I realised something – you know you've seen too many horror films when you think of Freddy vs. Jason after seeing the names Freddy and Jason in the same sentence -.-'
She couldn't see anything. Every time she took a breath, she was cut off. Her body was curled up in a ball, her feet barely reaching the wall. She lifted her arm slightly, hopefully to stand, only to be met by the ceiling. Her eyes widened, her breathing accelerated, her heart pounding in her ribcage. She was locked inside.
Locked in with no way out.
Fear took over, her limps flailing about in hopes of breaking her cage. Her feet stomped against the wall, her hands pounding on the ceiling.
Laughing came from the other side. Voices, too. "Schizo, schizo, schizo," they chanted. It all morphed into one voice, pain making its way to her ankle.
"Schizo."
Aria's eyes flew open, finding herself in a dark place again. Something was making her foot hurt. Without thinking, she pulled out her dagger and sprung to her feet, ready to strike when she heard a distinctive voice yell, "What the fuck?"
It was Mei.
Carrot froze and stared at the other girl with wide eyes, reality catching up with her.
"Jesus fucking Christ," Mei gasped. "The fuck is wrong with you?"
In Mei's hand was the candle Wendy had been holding earlier, the flame burning brightly. Half of Mei's frowning face was illuminated, the rest remaining in shadows.
Aria's hand flew to her head, a slight migraine taking over. "How long was I...?"
"Half an hour," Mei told her. "Alec told me to get you. Don't see the fucking point in why," she added as she turned away. Aria put away her dagger and picked up her jacket, wondering when she'd taken it off. She turned around to pick up her candle, which was on the floor where she left it, and her foot bumped her phone, sending it skidding to the wall. Aria grabbed it and unlocked it, feeling deflated when she saw there were no new messages.
She pocketed the phone and turned to Mei, picking up her candle.
"Mind if I light mine with yours?" she asked. Mei gave her a suspicious glare, bringing the candle closer to herself. Frowning, she held it out.
"Fine," she spat. "Make it quick."
The orange-haired girl hurriedly placed her candle over Mei's, lighting the string that had already burned halfway, and then followed Mei out of the room with a light of her own. It seemed dimmer than the other girl's.
She rubbed her eyes tiredly, still not entirely awake, and finally arrived in the room everyone else was in. It was the same room they held what Aria would call their group meetings in.
"Good morning," Alec said with a grin. "Have a nice sleep?"
Mei scoffed, taking a seat next to Iza at the table. "Damn schizo was moaning in her sleep. 'Help me, help me.' God, you are such a fucking softie, Schizo."
"Oh, shut up," Aria grumbled. "I'm not in the damn mood."
The younger girl huffed and glared, crossed her arms in front of her. Alec looked to the rest of the group, letting out a breath.
"Obviously, we're going to have to live as nomads," he told them. "Gypsies, even."
Aria thought to herself, I can actually see that kind of life happening, knowing us.
Iza sighed, a hand going to her stomach. "When will we eat, though?" she asked anyone. Jun's eyes seemed to light up.
"I can cook for us," he told them. "I just need ingredients and a mini barbeque set."
"But you're blind," Alec reminded him. Jun scoffed, grinning.
"I'm blind?" he replied sarcastically. "Oh, how will I ever cope?"
Some of them couldn't help but laugh. Alec shrugged and smiled, continuing on with his talk. "We've already gathered supplies we'd need from here," he said. "There's some food in each bag we found. I've even given us all a bottle of alcohol to carry with us and a complimentary lighter each from the bar next door."
This was confusing. "What?" Aria said. "Why?"
Mei scoffed, explaining, "Alcohol is flammable, and if we have enough on us to light then we have enough to make ourselves fires when we have to rest, or blow shit up when we need to. And when I say blow shit up, I mean fucking blow shit up."
"Huh," Aria remarked with a smirk. "I like the sound of that."
"And with the leftover alcohol, some of us can play some games to pass the time."
Alec agreed on that with a firm, "Mmm-hmm," and nodded, waiting for anyone else to say anything. When no one spoke, he said, "We'll be splitting up into three groups. Each group will have the phone numbers of anyone else with a phone, and we will be going in three different directions. We will travel through the cover of night – just for tonight – and we will meet at the most suitable house we find. If we don't find anything by two tomorrow morning, we'll meet back here to get some rest on the top floor."
"Sounds reasonable," Roberto said. "Who's going in which group?"
"Well, it's obvious that Mei and Iza don't want to be separated, so I'll keep them together. That leaves eight of us left. You and Jun seem to get along, so that puts you two in your own group. I'd put Freddy with Mei and Iza to make one group, and then add Sora to your group. That makes two complete groups. Finally, Aria will be with Kit and Wendy. I'll back her up since she can't handle little girls."
"I said I can't handle upset girls!" Aria snapped. "There's a difference!"
"And that makes group number three," Alec went on, ignoring her. "Any questions?"
No one said anything, which settled it. Alec regarded the group with pride, then said to them, "Let's go."
It turned out that Alec had to loan his phone to the girls and Freddy, seeing as they all had theirs somewhere else. Darkness had fully fallen in the half-hour Aria had been resting, and she almost wished she'd helped packed. She hadn't bothered to put her jacket back on and instead kept it in her bag, finding enough room among the alcohol and food. None of them had said a word since they'd started to walk, and Aria hadn't decided whether or not to ask which direction they were going in. They were obviously heading on the path alongside the one to Kit's house, but they were slowly walking away from it as well.
Nothing had passed them, the road remaining empty of people and full of unmanned cars. Not even any of 'them' were around. It was a drastic change from earlier that day.
At least an hour went by before Aria got a text from Alec's phone. She quickly checked it, smiling as she read it to herself. It was obvious that Iza had written it, seeing as not even one curse was used.
Found a house. Ppl r there. Meet up hotel l8r
"They've found a place," Aria relayed, looking away from her phone to find her three companions further away, unaware that she had spoken. She broke into a jog and caught up with Alec, handing him her phone. He read the message to himself and grinned.
"Those two certainly work fast," he commented. He handed the phone back to her and turned around to walk backwards. He focused his attention of the younger ones. "Mei, Iza, and Freddy have found a place with survivors in it. They'll lead us there when we meet up again."
Both Wendy and Kit gave him hopeful smiles, silently celebrating the news.
"Oh, God, I'm star-fucking-ving!" Mei announced, snatching the packet of potato chips from the bag. Iza quickly zipped it closed and slung it over her shoulder, being careful not to break the glass bottle in her bag. Meanwhile, Freddy was busy trying to strike a conversation with the guys they'd found. Both of them were quite muscular, one being taller than the other, and both of them were tourists. It was easy to tell, since they were carrying a map and spoke terrible Japanese.
Their names were Jason and Harold. Jason was the taller one, with slightly tanned skin and short brown hair that belonged to a military grunt or something. From his accent, Iza could roughly gather that he was German. Harold, on the other hand, was Hawaiian, with thin brown eyes and long hair in a braid that reached his elbows. He was shorter than Jason, but he was certainly burlier.
"You're saying there are more survivors out there?" Freddy asked, astonished. "Where?"
Jason pulled the map away from Harold and set it down on the ground, switching on his torch and shining it over the blue and yellow picture. His finger landed on a certain spot as Mei and Iza joined them.
"There's a hill that's impossible to climb without a ladder," Jason explained. "Literally, the bottom part has been dug out and paved over to make a mural. A few years back, some rich guy decided to build a summer villa on the hill, and he ended up never leaving there."
"Ooh, I know this story," Mei joined, throwing a chip into her mouth. As she chewed, she said, "The guy had a tumour in his head the size of a cow heart, and apparently he was riding his horse and fell off, which did some shit to the tumour and caused him to die." As she said 'die,' she used a creepy voice, like the guy from Scream.
Mei swallowed the chip and went to grab another. "They say his house is haunted," she added, voice amused and eager to go there.
A scoff came from Harold. "Obviously not," he argued. "We've been squatting there for a few days now, and we haven't seen a ghost."
"Who said it was a ghost? It could be a demon..."
"C'mon, Mei," Iza laughed. "There's no such thing."
The other girl gave her a knowing grin, throwing another chip into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "Fuck, what flavour are these?" she wondered to herself.
Sounds of paper folding came from Freddy and Jason, who were packing up the map and putting their bags over their shoulders. "Iza, time," Freddy commanded. Iza frowned and narrowed her eyes.
"Iza, time, what?" she pressed. Freddy took a turn to frown, almost scowling.
"Please," he muttered/grumbled. With a triumphant smile, Iza pulled Alec's phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and checking the time. She let out a low whistle.
"Twelve-thirty," she told him. "We've got to go back in an hour and a half."
Freddy nodded and turned to Harold and Jason, an air of leadership about him. "We'll head back to our group and tell them where this place is – if you'll have us there – and then we'll meet you back here," he said. "Deal?"
Jason grinned. "Natürlich," he replied.
"Isn't this great?" Sora said, walking ahead of them. "We're working together as a team and trying to keep each other alive in a time of crisis. I find it quite nice, to be honest. Ooh, is that a hot dog stand? Oh, no, wait, just an ice cream stand. And here I thought we'd scored."
Roberto tried to jump in. "Isn't ice cream a good thing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Sora shook her head.
"After all this time, it would've melted," she informed them. "And the umbrella is coated in blood," she added with a hint of disgust.
The grip Jun had on Roberto's jacket tightened as he took a step forward, whispering, "Is she ever going to stop talking?"
"Doubt it," Roberto sighed. They continued on, Sora's constant chitchat the only thing heard. His phone vibrated, a sign that someone had found something. Jun immediately stopped walking and waited patiently for his friend to pull his phone out of his pocket.
He checked the message, instantly knowing that it was Iza who'd sent it – there were no mentions of 'fuck' between words or even a curse to be seen.
Found a house. Ppl r there. Meet up hotel l8r
"Sweet," Roberto said, glancing up to see Sora making her way toward them.
"We got a message?" she asked with anticipation. Roberto nodded. She fist-pumped the air. "Yes!"
He quickly checked the time and blinked, turning his foot toward the other way. "Almost time to go back," he told them. "Let's go."
Sora didn't say a word, only skipped past them with a giddy smile on her face.
The teenagers stared up at the wall in awe, mouths falling. Well, all of them but Jun were staring, but he was still pretty quiet as they approached it. The early morning air had gotten quite chilly, and Aria had to pull her jacket out of the bag. She didn't bother zipping it up and kept the hood drawn over her head in a hopeful attempt to keep her hair out of her face.
"Um..." Mei began. "Where the fuck's the ladder?"
The Hawaiian man – whom had introduced himself as Harold – rolled his eyes and reached into the pocket of his trousers, pulling out a set of car keys. On the set was one of those electric car locks that worked from a far distance. The teens watched as he aimed it up and clicked a button, and then jumped when they heard a faint blip-blip.
"Was that a car?" Aria half-laughed. Harold and his friend, Jason, simply grinned as a ladder made of rope and wood suddenly rolled down the wall, landing in front of them with a thud.
"So..." Alec said. "We just...climb?"
The German man nodded and began to climb, taking his time as he grunted with each push of his feet and pull of his hands. At least a half-hour passed before all of them were up the hill, the teenagers tired from the hard climb. The sight before them was worth it, though. Standing alone at the top of the hill was a huge manor house, at least three storeys from where they were viewing it. It looked so Victorian era, too – almost no one could guess that it was built just a few years ago. And lined in front of it was an army of cars, all of them different colours and shapes.
Harold pointed his electric lock at the cars and hit another button, this one making a car go blip.
"Well, they know we got up okay," he told his guests. "We have room in the house for you guys to sleep and eat, but you will have to earn your keep after today."
"Fair enough," Alec agreed. "We are, after all, guests in your home."
Harold and Jason led them toward the house, passing the cars on their way. A few of the trucks had a trailer at the end, the bars coated in blood and with scratch marks along the paint. Aria gulped and continued walking, making herself ignore the cars.
Jason broke into a sprint for the front door, knocking on it three times before it was opened by a man covered in tattoos and piercings. His angry eyes landed on the group of teens and his face was painted with a scowl.
"More deadweight," he growled. "Especially the little ones."
"I'm average height!" Aria defended. Wendy nudged her with her elbow.
"He means me, Kit, and Freddy," she corrected with a frown.
Aria nodded and glared at the man, who simply sighed and moved away, allowing them access into the house. They filed in one by one and stood awkwardly in the hall, waiting for someone to lead them somewhere. Harold immediately left with Tattoo Guy, which meant Jason was the one to show them around. He gave them a quick tour, showing them the kitchen, the living room, and then the "games room". When he was finished, he led them to the third floor, which had all of the bedrooms in it.
He led them to the end of the hall, where three rooms were still empty.
"Share a room with whoever you want," he told them, "but each room can only keep three people – four if you squeeze in real close." He seemed to wink at that statement and then was on his way, down the stairs before anyone could figure out who was where.
"This sucks," Freddy sighed. "There's, what? Four guys and six girls? I don't know about you guys, but I'm not squeezing in real close if the four of us a sharing a room."
"I'll say," Aria agreed, opening one of the doors. "There's only one bed in here," she told them. "King size – that actually does fit three people."
"And how the fuck would you know?" Mei countered. She suddenly cut herself off and smiled. "Shit, you little slag! Is that what they call them in England?"
Aria slammed her palm onto her forehead, groaning loudly. "If you're implying that I've had a" – she cut herself off when she remembered Wendy being in the room – "thing, then you're dumber than I thought."
"Considering what we know about you, though," Iza joined, "it seems like a rational thing to think. I mean, you haven't really been an open book – none of us have."
"Well, I haven't!" Aria snapped. "Now, who's sharing with who?"
Mei muttered with a grin, "I bet I know who you want to 'share' with."
Aria threw her hands up in frustration and growled, "Sora, Kit, and Wendy, you're sharing a room. I'll sleep on the floor of that room."
"I bet that isn't the only place you've 'slept'!"
"Mei!" she went on. "I will put you in that room instead if you don't shut up."
That seemed to shut her up, a vengeful glare directed at Aria. Freddy and Alec were trying to contain their laughter while Roberto and Jun just stood awkwardly by them, silent and unsure of what to say. The rest of the girls simply looked to each other, mixed expressions between them. Aria let out a sigh and began to walk toward the stairs.
"I'm going to check out the rest of this place," she told them. "You guys figure out where you'll be sleeping. Just don't put Kit and Wendy in the same room as Mei, got it?"
"Will do," Roberto replied as she descended the stairs and made her way for any direction.
Good Lord, I'm bored.
She leaned back in her chair, balancing on the back legs and staring at the ceiling lazily. Two other people were seated at the table – a man and a woman – and a third person was entering the room just as the woman decided to strike up a conversation.
"You're one of the new kids, right?" she asked. Her voice sounded low and seductive, like the voice Laura Bailey probably had to use to voice Lust in the Fullmetal Alchemist series.
"Yeah," Aria replied reluctantly, glancing at the woman. She may have sounded like Laura Bailey, but she looked remarkably like Echidna Parass.
Stop comparing things to fiction, Carrot! she commanded mentally. She was right on the description, though. Aside from her hair being bright blue instead of green, she bore a great resemblance to the anime character. Although, the nose ring on her left nostril made Aria a little confused as to whether or not the teleporting Taoist had a piercing as well.
The Echidna lookalike's golden eyes narrowed deviously. "When did you get here?" she pressed. "Ten minutes ago?"
"Forty, if you count the climb," Aria quickly said. She cocked her head to the side, one of her eyes half-closing as she added, "I didn't catch your name."
The woman grinned and said, "Raiza."
It took the girl a moment to realise she'd pronounced her name the Japanese way, the L becoming an R.
"Liza," she corrected. The woman nodded.
"I prefer Raiza, though," she told her. "And what is your name, little vegetable?"
Hardy-ha, Aria thought sarcastically. At least I don't look like a hooker. "I'm Aria," she introduced. "I'm pretty sure it's pronounced like that in Japanese. You might want to Google it."
Raiza suddenly burst out into laughs, the third person – a girl probably a little older than Aria – taking a seat away from the three seated.
"You're funny," Raiza said. Her eyes suddenly became tired as she leaned back in her chair, giggling a little. Aria gave her a scrutinous glare, suspicious of her laugh. Googling something wasn't funny – it was...well, Aria didn't know what it was.
The blue-haired woman's gaze shifted to the table, a small yawn escaping her. And then it hit her. Red-rimmed eyes, bags under said eyes, dilated pupils, an all around tired expression.
"Are you stoned?" she scoffed. Raiza brought a finger to her cherry-red lips and made a hushing sound.
"That stuff might be worth something later on," Raiza told her, turning into a conspiracy theorist all of a sudden. Aria rolled her eyes.
They won't be worth anything if you smoke it, she thought. She decided to not reply to the woman's comment and stood, pushing the chair back in its place. Aria let out a not-so-fake yawn and bid Raiza and the man farewell, not bothering to say goodbye to the other girl. It turned out that she didn't need to, either – the girl simply stood and left the same way Aria did, keeping a distance away from her as Aria searched the house for something to do.
Aria's hand absently went to her sword, resting on the hilt casually. It seemed that, when she was stressed, touching her weapon calmed her to a degree.
"You'd better just be holding it," a voice warned. Jumping from the sudden arrival, Aria turned around and was met by the girl from the table, arms crossed in front of her as she gave Aria a big-sisterly smile. At least, that's what it looked like...
"Oh?" she scoffed. "And you're one to talk?"
She had a point – in one of her hands was a sword about the same length as Aria's, but the hilt and scabbard were very different.
The girl simply smiled, amused, and walked toward Aria, waiting for the other girl to continue with her search for something to do. With a shrug and a sigh, Aria decided to get some rest. After all, she and the others had to earn their keep the next day, and they'd practically been up all night.
"You look a little tired, Aria," the girl said. "Go get some sleep. I'm sure someone will wake you later."
With a nod and a quick wave, Aria made a beeline for the stairs, passing more people on her way. It was amazing how many were there, only a day after the end. But then again, Harold and Jason had been squatting in the house for a few days already. These people could've been doing the same.
She let out another yawn, hand moving away from her sword as she finally found the stairs. She didn't spot anyone in the hall, but did manage to see a piece of paper stuck to one of the doors. Aria quickly walked over to it, removing it from the door and reading it to herself.
Aria, you're sharing with me (Iza) and Mei. Sorry if you don't like it. Sora said she'll make sure Kit and Wendy sleep okay tonight.
With a smile, she folded the paper and put it in her pocket as a door behind her opened. She lazily glanced over her shoulder, spotting none other than Alec with a tired look on his face, the cigarette still in his mouth.
"Food," he said simply, hand flying to his stomach as he walked by her. Well, it was better than no greeting at all.
Aria silently opened the door to the room and felt like letting out a sigh of relief at where the other two were sleeping – Mei on one side, and Iza in the middle. That left one whole side to Aria. She untied the sword from her belt loop and removed her dagger, setting them down on the floor under the bed. She kicked off her shoes and pulled off her jacket, getting under the covers and closing her eyes, counting sheep as the second day's sun awaited its rising.
Sorry if not all the characters got a bit of the spotlight – I went brain-dead at one stage when I was trying to think of how they would find the place and the events that would follow 0.o
But, after much thought and constant scheming (mu-ha-ha), I should be able to do more events in Survival.
Ooh, and the profile pic has been changed to Mei, who, as said in the last chapter, is XDreamKillerX's character :D Next character will be Roberto, Kami-nii-Sama's character. See you guys next chapter :)