Survival Of The Fittest

((Mildred continued from I'm Just A Shot Away From You))

(no post order)

Mildred ran down the halls of the research station at full speed, squirrel bouncing around in her back pocket as she sprinted.

The fear spiked and zig-zagged through her and she didn't notice her aching chest and calves until she skidded to a stop in front of the research lab.


"Guys we found -- " she yelled as she threw open the door.

Her voice died in her throat and she froze. Her brain shut down and she became a statue in the doorway.

((Angelo Lee continued from I'm Just A Shot Away From You))

Okay, so Angelo got his answer quick enough. Great big building right in the middle of the research station, get it, got it, good. He'd had to focus on keeping up with Mildred and keeping a good enough grip on the sword that it didn't swing around and lop off any other body parts from anybody else, and he hadn't had the wherewithal to ask any further questions until they made it to their destination.

Mildred stopped dead so fast in the doorway that he collided with her back and almost bowled her over. "Fuck-! Hey, come on, what-"

Oh.

Yeah.

That.

Angelo briefly suffered the same short-circuit as Mildred as the carnage in front of them registered. It was the smell, of all things, that snapped him out of it.

"The fuck- did somebody eat a load of fish and then barf in here?" It was maybe the dumbest thing he could have said, but it was the first thing that came to mind, and Angelo wasn't really in the business of filtering under pressure. Heart hammering, he put one shaky hand on Mildred's shoulder to maneuver her out of the way and step into the lab, leveling the khanda in front of him as steadily as he could once more.

"Hello?" He called out, eye rapidly flicking over the overturned furniture, the broken glass, the- the body. That had to be Tull. There was some smoky quality to the air too that made his eye want to water, and he blinked rapidly.

"...Dawn? Jacob?" Angelo called out weakly. His gaze kept getting drawn back to Tull. The hole in his back.

"Its.... fish," she murmured absently in response to the question about the smell.

But the smell was less strong now and mixed in with other strange scents. Wisps of purple smoke drifted around by their feet, making it difficult to see exactly what was on the floor. Around them, cabinets and desks were broken and beakers were smashed on the ground.

There was the unmistakable shape of two human bodies on the ground as well. An arm was visible from among the the bruised haze with an unmistakable tribal tattoo encircling it. Mildred stepped closer and could make out the corpse of Tully Talbott.

She walked forward at a moderate pace with glass crunching underfoot until she reached him and sank to her knees next to him.

"Wh-"

Mildred put a hand on his shoulder, swept some errant strands away from his face that had escaped his signature hairstyle.

"Who.... Who did it?" she said slowly. "What right did they have?" she said a bit louder. "I was gonna kill him, ya know?! I'm the only one allowed! He's the one that got in a fight and got us banned from two Waffle Houses! He's the one that laughed at me when I beefed it on my parkour. He's the one that owed me ten bucks 'cause I bought him a Mexican pizza!" she yelled. "He's.... 'Cause he's... my bro," she said, the fire in her voice starting to thin out like the smoke around them.

"So that's why it had to be me who was gonna kill him."

Her voice cracked and tears started to well up. Her lower lip wobbled.

"Because he was a shit head."

The words barely got out before she started to sob, sitting on the floor in front of her best friend.

((Kathleen continued from a REALLY bad trip.))

Kathleen practically ran in, her breath heavy. She looked to her friends, wondering what the fuck had just happened.

"Guys - fuckin' - warn me next time you start running."

She looked up.

" "

And her face went pale.

"That- that doesn't make any fucking sense, but I get you, okay," Angelo mumbled, only half paying attention to Mildred. He was mostly just reeling, taking step after hesitant step into the room. He kept the sword raised, but it was quiet now except for the sound of Mildred's sobbing and Kathleen's arrival.

Whatever had happened here had already... happened. It was over.

And he could see who else was on the floor over there, now.

Angelo let the sword drop, its edge clanging dully off the floor, before dropping it completely.

"Cedar?" He asked hoarsely. He knew there wasn't going to be an answer.

Mildred got to her feet, still sobbing loudly, not paying attention to the other two.

She couldn't stay here. She couldn't look at him like this. She wanted to remember him the way she loved him -- smiling.

In a panic, she picked up her things. Mildred could feel her heart pounding and her chest tighten. She couldn't breathe.

"Out- outside. Air." she gasped, and ran out.

((Mildred Platt continued in No Chance ))

"Yeah," Angelo said vacantly in response to Mildred as she ran off. He hadn't comprehended what she said.

Cedar lay with her eyes closed and her hands folded, like she'd just laid down for a nap if not for the obvious wrongness of everything else. Angelo refused to let his gaze move away from her face. He knelt down and reached out to touch her hair, and quickly recoiled when he felt how cold the skin beneath had turned.

He had all the same questions as Mildred, if not quite the same reasons. Who, why, how could they. Every name on the announcement had been a gut punch, but they hadn't been her.

He hadn't even really thought about her or their other friends yet, not too consciously. There had been brief flashes here and there of wanting to find them, wanting to find some way to struggle through together, but in the back of his mind he'd always assumed that they were sticking it out somewhere safe. It couldn't be their names read off in the morning.

God, he was so fucking stupid.

Angelo didn't know how much time had passed, but his knees ached from resting on the floor when he got back to his feet. His head still felt fuzzy from the weed; he was vaguely nauseous too, but he couldn't tell if it was also due to the weed, or the smell in the room, or the fucked-up situation, or all of the above.

He took a deep breath and looked at Kathleen. There was some kind of urge to tell her that they should stick together, that he could- keep her safe or something, keep this from happening to her. Mildred had already gone, though, and Kathleen had some sort of gun. The only casualty of Angelo's martial prowess so far was his own face. Signing up to be the bodyguard of some girl he barely knew was a joke at best.

There was something darker brewing in a corner of his mind that he couldn't focus on.

"...Look," he said finally. His tongue felt thick and dry in his mouth, and he grimaced, clearing his throat before continuing. "I'm gonna- get out of here." He wished he had something profound and meaningful to say to her, but there was nothing. He picked up the khanda and hefted it back over his shoulder.

"Take care of yourself," he told her pointlessly as he headed for the door. "Bye."

((Angelo Lee continued in Continuo))

Kathleen wanted to throw up. But nothing ever came. Not even a dry heave. Not one little cough or gag, just the white skin becoming whiter and her eyes glazing over. It was like the worst dissociative episode. She didn't even register Mildred leaving. At this point, Kathleen had been hit with a brick wall of forced-sobering. Almost as hard as the game Atomic Heart, when it hit me with how gorgeous it is - seriously, try it, it's free on the Xbox Game Pass.

Ahem.

Kathleen did however notice Angelo leave, though it as a bit of a...delayed reaction.

"Wai-" And he was already gone.

...

(Kathleen set off to find a place that she could consider to be safe.)