- Part 1 -
Arrhythmia
This is a game;
No wrongs,
No right.
Only a winner and a loser.
-Bastille
It isn't the sheriff. Aubrey's feet still feel stuck to the floor – her mind torn between trying to get a look at whoever Barney is talking to and running to find another exit. She looks at Beca, and it's like looking into a mirror. "Out the back?" she mouths. Barney seems caught up in whoever is standing outside, whoever has a shotgun, and it's hard to tell whether trying to see the person he's talking to is worth the risk of not.
Beca nods.
"Guys," Aubrey hisses, and everyone who wasn't already looking at her turns away from the door and looks her way. She nods toward the direction leading to the kitchen. There has to be a service door or an emergency exit. It comes as a shock to her that everyone gets up without question and makes a beeline for the hallway – everyone except Chloe. Chloe stands there with her eyes closed, like she never even heard what Aubrey said.
Beca grabs Chloe by the elbow. "Dude, let's go," she hisses and drags her toward their only chance at escape.
Chloe doesn't put up a fight; she rejoins their reality and allows Beca to pull her along.
Aubrey lets them go past her so she can bring up the rear. If anyone decides to follow them, or shoot at them, she has the only other gun. She makes it as far as the corner before she hears the shot. Using the wall as a pathetic, makeshift shield, she spins around just in time to see Barney and what's left of his head hit the ground. She wishes she had never turned. But if she can just get one glance of the person doing this…
"Aubrey!" Beca comes back for her, and, unlike Chloe, Aubrey pushes her away.
"Come on," Beca insists.
Just five seconds. Aubrey grabs the corner of the wall as Beca tries tugging at her and watches the door. "Is everyone else safe?" she whispers.
"I don't know," Beca answers, "I'd be able to tell if we were with them. Chloe isn't safe."
Aubrey glances down the hallway for a fraction of a second, just long enough to see Chloe standing halfway down the hallway, staring at them like she's too frozen to blink.
"Shit," Beca hisses, and Aubrey can feel Beca's knees almost buckle out of fear.
Aubrey spins back around to face a person in the doorway staring directly at her – but it isn't what she hoped. Whoever it is, they're dressed in all black, a ski-mask covering their face. She immediately fumbles for her gun, struggling to get her hand between the weapon and where Beca is pressed up against her back.
"Shoot him!" Beca hisses.
"I'm trying! Move!" Aubrey replies, and Beca quickly gets out of her way. She freezes with her hand wrapped around the handle of her gun as the person in black slowly lowers their own weapon to the ground and raises both hands in the air.
"What are you waiting for?!" Beca cries, "Aubrey, shoot him!"
They raise a finger to where their lips should be under the mask in a silencing motion and use their free hand to pull a white envelope from inside their leather jacket. They raise it up so Aubrey can see it then slowly squat down and slide it across the floor as far as possible.
"Jesus, for the love of god, Aubrey." Beca tries to grab the gun from her, and stops when Aubrey elbows her.
The person slowly rises back to their feet and points at their chest then signs something toward Aubrey with both hands.
There are a lot of things Aubrey knows, but sign language does not happen to be one of them. Mostly because she never bothered to care whenever Chloe tried to teach her 'classroom sign language', because it's irrelevant when the only person who ever steps foot in a classroom is Chloe. "Cover me," she whispers to Beca, even though she isn't sure how Beca can do that without the gun, and turns to face Chloe. "Chloe, what does this mean?" she asks and repeats the motion.
Chloe watches her. "Do it again?"
Aubrey does it again, slower this time, suddenly unsure if she's doing it correctly.
"It means you're offering help," Chloe says, "Aubrey, are you at gun point right now?"
Aubrey turns again to look. The person and the gun are good, and Beca is staring hopelessly at the empty doorway. Only, it isn't really empty with Barney's remains covering it. She looks at Chloe again and shakes her head. "Everything is fine." She looks at Beca.
"He was right there!" Beca thrusts her arms toward the doorway.
They were, and the only person they killed was Barney – the person hindering their escape. Aubrey looks at the envelope. "Why would they shoot the deputy and then say that they're helping us?" she asks Beca.
"Maybe because they're fucking crazy?" Beca suggests, "And so are you for just standing here!"
Aubrey walks toward the envelope.
Beca throws her hands in the air. "You're going to get yourself killed! Which would be really unfortunate seeing as you have the gun."
The guns. Aubrey snatches the envelope off the ground and looks at Beca. "Did everyone go out the exit?" she asks.
"I think so," Beca answers, sounding unsure.
Aubrey shoves the envelope in her back pocket and jogs toward the hallway, looking for the exit. There is a set of double doors at the end of the hall, and she bolts toward them.
"Aubrey, wait!" Chloe calls, taking off after her, Beca close behind, "What if he's out back?"
Aubrey busts through the doors so hard they hit the brick walls on either side. Sure enough, everyone has found some type of shed out beyond the pool. She strides across the grass, checking twice to make sure Chloe and Beca are safe behind her.
"Jesus!" Jesse cries upon seeing Beca, "I thought you were dead!"
"And you didn't come back to look?!" Beca yells across the lawn back at him.
"Give me a gun," Aubrey demands.
"There isn't enough," Luke takes the last one out of the shed for himself, "One is missing."
Probably because someone just blew the deputy to smithereens with it. Aubrey looks at all of them. She doesn't fail to notice that all of the men are armed and none of the Bellas have anything.
"Aubrey should have a gun." Chloe comes up behind her.
"She's the one person here with a perfect shot," Beca adds.
"Good for her," Luke says.
"You know more people are accidentally killed by their own weapons than by the criminals they're trying to protect themselves from?" Chloe asks him.
Luke looks at her. "Don't care."
"Terrified, unskilled people should not be handling weapons," Chloe says.
"That's why you don't get one," Luke replies.
"Hey, Aubrey." Bumper holds his shotgun out in front of him with both hands and wiggles it in front of her.
"Bumper," Fat Amy scolds him in distress.
Aubrey's decision makes itself. Bumper must be expecting her to try pulling it, because he isn't expecting it when she shoves the gun directly at him and hits him in the face – knowing full well his nose is probably still sore from Beca punching it. He falls backward and releases the gun, throwing his hands up when Aubrey spins it around and points it directly at him before he has a chance to get up and snatch it back.
"Aubrey, you can't just -" Beca stops talking when Aubrey flips the gun sideways and shoves it against her chest. "Not complaining," she murmurs, taking it.
"Chloe, you want one?" Aubrey asks and eyes Luke's gun before looking at her.
Chloe silently shakes her head.
"Then stay close to Beca," Aubrey says.
"Hey, Aubrey." Benji tosses her a box of shells.
"Thanks, Benji," Aubrey tells him.
"What about us?" Stacie asks Aubrey.
Aubrey turns to look at her. There isn't enough guns for all of them, and Chloe is right about how unskilled people should not be allowed to have guns. If she had time to beat up all the men, she might consider one for Stacie – but never for Fat Amy or Lilly. But she isn't about to just start punching down guys (right now). "Pick a partner."
"Uhhhh," Fat Amy says, "You kind of just punched mine in the face and stole his gun, so -"
"So pick a new one," Aubrey snaps, not about to deal with the whining.
"You just told Chloe -" Stacie says.
"I know full well what I told Chloe," Aubrey replies. And the offer still stands. She's starting to feel it – the 'every man for himself' idea. Not because she doesn't want to save all of them. But because she isn't quite sure what extreme lengths she would go to to get Chloe off this island alive. "Do you need your partners picked for you?"
Stacie looks down and shakes her head.
"You don't have to be mean, Aubrey," Chloe whispers at her, "We're all scared."
Somehow Chloe triggers guilt.
"Hey, I'll stick with Jesse," Benji says and offers Stacie the gun in his hand.
Jesse slaps his shoulder. "I got your back, man," he assures him.
Stacie takes the gun and a box of shells he offers her. "I can't believe I voted for you," she murmurs in Aubrey's direction.
Aubrey swallows the sour taste of remorse in the back of her throat. There isn't time for that either. "We should split up to find Sophia or another dock," she commands, "Stacie, you take Fat Amy and Lilly. Benji will go with Jesse. And Bumper can go with Luke. That leaves the three of us." She takes a step back toward Chloe and Beca. Is that really all of them left? Just ten of them? She momentarily has to clench her jaw to keep it from trembling. "We meet back in three hours at Beca's and Jesse's suite. Do all the groups have a watch?" She watches as everyone makes sure at least one person they're with can tell the time. "Good. Bellas?" She holds out her hand for old times sake. Only five hands meet hers in the middle. "Let's find Sophia and a way home." They break without singing – just a simple up down motion with their hands, and then they split into two groups going their own separate ways.
xxxxx
The front door slammed shut. It had also slammed open – and Chloe had better pray there wasn't a hole in the wall. Aubrey counted her footsteps down the hall. 3. 2. 1.
Chloe flung open Aubrey's bedroom door. "What the hell, Aubrey?!" she exploded.
Aubrey had spent the remainder of the day trying to prepare for the backlash, because she knew Chloe's mom was going to tell her she called. But she couldn't think of how to explain herself, especially not with Chloe standing in front of her, absolutely furious.
"You left me at fucking Wendy's!" Chloe burst out.
That was unexpected – warranted, but still unexpected. Aubrey blinked.
"I had to get an Uber back to work," Chloe keeps going, "I hope you know I used your account."
Aubrey had already decided that she was going to tell Chloe that she had called her mom herself at some point – but so much weight about it was lifted off her shoulders by Chloe shouting at her about Uber that she almost started to laugh.
"It's not funny," Chloe told her, dead serious, and placed her hands on her hips, "I don't even want to see you right now."
The corners of Aubrey's lips twitched again, and she spun her chair around to look straight at Chloe. "You're in my room," she pointed out.
It was Chloe's turn to just stare. "Whatever." She turned on her heels and grabbed Aubrey's door handle. "You left me at Wendy's." With that, she stormed out and slammed the door behind her. "I'm not talking to you until you say you're sorry!" she called through the door.
Aubrey gave the door a look. Really, Chloe was going to be mad at her for leaving her not-technically-stranded when Chloe was the one who started the fight. She didn't even understand her 'punishment', because she had been through the whole 'I'm not talking to you' routine enough to know it bothered Chloe more than it did Aubrey. "Good," she said, "There will finally be some peace for once." She should probably apologize for leaving Chloe stranded, but Wendy's wasn't even that far; had worse come to worse, Chloe could have walked home and been fine. She shook her head and glanced at the door.
There were two reasons 'I'm not talking to you' didn't last long for Chloe. The first was because it wasn't physically possible for Chloe to go without talking. The second was because Aubrey felt like she won whatever battle they were having if she made Chloe talk. It was the ultimate victory. It was also an easy one. She pulled out her phone and turned on her Bluetooth so it would connect to her speaker then began scrolling down her playlist for a song. Once she finally settled on one, she put it on repeat and cranked up the volume on both her phone and the speaker itself. Then she pulled a book down from her shelf – and she waited.
Should have been different,
But it wasn't different, was it?
Same old story, Dear John, and so long.
It should have fit like a glove.
It should have fit like a ring,
Like a diamond ring,
A token of true love.
Should have all worked out,
But it didn't.
She should be here now,
But she isn't.
It only took five repeats of the song for Aubrey's door to swing wide open again. "Do you need something?" Aubrey asked and flipped the page in her book without reading the previous one, "I thought we weren't on speaking terms."
Chloe stormed inside and hand gestured at Aubrey's speaker.
"Speak loud," Aubrey said, "It's kind of hard to hear over the music." She flipped another page then looked up at Chloe.
Chloe grabbed the speaker's cord a deep yanked it out of the wall.
There's your trouble, there's your trouble,
You keep seeing double with the wrong one.
You can't see I love you, you can't see she doesn't,
But you just keep holding on.
There's your trouble.
"It's wireless too," Aubrey explained in response to Chloe's perplexed frown. She could see the words forming with the intent to escape from Chloe's mouth. "Could you plug it back in, please?"
Chloe jammed the plug back into the socket.
Aubrey nodded her thanks then looked back down at her book, trying to refrain from mentioning, you know, the power button.
Chloe folded her arms and shifted her weight from one foot to the other before finally bursting out with, "I never saw that speaker before."
"I got it a few weeks ago," Aubrey said, surprised she hadn't noticed it before, "$10. Target."
"Well, it's ugly," Chloe sputtered.
Aubrey glanced at it then frowned at Chloe. It wasn't ugly. It lit up to the beat of the music, for god's sake. "They have a purple one."
Chloe eyed the speaker. "So?"
Aubrey shrugged.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Just turn it down."
Aubrey smiled at her and nodded.
xxxxx
"If the guys are going to walk the coastline and the Bellas are searching inland for Sophia, we should head to the sheriff's office," Aubrey says once everyone is out of earshot, "I think that's our best bet."
"The police station?" Beca asks, jogging to catch up with her, "Why?"
"Information," Aubrey answers, "If anywhere is going to have an up-to-date map or a way to contact the mainland, it'll be there." She pauses. "And maybe they knew something they weren't telling us."
"Like?" Beca inquires.
"Anything," Aubrey says, "Clues. Suspects."
Beca puffs out her cheeks. "You ever think your death would turn out to be like the first five minutes of an episodic crime show?"
"What did you think it'd be like?" Aubrey asks, "The Notebook?"
Beca looks Aubrey right in the eye and deadpans, "Snapped."
Aubrey wraps her hand around the gun in the back of her pants for show. "Well, there's still time," she assures her, "You're not dead yet."
"Guys," Chloe cuts in, "Can we just stop talking about being dead?"
Aubrey releases the gun.
"Yeah." Beca gives Chloe an apologetic smile. "Sure thing, Chlo."
Aubrey unfolds a clean map and checks the direction they're going. "The sheriff's office shouldn't be more than a mile and a half down the road."
"Hey, you ever gonna open that envelope?" Beca asks.
"What envelope?" Chloe asks.
Aubrey realizes Chloe must not have been able to see the entire situation go down from where she had been standing in the hallway. She looks between them as she folds the map up again. "Whoever shot the deputy left an envelope."
"It might give us a hint or a clue something," Beca says.
"The only place we're going to find clues, Beca, is going to be the sheriff's office." Aubrey tells her. She stuffs the map in her pocket and pulls out the envelope. It's plain, not addressed to anyone. The only thing she expects to find inside is a threat. She opens it up and pulls out a folded sheet of white paper.
"What's it say?" Chloe asks.
Aubrey unfolds it and stares at it. "It doesn't say anything," she answers after a moment then shows them the paper. "It's a drawing of a pawn." She folds it back up and stuffs it back into her pocket. Every pocket she has is beginning to feel full of stuff, and in a moment of frustration, she pulls it back out again, crumples it up, and throws it on the ground. It's useless. They know nothing. Some Agatha Christie quotes, a few instrumental pieces, a drawing of a chess piece – if this was the first five minutes of a crime show, they'd be cancelled after the pilot.
"We'll have better luck at the sheriff's office," Chloe tries to assure her and slides her fingertips up and down Aubrey's back, "I'm sure there will be a different map, with another dock on it."
Aubrey nods.
But who is to say that dock isn't burnt to a crisp too?