- Part 1 -
Arrhythmia
We can feel water to our knees;
Our world is crumbling under our feet.
Rise up and take whatever you need.
We are gonna make it out in one piece.
-Tommee Profitt, Xeah
The walk to the docks causes Aubrey to feel like she's still drunk from the night before. The voices of everyone around her are sounds that don't make sense, and every once in awhile she isn't paying attention and accidentally crashes into Beca, who squeezes her hand and subtly glances at her to make sure she's regained her bearings. Each time, she forces a tight-lipped smile to reassure Beca that she's perfectly fine and nods her head. Then she gets lost again in thoughts of deer and blood and Cynthia-Rose and how none of it feels even remotely real. Even the ground against her feet is a distant sensation, and she can't help but wonder if she really is stuck in a nightmare. She wants to scream. Maybe Chloe will wake her up.
But Chloe looks the worse for wear herself. She's leaned into Beca's side as they walk, but doesn't seem to really acknowledge that she's pressed up against Beca. There is no twinkle in her eye, no giddiness, nothing that would indicate she has been longing for such close proximity for years. She's completely zoned out, eyes glued to the ground, hands shaking as she rubs the edge of the towel back a deep forth across her lips. At least she has stopped crying – only, it isn't really at least, because when it comes to Chloe, silence and expressing nothing at all is something Aubrey rarely sees her do. She looks like she went somewhere else, somewhere inside her own head, and just left her body here to walk numbly beside Beca. It hurts that this, right here, the three of them walking side by side, holding onto each other, has been everything that Chloe has wanted. And that this, being shot at, people dying right in front of her eyes, is how she got it. If this is anyone's nightmare they're all stuck inside of, it's Chloe's.
Aubrey tells herself this is all her own fault. Because maybe if she thinks it, Chloe won't blame herself.
"Guys!" Benji's voice is the first to make any lick of sense. "I did it!" He jogs up the road in their direction, a wide, proud grin spread across his face. A few feet behind him is Luke, looking almost equally as happy. Their smiles, as well-warranted as they might be, kind of make Aubrey feel sick, because not everyone is going to be stepping onto that boat.
Jesse grins and sprints forward. "Yes!" He gives Benji's shoulder a squeeze.
Benji glances past Jesse at The Bellas and his smile falters somewhat. "You didn't find everyone else?"
It isn't clear who the question is directed at, but it's clear why no one answers. Not only did they not find anyone, they're coming back with less people than they started out with. Maybe they should have brought Cynthia-Rose's body; got her off this island too, rather than just left her there for a search crew to find. Aubrey considers it may not be too late to go back now, even though she knows it is.
Jesse looks at them. More specifically, looks at Aubrey and Beca holding hands. "No," he answers for the rest of them. He pats Benji's arm. "Let's get on that boat."
Benji looks at him and then at the three of them and frowns this time, more in a look of confusion than anything else.
"They should take a picture; it would last longer, right?" Beca whispers to Aubrey. She gives Chloe's shoulders a squeeze. "Let's go."
"Is it supposed to smell like that?" Stacie asks.
"Like what?" Fat Amy asks.
"Really?" Stacie asks, "No one else smells that?"
For a second, Aubrey thinks they're just trying to break the tension, but then she smells it too – the faint smell of gasoline instead of fish.
Chloe finally rejoins reality and looks around. "I don't smell anything," she says, and Aubrey has to refrain from pointing out how stuffed up she is from crying. Of course she doesn't smell anything when she sounds like she can't breathe through her nose at all.
"Yeah, what is that?" Beca asks Benji. She releases Chloe and Aubrey, and nudges Chloe closer to Aubrey, then steps forward. "It smells like a gas station. Only worse." The smell is getting stronger.
"I saw some gas canisters down by the docks," Luke says, "But they weren't being used for anything."
"Gas canisters?" Beca asks, "How many people are on the docks right now?"
"I don't know," Benji answers, "Everyone who was in the church. Why?"
Beca stares at him for a moment. "Everyone needs to get off those docks," she says and starts walking down the road with a sense of urgency.
"Why?" Jesse asks and turns to watch her. "Bec!"
"Because we're trying to get off this island, and someone here doesn't want us to!" Beca calls back, "And they're not going to care that you have a bunch of people on the docks when they try to stop us!"
Aubrey grabs Chloe by the arm and tries to process what exactly is happening as the smell of gasoline starts to overpower the scent of the trees and flowers. She expects to see people jogging up the road, concerned over the smell, but no one comes their way. It has to be a trap. But she isn't sure if it's a trap to lure them onto the docks or keep them away – the first doesn't make a lot of sense seeing as they were already on their way there and the latter isn't proving to be so successful. "Beca!" She speed walks after her, Chloe at her side.
"Guys, get off the docks!" Beca yells and slows down as she approaches the end of the road. "Get off the…" Her voice trails off and she stops and looks down over the hill.
Aubrey comes up behind her and looks out over the empty docks.
Beca spins around. "Where is everyone?" she calls back to Jesse, Benji, and Luke, moving as the other three Bellas approach and block her view of the men.
"What are you talking about?" Jesse picks up the pace.
"I'm talking about that there's no one on the docks!" Beca exclaims.
"Everyone, everyone was just here," Benji says.
There is a boat running, but it doesn't look as though anyone has stepped foot in the area all morning. Aubrey stuffs her towel back in her bag, not about to lose focus in trying to prevent it front falling. She's going to remain soaked either way.
"Pssst!" There's a noise in the woods. "Psssst! Fat Amy!"
Fat Amy turns in circles, looking around. "This is some serious LOST shit."
"Bumper?" Chloe asks, looking across the road.
Fat Amy stops and follows Chloe's gaze. "Bumper!" She walks across the road to where Bumper is hiding behind a tree. "What -"
"Shhh!" Bumper motions them all closer.
Aubrey and Beca both take one last look at the docks as everyone, except for them and Chloe, approaches Bumper. There isn't a soul to be seen. The smell of gasoline is so strong that even Chloe, who can't currently breathe through her nose, looks nauseated from it now. Aubrey places her hands on Chloe's shoulders and walks with her toward Bumper, Beca following a few steps behind them.
"Something baaad is happening," Bumper whispers, not moving from behind his tree, "I don't think we're getting out of here."
"The boat is right there," Jesse says, "Benji started it. We can leave."
"That's what they want us to think," Bumper says, "I wouldn't go down there unless you want to die."
Everyone starts whispering at once, interrogating him and each other with questions that all blend together. "What makes you say that?" Aubrey speaks over all of them. It might be the first time she's ever been interested in what Bumper has to say, but the docks are deserted and he seems to be the only one with some insight into why.
"I walked off to take a piss," Bumper answers, remarkably willing to speak to her, "And when I was coming back, someone with a mask was putting everyone on that boat Benji started." He points. "That whole dock is doused in gasoline. That bastard locked them in a boat then emptied at least ten cans of gas. Two bucks says they're gonna light everything up."
"Did you see who it was?" Chloe asks.
"I forgot my 'x-ray vision, can see through ski masks' glasses at the hotel," Bumper says.
"Watch it," Beca warns him.
"It was a stupid question," Bumper defends himself.
Chloe doesn't take his words very lightly. She breaks away from Aubrey and walks back out to the road, standing with her back to them. Her towel nearly falls, and she catches it and wraps it tighter around herself, wiping her nose with the corner of it as she sniffles.
"We're all in this together," Beca snaps at Bumper before backing up. "Chlo, you good?" she asks and turns to face her, ignoring a look from Jesse as she walks over to her.
Chloe nods and wipes her nose again.
Beca places a hand on Chloe's shoulder and looks at the docks. "What do we do?" she asks the group, "Do we risk it and try another boat?"
Aubrey just stares at the boats. Ten cans of gasoline. They won't make it out if everything goes up in flames - when everything goes up in flames. No one would do that and then just not light it up, unless they plan to wait for everyone to test whether or not it's an empty threat. They should have known something like this would happen. Disappointment shouldn't be eating her alive. Even though it is.
"We should be figuring out how to get people off of that boat they're stuck on," Chloe whispers, and Aubrey realizes that might somehow be the trap to get them all on the docks. In trying to save the people already there, they could all die.
"I don't think that's going to happen." Beca squeezes Chloe's shoulder and shares a look with Aubrey. There isn't anything they can do here that won't end with them dead. They need to focus on the people they have with them right now before someone else ends up like Cynthia-Rose.
"Maybe someone has a private dock?" Aubrey suggests, trying to push thoughts of the people on the boat, of Nikki far from her mind, "Or a boat we can get in the water ourselves? Like a motorboat or something."
"I think we should go back to the inn for the guns," Luke says, "There's, what, ten of us? I bet we could shoot this fucker."
"This is more than one person…" Beca says.
"So there's still ten of us," Luke says.
"And who here, besides Aubrey, actually knows how to aim and shoot?" Beca asks.
"The odds are still on our side," Luke says, "If we're all shooting, someone has to hit the target."
Aubrey doesn't really like the sound of that. "We should find another boat." No one aside from Chloe and Beca needs to know it, but she still has a gun in the back of her pants. And she's the one who knows how to shoot. "We need to keep our focus on leaving."
"We need to be able to defend ourselves so we can leave," Luke argues.
"Guns might not be such a bad idea," Jesse adds.
Someone screams from somewhere among the boats. And then two people. And then several.
Aubrey watches in wide-eyed horror as flames start from behind the shed and engulf the entire ground in a matter of seconds. Despite their distance from the fire, she grabs Chloe and pulls her back farther. The wooden planks and expensive boats crackle and burn like kindling. And the screaming gets louder. It burns her ears like the fire burns everything in front of them.
Fay Amy sits down on the ground and watches it burn, her expression containing more devastation than the results of the fire.
There is a noise like a whistle before one of the boats explodes like a bomb, followed by another beside it. Everyone jumps and stumbles backward, and Chloe and Stacie both shriek. Aubrey can feel the heat from where she's standing. The screaming in the fire intensifies, loud and desperate, almost sending Aubrey rushing forward to try to help. She can see the gas cans now - floating in the water, on fire.
Chloe unwraps her towel from around herself and flings it over her shoulder as she turns her back to the scene in front of them. She closes her eyes and clamps her hands over her ears. Her lips move in silence, and it takes a moment, but Aubrey realizes that she's singing to herself.
There is another, smaller explosion, one that kills the screams, and Aubrey places her hands over Chloe's, because knowing the screams have stopped proves even worse than listening to them. She strokes Chloe's fingers with her thumbs, even though trying to comfort her probably means nothing. Their hope goes down with those boats. Every last bit of it. Someone wants them to stay on this island, and they're willing to put in the effort to keep them here until whatever they're trying to accomplish is over.
"We are so fucking screwed," Bumper says.
"Are we?" Beca asks, "Because they seem to be picking and choosing who they want to kill here, or else they would have waited until we were all down there, right?"
"Unless they're just drawing it out," Jesse says, "If they kill us off in increments, then this all just lasts longer for them."
"Maybe it's a game." Chloe lowers hers and Aubrey's hands away from her ears. "Maybe they're looking for a survivor, like in The Hunger Games or something." She cranes her neck and looks over her shoulder as more of the boats go up in flames then closes her eyes again.
"It seems too random," Beca replies, "They're targeting people like that ice cream kid and, um…" Her voice trails off and she clears her throat and moves on to the next thought. "Then they're attacking whole groups of people."
"They could be lowering the numbers?" Chloe turns her entire body and presses a hand against her forehead, rubbing it with the tips of her fingers.
It doesn't make sense. A game. Then why target specific people? If this was a game, there would be rules and everyone should have an equal chance to win. Unless Chloe is right, and they want less players… But it just doesn't feel right. Aubrey shakes her head.
"Or maybe…" Chloe reopens her eyes stares at the flames again for a moment. "Maybe they already picked a winner. Maybe they know who they want to survive and they're just killing everybody else."
"But why?" Benji asks, "Why leave one?"
"It sounds like punishment," Beca says.
"To survive?" Jesse arches a brow at her.
"To watch everyone around you be killed," Aubrey answers. To watch everyone you love be killed. She doesn't realize her hands are on Chloe's sides until she's pulling Chloe back against her. Chloe turns and tucks her face into Aubrey's shoulder, and Aubrey can't tell if Chloe is shaking because she's cold or because she's scared.
"Do you think it's weird we're all from Barden?" Luke asks, "Yeah, some us are missing." And dead, Aubrey wants to add. "But we're all from the same place."
Except for the sheriff, deputy, and doctor. But they could be dead now too for all Aubrey knows. "We need to find another boat," she says again, trying to urge the conversation back in that direction.
"No, we need guns," Luke argues again.
"Maybe we should put somebody in charge," Jesse says.
"Yeah, like Aubrey," Stacie jumps in, "Someone who wants to get us out of here so we can find Sophia and Donald."
"Everyone wants to find Sophia and Donald," Jesse says, "We could take a vote?"
"Well, I vote for Aubrey." Stacie folds her arms.
"Okay, fine," Jesse says, "One for Aubrey. We should think about this beyond, y'know, leaders of A Cappella." He stares at her, clearly judging her like he too didn't spend his college years wrapped up in singing. "I know this island."
Aubrey swallows her nerves. She isn't sure who she would rather follow less – Luke or Jesse. If there is every a time to commit insubordination, that time might be now. "My father is in the army," she says, trying to win herself votes, even though the odds are already in her favor with four Bellas, not including Beca who will more than likely change her mind again and vote for Jesse, and Luke, "He taught me everything he knows about surviving the worst – including how to read a map, which will be helpful, seeing as I have all of them." So maybe he never taught her everything he knows, not even remotely close, but he taught her enough.
"Quick question," Bumper says, giving Aubrey a disgusted look, "Can I vote for myself? If not, I'd like to vote for Fat Amy."
Fat Amy stands up and takes a half bow. "Thank you."
"Fat Amy?" Beca asks, "Who are you voting for?"
"Uuuummm," Fat Amy drags out the word way longer than necessary and scrunches her face, "I'm gonna hafta go with Aubrey."
"Well, I'm gonna vote for Benji," Jesse says.
"For me?" Benji asks, "This is, this is an honor."
Aubrey sees exactly what he's doing. Voting for the person he can control. Of course he wouldn't vote for Luke. Not when the two of them tend to bump heads.
"My vote is for Jesse," Benji says.
"Jesse," Luke says, taking Aubrey by surprise. It okay though. It's fine. She doesn't need him to win.
"Chris Pratt," Lilly murmurs.
"Chris Pratt?" Beca mouths, "Um, okay, Aubrey?"
Aubrey internally panics at the loss of another vote. She currently has two votes and Jesse has two votes, so, logically, her vote only counts to keep one vote away from Jesse. She could simply give it to Chloe, or she could try to buy Beca. She thinks she has a fairly decent chance at the moment, and even if it doesn't work, Beca's vote for Jesse will only tie them. "I vote Beca," she says confidently.
Beca blinks, looks taken aback, and just nods. "Chlo?"
It didn't occur to Aubrey that Chloe might vote for Beca as well until Beca says her name. That would make another vote for Jesse a win for him.
"Aubrey," Chloe answers before Aubrey has too much time to think about it. Of course, Chloe can do the math.
Aubrey looks at Beca.
"We need a tie-breaker for me and Aubrey," Jesse says.
Aubrey snaps her gaze from Beca to him. "No," she argues defiantly, "I have three and you have two."
"And Beca makes three." Jesse looks at Beca. "Right, Bec?"
"I haven't cast a vote yet," Beca says and raises her hands in the air.
"But you're voting for me," Jesse says, and Aubrey can almost hear another 'right?' tagged onto the end.
Beca smiles a tight, apologetic smile in his direction. "I'm just, I'm gonna have to go with Aubrey on this." She takes a step in Aubrey's direction. "I get that you might know your way around this island, but Aubrey knows how to lead a group of people."
"Lead them her way…" Jesse says.
Aubrey glares at him. "We don't have time to stand around and consider everyone's personal opinion," she snaps at him, "Someone needs to be able to make decisions. We could have found another boat by now. We are just waiting to be shot standing here."
Jesse scoffs and steps back, his eyes drifting back and forth between her and Beca.
"We need someone who is going to get us off this island," Beca says, "Not help us figure out where everything is on it." She pats Aubrey's arm and backs up toward the trees, away from the group, not taking her eyes off Jesse.
Aubrey glowers at Jesse for a few seconds longer before she turns and follows Beca, guiding Chloe along with her. Is she supposed to thank Beca for the vote? She doesn't have time to think about what she wants to say before Beca is already speaking, keeping her voice low, away from the rest of the group.
"I know you don't want to go back, but I think we should get the guns before we find the boat."
