: after story

[Cicada]

Cedar's most well honed instinct was the one that alerted her that asking if Dawn was okay was a stupid and likely insulting question before the words ever occurred to her.

Parallel to that, Cedar's rudimentary first aid knowledge. Sickly brother, handful of other siblings she'd once been inclined to care about in a non-obligatory way. Band aids and tourniquets and cutesy agnostic (?) prayers were probably not good enough for the sorts of injuries she uneagerly expected to be seeing within the day. The thought died fast- Dawn seemed alright. Any issue she did have was not one Cedar would be able to help her with. The hug though, was definitely shared. A bit gingerly, Cedar worried she'd pop if she applied too much pressure, but Dawn would feel a pair of almost literal matchsticks wrap around the blades of her back.

Briefly, though. Cedar pulled back as quick as she came and observed. More people speaking. Tenshi by their side- unspeaking, glancing at... Tully Talbot. Held back, suspended for getting in a fight? Old news, and he seemed to have cleaned up his act at some point as much? As Cedar knew when the distance between social circles spanned the observable universe.

"Tenshi," wait, did Dawn and Tenshi know each other? Friends of friends? Cedar swore she was supposed to know this but also she didn't and it wasn't like she had the energy to spare to be one hundred percent sure. Brain was the least energy efficient organ in the body, probably.

"Doesn't have her hearing aids anymore. Hard for her to make out any words and I'm the only one that can translate for her, so if I seem distracted." A sigh. Didn't even have the lung capacity to finish sentences anymore, sometimes. She could feel herself degrading like the size of their grade as the herd thinned. She hated how morbid that intrusive simile had been.

"It's because I really am."

< INVESTIGATE > Oh god had she gotten that one right it was a really vague and quick motion- < OK > Point at Dawn.

"Are you alright though? What happened?" Cedar adopted an asian squat. Easy and natural and spared her knees, as if that'd help how much pain she was feeling in aggregate. Like scooping a cupful of water off the sinking Titanic.

[Applesintime]

"It was, uh, Evie. We were on that roof - you saw the big antenna poking out of the building? She wa-was on top of it and I-I was wondering what she was doing so I, uhm, I climbed up to see what she was doing and then she tried to push me off it. She, uh," Alex poked at his bruise, "didn't knock me off but she hit my face right into the antenna. I sorta, uhm, I slashed at her with the spear and then she, uh, Evie ran off. She's not dead but she's, uhm, probably hurt."

Another face walked in and Alex glanced over at him. Didn't know him, but he looked like one of the jocks that would have been playing football if John Endecott Memorial had a football team. Mean, muscular and probably got into some fights. You could describe half of the wannabe football players in JEM with those three lines.

Either way, Alex was currently outnumbered, outgunned and would probably die if he started shit. But that gun was too much of a prize to just give up without a fight. Alex knew that he wasn't exactly a good shot, but people wouldn't be expecting a sniper. In all his time watching SOTF, from the old 2005 footage to the 2018 lot, he couldn't recall a sniper either. All you had to do was wait for someone to take a break, stay still, and pull the trigger.

"Hey, uh, Fitz. There's uh, there should be like, uhm, little numbers and stuff on the side of the rifle. For identification. Can, uh, can you hold it, uh, up to the camera? Just, uh, if someone can see the identification stuff they can maybe figure out where the rifle came from and get one step closer to tracking down the ATs." By the time anyone saw it everyone on this island would be dead. But it could help. And personally, he was curious about where it had come from. 176 models made ever. What collection had this come from, or did the ATs have a whole gunsmith making reproductions of rare weapons for them?

[ViolentMedic]

“Alrea—it’s pretty late, man. We walked across half the island after the announcements.” Fitz scratched his neck idly, squinting at Tully. “And… yeah. Death game. Pretty grim.”

Fitz’s gaze darted over as Dawn lunged at Cedar. The gun lifted an inch from his lap – just an inch – before he noted that it was a hug, and nodded.

“I’d say weed is what happened.”

He returned his attention to Alex. There was a slight tensing in his shoulders when Alex mentioned that he’d slashed at Evie somewhat, though otherwise he didn’t immediately react to the story.

“Oh. I mean… isn’t that the same for most guns? The... Walter a particularly rare one?” Fitz flipped the rifle in his grip and studied it, scanning for the numbers that Alex mentioned. Then he rested it on his lap for a moment, dropping his bag and reaching into it for his manual. He glanced at the front, corrected himself by saying, “Waltier. Same thing.” Then he opened to the page with the killers, their numbers, and their weapons listed in charcoal. “So Evie… uh… unarmed, then?”

Between holding the manual and fumbling in his pockets for charcoal – the clip from his gun touching his fingers as he tried to reach further – and his attempts to not touch anything too much with his fish-smelling hand, the rifle was loose in his lap, resting there while his hands were busy.

[DerArknight]

After a moment, Dawn felt how Cedar returned the hug. It felt good.

Sadly, around the same time was when she became more aware of the remaining peers. Alex Avanesian, who Dawn hadn't seen since they last met at the mall, was holding a spear and talking about hurting someone. He also said something about the weapon of Fitz, a boy Dawn had a few overlapping friends with. It all reminded Dawn that they were in the world of SOTF now, where deadly weapons and bloodthirsty classmates were normal topics for chitchat.

Then there was Tenshi, who recieved kind of an introduction, curtesy of Cedar.

"Tenshi doesn't have her hearing aids anymore. Hard for her to make out any words and I'm the only one that can translate for her, so if I seem distracted... It's because I really am.

"Are you alright though? What happened?"

"I understand," Dawn said. "If you are getting too tired, you can ask me to take over. I don't know sign language, but I will try my best.

"And about me... they gave me a bag of cannabis for some reason. Not sure how that is supposed to be a weapon. But I found Jacob and Mildred, who knew how to use it. Kathleen and Tully were also there.

"We just... decided to forget about this whole killing business and enjoyed the moment, I guess? I fell asleep at some point."

Figuring that she spend enough time on the ground, Dawn got up on her feet in a process that required the help of a desk. She looked around, but aside from the rearranged chairs and her stuff sitting on a table there were no signs of her companions except one.

"Hey, Tully," she adressed the boy. "Where is everyone?"

Her legs shook, and Dawn almost fell down again. Turned out that she didn't take well to drugs.

[ItzToxie]

"Shit, Iunno."

Tully did a quick little glance at everyone else in the room before looking back at Dawn.

"I left to take a leak and I come back and now there's a bunch of different people here."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Okay so. Tenshi had completely tuned out whatever Fitz and his buddy were doing, which made keeping track of shit simpler. At the very least, Cedar was considerate enough to explain what she was doing. Unfortunately, it was vague enough that Tenshi had no fucking clue what she was doing, other than surmising that Dawn (whom Tenshi finally settled on calling her and Cedar's mutual friend) was doing okay.

Dawn hugged Cedar, and maybe glanced Tenshi's way. Maybe. In any case, Tenshi waved, pointed to her ear, and flicked it out. If Cedar hadn't explained her predicament already, Tenshi's gesturing provided the barest clues. If she did (very possible), she was just adding to her friend's point.

[Cicada]

Evie was hurt? Blink and she missed it moment only Cedar also didn't dare blink too much in case she missed yet another thing happening that happened to be important. Better dry inflamed eyes than the inviting darkness behind her eyelids, because who knew when that blanket would be draped over her vision for good?

The boys were talking about guns now. Cedar thought on it a moment longer, anxious thoughts outside of her control. Otter girl and ant girl, dead in a ditch. Cedar consciously let go. Added the malaise and fear for a friend she'd likely never meet again onto the wet, moldy kindling pile's worth.

"If you knew any at all it'd be a big help." Cedar sighed. Bent over as she'd been for the hug it was easy to drape herself against one of the coffin-like lab benches, welcoming the bit of support for her overtaxed spine. Holding herself up was a chore even when it was just ninety pounds worth- well, probably a smaller number now.

"Must be a bad reaction to weed then. I get that to like, a lot of strains." Medical marijuana had been the white whale of her non-death island life. Pain relief that didn't fuck up her bowels but did trigger panic attacks, save for the mythical strain suited to her body that probably didn't actually exist. She followed Tully's gaze around the room. As if she could help him in case of emergency everyone getting shot at and dying.

"Sorry about the change of guard. Fisk and Tenshi and I are looking for... uh. Honestly not sure. Hopefully not a fight."

Finally, Tenshi. Still there, still probably out of the loop. There wasn't much of a loop to be put into though. Uh... god she needed about two years extra of ASL. Damn past Cedar and her need to spend her free time on drawing hot anime guys with obscenely gorgeous hair.

"Tenshi's just listening along. I'll translate anything important." And with her hands, pointed kind of in the direction of her deaf friend. <THEY. FIRE> And she mimed breathing with the paper of a join between her puckered lips. Cedar had not learned how to sign anything approximating marijuana or cigarettes but she had learned fire so she could silently shout it in a theater for Tenshi's sake.

[Applesintime]

"Yeah, she's, uh, unarmed. Has some walkie talkies, they, uh, I think I saw one clipped onto her jacket. I do-don't think she's working with anyone, but I dunno, maybe she had a friend, a friend or uh, an ally, or-or something, you know?"

The gun was so tempting. But there was something Alex noticed from the position it was in, something which made it a lot less tempting. The magazine wasn't in. Alex knew where it was from video games and a ForgottenWeapons video someone on the Discord had sent about it once, so Fitz must have unloaded it, put the magazine somewhere else. So if he grabbed the gun, he had between one and zero shots, depending on if he was smart enough to clear the chamber. And those weren't odds he was willing to take just yet for a bluff or a single shot.

"It's, uh, a rare sniper. They uh, they only made like a hundred and seventy-five of them, some-something like that. So, like, if people can see the serial number, they can maybe figure out where it came from." Alex only refrained from correcting Fitz on his stupid pronounciation of the Walther's name because it didn't matter if he was going to end up dead in five minutes.

He'd talked a lot about planning. Not acting on impulse. But. Fitz never seemed like the kind of guy who used a gun, would know that popping the magazine out didn't automatically take every bullet out of the gun. And even just one kill could snowball you to a BKA and from there to victory.

Shoving the spear haphazardly into the duffel bag on his back, blade down, Alex lunged for the gun, ripping it away from its rightful owner and flipping it around. "You pulled the magazine out. One in the chamber, give me the mags or I will make you a closed casket." Alex quietly instructed Fitz, hoping he was smart enough to be quiet and not risk his life. There were three rounds the WA 2000 could be chambered in. Neither of them would leave a pretty body. His eyes flickered around, waiting for the inevitable outcry. Someone running at him. Something that'd get his name out there.

[ViolentMedic]

“They just left you?” Fitz asked. “...Cold.”

Fitz’s eyes lingered on Dawn – and how much Cedar was clinging to her before she let go – and then flickered to Tully. Then back to Dawn, and back to Cedar. Attention briefly and lethally diverted for just that moment as he watched with the faintest frown.

His attention was brought back by Alex ripping the gun out of his hands.

In the second after, his hands just hovered awkwardly, confused. He rose out of his seat, the manual and his scrawlings slipping to the floor.

“Dude,” Fitz said.

He sounded more… disappointed than mad. His face didn’t give away any well-justified fear. Just… confusion.

“I thought you were smarter than that. C’mon, man.” He raised one hand out for the gun. The other stretched out in the vague direction of the others, an indication not to jump ahead. “Don’t burn this bridge, buddy. Give the gun back. You don’t want ‘shot the only friend you have on this island’ across the announcements so early, do you?”

The tremble in his outstretched hand was faint. But present. He didn’t move forward for the moment.

[DerArknight]

By the time Dawn noticed, the gun was already in Alex's hands.

With her eyes widening and her smile fading, she froze.

It was just like when Tully made that terrible joke with the smokke grenade. Countless voices screamed in her head, telling her to duck behind cover or to throw the nearest object at him or to tell Alex that he is surrounded or to rush in his direction or to at least start screaming.

But all was overlayed by the mental picture of Alex shifting his new weapon just a little bit more and firing the - according to Fitz - only bullet at her direction.

Like a deer in the headlights, Dawn's body refused to move.

[ItzToxie]

Are we really doing this?

Already?

Looks like it.


“Well shiet; today’s the day!”

There was a click. Grasped inside Tully’s hand was a metal cylinder shaped object, it’s lever squeezed to his palm. In his other hand, twirling around his finger was the ring. He glanced at Dawn, she knew the trick by now and he’d hoped she wouldn’t give it away.

“Hey Alex! Check this out;”

Tully twirled the ring along his free finger. He wanted to look blasé, careless, like Brad Pitt in fight club or a Tarantino flick. In a way he was, he knew he wasn’t long for this world the moment he woke up, but he wanted Alex to see. He wanted him focused on Tully so Fitz could get behind him.

“It was nice while it lasted I guess, but if we’re starting this shit I’m just gonna let you know right now I’ll take this whole fuckin’ room with me before I let you walk outta here with that. We’re all gonna fuckin’ die anyways, sure, but you got me fucked up if you think your bitch ass is gonna be the one.”

He shrugged, pin dancing from finger to finger. Tully hoped this worked.

“Figure if you’re gonna shoot us all anyways I might as well skip the bullshit and take that pleasure from you too.”

The words jumbled out. They hadn’t really made sense to Tully, but he hadn’t quite expected shit to go sour this fuckin fast either. He was never as fast with his words as his fists.

He hoped Mildred didn’t come back. She didn’t need to see this shit.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

The mood of the room changed, suddenly - Tenshi could see it on Dawn's face. Her face scrunched up in confusion, as she looked where Dawn was looking. Did the boys do something really stupid or...

Oh! Oh fuck!

Tenshi also froze, staring at Fitz and Alex, mostly thinking about how damn, she was pretty right to not like that Alex dude.

In the periphery of laser-focused vision, something spun. She had to run, but she couldn't run, not without-

"Cedar-"

[Cicada]

Cedar was the last to notice. Something about the cold, maybe? Or the general pain and humiliation of her first twenty four some hours, could've been that. Every moment in time she experienced passed through the gravity well of a black hole. She swore the action potential of her own nerves, the cascade of ions giving her muscles the go ahead to contract, that also took way too long.

But yeah, she saw it too. Heard it, kind of. There were actually less people talking then there had been before but suddenly the world itself was dully roaring. Heat in her ears. Tully said something indistinct and watery, like they'd all been dunked into a lake and forced to fight it out there.

Tenshi she heard much clearer, and that finally dragged the rest of the commands through from brain to body.

"Tenshi- Dawn, down!"

She grabbed each of them by the shoulder and pushed but, uh. Not a lot of force in that one. Even at her physical peak- pfft- she wasn't exactly onegai muscle.

[Applesintime]

Fitz hadn't been quiet. Or maybe the act of pointing a sniper rifle at one of your fellow students in a crowded room was bound to get you some attention. Alex reveled in it for a moment, being in the spotlight.

Or, he would have if Tully hadn't brandished a grenade and threatened to blow everyone up with it. Glancing over, keeping the rifle pointed right at Fitz, Alex took the scene in. It wasn't a fragmentation grenade, that was for sure; it looked more like a smoke grenade or something. The only thing it'd kill was someone with asthma, maybe. But by itself, a smoke grenade was a good distraction. If it went off, the whole place would be shrouded in fog. Alex could make a clean getaway then - maybe not with the rifle, but he could shoot and then maybe get a few good hits in with that spear on someone before leaving.

Taking the scene in, Alex tried to engrain the layout of this room in his memory. Fitz with raised hands. Tully with a sneer and a smoke grenade. Tenshi and Dawn with Cedar behind them, trying to pull them out of the line of fire. The rows of tables filled with science stuff, and most importantly, the door leading out.

And then, he shifted the rifle towards Tully, perhaps a little too quickly, and pulled the trigger.

Bang.

Thanks, Fitz.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Tenshi spun around, her shoulder slipping out of Cedar's touch. Her arm swung outward and maybe she could have tried to keep her coordination but how much coordination did you need to get a friend out of a room before it-

The world exploded, the way it did in the factory - but it was so, so much closer. It reverberated in her skull, in her joints.

But it didn't feel like her left arm exploded, it only felt like it hit something, before it started feeling hot and cold and strangely a little like nothing at all below the elbow. A little like falling asleep. A little like a bee sting. It hurt more than either of those, but it was kinda like that. Surely, a bullet wouldn't feel like that... surely, something else happened.

The way it felt didn't prepare Tenshi for how it looked.

Her elbow was... was it even an elbow anymore? Was that what flesh looked like under skin? Was there really that much blood in a limb? There was more to spill, and it was spilling.

A scream bubbled up in her throat, because Tenshi wanted to scream at the sight, she'd scream if it was someone else's blood. The bubbles popped, releasing only whimpers, as Tenshi crumpled to the floor.