PART 8: HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Iz rolled up her sleeves for the dishes. It was a job she absolutely loathed. It was her task to do it for the rest of the week, with Kita's help. But Kita had been lucky enough to not show up at breakfast and not being in her room, so she escaped that task. Now Iz had to do the dishes with Trojan.


"You know, those inconsiderate twats could at least take their plates from the tables to the sink. Small trouble, you know. But you think they do it? Noooooo,"Iz said annoyed.

 
"I think they have other things on their mind. Like finding Kita, for instance,"Trojan said calmly, but there was an undertone of growing exasperation in his voice.


"Then why do I have to take care of the dishes? Why can't I go look for Kita, too?"she asked.


Trojan sighed. "Everything has to be in order here as well. Besides, you're not doing the dishes on your own,"Trojan said, pointing to himself very clearly.


"Blabla. Don't you know where Kita is, by the way? I mean, you had that dinner with her late last night,"Iz said.


"She... left my room after the dinner. That's when I last saw her,"Trojan said, trying to keep a blank face. He couldn't tell Iz what caused Kita to leave the room.


But Iz saw the look on his face. "Ooooh, date didn't go well then. Didn't get what you wanted? Well, that explains everything, then. Kita is such a sex-addict, if you couldn't please her, she probably just went into town to find someone else. Yeah, I bet she's laying on a table right now, being banged by some muscular, handsome guy," Iz put her hands in the air, "screaming: "Mmmmuch better than Trojan. Much better than Trojan! That's probably the case, and in meanwhile she has us all worried and she won't even come over to do the dishes. Inconsiderate, as always,"Iz said with a sigh.


"You're the one that's inconsiderate!"Trojan snapped. "When will you shut the hell up?!"

 
Iz glared him coldly. "When I feel like it. Look pal, I've known Kita a lot longer than you have. She's a very free girl. She goes everywhere she wants, whenever she wants, and has the nasty habit of not bothering to tell anyone about it, and being too much of a lazy-ass the next morning to show up to do the dishes,"Iz said.


"Something bad could've happened to her,"Trojan said, in a softer tone.


"Like I said, you obviously don't know Kita that well. She's not stupid, she wouldn't get herself in danger. She's always a complete master of the situation, and I pity the poor person that would try to do... whatever to her,"Iz said, rolling her eyes, confident of the fact that Kita was okay.

*

Kita was whimpering into the darkness. The blindfold had been placed over her eyes once again. She couldn't see anything, she could hear the gasping of the man that had been in the room earlier. Her sight taken, she didn't have a clue as to what was going to happen. What that man that had total power over her, strapped to the bed, would do to her.


She heard a sound -ripping of fabric, she realized- near her ears and felt something slide over her skin. The slightly pressing warmth she had felt, that which her dress had given her, had disappeared.


Kita rolled her head in terror and screamed. She screamed, shredded her vocal chords for someone to help. "Please, help me!"she yelled in a voice so high and hoarse it didn't even sound human anymore.


She bursted into tears and pulled at her restraints, struggling to escape. But her sobbing soon turned into a high-pierced cry of pain, and pain was the only thing she felt in the following hour.

*

Raja finally broke the silence between them, only to tell him: "I've got nothing to say to you," with a look of deserved arrogance on her face.


Dart only looked at her for a second, uninterested, and kept walking. "I noticed that already, since you usually seem to have an unnatural lot to stay. I wasn't planning on starting a conversation, if that's what you were thinking."


"Huh... You wouldn't even know how to start a conversation. You know, if it were up to me, I wouldn't even be looking at you, just to bad Zion teamed me up with you to look for Kita. And I can't argue with the leader, now can I?"she said indignant.


"Hn,"Dart merely said and another silence fell, as they continued to explore the virtually deserted streets, looking out for a sign of Kita.


"You know, girls tend to receive it as a great insult to get kicked out of someone's bed,"she said.


"Apparently. Yet then they shouldn't be getting into that person's bed,"Dart said coldly.

 
"Oh!"Raja exclaimed stunned and indignated. "So it's all my fault?"


"Unfortunately, no. Women lack self-control, it's in their nature. It is mainly my fault, I should've controlled myself. I shouldn't give in to temptations,"Dart said.


"Women lack self-control? Where are you from, the 18th century or something? And I'm not a 'temptation', I'm a person. Besides, what's up with the controlfreak-act. God... you're hopeless. I mean, don't you have any fun? And would you talk like a normal person already!"Raja snapped.

 
"Hn,"Dart simply said.


"That means saying something other than 'hn' the whole time. I mean, in the least, you own me an apology,"she said with a smug look on her face.


"I apologize for losing control. It wasn't honourable,"Dart said.


"That isn't a proper apology!"Raja screamed like a banshee.


Dart ignored her. "My group came past a Mall on our search for food the other day. A tribe lived there. They might have some information about Kita,"he said and lead the way.


Raja froze a second, mumbled "hopeless..." again, before following him with firm, angry steps.

*

Iz waved the stuffed bunny around in front of Aarons face. The kid grabbed the sooty toy and looked at it amazed, like it was a miracle or something. Recognition sparkled in his eyes and he shouted: "Bunny! Is a bunny!"


"Yep. He's for you,"Iz said, not all too enthusiastic.


Aaron went to a corner of his room, to play with the bunny, having entire conversations with the toy-animal, and Iz watched him.


"You know what the deal is, kid...?"Iz asked him. The one-year-old looked up at her with big, green eyes and open mouth. Surely the toddler didn't understand much of what Iz said, but Iz had to talk to someone. She got lonely at times. She didn't have a boyfriend, she didn't have any real friends. She could tell no one how she felt about things.


"You know, Zion... Do you think he's a good or a bad leader?"Iz asked Aaron, who looked at her with a blank face for a second, then continued playing.


"I don't know. I think, if you become leader, you should know yourself and your capacities well. You should be able to handle stress and responsibility really well. You should be able to think everything through, make the right decisions... Well, I guess that is a lot of responsibility. But you see, that's why they shouldn't just make somebody leader. A person really needs to be fit for the job. I have doubts about things sometimes, you know that, kid? I'm scared too, even though I don't look like the type. Nearly afternoon, and Kita hasn't returned yet. Me and Trojan checked the whole hospital; no sign of the girl. Now I know she's a bit like a cat -she wanders around and decides herself when she comes back. But I don't know, if there's one thing Kita absolutely can't stand it's that people worry about her. Honestly, she finds it the most annoying thing in the world. She could just die of exasperation when she came home a few hours late and the first thing her mom asked her: "Where in god's name have you been?" And she knew we were going to worry about her... It's a bit strange, but Kita's strange sometimes. I've known that girl since I was, like, twelve, or something. We could've gotten good friends, you know, shame it never really happened. Matching personalities, but different interests I guess,"Iz said.


Aaron looked up at her with his big eyes, shining with both confusion and slight interest for his new-found babysitter.


"You know... I'd like a friend sometimes. Strange coming out of my mouth, I'm a bit of a loner, I know... But daydreaming can only keep you occupied for so long, and I've been started to get a weird feeling lately... like being alone even though I'm sitting in the same room as my entire tribe. I guess you don't know the feeling, kiddo. You're always surrounded by people, people that love you. Sometimes I wish I could be little, lovable and ignorant again,"Iz sighed.


Aaron just looked confused. He got up and left his corner, walking to her on his chubby little legs. He held up the bunny and it pressed it against her face. The soft fur-touch of the toy was nearly comforting, and it was kinda scary that Aaron seemed to have known what she had been talking about. Iz looked down on the boy, who was looking at her with a very serious look.


"You know, this moving-into-the-city-thing, it has a curse on it, I'm telling ya. Look at all the stuff that happened here, all the tension in the tribe, and we've only been here for a few days. I liked nature better anyway. Zion... Zion brought us to the city, and that brouht us misery. And I doubt, with the way he's handling things, he's gonna find Kita. You know what, I don't think Zion's the responsible type,"Iz said. "Maybe it's about time someone took over."

*

Jax was laying on his bed. He had fled into his room after the screaming-incident at breakfast. God, how he hated screaming. He hated fights. Why couldn't every humanbeing on earth just figure: 'Everything you can't say in a normal tone, isn't worth saying.' Those had always been Jax's thoughts. All those noises seemed so much louder to him, all the stress affected him personally. It made his whole body ache, and he realised once again what a rampant chaos their reality was. And it affected his head, until it was full of strange, misty thoughts, that slipped away fast like a snake in the dark dark thoughts you could hardly comprehend, Jax only understood they were bad thoughts.


Knock on the door. Well, who could it be...?


"Yo, Jax... Can I come in?"


Jax sat up straight in bed right away. He recognized that voice... it was Trojan's voice! The punching-incident of last night was totally forgotten, and Jax said: "Yeah come in." He was sort of surprised at how hoarse and powerless his voice sounded. Stupid voice.


Trojan opened the door slowly and peeked his head into the room. He didn't really come in, he just stood there on the threshold, looking sort of uncertain, and all of the sudden it seemed that even Trojan could put up eyes as big, innocent and insecure as a little child who had to admit a mistake.


Trojans hands were around the door, his shoulders high, his eyebrows in a strange frown Jax had never seen before. It made him look... nice. Nearly... cute.


"Er... uh... that black eye. I... guess it must still hurt pretty bad, huh?"Trojan said, looking to the ground with his child-eyes.


"No!"Jax quickly said, amazed at his own enthusiasm.

 
Trojan looked up, a little bit amazed. "Well, that's... that's good. Er... I'm sorry for doing that. It was a weird evening and I was incredibly stressed out -but, but that's no excuse ofcourse! But er... sorry for going all crazy on you and hitting you, really, I am,"Trojan said, guilt-conscious.


If Jax had been a cartoon-character, his jaw would've dropped to the ground. That was the very first time he ever heard Trojan apologizing to anyone...


"Are... you okay?"Trojan said, confused look.


"Yeah,"Jax said.


"Oh. Okay. Well, er... I am really sorry! And er... well, see you then,"Trojan said and shut the door quickly. Jax was left in his room, alone, in a daze. Trojan looked guilty. He blamed it on himself.


He actually blames it on himself for hitting me, Jax thought. Great one, freak, someone had every right to go and punch you in the face, because you were spying on that person, and now he exactly feels guilty himself... Fantastic. See, how you're making everyone around you feel bad? Not surprising, I mean, the mere look of you is depressing. But you just have to keep it up, huh? Even if you're only purpose in life is to make others feel bad. Would you face up to things already? You're not happy, and they're not happy with you too. You call yourself miserable and useless and ugly and well... you are! But in meantime you're just living on! I mean, are you just prolonging things or something? To scared to take care of it yourself, so wait, like a crippled horse in the desert, for someone to shoot you out of your misery? How pathetic can you get?!


Jax was made of ice. Laying on his bed, his eyes looking like they were focused on the ceiling. Really, they were focused on the inside. His body became a empty, unused vessel, while his mind drowned in the many voices that, like parasites, had made a comfy home in the filth that had always been swept into the dark corners.

*

Dart and Raja entered the Mall, Raja ofcourse still with an angry glare twisting her face -which ofcourse she was entitled to. Dart didn't seem to notice or care. They hadn't talked on the way to the Mall, Raja only gave him an angry look from time to time. Dart told himself that he did not care. He didn't want anything to do with the temptation anymore, besides, he already apologized didn't he?


Dart walked up to the big fountain Iz posed in front of like a waternymph yesterday. "Mallrats!"he yelled. "Mallrats! We need to talk to you!"


It didn't take long for someone to respond. At the top of the stairs a boy appeared, rather skinny and with redbrown hair, dressed in a filthy white shirt and baggy pants. Dart looked at him, and snorted.


The boy was quickly accompanied by a pretty girl with a lot of blonde hair, dressed in a nightgown. Dart frowned disapprovingly. "It's in the middle of the day, Mallrats. Don't any of you get up in time?"he asked.


"Don't you ever have anything nice to say?"Raja asked coldly.


"Yeah. Who are you anyway?"the blonde girl asked.


Dart rolled his eyes exasperated. "Forgive me for not introducing myself; my name is Dart, the woman's name is-"


"Raja. I can keep speak for myself, you know,"Raja said, cutting Dart short. Darts frown became deeper. He didn't like it when people interrupted him.


"Heh, looks like someone's having domestic problems,"Jack whispered to Ellie, who smiled.


"We talked to your leader Amber the other day. She had been kind enough to give out tribe food. We need to ask her, and the other members of your tribe, something,"Dart said.


"Well, I think the whole tribe is having lunch now, you can ask your questions. We'll take you to them,"Ellie said.

*

"Kita..." That voice in the dark. Kita rolled on the back, whimpered and cried. Why couldn't she see anything? Why could'n't she see anything?!


Oh God, let someone take the blindfold off, please. Just the blindfold, that's all I ask. Just that fucking blindfold, so I can see something again! Oh God, it's so dark... Where the hell is he now? He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me!!


Unable to see anything, under the fierce reign of pain the entire time, Kita's mind tumbled into dark gardens, and she thought off the worst possible scenario's. She didn't need much time with HIM... to know he loved to torture her, in every single way. What the hell did she ever do to him?!


"What did I do?! What did I do?! What did I DO?!"she cried out in complete helplessness. A violent blow to her face stopped her continious screaming, that started to sound pretty insane in her ears...


"Shhhhhhhh!"he said in a tormented voice. "Musn't scream. It musn't scream. It musn't be bad."


"I'm not 'it', goddamnit, I'm a person! A PERSON! Please, I beg of you, just let me go... Please. Plea-ase! Let me go, I'll do anything...,"Kita said between sobs.
But HE didn't listen to her pleas.