The Greatest Weight

[Megami*]

Jana's words about how intelligent her brother was were almost reassuring.  Almost.  Still, how many other "smart" kids had participated in this game and lost?  She'd seen it several times during the first round.  Some of them almost succeeded... some Scottish boy and a hacker kid almost crashed Danya's computer systems during the last round.  Then again, maybe Danya just added that in for dramatic effect, and he was in control all along.  It wouldn't surprise her much.

She didn't have too much time to think about it.  As the first few rays of light attempted to shine through the darkness outside, the public access speakers blared to life around the island once again.  This had almost become a routine thing since she woke up on the island.  She listened intently as Danya read off the names of the dead, a slight frown crossing over her features as he announced her as being a killer.  Thankfully, he didn't go into details about what had happened, otherwise her cover for murdering Brandon might've been blown.  Her ears perked up at the sound of another name being read off as well.

"Alice is dead," she stated flatly.

Maybe she was supposed to sound disappointed, but she didn't.  Maybe she should be sad, but she wasn't.  Alice had been a member of the Sisterhood, but not by Sera's choice.  She never had liked her, just like she had never liked Venus Gwendolyn.  That was Ali's doing... or something to that effect.  It was common knowledge that out of all the Sisterhood girls, Sera and Ali were best friends.  Period.  Nobody else in that group held a candle to Sera and Ali's friendship.  Still, Ali was the one who had drug people like Alice and Venus into the group.  People who didn't belong there...

"I guess that's one less that we have to look for."

It sounded cruel.  It was cruel.  Still, Sera just didn't care.  Alice had only brought their group down anyway.  Venus might've been dumb as a stump in her own personal opinion, but at least she had her looks.  Alice didn't have anything.  The girl was hideous to look at and a nuisance to be around.  She was only good at lying, deceiving, and spreading rumors... and she obviously wasn't too good at it, because she'd met her maker at the hands of somebody on the island.  She would've only gotten in the way.

"Sorry, I guess that sounds bad.  Alice and I didn't really get along.  We didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of stuff.  You know those girls that you only keep around because your friends like them?  Yeah, that was her."

Why was she explaining herself anyway?  It was none of Jana's business.  Danya finished out his list of the dead and headed on to the dangerzones, which were far more interesting to Sera.  Especially when he called out that the mountain ranch she and Jana were currently occupying would be a dangerzone shortly.  A disappointed sigh escaped her lips as she snatched up the bag containing Brandon's shotgun from the ground.

"I think that's our cue to get outta here," she motioned before standing up off the haybale.

Heading toward the exit to the barn, she could barely see her hand in front of her face through the dense fog.  At least it wasn't raining.  Now she supposed that one way or another she and Jana were going to be searching for someone or something.  Jana might've been searching for her brother, and Sera might've ultimately been searching for the members of the Sisterhood, but at the moment, Sera was more concerned about finding something else.  Jana would suffice for now, but she needed to come up with another "meat shield", and soon.  Good looks and a naive freshman could only get you so far in a place like this, after all.

((Continued in "To Awake and Avenge the Dead".))

[Cyco*]

Jana froze as a booming, unfamiliar voice wished her a good morning. Sera's reaction (or lack thereof) told her that this was normal and there was nothing to worry about, but it had startled her immensely from inside the quiet barn and she found herself to have withdrawn her knees back up again into her little fetal position.

The man on the announcements said that fourteen people had died just the day before, adding that this was less than usual. Jana scratched nervously at her knees as each name and their respective comments were announced, and had nearly broken the skin by the time they were finished. She was relieved, though; no one she knew. On the other hand, it had been four days. Assuming twenty or so people died over the course of one day on the island, there could very well have been eighty kills so far. Her heart began to sink, but she quickly reminded herself that Eric was intelligent, cool-headed, and most important of all a fighter. Given a decent weapon--

'--oh right!' Jana was glad to have reminded herself. She wasn't as anxious about her only defence as she would have been alone, but it was worth a look. She unzipped her daypack and rifled through quickly to find what appeared to be a gun. The bad news was, it actually wasn't upon closer inspection. The good news, it was a crossbow. A black shiney crossbow with about a dozen bolts. She hadn't the slightest clue about how to utilize the weapon effectively, but it wasn't a total let-down, and it would probably be simple enough.

"Alice Nichols..."

"Alice is dead," Sera responded to what seemed to be both Jana and the announcements, with about as little concern as someone who'd just stepped on an insect.

'Oh, so you guys were close then...'

"I'm...sorry?" She felt she owed the blonde girl some kind of answer, but she wasn't really confident that it was the right one. Perhaps the two hadn't gotten along well back in Denton, judging by the sound of things. Sera added that she would have been looking for her otherwise and, just the slightest bit confused, Jana concluded that it was none of her business. Her travel partner explained anyway, and she nodded despite being fairly unable to relate.

The jolly voice proceeded to inform her and Sera that they had to leave immediately, which wasn't at all comforting. She didn't want to go out into the vulnerable open, but it was the only way to even hope to find her brother, and there really wasn't any other option anyway. Fumbling with the crossbow and her bags, she hurriedly tailed the blonde girl out of the barn and into the morning light. Jana expected anything, but was ready for nothing at all.

((continued in To Awake and Avenge the Dead))