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Chapter 7: Sons and Fathers
"Someone likes to play games, its a terrible thing really."
Tracy said, shrugging her shoulders as she looked at Brooke a moment.
***
Aleks looked over at him, frowning some as she ran a hand through her wet hair.
"Ryan...he's alive...he's got to be, we'll find him." She looked around the shore line, trying to see any sign of Zach anywhere near them. She was afraid, afraid they wouldn't never see Zach or anyone else again for that matter.
- Tracy and Aleks
"My beliefs?" Leslie cocked her eyebrow. "A good education. Self-education. Not the crap they teach at GW. You dig into it yourself, read between the lines, do your own research--you'd find yourself sharing a lot of my beliefs. Universal healthcare, a democratically owned media, a non-tyrannical police state, transgender awareness, etc, etc--all that and more if you equip yourself with a bullshit detector like mine. Of course, considering who your parents are, you've been served bullshit on a platter for a while now, huh? You should be pretty good at recognizing bullshit by now."
***
"I know about cabin fever," Nicodemus said with a smile. "Ya wanna know how I advise my patients to deal with it?" He paused dramatically. "The power of imagination. Just sit back, close your eyes and you enter a whole 'nother world full of exciting possibilities. Allow me to demonstrate." Closing his eyes, Nicodemus sat there in bliss for a good ten seconds...
...when Dave and Fitz entered the room!
"Wow! That worked faster than usual!" Nicodemus remarked, eyes still closed.
Dave patted Fitz on the back, red in the face with laughter. "Yes we did. As if we were two scorned lovers tossed amidst the battling winds in the second circle of hell! Remarkable, really!" He listened to Fitz's questions with intense interest. "What? Er, yes, yes. Of course." Dave cleared his throat, before announcing excitedly, "We've been touched by the West Wind!"
***
"Maybe. Wouldn't be the first time, like I said." Emma stayed on pace, getting fed up with this idiot. "You seem to have a habit of underestimating me. Why is that?"
-Leslie, Nicodemus, Dave and Emma
Yeah. And it's going off right now.
"I meant what prompted it?" Carl explained.
***
"Well, the fact you're a teenager, for starters, who has probably never killed anyone before is a good start," Pedro replied, honestly.
"And the fact your plan seems to rely on winging it, instead of being thought out completely."
And before she could snap at him, he said, "And that has nothing to do with my love for movies. That is coming from years of experience at doing this for a living."
Leslie stopped and turned around to face Carl, "Experience. Just witnessing things, noticing patterns and trends. Like when another trans kid in the U.S is murdered or when a cop shoots another black kid dead or even here in Lakewood when there are people struggling to support themselves with two jobs or with no jobs or homes at all, starving on street corners. After you hear and see a lot of the crap that's swirling in the shit-storm that we call the discourse, you start to think critically and you start to tolerate less nonsense and you take a stance. So, Carl, lots and lots of experience has influenced my crazy leftist beliefs. No complex origin story behind it. Just a willingness to expose myself to the realities this shitty world has to offer."
***
"I do have a plan. Setting Kieran up as bait, and going in for the kill after that," Emma corrected the thug. "As for Kieran, I think we've covered my understanding of intimidation tactics." She chuckled, stepping over a stream. "Really, it sounds like I have all of this figured out, considering I'm the only doing the planning. If I'm being completely honest, you're actually coming off a bit insecure. Maybe because you're realizing a teenager could just as easily do your job." Emma smirked. "Spoiler alert: he can. We're looking for him now, as a matter of fact."
-Leslie and Emma
Experience, huh? Funny how that works out. That's a real laugh.
"I see," Carl took a deep breath to steady himself and asked, "We're going to find Fitz, right? How are we explaining the lack of Oxy?"
***
Pedro huffed at that.
"Si, he could. But could he do it just as good?"
This girl certainly seemed to be sure of herself. It'd be interesting to see how it played out,
"By the way. I don't think I ever got your name."
"Must be the second. I'm sure we'd have noticed an explosion."
Theodora looked at the harness, "Are you ready?"
***
"Oh, tell me about it," Brooke told her.
Weird thing...it had certainly looked like Tracy was talking to somebody, and yet...
But she wasn't about to get mired down in that can of worms. Not yet, not now, perhaps not ever.
Sociopathic manipulator, am I? Fine. As it is written, so it shall be.
"Awful," she crossed her legs, "For what it's worth, it's probably for the best you quite that Drew drip. It's never a good idea to wade into your ex's gene pool, even if the ex can't say anything about it."
***
"Yeah," Ryan told her, wishing he could manage some more conviction than that. He staggered to his feet, wincing as he did, "C'mere," he reached out a hand, "Can you stand?"
***
"Touched..." repeated Phyllis, "By the West Wind?"
"As friends, of course," chimed in Fitz hastily.
"Well, that's...that's lovely."
It was a relief that Dave seemed to have had some life restored to him. She'd have used the expression 'sobered up', but the glint in the English teacher's eyes indicated that wasn't quite the case.
"I suppose this means you haven't seen anybody else?"
"Hm?" Fitz cocked an eyebrow, "Woman, you sent me to find Evans," he gestured to Dave, "He is found and found and found again! Body, mind and soul."
Phyllis turned to Nicodemus, "Hang out around here a little more, you might make converts of us all."
-Theodora, Brooke, Ryan, Phyllis and Fitz
Noah
Okay Noah, smart idea, wondering out into the woods, white and foggy and totally not a horror movie scene at all.
Noah thought to himself as he moved through the woods, carefully stepping lightly, as to avoid sinking in the mud. He was aware this was a risky move, but he was done with all the waiting around to have a clue thrown in his lap. That's how Kieran had tricked him, that's how he had been distracted by romantic inclinations, that's how he had gotten his heart broken one too many times.
He was going to investigate this on his own, he was going to take the initiative.
He froze, he heard foot steps near by. He heard muffled voices.
"We're gonna be honest, Carl," Leslie replied. "We'll just say we're helping him overcome his addiction. He'll bitch and moan for a minute but then he'll drop it. Something about him communicates to me that he wreaks of defeat all the time so he'll be used to it."
With that, she signaled the addict in question over. "Hey! Smith!"
***
Nicodemus simply shot Phyllis a wink back, satisfied that she was satisfied.
Dave took his arm of Fitz's back and asked Phyllis, "How has the fort held up, eh? I don't see Ed or Theodora. Where are they off to?"
***
"Depends what your definition of good is," Emma answered, wading through the swamp. "I hate the bastard but I can't deny he had some style points. Most lunatics do." Squinting to see through the morning fog, she finally introduced herself. "Emma. I know who you are. Not everyday a school introduces a criminal to the class. Makes one fucked up career day..." She trailed off at the sound of footsteps that were not there own, splashing in water. Emma signaled Pedro to tread lightly as she slowed her step to reduce her noise. Eventually, finally, she spotted a silhouette in the fog.
Emma pounced on her prey, holding the knife to his throat. "Hello again, Kier..." Her face scrunched up in confusion when she finally saw her victim's face. "Noah?!"
-Leslie, Nicodemus, Dave and Emma
Tracy listened to Brooke, tilting her head a moment as she tried to place what the Maddox female was doing.
"Indeed, it would make Terrance turn in his grave. Which he's no doubt doing right now."
She hadn't wanted to make Terrance role over in his grave, but she had indeed.
***
Aleks held her hand out to him, pulling herself up onto her feet.
"My feet hurt, and no doubt are infected right now....but I can manage."
What she had done earlier before all this shit started, well she would have to find Zach quickly.
"Where do you think Zach could be though?"
-Tracy and Aleks
Noah
The girlish screech that bellowed from Noah's throat could have been heard for miles, at first he thought he had been tackled by the killer, then he saw her face. Emma Duvall, she looked tired, her features harsh, exaggerated, and every bit as unstable as Brooke had mentioned before.
"Emma...Just um..." He glanced from her, to the knife at his throat, and back into her eyes.
"...Just put the knife down okay, I'm not trying to hurt you, please don't try to hurt me."
"Oh, you're not trying to hurt me," Emma stood up, looking down at Noah with disdain. "You're just wasting my time. What are you doing out here, anyway? Shouldn't you be playing Sherlock with Audrey or Brooke or whoever's left now?"
Noah
The person that looked down at him was not the same Emma Duvall that Noah had once dubbed Lakewood's Final Girl, she was something different. Something in her core had changed, something that may never be restored.
"Well seeing as how Audrey decked me the last time I saw her, and Brooke...." He stopped, he didn't have time for this.
"Look Emma, normally I would be all about trying to get you help, or convince you that everything would be okay, or talk to you about your feelings, but frankly I don't have time for the bullshit. So, I'm going to say this once, go to the common hall, You are going to get hurt or killed out here." He told her slowly.
She was acting like Shelly Duvall after months of Kubrick torturing her on set.
"That's a very good question," said Phyllis, "They went off with Sanchez hours ago, and I haven't heard from any of the three since, and given we still don't know a thing about that man..."
"He's a Mexican bandito with a record," said Fitz, "The idiots are probably fajitas even now."
Phyllis slowly turned to him, "That..."
"Oh, come, you were thinking it too!"
"Not in so many words!" she folded her arms, "According to Tina Hudson, she found Deanna and lost her pretty damn quickly."
"But I'm the unreliable one!" Fitz harrumphed, "Seems I'm the only one who did what he was told!"
"And there are more kids missing than otherwise," Phyllis continued, "Your son among them."
Fitz's eye glinted, "Likely masturbating in a tree. The boy's half imp."
"On his mother's side of course?" Phyllis prompted with unprecedented bite. Fitz ignored her all the same.
"Well, all the same..."
He turned at his name being called, "Leslie! Cottonseed!"
"Cottonseed?" Phyllis repeated, incredulous.
"A moment, please," Fitz seized Leslie with one hand, Carl with the other, hauling them off, "Did you apprehend the...er...materials?"
At which point he realized that he'd failed to obtain his material, for them.
Blast.
***
Brooke smiled thinly, "Oh, well, my dead ex is doing a polka as we speak," she shrugged, "But it can't be helped."
She considered something, "So, uh...this is just a sidenote, but...Terrance screwed around with you a lot, right? Like, got in your hair, kept things from you...maybe you felt like you were being strung along, like one of those novelty invisible dog leashes?"
She leaned forward, "What I guess I'm asking out of, like, professional concern, is how didn't you rip his eyes out a thousand times over?"
***
"Probably someplace worse than here," said Ryan, "Probably back upriver, if he got out of the bus early on."
Unless he hadn't been able to make his way to shore. He was lighter, would've moved faster... He might be miles downriver. Or maybe he'd been knocked out, unable to resist the current...he might've drowned, been clubbed over the head by debris. Anything like that driftwood in the window would've been enough to crack his skull open...
Then there was the possibility he ended up on the other side of the river, which was too wide and tumultuous for any of them to swim across. Either way...
"We should head back up," he nodded upriver, "Stick to the shore. We'll find something."
-Phyllis, Fitz, Brooke and Ryan
"But it's just dandy for you to be strolling out here, huh?" Emma scoffed at Noah's hypocrisy. "Could people just stop telling me what's good for me? Every time something like this happens, you idiots coddle me and expect me to do nothing while people get killed. Especially you, with your murder boards and your lists of suspects. You're just as ineffective as everyone else! But God forbid I step out and do something! No, that's the end of the world! What a load of shit!" She got into his face to conclude her rant. "Now if you'll excuse us, but Pedro and I were tracking Kieran or what could actually be the killer. So you can either go back to the camp and cry yourself to sleep, stay here and get high on swamp gas, or follow us and do something useful!"
Emma signaled Pedro to follow her as she marched forward. "Catch up or go home, Foster! Those are your options!"
***
Leslie smiled, somewhat proud of herself. "I'd say we have." She presented him the empty pill bottle.
***
Dave returned his attention to Phyllis. "So we're the only adults in the building, eh?" He gazed at what little flock they were watching over. "And these our kids?" Shaking his head, Dave commented, "What good are we at our jobs when a third of us can't be here, a third of us are drunk or..." He gazed at Nicodemus, who politely waved back at him. "...whatever he is, and a third of us are actually doing their job." Quite seriously, Dave apologized. "I'm sorry to leave you alone like this and for how I've acted. I think you've proven yourself to be the only capable caregiver in this room and I've proven myself to be but a self-loathsome fool. But no more!"
-Emma, Leslie, Dave and Nicodemus
"Ha!" Fitz clapped his hands, unable to keep from bouncing on his heels, a habit his father had wrung out of him fairly early on, "Oh, thank you, thank you, this is just what I needed! Why, if you ever get tired of being smelly and unemployed, my dear, you will find a sure place at Smith's Sweeties, and you too as well, little Klan boy... Why, yes, this is certainly..."
The bottle was empty.
"It's empty!" he gasped, letting the bottle fall from him fingers as he crumpled to the floor, "How?" he demanded, "When?"
He grabbed Leslie by the arms, "WHY?"
***
Phyllis stared at what appeared to be Fitz's fainting spell, "Should we do something about that?"
Forcing herself to turn back to Dave, she said, "We have to make some sort of plan. Normally, I'd defer to the people who sign our paychecks, but like I said, I've heard no tell from either of them, and...as scary as it is to think even Teague might've been gotten the better of, by Sanchez or by the killer..."
She shrugged, "Enough parents have lost children tonight. We need to organize. And if it falls to us to take charge, then God help us, we must."
-Fitz and Phyllis
"I'd do a lot of things to avenge my friend's death!" Leslie explained, standing her ground. "Supporting an addict is not one of them. I'm sorry, but it's my way of helping you. Call it tough love."
***
Dave waved it off. "No, no. From what I've gathered, that's his way of expressing himself. He's fine." Clearing his throat, he inquired, "But what can we do, Phyllis? This is the only safe place on the campground. Yes, people keep leaving it but there's only so much we can do to prevent brazen youth from defying authority."
Nicodemus contributed a suggestion. "Why don't we enter a group meditation to ease our minds?"
"That accounts for the protection of the spirit, Yvain--I mean, Nicodemus, but what of the body?"
"I'm not sure," Nicodemus replied honestly. "All I know is bodies aren't forever. Spirits, well..." His face turned a rare shade of grim just then. "We might all be spirits soon."
-Leslie, Dave and Nicodemus
"You imbecile!" Fitz cried despite himself, "Do I look like a drug addict to you?"
***
Phyllis glared at Nicodemus, "Fair point. Why don't you go over to the corner and start meditating, hm?"
She turned to Dave, "Don't follow him."
She reached into her coat pocket, removing a notepad and a pen, a trusty ballpoint she'd been using regularly since her PsyD days.
"Alright," she began, crossing to the nearest table, which she set the pad on, "Far as I figure, here's everybody unaccounted for...
"Teague, Kellerman, and that man Sanchez. They went off looking for Kieran Wilcox who, somehow or another escaped the bathroom while we were..." she shrugged, not wanting to bring up that business over Sawyer's body. It wasn't like Dave would've forgotten, "Otherwise occupied," she looked in the fainting Fitz's direction, "I'd ask him how he missed that, but I doubt any of us would be helped by the answer.
"On the subject of the Wilcoxes, there's Deanna and her boyfriend Lance..."
"That cocksucker!"
Phyllis suppressed a cry, whirling around and pressing a hand to her heart as she looked the other woman, "You were listening?"
"I've destroyed most of my body, but my ears still work," Tina folded her arms, "You're talking about my shithead niece and her faithless fuck boyfriend."
"Is he the cocksu..."
"Well, no, that was really the last one."
"It's an appalling thing to call anybody, really," said Phyllis.
"You didn't share a net with him," Tina harrumphed, "Anyways, I ain't got no problem with queers. They leave me alone, mostly, like houseflies."
"Do you have something to say, Tina?"
"We found her!" Tina shrugged, "Smokey and me. Principal Tight-ass..."
"Dear God."
"...set us to look for her. My boy found her first, though, he's got better eyes than me. Anyway, we found her, and then she wandered her ass back here..."
"And now she's gone again. Odds are she's the one who let Kieran out, I can't conceive of anybody else with a motive."
"Sounds like something that shitbird would've done. Don't explain Smokey, though. He hated the shit out of Kieran, even if it was just so he seemed big dicked to DeeDee."
"Can you stop talking about boys' penises?"
"I can't talk about girl penises, now, can I?" Tina shrugged, "He made a big show when Kieran called the night before we left."
"He called?"
"What, didn't anybody tell ya?"
"No."
"You ask me, he's either with Dee, or after Kee, but ain't no way, he's with Kee, but he might be after Dee, but ain't no way, he, Kee and Dee are toget..."
"We understand," Phyllis sighed, "So that's six missing people, some of them might be grouped up together, but there's no telling how or where. Then..."
Phyllis looked around, "Zach Henderson is gone."
"He's another looker."
"Tina, I swear to God..."
"I thought you were Jewish."
Phyllis's fingers tightened around the pen, which seemed to suitably shut her up.
"He and Noah Foster were running around playing detective before. I know, they questioned me."
"Heh. Me too. Not that he gave a shit what I had to say."
"Fancy that," Phyllis added both boys to the list, "Maybe they're still together, looking for 'clues' or what have you."
"Good fucking luck. Probably dead already."
"Very helpful."
"That fuckhead Ryan Keller," added Tina.
"You know him?"
"Got a gun off him, matter of fact."
Phyllis stared. Tina rolled her eyes, "Don't start with me."
"So, it stands to reason he's up to no good somewhere. Emma and Audrey are gone too."
"The Jensen girl was here a little while ago," Tina shrugged, "Saw her leave myself."
"You saw her? And didn't stop her?"
"Lady, I've got my own business. Little bitch wouldn't have listened to me anyway. You know how it is when there's no Daddy in the picture..."
"Emma's been gone longer, then. That's a scary thought. Both girls were orphaned tonight..."
"I thought the Duval kid's Dad just ditched?"
Phyllis eyed her, "Doesn't it come to the same?"
Tina smirked, "Ain't that the truth?"
"Brooke Maddox described her as unhinged. Maybe Audrey tried to bring her back. Stavo was there too..." she bit her lip, "He never came back."
"Huh?"
"From the showers. I escorted him there myself."
"I thought he killed that midget girl? You left him alone?"
"He didn't kill anybody."
"Says you!"
"And that leaves..." she paused, "Theodore Harris, Aleks Martaine, and Fitz's son."
Tina blinked, "Who?"
-Fitz, Phyllis and Tina
Leslie considered. "Well...not to any hard drugs..."
***
Nicodemus gave a thumbs up. "Okie dokie! If y'all request my services, I'll be in the closet reaching my inner self." And so he journeyed there.
Dave saluted him. "Good luck, Yvain! May you be touched by the West Wind as I was!" Clearing his throat, he pointed out the obvious. "Well, the only children I can see in my sight are Miss Maddox, Miss Lewis, Miss Adon, Mr. Lennox and Mr. Hudson." He paled at that head count. "My God, we are decimated, aren't we?"
-Leslie, Nicodemus and Dave
"Sir, there's no shame in admitting there's a problem," Carl said, "We're willing to help you."
***
Pedro looked to Foster briefly, before he started following Emma.
"You heard her. Keep up, or go home, Pendejo."
***
Teague nodded.
"I'll tie it on when we find the bus."
As they continued walking, Teague kept his eyes on the river, looking for any sign, Teague put the guide rods in his coat pocket, and said, "I've got two mylar space blankets on me. I imagine those are going to need them."
"My problem was in that bottle!" cried Fitz, "And it would've been fixed had you delivered it to me! My God, they aren't even my pills, they belong to her!"
He pointed across the room to Tracy, "You seemed so eager to disadvantage her before, I figured you'd leap at the chance to do it again! But Lord help me, you got high ideas about me being an opioid addict, and my heaven, what does one say to that? I didn't think you'd destroy them! Now it is too late! I can't return her drugs, and she'll ruin me! Ruin me as surely as Rome was ruined. Damn, damn and blast and double blasted damnation!"
He punched the floor, immediately regretting it.
"That oxy would've been quite fine right about now."
***
"Let's maybe not use that word," Phyllis cautioned, "Alright, we have to be smart about this. No going off half-cocked..."
Tina opened her mouth. Phyllis silenced her with a stare.
"We need a plan of action. There are maps in the store room. We can coordinate," she looked from one of them to the other, "Give me a minute."
And she was off.
Tina moistened her lips, looking Dave over, "So...you're a big fella."
***
Theodora budged herself down the cord in fits and starts, endeavoring the entire time not to look down.
Thirty decades in public service, and look at yourself.
"They'll need more than blankets if we aren't quick," she told him, alighting unsteadily on the narrow, muddy bank between the base of the ridge and the water. If they're still in the bus, they can't have more than an hour's oxygen, and that's if the windows hold, which..."
She eyed the roaring rapids.
"...isn't likely."
-Fitz, Phyllis, Tina and Theodora
"Easy, because Terrance was my bankcard. I got whatever I wanted from him, damn if he was screwing other people or not."
Tracy said simply, looking around at the others in the hall with them.
***
Aleks nodded as she started walking, subconsciously scanning the ground as they did so.
"We'll find him...we have too...I can't just leave him behind."
A thought that scared her the most, was whether or not they would end up dead down here without anyone so much as knowing they had gone over. Perhaps the bus had been a setup the entire time, but they had tried.
"You know we'll most likely get shit for taking the bus and ending up without any transport...not that any of us are bound to survive at this rate..."
-Tracy and Aleks
Leslie stood there, bamboozled by this all. "Tracy will ruin you? With what? Those pictures?" Infuriated for his sake, she slapped Fitz...also for his sake. "Sweet shit, man! Get a hold of yourself!"
***
"And you, madam, a surly woman, indeed," Dave replied, looking her over. "I suppose you're regretting playing chaperone, eh?"
-Leslie and Dave
Noah
While Niah would usually be taken aback by getting berated so harshly, Emma's rant was not soley directed at him, Brooke's hiwever was, so that stung more.
He knew following following her was a bad idea, he knew it would mist likely get him killed, not to mention Pedro calling him a dumbass, but Emma wa no longer protected by status. This killer had no direct target for their wrath. She was a Final Girl no more...
"I can't believe Im gonna die with wannabe Machete and insane Lori Strode." He mumbled to himself as he ran to catch up.
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Carl.
***
"And if the windows DO hold, I'm gonna need something to get the door open," Teague looked down.
Of course that depended on which way the door was facing.
***
"Would you rather die with your idiota friends?" Pedro asked, keeping his distance from Emma so she couldn't hear them.
"Then again, her plan is loco."
Noah
He side glanced at Pedro, a cold glare.
"The knly iduot here is you, I hward about all the guns...Like a gun will do anything but harm, in a situation like this, a gun won't protect you."
He shoved his hands in his pockets, the cool morning breeze nipping at his face, turning it a harsh pink.
Fitz moaned as Leslie's hand came against his face, "You don't understand! Damn it all, girl, you are too young, and too naive by half! There are some things in this life that one never walks back from..."
He lowered his head, feeling it heat up, "I have many great shames in this life, and near all of them have been aired out for the public consumption. Can't some things remain hidden? And yet, alas, it doesn't matter, for I have lost my leverage, and she holds the yoke on me."
***
"Eh, it's been a ride, but I got laid."
Tina paused, "I think he's 18."
"I've got a map!" Phyllis hurried back.
"And we were getting on just fine."
"I'm sure you were," Phyllis spread the map out beside the notepad, "We have to be intelligent about this. Under no circumstances do we leave the kids alone. But do we leave one of us to stay here with them?"
"It's gone so well before," Tina muttered. Phyllis nodded in acknowledgement, "But, then, do we bring them with us? Either way it sounds irresponsible."
"Ain't nothing wrong with irresponsibility every now and again. Builds character."
"What?"
"If you do everything the right way every time, kids forget how to cut corners. It's bad for their growing up. The number of times I left the window open when Eli was learning to crawl. Fuck, those Polskis downstairs got a helluva a surprise..."
Tina noticed Phyllis gawping at her.
"What? You get it. You're a shrink, ain't you?"
***
Brooke laughed bitterly, "You know, this whole time I thought you were just being cute about that. Like, yeah, he paid your way and shit, but I figured you must still like him. A little."
She considered, "God, you almost wish they were all stupid, disposable shitheads. It'd be easier, wouldn't it?"
***
"Pfft," Ryan muttered, "Assholes oughta thank us for proving that bridge was gonna out. It'd have been some other idiot in our place."
He considered, "Explains why the bus wasn't really fucked up either. Even if we could fix it, the bridge'd be taken out."
Though something told Ryan the bridge might've held up better if, say, one person had walked across, maybe with others following at generous intervals.
But there was no use bitching about it now.
"So..." he turned to Aleks, standing closer to the river than she (if only because, well, chivalry and all that shit, like walking on the street-side of the sidewalk), "You...uh...you and Zach, huh?"
He couldn't help but notice their little bit of lip play in the moments before the bridge had given out. There was a rearview mirror, after all.
"Guess you got what you wanted."
***
"Oh, well..." Theodora shrugged, "No shortage of rocks."
She looked at the river, "To paraphrase Richard Nixon...it doesn't look good."
-Fitz, Tina, Phyllis, Brooke, Ryan and Theodora
Tracy looked over at Brooke, tilting her head.
"If given a choice, Maddox...would you choose to die like the rest of them, or live?"
She had a chance, perhaps to make her choice one final time. If he would give her that, perhaps she could spare Maddox if the girl would choose her side in this. "What if I could give you the chance to live, would you join me?"
***
Aleks felt her cheeks heat up at that, looking down.
"I didn't get Zach...and if I've lost him...than everything was for nothing." She mumbled, shaking her head as she walked faster, slipping on one of the rocks and stumbling slightly. She could feel the tears down her cheeks, she didn't want to lose anyone else.
Hell she was just a girl, a girl that had lost too much.
They all had lost too much.
"I can't lose him too..."
-Tracy and Aleks
"Armor piercing bullets, Pendejo," Pedro said, looking at him.
"And the movies never said ANYTHING about broadheads."
***
"What kind of blackmail does she have on you?" asked Carl. This was the first time he was hearing about it.
"Because you're letting her!" Leslie grabbed Fitz by the shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eye. "You don't have to stand for that bullshit, Fitz. Ya wanna know why?"
***
"Presumably, this would be the safest spot for the children," Dave chipped in. "It's fortified and contained. The fog has risen from the swamp, not to mention how wild and massive it is in scope. To bring them along would slow us down and endanger them." He glanced at Fitz, who was now being throttled by Miss Adon. "The real question is which of us are capable to venture into the wilderness."
***
"Insane?" Emma laughed humorlessly. "If insane gets us results, I'm fine with that." Turning to face Noah only slightly, she asked, "So tell me, besides getting decked by Audrey, how'd you get exiled from the Lakewood sewing circle?"
-Leslie, Dave and Emma
"Why?" Fitz cried, helpless as putty in the anarchist's hands, "Tell me if you can, why?"
***
Tina cocked her head to the side, "Five bucks on the purple one."
"Well, we can't leave him here."
"The stupid fuck's missing an eye, and he let the murderer we know about walk clean out of here."
"Exactly. He can't manage these people worth anything," Phyllis considered, "Wait a moment..."
She crossed the room, "Nicodemus! God, are you still in the closet?"
"He's still in her PJs is what he's in," Tina muttered to Dave, smirking knowingly.
***
Brooke blinked, "What kind of fucked up question is that? Doesn't everybody want to live?" she paused, reflecting on her words, "...if everybody else dies."
She scoffed, "Honey, I may be spiraling, but I'm not that low yet. You enjoy your apocalyptic fantasy, though. Ta."
She got to her feet and stalked off.
***
"Aw, fuck, don't..." Ryan averted his eyes uncomfortably, "Don't cry."
He reached out a hand to pat her arm, feeling extraordinarily stupid as he did.
"Look, yanno it's...sometimes it's the journey that matters, right? Not the...the destination."
Probably makes a difference if the destination is dead, though, he told himself.
"Look, if it means anything...Zach liked you too. I mean...he was never gonna say it. He carried that goddamn torch for Brooke Maddox like it was his job and he never talked about that either. But you know him long enough, it...it's easy to read him."
He sighed, "So it meant something to him, so...there you have it. Wasn't for nothing."
-Fitz, Tina, Phyllis, Brooke and Ryan