No Country for Teenagers

[Cash Money*]

((Benny Lightfield continued from The Good, The Bad, and the Ohmigodwhatthefuck))

As they left the saloon, they picked up speed. Once they had rounded the corner, Benny looked back to check on Katie. She was following, and so was Sycanus. He realized that, somewhere in the middle of all the confusion, he'd gotten the distinct impression that she was the reason they were being shot at. If so, why didn't they just ditch her?

...But at the same time, if they left her out here, she'd get shot for sure. They needed to make sure that she didn't get hurt. That Patrick and Pepper didn't get hurt. That they all made it until somebody got here and rescued them. They needed to keep each other safe. They had guns. If worst came to worst, they could use them.

It was only common courtesy that Benny tell them what they were doing.

"We're going to the lamp post in the middle of town. We said we'd meet Patrick and Pepper there. If they're there we can all get out of here somewhere safe."

A few more twists and turns, and then they were there. Benny sat down on the wooden sidewalk in the same place he had only hours before, waiting. That was just waiting, though; this felt like a stakeout. Where he had previously fiddled with his pistol, simply trying to get it to load, he now held it in his lap, pointing it out at the street. Where his attention had once drifted, it was now focused vigilantly on anything and everything. In spite of the location of his gun, his feet started bouncing up and down in an irregular rhythm on the hard dirt, threatening to break into the solid clunk of sturdy new shoes against a hard surface. He kept checking the streets for signs of life or death on the horizon, quickly settling into a regular rotation; street to the left, street to the right, lean back to see the street behind, check to make sure somebody's watching the fourth one, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Benny couldn't spend the next hour or however long it was going to take until they got back. If he spent even five more minutes out here, he felt like he was going to become a ninja and start flipping out and killing people.

Benny's mouth voiced his discontent, almost unbeknownst to him.

"We should probably... go."

He was in no position to explain what he had just said; he was still processing the fact that he had even said it. The situation demanded a follow-up, though, and he gave it.

"I mean... if whoever shot at us gets here before Patrick and Pepper, we... are in serious trouble. We need to get out. We could, like... leave a message, so the others could still find us. Like... 'meet us at the'... uh..."

He set his gun aside and pulled out the map. The paper wasn't shaking as much as it would have been a few seconds ago; merely doing something helped. He scanned the page, looking for somewhere that looked safe.

They couldn't go back to the bridge; people were undoubtedly coming their way across it. They couldn't go to the cactus patch; it was too close to the railroad. They couldn't go to the chapel; it would have already made a great fortress for whoever got there first.

"...how about the creek?"

The words lurched gracelessly through his mind. It didn't sound terribly appealing. But that was the point; nobody wants to go to the creek, they want buildings to sleep in. They could get out of town, meet Patrick and Pepper there, and then decide what to do next.

He looked up for confirmation. He got it.

A short while later, the three classmates headed for the train tracks, leaving a hastily scratched message in the dirt behind them:

PATRICK + PEPPER
MEET US AT THE CREEK

***

It had been a long walk.

The three of them had walked away from the sun until they hit train tracks, and then along the train tracks until they hit vegetation. As the sun continued to set, they rotated flashlight duties among them until the moon was high enough to reflect off the tracks. Even so, the first indication they had gotten to the creek wasn't from seeing it, but stepping in it. The ground was a lot less muddy and swampy than Benny had expected, although, on second though, they were in a desert. A cautious flashlight sweep had revealed more ground much like it, and...

...a house?

Benny must not have looked at the map that carefully.

"Well well, looks like we have a home away from home out here. Wanna go in?"

[widespreadinman*]

((Sycanus Applettin continued from The Good, The Bad, and the Ohmigodwhatthefuck))

The creek was right there. It seemed to be a nice change of pace. The walking, however, was rather tiring. But what luck! A house near the creek.
"Well well, looks like we have a home away from home out here. Wanna go in?"
Sycanus opened her mouth to suggest that they do... but then the cabin's events came back to haunt her.
Look, he's not gonna suddenly come out and shoot Tobeyn in the ear.
Yeah, and a bed seems too good to be in right now.
"I agree... ah the heck with it..." she whispered to the bear. She then cleared her throat. "W-We oughta go inside once... once Katie gets here."
Yes. Just get inside, and try to stay alive. No one could possibly enter without warning...
She gulped some saliva. This was only the second time Sycanus saw a cabin, with the first nearly ruining it for her. All she could hope for was to forget all about Simon and his madness.
Remember, no thinking of him.

[KamiKaze]

((Katie Tanaka continued from The Good, The Bad, and the Omigodwhatthefuck))

Katie was still left in a daze.

Even as they exited the saloon, even as they waited for Pepper and Patrick, even as they made plans to follow the creek, even as they eventually saw what appeared to be a deserted house, Katie still wasn't sure what to think.

Sycanus had followed them out. She wasn't sure if this was good or bad. What if she... god she didn't know. Katie had never known Sycanus that well. But what if the bandi- the attacker had been following her? What then? Did this mean that the second they found out she was alive they would try to find them, and-

Oh god. She didn't want to think about that.

The sun slowly began to set. This whole hike, it reminded Katie of back home a bit. It was funny. Hiking was one of the things she liked. So was Westerns. It was strange how they managed to make two of the things she loved in life kind of scary, like a tailor-made torture or Hell.

As she approached the other two, they seemed to be discussing whether or not to enter the house and spend the night there.

She wasn't sure whether or not to go into the house. On one hand, warm shelter. On the other, someone could be inside, waiting to hurt them. Maybe their attacker, or someone else.

But the other two seemed to think it was a good idea. Katie wasn't sure about that. Anyone could be in there, and anyone else could be attracted to the idea of having someplace warm to sleep that night.

"Uh... what if there's... you know... guys..." she tried to get out, unable to word what she was thinking exactly.

The idea of spending the night in a house did seem tempting, she had to admit though.

[Cash Money*]

Benny watched Sycanus say something to her bear before replying, "W-We oughta go inside once... once Katie gets here." He wanted to raise an eyebrow in disbelief - he didn't catch what she'd said, but her tone had conveyed something uncomfortably close to agreement. Agreement, of course, implied that she was taking advice, or debating, or something, with a stuffed animal. As if it could talk. Did she seriously think it was alive? He hoped she understood that all of its "thoughts" were really just her thoughts in someone else's voice. The only way that thing could have thoughts that were actually different from her own was if she had multiple personalities or something, and in that case, the guy who shot at them was the least of their problems.

Wait, no, that guy was still a huge problem. But having someone around who was prone to taking orders from a part of her brain that thought it was a stuffed bear and that therefore was not beholden to common decency came a close second.

Katie had been lagging a few steps behind, and as she caught up, she chimed in with her opinion.

"Uh... what if there's... you know... guys..."

Oh right. Benny had been banking on his assumption that everyone else was going to be going to the town. The only reason he'd thought that, though, was that there was going to be houses in town. But there were houses right here. Somebody could have holed up here and never left. And they might be inside, might be scared, might even be armed. God knows he was. There was still no way on earth that he was going to pass up an opportunity like this, though. Sleeping in an actual house beat roughing it any day. No reason to use flora for bedsheets when you could go with the real thing. Just the way Mother Nature intended it.

Benny considered the options momentarily before speaking, trying to pick the last bits of dirt out from under his fingernails.

"I get the feeling that if there's somebody in there, they don't want to shoot at us. If you're inside a house all the way out here, you're not looking for targets, you're trying to hide. So all we gotta do is ask if we can come in."

Without waiting for anybody's input, he turned to face the house, forming a makeshift megaphone with his hands.

"HI!", Benny screamed at the second floor window. He nearly flinched at how much his voice carried in the flat desert expanse. For the rest of his plea, he toned it down in a futile effort to direct his speech at only this house and not at any creepers who might be around. "IF YOU'RE THERE, WE'RE LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO STAY. CAN WE COME IN?"

Benny expected that, if there was going to be any reply at all, it would be a muffled, groggy "whuh?" emerging from the bedroom. What he got instead was about 50 times louder, and it startled him so hard he stumbled, barely managing to keep on his feet. He whirled around, trying to find the source of the sound, to no avail.

The sound boomed, surrounded, and disoriented. Benny was having a hard time adjusting to the presence of a malevolent, omnipresent voice, so when the important part started, he still wasn't paying full attention, and euphemisms like "got with an arrow" or "done in" flew right over his head.

"Delilah Rivers stabbed Richard Ormsby to death down by the river. She's a sparky one."

Well that sure got his attention.

Wait... Delilah? Stabbed?

Before he could think too much about what he just heard, the string of obituaries continued, and he could hardly stand to hear any of them. His classmates' deaths were being treated so irreverently, it made him sick. "The ground's pretty loose round these parts?" If you were in the same room as Stephen's family, could you say that to their faces?

And then the big ones.

Rebecca Clark, member of the tech crew and friend of Benny's, killed Tito, who they had run into only hours ago, and had apparently killed before. More importantly, though, Delilah Rivers, another tech crew member and friend (and repeat murderer), "got rid of" Patrick. Patrick, who was out looking for people with Pepper, who had assumed the people they would find were going to be civil, who they had assumed was coming back, who was going to find their message and follow them to the creek and be safe with them, was dead now. He was dead, and the Sheriff didn't even have the decency to tell them where he was.

The Sheriff was too busy telling them all about the explosion.

Simon Mattheson was the gunman. He wasn't even the same person that killed Tito, wasn't even Delilah. Multiple people were freaking out, running around all over the place and killing their friends, and they couldn't just be in the town, because if there were that many people in town, he would have found at least some of them. Or their bodies. No, everywhere was fair game now; there could be bloodthirsty murderers anywhere at any time, and they could even be coming up to the creek -

Oh God.

It was at that point that Benny, previously so sure that Patrick and Pepper were going to follow their sign, realized that anybody else could read their sign too, and would know exactly where they were.

Benny froze in sheer terror, facing Katie and Sycanus and looking for direction in their facial expressions. They weren't safe anymore. Somebody could be in that house after all, aiming a sniper rifle at them right then and there.

For the first time, Benny realized he was as good as dead.

[widespreadinman*]

And then the announcements came. All the people killed so far, and it pretty much kept Sycanus on edge. There were the various ones she vaguely knew about... and then Simon's name came up. He had apparently killed her ex-tour guide Leroy, as it seemed... and all she did was whine in a scared fashion.

"W-We're dead, Tobeyn... we're dead..." she said.

No, we're not... maybe it isn't current? Maybe it was just from a few hours ago?

"... Could be... but he'll find us soon..."

Well, you have the gun... and a safe house...

"... I'm barging in there... Out here's going to get me killed..." And just like that, she bolted into the cabin. Of course, the door was left open for the other two still outside. "B-Benny? Just come inside... You too, Kaede... it ain't safe out there at all..." She slumped against a nearby wall, clutching the bear for dear life. "W-We'll protect each other, Tobeyn..." she whispered. "You and me... until th-the end..." Her hand reached inside her daypack, pulling out the Cattleman Revolver. She checked the bullets again, making sure she still had six. In the bag was a box of 12 extra .45 Colt bullets, as well as provisions.

Don't cry...

"I won't... it'll be a field of flowers... or a watchful eye..." She buried her face into the bear. "Please let it be a field of flowers..."

[KamiKaze]

Benny had realized the same thing as she had. The house might not be safe. There were people they were trying to avoid, after all.

After a beat, he had decided that if someone was indeed in there, there was a good chance that they would be hiding rather than looking for people to kill.

Without warning, Benny cupped his hands to his mouth and called out.

Katie stared at the house with large eyes. Perhaps it was empty. Perhaps it was full. She didn't want to take that chance, no no no-


Wait, what was that?

She guessed there was some sort of intercom on the island. Or speakers. Or something. All she knew was, it was a voice. One she remembered from... oh no, the train. It was him, wasn't it? It was the last voice she wanted to hear at this moment.

The voice preceded to rattle off names of her classmates.

Vienna Gogh was shot in the head with an arrow by Rebecca Clark. Simon Leroy was killed by Simon Mattheson. Delilah Rivers stabbed Richard Ormsby to death. Bruce Nightingale shot Martha Stock. Stephen Brown fell off a cliff. Rebecca killed again, this time Tito Simonin. So did Delilah, shooting Patrick Reynolds.

Then the big one. Simon Mattheson was their attacker, killing Ramona, Warren, and Kenneth.

Katie didn't want to listen any more, but the voice kept going.

Rebecca shot Trevor. Elliot Day and Bruce had died of what sounded like a snake bite and trying to remove the collar that was around everyone's necks respectively.


The voice stopped.

Katie simply stood on the spot, her eyes forced open. They had lived in a small town, and Katie usually made friends easily. Therefore, she knew, hell, even befriended many of the people on that announcement. Vienna was another good friend of hers. Delilah? A very shy girl. Simon Mattheson? Very quiet. Leroy? Arrogant, yes, but did he really deserve that? And Ramona, Kenneth, and Warren... and.. oh god, Patrick.

And she just remembered. They were supposed to meet up with Patrick and Pepper. They couldn't anymore. They couldn't.

Katie suddenly felt very ill as her fists clenched. How could they? How could they play so easily? It was sick.

The wind gently blowed, as she continued to just stand there. She could hear the soft murmurs of Sycanus, but she didn't respond.

Suddenly, a new feeling came over Katie. It wasn't the feeling of numbness. She wasn't sad. She wasn't even close to breaking down, that she knew of.

What she was feeling was raw, seething anger. She hated them. Delilah? She used to be so shy and timid, but now that she's become one of them Katie couldn't bear even picturing her face. Rebecca? Just because she was a member of the theatre's tech crew didn't mean that Katie felt hatred for her, right at this moment.

And Simon. Simon Mattheson.

That was the one person she hated the most, right at this moment. There were no words for how much she hated him, despised him. At school, he was just that boy who never talked, but now...

For the first time in her life, Katie wanted to hurt someone. No, she didn't want to hurt Simon...

She wanted to track him down. She wanted to give him the exact amount of pain that the four people he murdered went through because of him. She hated him with every fiber of her being, right now.

Sycanus barged into the house, as if in a panic. Katie could only watch, her normally cheerful face very still. She didn't want to go in there, not with Simon still out there.

Some part of her told her it wasn't a good idea. That she shouldn't track him down. But... she still continued to hate.

[Cash Money*]

Benny didn't get any answers from his friends: Sycanus broke away and entered the house behind them, while Katie just blankly stared at nothing in particular. He had no idea whether or not to go in the house.

You don't know if it's safe in there
Sycanus is going first, she'll trigger the trap
He knows who's out here, he'll wait until he can get everyone
You don't even know if there is a trap
You don't know if Sycanus is going to snap
You need some rest
If you sleep, someone will come your way and kill you
We have to wait for Pepper
If Pepper was coming, she would have gotten to the light post first
She could still be out there...

He stared out at the softly glowing horizon, trying to will the light of salvation from the pale expanse.

And it came. Two lights, in fact.

Twin highbeams emerged from the distance. The rescue crew was here, finally. Benny would never forget the sight of the SWAT truck pulling up alongside them, the sound of a man in black body armor yelling at them to get in the back, the feel of a gloved hand pulling him inside.

They had escaped.

...

The flight home was agonizing. Their private plane out of the desert contained all the students who survived, including the murderers, handcuffed to their seats at the front and guarded by more intimidating men in body armor. Benny was seated near the back, his foot planted in the aisle. In the light of the rising sun streaming through the windows, he could just make out sandy blond hair in between the headrests in the front row. He wanted to ask the owner of that hair so many questions. Questions like why he did it. Did he feel guilty. Things like that. But the police would be asking more than enough questions to Simon Mattheson. So Benny instead tilted his head back and resigned himself to trying to get a good night’s sleep instead. As if that were possible.

***

12 July, the Lightfield house.

Benny lay down on a couch in the den. He was covered with a blanket despite the temperature outside, he still had an ice pack on his knee despite its considerable improvement, his hand was clutching a can of orange soda despite the fact that he wasn’t thirsty (thank you for asking, though), and, for once, he wasn’t watching the Comedy Network.

There was something much more important on TV right now.

One of the biggest and most senseless losses of life in Canadian history had managed to occur out of the sight of any cameras, and it only made sense that the footage-starved public would want a press conference to make up for it. Alderbrook High School's auditorium was now getting more attention from the outside world that it had ever had in its life as the press descended on it, eager to hear what the chief of investigations had to say. The auditorium Benny knew so well from untold hours spent working on plays was now stuffed to the exits with people. He imagined the reporters near the front were able to see the gaffer tape on the stage, half there to cover up wires and half to tamp down loose floorboards, as they waited for the head investigator to come out and tell everyone the news.

Alderbrook’s finest tech crew were busy discussing plea bargains and insanity defenses with their lawyers, so Benny had no clue who was in charge of the lighting or the official-looking backdrop highlighting the presence of the man behind the podium. The podium was a special one the police had brought in. Benny didn’t know which was worse: for the police to put their own fancy podium on the humble Alderbrook stage, or for them to use the school’s podium and taint it forever.

The man started off with a speech. It was the same exact speech that was given out at every senseless tragedy. It felt prefabricated, inadequate, like it – again – didn’t belong in their school. He got down to the nitty gritty in record time, though: 13 dead. 13. They perished from causes ranging from snake bite to gunshot wounds, and that wasn’t even the worst part. He detailed how they had been drugged with a gas that was easy to buy, easy to hide in a train’s ventilation system, and frighteningly easy to overdose on. He described the collars, designed to kill at a moment’s notice, using sophisticated engineering and baffling ingenuity. Whoever the Sheriff was, he knew what he was doing.

None of this information, however, helped make up for the 13. Nothing ever would. Not reading their names solemnly, not putting their pictures up in public, not even just letting everyone try to move on with their lives. Because, for all the uncharacteristic vitriol he was casting mentally at the screen, he didn't really blame them one bit. He needed to know this information just as much as anyone else; he'd been kept in the dark because nothing was confirmed or tallied when he'd been in the back of the van, and in any case, he needed the time with his friends then.

He was just sad that his classmates had to die in the first place.

Benny tore his eyes away from the horizon. If the rescue teams were coming, they'd wait until daylight, when they could properly see everyone. Or at least they weren't coming quite yet. The Sheriff would have sounded like his operation was getting shut down if they were.

Benny's unconscious mind told him that if the announcements were in chronological order, as they seemed to be, then Pepper would have come back to the light post first unless something had happened to her. His conscious mind simply interpreted this as a gut feeling. His mouth said, "I don't think Pepper's coming."

[widespreadinman*]

((If your mind breaks from this shit, I can't blame ya))

She looked up from her lap and out at the cabin she broke into. "W-Well... best look around..." she murmured. There were the basic amenities for a home, culminating in the bedroom. Upon arrival in the bedroom, she let out a halfhearted sigh of relief. "Look, Tobeyn... a bed..." she said softly. "A bed just for us..."

It looks safe... but still, you probably should let your friends share the bed.

"Right... let the others in... B-But until then..." A nervous chuckle could be heard from her mouth. "I... I guess we could... um..."

Get adjusted ourselves? Okay.

"It'll be like a sleepover..." she mumbled to herself, climbing into the bed. "Just like the... the ones that..." Sudden realization had struck her, rendering her silent.

The ones that we had?

"... M-More like the ones... w-we... we never had.... With others..."

It's okay, Sycanus... don't cry again.

"I won't cry now..." she said. "F-For now... let's try to... to rest..." Sycanus gave a soft kiss to the bear's slightly dirty head. Her mouth formed a smile, as if she was happy. She then stared into the face of Tobeyn, smile unwavering. "You know... I remember what you said back at the river. About us in the bed."

Aw jeez.... if I could blush, I would.

"But it was okay... just some... lighthearted comment it was..."

Yeah... unless you... well...

"Oh hush, Tobeyn. You're making me blush."

I know, I know. Nothing wrong with mutual love, right?

"True... and you've been there for me quite a lot..." The smile faded a bit, as she stared into the beady eyes of the stuffed bear in front of her. "Maybe..." The next thing she knew, her eyes were closed, and her mouth was pressed firmly on the sewn mouth of the bear's. She pried away from the bear, panting a bit. "I really love you, Tobeyn..." she whispered, returning to excessively kissing the clearly inanimate bear.

====================

The morning rays struck the room Sycanus slept in. For some reason, she wore a nightgown instead of the t-shirt and jeans she slept in. A yawn came from her mouth, leading to her rising in bed and stretching. Sycanus got out of bed, grabbed the stuffed bear, and walked to a nearby window. Outside, was a sprawling garden, with various produce to compliment the flora and fauna it was within. "It was all just a bad dream, Tobeyn... we weren't really in a desert about to be killed..." she said.

====================

In the actual cabin, however, she was mumbling seemingly incoherent things in her sleep. It took the sound of her daypack falling to the ground to wake her up. Sycanus looked around in a panic, once awoken. "Oh... that was the dream..." She looked down at Tobeyn, who was still in her clutches. "Glad to see you made it out." she said, smiling.

Likewise. She lightly pet the bear on the head, before immediately pulling its mouth back to hers.

"S-Say... Tobeyn..." she whispered after breaking away.

Yes?

"M-Mind if I..."

... Um, Sycanus... there's still two mentally healthy people outside. That isn't a good idea at all.

"I... I know... but it feels like it's burning..."

*sigh* Fine... but just enough to cool off.

"Well yeah..." she muttered, pulling the covers over her head. From underneath, a shirt was thrown out. Underneath the covers, Sycanus was lightly giggling, holding the bear against her body once more. Thankfully, she wore a bra today. "Thanks, Tobeyn. It's feeling cooler already."

I guess. Once more, she brought the bear to her lips, going back to what she did before.

[KamiKaze]

So it was just her and Benny.

Katie only stewed in her hatred a bit more as he stared out into the horizon. Not a word passed between them for a while. Perhaps they were both lost in their own thoughts. It seemed so. Just two scared Canadian teenagers, wandering around in the wilderness with a girl who thought her teddy was real. If she had been in the right state of mind, she would have actually laughed a bit.

But it wasn't funny, not at all.

When she was younger, she often fantasized about living in the Old West, working with cowboys and fighting away bandits from the town. She remembered that she even had a few toys that were cowboy themed. Heck, some of them she ended up sharing with Rina, just so she would enjoy them as well. Katie was even sure she had a few dreams about living in the Old West. But now... now... it was like every one of her childhood dreams were being shattered. It was like they were trying to murder everything, not just her and her friends.

She didn't know what to say. All she wanted was to see Simon rot. Period. That was her one wish right now. He killed everyone in front of her, and that meant one thing: he had to pay. He wasn't getting out of this without some kind of justice, some kind of punishment for what he had done.


A few more beats of silence.


And then Benny finally spoke, saying he didn't think Pepper was coming.

"I... I sure hope she's coming. Maybe she's like... I dunno, scared or something, and she's hiding elsewhere!" she responded, still lost in her thoughts.

Katie looked down at the ground. Her hands were still clenching, and the still look remained on her face. Should she tell him? How would he react? She was going to guess a lot of things. Oh no Katie, don't track him down. You might get hurt. Or, no Katie, hurting him is bad. Overall, she wasn't sure what exactly he was going to think if she told him. But she had to tell him. If he reacted, she could just... convince him. Sycanus, too. She had seen everything. They both probably knew that deep down, Simon had to pay.

Another look passed over her face. She made her decision.

And that decision came out in a surprisingly quiet voice from her.

"Benny... I want to track him down, and..."

[Cash Money*]

"I... I sure hope she's coming. Maybe she's like... I dunno, scared or something, and she's hiding elsewhere!"

Benny understood what she meant, but recognized that it didn't mean anything as far as what he was concerned about. If she was hiding elsewhere, she wasn't coming their way, and there went the last reason to stay here. Sycanus creeped harder than the Lonely Island, neither of their buddies were coming their way any time soon, and they had just painted a huge target on their backs by telling everyone exactly where they were. They needed to leave, right now, as soon as possible. Benny nearly started jogging in place at the thought; every second they spent here could be a second that somebody was using to get closer to them, to train their sights on them, to murder them in cold blood.

In the darkness, Benny could only see a rough outline of Katie's facial features, but they looked different now. Sharper. She said, slowly, deliberately, "Benny... I want to track him down, and..."

"What? No! We can't do that! We need to stay out of his way! He's probably walking this way right now, coming to finish the job, and you're saying you want to go back into town? I just... uh... uh..."

He hated it when he did that. Verbal filler, he had been told, served no purpose but to make you look dumber. That's why there was never any put into the scripts he performed, and that's why no one should ever use it. His best guess as to why it existed was that people didn't want to just go silent mid-sentence, but if that even happened in the first place, it meant you started talking before you had all your thoughts together. You were supposed to get a complete thought made out before you said anything, and if you absolutely had to pause mid-sentence, you could just say "come back to me" or something. Benny had heard this whole spiel numerous times; his mouth ran faster than his brain often enough that he had to get lectured about it. But it was happening again here, and precisely for the same reasons. Benny had a good reason to be nervous though. Imminent death could put anyone on edge.

So what was wrong with what he just said? Well, he'd just told himself that murderers weren't just in town. They were everywhere. So Simon could be anywhere now; he might be approaching from somewhere besides town, hell, he might have even skipped town before they did, in which case he'd have no idea where they are. So no, staying put wasn't going to get them attacked. Moving around very well could.

His two other reasons still stuck, though.

"...uh, never mind. We can head out and talk about this on the way to wherever."

[widespreadinman*]

Uh, Sycanus...

She was too engrossed with the liplock she thought she had on the bear.

Sycanus...

More making out.

SYCANUS APPLETTIN! PAY ATTENTION!

And there was a bit of a mood killer. Her own thoughts turned against her for the time being. But why...?

Aren't you going to let the others know it's safe in here?

Well it was safe. After all, she was without a shirt in a cabin kissing a stuffed bear like a lover. But yes, it was indeed safe.

Go get the other two. And please... have some decency...

"I forgot about the others, Tobeyn..." she murmured.

I did too. Think we oughta go get them? Let them know it's safe?

"Right." She hopped out of bed, when suddenly, a cold draft hit her frame. "... drat, where's my shirt...?" she murmured, searching around for it. Her hands touched the ground, feeling around for it. And then, the familiar feel of t-shirt collided with her palm. "Found it!" Quickly, she threw it on... backwards and inside out, as it was. But it was dark. And she didn't notice. For now, it was get the others inside. She ran to the front, almost a bit invigorated from what happened before. But once she looked out the front, she realized. Both she and Tobeyn were still in the game. Ah well, least Benny and Katie were outside.

"Uh, Benny? Katie?" Sycanus said in her loudest tone. "C-Cabin's safe...

At least not from us...

"Oh quiet, Tobeyn. At least all I lost was a shirt..." she whispered.

"Yeah, cabin's safe... And stuff... No traps, no nothing..." she said aloud. "So maybe we can wait it out a bit...? Eat something?"

Watch in horror as we express our love?

"Tobeyn! Not in front of others... But I guess you have a point." That bit was said aloud. And Sycanus caught it soon.

"Oh nuts..." she whispered.

Not my fault.

"Hush..." She tried holding back embarrassment for the time being. "C-Come on, guys! Perfectly safe... and... and I have a gun too!" She said aloud.

And we also have a psychopath on our tails.

"... d-don't remind me, Tobeyn..." Her hand was raised, waving a bit.

Sorry.

"It's fine..." She then kissed her bear on the fuzzy muzzle. "Still love you lots, even in life or death."

[KamiKaze]

As she expected, Benny didn't take it well.

What did you expect to hear when someone tells you they want to track someone down for vengeance? To be honest, if things were different Katie would have reacted the same way had someone told her something similar. It was not something you really wanted to hear, really.

Katie slightly frowned. Okay, she needed to convince him-

Oh, they were supposed to talk about it once they get back to moving? Was it just putting it off? Or was it just not the time and place?

To befuddle her mind further, Sycanus had resurfaced from the cabin, hugging her teddy as always. Apparently the cabin was safe, but it still made Katie nervous. Someone could show up with the same idea. Even with her new goal, Katie wasn't sure she wanted to attract people to their location so easily, even if it was just a house.

And then she started to argue with the teddy. Katie could only watch as Sycanus replied to silent responses. Needless to say, with the conversation she and Benny just had, it was probably the most awkward moment of her life. The only time it ever came close to being this awkward was... okay, she couldn't even think of any. To make matters worse, apparently she was confessing her love for the thing and kissing it!

Katie was speechless for a while. The "argument", for lack of a better word, was as if she had forgotten they were there for a few seconds. Seriously, how do you reply to that? She had managed to make the whole thing with Benny even more awkward than it already was!

Within a beat, though, she thought of something.

"Uh.... how about we keep moving instead, Sy? It's not that safe, I don't think!"

She turned on her foot.

"Um... yeah. Leaving."

With that, she started to step away.

((Katie Tanaka continued in Rebel Without a Clue))

[Cash Money*]

Katie didn't seem pleased with what he was saying until he suggested heading out first. Both hiding from and hunting Simon involved being away from the cabin, and whatever goal they were about to pursue, they could pursue it elsewhere.

All of a sudden, Benny heard Sycanus giving them the all clear from within the cabin. She was still talking to her teddy bear, even having a hard time getting through her short speech without having to reply to whatever it was "saying".

That wasn't quite so worrisome by itself, though. What she said next was.

"C-Come on, guys! Perfectly safe... and... and I have a gun too!"

Benny's racing heart nearly leapt out of his throat. He'd forgotten (or did he never know?) that she had a gun. That just made it so much easier for her to go psycho. He knew what she meant: she had a gun and could keep watch and defend the two of them sleeping inside. But Benny had one too, and he could fill the same role easily. He had his pistol out when they were waiting for Pepper; she had to have seen it. What use would there be for her to point out she had a gun?

It was a Freudian slip! Obviously she just wants to use it on us and leave with two guns, of course! Get out NOW!

A few agonizing seconds passed. Benny's shoes turned away from the cabin, twisting the grass underneath, but the rest of him stayed put. Then Katie gave him an opening.

"Uh.... how about we keep moving instead, Sy? It's not that safe, I don't think!"

And then, with as much energy as one could possibly muster after walking around for a whole day carrying a heavy backpack and subsisting on nothing but weird meats and bread, Benny ran.

((Benny Lightfield continued in Rebel Without a Clue))

[widespreadinman*]

"Uh.... how about we keep moving instead, Sy? It's not that safe, I don't think!"

Wait... did she just... give you a nickname? This made her stare a bit at Katie. The next thing she knew, Benny bolted as far away from the cabin as he could go. Now why did he- Oh right... thinks you're gonna go psycho.

You did see his gun earlier, right?

"Of course I did, Tobeyn..." she whispered. "But... why should he run from me? I'm not going to kill him... or anyone..."

Listen. Just because you say you won't doesn't mean he'll believe you. After all, this situation is just prime for introverts to turn into psychotics.

"... True..." Sycanus walked back to the bedroom, grabbing her daypack. "I just don't get why they consider me psychotic... or close to it... I mean, you're really talking to me... and we love each other-"

Keep in mind, Sycanus. They're normal. And you're not. This dragged out an audible sigh from her mouth.

"I know..." A lone tear dropped from her eyes. "They've got better chances. They've got a better reason to keep alive. And what am I, Tobeyn? That loner girl who talks to her bear. I've got more reasons to be a player at this rate..."

Now, now... don't talk that way. Sure, less people trust you. But at least they're letting you be.

"For now. Then either I get shot, stabbed, blown up, strangled... whatever suits the killer's fancy..."

Look, just follow them, and it'll be fine...

"And watch, Benny unloads a clip into me out of paranoia. Or Katie shoves a stick of dynamite down my throat and lights the fuse. You know they want to deep down inside..."

Sycanus. Applettin. Stop talking like that. It'll only cause more problems for you. Now go. Go follow them and try to remain calm.

"I guess I can try to..." Once outside the cabin, she saw no one else. Katie was gone as well. She closed her eyes and looked to the sky. "Seems the world ends when you've got more to worry about when even allies don't trust you..." At a moderate pace, she tried to follow the path Benny took, assuming Katie was following along.

((Sycanus Applettin continued elsewhere...))