The Things We Lost in the Fire

[Pippi]

Again, it looked as though Owen would get no answer from Hansel. This time, however, it was less due to Hansel wanting the bags to be thrown to him as quickly as possible. More the object Owen had seen earlier slamming into Hansel's cheek, sending him reeling slightly. Before Owen could react, before he could even blink, Hansel had smacked his gun into Claire's head, picked up his spoils and ran off.

Owen was left kneeling next to Aileen, rain dripping down from his hair and glasses, watching as the guy who'd killed two people, robbed another two and kidnapped a third managed to escape completely scot-free. Aileen and Claire had both been injured, and Owen had no clue what to do next.

"Cl-claire... I'm so sorry... You alright?"

Even as Owen said this, he knew two things; the first being that Claire's answer was almost certainly going to be 'no'. The second being that things might not be alright, but they weren't hopeless. As far as Owen could see, Claire still had her bag, which meant she most likely had medical supplies still inside. As well as that, there was the mysterious person who had chucked... something at Hansel. They had to still be around here somewhere... right? They wouldn't just abandon people in a situation like this, would they?

Fortunately, Owen's worries were quickly put to rest. There was somebody cycling, of all things, towards them. Squinting and trying his best to wipe the rain off of his glasses, Owen managed to identify the figure as Sharon Austin, somebody Amy had been closer to than he ever had been, but who was now the most welcome figure in the entire world.

"I, uh... I don't..." Owen stammered as he took the first aid kit from Sharon, hoping Aileen hadn't heard her last comment. He'd never even opened a first aid kit aside from having to deal with blisters on Duke of Edinburgh, but it wasn't as if he had a choice right now. There were no ambulances on the island, and the hospital wasn't exactly functional at the moment.

"I... I'm so sorry, Aileen..." Owen said, searching through the first aid kit for anything that looked like it might be of any use. Owen rolled up Aileen's trouser leg to get directly to the wound, and after a second's dithering, placed a pad on the bullet hole, tightly wrapping it with bandages whilst he continued to speak. "I... I couldn't do anything... I mean, there was... I just..."

Aileen said nothing. She looked slightly like she was in shock, face pale and showing obvious signs of pain; not her usual self, not the Aileen Owen had been hugging only minutes earlier. The wound had been secured, but with the rain still falling, Owen didn't want them all dying of hypothermia, especially now that they only had the clothes on their backs.

"Sh-sharon?!" Owen called out. "We need to get inside, so-soon as possible."

[Laurels]

Claire sat up as Owen asked her if she was okay. She simply nodded in response. All she wanted to say at the present moment was a string of expletives, but it would probably be in poor taste to say around company. She needed to worry about the people around her who just got mugged by some asshole Texan.

Another figure emerged from the scene: Sharon Austin. Claire simply knew her as the loud angry Scottish girl from school. She thought it was almost hilarious that the one Scottish person she was aware of had such a cliched temperament, but she was simply glad that Sharon wasn't choosing to be an asshole at the moment. She clearly wanted to help the three of them, giving her own first aid kit to Owen so he could help Aileen. Claire could now see that Aileen was at least still alive, although likely to have trouble getting from place to place.

Claire was also surprised that Sharon was quickly helping her out. Sharon had returned Claire's glasses before searching for her med kit. She figured that Sharon assumed Claire was blind without them, like Owen or herself. Claire took the glasses and put them back on. Sharon asked about her injury.

"I'm okay. I'm sure I just need to put some alcohol and a bandage on it."

Claire reached for the kit and began to look through it. There were some antiseptic wipes she could use to press on the wound. She knew a slight bit about first aid from her dad, nothing too grand, but enough to treat the kind of cut she had.

She took one of the wipes out and pressed it to her wound, wincing as she felt the sting from the alcohol. Owen then declared that they needed to get out of the rain.

"Hansel and I just came from a building, one of those clubhouses for golfers," Claire said. "I can lead you guys back there and we can address these wounds. There will be an ugly sight out front, but it's probably the nearest location for us."

Claire began to pack up the first aid kit and put it in her bag. They needed to get inside and fast, so she needed to be ready to go.

"I can walk, so don't worry about me. Focus on helping Aileen."

She grabbed the bag and stood up, making sure to keep the antiseptic wipe on her wound. She was starting to feel a shiver from the rain along with the burn on her back and the cut on her forehead. She could chase Hansel later. She needed to ensure she wouldn't die from infection first. Plus, she could actually do something about the two dead boys in front of the clubhouse instead of just leaving them out in the open.

[Riki]

It all seemed so easy in her head. All so easy.

But now there was a searing pain coming from her legs and there was Hansel and Owen and that girl and they all seemed to be frozen in time. She looked at Hansel. Williams. Serial murderer. Fucking cowboy wannabe. And he shot... was that him? Yes, Hansel shot at her.

Hansel shot at her... shot at her...Hansel...

Aileen could hear her name being called out before she went to the ground.

Hansel

There he was. Saying something. Thinking he is the shit just because he has a gun. Just because she shot her.

Hansel

Then something else happened, Aileen couldn't make out what. But Hansel was hit. And then she registered another few shots - no, not a shot. That was Hansel smacking his hostage - , and then... he... he took their bags. He bolted. Coward. Son of a bitch. Motherfucker.

Hansel

I am going to kill you...

Hansel

Chop your fucking corpse into thousand pieces

Hansel

Feed them to the animals

Ha- I... I'm so sorry, Aileen...

Owen.

Slowly, anger faded, leaving only pain behind. Aileen realized that Owen was doing something with her legs. She realized that another person just arrived. Aileen felt as if she had to say something. This was her realm of expertice. Her skills... her duty.

Owen said something, and Aileen nodded.

[jimmydalad]

Sharon was glad that Claire was able to handle herself. She was not used to medical stuff and had rarely seen blood up until this moment. Come to think of it, this was probably the first time she encountered blood on the island. It was somewhat odd to think about that, considering the whole mentality that came with being on the island, Sharon would've thought that she would encounter it sooner.

Hearing Owen shout, Sharon nodded and thought for a moment where they could go that was indoors. She came from the outdoors and on her way, didn't encounter any buildings. Maybe she could find one nearby. She was not that knowledgeable about golf, but she was sure that there had to be some sort of golf building nearby. It wasn't like people just used their cars to drive around the course.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Claire informed her of the presence of the building. At the mention of helping Aileen, she nodded her head and immediately ran over to Owen and her things. After grabbing her bike, putting her stuff on it and holding onto the bike, she moved them closer to Owen and Aileen. It was really inconvenient for her to have done this, but it wasn't like there was much else she could do.

"Owen, Claire's going to lead us to some buildings, right now, we need to get Aileen inside. Do you mind picking up and looking after Aileen? I'll keep close to you guys at all times." Sharon briefed the other boy quickly. Once she had relayed her instructions, she followed Claire inside. Where was she going to go from there? Right now, she didn't really know.

((Sharon Austin continued elsewhere...))

[Laurels]

((Skipping to clear the DZ))

Claire used her free hand to wipe the rain off of her glasses. They needed to get inside as soon as possible and treat their wounds. Hansel could easily come back and wipe them all out if they didn't hurry. She didn't want that. She didn't want to get killed by him if it didn't mean she got the chance to retaliate.

"Yeah, just follow me," Claire said. "We can use the locker rooms there to hide out until the rain passes."

Claire kept the alcohol wipe on the cut. She was sure she could get a bandage on it once she dried off for a bit. There were probably some old towels they could use inside, and it was about time she changed her clothes so she didn't have to run around in wet clothing.

Claire began to walk back towards the clubhouse. As she did, she looked up at the sky, feeling the rain hit her face as she gazed at the dark clouds.

This isn't the kind of weather to bury Kyle, no matter how appropriate the weather is to the mood.

She knew she'd have to figure out how to deal with Kyle and Adonis, but first she had priorities to address, and three people she wasn't sure what to do with. All that could be handled once they were out of the area.

((Claire Monaghan continued in O-Lan, You Are the Earth))

[Pippi]

((GMing of Aileen approved))

"A-alright." Owen nodded, quickly glancing at Aileen. "We'll b-be right behind you..."

Claire and Sharon took off in the direction of whatever buildings Claire had in mind for shelter, and Owen and Aileen were momentarily left alone together again. There would be no time for dilly-dallying, now; with the rain still falling hard, and Aileen's leg slowing them down, if they fell too far behind, they might not find the other two again.

"Aileen, h-hold on a sec... I'll be right back..."

There was time, however, to grab a couple of things. Weaponry. Weaponry in the loosest sense of the word, but with the threat of injuries looming overhead, any means of defence was better than none. Hurrying over to the golf cart, Owen picked up the table leg and, after a brief bit of searching, another abandoned golf club. It was incredibly rusty, and with several dinks and dents, but it was better than nothing. With that, Owen headed back to Aileen. He wasn't certain how to go about this, but with Aileen's leg, there seemed to be one safe option for Owen.

"Aileen, could you hold these?"

Owen knelt down, handed the table leg and golf club over, before picking Aileen up, trying to avoid touching the bandaged area of her leg.

There was nothing left here to do. It was finally time to go.

((Owen Kay and Aileen Aurora Abdallah continued in Snack Eater))