Catus Carnival

[BetaKnight]

Cooper just stared in mute horror, eyes wide as saucers.  After a moment, he started nodding in response to Cody.

The FUCK just happened?  Raising a trembling hand, Cooper wiped at his brow and tried to piece things together.  One second, he had the knife in his hand.  Then it was gone.  Then Mike had it as he rushed Eliza.  Then there was a mash of people.  Then both girls were on the ground, and then Mike got knocked the fuck out.

He tried to slow things down in his mind but there were still gaps.  Glancing over at Rose, Cooper quickly looked away.  That was way more blood that the bloody noses, split lips, and occasional busted-open eyebrow that sometimes happened in the MMA group.  

He hand never admitted it to anyone else, but the sight of blood made his stomach roll.  It was an unmanly thing to have going on, and an even more bitch failing to admit out loud.  Instead, he focused on Mike's prone form and did the only thing that made sense.

"What the FUCK just happened," he demanded, unable to hide the quaver in his voice.

[Skraal]

Eliza stared dumbfounded at the scene before her. Everything had happened so fast. She was vaguely aware of some shouting coming from Cooper's direction, but the pounding in her ears drowned out the specific words. If Cody didn't intervene when he did...

Eliza swallowed as she looked down at the ground. Mike was still laying there, with the knife a few feet away. Pulling together her confidence, she gave the body a kick. No response. After a few more moments of waiting, she walked over to where the others were.

The first thing that she noticed was that there was blood everywhere. It wasn't like she had never seen anyone get hurt before, but not on this level. Rose was looking pretty bad. Shit. Was Mike trying to kill everyone or something? That didn't make sense at all.

Eliza looked up from Rose's body and walked over to her bags. She picked them up and sighed as she looked around her. Two more names for me the morning announcements. Damn.

This was fucked up.

[MK Kilmarnock]

He wanted it to be a scratch or, at worst, a gash that somebody might get when they get their own hand chopping an onion. That was the worst Cody had seen a knife do to a person first-hand. It was all he had been trained to expect through his life, and it was what he hoped to find inspecting Rose.

It became clear that what he was dealing with some something far worse. Rose's breathing was pained and heavy, like she had to fight uphill for each and every breath. The blood pumping from a darker, redder spot on her stomach... it was far, far more than anything Cody had expected it would be. In a short time, the few moments where all hell broke loose, Rose had gone from being completely fine to... this. Cody didn't stop Mike fast enough. If he had tried, maybe just a little bit harder, Rose wouldn't be like this. Jury was out on Mike; he hadn't moved at all, and Cody had enough experience on the field to know that you were either knocked out for a few seconds or there was something seriously wrong.

He looked back at Mike for a moment. The worry was there, but the worry was much stronger with Rose. She just got caught in the middle of this. She didn't get them all into this mess. In fact, she was probably counting on Cody to steer them away from this shit, wasn't she?

"Fuck man, what do we do..." Cody murmured, hands shaking just inches above Rose's shirt, too afraid to survey the damage properly. "I don't know what to do, she's bleeding so fucking bad..." As much as he wished they weren't, as much as he wished they were anywhere else, his eyes remained transfixed on the wound until a voice broke the gaze.

"Cody... Cody, it wasn't your fault." It was Rose.

He grit his teeth. "C-Cooper, get down here and fucking help me. Something. This bleeding's really bad... w-we have first aid kits, right? We can patch this up! Just..." His mind was lost, and as if on cue, she spoke again.

"Jesus, after all I did to you..."

"What about it?" Cody snapped, followed immediately by him regretting that as he worked to hush and stable his voice. "We did a lot of shit to each other. We were like Aurora's fucking dark couple, putting each other through hell. Then we broke up, and we were both happier. You don't owe me a goddamn thing." He continued to try and check out the wound, wait for the bandages and the gauze. His eyes were getting blurry.

"I always thought it was your fault, but... I realized before the trip and never told you because... I don't know." There was a bit of a gasp there, like an obstruction in her throat had been removed for a moment. At least with the talking, Cody knew her lungs were okay, but that spoke nothing for all the other equipment in there.

"Yeah, just..." Cody swallowed the lump in his throat and took a sharp breath. "Can you tell me later? We'll have plenty of time to patch all that up once we get YOU fixed, okay? Rose?" His eyes managed to rip away from the wound to look up at her face. It was pale, showing signs of her distress. Her hair was out of place from her falling to the ground, and the contortions of agony almost made her look like somebody else entirely.

Bandages were unpacked and pushed to him, an open first aid kit from somebody's bag. Cody never looked to see who gave it to him, as he immediately opened one of the packages and worked to put pressure on the wound. He was sure it hurt, but the bleeding had to be stopped. There had to be no more blood. Rose couldn't lose much more.

"You never knew when to quit, did you? Long story short, I don't know if I'm happier without you anymore. Can you... can you help me figure it out?" Rose asked, but Cody wasn't sure what she meant at first. Did either one of them have a future? Or... was the happiness Rose was looking for a little shorter term?

"I... ... s-sure," Cody stammered. "I'm not going anywhere, so just... stay put and save your energy, huh?"

"Sure... I'll stay put." Then Rose fell quiet.

It wasn't for another few minutes of soaking his wrists in her blood that Cody realized Rose had passed.

G046- Matheson, Rose: DECEASED

[BetaKnight]

Cody's words spurred Cooper into action, drawing his focus back to the immediate issue at hand.  

"R-right! Bandages!"  He threw his bag down, frantically wrestling with the zipper.  Why was it that simple things got difficult when you were in a hurry?  Baring his teeth, Cooper grunted as he began to paw through the bag's contents in search of the elusive first aid kit.  After what seemed like ages, he pulled it out of the bag with shaking hands.

His fingers felt thick and unresponsive as he fumbled with the latches on the kit.  Why wouldn't this damn thing open?!  His frustration mounted as he tried to work his fingers into the gap between the lid and the container.  The kit would open!  It would give him what he needed!

As he began to lift the kit above his head so he could dash it against the ground in a desperate bid to force it open, the box calmly popped open, sending a fluttering shower of band-aids and individual applications of antibiotic cream.  "Shit!  Shit shit shit!"

He ignored the small bandages.  Rose needed WAY more than they were good for.  Instead, he went for the biggest supplies the kit had to offer. Gathering up a handful of gauze and sterile pads, Cooper thrust his bounty out towards Cody.  "Here, man.  Here!"

He passed them off to a waiting Cody, who seemed like he really knew what he was doing.  Maybe there was a chance.  Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed and they really could patch Rose up and...and...and....

And what?  Wait for help to arrive?  Wait for someone to come and rescue them?  

The bubble of hope that Cooper had been nurturing since all this happened, the knowledge that this situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, popped as he watched the blood soak into Cody's sleeves.

No one was coming.  There wasn't going to be a dramatic rescue, a last minute reprieve.  They were going to die here.  

All of them.  

Just like this.  

Just like Rose was dying in front of them.

Cooper began to shake, fine tremors running through his body as he watched Rose's movements slow and finally stop.  Oh God, she was dead.  She was dead and they were going to die.  

The only person who didn't seem to notice was Cody.

A sob seemed stuck in Cooper's throat, only he didn't know if he wanted to cry for Rose or for Cody or for himself.  'Rose is dead.  We are going to die.  I am going to die.'  He wasn't sure what to do. Cooper wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his hands in small circles in an effort to self-soothe.    

After a few moments, he had managed to compose himself enough to realize that someone needed to stop Cody, let him know that he had lost the battle.  Moving carefully, he reached out towards Cody. "Hey, yo, bro," Cooper said softly.  "You gotta stop, bro.  She's gone."

[Skraal]

Eliza stood and watched as Rose died. She wanted to help, to say something... damn it. She felt so powerless. This wasn't the first death she had witnessed, but this one was different somehow. She had never been so close to them before. She hadn't heard them breathe their final breaths. She hadn't seen their broken, ravaged bodies. It was almost hard for her to believe her eyes.

Yet, it all felt so... real.

She had seen some pretty wild and horrific things during her time in the anarchist scene, but nothing even remotely like this. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that she would witness anything like this. While her every instinct was compelling her to avert her eyes, she forced herself to look upon the destruction before her. All the pain, the despair, the gore. The quiet sobs of her brother as he held up hands stained with his ex-girlfriend's blood. The overwhelming wave emotions coursing through Eliza's body produced a sensation that she had never felt before. Somewhere within her, something just... broke.

Her hands trembling, she picked up her rifle and walked over to where her brother was kneeling. Lifting the weapon, she poked her brother in the back with it as a faint smile made its way on to her face.

"Looks like you really screwed up this time, huh?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

He screwed up?

He screwed up!?


Cody rose to his feet in spite of his knees cracking in protest. He was thinking of a million different things to say or scream at his own sister. Most of them involved screaming at her to take her words and shove them up her own ass, or other similarly unpleasant variations. They screamed in his mind because it wasn't him that screwed up, it was Mike for charging in like a moron, mindlessly attack. That had killed Rose. Or maybe it was all on Eliza, who had killed and made herself suspicious, causing this situation in the first place. So many things to yell and only so much he could actually say.

When Cody turned to actually say them to Eliza's face, there was nothing left. Nothing left to say, or scream, or shout or cry.

Because he did screw up. Rose was dead and there was a very real possibility that he could have prevented her death by acting faster. Maybe it wasn't all his fault, but there was some blame to be passed around and to form the metaphorical... as well as the literal... blood on his hands.

Cody choked on nothing, turning and swallowing uselessness away. The next thing he could bear to bring his eyes on was Cooper, who was just looking right back at him. Cooper was right, just then, saying Rose was gone... and yet, the words were burned into Cody's mind, replaying again and again and again to remind him of the failure. For the first time since he could remember, Cody felt like crying. He felt like breaking down into a blubbering mess and acting in the very same fashion he had teased other kids mercilessly for in school. Idiots cried. Socially stunted dipshits cried.

Failures cried. Cody was a failure. But...

Hell would freeze over before he cried in front of Eliza.

"Yeah... look, I... this is where we split up for now," Cody said, trailing off into a whisper. He stepped away, backing away from Rose's body and not daring to turn her back as if she was going to get up and chide him for being so disrespectful. He didn't dare turn even when his foot nudged the daypack he had been carrying a little bit before. He picked it up, balancing his load with both the pack and the gun. Just like before. Just like everything was normal.

"C... Come on, Cooper."

Cody left the area, never knowing for the day that there was more than just Rose's blood on his hands. For in the dark, somewhere past midnight, somebody else finally passed from their trauma.

B001 - Eastmund, Michael: DECEASED

((Cody Patton continued in Thin RED Line))

[BetaKnight]

Cooper's jaw dropped at Eliza's callous tone.  Yeah, Eliza was a slutty weirdo, but she was also Cody's sister.  He and his sister didn't always see eye-to-eye, but he knew Priya wouldn't verbally boot him in the stones like Eliza was doing to her brother.   'What a shitty sister, that fucking cunt bag,' he thought to himself as he stared at her.

He didn't know what to say to Cody so Cooper simply stood as a silent sentinel, hoping just his presence was enough to help carry Cody through this trying time.   When Cody called him along, Cooper started to follow and then stopped, once again staring at Eliza.  He knew what needed to be said, even if Cody was too nice to say it.

"Sick, soulless whore," Cooper hissed venomously as Eliza, eyes narrowed in suppressed rage.  Picking up his gear, he trotted off to catch up with Cody.  It wasn't good for anyone here to be alone too long.

((Cooper Komorowski continued in Thin RED Line))

[Skraal]

Eliza watched her brother as he left. That was odd. His reaction was not what she expected. Thinking back, she remembered all the vicious arguments they had had in the past. There was no way he would have just shrugged this off. At least his friend could manage an insult. Too bad she had already heard that one a couple times before.

Sighing, Eliza adjusted the straps on her bag. The adrenaline rush from earlier had completely worn off, and she was exhausted. She briefly contemplated taking a rest here, but the smell of blood and rotting flesh soon convinced her otherwise. She wrinkled her nose as she stepped out of the area. 

There wasn't really anything here for her anyway. She tried to think, make some sort of plan, but nothing came to her mind. She was completely lost. All she knew was that she had never felt more alive than in those last few minutes of conflict than in her entire life. After a moment of standing in silence, she turned in a random direction and began walking. She had no idea what she was going to do for the next few days, but she knew that it would be like nothing she'd ever seen before.

((Eliza Patton continued in Reverie))