A Life Worth A Thousand Dollars

[That Lass Over There]

He has forsaken us, deciding to drown us in our own creations while giving us the impossible hope of redemption. On Tuesday, February 19th 2009 the world officially became His twisted game, making monsters out of our dead and sinners, murderers and things without humanity out of the survivors. To live, you simply need to play along with His twisted game, or get a friend to pay a thousand dollars each time you die...

 

[That Lass Over There]

(the clothing in the picture isn't what she is wearing)


The girl yawned, slowly picking up her papers from the desk, purposely placing herself behind the crowd riddled with the usual unwelcome noise of students heading to a drill with her slowed movements. Why must they all be so loud? Have people really become so complacent? Ah, even this far behind, the noise of their obnoxious voices is bothering me... Well, I guess I'll just go to my locker and get my book bag on a detour to the gym - if this is a drill, at most I'll get scolded, and if this is a real emergency everybody will be too panicked to notice that I wasn't there from the get-go. I'm curious what the emergency is, though? There aren't supposed to be thunderstorms, and they would have sent us outside for a fire.


Oh well, I don't really care so long as I don't get hurt. She shrugged her shoulders, tucking the dark purple binder under her arm and heading in the complete opposite of gym, towards the sience hall.

 

[Alike]

Okay, well honestly, she would have completely abandoned her experiment too, if she had been expecting the drill or...fine! That was a complete lie! Flora was currently scrambling to remove the solution of chemicals she had created from the beaker, dispose of them (in the appropriate manner) and get her butt over to the gymnasium. While the wrenching announcement delivered over a clearly too old intercom system, hardly even understandable, had instructed the entire staff and student to relocate - she just couldn't! Admittedly, she had yet again been the one overzealous student in her Chemistry class to jump at the idea of finally (finally!) being able to try out chemical combination. Had no one else been as excited? Well, evidently so. Judging by the fact that in the bustle of student shuffling out of the class within a record time of 30 seconds, she had been left behind before she had even realized it. Hence, the current scramble. "I know, I know!" She hissed at herself, pouring chemicals in the designated disposal bin. "I really need to get over there, an announcement is an announcement for a reason, right? Yes, I got it! I'm going as fast as I can!"

 

[That Lass Over There]

"-I'm going as fast as I can!" Entered the girl's over-sensitive ears as she entered the hall, blinking as she quickly threw back on the soundproof headset she normally wore. Someone else stayed behind? I thought everyone would have been spooked by the announcer's confused, urgent voice, but I guess there are a few oddballs, huh? Sounds like she's in one of the classrooms at the end of the hall, right next to my locker. Perfect, I'll offer to walk with her to the Gym - as much as I like the silence, it's like a horror movie walking through these empty halls and I'm not a hardcore fan of that genre. Smiling at the thought of releasing the creepy atmosphere of this empty, huge school, she headed towards the chemistry lab room with a slight pep in her step, happy with the first minute of silence she had gotten in a long, long time. What she didn't know was that, if she hadn't put on her headset right then, she would have heard the beginning of a grim feast originating in the area she had so far neglected to go to.

 

[Alike]

Flora's head shot up from stuffing her lab books into her backpack. Over the sound of shuffling papers, she had heard the distinct....sound of screams. And not the kind of screams that come from hearing news that the entire student body would be released early. No. As she turned her head in the direction of the chemistry lab's door, she was able to identify the sounds more clearly. Bloodcurdling screams. What was going on?? "Okay....cool. Time to go!" Either way, she knew it was time to get the hell out of the chemistry lab. Flora shoved the rest of her stuff in her backpack and scurried to the door.

 

[That Lass Over There]

(Sorry to be a bum, but unless Flora can hear over 800 meters with cement walls interspersed between that without concentrating, she probably couldn't hear that - if she could, I assure you she would be wearing a soundproof headset just like my character xD )

 

[Alike]

((Did you mention how large the school is? I guess I missed that. And I would also imagine that if it's a gym full of people beginning to be eaten, there would be tons of screaming! haha pretty gruesome, but with people running away or being eaten it would probably be pretty noisy.))

 

[That Lass Over There]

(Haha, no I didn't... My apologies. The school takes up a 4 square kilometer plot of land, one and a half of those of those used up by the stadiums, and the rest used by the school, it's gym, and it's courtyard. (it's ginormous... But explains why there isn't a second floor!) And while I do agree, I did mention that it only just started. Not to mention, there's an exit from the school in the gym, so most students and teachers would take that path to escape. It will take a few more posts (2 or 3) before the screams and their sources come within a noticeable range.


I'm sorry, I've gotten way too lax with detail *timidly scratches head*)

 

[Alike]

((Ahhh, gotcha! No worries. I'm just drawing from my love of The Walking Dead, but ok I'll just go on.))


Flora burst out of the chemistry lab door and was greeted with a complete empty, silent hallway. "What the...." she mumbled, but didn't take any time in scampering down the pristine linoleum hall. Alright, so maybe she had just heard the screaming in her head...which might be even more disturbing, but the vacant hallway did not give any other indication as to why she had heard it in the first place. "Totally fine," she reassured herself. Maybe she could chalk it up to watching Paranormal Activity with her younger brother the night before. Flora scowled just thinking about the four foot tall, 9 year old twig who apparently shared her dNA. What an evil, little shit! First of all, her brother had forced her, forced, into watching that horrific movie. It was not even cinematically pleasing, just all around bad budgeting and cheap scares! Flora would know she was a self-proclaimed movie lover. So...why was she still being haunted by that theatrical garbage? "Ugh!" She scoffed and rolled her eyes, then began to scamper down the hallway. Forget it, she just needed to get to the gym!

 

[That Lass Over There]

(Haha, nice cover-up!)

 

[Alike]

(( c: I tried ))

 

[That Lass Over There]

The girl stopped upon seeing Flora come out of the room now just a meter or two away, frowning with a campaign to find her name waging on in her desolate memory. Come on, started with an F... Fiona? No, wrong world... Flora? No, can't be that... Fart?


I need to stay away from my little tomboyish sister... Flora has to be it! You know, I'm kind of sad those are the only names I can think of right now that start with an F... She stood up, getting rid of her normal slouch, and about to address the girl right, right in front of her... "Owwwwie......" She had been ran into, and her binder went sliding on the floor behind her, miraculously not loosing any of it's papers. It took a moment for what had just happened, and she frowned at the person on top of her. "Flora, right? I know it's hard because the doorways are so deep in the thick walls of this school, but please watch where you're going... My backside hurts now..." From the shock of being knocked into, she had yet to realize the headset that had been knocked ajar or the new senses that described over fifty people scampering throughout the building, and the ever-increasing number of entities without breath giving a decently paced, inevitable pursuit.

 

[Alike]

Somewhere in between cursing her little brother and trying to get to the gym, she had managed to run into someone. Flora heard some speaking but was mainly overwhelmed by all of her rushing thoughts coming to an abrupt halt as a result of the collision. What luck. "I'm just trying to get to the gym! I know the experiment wasn't really worth it, but I was so excited - how could I not want to find out the -" Flora. Kindly, shut up. As her vision came into focus, she realized she was actually not releasing her inner monologue to an empty hallway. "Um, hi," Flora half smiled, mostly just apologetically grimaced. "Sorry about that, I guess internal monologues don't really leave room for paying much attention to where you're going."

 

[That Lass Over There]

The girl quickly rolled out from under Flora, smiling slightly in spite of the pain she felt in her ears and head. "My name isn't 'Um, hi', it's Wiz. But yeah, I hear they aren't too beneficial to attention - does wonders for entertainment, though." Her face suddenly turned pale after a weak chuckle at her sarcastic statement as the screams finally set in, piercing her eardrums like an army of swords and spears. Quickly fixing her headphones, she took a deep breath. No wonder I could 'hear' her, the headset came loose when I hit he floor... Two people headed this way, both screaming like pigs in the slaughter... I think one is injured from the footsteps, but it's weird because even though there are only two screaming in that group, four others can only be faintly heard behind them... "We should probably get in that lab room and lock the door... I hear people screaming, and you should too in a few seconds..." Thoroughly alarmed, Wiz didn't waste a second in heading to the room Flora just left and gesturing her to come too.

 

[That Lass Over There]

(the poke of obsession!)

 

[Alike]

"Who - what..." It was taking Flora a minute to catch up, but she quickly scrambled to her feet and followed Wiz back toward the chemistry lab. "Um! I knew it! I heard the screaming and I thought it was in my head because my stupid little brother forced me to watch a really scary movie with him." Maybe, she shouldn't be blindly following this new person back into the chemistry lab...but, okay she didn't really have a choice. Go toward the screaming, or follow someone who at least looked like she knew what to do. "But, wait - Wiz, don't you think we should be going somewhere else, like instead of cornering ourselves in a room?? I really don't have much experience jumping out of windows....Also, um what the hell is going on?"

 

[That Lass Over There]

"No, I think that was your imagination - how could you hear something that far away?" Wiz smiled as she sent a jibe at Flora, trying to lighten the mood as she quickly locked the heavy wood door. "There are only six sets of footsteps coming this way, four chasing two, that will be near here in about nine seconds - with those numbers, I'd rather have my back to a wall and make sure I'm not surrounded in trying to escape. As for whats going on... It sounded like unarmed people are attacking the school, to me." Honestly, that's a really wild guess... There was too much chaos to ascertain anything in the small amount of time the headset was off, all I could tell was that those six are the only ones headed towards us... "Well, I'm sure there's no need to worry. You can count on me to get us out of this weird situation! And think about it: we're in the chemistry lab, we can have fun blowing those suckers to smithereens, just like a game! If it makes you feel better, I have a self-defense knife. That should scare them off!" She grinned, trying to clear her head while assuring the girl that was likely to become a valuable comrade in a few seconds. Her left hand was in the back pocket of her men's cargo pants, holding aforementioned knife with a tight grip as she slowly backed up from the door and got into a ready stance in the case that they were noticed.

 

[Alike]

((wow so I lost my post because of the maintenance D: but I'm redoing it now ))

 

[Alike]

Flora might be confused and incredibly suspicious of this girl with literal super hearing, but she was not stupid. As soon as she heard the mention of "knife," she quickly relocated herself behind Wiz and made sure at least 80% of her body was covered by this crazy, maybe mysterious girl. "Okay, please start answering some of my questions because you clearly seem like you know more about what's going on than I do!" Regardless of whether she had heard the screams in her head or not, this threat was clearly real. "And I'm not ignoring some blaringly obvious signs of you possibly having superpowers or being a teenage mercenary - but please clue me in sometime soon," she pushed back the newly formed beads of sweat back into her curly brown hair. "I am Flora, it means flower - I am delicate and precious," she stressed.

 

[That Lass Over There]

(Wiz is very offended. You underestimated her to only be crazy... No, she is full blown insane!)


I don't think I succeeded on reassuring her... Actually, I think she's getting everything wrong. I only have a knife because those streets I walk home on are scary, you know?! You know, I probably shouldn't mention the only thing I've done with it before was do embarrassing poses in front of the mirror like some character from an anime... "Well, if you were listening, I just answered most of your questions a moment ago. I have abnormal hearing ability, but it's not truly to the level of superhuman or anything... And do you think we're in a show? Do I look like a mercenary to you? No, I'm just a nerdy, slightly athletic high school girl that's looking forward to getting out of this place in six months with a diploma and class officer position." I give up... Finally, just a few seconds, minutes, years after they had come within hearing range, the screams abruptly came to a dead silence, and Wiz gulped as she slowly put her headset ajar to confirm the situation they were blind to with her hearing. There were five people shifting about where the screaming had ended, on the other end of the hallway from the lab room, but... "There's no heartbeat or breathing... That should mean they're dead, but..." Wiz stated this silently, a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke to no one in particular. "Flora, go check what's going on outside through the window. Try not to make any noise or get seen."

 

[Alike]

"G-go check?!" she stumbled over her words, half skeptical and offended that this girl was ordering her around. "If what I think is happening is happening, it is obviously not okay to split up! Splitting up is always how people die, are you kidding me?" Flora took several steps away from Wiz and glanced at the window. The chemistry lab's outlooking view was obscured by the overgrown oaks that lined most of the building, she could barely see anything! "So, um. Hell, no," she said resolutely, focusing her gaze on Wiz. "I'm not going to go out there and probably get mauled or eaten or murdered, wherever we go, we go together."

 

[That Lass Over There]

"I'm not telling you to do those things, I'm just asking you to take a quick peek... Fine, I'll do it." Wiz walked over and opened the window without waiting for a response, easily vaulting out of it as if it were second nature. "I don't get what you meant earlier - it's only like a five foot fall to the ground from the window. If you want, I'll catch you." She gave an impish grin at Flora before giving an obviously fake 'Oh' face. "I guess it really might be too much for you though... So much for sticking together." Continuing her act, she turned away and started walking, the leaves under her feet barely making any noise as she was careful to silence her steps.

 

[Alike]

Watching Wiz launch herself out of the window, Flora was already tired. Tired and panicked. How could this chick be so calm in a situation like this? Flora had no clue what was going on - there could be a shooter in the school, it could be a literal zombie apocalypse! "Um..." she blinked. She took several moments to slingshot her gaze from the door to the window at least twice, before scrambling after Wiz. She pushed herself up on the counter of the chemistry lab, made a silent prayer that what was going on outside the school was less life threatening that what was going on inside, and carefully landed the short jump to the ground. "Wait!" she hissed at Wiz, "hold up!" Flora made sure to try quiet her scurrying through dead leaves and fallen branches - how the hell could this lone part of the school be neglected by the groundskeeper? So much for a silent, swift getaway. The school grounds looked relatively empty and she could see the parking lot full of student and faculty cars ahead of them. "Where are you going, Wiz?" she demanded in a hushed tone. She didn't know why she was whispering, there was literally no one in sight.

 

[That Lass Over There]

I'm sorry, but I don't think our writing styles and ideas suit each other very well... Real life has been a bit of a trouble so I forgot to send this, and I'm sorry about that.