They Don't Stop Comin'

[ViolentMedic]

((Marshall West continued from Return of Simba.))

Marshall wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here.

His memory had this huge gap in it from not long after he’d left the campfire. He’d been cold. He was still cold. He’d been cold since Day 1 when he’d lost half of his layers in the lake, but today it was different.

That was it. He just knew he’d been cold. A fact that hadn’t scared him before, but now petrified him. Now he was in a house – he didn’t think it was the same one that they’d tried to reinforce and make a safehouse. He was wrapped in a blanket that smelled of dust and mould, and curled up underneath a bed. He was hungry, and still so, SO cold.

It was getting dark. Maybe that was why he’d come to his senses.

He’d lost the whole day again. Another day that would come with another handful of dead classmates. And he had less of an excuse than ever.

He had to find the safehouse, and hope that Chloé was there. Disagreements or not, he couldn’t fail her, too.

-

The safehouse was empty. No signs of any struggle. Some of the blankets had shifted, so someone had been there since Marshall had run off. He had to search for the supplies, but he found both his and Jess’ supplies shoved under a bed.

His chest ached when he saw Jess’ stuff here. He didn’t touch it. It could help anyone that Chloe brought back.

He refilled his little backpack with enough food to last two more days from his own supplies. He also took some of his bread and a bottle of water on the spot, and tore into it to try and make the pit in his stomach go away. The hunger faded. The dread did not.

He took one more thing from his supplies. The emergency blanket from the supply kit. He shoved the rest of his supplies back under the bed.

Did he wait for Chloé? Or did he leave, and try to find someone? Do something? Anything?

What guarantee was there that Chloé would be back tonight, even if she was safe? Just as Marshall hadn’t come back last night? He couldn’t wait. Not after spending the day curled up under a bed, mind blank.

So he searched the house until he found something that would do. An old spoon, left in the kitchen. With barely a sharp enough corner to manage to carve letters into the door, with a significant amount of work.

With that, he carved a message on the front door so that Chloé couldn’t miss it. The paint on the door chipped away easily.


SAFEHOUSE
WAIT HERE FOR HELP

CHLOE -
FOUND RICHARD IRIS DARRYL
RESEARCH STATION
ILL RUN BETWEEN
LEAVE MESSAGES HERE
- MW


Marshall was gone again moments after the paint chips had stopped flaking to the ground.

((Marshall West continued in Megaphone.))