never saw the Clue movie -- I actually didn't know there was one?" He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. "I guess it's because white's not an interesting color. Or maybe she's Mrs. White because of her hair?"

Ian was glad he ran into Kathryn and James, of all people. They seemed normal enough, at least -- James was a tad jumpy, but Ian forgave him that. Ian felt a bit jumpy too, like he'd pulled an all-nighter or something. His whole body felt like it was buzzing with some sort of residual energy. He grinned, trying to shrug it off again, when his conversation was interrupted.

Amy and Venice. Ian smiled. Amy he knew a little bit from the art scene around school -- she was cool enough in his book. Venice was more of a stranger, but she didn't seem all that bad. Her greeting was cheerful enough, at least. James quickly stepped in to explain that they were a friendly group, which Ian was admittedly glad of. He figured that sooner or later they were going to run into people who would shoot first and ask questions later. He didn't know what he would do then, to be honest.

Run, I guess.

"We were just talking about James' weapon over there. He's got six deadly items in a box, but they're all less than an inch big. Shame, really." Ian laughed in a way he hoped didn't sound as frantic as he felt. "You guys don't happent to know why she's Mrs. White even though she wears black, do you? I'm thinking it's the hair." He turned to the other girls and barked out another laugh. "I guess if I'm right that makes Amy Ms. Scarlett, right?"

[Un-Persona†]

The other group was opening enough, giving some feeling of ease. They were talking about something, but Venice couldn't quite understand. Something about the color Scarlet and inches. Venice looked at Amy's red hair.

"Um...yeah, sure! Scarlet, right."

Venice turned her attention to the water. The waves were smashing themselves against the rocks, rather aggressively even. She now supposed those "DANGER" signs weren't just for decoration.

So she simply stood still by Amy, unsure of what to do besides be nice and smile. That was probably what was the best thing to do anyway.

"Um...well, it's good to see others safe right now!"

[Arscapi†]

Kathryn rolled her eyes as two of her classmates announced their presence timidly. Kathryn didn't do timid, she made up her mind about something and wasn't afraid to argue her point until the other person backed down. Timid people didn't end up as captain of the softball team. Okay, co-captain, but that actually proved her point.

Kathryn laughed at the look on her classmate's face. She couldn't place the girl for the life of her. The girl with her was Amy and they'd had a few conversations before. "You have absolutely no idea what we're talking about do you," she asked.

She turned to Ian and said, "How have you not seen that movie. It's hilarious, and there's multiple ending, just like the game. I have to say it's my favorite board game based movie. Psych even did a...I guess you could say tribute episode to it. They got a bunch of the original actors to star. But before you go assigning parts to Amy you should check and see if they even want to play."

Returning her attention to Amy and the other girl she said, "James got the game of Clue as a weapon. We were trying to decide if we wanted to play a game. I would much rather be Mrs. Peacock, than Mrs. White. Of course half of that is based on the movie's characterization."

Kathryn offered them both a wide smile as she finally ran out of things to say. She hoped that she sounded friendly since the girl carried an ax. She still had her rifle, but there was at least two problems with it. One, she didn't know if it was loaded and two, she didn't know how to fire it.

(We need to reestablish a posting order for this thread. I propose Pippin after me, since he hasn't posted yet. Then LordB, Un-Persona, Casey, Me, and Pippin for future posts.)