Things were a little different outside of trials, but not by much if she really thought about it. Laurie Strode was a simple woman, she just wanted everyone to get along and she loved making others happy. Nothing made her feel better than being able to comfort a troubled, fellow survivor.
When Jake was covered head to toe in scratches and blood, Laurie was there to help patch him up when he was too proud to ask anyone else for help. Laurie saw right through that mask the moment she saw him.
When Meg was holding back tears after a particularly brutal trial, trying her best to stay strong around the others to keep up her tough exterior. She let go around Laurie, and the blonde was more than happy to hold her and give her a shoulder to cry on, quite honored of the fact she trusted her enough to see her like that.
When Dwight was pointing fingers, pushing blame on everyone and getting the others all riled up to the point that they were at each other's throats, Laurie was there to lead them all down and tell Dwight, in the nicest way she knew how, that he needed to accept responsibility for his mistakes. He would give her a sad smile and agree, that the pressure of being the leader just got to him. Laurie would smile back and give him a pat on the shoulder.
Put simply, all the other survivors were big babies and Laurie was their big baby babysitter. Such in life, as is in death. Well... not death, but you get the point. Might as well be.
How the entity handled the survivors was interesting to say the least. When it wasn't putting them against murderous psychopaths and asking them to fight for their life, it just sat them down at a lone campfire with three others, and made them wait. This time, Laurie was sitting with Jake, Claudette, and Meg, waiting with dread for the next trial to commence.
From what Laurie could gather, two trails took place at a time, and each took roughly an hour. Right now, Dwight, Nea, Bill, David, Feng, Quentin, Tapp, and Ace were participating in two different trails with two different killers, while the other four of them and what she assumed were the other killers, all waited for their turn. They had what Laurie liked to call "work days" where they did five trails a day for about seven to eight hours, depending on how the entity feels at the time and then they got the night to sleep. Separately, because the survivors and the killers were not allowed to mingle whatsoever... unless the entity was bored of trails for the day and wanted to try something different, but that was rare. The only time that Laurie saw any of the killers was when they were trying to kill her, and she'll admit it made her not too fond of them.
She's already been through four trials today, and any minute now, she would have her last for the day. The consistency of it all was relaxing to her, at least. She found comfort in routine.
"Laurie... can I ask you something?"
...but not for the others, as it would seem.
Laurie turned to Claudette who was sitting next to her, staring at her with wide eyes filled with worry, "Yes, Claudette? What is it?"
Claudette hesitated, opening her mouth to speak but no words coming out. She lowered her head in thought. She looked back up when she found her words, "Do you think we'll ever get out of here?"
Laurie blinked, a little taken back by the question. Claudette was staring at her like the words even coming out of her mouth was her worst fear. Laurie understood then. Claudette had wanted to ask this question for a long time, but she was terrified of the answer. The blonde could relate to that fear, and gave her an empathetic smile, "Of course we will, sweetie." She moved her arm around the smaller girl and gave her a quick one armed hug, "Don't you worry about it. There's no way we'll be here forever, that would get boring eventually, wouldn't it?"
Claudette gave her a questioning look, "What do you mean?"
"Well," Laurie responded, "We don't know much about the entity, right? But we do know that it at least gives us some breaks, and feeds us... so it stands to reason that it at least, in some small sense, cares about our well being, right?"
"I guess..."
"So when it wants new survivors, it will just return us to our lives!" Laurie chimed enthusiastically, smiling widely. Claudette eyed her, considering what she had said. Laurie, quite frankly didn't believe a word that had just came out of her own mouth, but she was trying to remain positive. If not for Claudette's sake, for her own.
The smaller girl let out a shaky sigh, "If you think so. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"
Laurie nodded, "I guess we will."
"Godddddd, you girls over there need to face the facts," a lower female voice chimed in from across the campfire. Laurie looked over to see Meg was lying on top of the log, taking up almost all the room it had to offer. Jake sat on the edge of it, politely not saying anything to her about her selfish position. She chewed loudly on chewing gum and popped a bubble inside her mouth, "We are never getting out of here. No need to be spreading false hope."
Laurie rolled her eyes, "Come on, Meg. Learn to lighten up a little! It's good to have some hope in the small chance that-"
Meg started laughing hysterically, "Hope! That's rich! Come oooon, Strode, don't kid yourself."
Laurie just stared at her with her mouth wide open, completely appauled at Meg's behavior. Sure, Meg could be short tempered sometimes, but she was never usually this... just... just rude!
"You're being really mean right now, Meg. Maybe you should learn how to behave around others." She threw back, crossing her arms.
Meg just snorted, sitting up and leaning on her knees with her elbows, "You're so 70's. Hello! It's the future, Strode! You and your dated morals need to-"
"Okay, that is enough!"
Meg shut her mouth immediately at the sudden outburst. They all collectively turned their attention to Jake who was sitting there with his hands in fists. He glared at both of them, "Can we go one damn day without the fighting! This is exactly what the entity wants! Us tearing into each other!"
Everyone looked down shamefully, wisely deciding to stay quiet. It took a lot for Jake to lose his temper, and it was nothing to be proud of to be the one to break him. Everyone loved Jake. Nobody wanted to see him upset.
Meg pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just... this damn place. I'm sick of the same shit over and over. I didn't mean to be such a bitch."
Laurie glanced up at her apology, "It's okay, Meg. I know everyone deals with things in their own way. I really don't blame you for lashing out like you did."
Jake crossed his arms and kicked his legs up onto the log and lied down in the position Meg was recently in, pushing her to the edge of the log this time, "There, isn't that nice? Now, give each other a hug and a kiss to make up."
They collectively groaned and rolled their eyes, but both stood up and met in the middle, wrapping their arms around each other. She didn't want to admit it, but Laurie was a big hugger, and it had been quite some time since she had been able to show affection. There really never was many opportunities to do so. Laurie allowed herself a small smile, hugging her tighter and enjoying Meg's embrace.
It also didn't hurt Meg wasn't too bad to look at either-
Laurie quickly retracted herself after that stray thought. She gave an embarrassed smile and put her hands behind her back, looking away. Meg noticed this and way about to say something but before she had the chance, she was cut off by Claudette.
"Here comes trouble."
The dark mist, as they called it, once again began it's slow roll into the clearing, filling up all of the air and blocking their vision. It filled their lungs and they all immediately started coughing and choking from the lack of oxygen. Laurie pushed her shirt up over her face in a feeble attempt to filter out the mist but it was no use and she knew it. It was just on impulse and she found herself doing it almost every time. Her vision started to blur and she grew more dizzy with each breath until one moment she was sitting next to the campfire and after a single blink, she was suddenly somewhere else.
Laurie prided herself in being very familiar with all the settings the entity presented them with whenever they were faced with a trial, but as she regained her balance and gazed around at the room she was standing in, she knew that this trail was going to be very, very different.
She immediately felt like a cornered animal. The walls and hallways were made of stone and metal and were packed tight together, making a lot of corners and corridors that lead to medium sized rooms with pillars and stacks of boxes that were all just in the way. The low ceiling was only a few feet above her head, making the room she was standing in seem just that much smaller.
And dear god, the smell.
It was near indescribable. She gagged immediately once she noticed it, coughing just in time to stop herself. The smell of rotting meat hit her like a slap in the face. She looked behind her to see the corpse of some poor guy leaned against a wooden box behind her, his dried blood and organs splayed out everywhere like the crime scene of a psychopath. The knowledge that this person never really lived and was just a replica of the entity did nothing to make her feel any better or to even settle her stomach. She returned the collar of her shirt to her nose, trying anything to get rid of the scent but it was just no use. She let out a breath and dropped her hand, deciding just to walk out of the room. She needed to start looking for a generator to fix anyway.
Shaking off the shock of the scent of the place, thankfully she started getting a little used to it. When she left the room the corpse was in, the smell of place was extremely metallic with a mildew-like after tone. The hallway she found herself in was narrow and up ahead she could see a sharp left turn. Her footsteps echoed loudly with every step, so she tried her best to tread lightly as she moved throughout the unfamiliar building.
A sudden scream erupted from somewhere near her. Laurie jumped and gasped in surprise, throwing her hand over her mouth to stop her scream. She looked around frantically and ran to the end of the hallway, peeking around the corner. The hallway continued for a little ways before opening to another room. There was no one in sight. She turned around and checked behind her. Nothing. Then where did the-
Her thoughts were halted when another scream hit her ears. It was then she noticed it was muffled and coming from above her. She looked up at the ceiling and crouched when she heard the heavy footfalls of someone running directly above her head. She froze, listening intently when another set of footsteps followed suit. They were lighter and more carefully placed than the ones before.
She quickly sorted through her thoughts, trying to piece together which killer had light footsteps. Most of the men were ruled out because almost all of them were absolutely massive. It wasn't The Huntress, she was too heavy. The Nurse floated... too even to be The Hag's... The Wraith, maybe? Freddy? It was too soon to tell. She would have to see for herself.
She continued forward, running towards the new room at the end of the hallway. When she passed through the doorway, she stepped into what must have been some kind of common room where people went to find out where they needed to go in whatever this building was once used for in the real world. She could see a medium sized stone staircase to her right. She jogged over to it, taking the stairs two steps at a time until she reached the top, using the also stone railing as leverage to pull herself the rest of the way, being careful to remain low and unseen. She stepped quietly over to a stack of boxes on the other side of the railing and peeked out from behind it in the direction the footsteps had gone.
The whirr of a generator powering could be heard to her left. She glanced in the direction of the sound to see Claudette peaking her head out from behind a wall in a connecting room. Her eyes lit up when she saw Laurie next to the boxes and she hurried over, crouching next to her.
"New killer," Claudette told her in a hushed voice, "She just caught up to Jake. Meg is trying to get him off of the hook now, I don't know if she's done it already."
A new killer? This trial is certainly turning out to be very different indeed. "What does she look like?" Laurie asked her, curiosity clouding her better judgment.
Claudette made a face, "Really tiny, bright red jacket. But get this," she gave a nervous chuckle, "She's wearing a pig's head like some kind of mask!"
Laurie huffed in surprise, "A pig's head? Now the entity is just getting ridiculous."
Claudette shook her head, "No time to chat, we need to find another generator and get it up and running before she comes back this way."
Laurie gave her a quick nod and followed close behind her as she stood and began jogging into another room on their right. So far the entire upstairs was just room after room with huge metal doors separating them, but a lot of them were open. The entire area was extremely open and she noted to herself that it would be very easy to be spotted here, so she picked up her pace.
The sound of another generator coming to life somewhere in the building meant Meg got Jake off the hook and they had managed to repair a generator. This trial was going by pretty smoothly so far.
They entered the room and Laurie spotted a generator in the far corner. She pointed it out to Claudette who nodded and made her way over to it with Laurie by her side. She crouched down next to it and skillfully stuck her hand through the metal parts, grabbing some wires carefully with one hand and bringing it towards her, taking her free hand and grabbing it's pair, reconnecting the wires and securing it with electrical tape that seemed to always be lying around generators. Laurie was surprised the entity even knew anything about being an electrician, but then again she was surprised she new anything herself. Thank god for Jake and his seemingly infinite wisdom.
After reconnecting wires with Claudette for several minutes, Laurie smacked the side of it a few times and it roared to life, vibrating with the new electricity that flowed through it and the gears finally turning after god knows how long. The moment they finished, the sound of another generating activating could be heard downstairs. Claudette gave Laurie a big smile. This trial was going great so far!
Then Laurie heard Meg scream.
Claudette's eyes shot wide and she turned around, her gaze snapping towards the staircase. It had come from somewhere downstairs. She turned back to Laurie and whispered, "I'm gonna go help Meg, you try and find Jake and-"
She was cut off by Jake's rough scream from the same area.
Claudette was shaking with fear but she still took a deep breath and faced Laurie again, "I'll go help them! Find the last generator and fix it so we can all get out of here the moment the coast is clear!"
Laurie gave her a curt nod and turned away, running off towards an unfamiliar hallway, glancing back once to see Claudette descending the stairs and towards the screams of their fellow survivors. Laurie felt guilty that she wasn't going to help them out as well but Claudette knew and so did she that if that last generator didn't get repaired, none of them were going to make it out of here alive.
She jogged down the hallway, running her fingers along the grey walls as she ran, letting the rough friction of the stone ground her. This was real. This was happening.
She needed to hurry.
She started running down the corridor and make a sharp turn to see a pallet propped up against the wall, and right next to it was a window that lead into an extremely small room with a single generator sitting against the wall just waiting to be fixed. She allowed herself no time to be excited and crawled through the window, settling herself next to the generator and setting to work immediately.
Laurie probably hasn't worked on something with so much concentration before in her entire life. She was working at the speed of someone who could recite an entire "electricity for dummiez" book by memory. Thanks to her speed, she was almost done with the generator, she just had to connect two more wires together and that was it.
Claudette's scream echoed down the long corridors of the entire building.
Laurie jumped, pulling and ripping the casing around the wire. Sparks flew and it caused a chain reaction. The generator all but exploded. It jolted with electricity and let out a horrifyingly loud bang. Laurie jumped back and fell on her behind, covering her eyes with her arms, shielding herself from the explosion. She started breathing heavily, daring to look at the generator once the sound settled. Two sets of wires had come undone and were sparking madly. She grabbed them with shaky fingers, ignoring the buzz of electricity that seemed to vibrate her bones and connected all the remaining wires more carefully this time. The light on the generator flashed as it came to life. She could hear an exit gate near by beep as it too activated.
Laurie lowered her head, breathing heavily. She did it. The exits were powered. Now she just had the find the others and-
Laurie froze, completely unmoving.
She could hear heavy breathing behind her.
She slowly looked over her shoulder.
Standing behind her on the other side of the window was a woman. She was extremely tiny, standing at around only a little more than five feet tall, but that did nothing to rid the fear Laurie felt when she saw how feral the woman looked. She stood in a semi-crouched position, her arms sticking out from her sides, her shoulders rising and falling with each heavy breath she took. The hollowed out head of pig completely covered her head with a straight black hair cascading down her shoulders and behind her back. She wore a blood red jacket with cloth attached to the front and the back that flowed around her blue jeans with some kind of draft that Laurie couldn't feel. The eyes of the pig were missing, being used now as eye holes for the killer. Her eyes were hidden inside the darkness of the "mask" but Laurie had no doubt they had venom in them. That they held the irresistible urge to hunt down her prey and take pleasure in watching the life seep from the people stupid enough to stand in her way. Laurie was terrified.
Laurie was cornered.
The killer, who Laurie on the spot decided she was going to call The Pig, raised her right hand up slowly, holding it in front of her. She turned her head away from Laurie to look at her sleeve, watching it for a moment, unmoving. Laurie's eyes were glued to it. She was frozen to the spot, terrified that if she moved, the new killer would strike.
The Pig slowly closed its fist, turning it's head back to her. Suddenly a long silver blade shot out from her sleeve, making Laurie let out a pitiful squeak in fear. She let out an inhumane growl before she crouched and vaulted through the window, shooting straight for Laurie with her blade held high and ready to strike.
Laurie screamed and lunged forward, ducking under The Pig right as she pounced. The Pig grunted in surprise at her quick movement and flew over her completely, landing on top of the generator. The breath was knocked out of her and she collapsed into the floor, gasping. Laurie took this momentary stun to jump into action, scrambling through the window and making a run for it. The Pig jumped to her feet and made chase, crawling through the window right after her.
Laurie crawled over the window, feeling The Pig grab at the back of her shirt but she couldn't get a grip so the taller woman slipped out of her grasp. She heard the new killer hiss in frustration and vault over after her. Right when she entered the corridor she saw the pallet she had passed by earlier. She ran over to it and grabbed it, pushing with all of her strength until it collapsed down, falling right in The Pig's face. She let out a squeak in surprise and stumbled backwards, almost losing her balance. Laurie didn't look back and sprinted away, trying to get to the others as quickly as she could, if they were even still alive.
Laurie could hear the clicking footsteps of The Pig running right after her, her breath amplified by the muffling of the pig mask she wore. Laurie was running as fast as she could, but she could hear the killer getting closer with every second that passed. For having such short legs, she sure was fast.
The thing about long hallways is that there's nowhere else to go but forward, and The Pig was faster than Laurie was.
The Pig lunged forward and tackled Laurie from behind. Laurie fell, her head slamming against the ground, hard. Her vision blackened and her thought scrambled immediately. She felt the weight of The Pig on top of her, but she was too dizzy to even think about moving. She blinked several times, her vision coming back slowly but the world was still blurry.
She shook her head, trying to gather herself when she felt The Pig's weight lift off of her. Before she had time to react, the killer grabbed her shoulder and flipper her over onto her back roughly. The Pig straddled her, leaning forward with the blade held out in front of her. Laurie could barely tell what was going on because the smaller woman was shifting back and forth from being blurry and being in focus. She could barely even form a coherent though, but she raised a shaky hand in a feeble attempt to protect herself. The Pig slapped it away and brought her blade to Laurie's face, sliding the unsharpened side against her cheek. She turned her head away in surprise from how cold it was, but the killer grabbed her chin and forced her to look her in the eyes. Laurie blinked a few more times before her vision finally focused for what seemed like for good. She squinted, trying to get a good look into the killer's mask. She could see the tiniest glint of light reflecting off of the smaller woman's eyes. Her brown eyes. In her dazed and confused state, Laurie let herself think thoughts she never usually let herself think.
She also opened her stupid mouth.
"Woooow," Laurie hummed, smiling like an idiot up at the woman trying to kill her, "You have some really pretty eyes!"
Even in the darkness of the mask, Laurie could see The Pig's eyes widen in surprise. She just froze, unsure of where to go from here. Laurie let out a goofy giggle at her reaction.
The Pig growled, assuming the survivor was mocking her. She turned the knife over and slashed Laurie across the face, blood splattering up the wall in the enclosed hallway.
The pain knocked Laurie to her senses instantly. She let out a scream and in retaliation winded up her arm as much as she could while on the ground and she swung hard, her fist connecting with The Pig's jaw. The killer howled in pain and was thrown off of Laurie with the momentum of the punch, but as she flew backwards, Laurie unintentionally got her hand tangled in a knot in The Pig's wig. She flew backwards without her mask, landing onto her shoulder with a loud pop. She screamed in pain and grabbed her dislocated shoulder, pawing at it with no idea what she could do to stop the pain.
Laurie sat up and leaned against the wall, staring at the pig head in her lap. She gasped in shock and threw it to the side in disgust, wiping her hands on her shirt before the pain of her new wound set in. She put her hand against her face and immediately felt the blood running down her cheek and into one of her eyes. The cut went all the way up from her right eyebrow, across her nose and ending at the bottom of her left cheek. Half of her face was covered in blood with it dripping all over her blue collared shirt. She closed her right eye in pain when she felt blood trying to get into it.
The Pig gasped in pain, her breathing extremely labored as she pushed herself up with her good arm, shaking violently. This caught Laurie's attention and she looked up, getting her first look at the new killer unmasked. The Pig growled in anger and snapped it's head up at the blonde, her nose wrinkled in a feral snarl.
Laurie's heart skipped a beat when she saw The Pig's face.
She had soft cheeks that connected to a sharp chin and a strong jawline. Her eyes were big and round with dark lashes and soft brown eyes that glistened in the light that shone from the swinging light fixtures above them. Her thin dark brown eyebrows were crunched up on her forehead that was partly covered by her extremely messy and short dark brown hair that stuck out in several directions, seemingly unable to decide which way it wanted to go. She had a tiny little button nose that came to a point at the end, sticking upwards a bit.
Everything about The Pig was absolutely wild. She was completely untamed.
She was the most beautiful woman Laurie had ever seen in her entire life.
The conclusion that Laurie just came to scared her more than the threat of her own death.
She rose to her feet and booked it.
Laurie's feet hit the ground hard as she sprinted away from The Pig, her heart racing in her chest. She could hear the killer's scream from where she had left her when she popped her shoulder back into place. She kept running and didn't look back.
What the hell just happened?
Before she could even process the events that just took place, she ran face first into somebody. She stumbled, catching her balance last second before she could fall. She looked up to see Jake standing in front of her, drenched in blood. His breathing was ragged and his arm had several slashes in it from top to bottom.
Laurie released the breath she didn't even realize she was holding. "Jake! You're alive!"
"Barely," he chuckled, holding his injured arm with his good hand, "Claudette and Meg didn't make it. There's an exit this way, follow me!"
Laurie frowned when she heard about her fellow survivors. Meg had a tendency to get too cocky in trials and it was that fact that was usually her downfall. Claudette on the other hand, probably got killed trying to save the others. Poor Claudette... her heart was too big for this kind of life.
Jake and Laurie ran as quickly as they could across the building until they came across a very small set of stairs that went down a few feet to a lower platform. At the end of the platform, was the exit gate. Jake had opened it about halfway already.
They jogged forward and Laurie took it upon herself to grab onto the lever and pull down hard, the plate sparking slightly with the rush of electricity flooding to the gate. Jake walked over to the center of the gate, waiting for it to open. Laurie watched the lights above the lever light up one after the other. There was only one light left to come on, the the gate would be open and they were home free.
They suddenly heard a loud clang behind them, followed by a scream of pure rage. Laurie's head snapped around to see The Pig standing there still unmasked, ready to attack. She knocked another crate that was in her way over and was all but foaming at the mouth, making hissing sounds as she took ragged breaths through her clenched teeth.
Jake's eyes grew wide in horror, "Hurry up, Laurie! Get that gate open!"
"I'm trying!" Laurie threw back, shuffling her feet restlessly. She stared hard at the last light above the lever that had yet to light up.
The Pig screamed in rage and charged with her blade that was covered in Laurie's own blood pointed straight at her. She was heading straight for Laurie, completely disregarding Jake.
"Laurie!"
Beep! Beep!
The gate whirled to life and slid open. Laurie was frozen, staring at The Pig sprinting at her at full speed. Jake ran over and grabbed Laurie's hand, pulling her away at the last possible second right before The Pig's knife slashed at the lever, missing the survivor by an inch. Forced into action, Laurie followed right behind Jake as they ran toward the exit. She could hear the hard footfalls of the killer right behind them accompanied by her grunts of effort. They passed through the gate the second she swung.
Jake let go of Laurie's hand and kept running towards the tree line in the distance, but Laurie stopped after a few steps and turned around, setting her eyes on The Pig. The killer punched and slashed and kicked at the exit gate, but there was some kind of invisible wall there that was preventing her from going any further. She slammed her fist against the wall, putting her forehead against it, closing her eyes in frustration while breathing heavily.
Laurie didn't know what was going on inside her head, but seeing the smaller woman in this state made her feel a lot of things she didn't understand. She took a few experimental steps forward, keeping her eyes on her the whole time.
Hearing her approach, The Pig looked up at Laurie. They made eye contact, both of them unmoving. Laurie raised a shaky hand and placed it against the invisible wall that was refusing her re-entry to the trial, right where The Pig's fist was.
The killer stared at her hand for several seconds, unsure of what Laurie's motives were. She glanced up the taller woman who just stared back, unsure of what her own motives were as well. The Pig's fist slowly unclenched and she placed her hand against Laurie's as best as she could despite the invisible barrier.
They stayed like this for a while, just looking into each other's eyes.
Laurie got to watch the rage slowly melt away from The Pig, turning into confusion, then something she couldn't describe. Laurie's heart was pounding in her chest from how intimate this moment was. Laurie had never stared into someone's eyes like this before, let alone a woman's.
Let alone someone who was trying her damndest to kill her not three minutes ago.
Laurie slowly came to her senses, her hand sliding off of the barrier as she backed away slowly, never breaking eye contact with the killer. The Pig's eyes grew wide as she backed away. She raised her other hand up and placed it against the wall too, watching the blonde woman back away and into the mist with what seemed like some kind of sadness in her eyes.
This was wrong. This was all wrong. Laurie was so confused. She needed time to process this. She needed to get away. The mist, seemingly picking up on this, swallowed her whole.
The Pig stayed there for several more seconds, staring at the spot where the survivor had disappeared. She was too afraid to move, her eyes narrowed in confusion. She didn't have to move though, the mist made that decision for her.
Just like that the trial was over, and Gideon's Meat Plant was once again a hollow shell of what it once was.