Megaphone

[Dr Adjective]

"Shit, sorry,"

The response was basically automatic, escaping Andrew's mouth before he really thought about what he was apologising for. By the time he'd gathered his thoughts, Marshall was insisting unconvincingly that everything was fine. But hey, he didn't want to address it, so neither did Andrew.

"I just, heard the yelling, and,"

And then screaming, and then nothing. Nah, forget that. Keep it light.

"Thought I should see what's up."

[midnight_twelve]

Fred stared at DeMarcus as long as he dared before conceding. It did make sense for Fred to go ahead, but he knew he couldn’t trust his backup to actually back him up as promised. Still, there didn’t seem to be much danger, not now he’d gotten a look at the other kids. There were actually three of them, but still no sign that anyone was armed. The greater risk would be pissing off DeMarcus, not approaching Marshall and company.

“Uh… sure. Yeah, good idea, man.”

Fred limped towards the others as instructed, moving even slower than he needed to. He let them finish talking to each other before getting their attention; the third guy was in the middle of apologising to Dani for something. He was another one of the school’s loners, same as Kai, Fred remembered that much, and so he didn’t know what to make of this guy either. That got Fred thinking about his own reputation. He wasn’t a loner, but neither was he anyone’s best friend. Even Richard had Darryl first and Fred further down the list. Did anyone here really know him, any better than they did this Andy or Anthony or Andrew or whatever? Ultimately, Fred realised with a mix of relief and discomfort, his own reputation wouldn’t matter now. It was DeMarcus’s that would precede them wherever they went. Fred could make a good first impression, maybe, but then DeMarcus would come out and he’d be lumped in with the nutjob who murdered Dom.

“Hey, guys. Over here.”

He couldn’t make eye contact with any of them.

[Outfoxd]

DeMarcus trailed Fred at a leisurely pace. He positioned himself so that the other boy's body blocked group's line of sight to the gun. He didn't know how much it mattered anyway; everyone heard the announcements and if they knew him them they'd know what he'd done. Know what he'd done and get the wrong idea, that he was just an asshole with a weapon and not someone that had probably removed an inside threat to all of them.

One of them, presumably Marshall, was wearing a gas mask. DeMarcus furrowed his eyebrows at that. It remained to be seen if the kid was just weird or another one of those that needed to be dealt with. They'd find out through the following conversation sure enough.

DeMarcus moved behind Fred once he had stopped and gently tapped the small of his back with the slide of the weapon, to remind him that if any of the other group turned hostile he would be ready.

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Marshall inserted himself between her and the newcomer, which was very cool. Much chivalry. She wasn’t annoyed by the act in and of itself, but her very heightened state of alarm didn’t make the act feel any comforting. She supposed she’d have to thank him later for putting himself as a shield for her — assuming he wasn’t shot dead or something.

The new guy apologized, but Dani wasn’t convinced he knew what he was apologizing for. What could one expect when someone barks at you not to do something you didn’t realize was triggering? Dani realized that was on her.

She peered over Marshall’s shoulder, looking at the other guy. She was beginning to calm down enough that she was able to recognize him as Andrew Lapson.

“Just the usual everything being fucked is what’s up.” Dani replied, carefully huddling behind Marshall in case Andrew pulled a gun and shot at her for the snarky comment.

“Hey, guys. Over here.”

Dani snapped her head in the direction of the new voice, spotting Fred Hobbes and some other guy. With Fred she at least had some passing knowledge as he attended her parties, was pretty cute, and was a member of one of the school teams. The other guy? She had no clue. She had definitely seen him around, but couldn’t be bothered to remember any details about. Just from appearances, he didn’t look like the type to give cash so she could count herself lucky that she felt confident she could out run him if things went south.

That being said… Just where were all these guys coming from? This was the top of a damn mountain, and no less than three new guys dragged their sorry, soon-to-be carcasses to the summit? She did that herself, and in hindsight she fucking hated herself for being so stupid as to do that.

[ViolentMedic]

“Yes! I was trying to call people together. If we’d started the game together, no-one would have killed. The killings that happen do so because of isolation and fear! So if we are no longer isolated and afraid--”

Marshall still believed that. The words ‘everything will be okay’ didn’t die in his throat, and it was the arrival of others that interrupted him.

He looked towards the arrivals, then reached up to make sure his gas mask was pushed back to the top of his head, so it didn’t hide his face as he examined the two.

Fred Hobbes. Drank too much at parties. Could work harder in class. But not a bad person.

But DeMarcus Miller… under regular conditions, he was someone that Marshall was sure he had lectured at one point or another. He had some incorrect views, and he was loud about them.

He’d shot Dominiqua.

…

If he could consider trying to forgive Katelyn, he had to try and forgive DeMarcus, too. He had to leave that to the authorities if they managed to escape. But more than that, he had to stop him from shooting anyone else. He already looked like he was using Fred as a human shield.

Marshall felt that Dani was huddled behind him, so he reached back and tried to steer her just a little so she was as far out of DeMarcus’ view as possible.

He had to--

“DeMarcus Miller!" he bellowed, pointing. "Explain yourself! Why did you shoot Dominiqua?!”

--handle this delicately. Dammit.

[Dr Adjective]

Okay, so that all made sense. Dani was in a bad mood: makes sense, she seemed like the type who'd miss the comforts of normal life the most. She did like, rich people parties, right? As for Marshall, he was trying to do good guy stuff. It had occurred to Andrew on some level, maybe if everyone all gathered together they could prevent anyone from getting violent? But he dismissed it pretty early, how would they get everyone in one place? How would they prevent someone with like, an explosive weapon just taking out the whole gathering? Yeah seemed like a non-starter.

That train of thought was interrupted, however, by the coming of yet more newcomers. Must've heard Marshall's yelling too. Fred he recognised, and Fred looked uncomfortable somehow. Ah well, could be any number of reasons for that, as far as he recalled he hadn't heard Fred's name come up as a killer at least, so it probably wasn't murderous guilt. The shorter guy behind him he was less sure of, and he seemed to be making a point of keeping Fred between him and Andrew's group. Maybe he was afraid of them? Would make sense, they had the numbers and the higher ground. Would make sense, right up until Marshall turned everything sideways. So that identified him: DeMarcus Miller, who had apparently gotten himself a gun and turned it on someone called Dominiqua. Ashmore? Yeah that tracked.

More importantly, now there were high tensions and at least one gun in play. Not exactly what Andrew had had in mind on his way up there. Luckily, Marshall and Dani were both between him and the newcomers, and Marshall had made himself the centre of attention. So Andrew kept his proverbial head down, and started to slowly back up.

[midnight_twelve]

The next thing he knew, Fred had DeMarcus’ gun tapping on his back, and his breath caught in his throat. The message was clear, as far as Fred saw it. Handle this situation for me, or you’re just in my way. Like she was. With his usual tact, Marshall chose that moment to start interrogating DeMarcus about Dom’s death. Fred would have liked an answer to that question himself, but he hadn't been stupid enough to even ask it calmly, and Marshall was not doing that. Fred had seen what happened when DeMarcus got startled, and unless the situation cooled down very quickly, he knew he was about to feel it too. Instinct took over, and Fred blurted something out without thinking.

“W-wait! Dominiqua attacked us! She was fucking crazy, man. DeMarcus was just protecting us.”

The guilt punched him in the stomach hard enough to physically wind him. Dom had done nothing but look out for him and not only had he let her die, he had now dragged her memory through the dirt. A few memories surfaced, middle school, laughing at rumours his friends spread behind people’s backs. He never really found them funny; he only did it so the bullies didn’t turn on him instead. He'd somehow managed to believe that he'd changed since then.

[Outfoxd]

While the rest of the other group was quiet, Marshall was about as loud and obnoxious as DeMarcus remembered and his earlier yelling would suggest. He stiffened when he was addressed. If his finger had been inside the trigger guard he may well have fired a round into the path. Or into Fred's heel.

He was going to say something he might have regretted when Fred spoke up. Spoke up in his favor. He relaxed. For one or two seconds he had been worried that the other boy got the wrong idea about Dominiqua. He felt a small, satisfied smile pull at the sides of his mouth.

"It's true!" He called out. "We found someone trying to hide a dead body. She was helping!"

He let himself move out a little further from behind Fred, now that the ice had been broken. The gun stayed behind him, however.

"I don't know what she was planning but it wouldn't have been good. I didn't want to do what I did."

[TheLordOfAwesome]

DeMarcus Miller… The name sounded familiar, if only for the announcements broadcasting Dominiqua’s death. She moved a little further behind Marshall, hiss under her breath. This was not particularly the kind of situation she’d like to be in. He and Fred claimed self-defense, but she felt she was pretty good at reading people and she sure as shit didn’t believe that it was exactly “self-defense”.

More pressing was the fact that Dominiqua was shot. She hissed again, this time from frustration. Another weirdo, appearing from the blue with a gun. If this ends with her being kidnapped again...

“Goddamnit, does every fucker on this island have a weapon but me?” She muttered, annoyance coating her tone.

She looked over to Fred and DeMarcus, eyeing the pair. She noted that DeMarcus was standing awfully close to Fred, like he was kind of hiding behind him. Odd, considering that DeMarcus apparently had a gun. Only a few answers as to why he was positioned like he was. Either he was feeling sheepish and was using Fred like a human shield, like she was with Marshall. Or…

“Hey, DeMarcus?” She called out over Marshall’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take just a few steps away from Fred?”

[ViolentMedic]

Marshall went quiet – momentarily – with his eyes flickering between the two.

The last time Marshall and Dominiqua had spoken, it had been about her worrying that she’d offended Josh. It was all too rare for people to even remember Josh’s name, let alone worry about his opinion. Even Marshall had struggled, in those first months, to consistently remember it. She’d been thoughtful, and kind. Marshall couldn’t imagine her snapping and attacking so easily.

Fred said she’d attacked. DeMarcus said she was helping to move a body. DeMarcus had been protecting Fred, and now stood behind him hiding. Hiding bodies didn’t make sense when they’d be announced a day later.

He had to either believe Dominiqua would do that, out of nowhere… or that they’d made a mistake.

He nodded with Dani. The human shield aspect wasn’t sitting well with him. He opened his mouth to agree verbally--

“Dominiqua didn’t attack you. She was trying to move a friend for burial or something, and you assumed--”

He swallowed the last few words down, like that would shove the whole sentence back in. But he couldn’t. It was out there now. All he could do was try to forgive, too.

“You can admit you made a mistake.”

[Dr Adjective]

He could be helping.

He should be helping.

But Andrew wasn’t a hero. DeMarcus had already shot someone, whatever his excuse was, if it was even true. No, Andrew wasn’t a hero, he was afraid. Feeling like he’d taken a background role in other people’s drama, whatever it was that had them all coming and going and screaming at each other, suddenly it wasn’t such a bad feeling.

“Shit!”

The boy recovered his balance almost as swiftly as he noticed himself losing it at a slight ledge, involuntarily cursing as he lurched forwards rather than slip and tumble down the mountain. That would’ve been an embarrassing way for this all to end. He could only hope it hadn’t drawn attention to him from Dani and Fred and their actual bravery.

[midnight_twelve]

Fred said nothing.

Marshall didn’t believe his bullshit, he knew Dominiqua would never have attacked them. Marshall didn’t know the whole story, though. He thought it was a mistake. Maybe it had been, but no one knew for sure, no one but DeMarcus. Whatever he’d intended, whether or not things had happened the way he wanted, Fred knew he would never break down and confess and beg forgiveness like Marshall seemed to expect. Fred envied Marshall's bravery, defending Dominiqua’s honour like that, but he knew it was a stupid idea. DeMarcus couldn’t be reasoned with, and he couldn’t be beaten, not by Marshall and Dani and the other boy, not while they were all unarmed and he had the gun.

Dani was brave too, she was sticking up for him, and part of him was grateful, but part of him wished she wasn’t, because he didn’t want DeMarcus to think that he wanted out of this situation. She said take a few steps away from Fred, and Fred wanted him to do that too, but he also wanted DeMarcus to think of him as an ally, not a hostage. He had to stop himself from saying something like “S’fine, I don’t mind”, the sort of thing he said whenever he got lightly teased because he knew it only got worse if you fought it.

The other guy, Fred was pretty sure he was called Andrew, he wasn’t so brave. Fred had almost forgotten he was there until he swore and almost fell out of sight. At least he was still there. In his position, Fred would have ran away already.

[Outfoxd]

Resistance. Irritating resistance. It didn't need to be this way. All that needed to happen was for them to tell him about a goddamn safe house and him and Fred could have been on their way. And the e-girl was telling him to move out. Something in her tone grated on him. Maybe she thought she could treat him like another one of her little OnlyFans pay pigs out here looking for a crumb of her attention.

DeMarcus stepped out from behind Fred. His arm draped around the other boy's neck and shoulders, specifically the arm with the Desert Eagle. It hung down, lazily clasped in his hand.

"That work for you, babe?" He drawled at Dani. "That enough steps?"

Then he turned to Marshall. "Look, you can think what you want, I'm telling you what happened. Me and bro here are just trying to find somewhere to lay low while everyone else sorts each other out. Maybe stock back up. Dominiqua was a variable I didn't now enough about. She made me nervous, the way she was acting. I'll admit, I might have gotten jumpy trying to simplify the equation. It's cool, now."

DeMarcus started at the third member of the group at his expletive and sudden movement, his eyes widening, his muscles tightening. The gun crept upward, then he relaxed, and it fell again.

"Careful, man." He said, loud enough for the third guy to hear. "No one's trying to get hurt out here."

[TheLordOfAwesome]

She watched cautiously as DeMarcus draped his arm around Fred’s neck, her eyes zeroing in right on the gun. She almost wanted to fist pump and shout “nothing but net” if it wasn’t wildly out of place to do so when her suspicions were proven correct. So now the gun was out and about and… she didn’t know what to do now. In hindsight, she should have thought out what her next move was before getting him to expose that he did in fact have his gun out, finger on the trigger.

At least the gun was a few feet away from her rather than being right next to her. At least she knew that if things went south, she at least had a chance to duck out and get out of there while Marshall and Andrew were bleeding out in the snow.

Despite DeMarcus’ words, she felt as though Fred wasn’t all that on board with the program. At least judging by his silence and body language. Though she would admit that she couldn’t be sure.

If they wanted a place to recover and restock… She thought that perhaps she could direct the two to where her group was. Let themselves get slaughtered against better weapons and numbers. But that came with the problem of not knowing where all the members of her group were. Sure, they kinda had a regroup point, but she didn’t know where Crystal was at the moment, or Juanita, or Ash, or Kaede… Problematic, but perhaps worth the risk of nothing happening? Best case scenario, two more pieces knocked off the board and a weapon or two netted. Three birds, one stone.

Dani hummed in thought, scanning the environment. She could also grab a big ass rock and hurl it at DeMarcus and book it. But that could end with her being shot, and she was fine not getting a few additional holes added to her anatomy.

She looked over back to Fred, looking him over.

“Fred,” she called out, her tone as calm and collected as she was able to muster despite how nerve wracking having a gun so close was. “Are you okay with this?”

[ViolentMedic]

Marshall thought it would be easier to forgive DeMarcus if he just admitted he’d made a mistake. And he had. But the way he said it… the tone made Marshall feel sick to his stomach. Simplifying an equation, like Dominiqua had be a math problem. ‘It’s cool, now.’ Like he’d stepped on someone’s foot instead of killing someone. Like it was nothing.

He couldn’t speak. He just stared at DeMarcus over Fred’s shoulder. Though when Dani called out to Fred, Marshall just slowly took a step back, attempting to nudge her back with that step.

He couldn’t fix this. DeMarcus had the gun, and he might as well have said he’d kill the lot of them if it made things simpler. But if DeMarcus left, what would happen to whoever he met next? What was he meant to do?

Marshall wished DeMarcus was standing on the edge of the mountain, so that he could push this piece of shit off and feel just as much nothing. The thought that crashed through him like a wave, and drained away just as quickly, leaving him nauseous and just a tinge bitter in its wake.