Hunger for Freedom

[Fiori]

((Ruby Forrester continued from Waiting for the Reaper))

Jesus Christ, this island is bigger then the map makes it look...

Ruby had no idea how long she had been traveling for by the time she reached the entrance to the aviary. Hours most likely, given the position of the sun. Seeing as half the island just got declared as a dangerzone she had to travel all the way around the outside, keeping to the roads and away from the main settlements. Last thing she wanted right now was to bump into other people, and she figured that most of the island's inhabitants would be hanging around in the town.

That said, despite this she knew for a fact that one of the few things she wanted to do before fate finally decided to pull the plug on her was find out where Ami had run off to. After all, Ami was one of the few people left on the island she actually wanted to make sure was safe, even though a part of her couldn't understand why she was so attached to one random girl in an island full of them. Sure, Ami was nice, but was she the nicest person on the island? What made her so special? The harsh truth of the matter was that, simply put, Ami meant so much to Ruby because she was the first person she bumped into back before the shit hit the fan. Who knows, if Ruby had bumped into Stephanie Chan first they might of gone on to become the best of friends, and Ami could have ended up being the one who gunned down Brian.

Still, searching for Ami did give Ruby some purpose, although at that particular moment in time her mind was preoccupied with the fact that she was absolutely starving. Funnily enough, going 24 hours without any food or drink tended to have a bad effect on one's health, and after several hours worth of marching Ruby felt as though she was going to collapse at any second.

Thankfully though, by the time her legs finally gave away she had finally found herself a somewhere to sit within an area of the aviary the map referred to as the Zen Garden. When she first read about it she assumed the place would make for a perfect location to get her thoughts together, think about what she was going to do next. Once she finally arrived however, she was too distracted by all the broken bones and bird shit to really admire the beauty of the overgrown mess that used to be a garden.

That said, on the way she get the chance to think about what she was going to do now that she knew for certain that she couldn't bring herself to end her own life. Like it or not, but deep down she really didn't want to die, even though she saw little purpose in continuing now that everyone she ever cared about was dying. Well, not everyone. She still had her family waiting back home for her. Not to mention Regan. Jesus, what she would do to spend just one more minute with Regan. Would she be willing to kill for that chance? More importantly, would she be willing to actively hunt down her friends for that chance? And if she were to do so, and actually survive by some million-to-one miracle, would Regan even want to see her again after seeing her murder her remaining classmates?

All these thoughts and more ran through Ruby's head, all of which at that moment in time were overshadowed by one simple sentence that she kept playing over and over in her mind.

Where's a goddamn water fountain when you need one...

[D/N]

(Deanna Hull continued from You're Driftwood)

"This one's by Fiona Apple."

"You guys might've heard this at coffee shops and stuff before. I've kinda tried to, y'know strip it down a bit. So lemme know if you like it."

"Um... this is an old song from the 90's. The guy who got me into playing guitar used to play it. He was in a band. I dunno if he's still playing or not. So uh... this is for him."

When Dee got on stage, she was self-conscious and she knew it. She would play and hide behind the guitar and wish she could hide more. She would clear her throat before every song whether she needed to or not. She would smile after the song ended and cast her eyes down and brush hair away from her forehead before looking up and smiling again, then introducing the next one.

She felt more at home, down low like this.

On her belly in the narrow alleyway between the zen garden and the aviary itself; she was in the dirt and overgrown weeds and grass tickled her nose while also, thankfully, obscuring her from view through the sanctuary's glass walls.

Dee hoped.

But here she felt alive.

Because hey-whoa-fuck, she still was. Which was more than she could say for the dead girl in there. Or her killer, for that matter.

---

She was supposed to meet back up with Kyran and Cammy at some nebulous time 'this morning', and after a night spent creeping around the outskirts of the hotel and catching 20-minute catnaps before the slightest noise woke her in a panic, limbs thrashing, Dee came up with the obvious fucking idea to get to the meeting spot as early as possible and wait for the others. She hadn't bothered to even attempt to secure new allies. She was fine with that.

Then the announcement had blared out that Garrett Wilde -- the guy Cammy was supposed to lead them to -- was dead. And roughly five minutes later she'd strolled upon Jaquilyn Locke's body and read Garrett's final manifesto.

And oh man, she couldn't help but laugh. One for one. Good plan, team. She didn't laugh too long or too loud, at least. Because she still hoped that Kyran and Cammy would arrive soon and they wouldn't be in the same grimly humorous mood as her.

---

Now back in the grass, the proverbial snake, because she'd been a smart girl and scoped out the entrance when she heard voices approach, and recognized that it wasn't Kyran or Cammy or even that Matt Vartoogian guy Cammy'd talked about, but Joachim Lovelace who was a player, and Paris Ardennes, and so down she went.

She could see glimpses of them. There were bullet-holes that let her listen. It was creepy and weird. Rosemary Michaels had wandered in and Joachim was acting kinda crazy. And Dee smiled as she eavesdropped. She wanted to do more. Crawl in while they were distracted with Rosemary, and see what she could do. She could take a bag and be gone before they knew it. Or she could... well she couldn't go that far. Didn't work for Garrett, did it? But she could imagine.

Then she heard more footsteps, heading into the garden itself. Closed off from the aviary, with only this alleyway in between them.

Shit.

Dee considered a moment, then inched her way backwards, away from the bullet holes and the overheard quips of creepy conversation; she turned the corner, pirouetted on her belly, and crawled to the garden entrance.

She peeked inside and saw Ruby Forrester, paused, and theatrically held her index finger to her lips.

"Shhhhhh."

Great. Now she was going to look like the creepy one.

So Dee smiled. Non-crazily.

"Sorry. I'm friendly though. Promise. But there's like.... bad people in the building there, so you should keep your voice down."

[Fiori]

Safe to say, Ruby was not expecting company so soon. Then again, she didn't really know what to expect anymore, and given how lucky she had been in avoiding trouble since the boat incident she was bound to bump into someone else eventually.

Thankfully, the person who happened across her was none other than Deanna Hall, a girl whom Ruby had a neutral opinion on. She would have preferred it to have been Ami, but given the fact that they were in the later stages of the game and the only escape attempt thus far had been an absolute disaster, she was lucky that she wasn't immediately fighting for her life.

That said, from the sound of things she was potentially in a hell of a lot of danger anyway.

"Sorry. I'm friendly though. Promise. But there's like.... bad people in the building there, so you should keep your voice down."

Ruby stared at Deanna. Then her eyes turned towards the building. Then back to Deanna. Then back to the building. And then she slowly lowered down into a kneeling position, her hands gripping her potentially-broken gun.

"Who, and how many?" she whispered quickly, only to then remember that it had been ages since she last had a drink. "Don't suppose you have any spare water? Lost my bag a while back..."

[jimmydalad]

((Sharon Austin continued from Why Stop Now?))

The bike had been deposited a few meters away from the aviary, mostly due to Sharon not wanting to risk carrying that thing around and getting caught. It was hard to be sneaky with a thing that large. For what she wanted to do, she needed to exercise caution.

There were times that she hated being short. It made it hard to reach things and people loved making fun of her for her unfortunate stature. At the same time though, her size came in handy. This was one of those times as she quickly sneaked into the aviary and looked around. Using the bamboo and tress as cover, Sharon moved silently around the room until she saw two people.

Two girls were there. She vaguely remembered their names. Deanna Hull and Ruby Forrester. She didn't know either of them too well. To be honest, she didn't really care. One or both of them were probably part of Cammy's group. That means that they are hunting and while they may not hunt her now, they'll probably hunt her down eventually.

She stayed hidden within the greenery, obscuring her body from the vision of both girls in an attempt to listen into their conversation. Hopefully they tell her something she might not want to know.

[D/N]

Ruby reacted in a melodramatic kinda-Hollywood way, sliding down and talking in a hushed whisper. Dee was amused, then remembered she'd been acting exactly the same way.

That amused her even more.

At least until the water comment. Dee crossed her arms in front of her chest and shrugged. Idly, she ran the fingers of one hand over her side and played the guitar strings of her ribs.

"Uh, not really. Sorry. I lost most of my stuff a long time ago."

It was cool. She never drank much.

Dee took another few steps into the garden. She couldn't hear anything inside the aviary, not since she'd gotten away from the wall and near the entryway.

"But it should be... I don't think anyone in there can hear us, unless you're really loud. Only reason I could was cause I was kinda eavesdropping out near the wall. It's Joachim Lovelace and a couple others. Paris, if you know him. Rosemary, uh, Michaels. Not sure about them but I've heard Joachim on the announcements like three times."

She ran her fingers through her hair. At least it still felt thick and whole. Probably greasy as fuck. So yeah. This was starting to feel like a pointless and silly conversation now that someone who wasn't Kyran had wandered in and caused Dee to abandon her nice spot amidst the weeds. At least that stupid klepto side of her wasn't about to kick in again since Ruby didn't have food or water or holy shit she did have a gun.

"Whoa."

OK. It was still cool. Because Dee totally had her Freddy Krueger glove. Or alright, because Ruby obviously wasn't about to shoot her, but still.

"Uh, sorry, didn't notice that before. It's cool though. I'm uh, actually waiting for another couple people I've been with. Kyran Dean, Cammy Davidson, maybe a couple others. Umm, I..."

Shit, she was going to, wasn't she?

"I might have to go out and look for them pretty soon though. We've, well there's sorta a plan thing we got going on."

Dee's plan differed quite distinctly from at least Cammy's (and the late Garrett's) perceptions of course. But if she was going to do this stupid, risky thing yet again maybe she'd at least be able to do it with something to back her up.

[Fiori]

"Same here..." Ruby replied when Dee mentioned that she had also lost her bag. Well, at least she was not the only one who was at a serious disadvantage when it came to the whole 'survival of the fittest' thing.

She let her guard down slightly when Dee came forward, listing everyone who was within the aviary. Mainly people who's names she had heard multiple times during the announcements, which meant that she probably ought to get away from it as soon as possible. What a shame, she was beginning to really like the place.

Still, at least Dee seemed harmless so far. Then again, Sean seemed harmless and look how that panned out. That said, Ruby had a gun and Dee didn't, a fact that the other girl quickly caught onto. For now at least she probably didn't have any reason to worry about her.

At least, until she brought up something about 'plans', which caused Ruby to put on a worried frown. The last time she had spoken to anyone about plans was with Zubin, and the less she thought about that the better. Other then that, there was the whole failed escape plot that got mentioned in the announcements, so if Dee was planning anything that suicidal Ruby didn't want anything to do with it. Sure she was more than likely to die on this island, but she was in no rush to hasten her demise

Although, she couldn't help but recall Brian's words on the subject. '"...if I am to die on this island, I may as well die fighting."

"Fair enough. Kind of been on the lookout for someone myself. Ami Flynn to be exact. We'd been travelling together since day one until yesterday, when... Well, things got complicated, but long story short I lost my bag and we got separated and I've been looking for her ever since."

She looked over her shoulder, almost as though she was checking if there was anyone watching them. Given their situation, such a possibility was not out of the question.

"But yeah, about this plan of yours..." she continued, turning her head back to Dee, only to spot something right behind her.

Or more specifically, someone. With a loaded crossbow.

Oh, shit...

[jimmydalad]

Sharon continued to listen, glad to have her suspicions confirmed that Deanna was indeed a member of Cammy's brigade. Hopefully this would be easy. After all, she doubted that Deanna was able to see her at this moment. All she needed to do was properly adjust her crossbow, hold her breath and fire away.

She took out the crossbow and wielded it in front of her. Closing her right eye and tensing her lips, she moved the crossbow to aim it at Deanna's back. It was an easier target that say something like her head, meaning she had a greater chance of actually hitting her target.

Once she was ready, she waited for a moment. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down to reduce the shaking in her body. After taking a few moments to do so, she pulled the trigger and fired.

[D/N]

(GMing approved)

"Yeah, no it's..."

Dee started to break into Ruby's inquiry about the plan, because yeah, the plan. This was what she was going to be remembered for, wasn't it? For being an inconsequential part of a dumb failure of a plan.

Fuck that.

Because if Dee recalled correctly -- and happily she found that she could -- her amazing rebellion was supposed to be about being anti-remembered. She'd have been overjoyed to just pass all this week and the next and however long this game took playing games with Kyran in the aviary and smoking her cloves until she ran out. Even dragging into the concept of 'having to do something' out of her had been under duress (this one she wasn't sure she was recalling correctly, which was concerning) and besides, she'd hadn't made any headway with it.

So Dee wasn't sure what she'd say when she interrupted, but it sure as sugar wasn't going to be a ringing or continued endorsement of their 'sorta a plan thing'. Forget being remembered, let those wraiths existing outside this island back where things made sense, the media and the grieving families both, let them decide who and what get fucking remembered, but what was the most important fact about Garrett Hunter and his plan now? Yeah.

Then again, the same went for Jaquilyn Locke. Couldn't deny that.

And Dee?

Huh.

"I..."

Yeah Dee, because what day is it now? And what's your vital status, stomach shrivelled and head swimming and ankle still tender but feeling better and all?

Maybe there was something there after all.

Maybe there was hold that fucking thought Dee because Ruby Forrester was barreling into her, slamming her shoulder into Dee's skinny chest like a linebacker, grabbing her by the hair and shirt and driving her to the bamboo floor. Air passed by Dee's head as she fell, and then she was on her back clawing with both arms at Ruby, who had rolled off her after landing.

"What the fuck what-the-fuck whatthefuck!"

She blinked away stars, coughed and tried not to throw up, and tried in a panic to thrash to her feet, or at least off her back.

[Fiori]

Well, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Given the number of students left on the island, Ruby figured that the chances of bumping into one who was willing to put their weapon to good use were much higher than they were to begin with.

And sure enough, as she instinctively tackled Dee to the ground, she could hear the crossbow bolt their assailant just fired whiz above her head and thunk into the ground behind her.

After half a second or so of making sure she was not dead, Ruby rolled off Dee as the other girl started shoving her away, her arm raised in a vague effort to protect her face as she glanced back up at the person who just tried to shoot her. Whilst before she was too busy paying attention to the crossbow to take note of who was wielding it, she could now see that it belonged to none other than Sharon Austin. Odd, Sharon never struck her as the violent sort. Then again, neither did anyone else who the announcements declared to be killers.

Regardless of any opinion she had of the girl before the island, right now Sharon was a threat, and she only had seconds until she reloaded that crossbow and tried to fire it again.

So with seconds to spare, Ruby reached out and grabbed a hold of her FN P90, immediately aiming it in Sharon's direction and flipping the safety to semi-automatic mode.

Well, time to see whether this damn thing still works...

After pulling the trigger three times, Ruby found out that yes, her gun was working just fine.

[D/N]

(sorry for skipping but HAY DZ)

The gunshots exploded wildly around her and the world was coming to an end. Deanna rolled on her side, drawing up her legs, covering her ears, and waiting for that end, and all she could think about were fireworks on the fourth of fucking July, and just what day was it now?

The first burst and she didn't die.

The second burst and she snapped her head around, scraped her knees turning over and glimpsed Sharon Austin. Seriously?

The third burst and she was out of that fetal position and scrambling as usual, this time to her feet; she grabbed her bag, stumbled backwards over some stupid zen rocks, trampling the karma plants or whatever the hell they were supposed to be and backing against a wall.  She didn't see Sharon. Ruby was there still, holding that freaky-looking gun but not pointing it at her.

"FuckmeChrist," Dee said; she choked back a cough, and spat blood on the ground. At some point she'd bitten her tongue or lip and her mouth was full of blood. She felt OK about that.

She looked back to Ruby.

"I'm, uh...." she spat again and trailed off. Then she sidestepped along the wall to the entrance, looked out, saw no trace of Sharon Austin, who had seriously apparently what-the-really tried to kill her, and took off at a trot. Dee looked back every few seconds to see if Ruby would follow. And if the other girl did? Dee had no idea yet whether she'd slow down to wait or take off into the woods.

(Deanna Hull continued in Girls from the Valley)

[Fiori]

Ruby didn't see whether or not her shots hit Sharon. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Either way, she was too busy ducking behind the nearest cover she could find to take any note.

Okay, wow, so the gun still worked after all. As much as she hated the fact that she was relying on a gun to protect her, she couldn't help but be thankful that the damn thing still worked after being submerged in water.

Still, the fact remained that she had other things to be concerned about. Such as how those gunshots probably alerted the players Deanna was warning her about. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't even sure if Sharon was still a problem.

Either way, the first thing she noticed was that Deanna was already on the move, prompting Ruby to do the same. And given the fact that Deanna was the first person she had met in a while whose sanity seemed intact, Ruby figured that it would be best to not lose track of her. Beside, a part of her was still curious as to whatever plan Deanna was going on about.

So, without further ado, Ruby followed the other girl as they ran out of the aviary, leaving the small tranquil garden behind as they returned to the wilderness surrounding it.

((Ruby Forrester continued elsewhere...))

[jimmydalad]

It missed.

Ruby caused the shot to miss.

She didn't know where the bolt went, and frankly she didn't care. Wherever it was, it wasn't in Deanna.

She probably should've stayed more hidden. There was a lot of things that were wrong with the plan. After all, it was mostly fueled by adrenaline. She didn't take the time to properly think about how she was going to meticulously pick off Cammy's allies nor did she give consideration to the possibility of them being more heavily armed than her.

Mistake One: She should've hidden in a better place. Mistake Two: She didn't check to see if they saw her. Mistake Three: She took her time firing the shot. Mistake Four: She should've waited for the two of them to be separated before firing.

Mistake Five: Ruby had a gun.

The sudden appearance of a gun caused Sharon to paralyze in a mixture of fear and shock. How did she not take that into consideration? Was there any way to escape? She wanted to move, but her feet wouldn't let her. For a moment, she wanted to consider other options, maybe find a way to act in a way that was advantageous to her and allowed her to get a better position.

Yet she didn't. In the end, she gave up.

After all, when the gun started to fire, she knew it was over.

Sharon Austin: Deceased