The Second Crash - Day 8

[Lady K]

I think a SK is highly unlikely, if not impossible.

There are seventeen players. Four scum and a SK is more than a quarter of us... would the host really do this? Five scum is very unlikely given what happened in Blacktron Mafia, so I doubt the host will make the same mistake again. However, the rules were changed to include neutral roles, so I think a survivor may be a possibility.

Could be possible. A thought we must think about still is the possibility of a scum recruiter. There were two nights with no shadow kills. On night 3 I blocked Foorth, the vig stayed home and there was no shadow kill. They would have to kill unless they did something else that night. As Foorth turned up townie this means the shadows showed their hand that night that they have another ability to use in place of a kill one night. That means it is possible that there is still one shadow left. If we are not out of this cave system soon we may have yet another day here and that would mean another shadow present with us.

[Lady K]

Hello?........It is soooo quiet in this dark cave........

[Tariq j]

Now that you've mentioned it, a scum recruiter seems like a big possibility. I'm thinking that maybe the scum were a group of three and then they recruited Fhommes, who we then lynched. 5 scum members would be somewhat unbalanced for a 17 player game. But like you said the next day will tell.

But speaking of scum, Julia, any thoughts on the conversation? You've been a wee bit quiet lately.

[Dragonfire]

Now that you've mentioned it, a scum recruiter seems like a big possibility. I'm thinking that maybe the scum were a group of three and then they recruited Fhommes, who we then lynched. 5 scum members would be somewhat unbalanced for a 17 player game. But like you said the next day will tell.

Why Lusk? Why couldn't Julia be the recruit?

[JackJonespaw]

The day has ended!

Get those night actions........in!

Julia Jones (CallMePie) has been lynched!

[JackJonespaw]

¬ In the Final Days, a First-Hand Account of the Braeriach Incident Compiled by Jack Jones, Dougal Logan, and Others, Penultimate Chapter, Titled “Reunion”

Julia sat against the hard, earthy ground. staring at the flames of the campfire, much as she had done since Molly had taken them down there. In her mind was a shuddering darkness that had been growing consistently ever since she had arrived on the mountain.

After the crash, she had laid in the snow and looked across the flames and wreckage to see silhouettes of people moving towards them, out of the mountain - those of the First Crash. It had been Lusk and Bowman who had reached her, while others from the First Crash helped the rest of the kids and Jack around her. Next to her, Anthony was lying face-down, but as Lusk and Bowman approached, he started shaking. Julia, fatigued and in shock, could only turn her head to see him twitching in the snow, a dark cloud passing right through him, then through Lusk, who immediately collapsed, as did Bowman. Then the dark cloud came at her, and her vision was obscured.

When she came to again, there was Dougal, asking if she was alright, and introducing her around. She’d had lapses throughout that initial recovery, sometimes seeing flashes of what looked to be a group surrounding a fire, surrounded themselves by a Legion of darkness. But she hid this away, except from Lusk, Bowman, and Anthony, who she’d confronted as soon as she was able to. They had the same vision themselves, and questioned its existence. It was not long after that that they discovered that they had elemental powers - ice, water, wind, and fire, and, more importantly, that they went into blank lapses, and when their minds were back, someone had died. They began to form a quiet community between themselves, never revealing their secret to anyone else for fear of being killed in a sick witch hunt.

But they died all the same - first Anthony, in Elijah’s Garden, shot twice by Dougal; then Duke Bowman, his head bursting in icy blood through the hell that was the Stairs. And finally Lusk, by what only seemed like yesterday, beaten to death by everyone, including Julia herself, until he was a mess of blood, a mound of meat. The worst part was that only she, and the others she trusted, understood how it worked. They weren’t inherently evil, only when they had blanks. So when Anthony, Duke, and Lusk had died, through every painful moment of their death, that had been them, the people, not the Shadows. And now, with the four others - Ray, Elijah, Wynn, and Molly - facing her, ready to kill her, she found herself oddly calm. Everything she had cared about was lost - Jack - dead; Dougal - would be soon; her choir - all dead except for Molly, whose mind was as good as gone...everything was lost, as her life would soon be. So she continued to stare at the fire, hoping to see any hope in the light, in a life that would soon be dark.

She kept staring as Ray dragged her away, and only broke her gaze when Doctor Wynn helped Ray lay her down. She flicked her eyes to Molly, who was speaking to Dougal, most likely taunting the poor man. But then Molly turned, and Julia saw the gun - Dougal’s gun - clutched in her hand. “One bullet left,” said Molly, breaking the silence. “Your death will be ceremonious.” Julia said nothing, but returned her gaze into its glassy state, now focused on some point in the dark. As Molly stepped closer, and the other three stepped back to give her her room, Julia felt her eyes wetten - everyone in this cave, everyone who had died due to any hands down here, none of them deserved it. They were all scared, frightened people, only concerned with their own safety and survival. From that very first day, where it seemed like everyone was pointing their fingers at someone different, to now, where Molly had formed a strict, organized rule over the small group - it was just because they wanted to live. As did she. From her peripheral vision, Julia could see the gun pointed at her. “Any last words?” Molly asked shakily. After all, they had been like sisters, back in London, and despite Molly’s emotional state becoming a mess, there was still that love, buried deep somewhere. Julia opened her mouth, but found that she could say nothing, no warning to them, nothing. Once she was dead, the others’ suffering was over. Her death meant their life. She merely shook her head. Molly swallowed and closed her eyes, her arm trembling. It would be a romantic enough scene, Julia imagined. In the firelight, the last death in a bloody existence, a woman pointing a gun at another woman, while her companions stood silently beside. It was time to die.

NOOOOO! Was that a ghost? Was she dying? Who had screamed?! She heard electrical sounds, and opened her eyes to see Molly fly backwards, dropping the gun. The three others stood in front of Molly and Julia, with nothing but their own fists, ready to fight whoever was trying to attack them. “Get. Away. From. Her.” That was no ghost. It was the voice of a tired man, one who she knew well, weary after what seemed like a long run, and angry. She never thought she’d hear his voice so angry. She found herself smiling, despite the circumstances. Jack had arrived, she thought joyously. The Doctor, Elijah, and Ray were pulled aside by some others who she didn’t know - had Jack found companions even down here? - and he helped her up. He looked different - angrier, certainly, but healthier, too, as if he had somehow thrived here, underground. Besides him, Ewan stood, somehow alive, with...elf ears?

“Are you alright, Julia?” Jack asked, looking at her carefully. She nodded. “Dougal, over there - he needs help.” Jack nodded and looked past her. “Joshua,” he said, “Go tend to him.” Some movement behind her, but she was focused on Jack only. “I thought you’d died...you, too, Ewan,” she wondered, looking at Jack’s....elven...friend. Ewan chuckled. “Can’t kill us with a little fight like that, eh, Jack?” Jack grinned. “Ewan saved me. If I’d stayed with the group, I’d most likely be dead.” Julia looked around and saw the black-haired man, dressed in scrubs, helping Dougal, fitting an eye patch on him, trimming his bloodied beard, patching up his chest wounds. She saw Ray, Elijah, and Doctor Wynn being forced to sit, with Molly still unconscious behind them, by a tall, armored red-haired man and a man with a fantastic beard, who wore an expensive suit. A...peasant-looking man walked up to Jack. “There’s something here, some presence. It feels as though it were...evil. Pure evil. I have not experienced such a feeling since the days when gods "and beasts roamed the lands. I advise haste out of here. We should return back through the tunnel.” Jack nodded seriously. “As soon as everyone is able to, we’ll go.” Julia took his pause to interject - “Who are your companions, Jack? How did you find them? Where have you been?” Jack chuckled again and clapped Ewan on the shoulder. He pointed first to the medic, “That’s Joshua,” he said. Next to the armored man “Seamus”, then “Justice Montgomery”, then towards the hooded man “Pudding-Head”. “As for how I found them, it’s more that they found me. After Ewan and I fell…” He relayed a tale of time travel, which seemed purely science-fiction and needlessly confusing, but it caught Julia up to speed. “And what happened here?” Jack asked, once he was finished with his own story. “There were ten people when Ewan and I left...have they all died?” Julia bowed her head. “They have. And Molly’s gone nearly insane...she cut Dougal’s eye out, she beat Lusk to death, she was about to shoot me in the head…”

Jack sighed. “That won’t happen anymore. We’re going to get out of here, and get back home - to London.”

Behind him, Seamus was glowering at his four captives, daring them to try and fight back, but, of course, none of them did. Only Doctor Wynn would even look Seamus in the eye, and he cocked his head, as if trying to remember something. Seamus eventually gave in to his curious look - “What is it, ya auld man?” he asked in his thick Scottish accent. The Doctor just continued to look perplexed. “I...feel like I’ve met you before, sir...but it was many years ago...nearly another life…” Seamus sighed. “Yer gettin’ up there if ya think we’ve met ‘fore. I’m a lot older than ye are, relatively speakin’.” Doctor Wynn suddenly stood up. “Ah! Yes! My good man, are you Seamus Aaron?” Seamus took a step back. “That’s impossible...there’s no way ye could know me.” The Doctor smiled largely. “We met, back on LI-420! I am the Doctor. Wynn’s the name.” Seamus looked absolutely dumbfounded. “But...ye changed…” The Doctor chuckled. “Ah, yes, Onyx thought she killed me, but I managed to regenerate in my ship, then, by a rather boring set of circumstances, ended up in this time, and crashed onto this mountain!” Seamus shook his head again. “This is all turnin’ into some glaikit parallel story…”

Joshua tended to Dougal’s eye, having patched it up and released him from his upside-down stocks, was now double-checking his vitals to make sure nothing terrible had happened. Everything checked out, so he helped him over to Jack and Julia. Jack smiled at his old friend, and Dougal slowly returned it. “I thought I was good as dead, Jack. I still might be...there’s somethin’ you gotta know about me...about my mind. I...I think I killed people, back in the Hall...but I could ne’er remember it...I only remember the aftermath. Somethin’s’ in me, Jack...a...Shadow...or somethin’...just leave me here, will ya? Leave me here to die. I’m ready.” Jack shook his head furiously. “I won’t, Dougal. You deserve to see these people, no matter how few there are, back to their homes.” Dougal smiled even larger. “Yer a good man, Jack. A good man…”

Montgomery called to Jack, asking him what to do with the captives. By then, Molly had awoken and, after seeing that she was heavily out-numbered and out-gunned, reserved herself to silence. The others, now that the Doctor and Seamus were recalling old memories, had opened up a little as well. Everyone was beginning to become chummy.

But suddenly Julia and Dougal collapsed. Jack ran to Julia, Joshua to Dougal. Joshua talked hurriedly - “He looks fine...just...his brain isn’t...active?” Jack was feeling Julia’s heartbeat, checking to see what had happened. But like a quick, unforeseen wind, pure, solid shadow erupted out of the two, knocking Jack and Joshua onto the ground.

Shadow swirled around them, constricting their views. It was if they were in a tornado of the darkest smoke imaginable...a pure funnel of darkness. The only light was from the campfire, which everyone began to slowly back towards, Jack and Joshua dragging Julia and Dougal’s bodies.

But, again, suddenly, the wind and the swirling darkness dissipated, and it seemed like everything was quiet. But as their eyes began to adjust, they saw that they were not alone...they were surrounded by physical, human-like Shadows. For as far as the campfire’s light was cast out, they could see Shadows...and only Shadows. They had been hunting Shadows for so long, that it seemed as though they’d overlooked that the Shadows that were hunting them...

¬ End Chapter