The Apocalyptic Rockfight

[The Honeless Beard]

Nobody remembers how it started.

The quarry outside Bend, Oregon was owned by a company named Internal Technologies, mostly used for deep drill samples of the limestone and quartz kicking around the area. It was beautiful and overgrown, with a large, 45 foot deep hole filled with natural spring water that shimmered and shone on hot summer days, allowing people to see clearly nearly all the way to the bottom. Though the quarry was privately owned, Internal Technologies was lassez faire on things like a hole in the western fence, the short 15 minute hike to the quarry, and kids swimming on their property.

All of this to say the quarry was filled with teenagers on the day it happened. Nobody truly remembers the catalyst, as mentioned, but most can recall a handful of stones hitting Kincaid's back, scattered and small enough not to cause permanent damage.

Kincaid whipped around so fast that his hood flew back, ears straight up, eyes angry slits. He located Austin amongst the laughing swimmers, and didn't hesitate, didn't pause to assess if Austin was, indeed, the perpetrator of his assault. He'd been on edge all day, a raw bundle of nerves for having been dragged out here by quasi-friends and then abandoned immediately to swim.

Kincaid scooped up a thumb-sized rock, turned, and fired it at Austin - a side-throw, zipping through the air with a muttered "fuck you."

[almostinhuman]

Austin didn't usually show up to these gatherings of his own accord. He was the kind of kid who ended up there by being the friend of someone who was invited by someone who was invited. A dollop of peer pressure from the people he cared about was enough to get him to stomach being around the people he didn't. It wasn't, however, enough to make him engage. If people wanted him, they could come to him, and most people didn't particularly want him.

While most of the others were swimming in the quarry or milling about on the shore, Austin was busy doing something he actually cared about. The cliffs and wilderness surrounding the quarry were something he'd been intending to draw since he'd first seen them. He'd prefer to have come alone for it, but nobody was particularly in the way of what he wanted to capture. He sat at the spring's edge on one of the larger rocks, with pencil and sketchbook in hand. His eyes were mostly locked to the page, only occasionally glancing up at his subject on the opposite side of the water.

That he was clearly occupied by such was apparently not enough for somebody to realize he couldn't possibly have thrown anything at him.

Kincaid's rock struck Austin in the side of his head, right near the corner of his eye. He yelped, nearly toppling off the large rock. The blow sent his pencil up the page in a curve, tearing it, and sent his glasses skittering along the ground. Not that he was so nearsighted that he couldn't see the fuzzy piece of shit that'd done it.

He glared at Kincaid for just a moment, silent, furious. Without a word, he grabbed his own small stone and chucked it at the catboy.

[Catche Jagger]

“You’ve got this Austin! Beat his ass!” Alan called out.

He’d been standing nearby and immediately dove for cover behind a mound of rocks when he’d seen the rock come flying. Still, Alan remained within eyeshot of Austin and gave him a look of raw determination, as well as a supportive thumbs up.

[Jilly]

David didn't say anything as he casually scrambled for the phone in his front pocket and navigated to the camera app.

[The Honeless Beard]

As soon as Kincaid let the rock fly, he realized his mistake. Austin was bent over a sketchbook, and clearly hadn't been the person to throw the loose handful of stones. Time slowed to a crawl as he watched, eyes wide, as the stone connected with Austin's temple, sending his glasses flying off of his face.

"Shit, man," Kincaid called out, "I'm really sorr-EEEEEEEE!"

As Austin returned fire, eyes completely glassless, Kincaid dropped flat to the ground with lightning-quick reflexes. Austin's missile arced overhead, smacking another kid in the back of the head. Kincaid scrambled away as a few more of the gathered teenagers began arming themselves, seeing this as the green-light to begin throwing.

"Waitwaitwait," Kincaid said, holding out his hands, attempting to stop the snowball as it rolled down the hill, "my bad, that's my bad - we don't need to-"

There was a brief pause.

Then the apocalypse began.

[almostinhuman]

Austin didn't even see his rock missing Kincaid, or smacking into another kid. He was far too busy grabbing more ammo. If that obnoxious little furry wanted to start shit, Austin was perfectly happy to finish it.

He even had a fan out there, apparently. Kincaid wasn't exactly popular with non-perverts so that wasn't such a surprise. Austin didn't directly acknowledge Alan's encouragement, but it provided an ego boost nonetheless. A bit of vindication for how wildly immature and stupid he was being helped him forget he was being immature and stupid.

He scooped his glasses, scuffed but otherwise undamaged, off the ground and stuffed them in a pocket for relative safety. The shitstorm was already picking up, but Austin only had one target in mind. With one arm cradling a medley of rocks and pebbles, he started blindfiring them at Kincaid, hurling them with little care for what - or who - got in their way. His awful eyesight and long hair blocking his vision ruined his aim, but as long as something struck home, he'd consider it mission fucking accomplished.

[AnimeNerd]

Joel wasn't sure why he'd come here. Yeah, a couple of people he actually liked were here, but he was never much of a swimmer. Felt weird to do it near other people. It was maybe hypocritical, since gymnastics leotards usually leave little to the imagination, but during that his routines were a distraction. Everyone could focus on his flips and tumbles and all of that, and when he was done it was someone else's turn to be stared at. Meanwhile swimming meant taking at least his shirt off, and there was nothing to stop people from staring, and he half expected at least one person to comment that he looked like a ten-year-old on steroids or some other stupid shit, so instead he just sat on his ass with all his clothes like he was anti-social dou-

"MOTHERFUCKER!"

One second he was stuck in his own thoughts, the next his head was reeling and he was seeing stars and he already heard people shouting, and Joel was regretting choosing this over helping shear Sasha instead of coming here.

He got to his feet while rubbing the back of his head, glaring at the apparent offender. Apparently both of the Greene kids were assholes, what lovely information to have.

His head wasn't bleeding, but that didn't change the anger bubbling up in his stomach. He was just minding his own business and the fucker decided it was okay to try and knock him out, or worse. And honestly? Fuck that.

The rock Joel grabbed was about the size of his palm and round enough to be skippable, but it was enough for his as he sent it flying Austin's way, his focus on making luck as bad as possible for the boy missing his glasses.

Mess with a bull and you get horns, fucko.

[Catche Jagger]

Alan smiled when Kincaid dropped right to the ground. Even if he didn’t get hit, Austin had put the fear of god in that sour asshat, judging by the shrill little cry Kincaid gave when he went down.

Then Alan saw Joel grab a rock and try to butt into the fight, and his determined grin faded into a scowl at the lack of sportsmanship on display. A rock duel was the business of the participants, and it was the fault of those that got in the way if they got hit.

“Stay out of other people’s shit, bitch.” Alan howled, scooping up a rather hefty stone from beside him and lobbing it right at Joel. That’d teach him a fucking lesson.

Taking a moment to think, Alan quickly ducked back behind his cover without actually checking to see if his attack had landed.

Better to be a sensible fool than a concussed champion.

[Jilly]

David pressed the record button on the touchscreen. Yeah, baby. This was gonna do numbers.

A flying rock nicked David right in the shin. He winced and took a step back closer to safety, but he had to stay in the action if he was gonna get this shit on tape.

[Ohm]

Kyle stood off to the side, hands hovering in the air unsure of what to do. Rocks were flying through the air, uncontrolled and wild. Peppering almost everyone in the vicinity. People he had come to see as friends or kindred spirits letting loose on one another. He couldn’t yell for them to stop, they wouldn’t see his signs nor did it look like they would care if he did. The fight was on, and everybody was involved. Whether they wanted to or not.

After a few rocks had made their way towards him, Kyle quickly crouched down as more rocks were thrown haphazardly, hands covering his head and eyes trying to block using his arms and elbows. It was mostly successful, though a few errant rocks clipped his fingers and knuckles.

He wished he had a helmet, or at least some protective glasses, at that moment.

[almostinhuman]

So busy was Austin with his withering assault on Kincaid that he didn't notice someone lobbing a rock at his face. Not until it struck him square in the nose. His head jerked back, and he dropped what remained of his collection of rocks. He brought a hand to his nose, staunching a thin trickle of blood. He didn't think it was broken, but it hurt like hell.

What the fuck was everyone's goddamn problem today? Indeed, while he'd been focused on Kincaid, everyone else seemed to have taken it as an excuse to just go hog fuckin' wild on each other for no reason. Not long after the first rock struck he was hit twice more from other angles, once in the elbow and another in the back. Like, the fuck? He didn't know why that bristly little bitch had hit him in the first place, and everyone else had even less of an excuse.

Fine. Whatever. Catboy'd probably learned his lesson by now. Better get to cover while the gettin's good.

He ducked behind the rock he'd been perched upon; not too far from Alan's own source of cover. He was still nursing his nose while trying to keep himself as low as possible, avoiding as much of the bedlam as he could hope to. He quietly gathered a few more nearby stones; he didn't trust he'd be entirely left alone now that he'd halfway-instigated all this.

[Catche Jagger]

Alan glanced to his left and saw Austin ducking behind cover right nearby. He grinned again, taking a moment to breathe.

“Hey, that was a pretty good throw.” He spoke up, looking Austin over as rocks continued to fly around them. “So.... come here often?”

[AnimeNerd]

Joel couldn't help the cackle the left his mouth as the rock got Austin right in the nose, but it was cut short by someone else's interference.

"Practice what you preach, you fucking mistake!"

Maybe not the most creative he could be, but not the worst he could come up with on the fly as he dodged the rock flying at him. It still grazed his arm, but better there than a full on hit to the chest.

That wasn't the end of things, unfortunately. Other people were taking up arms, and it wasn't long until he had to duck and nearly fall on his side to avoid getting hit. In the span of a minute the quarry went from teen hang out spot to geology based battlefield, and Joel had no interest in staying in this battle.

He grabbed someone nearby-he didn't pay attention to who, just that they were decidedly not trying to start shit-and started pulling them to the nearest big rock for cover. He was a short-ass, but he was a strong short-ass, and it's wasn't too hard to get them both to temporary safety. Focusing on keeping the luck good around the other person might've also helped.

Joel glanced at the battle again, but just as quickly ducked back behind cover, avoiding a rock that nearly hit his forehead. He looked back to his companion-or maybe captive? He should've asked before grabbing them, but he could apologize later, hopefully.

"So much for swimming, huh?" he asked, trying to be casual despite the chaos around them.

[Yonagoda]

The sun shone on her warm skin. Her latest instagram post of her cat just got over a hundred likes. She forgot her swimsuit, but that's fine. All was right with the world.

The rock nailed her right in the forehead.

Melodie said nothing as she sat there, like an ascetic monk not giving a shit, and scrolled through her phone, shielding her face with her other hand.

Boys would be boys, right?

[The Honeless Beard]

Cat-like reflexes didn't exactly carry you to unscathed territory when everyone in a 20 meter radius decides to burn their first bit of ammo on you. Kincaid's elbow was throbbing from a smoothed out stone nailing him right in the funny bone, his shoulder and neck bleeding from two other hits he'd taken as he roadie-ran from the center of the rockfight towards the edges, keeping his back to the ever widening circle of kids as stones got hucked left and right.

Kincaid seemed to be a priority target, and he hissed loudly over the jeering, fur shackled all the way to his tail as he scooped up loose stones and shoved them in his hoodie pockets, ears bent flat for their own protection. The way he was bent meant he took one right to the cheekbone, and he rocked to the left with it, grunting out in pain, his eyes-

Staring down the barrel of David's fucking phone.

Growling low in his throat, Kincaid reached out with a foot and sent the piece of shit's tech flying.