doomsday. [ yellowjackets ]

trente-six.

xxx.

chapter trente-six.
chapter thirty six

1996.

xxx.

" Coach..? " Alex called, crouched beside the man with her elbows on her knees as she looked over his face, wrinkles forming between her brows. Coach Scott's face was shiny with a thin veil of sweat, and the bags under his eyes were darker and heavier by the day. Since the group had desecrated Jackie's body, Alex had been wanting to talk to him but hadn't found a good enough time and place to do it, but she couldn't keep putting it off now.

       Her intention was to ensure that there was at least someone else that was still somewhat sane so she didn't get completely outcasted for not eating Jackie, but after seeing his far-out stare and hearing the shuddering breaths come from him, she was pretty sure that was impossible.

        " Coach. " She said more firmly, grabbing his forearm to pull his attention. He did blink out of whatever daze he was in, quickly swallowing and straightening up as he looked over at her.

        " Alex, hey, hey, " He tried to get some life back into himself to be able to respond, shaking his head a little and running his hand across his face, " what's up? "

       " 'What's up' is that we're surrounded by cannibals and I need to know you're not trying to be the next meal. " Alex stated very bluntly, but she didn't see another way to say it. If he kept being antagonistic towards them, there was no guarantee that the others wouldn't eat him the next time things got a little too weird. She was a hypocrite to say that, but Alex knew she could maim at least three of them and likely outrun most of them if they tried to pull anything with her.

        Alex's eyes trailed down to Coach Scott's wrapped leg, letting that prove her own point.

        " I'm not. " He answered in a tone like it was ridiculous for her to consider that, but upon seeing her expression, he sighed, " I'm not, Alex, I just..fuck. "

        " Yeah. " She agreed with a nod, glancing back at the bedroom door. Maybe she should've let him stay zoned out, because this was starting to feel a lot like the first night after they'd crashed; somehow she got unfairly stuck using him as a therapist when he was in an obviously worse position than she was. " Fuck. "

       Coach Scott waited a moment before he asked, " You don't plan on..you know, doing that too? "

       " Eating a person? No, I'm good, I'd rather fucking be as brittle as my grandma than eat one of these people. My grandma is actually, like, super spiritual, and she once told me people used to eat the hearts of 'holy people' when they died so they could become..I don't know, more holy? " Alex didn't know why she was telling him that, maybe because she didn't expect him to remember, or maybe because she was getting that same feeling that she had the first time she had confided in him out here. He was unconscious then, of course, but the feeling was all the same. Fear, and fear she didn't want to show the rest of them.

        At first, that had been a defensive mechanism so the rest of them didn't think lowly of her. Now, it was because she couldn't appear like the weak link in case the dynamic shifted again like it did with Jackie.

        " So yeah, I guess if I had to, I'd eat Tara so I could still get into heaven. " Alex finished her pointless story, honestly not even needing to see Coach Scott's reaction to that statement before she shook her own head, " Listen, I'm starting to have hunger pains, I'm joking, I would not eat Tara. "