Fake Out.

Chapter 2.

2883 words.
TW: Mentions of death, wounds, & throw up.
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Andrea

Her brother had asked her not to bring her switchblade or her wooden baseball bat, but she told him to stuff it and had brought both. They were the second people to be at the bus stop. The first was a redheaded girl with white spots, vitiligo, on her hazel skin. Andrea and her brother were waiting for Leroy to get his blond butt over here, so she watched all the others slowly get to the stop.
Four people had come before Leroy, a girl with short, fluffy, dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes; she looked nervous but excited to be here; another girl with almost white blonde hair and different colored eyes, one green, one blue. Wait, Andrea knew her, she went to her and Ajay's school. Mae, was her name. A girl with sad blue eyes and blonde hair with the tips dyed neon pink was standing with a prissy-looking girl with bottle blonde hair and angry light brown eyes.
It seemed like ages till Leroy got there, but it was probably only ten minutes. "Leroy! I thought you bailed on us!" Ajay had shouted, scaring the red haired girl and the girl with the hazel eyes. Leroy turned a little red at the attention that was being drawn to them, but Ajay didn't seem to mind. Ajay clapped him on the back and said, "Good to see you, dude, this is going to be awesome!" Leroy was looking at Ajay with such fierce love in his eyes that it irritated Andrea. It wasn't that he was crushing hard; it was that he wouldn't just tell Ajay; she knew Ajay felt the same about him; he was just too nervous.
Two more people finally got to the bus stop, a girl with brown hair and green eyes and a person with grayish hair and blue eyes. At 3:38, half an hour later, an old bus pulled up to the stop, creaking as it stopped. Everyone boarded, with her and Ajay sitting together, her on the inside, and Leroy in the seat across the aisle. About an hour into the drive, she realized that it was going to be awhile. She looped her pinky finger with Ajay's and rested her head against the window, trying to sleep, and she did.
The only reason she woke up was because the bus hit a pothole, and she bashed her head against the window. As she was rubbing the newly formed bump on her head, she noticed that the sky was a lot darker than when she had fallen asleep, and they were in a densely wooded area.
She looked at Ajay, who was asleep and drooling on her shoulder. She flicked his forehead and shoved him off. "Whuzz goin' on?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked, focusing his sleepy eyes on her. "Yeah, I'm fine, but I don't know where we are, also, you were drooling on my sleeve. It was gross," she answered. He furrowed his brow and said, "That's... Concerning." He looked like he was going to say something, but the bus hit a huge pothole and tossed everyone around.
That woke Leroy up, he yelled, "Ow! My butt!" Leroy had been sitting by himself, so he had laid down on the seat, his hair was mashed flat on one side. His watery blue eyes were puffy from sleep. "Are we there yet?" he asked, hopefully. "I think we're nearly there, maybe." Ajay responded, "I saw a sign that said a town was coming up, Calanthe, I think." The girl with hazel eyes had been sitting behind them and had shared this tidbit of info. "Who are you?" Andrea asked, "Amber," the girl, Amber, answered. "I'm Andrea; that's Ajay, and the blond over there is Leroy."
She smiled and said, "Cool." The bus stopped, and they were told to get off, so they did. As soon as Andrea was off that bus, she pulled out her heavy, wooden baseball bat. They had been dropped off in front of a town that was surrounded by a 20-foot-tall electric fence that had a multitude of signs warning that if you touched the fence, you would die from 1355 watts of electricity coursing through you.
The gates they had been dropped off in front of began to open, they squawked and squealed as they opened, coming to a shuddery stop. "I guess we go in?" Amber asked, and the girl with heterochromia, Mae, replied, "I guess so." Huddled together, they walked into the town, the gate creaking and squeaking, closed behind them.
"That was ominous," Andrea commented. "Hello!" A loud, distorted voice erupted from some loudspeakers, "Welcome to Calanthe, my blossoms! Welcome to 'summer camp', but oops! This is no summer camp! Oh no, I lied! How displeasing that must be, but no matter, you're here now! I have my little friends scattered around this old town. Most, if not all, of you will die by the end of this, that's half the fun! My friends will destroy you when you least expect it—all in good fun, I assure you! Look at the time! Well, now I must be off, ta, ta!"
They all just stood there, except for the prissy looking girl, who screamed and cussed, "Bee! Help me climb the fence!" she had shrieked, she grasped the chain link fence; she hadn't paid any attention to the signs. With a loud zapping sound, she was gone. Her hair and clothes were singed. The air was filled with the scent of burning hair, and a far worse smell, burning flesh. It was like all sound had been sucked out of the world, but then a loud wail pierced the night, it was the girl with the blonde hair dyed neon pink at the tips. She looked like her whole world had been shattered, sobs racked her body.
Andrea just stood there, not moving and hardly breathing. "Is she.. Is that girl...?" Amber let her word hang in the air, she didn't need to finish her sentence. Her eyes wide with shock, "dear God," Ajay said, in hushed tones. Leroy was breathing in short little gasps, " Oh no, oh no no no, this is too much." Ajay took Leroy's hand, offering meager comfort. Leroy's tall frame was shaking violently, he looked ready to hurl, and he did, the contents of his stomach splattered onto the grass.
The girl with the green eyes had walked over to the wailing blonde, she took her hand and said something to the crying girl that calmed her a little, only a little. She helped the girl to her feet and spoke to everyone in a loud voice," I'm Cameron, and my friend here," she held up the blonde girl's hand, "is Bee, right?" Bee nodded her head, she wasn't crying as heavily now, but tears still streaked down her cheeks, her eyes were dull, and she kept her eyes on the ground, her breaths were gasping and ragged.
" I'm Amber," Amber told them, "that's Andrea," she said, pointing to her, "that's Leroy," she shared, cocking her head in his direction, he was now sitting on the ground, head on his knees, trying to settle his nausea. "And that's Ajay," he gave a short nod at his introduction, "wish we could have met under better circumstances." he stated with his mouth set in a grim line. Everyone shared their names, Mae, then the person with the gray hair, they said their name was Elijah. Finally, the ginger girl said her name was Finn.
" I need to deal with her bod— with Jamie." Bee croaked out, surprising us all, her voice was hoarse with unshed tears. "She didn't deserve this." She continued, gesturing to the surroundings," I need to—" and that was all she said because her voice dissolved to tears.
"I'll do it." Andrea offered, surprising even herself, "thank you." whispered Bee.
"We need to start prepping for whatever that lady said was in here with us, no one should be by themselves, ever." Cameron was taking charge of the situation, it was her only way to cope. " Dibs on Andrea!" Ajay called, this coaxed a small smile from her, but when Ajay saw it he looked like he had just scored a major victory. Cameron continued," For now, let's all stay together while we figure things out." Andrea had no problem letting Cameron make those decisions, she wanted no part in any of this. She didn't even understand why she had volunteered to move that dead girl's body, but it was too late to take it back.
Cameron moved closer to Andrea and lowered her voice so that only Andrea could hear, "I'm gonna move the group to the nearest grocery to scrounge for food and bedding, can you take care of Jamie's body in that time frame?" Andrea nodded, "come find us when you... When you're done, okay?" " Yeah, got it." Andrea whispered back, Cameron smiled at her, but it was the kind of smile that didn't reach her eyes. " Thank you, Andrea, I'm only letting you go by yourself because you got that baseball bat, right?" Andrea nodded. Cameron raised her voice to address everyone else," Alright, we're going to want to get supplies before midnight, so we have about an hour and a half to grab what we need, so let's get a move on." She led them away and toward the center of the old town, leaving Andrea alone to do what she needed to do.
She let out a sigh and forced her legs to go to the dead girl's side. " You can do this, you can do this." she told herself, she got close and sucked in a breath and looked away, Leroy had been right to barf, it was all she could do not to puke. She grabbed her by the arms, shivered, and dragged her away from the fence. Once she had tugged her to the target destination, under an oak tree, she looked around to find something to dig with, she found a flat rock and began to dig. It took about an hour, but she had dug a shallow grave. She took care of Jamie and ran to the grocery store, not liking being by herself in this place.
When she finally found the right store, she was out of breath and jittery with adrenaline. She opened the door and was greeted by a dinging bell, and the familiar face of Leroy. " Hey, Ajay and I grabbed some stuff for you," he held up a hot pink sleeping bag," he clearly picked this thing out." He gave her the sleeping bag," thanks, dude, I'm so tired, I could sleep on anything," she really could, from the physical labor and the emotional toll of the events that had happened, she was bone tired.
" Ajay and I were talking," he began, Andrea stilled, fearing the worst," we're thinking us three all bunk up and—" whatever he was going to say was cut off by a shriek. " There's some girl back here! She doesn't look so good!" it was Finn, Andrea found her in the back of the store, where they used to keep the overstock. The girl in question was bound and gagged, she had a nasty wound on her head, and had dried blood matting that part of her gray hair. She had wild blue eyes that were filled with anger.
" Move, Finn," Andrea pulled out her switchblade and the anger in the girl's eyes turned to fear, she started thrashing. " Hold still, you idiot!" Andrea shouted as she knelt next to her and forcefully held her still so she could work on cutting her bonds. Finn undid her gag and as soon as it was gone she started talking. " Thank you, thank you! I've been here for days, that thing tasted nasty!" Andrea didn't really know this girl, but she still had to ask:" what's your name? And how did you get here?" " Oh, it's Melody, and that... That girl bashed me on the head and brought me here with those machines of hers."
" Machines? What are you talking about?" Andrea asked, fear growing in her chest," her 'friends' that's what she was talking about, I could hear her from in here, she likes a show, I suppose." Melody's words were rushed, like she was afraid someone would stop her. Andrea finished cutting Melody's bonds and stood up and stowed her knife. Melody rubbed the angry red marks on her wrists and stood and started speaking, again.
" Who else is here? It sounded like a lot of people, you guys make a lot of noise." Andrea really didn't like this girl, she asked endless questions of no importance, but it wasn't just that, she gave off this vibe, like she had a big, ugly secret. " There's me, Finn, and this nice lady is Andrea, then we have Elijah, and Ajay, he's cute—" Andrea cut Finn off right there," he's also gay." Finn just smiled and said," good for him! Oh, we have Cameron too, and this girl Bee, her friend, Jamie, who just, well, died. There's also Leroy and Amber, and that's everybody! Welcome to team 'Try Not To Freaking Die'! Finn finished, with an attempt at a warm smile.
Melody's skin was ash gray, Andrea only grew more suspicious. " Why, exactly, did that lady bring you here?" Andrea asked, narrowing her eyes, Melody looked like a mouse trapped by a cat. " I—I don't know! I was just—just t-trying to... to grab stuff— out of a dumpster— and I saw her, with some automaton, and she bashed me on the head and brought me here" Melody's eyes were wide and she was trembling. Andrea felt no sympathy for her, though her story was flimsy, Finn seemed to believe her, so Andrea would leave it alone, for now. " Oh! We have to bring you over to everyone, come on." Finn said, as she grabbed Melody by the arm and tugged her out of the storage room.
Andrea followed and saw everyone was gathered by the door. " Hey, y'all! Andrea and I found someone!" Finn shouted at them, shaking Melody a tad, Finn's voice much too loud for this crowded space. Most everyone looked a little startled, Cameron stepped closer to Melody and spoke," Hello, I'm Cameron, you look like you need some help, the medical kind." Cameron turned to everyone and asked if anyone knew some first aid, the only people to come forward were Finn and Ajay. " I only know, like, the most basic first aid, I have no idea what to do for head wounds, well, I know that if you need to check for concussions, flash a light in their eyes, and if they dilate, they're good." Finn told Cameron.
" I know what to do," Ajay told her, moving closer to Melody. " I saw a small clinic on my way here," Andrea offered. Melody's eyes flickered between Ajay and Andrea, realizing they were twins. " Great, Andrea, you take Ajay and Melody, you guys can meet us at the town hall, that's where we're going to bunk for tonight," Cameron instructed them.
"Alright, then, come on Andrea," Ajay walked out the door, grabbing his bag, Melody in tow, Andrea sighed and followed him, but not before grabbing her bag and telling Leroy goodbye.
" You don't even know where you're going, you idiot!" Andrea shouted at Ajay as she caught up with him, he laughed," I know, but I like to throw you off." Ajay said, smiling at her, she tried to look mad, but couldn't stop the smile from bursting on her face. " I hate you, Ajay," she told him as she shoved him, Melody started to speak," sorry to interrupt, but can we get a move on? My head hurts, I feel really wobbly, and I think I'm gonna throw up." Ajay offered his arm to help steady her, she took it. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that, you probably feel nauseous because you haven't eaten, how long were you in there for?" Ajay asked.
" I don't know, at least a couple of days." Melody answered, Ajay slid off his bag and grabbed a pack of crackers out of the smallest pocket and handed some of them to her," eat them slowly, if you feel ready for more when you're done, don't hesitate to ask." Melody thanked him and ate them, slowly, Ajay passed her some water as well. The rest of the walk was silent, save for Melody asking Ajay for a few more crackers.
When they got there, the door was locked, of course, " well, what now, genius?" Andrea asked Ajay, " don't look at me!" He told her, " this was your idea," she glared at him. " Hey, uh, why don't we just break a window or something?" Melody asked, " you look like you've done that before," now Andrea glared at her instead, and Melody practically wilted under her gaze." I mean, not like you, like, are a hoodlum or anything, I'm sorry." Ajay started laughing, "Andrea, no need to act like she was wrong." Andrea grumbled and found a large rock.