Survival Of The Fittest

Marshall almost regretted pushing for shelter so fast. He wanted to hear the answer to Kai’s question, but Chloe was already moving. Marshall rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace, before he started gathering up both his and Jess' things.

Well, they had time to consider that. They couldn’t gather everyone in the time it took for them to find shelter, unless they were very lucky. And they did need to get moving. Every second was important.

“Wait, Chloe, Jess might not be ready!” Marshall bounced a little on his feet before he hovered around Jess. “You ready? Do you need to get warmer? I’ll be here if you stumble!”

Time was of the essence, but that didn’t mean leaving anyone behind was acceptable. So he continued to hover awkwardly until Jess was ready to get going.

((Marshall West continued in Lines in the Sand.))

Chloé dodged the question. That wasn't really a surprise. It took a bit longer for it to fully sink in that Kai had apparently been absorbed into the group without his own say-so. That didn't tend to happen much, largely by his own design. Even if it was obviously a partnership of convenience, it took him a few moments more to come around to the idea.

Part of him wanted to refuse on principle. This Lord of the Flies-esque idea of Chloé's, creating their own little pocket of civilization, complete with judge, jury, and executioner, didn't sit right. Some of it obviously more than others, but, well. Kai had read Lord of the Flies for class. He remembered how it went.

Then again. It ended with rescue, even if there was a whole coming-of-age loss of innocence and madness and murder before that.

That was a lot, and Kai decided he didn't really want to think about it right now. He couldn't weigh all the pros and cons without more time. The bigger part of him that wanted to refuse to go along wanted to do so because he already had a goal: finding Kitty, Cali, and Ren. Maybe scoop up Cali's brother along the way if Kai stumbled across him, though Salem had always very clearly run in a different sort of crowd. (Namely, the same one that Ashlyn ran with. They were an item and all.)

But there were practical concerns to be had too. Stumbling around in the dark wouldn't help anything.

For everything that ran through his mind, all Kai did out loud was eventually heave a sigh and turn back to Jess. "Whenever you're ready," he muttered to her, and stood by to dismantle the umbrella and pack it back up when she gave him the okay.

Easier to let someone else decide when they were ready to go. There was some appeal to following Chloé in that sense. Maybe in a tiny bit of rebellion though, Kai let Jess have the final say.

((Kai Rosado-Prince continued in Lines in the Sand))

She wasn’t ready. Not even close to it.

She felt a little better, sure. A little warmer, a little more steady on her feet, a little closer to safety. She could focus on her surroundings slightly better, could see more than an inch in front of her nose, could actually talk for a few seconds, so long as it was fragmented and contained words of less than three syllables (and if she had been good to go, then she probably would have said that wasn’t much different from usual, then).

But ready? Ready to head off somewhere? Ready to take part in this plan whether she liked it or not, given she couldn’t even walk without someone to prop her up, let alone strike off on her own adventure? She was still shivering. Her hair was still sticking to her skin. She was still replaying the moment that she’d sunk beneath the surface, over and over again. How the hell could she be ready?

She only mostly got the gist of what the plan was, as well. She’d missed the first half of Chloe’s explanation, too preoccupied with getting herself warm and dry, and as soon as she’d said her own piece, her attention had been snatched away once more, drifting between her fingers almost as soon as she’d gained it. She still couldn’t focus on much more than one, singular thing right now. That needed to be getting warm and getting her sense of self back. So that’d been what she’d done, staring into the fire, as the others shared their opinions and doubts and rebuttals.

So, no. Not ready at all. And she was going to stay here a little while longer, at least until she could feel her legs again; they felt as though they would snap in half if she dared try to move them. But she also didn’t want Chloe to head off, filled with determination, just to realise that nobody was coming with her. Jess owed her a lot more than a simple ‘thanks, bye’, after all.

She looked up, eyes flicking between Marshall and Kai, instinctively tugging the blanket a fraction tighter around her neck as she did so. She tried to give them both a smile, some gesture of appreciation at the fact they’d waited around to help her, but her mouth was frozen in place, still not fully thawed by the mumbling speech from earlier.

She stayed longer than she had truly intended to, standing by the fire. But it still didn’t feel like enough as she stepped away. She was still trembling, feeling close to toppling over with every footstep. She felt close to being whole again, but agonisingly, frustratingly so, like she was swiping it, brushing it with her fingertips, but never able to actual grab hold.

“‘m’Kay.”

Jess hadn’t moved far. Just to the collection of clothes around the fire, a mix of Marshall’s and her own. She knew a lot of her stuff was way too sodden to be usable for a good while now, and she wasn’t certain that the spare clothes in her bag would have fared much better either; not that her teeny little crop top would have been of much use against the cold anyway. She would look absolutely ridiculous wearing Marshall’s stuff, but if worst came to the worst, so be it. There were more pressing matters to be concerned about.

“Gonna… try’n’ put something else on. Let you know when ‘m done. Gonna need to lean on you to get… uh… wherever we’re goin’.”

She hated having to rely on other people to bail her out of any situation. She hated feeling so tiny and helpless. That was yet another thing this trip to the lake had stolen from her. Yet another thing she’d have to put to one side until later.

Whenever that may be.

((Jessica Kawazoe continued in Lines In The Sand))