Hour 11: She's Got Red On Her
She was lying on a hill. It was a cool summer's day, the skies were clear and the sun beamed down. Her sister, Rita, was with her. Today was the kind of day she liked the most, because the cares of the world didn't matter. Out there, beyond, were many things she did not want to bother herself with. It was good to take this moment and enjoy it, because it belonged to her and Rita, and them alone.
Yet in what seemed like an instant, the walls of Rozelinda Mayfair's reality started to buckle. Was it time to go home already? Rita had already stood up and was walking away, something Roz could not yet bring herself to do. She didn't want to go back. Rita was trying to say something to her, but was too far away and could not be heard. Odd, considering she was standing but a few feet away.
Regretfully, Rita turned and left, though the hill seemed to now reject Roz's presence thereon. Forced to stand up, she felt a shaking sensation all around her. Something wasn't right; she felt nauseous. It was as she forced her eyes shut in the dream that she awoke in the real world.
She was already on her feet when she awoke, and still shaking. Something ached, but she wasn't coherent enough to work out what, or where the hill had gone. Or, for that matter, where Rita was.
Her sister was a year younger than Roz, and had been ill much of her life, causing Roz to forsake most of her social life in order to take care of her. It was an emotionally draining task, to which she always feared she wasn't best suited. But it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter; she was as close to a friend as Rita got and duty to one's family came first in life. In time, her status as Rita's best friend became mutual.
She wasn't a particularly popular girl; if anything, people seemed to almost fear Roz. She'd found, however, that emotional distance was the only way she could deal with her sister's illnesses, since Rita always saw through it when she feigned ordinary bravery. Not that she was surprised that so few people cared. Everyone had their own problems to deal with, and those of others came second at best.
Did that explain what had happened to her now? This wasn't something she'd done to herself, thus someone else had…putting a hand to her neck, she found the source of the pain. Pulling out a small object with a sharp end, she realised it was a dart.
As the grogginess started to fade, Roz thought hard about the last thing she could remember. She was running. No, that wasn't accurate – she was fleeing. Yes, that was right! Someone had shot at her. There was a pub nearby; that was where her assailant had to have been. After that was largely a blur. A short chase, then darkness.
Yet that was momentary, for in sleep she'd been at peace on the hill, though she didn't have time to consider the implications of that. More pressing was the realisation that all of her possessions were missing. Truly she had been uncoordinated for it to have only struck her now that she held not a single belonging. Whoever had attacked her had taken it all – her bag, her weapon…and her map.
Roz had never been to Caphraig, having never held much interest in travelling. When she wasn't in the local gym or leisure centre she was usually engaged in more sedentary activities, like literature study. Thus she knew nothing of the layout of the island, and so had been rendered blind and defenceless.
It was an unnerving thought, made more so when she realised that even her watch was missing, meaning she couldn't even know how long she'd been asleep. A cunning, yet cowardly move by her unknown attacker, though ultimately Roz had to face the fact that she may herself have acted little differently had the situation been reversed.
She'd said as much to Sadie Willis when they met earlier. Scared little girl that she was, she failed to realise the reality that was the imminent death of almost everyone on Caphraig. Perhaps being detached was benefiting her now? It meant that she felt no inclination to panic, despite the slight feelings of fear and disappointment.
She was glad she only felt them faintly, having known what it was like to be overcome by such emotions. Breaking up with one's first love tended to do that to people, and when she was 16 Roz was no different. But she'd learned from that; that as much as anything else in her life taught her the importance of keeping a cool head and being objective about one's circumstances.
It was what she knew she had to do now, as she moved cautiously from where she'd fallen. The pub was obviously not a sensible place to visit, so she'd turned in the opposite direction. Where she might find assistance wasn't clear, though standing on her own wasn't going to achieve anything.
Mere moments later, Roz realised nothing she could do would achieve anything, her heart sinking as she heard a familiar beeping sound. It was coming from her neck and she instantly recognised it as the countdown to her demise. Having been stripped of everything she owned, and rendered unconscious for who knew how long, Roz had had no way of knowing that she was right next door to a danger zone.
Even she of all people may have cried out for help in such a position, if she hadn't realised it would accomplish nothing. Aside from anything else, there was no one around her, anyone in the pub being too far away to reach her in time if not the same person who attacked her earlier.
Faced with what she knew to be her final moments, Roz thought she saw Rita appear in front of her again, beckoning her to the hill they'd been lying together on in the dream. Deciding to return to where she'd fallen before, she lay down again. No longer fearing that which she could not control, she closed her eyes and once again found herself there. Rita had again retreated to the distance, but Roz now understood that that was because she still had her whole life to lead. A life in which she could do anything and go anywhere. Still, she was happy to wait for her there. One day, her sister would again join Roz, and when she did so, it would be forever. But that time was not yet. Not yet…
"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with-"
"Sandra, if you say 'a' I'll know you mean alcohol. Only so many times you can trick me with that one in one morning." Anna Wilson laughed good-naturedly as Sandra Jackson rolled her eyes with mock guilt. There was a lot of tension in the air, but her optimism rather eased it and for that she was grateful.
Their friendship went back a long way, right since primary school. They'd somehow met in the playground and stuck together ever since. It was a group that used to be quite large, though some of them ended up going to different high schools and fell in with other groups, like Lucy, then Miranda left after S4 and Carol after S5. Now, here on Caphraig, it was just herself and Sandra sitting in the pub, neither they nor the late Rozelinda being aware of each others' presence so nearby.
"You still with us? Look like you're asleep on your feet. Join me, plenty to go around!" Sandra raised a half empty glass of wine, but Anna, though still smiling, shook her head. She wanted to sleep right now, it had been a long morning and she'd only gotten a couple of hours during the night, but it wasn't happening.
"Still too early for me hon, hey, more for you!"
"Look where we are, not like we're running low any time soon. Wish we weren't alone, though…"
"How sure of that are you? All things considered, might be for the best that we are."
Sandra looked up, a little hurt. That wasn't something she wanted to think about right now. While they didn't realise it, they'd found the pub not long after it was vacated by Hannah Bishop and Laurinda Davies. They'd cautiously looked around the area, but having missed the fallen Roz, they couldn't see any signs of life. In a way, that was good. But it also meant their other friends weren't around, and Sandra was too sociable to be cooped up with only one person, even if it was as close a friend as Anna.
"I just…I guess I thought we might have seen them by now. One of them even, I mean what if-" She stopped herself, embarrassed, as Anna listened non-judgmentally. "Look at me, going on like this. Please, ignore me!"
She didn't like getting emotional like this. Dissonance scared her, as did negativity generally. She'd seen her share, her parents having divorced when she was young. They were miserable, before and after; nevertheless, and fortunately for her, the one thing they were united in was their determination that Sandra enjoy life. And she did, very much so, even if her eagerness to please made her a bit of a pushover.
"Sorry, but I'm not going to ignore you. How could I, you're my best friend! Listen, it's only been a few hours; they could be anywhere. But they'll be alright, really! Pete's running this thing, and do you honestly think he's gonna let anything happen to Holly? We know him better than that."
That was what confused both Sandra and Anna; being so close to Holly gave them greater insight than most into the teacher who had become a murderer. As a dad, he was always fair, and had never been keen on the restrictions upon youth activity that had been introduced in recent years. In fact, he went against them as far as he could, Holly's mum not being fond of them either. As he saw it, what he loved about being a teacher and a parent was the same thing – helping young people. Something wasn't right about the way he was acting now, that much was certain.
"With this set up, I can't think how he can get her out. But I'm hardly a scholar, he'll think of something. Maybe once he does, she can put in a good word for the rest of us. That's what friends are for, isn't it?" Standing up with a slight spring in her step, Sandra took another swig from the glass, determined to ignore any arguments against her for now. Anna gave into temptation and took the quarter-full bottle, causing Sandra to grin mischievously.
"What? Too much here for you alone, though I'm not having more than this bottle for now. Still, I think we've got the right strategy for now – go to the Crofter's Arms, have a glass of wine and wait for this to all blow over. You've got red on you." Anna had been infected by her friend's enthusiasm, and was grateful. Sandra giggled, having realised she'd spilt wine on her top when she stood up.
"Good to see you're finally getting it."
"No point disagreeing, I guess! Listen, don't worry about the others, but don't expect them to just magically turn up either. If that kind of coincidence ever actually happened…well, I'm sure you can use your imagination, ha ha!"
Sandra was about to relent and agree with Anna, but she was distracted by a shadow passing the window. She might have passed it off as nothing, had Anna not also apparently seen something. The windows were made of thick, dirty glass, so what, if anything, was outside was unclear, but Anna once again felt uneasy all the same.
Whispering to Sandra to stay quiet, she softly moved to the window, listening for movement. Sandra, fearful, rushed into the kitchen. Anna was more of a leader than she was, so she was best placed to deal with any potential intruder.
Outside, Sadie Willis had no idea how lucky she was. The longer she went without seeing a friendly face, the more miserable she became, and that was really not like her. They were too faint to identify, but she could definitely hear voices from within the pub. The front door being too obvious a trap, she encircled the building to try and find a backdoor.
Finding it, but realising it was locked, she looked around awkwardly for a moment. Sandra undergoing a similar dilemma on the other side, she took a chance and cautiously opened the door. Sadie almost fell backwards in shock.
"Oh my God, Sandra, it's really you, I nearly…don't scare me like that, please!" As the friends embraced, each as relieved as the other to see who it was, Sandra felt a strange sense of pragmatism.
"Listen, come on in, we don't know who could be about." Sandra hurried Sadie in and locked and barricaded the door behind them.
"Yeah, sure, how long have you been here? Thought I could hear someone, but had no idea it was you!"
"Sandra, what's going on back there?" A friendly but curious voice called from the front room of the pub.
"Anna?" Sadie looked at Sandra, who cast her a knowing smile.
"Sadie! Yeah, it's me, get over here, you two!" All three girls beamed as they hugged.
"You were saying something about 'mysterious coincidences never happening', Anna? Sadie, just before you turned up I was saying that I kinda expected one of you guys to have found us by now, which admittedly was pretty unlikely. Here, put your bag down, you want a glass of wine?"
"No thanks, I'm alright, though I was gonna light up, if you don't mind? Now that I'm in relative safety, I could use a joint! God, it's so good to see you two! Take it you haven't come across Holly or Rahne?" Free at last from the weight of her hulking bag, Sadie hurriedly pulled one of several pre-rolled joints from her bag and lit it. It was exactly what she needed.
"Nothing, and you asking must mean you haven't either. Not a bad start, though, three out of five in the first twelve hours. We could be worse off, anyway. This place seems pretty secure, and we're best friends, so we know we can trust each other. Least…I think we can." A shiver ran down Anna's spine at the thought that she might be being presumptuous. "Actually, could we just make clear right now that we're all going to stick together?"
"Why's that even a question?" Sandra was bemused.
"Cos out here, everything's different. I've a feeling we're not in Perth anymore, and there isn't a pot of gold waiting for us over the rainbow." It was hours ago now, but still lingered in Sadie's thoughts, and while she'd calmed down, what Roz said to her still echoed in her mind. Sandra still didn't understand.
"What's different? Yeah, we're in a bad situation, but we're not going to hurt one another!"
"That's easy to say when you're a world away from it, either physically or because you're in denial. Personally, I don't see it taking as much as we'd like to think for the powder keg to go off."
"Have you seen anything? Sadie…if you have, it's best that you tell us." Anna was more willing to believe her than Sandra, but then Sandra was a little naïve about the ethics of the wider world sometimes. Impossible as it was to disagree with her ideas, they just weren't realistic a lot of the time.
"I – no! I haven't…gotten into any trouble or anything." Sadie shrugged her shoulders uncomfortably, and sighed. "When I left the classroom, I thought we could all put our differences aside. I assumed that that's what we'd all do. Like you said, we're friends and our year in general tends to get along pretty well with one another, don't you think?" The more she thought about it, the gladder she was for the joint in her hand.
"Of course, a couple of idiots aside, we all do. It's the Academy that's falling apart at the seams!"
"Sandra, much as I love your optimism, you might need to face facts here. I ran into Roz earlier and she-"
"You let Roz get you down? Nobody pays any attention to her; she's mopey all the time." Now it was Anna's turn to be perplexed.
"No, Anna, I didn't…well, normally I wouldn't. I was just sitting on a hill somewhere, saw her, told her my idea, and she pretended to attack me. I know, that sounds weird. Don't think she wanted to hurt me, like you said, she just wanders around moping all the time and today was no different. But she made me wonder, what if she was right? What if we're not all going to get out of here, maybe most of us will have to die!"
The atmosphere in the pub had become a lot less pleasant in the course of just a moment. Sandra had started laughing at Sadie, who was inhaling from her joint as fast as she could manage. Anna alone remained vaguely calm.
"Guys, stop this, now! This isn't helping us any. Sadie, you might be right, but being paranoid is only going to make things worse. Sandra, please keep trying to cheer us up, I like it when you do that, but don't make fun of Sadie for being scared. We all are, whether we want to admit it or not. Mind if I borrow that, Sadie?" Calming herself with a draw from the joint, Anna handed it back as Sandra poured herself a pint of water. Sadie sat down, embarrassed at having caused an argument.
Uncomfortable silence followed, none of the three looking at each other for a moment. Sadie having caused the silence, she took it upon herself to break it.
"To answer your question, Anna? Sandra. I couldn't hurt either of you. Or anyone. Ever. Even if you hit me, and please don't do that, I don't think I could hurt you back. Haven't got it in me and I'm pleased about that. I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who could." Her eyes were pleading; all she wanted was peace.
"Same here, and I haven't got a weapon anyway. Unless a brick counts as a weapon. You're my girls, would never turn on you. Sadie, since you missed it, me and Anna both think Pete's going to save Holly somehow, and she'll get us and Rahne out of here. All we need to do is try and relax until we hear from them, and we're home and dry!" Sandra was no longer so sure of how much she believed her own words, but it was in her own best interests to keep Anna happy and secure, and apparently her perkiness was doing that.
"Not much better than my weapon, though. Nunchaku. Sure, I could hit someone with it, but why would I want to?"
"To be fair, Anna, there was that time in the park that-"
"Sandra, anyone who calls Jake a faggot loses his teeth. It was only three anyway, and if it came to it I'd do it again quite hap…pily." Anna realised she'd raised her fist threateningly, to the horror of her friends, and meekly lowered it. "What you get, Sadie? Looks heavy."
"Would you believe it? A fucking chainsaw! Ugh, what use have I got for that? I'm a pacifist, for Christ's sake!"
"We'll worry about that later. If we have to, which I'm sure we won't. Holly and her dad, remember?"
Sadie was less convinced by Sandra's words than she wanted to be. Peter Morgan had murdered one of her best friends. Had she forgotten that? Thinking about it, she probably had, or was trying to. Maybe that was for the best. They all knew Zoey, and Anna and Sandra were relaxed enough, for now at least.
"Yeah, you're right. We're going to be okay, that's what's going to happen," she at last replied.
"Listen guys, the next report's just over an hour away. If it's okay with you, I'm gonna stay up until then to make sure Rahne and Holly aren't on it – and yes, I know they won't be, but…just, wanting to hear it with my own ears…then I really do need to get some sleep. Got a couple of beds upstairs, thinking it's worth taking advantage of that fact."
"Sure, Anna, we'll be fine. Right, Sadie?" Sadie nodded. Sandra was more relieved than she was prepared to admit, even if she didn't fully understand why.
None of them fully understood what they themselves were thinking in that moment. Sandra feared Anna, Sadie considered Sandra deluded, and Anna felt compelled to be the one in charge. But none of it mattered. For in that one moment in time, they were not alone. They were free, their finest day being yet unknown.