Survival Of The Fittest

They were here.

The footsteps were muffled, even on carpet as threadbare as this, but she could still hear them moving through the room behind her. The occasional creak of a loose floor panel, the rustling of clothing and bags, drawers sliding open before being firmly shut again. The telltale sign that whoever was occupying this building alongside her had begun their sweep of the room.

She couldn’t tell how many people there were; she’d never been good at making educated guesses from sound alone, and especially not with the thudding of her heart doing its best to drown all other noises out. More than one, certainly, but she’d already figured that out. More than two? She didn’t want to consider that possibility, but she certainly couldn’t just discount it. It was possible. She had to keep that fact in mind.

She could have been surrounded, too. There could have been a whole group of people, all converging on her hiding spot, knowing full well where she was. She saw a vision of a face, grinning maliciously, slowly appearing from above the desk.

And that didn’t help. She knew she had to discount that possibility, both because it was reaching past the point of probability, and because it was causing her to bite her lip to stop her breathing from turning into hyperventilation. But it wouldn’t leave her brain. It wouldn’t leave her alone. Every noise that came from nearby made her heart leap a little further in her chest.

She had stopped tapping her fingers against the haft of the axe, out of fear that the sound would carry across the room. But that just meant that every unseen, make-believe fear became a bit more real with every passing second.

It seemed for a second as though she would be alright, though. There was a knocking sound, the familiar repetitive tapping of fist against door, and it sounded distant, on the other side of the office; as far away from her as possible as the others inside could get without completely leaving. Maybe they had given up searching this room, and had decided to investigate the smaller side rooms instead? With any luck, the footsteps would disappear down the hallway and into the staff lounge, and she would be free to make her escape.

And then, crunching down on all her hopes, a floorboard, the very same one that she had fallen foul of, creaked only a scant few feet away.

And Beatrice couldn’t stop herself from gasping.

She clamped her hand over her mouth as soon as the involuntary noise was out, but she knew, she knew that the damage had already been done. The air was so still in here, the dust drifting about aimlessly in the light. It could barely have been any quieter. With how close this person was, there was no way that they hadn’t heard her just now.

The flurry of her mind settled on one thing, near instantly. If she stayed here, she was trapped. If she made a break for it now, while there was still some distance between the two of them, then maybe she could run for the exit before anything happened.

Maybe. It really was the biggest of maybes. She had always hated things that didn’t have a definitive answer. They felt uncomfortable, unfinished. She needed there to be a yes or no, a right or wrong, a ‘this’ that led to ‘that’. But the only certainty where she was at currently, sitting under this desk and waiting, that scared her even more.

She pressed the strap of her bag into her armpit, making sure it wouldn’t slip down and fall to the floor during her escape. She felt the smooth wood of the axe handle in both hands, secure and comforting.

Then she burst out from under the desk, stood up straight, turned, and stared straight at a girl clutching a drill in both hands. Their vision locked together. The row of desks and dividers and dusty monitors bordered them like a row of armed guards.

And Beatrice couldn’t move a muscle any longer.

“I’m Karen, Karen Nguyen,” Karen answered to the female voice in the bathroom.

Karen paused and thought about what to say next. She didn’t know if this girl was armed, whether with a gun or some other heavy weapon. If she was hiding in the bathroom, she must be scared.

“Were you the one making noises earlier?,” asked Karen, “Neither of us want to hurt you. We were looking for some—“

Suddenly, another girl came into view. She was standing face to face with Han.

“Who’s there!?,” Karen shouted.

Julia swallowed hard as she waited nervously for the girl outside to respond. Who was out there? Friend or foe?

"I’m Karen, Karen Nguyen.”

"Karen Nguyen?" Julia thought to herself. It wasn't somebody she knew very well but she recognised her name from the debate team, perhaps somebody she could've been friends with if she had made more effort to be social with them instead of sticking to her sister and the swim team. They had never really interacted but she had always thought that Karen came across eloquently in debating sessions. Julia regretted not being closer with her in the past as it would've been great to have a friend with you in a situation like this but instead she had to think about building trust with a total stranger.

“Neither of us want to hurt you.”

Perfect. Even though Karen was not far short of being a stranger, just somebody she would've walked past in the hallways between lessons or sat the other side of the classroom, she had a good feeling about her. Julia knew that she wouldn't be able to manoeuvre her way out of this situation alone. They were both smart, maybe something good could come out of this chance encounter?

We were looking for some—”

Karen was cut off mid-sentence. What were they looking for? How many were there? What was happening outside of the door?

“Who’s there?”

This time she spoke much louder with a nervous bewilderedness in her voice. It would've been strange if this was also addressed to her, but who else was out there?

She took a split-second decision to open her duffel bag to see what was inside. Maybe she'd have a pretty decent weapon and she could arm herself if things took a turn for the worst. She dug through everything in the bag and couldn't find any sort of weapon. A first aid kit, a jacket, a flashlight, lots of food. She even had a huge tub of Moose Tracks ice cream. Whilst it was a great snack to have in the summer, the callous humour in giving the students ice cream was not lost on her. It was a bit cold for ice cream wasn't it?

But no weapon.

Weapon or no weapon Julia was aware that this could be her only chance to escape if something bad was about to happen outside. "I'm coming out. I promise I'm not armed!," Julia declared hoping to reassure Karen and her group that she was not a threat.

Julia stretched over to the bathroom door and tightly gripped the doorknob. She swallowed hard one last time as she turned the handle, freeing the latch and anxiously opening the door. Leaving the bathroom she was met with a dishevelled looking office; rows of desks, faded walls and more importantly three girls scattered across the room.

Karen was stood closest to her, about a metre away from the bathroom. Behind Karen, on the other side of the room, there were the two other girls facing each other. On first glance, the girl furthest away was significantly taller but it was clear from her facial expression that she was scared. Had she been trying to hide in the room too? Then she noticed the severity of the situation. The tall girl was holding a weapon in her hands. It was axe-like, something that looked like it would make easy work of chopping wood. The other girl, much more petite, remained anonymous as she could only see her from behind. This girl was also wielding a weapon in her hands, it looked like a drill or a similar tool. She felt a weird sense of relief that despite two classmates being stood in front of her with dangerous looking weapons, at least there were no guns. Whilst not in the athletics program, she felt confident that she could flee if needed.

Protected by distance Julia used these seconds to survey the office she had entered, pinpointing the only other door in the room to make a quick getaway. She hatched her plan and readied herself to make a dash if things escalated.

She stood still and looked on as the two girls with weapons drawn confronted each other.

Oh crap. Oh crap.

Karin's nerves failed her as she watched the desk disgorge the huge, hulking figure of Beatrice Briggs.

Of course she knew who Beatrice Briggs was. Everybody in school did. It was impossible not to, since Beatrice was so big she sat next to everybody in class. That was the joke, anyway. Yup, everybody knew big, slow Beatrice Briggs. Of course, some of them probably knew her as Beef-atrice Biggs, since somebody - not naming names, but probably somebody cool, who didn't mean any real harm by it, just having a bit of fun - had nicknamed her that a while back.

Oh, and in case her size alone wasn't pants-crappingly terrifying, Big Ol' Beef-atrice was carrying an axe.

This was like something out of a freaking horror movie script. The big, slow kid gets their hands on an axe and spots one of the girls who’s said mean things about her. Total drama moment. Scripts like this would have the SFX throw in a dramatic chord spike and the prop guys on standby with buckets of pulpy red spaghetti sauce and corn syrup for those really good splatter effects.

Karin held the drill up a bit higher, to compensate for Beatrice's height. Geez, she was big. Had the game made her taller somehow?

Just then, she heard the bathroom door open, and whoever Karen+ had been talking to emerged. Oh, crap. There were two of them! It all made sense now - It was a trap! Beatrice and the bathroom bitch had planned to lure someone in here with the breaking glass, and while Karen was distracted with the girl in the bathroom, WHAM! Axe in the back. But they clearly hadn't been expecting Karen to have backup, and now things were going off the rails, and they were hesitating. But it'd only be a second or two before Beatrice shook it off and decided to go for a Two-Karen kill combo.

Well, screw that noise!

"COOL IT!" she barked loudly at Beatrice, jabbing forward with the drill and whirring it to startle her. She'd bought herself a half-second, tops, but that was all she needed. Karin took off for the door, as fast as her legs could carry her.

"It's a trap! Run!" she shouted at Karen+ as she passed, barging out of the room and into the lobby. She hit the front doors at a dead sprint, barreling through them and into the daylight. She pelted through the snow, running for her life. She had no idea if Karen+ was going to follow her or stay there and become chunks. And honestly? She didn't care.

((Karin Han continued elsewhere))

(Skipped with permission)

The tall girl was Beatrice Briggs. Karen recognized her by height alone. She looked like she had something heavy in her hand. Was that an axe!?

It’s a trap! Run!

Han shouted and made a dash out of the office. Karen looked at Beatrice, then Julia. Karen wasn’t sure if Julia was in league with Beatrice, but whatever the case, she needed to get out of here before things got ugly.

“Come on!,” Karen said to Julia as she grabbed the girls arm.

Karen, with Julia in tow, ran out of the sheriff’s office and into the snow.

“Han! Wait!,” she shouted.

(Karen Nguyen, continued elsewhere…)

Face your fears.

Figuratively speaking, Julia had jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire by coming out of that small bathroom. The tension in the office room was palpable as Julia's eyes locked on to the other girls. They were all compromised by a frantic confusion and fear over what was happening.

The drill. The axe. The standoff.

Within seconds of coming out of the bathroom, the petite girl who had previously had her back to Julia turned around revealing herself as Karin Han, the drill hissing and humming in her hands still directed to the tall girl. Beatrice. Despite the somehow uncanny resemblance to She-Hulk, from passing her in the school corridors she was a well-mannered and timid girl. Sure - they weren't friends. But the quiet colossus could never actually want to hurt any of them... right? But the giant axe gripped firmly in her hands seemed to tell a different story.

Trying not to get lost in her own thoughts, Julia's attention diverted from Beatrice to Karen before finally reaching Karin who was now sprinting straight at her.

"It's a trap! Run!"

A trap? No! She wasn't there with anybody else. As the small figure got closer she winced, pre-empting the pain of that whirring drill. However, the pain never came. Karin barged past her and bolted straight out of the door. As Karin left, her line of sight once again locked on to Beatrice who had also taken a few small steps forward, and Karen who was now running too. One swing of that axe and she would be a goner. The others were making the right decision by running, no way was diplomacy enough to diffuse this situation. It wasn't worth the risk. Karen grabbed Julia by the wrist and tugged her along with her. You didn't need to tell Julia twice. She gripped tight on the straps of her bag and started to scamper out of the room in Karen's tow. She could hear Beatrice stridently following them whilst shouting out to them.

"Wait! You've got the wrong idea, I don't want to hurt anybody.

It was the loudest she had ever heard Beatrice speak.

"Please, come back!"

Maybe she really didn't mean any harm and it was all just a misunderstanding? There was a desperation in her voice and she sounded like she didn't want to be alone. It all happened so quickly there was no time to process anything. It was too late to go back and do things differently. How could she know what her intentions were?

As the door opened they were met by the immediate harshness of the cold temperature. The icy path down from the office entrance coupled with the glistening breeze sharper than the towering girl's axe were tough to stomach. Karen's grip loosened but together they ran without looking back. She had no idea where they were going but that didn't matter for now. The only important thing is that they were no longer in imminent danger.

All Julia wanted was somebody to enjoy her ice cream with.

[S119 - Julia Guercio - continued in The Hunt Is On]

In an instant, Beatrice was finally, truly alone, the echoing of her own raised voice and of the front entrance slamming shut her only companions. And yet, she felt as uncertain and unnerved as though she was still crouched underneath the desk, even with the guaranteed moment of safety that had been bestowed upon her.

She stood, facing the exit to the office space, trembling like a newborn deer, hands still wrapped tightly around her axe and clutching it close to her chest. Everything had flashed past her in the blink of an eye, giving her no chance to comprehend what was happening, forcing her to react purely on instinct. She had flinched, stumbling backwards in alarm as the drill had whirred a few feet away from her torso. She had cried out as the three girls had started running, barely registering the words that flowed from her mouth, trying to catch Julia’s eye as she glanced back, wrist held firm in Karen’s grasp.

She had come to a stuttering halt, without even realising she’d started moving in the first place, as she knew they weren’t going to stop, no matter what she said.

If she had been lost before this moment, she was completely all at sea now. She couldn’t figure out why they had all reacted in that way, Karin especially. Had she done something wrong? She’d barely done anything other than escape her hiding place, and Julia had been hiding as well, out of sight inside the bathroom. Was it the axe? She hadn’t been swinging it or anything. She hadn’t even raised it threateningly - at least, she didn’t think she had done so. Was a stationary axe any more terrifying than a powertool thrust towards you? Had she misstepped? Done something wrong back at school that made them wary of her? Had something bad happened to them that had put them all on edge?

Beatrice sniffed, feeling tears well up in her eyes once again. It stung, all of it did. It stung to be viewed with such suspicion and fear. It stung to be abandoned and not having a clue what she’d done to deserve it. It stung, most of all, realising that those three had been just as scared and confused and panicky as she had been, and that if things had gone differently - wherever it had been that she’d misstepped - she could have been walking out with them right now, working together to survive alongside each other.

She still wasn’t any closer to knowing what she was supposed to be doing. Other than the unthinkable.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist, leaving a damp spot on the sleeve of her jacket. She didn’t want to be here anymore. It was calm, and it was silent, but there was an unsettling air lingering around her, one that softly whispered in her ear to get out, that she didn’t belong, that she wasn’t welcome here any longer. It just made her sad, looking at the desk she’d been crouched under, the bathroom door swung open, the stapler lying on the floor that she’d knocked off when she’d bumped into the divider.

Her bag was still secure on her shoulders. Her shoelaces were tied, her hair still done up into its usual ponytail. She had no intentions of letting go of the axe anytime soon. Her fingers performed their usual rhythmic drumming, a small spark of calm flickering to life inside of her.

To somewhere else, then. With the hopes that she would find a measure of calm and quiet wherever she ended up.

((Beatrice Briggs continued in Healing Grid))