Many of Horror

[Ares]

((Joey continued from Not Like Any Previous Sleepovers -- Continued from the now broken/eaten thread. This is after Yasmin has died, and Joey ran away from the area after witnessing it))

To the creatures in the surrounding woods near enough to the figure moving along the trail it sounded like the thing was humming. There was just a steady stream of muffled noise coming from the mouth of this bipedal beast. For those small critters brave enough to investigate closer, they would have seen that this thing had a wild, yet faraway look in his eyes. It was clear that it was not a threat to anything around it. Whatever it was, it was intently focused on one thing and one thing only. Nothing appeared like it would snap the beastie out of it's trance. Best just to leave it be and continue on with the crittery activities.

Joey was so lost in what he had just seen happen that he had failed to notice any of the animals checking him out. He'd failed to realize just how close they were getting to him. Had he noticed, even for someone with minimal skills, he would have had an easy kill with his hookswords, and something to cook up if need be.  

Instead, Joey was stuck muttering jibberish, replaying the scene at the school over and over and over and over and over....

He continued on the path, eyes staring at nothing in particular ahead of him. He was still limping slightly from his fall, but nowhere near as bad. His mind would occasionally slip back to reality when Joey would stumble on the uneven ground, but the second he regained himself it was back to what he'd seen.  It was strange in a way. Joey had always considered himself to be a brave person before this. He had always considered himself a fight over flight type of guy. Then came SoTF. He hadn't even been here a week and already he had changed. He was not the Joey Grey who had watched the prior runnings of this game and thought that if he was out here, he would be the one going down in a blaze of glory. He would be the one who went down as a hero. Maybe it would protecting a girl that he would fall for during their brief time out there. That was now just a pipe dream, though for how drastically that image was blown up it may as well have been a pipe bomb.

Joey's arms sagged slightly causing the swords to scrape against some of the small rocks that were embedded into the trail. The noise snapped Joey's mind back to reality again. He stopped walking and looked around. There were multiple signs around him directing him in pretty much every way. He figured from the signage that he must be at the biking trails. A fair distance from the school.

There came a rumble from Joey's midsection. It was then that he realized how hungry he was. This rumble was followed by a pain made purely of pressure around his pelvic area. He also realized he had to take a piss. Quickly, the boy darted down a trail marked by blue arrows and after about 50-60ft, he ducked into the woods and dropped trou. As Joey let loose the stream, he looked up to the sky, only to notice a couple of cameras perched high up in the trees. Shyly, Joey turned his body slightly angling his front away from the camera view.

After finishing up the piss, Joey moved slightly deeper down the winding trail until he found a spot that felt relatively secure. He didn't know what made this specific spot better than any others, but it just had the feeling like it was better than the other places he could have stopped.

Fishing through his bag, Joey grabbed one of the water bottles and a small bit of food.  He proceeded to nibble on the food, doing his best to keep the streak of not picturing the school event going.

[Ares]

((Post to avoid inactivity/hopefully get someone in here))

The canopy created by the trees gave Joey protection from what little rain was coming down. The noise of the water hitting the leaves and branches was somewhat calming. It allowed him something else to focus on. Joey wasn't sure how long he had been sitting in his chosen spot, but it had to have at least been a couple of hours.

Joey rummaged through his pack again, choosing now to occupy himself with inventory of sorts. He realized that he had gone through two full bottles of water. He began to think where he could replenish his water supply. Most of the water on this island was likely stagnant.  He remembered from some of his old science classes that you could get water from the trees and eating roots of plants, but Joey wasn't ready to rummage through the mud just yet.

He could see the water beading up on the leaves around him.  It was better than foraging through the dirt, Joey thought. Joey had to think about how he was going to do this though. Should he create a kind of catching area? Should he try and funnel water into the bottles right off the leaves?

The day continued, leaving Joey sitting in his spot contemplating how to use nature to restock his water.

Somewhere back home the channel for SoTF showing Joey Grey cut away to an information packet and brief recap highlights. That would make for better TV than what this kid was giving them right now.

[Rattlesnake]

((Matthew Young continued from Nowhere to Go))

It was raining, and Matthew hadn't found shelter, and he really didn't care.

Getting wet was more or less the last thing on any sensible person's mind. Right above dying, at any rate, though he thought the issue deserved at least a little consideration if you were including wet socks in the mix. But he'd already tried passing the time in safety, in warmth, in relative dryness. Wilderness Survival had been a blessing after all, even if putting in the required night was something of a farce with two dozen other kids setting up shop in shouting distance, but such was scout camp. But as much as they'd provided insulation from the rain and the cold, they were also insulation from other people. He wondered how long he might last that way, hidden under matted branches, but the idea made his head spin. He was already going a little mad, or so he felt. Bar the first day, the island seemed to be totally, hauntingly empty, though he could tell from the announcements that there were plenty of people with quite the opposite problem. And so he threw on a jacket and journeyed out, and managed to enjoy nature just a little bit as he hiked aimlessly through it. It wasn't even raining that hard, anyways.

He stopped and he looked up. There was a shape down the trail he could make out. A person, he thought, heart leaping, or maybe a hallucination of a vague shape of a person, but he hadn't eaten enough of the local foliage for it to be the second. He stepped closer - definitely a person. Well-armed, at that, and with the strength to back it up, but that was almost trivial. He'd throw a friendly greeting at anyone who wasn't midway through shooting him in his current state.

"Hey man," he called from the distance, waving one arm and jogging to close the gap. "How you holdin' up?"

[Ares]

Joey had let his guard down. It seemed like a never ending cycle for him of doing things that he said he needed to not do. Eventually it was going to come back and bite him square in the ass.

He didn't hear the boy initially call out to him. It had been a muffled noise that caused Joey to snap to. He came around in time to hear the approaching person ask how he was holding up. Through the rain and brush Joey could see that the person was Matthew Young. He was a fairly well built individual. Absolutely someone that would excel in an outdoors situation like this. Joey was actually pretty sure he'd heard Matt speak of outdoors things in the hallways or in class before.

Instinctively Joey's hand tightened on one of his hook swords. He did his best to not let his nervousness show.

"I-I'm not doing great. Really not doing great. Kind of a bad situation all around y'know?" He managed to force out of himself.

[Rattlesnake]

He pushed closer, into conversational distance. The kid didn't run, and Matthew could recognize him easily. Not a close friend, but a good enough acquaintance, which at this point he was defining as someone who wasn't feeling overtly murderous.

The swords kept attracting his eyes, but he tried to keep focused on the man holding them as he spoke in response. Tears suddenly welled up behind his eyes, and he found it difficult to keep them at bay. Things could have been worse for him. Much, much worse. He'd gotten off extremely lightly so far, he judged, but to hear the reality of it all put into voice was a hard thing to bear. He hadn't been shot or stabbed or really bruised or scratched, but he was isolated, huddling in the wilderness, wondering when and how he'd join the growing list of dead.

"Definitely. You could say it sucks. Could probably say a lot more things about it, too."

With the barest twitch of a smile he gestured to a stump standing nearby, adjusting the way his pack fell across his back.

"Mind if I take a seat? It's been a long time since I've come across anyone. Feels like the place is empty. Except every morning, you know... well, it's not."

[Ares]

It was a point as clear as day, but Joey flinched a bit as the boy referenced the morning announcements. Joey delayed a moment as he tried to focus.

"Y-yeah. Go ahead I guess."  He said as his eyes darted to the spot Matt has chosen to make himself comfortable. There was enough of a gap that Joey was able to feel just the slightest hint of comfort.

As he watched Matt take a seat, Joey relaxed his grip on the swords and spoke again.

"So, you haven't seen anyone? In how long? I mean like, how many people are...gone already?"  

Joey felt a lump in his throat at what he had just said. It was an absolutely disgusting feeling.

[Rattlesnake]

The wood gave a bit beneath his weight. Mossy tatters of bark broke and crumbled away, and he could feel a lingering dampness beneath him. It reminded him of home a bit, of the old-growth forests he'd never get the chance to stroll through again. It always gave him a little chuckle - they said you could tell which way North lay by judging the way the moss grew, but the only conclusion you'd reach that way was that Puget Sound secretly lay on the South pole.

Joey seemed less tense as well, which was good. Reason could still prevail, even when people were lonely or isolated or scared.

"It's been a while. Not since..." He ran his fingers through his hair. "First freakin' day, I think. Met some people on the beach, and they seemed like they still had their heads on. I can't recall, but I don't think any of them-"

He shook his head.

"It's not like we're all going mad, you know? Some people never do. It's just a few that can't control themselves. Last time some people got out, maybe if we get enough people with cool heads, we'll be able to show 'em again."

His tone wasn't the most convincing, he thought, even as he said it, but the idea was so tantalizing. If he could make it back - not that he was counting on it, of course - but if enough people stayed reasonable, there really was the chance they'd make it all a failure once again. He was still alive, at any rate, so maybe there was something left he was meant to do, and he at least knew he'd never fail his human duties so magnificently.

He shrugged, looked around at the sharp, hooked swords, at the drops falling from the leaves. They were both a sort of scenery now.

"Maybe, maybe not. But what's your story?"

[Ares]

This small bit of conversation was refreshing. Heck, the last person Joey talked to was someone that he ended up running out on. Sure he had been freaked out. Sure he had his reasons, but damn if being by yourself in a situation like this didn't make things feel 100 times worse.

Joey listened intently as Matt spoke. Matt did raise a valid point in that some people escaped from the last showing, but Joey highly doubted the ability to escape again. If every report he'd seen since the beginning of the abductions was true, then these were highly trained and elite level people they were dealing with. They wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

That thought sent a wave of deflation through Joey's body. It was a punch in the gut to think like that, but Joey couldn't help being a realist. He was in a forest in the middle of nowhere, talking to a person who was just as likely as Joey himself to be dead within the next 5-7 days.

Matt then inquired about Joey's experience so far,

"Well, I haven't had to use these yet," Joey said cracking a slight half-smile, "I mean, I haven't really seen too many people myself. Avoiding the action I suppose."

His tone surprised even him. It seemed like he was putting a lighter spin on things. This feeling lasted for about 4 seconds as Joey continued.

He explained in detail how he had left the hospital and his reasoning. He tried explaining that if he and Natalia had been threatened he wouldn't know the first thing about using the swords, nor did he believe he wanted to. He tried to put into words that it was a fear that someone back home would blame him for another's death. He didn't want to be responsible for anyone dying on this island.

"I know that basically resounds me to dying from someone else, but damn it, I don't what else to do."

Joey took a few deep breaths before continuing his story to the point of seeing Yasmin's suicide.

"There was nothing to do. It felt like voyeurism. There I was, just...watching someone kill themselves. At least she was brave enough to do something about it right?"

Joey looked up through the trees. It was getting dark. He supposed there were worse places to be in the dark, but if Matt decided to stick around, he knew they couldn't risk starting a fire with all the brush around.  Joey continued looking around at his surroundings as he thought of what to do next.

[Rattlesnake]

It was a little unsettling how mundane things could be. Avoiding the action, that was a nice turn of phrase. Like it was something that was boring or simply offputting they sat circling their words around, or that Joey's lethal weapons were just some kind of tool. And when it came down to it, it wasn't so hard to see themselves in some other situation, sitting down at a turnout in a trail or even some bench or handy wall at school, shooting the breeze together.

That feeling left sharply as Joey recounted the true horrors he'd faced, the terror and the violence that they'd all witness in their own ways before they died. He'd watched a girl kill herself. Called it brave.

"I guess," he said, sounding unconvinced even to himself. He looked at the ground for a moment, at the deepening shadow cast by the trees. It wasn't a simple matter. There were circumstances, but there always were. Nothing happened in isolation. But deep down, he had to say that there lacked a certain moral strength in those willing to end their own lives. It wasn't something that came up a whole lot, of course, and people didn't like to hear it. But to take the most serious matter, dominion over life and death, into your own hands, well, it didn't really matter when you framed it like that whether it was yourself or someone else.

"I don't know," he continued, because it didn't seem right to leave it there. "I can't judge. I'd think, well, it's braver to keep on going, isn't it?"

It occurred to him then that Joey was probably just trying to cope. rationalizing it somehow, so it didn't hurt so much to recall. His own neck burned.

"I mean, maybe that's all crap. I'm sure it takes a lot, just - sorry." He mumbled the last part, looked up and around. The sky wasn't getting any lighter.

"Getting dark, though, it looks like.."

[Ares]

Joey nodded as Matt spoke. What Matt was saying made sense, but in Joey's mind it worked both ways. It was brave to remove yourself from this situation, just as much as it was brave to try and survive. Either way, you were pretty screwed.

Matt commented on the growing darkness around them. Joey could feel the air getting cooler. The nights had not been unbearable so far, but it would be good to find some sort of shelter or warmer place. Admittedly Joey did not want to move, but his brain was still trying to cope with what he had seen so far in this game, and any form of comfort level would be welcomed readily.

"Do...do you think we should move? Do you want to split up or stick together?" Joey asked nervously.

"I just, like, I already bailed out on one person, and I don't know if I'd do it again. I don't want to cost you in the end."

It was difficult to say those words, but he knew he had to be up front. He was not going to cost someone their life. He just wasn't.

[Rattlesnake]

He considered Joey's offer. It was a question of courage, it seemed, for him. Could they stay together when they had to? Leave each other when they needed to? Did that all really matter? If he was going to die - and maybe he wasn't! There was always hope there. But he wanted to stay true to what he stood for, everything he believed in. A part of him, maybe, wanted to make up for what other people had done. The people who had succumbed to killing and who had claimed in their hypocrisy to represent their God in doing it. And so he wanted instead to be there for someone, to show what the God he knew stood for and expected of his children. But even for himself - there were things he knew. That the best way to find your own comfort was to forget yourself and try to help someone else.

"Well, I don't see much good in splitting up. Two people are safer than one," he said, and thought as he said it what the endgame for that idea was. Safer, but not safe. A little bit more resilient, when that meant dying later rather than sooner. But someone had come for them last time, and the time before that. Just, if they didn't - it would be a blessing, he thought to die swiftly, painlessly. Someone might look back and regret the extra days they huddled shivering with terror and cold until their friends grew ever more desperate and violent.

But things could be worse. They weren't bleeding or raving mad. Life wasn't something you threw away because it seemed convenient, and even the most bedraggled, haunted survivor would agree because they'd made it that far.

He stood up, wiping away the moisture and crumbled bark clinging to his pants. "Warmer, too, probably. I didn't earn Wilderness Survival for nothing." He smiled, and he hoped it fell closer to a winning grin than a bewildered grimace.

((Matthew Young continued elsewhere))

[Ares]

Joey rose up as Matt did, the swords clinking off of one another. He gave a short nod to acknowledge what was said. As Joey scooped up his other gear, his mind began racing again.

He used to be so much stronger than this. He was confident in himself. He was out-going. What the hell had happened? Why couldn't this pairing work after all. Why did he even have to say to Matt that he'd already run away from someone once.

Fuck that.

This was a fresh start chance and he had to take it. He had to push out what he'd already done, and what he'd already seen because no matter what, it was going to get worse. He was going to see worse, and he might have to do worse.

Small seeds of self-doubt were still trying to push their way through with the usual rounds of questions, but this time they weren't as clear. Joey knew he'd have to fight them to keep them back and keep himself clear and ready.

With a deep breath, Joey followed Matthew, the swords slightly clinking again with each step.

((Joey continued in Babette's Super Club))