The Highest Heights

[Pippi]

((Amelia Lennon continued from Far From Home))

It was pretty much silent at the top of the mountain. Amelia was fine with that. That was good. It gave her a chance to think everything through, not get distracted by anything. She was sitting on the edge of the path, legs dangling over the side. She could see all across the desert in front of her. There was the ranch, the ranch she’d started in, when everything had been fine and she knew what she was doing. There was the trading post, where everything had turned upside down, and Amelia had acted like a moron and listened to the Sheriff.

There was the town, the largest place for miles, where Tania would remain forever, left to bake in the sun. All because of her. All because of Amelia.

Amelia could see people too. There weren’t many. Only one or two visible ones from time to time. All of them had suffered throughout this “game”, all of them had reasons to live. Tania had too. Why did any of them deserve to die here? Deserve to get murdered by their friends and classmates?

That was Amelia’s problem in this game. She cared about people. She didn’t want to see her friends get hurt, even when she knew they were only looking after themselves. She’d been worrying about Rebecca throughout the game, Rebecca, the girl who was killing her way through their classmates. Amelia knew that, if it came down to it, she still couldn’t kill her. Couldn’t kill her, couldn’t kill Katie, couldn’t kill anyone any more.

There was Amelia’ second problem. People would attack her, try to kill her, and she wouldn’t do anything. She’d attacked Tania out of fear and confusion. But when Anton and Mike had confronted her, when Sam had pointed the gun at her, when Brian had joined the confusion, she hadn’t done anything. They could have, should have killed her, and Amelia couldn’t guess how she’d gotten out of those situations. She was known as a killer, and people would be gunning for her.

And there was her final problem. Amelia had killed. Killed Tania, who was just as frightened and confused as she was, just because some voice had told her to. Tania’s death was completely unnecessary and pointless, and no matter how sorry Amelia felt about it, how stupid and evil she thought she had been, it didn’t change the fact that Tania wasn’t coming back, and it was her fault.

Amelia barely noticed the heat anymore, and the features of the landscape in front of her where becoming blurred and muddled from looking at them for too long. She’d had plenty of time to think now. For the first time in the game, Amelia had a plan that she knew she could carry out.

Carefully, Amelia backed away from the path’s edge, and stood up. She picked up her bag, which was leaning against a rock behind her, and flung it over the side of the mountain. The pickaxe soon followed, making a clanging sound on its way down. Finally, Amelia removed the knife Trevor had given her from her pocket, before dropping it over the edge. Amelia didn’t want anyone else to use them ever again.

The first part of her plan done, Amelia sat against the rock for the second part. The Sheriff had managed to get his announcements sent to everyone, so she guessed there must be some sort of mechanism, somewhere, that allowed him to see and hear what was going on. It could have been in the collars, or maybe just some device carefully hidden in places. Whatever. Didn’t matter. Amelia cleared her throat, briefly wishing she’d held on to her water for a little longer, before speaking to the open air.

“Mr Sheriff, I’m guessing there’s some way you can hear me. I’m going to be speaking to you for a moment. My name is Amelia Lennon. You probably know that. You probably know that I killed another girl. Tania Chell. You probably thought I was going along with your game, right? I thought so too, I thought that’d get me home safely. But why should I? All I’m doing is proving whatever sick point you’re trying to make. So congratulations. You succeeded on that part.”

“But I don’t want anything more to do with this. I don’t want to kill anyone else, or have anyone else kill me just because you said so. I’m getting out of here.” Amelia paused a moment, before laughing softly. “Getting out of here if it kills me.”

Amelia paused again before speaking. “I dunno if you can hear this in any way, or if you will, but… Mom. Dad. I’m… I’m just so sorry. About everything that happened here. I’m sorry for killing someone to try to escape, and I’m sorry I’m not even going to be doing that. I tried, I honestly tried my hardest, but I just can’t do this anymore. Maybe it’s for the best. I don’t want my brother or sister to be associated with a murderer. Give the baby my love; bring it up to be the person I never could be.”

“… I’m so, so sorry Tania. And the rest of the Chell family. I know that can’t make up for what happened. But there’s nothing else I can give.”

“Katie, Rebecca? If by any chance you hear this, and Sam or Renee didn’t pass it on… Thank you. I couldn’t have asked for better friends. You deserve to get out of here more than me.”

There. She’d said all that she could say. Amelia stood up, taking deep breaths and closing her eyes. After a few seconds, she re-opened them, taking her last look over the desert sprawling in front of her. Then Amelia walked forwards, pausing briefly at the edge of the path, before stepping off and plunging into the abyss.

F08-AMELIA LENNON: GAME OVER
8 STUDENTS REMAINING