doomsday. [ yellowjackets ]

soixante et un.

xxx.

chapter soixante et un
chapter sixty one.

1997.

xxx.

Mari was fast and quiet, light on her feet; maybe that's why she had such a loud mouth, to counter balance that. The twigs beneath her feet still crunched under her weight as she sprinted through the seemingly endless trees and greenery, long replacing the bright white snow and ice they once drowned in. She had stopped, long enough to catch her breath and avoid Gen and Akilah, who had been searching for their teammate, but Mari seemed to have gone unnoticed by them.

As soon as they ran off again, insisting that whatever they saw might have been one of their own, not an enemy, Mari stepped out from the thick tree she hid behind. She did a quick glance around at her surroundings before she took off running again, a triumphant grin slowly rising to her face as she began to pick up speed again; however, she was deafened to the sound of someone catching up to her, nearly breaking her neck to whip around when she felt a hand reach out and grab her forearm.

With an exclamation of surprise, Mari found Theo to be the one loosely holding her wrist, her brows instantly dipping when she realized who it was, " Theo? What are you doing? The safe zone is right up there, let me go so we can win. "

" Yeah, it's right up there, shouldn't you be a little further from the safe zone? " Theo tried to subtly explain her point, but Mari's look of puzzlement told her that she wasn't getting it; Theo's team had come up with the plan to set a few decoys to distract the other team from who really had the bone, but that wasn't going to work if Mari brought all of the distraction right where they needed to bring the bone to actually win.

Theo wasn't given enough time to be frustrated by Mari's lack of understanding, as another figure suddenly came out of nowhere and ran straight into them. It was moreso a full on tackle against Mari, throwing her to the dirt while Theo suffered the consequences of being in close proximity to the target.

" What the fuck, Shipman? " Mari shouted, clearly taken aback by the aggression Shauna hit her with, as if they were back on the soccer field, trying to prevent a goal by any means necessary. Theo recovered from her minor fall into the ground as quickly as possible, climbing to her feet with intent to help Mari, but when she saw Shauna crawling on top of her, she had second thoughts.

" Give it to me! " Shauna tried to pry Mari's fist open, and Theo had half a thought to call for someone else, glancing around to see if anyone was in sight. Shauna and Mari had already been at each others' throats for the past few weeks, and honestly, Theo didn't have the stature nor strength to get involved in that.

Plus, Shauna wasn't going to get what she wanted anyways, and that was enough for Theo to let Mari suffer a little herself.

" Fuck you! " Mari managed to throw Shauna off of her, attempting to crawl back on her elbows although it was futile at putting any meaningful distance between her and Shauna. With panic in her wide, brown eyes, Mari looked up at Theo expectantly, " What are you doing, Prince? Help me! "

Theo raised her brows and took a small step forward, and as soon as Shauna crawled back on top of Mari, straddling her back, she watched; obviously, if Shauna actually hurt Mari, she'd attempt to step in, but she was going to keep her distance otherwise.