Survival Of The Fittest

((Ty Hartley continued from What Is Your Damage?))

She hadn’t seen the rest of the group, not even when she left the mines. Nor did she see anyone else.

Maybe she’d run into Quinn. Maybe she’d find out who attacked before she arrived at the Hot Springs.

Ty shivered as she heard the cracking underneath her feet.. She was taller and bigger, but she felt a chill. She’d put on an extra jacket, but still.

A good meal. That’d be nice.

And maybe a good fight.

Ty wasn’t that big on fighting, not to the point of sadism. But she did feel antsy from the need to get her muscles going. And maybe… she wanted justice.

Justice? For what?

Well, she had a reputation. Of being the big one, the fighty one. She could push you into a wall, and then tell you off about how you hassled that underclassman earlier. She could lift and carry around a flyer, even toss them into the air. She was the big one, the strong one, the one who could take a hit and deliver them.

She couldn’t do that to Quinn, though.

But she had to figure out who she needed to find and attack.

Not kill.

But do something.

She hated doing nothing.

And that’s why she hated the fact that she was walking down the road aimlessly like this.

((Calvin Rawls continued from Iron Lotus))

Calvin walked up the road, aimlessy as well, scythe in hand, anxious about not knowing who Katelyn Graves was and what she looked like. Katelyn, Katelyn. Kate-ty-lyn. Kate-ty-lyn. Did they have a Kate? No, they didn't. Kate. Maybe they were screwing with their mind.

Preoccupied with one murderer, he completely forgot about the others. In fact, the person he walked to, was a murderer too! Well, maybe. Maybe it was self-defense. But yeah, she definitely was on the murder list. Betty killed Oakley. Now, whether she was a murderous bitch or whether Oakley was the dick, well, he'd have to ask. Calvin, the Investigator, so to say.

"Hey, you! Explain yourself! What happened yesterday?," Calvin shouted, scythe held tightly, ready to swing in case she was as dangerous as the announcements had told him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Ty stopped, frowning. The fuck was Calvin doing, confronting her like this? Why was he running around with… a scythe? It didn’t look like that big a scythe, but it was a scythe. Was giving shorty a bladed object giving him so much extra courage that he was going up to one of the tallest and strongest girls in class and… doing whatever he was doing? Really?

Like, she saw someone plummet down a cliff earlier. And another person screaming with a bleeding face. And Betty Quinn had killed someone.

Was literally everyone going ape?

Ty touched the gun in her hoodie pocket.

“Listen, I watched someone fall to his death and and before that someone bleeding from their face. No pulling bullshit.”

Oh shit, she was bragging, wasn‘t she? Did she expect any streetcred from admitting she killed someone by making a face bleed? Actually yeah, that was kinda scary, especially with her height. And she killed another person, too, by plummetting down a cliff? Geez.

Calvin had to be real careful.

He wanted to find out whether she was hostile or not, but he now had enough evidence that she was someone to look out for.

Betty was definitely a player.

But at least she wasn‘t armed, while Calvin was. Calvin wasn‘t really interested in killing anybody, to be honest. He wasn‘t an ass like Shawn either, no robber scumbag.

He just wanted information. Who was dangerous, who is a player. Maybe he could benefit from that.

„I‘m not here to kill you, Betso. I don‘t care for you wanting to win. I‘m not here to stop you. I can offer you information about the others, I have met several people. Want to exchange facts? It might help you out here, believe it or not.“

“I mean, sure…?”

Ty had no idea what he was going on about. Maybe he was trying to do some weird peace offering shit because… because… she was intimidating.

You know what? Fair. She’d banked on that a little back home.

“I have some, too. Like I said, two people.”

Calvin nodded.

"Okay, I know a couple of people who play."

Calvin crossed his arm.

"Shawn stole my stuff. He's one to check out for. I met Jezzie. She got a kill, but she was friendly and trustworthy."

Calvin smirked.

"What about you?"

Ty breathed in and out through her nose.

"Ethan Kemp. You know Przemek, right? His face was bleeding, but I had no idea who did it. And, I guess he flailed around and shit while we were treating him, and... year. That's how that happened. Just so you know."

Her fingers touched the gun inside her hoodie as reassurance. Then, something occurred to her.

"How can someone be trustworthy if they killed someone? Was it an accident or something?"

Calvin noted what Ty said in his head. Przemek was probably not dangerous, but he‘d need to interview him personally for a confirmation.

Calvin looked at Ty, thinking about the philosophical question she asked.

„I don‘t know. You can never be sure. But it‘s my instinct. She‘s not a cold-blooded killer otherwise I wouldnt be talking to you but be buried underground.“

Anyway it was odd she was asking that considering she fucking murdered someone. Maybe it was a threat, subtly, that Calvin didnt quite understood.

Yeah, her standoffishness was a red flag.

Her hand in the hoodie was sus. Her body language told him she wasn‘t about to open herself.

Calvin bolted.

((Calvin Rawls continued elsewhere))

…

Did he seriously think she had it in her to be a stone-coild killer? Because she wasn’t going around killing all willy-nilly. Maybe in self-defense, or if they were themselves a killer.

…

Weird thought, that.

Ty had fought people before, both with words and with fists. But murder was a different thing entirely. She wanted to talk to Quinn, not kill her. She had no idea how that would go down just yet, because, guess what, that wasn’t something you typically had to deal with back home, so…?

Anyways.

Maybe it was her reputation.

Her hand slid out of the hoodie pocket.

((Ty Hartley continued in Would Not Rec!))