SOTF Mini

To say that Isabella's response was disheartening would be the understatement of the year. Claudia swallowed heavily. The weight of dread sunk like lead in her stomach. If diplomacy with Isabella was a long shot before, did they really have any kind of chance now? Raymond fucking bolted, and she realized that the only people here with Isabella now were the little trio that had spent so long trekking here. Not even five minutes in the compound, and things were going this awry already? Claudia honestly wondered whether she'd ever been this discouraged before. A few hours into the first day and everything was thrown into disarray. How the fuck were they gonna make it through five? How were they-

-and then a crippling heaviness spread throughout her, seeping from every pore, flowing down every capillary, occupying every nook within her bones, like the lead from her stomach had decided to take a day trip throughout her entire body.

Fuck. It's the fatigue!

Panic started to well up in the primitive recesses of her mind. If she didn't get out of the building, and soon, her life would be in mortal danger. Her fight-or-flight reflex was kicked into overdrive, and adrenaline started to course through her. Adrenaline was a wondrous thing, as it cut through the fog of her mind clearly, if only temporarily. She had at most five minutes to get as far away from the compound as she could as well as find a safe enough place to rest without getting ambushed. It was certainly a tall task. Better not waste any more time completing it.

"Guys, we gotta... we gotta go!" she exclaimed, presumably to Selene and Anatoly, but in her panicked yet drowsy state she had no idea if she'd even said it at all. She went to move out of the building but found herself failing. Her shoes felt too heavy for her feet. Like concrete. Everyone knew what happened to the people with concrete shoes.

She clumsily, angrily kicked her shoes off while her mind blared at her it's time to go it's time to go it's time to go on repeat. The adrenaline finally made its way down to her legs and she took off in a dead heat, bypassing Anatoly and Selene as her now bare feet carried her across the hot desert sands as far as they could take her.

Unbeknownst to her, her bag lay where she had set it down mere minutes before, where it was undisturbed throughout the whole crisis.

((Claudia Salgado continued in One Foot in the Grave))

((skipping to avoid inactivity))

"Oh fuck this," Selene muttered to herself.

Isabella was now proclaiming herself to be some kinda higher deity, and that was not the kind of shit Selene was interested in participating in.

One of the boys inside was bailing, and Claudia was now getting out of there. Selene's vision was getting back to normal, and she saw the girl kicking off her shoes and running. Selene also noticed the girl left her bag.

"Girl, what are you doing?" she shouted to Claudia as she ran away.

She turned back to the bag. Selene knew she only had a moment. The idea had come to her, and she had to move quickly if it was to work.

She quickly ran and grabbed Claudia's bag. Once she had it, she ran back out towards the desert. She was running in the vague direction of where Claudia went, but Selene was going slightly off course, hugging closer to the compound walls.

She still wanted to be indoors, and maybe there was another way inside the building. Claudia had proven to be a bit of a liability with her gift and clueless abandoning of supplies and footwear. If Selene was going to survive, she would need to get everything she could and find better allies. Maybe this would hurt Claudia in the end, but the girl had made her choice, and Selene could always play dumb if they met up again.

If Anatoly followed, Selene wasn't sure. All she saw was the path ahead of her as she veered around the corner of the building. This powder keg was going to explode sooner than later, and Selene needed to make smart choices before she got burned.

((Selene Flores continued elsewhere))

This was a red flag.

"O-oh." Anatoly croaked, a bead of sweat dripping down his neck. "That's, uh..."

Either Isabella had completely lost it, or she was taken over by some sort of hivemind of bugs using her as a conduit to gain sapience. It was probably the former. But if it is was the hivemind thing- jeez, that had much bigger implications than anything in this stupid game. Anatoly imagined Hitchcock's The Birds but with bugs. Bugdemic. But... it was probably just Isabella going through some stuff. Hopefully.

Whoever they were speaking to, Isabella or the Swarm- Anatoly was fine with letting them have the building. His companions clearly agreed, since they ran out one by one until he was the only one left. He slowly backed away towards the door, keeping his stare on Isabella's wide, blank eyes the whole time. Sparing a short glance outside, he saw Claudia frantically and shoelessly running with Selene in hot pursuit. Then his eyes went back to Isabella one last time.

Staring blankly, with her arms raised, bugs crawling on her skin, the swarm buzzing around her. Isabella was truly a monster, now. Maybe she'd always been- maybe that was just who she was without power suppressants. Just like how Anatoly was finally his real self, maybe Isabella was now her real self, too. He kind of felt bad for her, but maybe he shouldn't have.

"Hey, uh, 'Swarm'. You can have your hive. Just..." he didn't know what drove him to engage with her, still. A dumb part of him thought he could help. If not her, himself.

"You need Isabella to be alive, right? Well you see this right here?" he pointed at the collar on his own neck. "She has one too. The people watching, the people behind this? They can blow it up whenever they want, whenever you do something they don't like. If you stay here, they'll do it. Eventually. And then-" Anatoly flared his hand out dramatically and made a 'pshoo' sound. "No more swarm. So they're who's threatening your hive. Not us. So, uh... bye."

Then he made his exit, stepping out into the sunlight and not looking back. The girl's were pretty far now, he had to catch up. Anatoly bent down to pick up Claudia's sandals, then ran towards the fleeing figures as fast as he could.

((Anatoly Orlovsky continued elsewhere))

Not daring to move the door further, Gary could only make out a few people running past on the other side. Then the voice of a boy who Gary recognized as a pale dude named Anatoly. After saying a few bits to "the swarm", he left as well. For maybe two seconds. Gary just listened as the footsteps got quieter.

Then he took a deep breath and swung the door open.

Isabella was still there, and she was not alone. A whole ocean of insects was crawling all around and on her. Gary couldn't even see the stairs leading into the basement. But he could hear the noise of even more insects down there.

While he had expected to get closer with the swarm, he felt unprepared with this. Especially with isabella being in some sort of trance, as he now could see.

But on the other hand, this meant her gift was stronger than he had anticipated. meaning it was all the more important to get her on his side.

"Hello, Mr Swarm." he started. "There are a few things I would like to talk with Isabella about. Would it be possible for you to please give Isabella back her control for a few minutes?"

It was a wide swing, but one he had to take.

The swarm turned its body around and stared Gary directly in his eyes.

As a result of Gary calling out to her or it or whatever the swarm was, Isabella was turned 35° clockwise. No, she didn't reacted herself. Instead the swarm grabbed her body and rotated her so she faced Gary. Like a chess player moving a piece. During this and afterwards, the girl didn't move a muscle. The only movements were in her hair, which was filled with insects so much it appeared to have a life of its own, grabbing in every direction like the tentacles of a blind monster feeling around for the next victim.

The swarm remained silent.

... that's a no, isn't it?

Gary felt his confidence dwindling. Maybe I sho-

"You have followed us."

"Our image does not scare you."

"We would inquire as to why."

"Oh," Gary said, taken aback by the sudden question. But he quickly recovered. This might his his chance!

"Well, there is this old lady living next door to us. I am not sure about her given name, but everyone calls her Miss Patenaude. Her gift is some sort of insect-mutation. Her torso and head are that of a grasshopper. Most people are grossed out and frightened by her appearance. Some even run away screaming when they see her for the first time. She can't speak, but her body language paints a clear picture on how much it hurts her. She spends most of the day tending to her big garden, which just so happens to be facing my room. No one knows how she can afford such a big house without working. Rumors say her family send her large sums of money under the agreement that she doesn't visit them."

Realizing he had gone a little bit off-topic, Gary harrumphed.

"Basically I grew up seeing a really big insect every day I looked out of my windows. A swarm of normally sized ones can't faze me.

"And for the question on why I decided to follow you..."

Now was the pivotal moment. Gary pulled out his notebook, opening the page he had written for Isabella.

"... because I want to propose an alliance.

"While both of our gifts are undoubtedly strong, there are several people I know who where on the bus and who could easily kill us. Like Jenelle. Or August. Damn, even Moose with his oily skin could be a danger for you."

He held the notebook in the direction of a few bugs on the wall. Of course he made sure that no camera was in a position where the terrorists could read what he had written.

"Here is a list with all the dangerous enemies we should prioritize. After them, we will work us through the rest. And once it is down to the two of us, our alliance ends.

"So, what do you say?"

"No."

The Swarm stared at the other boy. Began to raise its right arm.

"We want to be alone."

The walls almost sounded louder.

The Swarm's answer was harsh and without any hesitation. Gary instantly saw that no amount of arguing would change it.

He wasn't even sure if the swarm had read his message. For all he knew, it had taken his offer to kill everyone at face value. So now he was dealing with an army of bugs that had no desire to cooperate with him.

"Okay," he said, sounding slightly less calm than he had hoped for. "Then I guess we will part ways. If you change your mind, you cans end one of your kind to me. Just fly around my head. Pretty sure you are great at scouting."

While talking, he pocketed his notebook and walked backwards back into the smaller hallway.

"So take care, I guess?"

The walls almost sounded louder.

Somehow, the swarm seemed to grow more restless.

Whatever that meant, Gary doubted the answer was We changed our mind. Let's work together!

So instead of hanging around, he closed the door between them and made a fast exit, not stopping until he was sure to be far out of Isabella's comfort zone.

((Gary Greer-Wheatly continued in You Are Still In A Birdcage))

The walls quieted.

The shape stood.

Stared.

Stayed.

((continued elsewhere...))