Wake Up Exhausted

[Dr Adjective]

[Evie McKown found her circumstances somewhat changed.]

The ride to town had been a whole sight shorter than walking, but it was still a long and awkward one. Trust was a valuable commodity, and not one that Juanita nor Evie had been all too eager to share around, even with the latter sat astride the former's snowmobile with her arms wrapped around for dear life. Evie had been quite sure she noticed the other girl eyeing her, checking she wasn't packing some means of shanking her once they were up close, a sensation that in some strange way brought her back to the way she'd caught Lara checking her out at the poolside. At least once they'd started moving, Juanita had seemed to relax, evidently just as aware as Evie was that killing the driver of the vehicle you're riding on is a pretty stupid idea. They only had sharpshooters from elsewhere to worry about at that point, but at least such people would probably have trouble drawing a bead on them at short notice, early in the morning.

Evie, for her part, had not gotten much sleep. Her tenuous trust hadn't extended to letting herself sleep in front of Beatrice or Juanita. Instead, she sat with her back to a wall, cradling her gaudy Desert Eagle in both hands, barely daring to close her eyes. When the first fingers of dawn began to claw at the windows, she surruptitiously rose and made herself ready to leave. Evie had decided early into the night that she'd make herself scarce come the very beginnings of twilight, and bring Juanita with her: Beatrice aroused too many complex feelings in her, the unwillingness to hurt a friend at cross-purposes with the mixed-bag of desires to put her down peacefully, to take her weapons and her supplies, and even simply not to have a potential liability on her hands. No, better to yield the shelter to Beatrice to do as she wished with. She had the means to look after herself. Best just... not to let her be Evie's problem.

The announcement had started up a short way into their ride, before the sun truly climbed over the horizon. Even over the roar of the snowmobile's engine, it was no great strain to hear their tormentor begin to speak. Juanita brought them to a stop to listen properly. The substance of it came with a few surprises. Kitty took out two with some kind of explosive, including the vice-president, a step down compared to Chloé... but that presumably put Kitty in double digits by this point. Next, Salem kept up pace by throwing some guy off a building. Then something of real interest, Lily had gone and gotten herself blown up for an unspecified breach of the rules. Which meant her very nice rifle was probably just lying around somewhere, only problem being, Danya had neglected to mention where, alongside not specifying what she'd done to offend him either. Oh well, something to keep an eye out for. Finally, Dawn blew herself up on purpose. After making it this far, she gave up. Evie couldn't begin to grasp why, unless maybe she'd gotten herself horribly injured and taken matters into her own hands.

Finally, the research station was fully placed off limits, except for Kitty's prize, which must've been her fifth by now. A shame, really, Evie never managed to get herself back to where she'd started.

No. Not so finally. Finally, the broadcast was abruptly interrupted by an explosion.

No explanation given. Juanita asked aloud. Evie assumed the question was rhetorical, gave only a perfunctory response.

The rest of the ride took on an even more awkward tenor, after that.

Finally, the uneasy partners pulled up to a stop on the outskirts of town. Looks were exchanged. Neither seemed keen to be the first to mention how... how what? How maybe everything had changed in an instant? How maybe everything they'd fought and bled over might suddenly be redundant? How maybe everyone they'd collectively killed had been for nothing? How maybe rescue was coming, and the authorities might see the two killers less-than-favourably? What was even the legality of committing murders under duress, anyway? Evie was no lawyer. She didn't know any lawyers. She had no idea.

"So, uh, until anything... you know, changes? I figure we still want to secure ourselves someplace to hole up, right?"

Eventually the plan was agreed. The church seemed a smart place to start, if it were empty. With any luck. they'd be the first two to realise that the tightening net seemed to be pulling in around the town, and they'd be able to make use of the bell tower to spot anything incoming, be that rescue or hostility. If anyone else were there first? Well, they'd vacate the place. By force, if necessary. The duo split up at the entrance to the graveyard: with her SMG well-suited to tight quarters, Evie would check the cellar below, and with her less-threatening appearance, Juanita would scout out the building proper.

A strange, small part of Evie almost hoped the explosion on the speakers didn't herald rescue. Sure, most of her looked forwards to the notion of a handful of friends surviving alongside her, not least among them Kelsey. Yet... there was that part, with its fixation on her supposed destiny to win, that wanted to see the damn thing through. To compete. To triumph.

[Evie drifts down into the gloom below.]