Rolodex of Hate

[Laurels]

Noah bit his lip as the girls in the hall moved in their various directions. Blair apologized for puking before walking away. Noah peered out the door and saw she was sitting in a lobby. Noah had no idea he was that close to a public area when he woke up and starting hurling blades at the wall. If anything, it was a good thing the only person who heard him dicking around was Sweater Girl.

Speaking of her, her name was apparently Maria, and she was bailing. Noah was surprised, but then got back to what mattered. Sandra wanted to move into a room further down the hall to talk. Noah hopped over the puddle of vomit and into the hall.

"Yeah, that sounds good," he said after Sandra moved to another room.

He was about to go with her when he heard Blair crying. He turned back and saw the girl crying into her hands.

"Hey, hold on a minute," he said to Sandra, who had just moved into the room.

Noah lowered the slinger and walked over towards Blair. He stood near her and cleared his throat.

"Hey, are you doing okay?" he asked. "Do you want to be alone, or do you want to come talk with Sandra and me?"

[Espi]

The foodie girl, Maria whatserface, ran out past Blair, who could barely tell who it was through her fingers.

This was so unfair. She didn't do anything that bad, did she? She could be a bitch at times, sure, but what kind of girl was always a perfect little angel? It didn't matter anymore, did it. The strong, the ruthless, the amoral; whatever classification you wanted to use, one group would pull out a survivor, and that person had to kill someone.

It had occurred to her, with a growing dread, that it might not count that Blair had merely startled Jennifer off the bridge. As horrible as it was, she hadn't exactly pushed the other girl to her death; the blood on her hands was indirect, not from true malicious or violent intent.

If Blair wanted to live, she might need to kill someone again.

Could she do it? Doubtful. She wasn't exactly the peak of fitness. Her strength and stamina were lacking, and though she could skate well that didn't translate to fighting. And she was unarmed. Still, if she found the right situation...

What was she even thinking?! She could maybe, maybe kill someone, but would she? Should she? Those were way harder questions. Realistically, she offered the least amount of value for survival. She wasn't going to live very long even if she did go home. And having the stomach to kill was, quite literally, not something she possessed as of now.

So lost in these thoughts was Blair that it took her a second to realize Noah was talking to her, still holding that jai alai or whatever it was. Blair looked up at him, and for a moment something strange happened. She was angry, angry at him, furious that he had seen her so weak and vulnerable, and angry at herself for letting it happen.

Her face was still neutral, though, when she said, "Yeah, no, I'm okay. I..." Oh god, was she going to tell him what happened? "I saw someone die. Jennifer something, tall, glasses? She killed herself, jumped off the bridge." Blair's voice was still frail, wobbling with potential tears.

[CondorTalon]

"Uh, sure," Sandra said, looking back outside the room as Noah told her to wait. Noah moved toward Blair.

Sandra moved back into the room, sitting down on the bed. Her eyes idly scanned to room. There wasn't much of interest in the room, just a book or two laying on the floor. She eyed one of the books and saw the word 'Neurology' on the spine.

Nope. These books were useless to her.

She tuned into the conversation taking place outside just in time to hear Blair say that she saw someone jump off the bridge.

Sandra bit her lip. Someone had died already? It was suicide, but the fact that someone had already...

Sandra stood up, pacing around the room. Her emotions were bubbling up inside her.

"Fuck... fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck..." she muttered under her breath.

[Laurels]

Noah wanted to offer a comforting pat on the shoulder to Blair, but he wasn't sure if it was safe to approach her. The girl seemed really emotional, and considering the situation, there were a lot of reasons for it.

The girl did start to talk. Noah's eyes widened as she began to talk. She saw someone die. They had only been here for a few hours, and already at least one peer was dead. There were a few Jennifers at Cochise, none that Noah would know personally, but it was still harsh to think that one of them was already dead.

Noah covered his mouth with his free hand, looking back at Blair and down the hall where Sandra was.

"Oh my god..." he muttered.

Noah looked back at Blair. He then set the slinger on the floor and pulled his bag in front of him. He opened it up and rifled through his bag, pulling a bottle of water out. He quickly twisted the top off and held it out to Blair.

"Okay, calm down. Take a drink," he said to Blair. "Tell me exactly what happened."

[Espi]

Blair gingerly sipped the water before capping it. It did help, a little.

"I woke up on the bridge. I threw away my weapon-it was useless, a big heavy shield-and walked. I saw Jennifer, and before I could say anything she jumped. And that's what happened."

It was a lie, of course. Blair didn't really want to lie, but did she have another choice? The two were both armed, it seemed. If they thought she had a part in Jennifer's death, they might turn violent. At the very least, they'd chase her away. And right now, Blair didn't need to deal with that.

She needed to think, needed to plan, needed something, anything to cling to. She didn't want to die pointlessly. Well, she didn't want to die at all, obviously, but fuck if that was going to happen. She had very little control over her own existence right now.

And Blair was used to being in control. This was a new feeling for her, being helpless. Normally she had her parents or Ms. Cole or her friends to fall back to when stuff went badly. She was totally alone, now, though; everyone here could be either one of her enemies, or someone she used to trust but couldn't rely on anymore.

Blair was scared, just like everyone else here. But she was smart, too. She'd always been smart. And she could talk her way out of situations, too; that was a skill she carried from home. What she didn't have was a way to protect herself. No weapon, no anything.

But here was Noah, a perfectly ordinary, nice-seeming guy. He was armed, and good-intentioned. She could use that, use him. Not to kill people; there was no way she'd manage to talk someone into committing murder, at least not yet. But if she hung around him, he'd be a deterrent. A sickly girl with no weapon? Easy target. But with a bodyguard...

This might actually work out okay. It wasn't like she was hurting him. She was like a pilot fish; mooching, but not in a way that negatively affected her host. Just sort of hanging around, relying on his protection. Noah, or someone else if necessary, could be the shark; protecting her by proxy.

That sounded like a plan. And with that in mind, Blair forced a smile.

"I think I'll be okay now. Thanks. Uhm..." Blair looked over at where Sandra had been. She seemed nice enough, but Blair wasn't too worried about her. "Do you...need to go talk to your friend? I'd...like to hang with you guys, if that's okay. I'm still a little freaked out, is all."

She hugged herself, looked at the entry door with a nervous expression.

[CondorTalon]

Sandra had to calm down... she had to... for fucks sake, she didn't even know the girl that had jumped.

She stood in the middle of the room, thinking.

Her plan was to find her friends, and then...

And then what? She could say anything she wanted about strength in numbers, but it wouldn't change the fact that even if she did miraculously find all of her friends before any of them died and they all stuck together, there was nothing stopping them from getting picked off, one by one.

And if they did somehow make it to the end, they'd be forced to kill each other, or they would all die. Maybe someone else would say that dying together with your friends would be a noble sacrifice. Sandra thought that was bullshit.

She didn't want to die. That was it. Sacrificing herself to send some 'message' or something like that? Fuck that. Sandra wanted to survive, even if the chances were slim. Sure, finding friends would help, but she couldn't hang on to that ideal forever.

She looked to the door.

She knew that if she was going to survive, she'd need a better weapon.

Something like what Noah had.

The thought crossed her mind that she could probably pry it from Noah's hands. She shook that thought away. She wasn't going to resort to that. Not to her friends.

Sandra sat back down on the bed. She turned the pot lid over in her hands a few times.

[Laurels]

(Minor GMing approved)

"Yeah, it's totally cool. We can hang," Noah said to Blair. "But let's get out of the open. We'll be safer out of sight."

Noah patted Blair on the back.

"Come on, let's go chat."

Noah walked Blair towards the room Sandra was in, keeping one hand on her back and the other hand on the slinger. If someone was already dead, that confirmed the suspicion that it was likely this game would be just like all the others. Jennifer killing herself meant that it was now likely their peers would start killing one another. Even if Blair was a sobbing mess, Noah would still feel bad leaving her alone and defenseless in the lobby. Surely she'd be better off with two other people.

The two walked into Sandra's room, with Noah making sure to close the door behind him. He leaned his back against the door. He made a poor shield, but it was the best they seemed to have at the moment. Blair said she got rid of her weapon, and from the sight of the pot lid in Sandra's hand, it looked like she didn't have anything better. That meant Noah and his slinger were the best the trio had for protection. Noah had to internally laugh at the absurdity of being all that could save these girls from death and despair. But hey, even he knew it would be the right thing for a gentleman to do, so he was at least going to make his parents proud if these next few days were his last moments on Earth.

"Okay, let's dish," he said. "What are we going to do?"

[Espi]

Blair nodded meekly, but inside she was quite pleased with herself. Okay, it wasn't like she was a master seductress or something, but she was at least accomplishing her goal of getting the guy with the crazy weapon to protect her. So who cared if he would have done it anyway? Whatever works, and all that shit.

Peeking into the room, Blair followed Noah to meet up with Sandra in a less pukey room. It made her a little uncomfortable that Noah was blocking the doorway. Logically, she doubted he was aiming to trap them, but her fight-or-flight instinct was definitely going haywire as a result. Then again, maybe that was a good thing?

Noah posed the question of the day. What do you do when you're trapped on an island with your survival counting on other people dying, and other people's survival counting on your death? Well she didn't want to stay on that island, for fuck's sake. But did she have a choice?

"It'd be good if we could figure out how to get the collars off." Blair said, and immediately regretted it. "Shit, but they're watching. We can't be too obvious about it or they'll just kill us." Not to mention, of all the fields of science she'd studied for fun, electrical engineering and explosives was not one that she'd covered in much detail. Fat lot of good that did for her, then.

"I..." She sighed. What was she going to spend her life doing? It'd been an easy question before; travel the world, experience new things, enjoy life while she had it. Dying early put that in perspective, at least. But dying here kind of put a damper on that.

Clearing her throat harshly, Blair looked at Sandra. "What do you think? What should we do? What can we do?"

[CondorTalon]

"I don't know," Sandra said simply.

She didn't have an answer to their question. Not yet.

She had an end. Survive to the end of the game. Simple enough. Easier said than done, definitely, but... simple enough.

The question was... how. She had an end. She was still trying to find the means.

She had to get one thing straight and clear. She had to kill at least one person. Just the thought of it made her stomach turn, but...

It was a fact she tried not to think about.

That would come later. But would it? At any point within the next two weeks, even tomorrow, she could be lying down in a pool of her own blood. But then, details don't matter when you're dead. So, assuming she lived a decently long time, it would be something she'd have to think about.

Would it be better to wait it out, and then kill? Or kill, and then wait it out? Sandra realized that what she had thought mere moments ago was a lie. If she even wanted to have the choice available to her, it was something she would have to think about now.

Well, the first option was on the table with its own pros and cons. Obviously, it would be better to score a notch on her belt early, when not many people are on their guard, so she wouldn't have to deal with the late game people, the people who had survived those first few days and were now ready and prepared for killers to show up. But then, once she did get that one kill, she would be hounded. Or shunned. Even if no one came hunting her down, people would be distrustful of her. She might not have the ability to rely on numbers like she had originally planned.

Trying to get to the end before scoring a kill came with its own fair share of problems. Killing someone who had already made it to the end... someone who had already proven that they were one of the fittest, and could possibly have killed many other people... Sandra didn't know if that was viable either. Sure, they'd be tired, but so would she. And they'd probably have an arsenal compared to what she had.

...

Any way she looked at it, she hit a roadblock and got stuck.

I wonder how many I could get...

Sandra's eyes widened. No... Did she just think that? She shook her head. Whatever the hell that was, she wanted to... no, needed to get rid of it.

She looked up at Noah. At Noah's weapon.

Her frustration was building up again, and Sandra clenched her fists to try and abate it.

[Laurels]

Noah listened patiently as Blair spoke. Getting the collars off would be a good plan, but highly risky. Noah put his free hand to the collar. It was surreal to think he had a bomb around his neck. Blair was right that they were listening and watching closely to see if they were messing with those. Not that Noah could figure these things out anyways. The most technological skill he had was editing YouTube videos. Sandra didn't have much to offer either.

"Yeah, I don't have much in mind about escaping," Noah said. "We're shit out of luck for supplies and don't have the skills to get these things off, even if we were to be sneaky."

Noah pursed his lips and rubbed his forehead.

"I guess if anything, the best thing to do would be to find a place to hole up, maybe find a bottleneck point where we can see and spot any dangerous threats coming before they find us. Maybe also come up with backup locations if we get separated."

Noah set the slinger down by his side and swung his bag in front of him and reached in, pulling out the map. Being on a horseshoe-shaped island meant that there were a few areas that would have advantageous vantage points. He quickly glanced over the map, then showed it to the girls.

"What about here?" he said, pointing to the bit of the island sticking out furthest to the west. "If we get to the shore away from the buildings, we might avoid a lot of the dangerous people. You know, rough it and take turns keeping watch."

"Or we could go south," Noah said, pointing to the southern tip of the island. "If we go past the storehouse, we might be able to hide out longer. Do either of those sound good?"

Noah smiled at the girls. This was going to be the worst week of their lives, and if he could do something for the benefit of his peers before he died, this was as good an opportunity as any.

[Espi]

Even though Blair nodded slowly, but she wasn't really listening.

Yeah, sure, bottlenecking was fine. Finding a strategic location to set up in sounded fine. The southern tip of the island? Fine. It was almost funny to her. Who cared? Who cared what they did? Blair had a plan; stick to the most affable armed person, flirt if necessary, and cling to them like a life preserver. Literally, if need be.

Of course, that plan meant she relied on Noah Whitley for survival. And though it wasn't like she was going to suddenly change her mind, since, you know, it was working, it also meant she was passive. A passive game would be tough. Worse if she died; she'd literally accomplish nothing.

And then there it was. Death awaited, or whatever clichéd phrase you liked. They were all going to die, except maybe one. Jennifer's face wasn't quite solid anymore; it was morphing into one of terror or pain, in Blair's distorted vision. She saw a frightened girl dying, and that image chilled her to the bone.

It would probably haunt her for the rest of her short, frightened life.

Blair was so intent on these morbid mullings that she didn't notice Sandra's clenched fists. She just stood there, lost in thought, a pensive look on her face.

[CondorTalon]

"Well, I was planning on heading south anyway, but..." Sandra muttered.

Sandra took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She wasn't sure how to feel about holing up. Sure, it made sense, but Sandra couldn't see herself staying in one place for too long.

Then suddenly...

"What about danger zones?" Sandra suddenly asked.

They were going to fuck with them. Sandra wouldn't be surprised if they called whatever location they were holing up in a danger zone after the first day, just for shits and giggles.

And they knew. And Sandra knew that they knew. There were, after all, cameras everything. She didn't need to have actually watched SOTF to know.

All this thinking about danger zones was making her feel trapped and claustrophobic.

"Noah," Sandra said, standing up, "let me outside for a bit."

[Laurels]

Sandra seemed to be on point with going south, but she asked about danger zones. Noah mentally kicked himself for not considering those. However, that was easy to deal with.

"Well, that's why backup locations are needed," he said, "so that we can run to them if we have to."

Sandra suddenly stood up and asked Noah to let her out of the room. Noah was slightly startled by this. They hadn't been in the room for long, but already Sandra wanted out. Noah bent down, grabbed the slinger, and stepped to the side.

"Okay, yeah. Sure. Go ahead," Noah said, moving his back from the door to the wall beside it. "Just don't go too far. We still don't know what's lurking around."

[Espi]

Blair was still a bit lost in thought, but Noah moving away from the door made her look up. Oh, Sandra wanted to leave. Blair wondered why. Did she have to go to the bathroom or something? She hadn't struck Blair as wanting to run off, and unless there was somewhere to be there was a lot of risk in going solo.

Looking back at Noah, Blair paused to collect her thoughts. What had they been talking about? "Danger zones might be bad, yeah." She said slowly, like she wasn't even sure that she meant it. "If we go to the...south? Yeah, south tip, maybe it'd be harder to get away without running into people."

She shrugged. "I mean, if you want to find people I guess that's a plus. But is that what we want?" Truth be told, there were people she'd like to run into, and some people she hoped she didn't run into because they'd fight. Certain people, she thought, would definitely play along with this BS. Still, she had some friends who she'd like to see again before she got shot in the face or whatever.

Blair shuddered, then started coughing again, her throat still burning from the bile. Too soon for jokes about dying, definitely.

[CondorTalon]

"Yeah, don't worry about me," Sandra said, before moving past Noah and out into the hallway.

The smell of Blair's vomit from earlier stung in her nose, and Sandra turned away and headed down the hall in the other direction. She was just going to make a few laps around the building. She looped around, moving until she reached the window into the room they were in.

She knocked, gave a thumbs up, and kept walking.