Aiskhylos, Agamemnon, line 805

[Zetsu]

Nor did the announcements wake Ren, who hadn't gone to bed in the first place.

For the first time, they couldn't remember all the names. A handful did stick out--Daenerys and Juanita had cropped up before. Janice, Alex--those were significant as well. It still felt strange to Ren that they a part of them--and not a small part--was glad to know that Cedar's killer had been playing, that he was dead, and that nobody would fault Kitty for it. Janice's death, by comparison, was worrying--and that, too, felt strange. She was another threat that Ren would no longer have to worry about--but in her place was Lily, who would soon have a new weapon--one on par with Kitty's grenade launcher--to boot. It wasn't a sure thing, of course, that Lily was targeting killers, just as it wasn't absolutely certain that her reward would be a match for Kitty's. It simply wasn't safe to bet on anything else being the case.

The rest, Ren lost. Perhaps it was because they were excessively preoccupied with listening for Meena's death, or perhaps there had simply been too many names. Or maybe they were just too tired to remember anything clearly.

[Kai, Kitty, and Ren continued from Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil]

By silent agreement, Ren had kept watch for the remainder of the night. That they couldn't have fallen asleep if they wanted to went without saying. Their other reason for keeping watch--that doing so was apology and gratitude rolled into one, that making themself useful was their way of recognizing all that their friends had put themselves through on Ren's behalf--they preferred not to explain, and had no reason to.

And so they had remained, awake and (mostly) alert, alone but for the crackling of the fire, and the sleeping forms of Kitty and Kai, and the mound of dirt and snow that marked Meena's grave. A vigil, if you wish to see it as such. For the most part they were still and quiet, but occasionally there was cause to move--when sleep threatened to come in spite of everything and they needed to rouse themself, or when the crackling of the fire threatened to leave them if they didn't feed it. At one point they got up to scrape together an assortment of pine cones, branches, and conifer needles, which they laid it on Meena's grave--a sad approximation of leaving flowers for the dead, but nevertheless the best that they could do. At another, they tried to retrieve the machete--throwing away a weapon was foolish no matter what memories were attached to it, and it was an excellent tool for cutting through vegetation besides--but found that they couldn't make it out in the darkness, and, in truth, it was with a sense of relief that they gave up on the search. After that, there was little for them to do, outside of keeping the fire going--and the billhook was more than serviceable at hacking through the dead and dry branches that made for good firewood, anyways.

Kai and Kitty were still asleep when the sky began to lighten and Ren finally exhausted the dry wood that was close to the camp. It wasn't long after that the announcements came; and still, Kai and Kitty slept on, unbothered by the noise.

Or rather, Kai slept on. Kitty, at last, had an eye open, though she remained curled up where she had been sleeping. But even when Ren saw, she didn't move. It took a moments' internal debate for them to decide to walk over, sit at her side, and place her head wordlessly in their lap. It was preparation for the moment when Ren would finally break the peace and ask Kitty about the people she had killed--that, at least, was what Ren told themself. It gave them a way to ensure that they would feel safe in the asking, and Kitty likewise in the answering.

In the end, the fire exhausted its fuel supply before Ren had spoken a word.

Ren lifted Kitty's head gently; carefully, they extricated themself. When they returned, they would have no choice but to ask. It was an unavoidable step if they wanted to do their best to keep Kitty alive, to keep Kai alive, and hopefully--if they could find them--to keep the rest of their friends alive, for as long as they could. Ren had enjoyed their peace for long enough.

First, though, there was firewood to gather. Ren stood up, grabbed the billhook, and turned back to look at Kitty. I'll be back soon, they mouthed.

Then they disappeared into the woods.

[Applesintime]

((Matthew Bell continued from Ain't That a Kick in the Head?))

After he'd killed Jack, Matthew just sorta... wandered aimlessly for a bit. But the one thought in his head, made ever-so-present now that Jack was gone, was that he needed to find Corbin. He'd left him behind, and even if he didn't need someone watching his back, he was his friend. Matthew ordinarily didn't put much stock in that idea — that's what being a military brat does to you — but even just from a pragmatic angle, even if Corbin was kinda fucked up and not too useful, he was still another pair of eyes, and if he could find another gun somewhere, he'd be another gun to protect Matthew.

He'd left him in a house back in the town, so Matthew was on his way there to try and find him. But God forbid, if he was dead, Matthew would find whoever did it, and he would make them regret existing up until he finally let them die. But, he wasn't gonna worry about it. Not yet.

Walking at a brisk pace up the road, gun in hand, he nervously watched all around him. Lots of spots for an ambush here. The trees could hide people, someone could be lying in wait behind some of the boulders and debris that littered the road. He was being paranoid, Matthew knew that, but in a situation such as this it was pretty reasonable to be fucking paranoid. Especially now he was so acutely aware of how alone he was, how his back was unguarded.

Glancing behind him, Matthew paused. He could see something. The orange tell-tale glow of a fire. A tiny puff of smoke in the sky, like someone had taken a drag from a cigarette. It looked kind of dim, probably just embers now, but he had to check. It could be where Corb had set himself overnight. Glancing up the path to make sure nobody was coming the other way, Matthew faded into the woods.

A little bit inside the forest, he met someone. Couldn't immediately place them, though their back was turned, so maybe once he saw their face he'd figure it out. They were sawing away at a branch with a little pile next to them, so maybe they were collecting shit for the fire. Didn't seem to have noticed him, though. Maybe they had bumped into Corb.

"Uh, hey. I'm, uh," Matthew glanced down at the gun he held in his hands and remembered the noise of Jack's brains splattering over the snow, "not gonna hurt you. Just looking for someone."

[Zetsu]

Ren startled, their reaction to the voice somewhere between a twitch and a leap.

They had no one to blame but themself, really. Wishful thinking to assume that nobody would approach them while they were on their own, and outright careless to do something as noisy as saw away at wood, when they were so far from camp. Avoidance to prioritize wood-gathering over talking to Kitty, definitely. Hadn't they learned their lesson already?

Ren stayed still. When they found that the speaker was a man of his word, they began, slowly, carefully, to turn around.

They did not have a name for the boy who stood before them now. The face, the outfit--those, they recognized. Enough to place him in the same general crowd. Kitty's bullies (which was what Ren thought of them as, even though they also targeted Ren at a more-than-incidental rate) had a way of blurring together, in their head. Tall, meaty, callous, thoughtless--all Ren had ever needed to know about him, back at school.

Not good enough now. Their pulse began to quicken.

Their tone, when they spoke, was carefully neutral. "Who?"

[Applesintime]

Matthew didn't recognise who they were specifically, but he knew enough about them. One of Katelyn's dickriders back in school, the kind who smiled and nodded politely as the little psycho showed them her latest artwork of a man being beheaded or some equally grim shit. Considering how she was on the warpath, he didn't think being friends with her would save them. Uh, shit, what was their name...

"Uh... Katelyn. I need to find her. Have you seen her? Anywhere at all? Also, uh, Corbin. Corbin Azinger. You seen either of them recently?" Uh, shit, it was something Vietnamese, he'd seen them working at this Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Real. It didn't fucking matter, really, but it was bugging him now. What was more important that they might be a way to find Katelyn, or at least sorta get an idea of what she's doing. Corb, as much as Matthew needed to find him, could wait if he could find and end Katelyn here and now.

Granted, they probably won’t tell him shit. Too busy protecting their little furry friend. But he wasn’t just going to shrug. It was one in a million, but one in a million still meant you had a chance.

Matthew's eyes darted in the direction of the fire before settling back on Katelyn's buddy. Why go so far out to find wood? Why not stick close to the fire?

[Zetsu]

Ren blinked. This was dumb and also stupid. Their heartrate kicked up another notch, and they hated that their terror was entirely justified.

That the boy was hunting for Kitty was easy enough to follow. He had bullied her; she had killed; now he could kill her, and feel that she deserved it, along with everything else he had done to her. An excuse, if Ren was feeling uncharitable--which they were.

What Ren could not understand was why he would decide to ask them for help with finding her. As though they weren't Kitty's friend. As though he hadn't bullied them, too.

"Nope."

They had no choice but to lie, desperately, and hope. The lie was flimsy, and Ren knew it, but there was no way to make it less so.

"I wouldn't recognize Corbin unless he introduced himself to me, mind. But I don't think I've seen him. And I've been looking for Kitty myself. No luck, though."

They already knew the answer to their question. They asked it anyways.

"May I ask why you're looking for her?"

[Applesintime]

“Katelyn killed… shit, where are we now? Five? Six? Probably more. Someone like that’s a threat to everybody, regardless of if you’re her friend or not. She murdered Robin right off the bat, yeah? Like she’s been waiting for the starting pistol her whole damn life.”

It was a long shot anyway. Katelyn was already a little skittish bitch without having murdered people, and Matthew imagined she was hiding out in the woods somewhere, only venturing out to kill people. Her friends weren’t in the picture at all and if they were, she’d probably kill them.

“Well, uh, for Corbin the best description I can give you is some guy who looks like he got his shit kicked in. Leg’s fucked, one of his eyes is all swollen… but thanks anyway. Oh, hey, give me that wood and I’ll go to your fire and start feeding it while you grab some more. Least I can do.” Matthew swapped the gun from the right to the left hand, extending his good hand towards… uh, fuck. What was their name? Shit, they had their pronoun tags, couldn’t have added a name tag as well? Be more useful.

[Zetsu]

Ren was trembling. That was unfortunate.

Anger was an emotion that Ren seldom felt. Their temper was slow and their fuse was long, and this had always suited them; anger was something they generally did better without. On those occasions when it did come, it usually presented itself in a way that was indistinguishable from fear--it killed their mind, drained their energy, and yes--it made their body tremble. Useless. Worse than useless, when what Ren needed was a way to disguise their nerves.

Ren was scared, of course they were--but it was an angry kind of fear. They were angry that the boy in front of them thought he knew Kitty better than they did, that he was treating as inevitable an outcome that he had contributed to. They were angry that they had somehow convinced the boy with the flimsiest of lies and yet it still didn't matter, because all it took to unravel everything was for the boy to insist on accompanying them to the campfire. They were angry because, in the end, none of this would have happened if they hadn't taken the risk of gathering more firewood.

They took a deep breath. They willed their body to be still and quiet.

"Thanks," they said, and were relieved to hear that their voice sounded like their own. They began gathering up the sticks themselves.

"But really, I got it."

[Applesintime]

They were trembling. At that simple offer, they started trembling for a little, and they took a deep breath, spoke to decline his offer and the trembling sort of faded. It didn’t make sense to decline the offer - even if you were scared of the guy with the gun and wanted to run away, just let him carry your wood and skedaddle while he’s occupied. And if you didn’t wanna run away, hey, free labour.

Something was off. You wouldn’t react that way if you just wanted Matthew to go away, would you? He couldn’t tell what was off exactly, but it was clear. Something was off.

“Alright… uh, in JROTC, the military kinda club thing, they showed us how to build a fire. Like, uh, proper structuring and that. I know yours is already sorta going, but it still might make what you’ve got last a little longer?” He insisted, shifting a little as he stood This time, Matthew wasn’t offering for a wholly benign reason. This shit was actually useful, and besides, what the hell did they have that was better to do, sit around their shitty dying fire and freeze to death? If they declined this?

Something would definitely be up.

[Zetsu]

"No."

Ren's body tightened, as it did when they were trying to control it. Of course the boy would insist. Of course, they thought, because they expected bad luck; the action itself made little sense. He had no reason to ally with them. He had no reason to help them--and he had never demonstrated an inclination to be helpful before. For one terrifying second, they wondered if he could have already seen Kitty beside the fire--but that made no sense, as he could've simply approached the camp itself. Did he suspect something? Did he want something? What was it?

The knuckles on Ren's right hand had gone white, so tightly were they clutching the billhook. They felt a light sting where the skin, pulled taut, was beginning to crack.

They tried once more, inevitably, to dissuade him.

"It's not personal--I know you probably just want to help. But I don't trust you. Okay? I don't know your name. I don't know you, outside of the disparaging remarks you used to direct at me. If it is guilt you are acting from, then I absolve you. Your offer is appreciated. I wish you luck. Please go."

[Applesintime]

The body language was all that Matthew needed to see, even without this person’s sorta ‘please leave right away I’m rambling at you’ style of response. They kept fucking… getting antsy any time he mentioned so much as going near to the campfire. Tensing up, their grip on that hook thing of theirs tightening. Matthew couldn’t remember poking fun at this one, but the tenseness wasn’t and couldn’t just be from him making a couple of jokes at their expense a few years ago. But why? What could…

Katelyn. Of course. It was the only logical explanation, and now he had reached that train of thought it kept on chugging along. Katelyn was a frail little thing who needed her friends for everything to stop her from having a mental breakdown if she didn’t have someone to Twitterspeak at her about how her feelings of wanting to draw dead bodies were cool and valid. Did that everything include murder?

It was a leap, yeah. Being friends with someone didn’t automatically mean that they’d help that person kill. But as he said, Katelyn was frail. She couldn’t kill five people on her own. Not without some help.

In a quick move, Matthew swapped the gun to his right hand and aimed it right between the person’s eyes.

“I’m not asking again. Let’s fucking go.”

[Zetsu]

Of course he would, of course of course of course--and yet he still caught Ren by surprise. It didn't matter that Ren had foreseen this outcome (it never mattered); somehow, it still arrived too suddenly for them. The billhook, half-raised, could have found his flesh had they been faster; instead, it hung a foot-and-a-half away from his chest, stopped mid-swing, useless. Had they tried to complete the movement they would have been shot.

Slowly, carefully, as though it were afraid of making too much noise, the blade fell to the ground. Ren thought about raising their hands in surrender. They did not.

They had known that they were going to die, and that it could happen at any moment. They had prepared, or they thought they had prepared, for the possibility that it would be random or unexpected or meaningless. Somehow they still couldn't believe that it could feel so trivial. So they believed that there had to be a way out, even though they could not find one. There were so many obligations that they had yet to fulfill. They still owed Kai and Kitty so, so much.

Ren opened their mouth to speak.

"..."

They swallowed.

"...can you at least tell me what you want, first?"

[Applesintime]

“What the fuck do you think I want? I want Katelyn dead. and I dunno if you have her. But you’ve been acting real fucking shady.”

With his foot, Matthew felt for the billhook blindly, still not taking his eyes off of his new hostage. Once he did find it, he pulled it a little closer and then kicked it off into the forest around them. If Kitty wasn’t there at their camp, then uh… well, shit, why were they acting so damn shady and skittery then? Didn’t make any goddamn sense.

“If she’s not there? Fine, I’m not gonna put a bullet in you for no damn reason. If she is? I have no damn reason to shoot you, I’m there for her.” Matthew calmly explained. Maybe he was wrong. But the same fucking names kept coming up on the announcement, again and again like clockwork. If Matthew could wipe one of the names out, it’d make things easier.

“C’mon. Let’s get moving.” Matthew clicked his tongue at them, gesturing with his gun towards the direction of the fire.

[Zetsu]

And that, more or less, was that.

Oh, one could make the point that Ren still had options. They could admit to Kitty's presence, make an attempt to talk the boy down with arguments and promises--that Kitty's kills weren't so bad, that Ren would be able to stop her from killing more, that killing killers wouldn't accomplish anything. They could lead him in the wrong direction, and hope he was stupid enough not to catch on. They could point him to Kitty, and hope that his hate would distract him long enough for them to shoot him. There were approaches that could get them out of here alive and without losing Kai or Kitty, if they were willing to roll the dice on the latter outcome.

They weren't.

Never mind that their heart was running away from them, or that their breathing came quick and shallow. Never mind that their body was panicking; Ren was calm. They knew what they needed to do.

A part of them, absurdly, wanted to limber up. Instead they inhaled deeply, and then they inhaled again. They would have to shout louder than they had ever shouted before in their life.

What does one think about while preparing to die? The answer, in Ren's case, was apparently logistics.

"KITTY!"

One hand went for Matthew's gun, grabbed it, yanked it--not out of his grasp, no, but enough that they could throw his aim off--

"GET KAI--"

And there was the other hand inside their jacket, pulling out a gun, their gun, turning it towards Matthew--

"--AND GO! GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"

[VoltTurtle]

Katelyn Graves was many different things.

She was tired. When the announcement had stirred her awake, and Ren gently soothed her in their lap, she wanted to go back to sleep and forget about this place for a little while longer. Yet, the rising sun precluded her peace, signalling the arrival of more horrors in the day to come.

She was startled. Ren's sudden shout made her jump, already to her feet before they even finished, her heart already hammering her in chest. She twisted her head to see what was happening, frantically scanning the forest, and that was when she saw the brewing fight, and their assailant in the distance. Matthew.

She was furious. Matthew was the worst of her bullies. The others weren't malicious, they hurt her through ignorance rather than malice, for they thought her habits peculiar and her mannerisms off-putting. Matthew was different, he didn't merely think she was weird, he thought she was evil, and he hated her. He would mock her relentlessly, use his words to tear her down and rip her apart, and would even go so far as to hit her when he inevitably made her snap and lash out. Now, he was trying to murder one of her best friends, and probably her too shortly thereafter.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM," she screeched.

She was panicked. The grenade launcher was in the snow next to her, and she scrambled to grab it, ignoring Ren's request. With the heavy ordinance in her hands, she hefted it up to her chest, and took shaky aim at Matthew. There was no-one else she hated more than him, and she wouldn't merely be indifferent to his death, like Alex. If anything, attacking Ren had cemented it, and she would be happy to reduce him to nothing more than a fine, red mist.

Except, she was also indecisive. Ren was right there, wrestling with him, and if Katelyn took the shot, then Ren would be...

The grenade launcher trembled in her grip, her finger stuck on the trigger.

[Applesintime]

"Stupid fucking bitch!" Matthew snarled. Jesus, were they that protective of a fucking murderer that they'd willingly commit what was effectively suicide at this point to protect some psychotic freak? What, had they fallen for her 'boo hoo I'm just a little uwu girl' shtick, or had they been helping her murder people this whole time? Did they hold down Robin? Taylor? Mitch? If they did, then they were all just as guilty as her.

Three against one, if Kai was there too.

Eh.

Could be worse.

His assailant's grasp on his own gun was broken rather easily; they were a full foot shorter than him and looked like they'd maybe be a hundred pounds if they were soaking wet. All he had to do was yank as hard as he could, and hey presto, he had his gun again. Katelyn was right there, hefting some kind of... what the fuck even was that? From this distance, he couldn't actually tell, but it didn't look like a gun. Something bulkier.

Didn't matter. They were reaching into their jacket for something - a gun maybe. As the barrel glinted in the sunlight, his free hand snatched at the idiot's fingers, pulling the gun out of their grasp and twisting, pulling, snapping until they dropped that fucking gun and couldn't get it again any time soon. And then for good measure, he put a fist in their stomach. Over their shoulder, Katelyn stood, frozen. What, was she too much of a coward to put up a genuine fight when faced with someone who wasn't being held down by her cowardly friends?

"KATELYNNNNN!" He screamed, his rage reignited at the mere sight of her. With the gun in hand, Matthew quickly aimed, making a split-second decision to rest the barrel next to the enby's ear (shit, he couldn't keep calling them that, what the fuck was their name) and fired at Katelyn. Bang. Bang. Bang. It probably wouldn't hit, but he'd come this far, he was going to take any fucking chance he could get. Nine bullets left if he was right on his count. Maybe the sound and broken fingers would throw them off enough to let Matthew past and let him finish this.