this is the end of the world.

[453gof_flesh]

Who: Clapet, Donny, Sveta, and Martha.
Where: PORT.
When: Port. I figure we can multi-thread or whatever.
What: Clapet goes a bit nuts, Donny dies, there's some epic moments of self-discovery.
Warnings: Death, threats of cannibalism and violence.

Comments

[thegooddrjones]

It was day two and the city didn't look like it was getting any nearer. They'd heard shots in the night, and Martha had frowned; it was too close, much to close feeling for her. Taking a deep breath, she looked around and longingly thought of food. She was hungry, starving really. The sensation of hunger was like a gnawing on her stomach, and longingly she thought of the dining hall and the warm food it offered. Martha Jones wasn't the sort of woman who ate a lot, and she'd gone hungry more than once... but not in a long time and she'd gotten rather complacent with her meal-skipping.

She paused for a moment, reaching in the pack for her last bottle of water. It was warm now, the fluid inside matching the temperature of the air around them. It was a fine line between being frugal with the water and being stupid without drinking it. More than once she'd heard Tom lecture on how many people were found dead from dehydration with water remaining in their canteens. Martha filled her mouth and swallowed, wishing once again that Clapet hadn't been so vehement about not filling the bottles up at some of the springs they'd past. After his first outburst, Martha hadn't mentioned it again.

"Are we close, do you think?" She sounded tired, and sore.

[453gof_flesh]

Clapet sighed, and had a drink of his own water, and looking around them curiously, feeling the familiar hunger eating at the pit of his stomach. He could tolerate it, for now, but it was getting tired, "I don't even know."

He saw someone moving in the distance, and checked the ammunition in the gun, before stepping carefully into the space in front of him, pointing it ahead, "Who's there?" He waited for someone to respond, and as soon as a guy emerged from the bushes, he jumped, and pulled the trigger, shooting the man in the face, immediately dead, before he had any chance to say a word.

[greatlightother]

Sveta didn't mind the hunger. It hurt and it occupied her thoughts fully, but it kept her from feeling the grief. She had been almost silent the entire time, drinking what she needed, but not protesting anything.

At Martha's question, Sveta turned and looked over to her, folding her arms across her chest. Consequently, she didn't notice it when someone came from the bushes. She did, however, notice the question and gunshot and jumped in the air before turning.

"Clapet," she whispered and looked around, expecting there to be more who suddenly appeared.

[thegooddrjones]

Martha released a breath when he said that he hadn't he didn't even know. Bloody hell, what she'd give for a good pair of field glasses or something other than a vague set of lights in the distance. When Sveta looked at her with the crossed arms, Martha just shrugged a bit; someone had to say it, she thought.

But then there was Clapet asking if someone was there. Oh hell, this wasn't good. They'd heard people, of course, and they'd avoided grocery stores, but she had hoped to avoid them. Her immediate thought was another giant bug like the one who'd gotten Donny, and Martha quickly moved into a defensive stance.

The sound of the gunshot made her startle, and Martha stared at the man and the blood and the way it spread around the ground. Her heart was thrumming, and instantly she looked around for more people.

[453gof_flesh]

Clapet looked around him, his eyes darting from one side to another, very, very scared about what might come out at them, so he quickly moved to behind a bush, and waved the women to come with him, "The others'll come to check on him."

He paused for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, "A couple more come, we can kill them, and we've got a source of food. Better than anything else. It's all we've got left." He gripped his gun tightly, and was already re-loading.

[greatlightother]

Sveta followed him behind that bush and crouched down, her thumbs looped through the straps of her backpack as she peered between the leaves. She kept looking behind her, as if she was going to find something dangerous lurking just behind them.

And in this setting...it was very likely.

But something much more dire had just popped up. Clapet's words made Sveta's head snap to the side and she moved away from him.

"No," she said harshly and looked to Martha, hoping that she wasn't the only one hearing this.

[thegooddrjones]

Martha definitely agreed that others would come to check on him, and that they would have been drawn by the echoing nature of the gunshot. She too a deep breath as she followed behind the bush, moving so that she was low onto the ground, but curled in case they needed to run for it.

And then he mentioned that more would come and that they could kill them for food. Martha gaped quickly at him, and then she gaped at Sveta. This reminded her of the way that Billy and Blonksy were killed during the flood and that was bad.

"No." She said the word softly but firmly. "We're not going to that, Mr. Clapet. That's not the answer to this."

[453gof_flesh]

Clapet gripped the gun in his hands tighter, because he knew, he knew this was all they had left, and these two were just being dumb. They didn't know what was at stake, "So you'd prefer to keep going and starve?" He sighed and looked up at the sky with a quiet French curse, "Look, your choices clearly are that you either do this, or you go without. Do you really want to risk not being able to get to this city... and having no food? Or even if we do, who says there's food there? This... ladies, I wouldn't suggest this if I didn't think we needed it to survive."

He gave them both a pained look, and idly checked the ammunition in his gun as he did so, "I'm not saying this lightly. If you decline me now, you might die. I don't want you to starve, or die, I want you to live. We can keep alive together, I promise."

[greatlightother]

Sveta refused to panic. She wasn't going to get upset with him. It wouldn't accomplish anything. But what he was suggesting was barbaric and absolutely out of the question. She would rather starve and die than do what he was suggesting. But she realized that he had a different sense of self preservation than she did.

"No. We're not doing that. And neither should you. This isn't the only way to survive. We can go on. We can survive without...that."

[thegooddrjones]

Martha didn't like the way he gripped the gun tighter; and she had to remind herself that he had promised that he was going to get all of them to safety. Swallowing the rock-size lump of fear in her throat, she just shook her head. There were more options than this, this was never really an option, especially not when it had only been two days.

Her voice was calm when she agreed with Sveta. "We've got other options, Clapet. We can get to the city. We don't need to kill anyone for food. We can get through this without doing that. I promise, yeah? We can get through this"

[453gof_flesh]

He laughed, just a little hollowly and a little derisively, "No. No, ladies, don't be stupid. Don't be dumb. You're intelligent, both of you, and this is just delusion. You've never been here before. You've never had to survive."

He sighed and told them in a hushed tone, "You know what'll happen, if you don't find food? You'll collapse from exhaustion and never reach the city. Would you rather reach it having done something you're not proud of, or not reach it at all?"

There was a heavy moment, and Clapet idly cocked his pistol, and lazily pointed it from Sveta to Martha, "Truth is, ladies, if you don't agree with this, I might as well shoot you now. You might as well be dead."

He wasn't entirely sure how serious he was about that, but he knew that this... this was all he had. These two, and he had to convince them that this way was the only way they could stick around, and this was the only way of control he had over the situation. Otherwise they'd just keep going with no real end - as he was still doubtful as to the reality of this city, no matter what he could see. Their optimism was that of another world, where you didn't have most of your hopes of survival crushed in front of you, where those you thought most loyal to you didn't turn on you.

[greatlightother]

Sveta watched that gun very carefully. She didn't like the way that he pointed it at them and she backed away, moving closer to Martha, as if the other woman might have better answers. Or a way out.

"Don't do that," she warned softly. "You know that you don't have to do this." She raised her hands a bit, trying not to look as afraid as she felt. "Please, trust me. Trust us. We need your help to get through to the city, but you can't lose faith like this.

[thegooddrjones]

When he told them not to be stupid and laughed, Martha swallowed. Oh, this could get bad. She took a deep breath; one day, she would tell him how she had to survive, and she was certain that Sveta had done things to survive as well, because she was a survivor. They all were survivors, the three of them.

"We're going to reach the city, Clapet. We're going to get there, and we're going to do it without using some person as food to do." These raiders? They were people and they were trying to survive; the trio of them were trespassers here for the Admiral's amusement.

And then he cocked the gun and pointed it at them. Some of the color drained from Martha's face, and she never would have imagined that. Slowly, she took a step towards Clapet. "No, you're not going to shoot us or hurt us, Clapet. I know you're not. You're going to get us to that city, and we're going to find another way to do it. I trust you that you can do it without this. Will you please let us try?"

[453gof_flesh]

Clapet grimaced and shook his head. He didn't lower the pistol, not just yet, "I don't think you get it. No, no... I don't think you get it." He laughed again, sounding just a little more manic, "Listen to me, Docteurs," It was a distancing tactic and he knew it, but that wasn't the point, he was trying to give himself the nerve to shoot them if he had to.

It wasn't working.

"Your choices are quite clear. Do you really think people like them? Like those men out there, would hesitate about shooting us and eating us? Not for a second. They've got to live, remember. Got to live. So do we. I bet you anything they draw straws amongst themselves, they end up eating each other more than you both want to think about. Stop lying to yourselves, please. It'd be nice to think, to believe, that nothing like that was necessary, but let's be honest. Out here, you kill or be killed, eat or starve."

He grimaced and paused, "And let me tell you flat out. If we do keep walking, and one of you collapses; I'm putting you out your misery, killing you, and not letting it go to waste." He'd at least lowered his gun from pointing at them right now, and he shrugged, "I wouldn't blame you for doing the same to me."

[greatlightother]

Sveta shook her head quickly, not wanting to think about all those things he was implying. She didn't care if that's what they did. She was better than that. They were better than that right now. But she knew that wouldn't work as an argument.

"No, Clapet. We wouldn't. We wouldn't do the same to you. Please, let's just go on. The situation is not that dire. Not that desperate." And, to her, it never would be.

She stood up from the shrub and, when no one shot at her, she took a step back. "Come on. Let's go. We can do this."

[thegooddrjones]

Martha saw that he was trying to distance himself from them emotionally, and she wasn't going to allow him to do that. No, him doing that would be incredibly bad for the three of them, and she wouldn't let that happen. Keeping her hands in plain sight, and her posture non-threatening, Martha took another step into the distance between them.

"No, I don't think they eat one another. I don't think they make the choice. We're not going to make it either, Clapet. They shoot people to protect their food, I don't doubt that, but I highly doubt their food is people."

When Sveta said that they should go, Martha held out her hand to him. "We're all going to make it, and we're all going to support one another, and we're all going to make it to that city and home to the Barge. No one gives up on anyone, right Sveta?"