Round Robin October 2020

3 October 2020

"Follow my finger." Gregory was doing his best to run a complete diagnosis for a concussion. Emilia understood why. She had blacked out after banging her head on the wall hard enough to dent it after all. Apparently super strength does not always come with super durability.

"What is going on with me?" Emilia asked, a different unidentifiable emotion making her chest tighten and breaths increase and become erratic. Emilia thought through a list of strange things happening to her:

1. Super strength
2. Not knowing what she is feeling
3. Losing time
4. Somehow on a different continent
5. Not chained but was in chains...
6. Who are these people that she is chained with?
7. She has a tattoo?
8. Healing powers?
9. Samantha - somehow she was also on this list

"Well, you seem to be okay." Gregory said, though he sounded a bit unsure of himself.

"Then why don't you try yanking again?" Samantha spoke up. "Once you yank your chains out, you can yank out mine and I'll go get my precious hot pink buck knife back and then slit the owner's throat and-"

"No one is slitting anybody's throat." Gregory stated. "But yeah, yanking the chains out would be good. And then we can sneak out of here."

"And get my buck knife." Samantha added.

Gregory groaned.

Emilia stifled a laugh - she wasn't sure why she laughed, but she did. Gregory glanced at her, and she thought for a moment she saw a smile on his face, but then it was gone and he was looking serious again.

"Can you do it?"

"I'll try." Emilia replied, pulling on the chain around her ankle.

It came out of the wall. She was free, but the chain dragged along the ground and made a clanking sound. That was going to be a problem. And her chain was shorter than Gregory and Samantha's.

Thinking for a moment, she grabbed Gregory's chain with her hands a little spread and pulled her hands away from each other. Sure enough the chain snapped.

"Good thinking." Samantha spoke up. "But if you're gonna do that why not yank it apart at the ankle so there isn't anything extra?"

Emilia nodded and grabbed the chain on her own ankle with one hand and used her other hand to grab about one chain link away. Then she pulled and the chain snapped off at her ankle. She repeated this for Gregory - who flinched a little when she grabbed the chain on his ankle - and then for Samantha.

Okay, now they just had to find a way to sneak out without anyone seeing them.

"So, do we know if we are being guarded or what the security is like?" Emilia asked.

"Well, there were a couple scary looking guys at the entrance to the building..." Samantha noted. "Aside from that there is the owner who took my hot pink buck knife and-"

"Why are you so obsessed with the buck knife?" Gregory asked.

"Obviously because we need it. And because" Samantha trailed off, not finishing her thought and instead staring intensely at Emilia. "Uh, your tattoo is glowing again."

"I don't have a tattoo!"

"Then what is that ink glowing on your forehead?" Samantha asked, pointing at Emilia's head.

Before Emilia could respond, an inky black tendril shot out of her forehead toward the door, followed quickly by a second one. And then they split and crashed through the stone wall on either side of the door.

There were a couple of screams, and then everything went black.

"It wouldn't be hard."

"No."

"But-"

"NO."

"Fine."

Emilia wasn't sure what they were arguing about, but she was glad Gregory shut down Samantha's whining. The sound was grating to the nerves.

"So what happened after I blacked out this time?" Emilia grumbled.

"Ah, you're awake." Gregory was immediately in front of Emilia shining a penlight in her eyes. Emilia flinched away instinctively. "Sorry. I know it's bright, but I need to make sure your pupils are reacting properly. Falling unconscious after a possible concussion isn't exactly a good thing."

Apparently satisfied that he'd learned all he could with the light, Gregory proceeded to run through other simple cognitive tests that could be done in the field without supplies or equipment.

"You've only been out a half a day this time." Samantha piped up as Gregory continued his examination. "We got my hot pink buck knife back and left the building behind. We entered a nearby forest, found a stream, walked in it for a bit to hide our tracks, found a cave, and set up a temporary camp."

As Samantha gave her summary of recent events, Emilia took in her surroundings. The lighting was dim, but it was enough to make out rocky walls. This was probably the cave Samantha mentioned. It smelled musty.

A small pile of wood rested against one of the walls, close to a fire that was creating the light. It seemed they were far enough inside the cave that they couldn't see the light from the entrance.

"Wait, what's that?" Emilia indicated a large canvas bag off to one side.

"Oh that's some provisions we managed to steal on our way out." Samantha smiled proudly.

"There's a few clothes that will hopefully fit, some food that isn't likely to spoil, a flint fire starter that made setting up camp a lot easier, and a few other things." Gregory explained.

So they still only had a vague idea of where they were (Africa was, after all, a pretty big place), but this time they had more supplies than just what was in their pockets. That was progress. Kind of.

It was a good thing that the group could handle a little bit of smoke because it was getting colder as the night went on. The cave had poor ventilation and the smoke wafted through the air, dimming the light in the cave even more.

Still, it was better than being chained to a stone wall, better than lying in a clearing surrounded by fleshy bits, and (barely) better than that log cabin that had no resources other than a pail - at least none that Emilia was aware of. Oh, and despite the smoke, her temple wasn't throbbing.

That was definitely a good sign.