|
A frustrated sigh as she drops Warren’s bedsheets and takes a seat on a chest beside his bed, Tessa hangs her head having gone throughout the available quarters without finding the cause of the Neptune Box. “Satisfied?” Rick asks, his arms folded as he walks through the front door, leaving the three remaining camp members to speak amongst their findings to themselves. “Don’t mind him, Tess” Liz says, taking a seat beside the woman, whose face is covered with loose hairs she doesn’t bother to swipe from in front of her eyes.
“Whatever set it off, we know what we got out of it, so let’s start off by working with that” the optimistic girl calls, ready to return to the same page as everyone else. Angered by the situation, Tessa sits there fuming, letting herself sit in the aggravation as it continues to boil. “We know enough to work with what we have, so let’s-” Warren begins, stopped when Tessa rushes from the chest and punches one of the many cameras protruding from the wall. Partially splitting her hand open on the hard plastic lens, Tessa immediately holds her hand, having instant regret for her action as Liz grabs a towel to cover the open wound. Whilst Liz tends to Tessa, Warren looks down at the camera, noticing the remaining shell having just popped off the wall. Reaching down to pick it up, Warren spots something far out of the ordinary. “Hey guys?” Warren calls out, looking at the wall where the camera was once mounted and noticing a distinct lack of cables. Furthermore, the back of the camera is nothing more than a hollow shell, the lens being just a piece of the presentation. “I don’t think this is a real camera” Warren declares, handing the piece to Tessa, who finds his statement to hold water almost immediately. Without hesitation, Tessa asks Warren to point out another location to any random camera, following his finger to the corner of the room. “Tessa, don’t hurt yourself!” Liz calls out, worried for the girl’s health and well-being as she uses a small bookshelf as a stepladder. Reaching into one of the corners, Tessa administers little force in pulling this second camera from the spot, finding the exact same thing. “It’s a fake” Tessa calls out, walking over to the other side of the room and reaching for another camera, only to find a similar truth. With their eyebrows narrowed, Warren and Liz join in on the witch hunt, easily popping camera shells from different spots of the room, ultimately coming to the conclusion that each and every camera is nothing more than a phony. Storming out of Warren’s quarters and dashing across the cape to her own, Tessa reaches into the corner of her bedroom space and pops off another camera shell. Before long, every fake camera in her quarters, as well as Liz’s, is uncovered. “What the fuck is going on here?” Rick asks, walking into Tessa’s quarters as if he were watching mental patients look for parts of the walls made of cheese. “Rick, go check the camera’s in your quarters” Tessa says, Rick immediately asking why as Liz confirms from a few yards away what Tessa had been assuming. “I think the camera’s are fake” Tessa says, watching Rick’s look go from one of confusion to delusion. “Give me that look, I don’t care. Try to pull the cameras off your walls, tell me if they’re hollow on the inside” Tessa directs, watching Rick walk off to his quarters once more. Reaching to the wall beside his front door, Rick pops off one shell before doing the same to numerous other camera shells scattered throughout his quarters. “Same thing?” Warren asks, standing in Rick’s doorway as he holds a stack of the fake cameras in his hand. “Tessa! It’s the same thing with Rick!” Warren shouts, he and Rick watches Tessa walk into the center of the cape, stopping beneath the pitch black sky, barely visible beside the wimpy campfire. “Tessa?” Warren calls out, slowly walking towards the fire as the woman stands there, lost in watching the flames begin to burn brighter. Calling for the woman once again, Warren watches the woman partially disappear behind his near completely-white breath, as the cold bite in the air begins to leave its mark on the competitors. Walking up to the girl and standing beside her, Warren places his arm on her back and drops his head, fearing any amount of words would do nothing more than make everyone feel worse. Watching from just outside his quarters, Rick begins to slowly walk to the fire, watching Liz take a seat beside the still-standing Tessa. Before long, Rick stands beside Warren, meeting his eyes for a moment before nodding and taking a seat. Between Rick and Liz, Warren and Tessa remain standing, with Tessa asking what this is all meant to mean. “Maybe we’re not supposed to know” Rick says, his words lacking spirit, but being full of an unexplored aspect of the endless possibilities. “Maybe there are some things around here we’re just not meant to understand” Rick repeats, shaking his head before dropping it, accepting what is and losing himself in the fire. “Why would they have fake cameras everywhere?” Liz asks herself, hands folded as she wonders how they’re still filming them. The loss for a conclusion leaving the group speechless, Tessa and Warren take their seats, just staring into the fire. “There’s no way they can be filming us, right?” Tessa mutters, the trio around her searching for any alternatives. “I haven’t seen a camera crew since we landed” Rick says, Liz adding in that none of the microphones are working either. “There could still be cameras hidden around, right?” Warren asks, an out-of-character pat on the back from Rick as the elder man shakes his head giving him all the response he needs. “I tried one of the cameras buried in that pile of rocks… Just more of the same” Liz replies, the hope of the group being drained as they begin to feel like they’ve been deceived. “What now?” Liz asks, her gaze at the fire being removed as her eyes take the turn onto Tessa. His head still down, Warren spots Rick look towards the designated leader as well, leaving the ball in Tessa’s court to do what she will. Her eyes refusing to unlock from their staring contest with the open flames, Tessa feels the warmth in front of her storm across her face in random patterns. Her cheeks feeling the warmth before it skips the side of her eyes and hits the middle of her forehead, the uneven sensation leaves Tessa feeling more drained than before. “Now we figure out what’s real and what’s not” Tessa remarks, the tone in her voice making it clear that she’s not pulling punches in this declaration as the fire remains burning heavily. = Neptune City is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = Squirming on the floor as their hands and feet are tied, bound to rusted metal pipes lining the shack lobby, Austin and Michael are helpless to do anything other than watch the large man prepare his station for dinner. Turning his head to look at Austin a few feet behind him, Michael eyes a side door they can easily escape through if they can manage to wriggle free. Without drawing attention to himself, Michael runs the ropes around his wrists over the edge of the pipe behind him, trying to rip through the twine as if his life depended on it. “We have plenty of food back at the camp” Michael calls, “You don’t need to resort to cannibalism to survive.” Laughing from the station, the man assures the pair that they’ll find their way to the cape eventually. “You won’t run out of food for a while, so we’re not going to rush into things we’re not ready for” the man calls out, assuring Michael that he’ll meet up with his friends eventually. Continuing to struggle with no success, the ropes he is tied up with being too strong to free himself of, Michael calls out in a tired desperation that they don’t need to do this. More laughter coming from portions of the building out of his sight, Michael frustratedly gasps for air as he ups the effort of breaking from his restraints. “Hey!” one of the natives from behind him shouts, kicking him in the back of the head as they notice his efforts to escape, thwarting his own final remaining lifeline. Suddenly, emerging from his station near the back of the building, the man crouches down beside Michael and tells him that everything will work itself out. “You don’t need to do this” Michael repeats, the man looking down before asking his captive where he thinks all the other survivors were. “I don’t think you understand what we’ve had to do here” the butcher says, “The things we’ve had to experience in order to survive when the white man forced us into hiding. You just don’t understand it.” Looking at the butcher, Michael shakes his head, admitting that he can’t imagine the first thing the survivors have had to go through. “But the fight you have is not with us, or our friends. You’re punishing the wrong people for the crimes of someone else” Michael explains, assuring the butcher that events don’t need to unfold like this. With his hand patting Michael on the shoulder, the butcher silently nods his head as Michael shakes his own. “It does have to be like this, okay? It just does” the butcher replies, assuring Michael that he knows how scary it must feel. “You know you’re gonna die, and you know exactly how. I can’t imagine how that much feel, but it needs to happen.” Biting his lip and trying to break free of his restraints, Michael finds himself on the receiving end of a harder kick to the back. “It’s scary, but it’ll all be over soon. I’ll promise you that” the butcher says, patting Michael’s shoulder before returning to his station to put the finishing touches on it. Looking back to his fellow captive, Michael shakes his head as Austin hangs his, the two continuing to look for any way out they can manage. | “Let’s set up a camp” Harper exclaims, the water from her shower earlier having iced over into her hair as she walks off to the side of the lake with Len. Retrieving the small tent set up from her bag, Harper walks up to Len and helps him clear enough snow to get the poles into the ground. “I’m getting really tired of this three hours of daylight shit” Harper says, laughing with Len as they toss whatever snow they can take in their hands a few feet away. “It’s only gonna get more aggravating in a few weeks when the sun never pops up at all” Len exclaims, watching Harper playfully tilt her head back and growl at the sky. “Why can’t you be normal for a little bit?” Harper asks the stars, Len jokingly mocking the ghost town in a playful voice. “The planet won’t let us! It would be geographically inconsistent!” Len replies, laughing with Harper as they finally begin reaching the frozen soil. “You’re such a nerd” Harper says, looking at Len with a smile as her acquaintance meets her with a similar look. Taking the conversation onto a more serious note, Len asks how long Harper expects the group to remain civil with each other. “I’m not sure” Harper replies, admitting that her hopes for everyone to get along until the end are more unrealistic than anything else. Looking at Len before continuing, Harper bites her lip to cope with having to admit what she doesn’t normally like even having to think about. “We could all get along until the end of the game, I just don’t have high expectations of everyone being fine splitting one million dollars twelve ways.” Whilst Harper begins freeing a second spot, Len stops, looking at Harper until the woman turns to face him, waiting for him to say what he wishes to. “I’ll make you a deal” Len begins, watching Harper sit on her feet directly opposite her fellow competitor. “I’ll stand in your corner as long as you stand in mine. I’ll make you that promise right now.” Finding a trust in Harper he doesn’t have a clear view of in most of the other competitors, Len takes a swing and hopes for it to pay off. “I don’t like the idea of not having someone in this game that I can trust, and you’re the only one I want to be able to trust unconditionally” Len admits, watching a smile come across Harper’s face before she buries her head. “You’ve got a deal” Harper replies, crawling on her knees to the middle of the spot and holding her hand out. Smiling, Len shakes her hand and returns to freeing up space for the tent. Burying his hands in the cold wintery mix, the sensation of the slush in his gloves, running through his fingers is unable to phase him. Instead, the handshake symbolizing a warm alliance in the cold ghost town of Barrow is all he can think about, the thought of being lucky the only thing occupying his head. On the other side, the well-hidden smile of Harper knowing that she truly isn’t alone in the tundra is all the warmth she needs to fight through the hassle of setting up camp. Without telling the other, both Len and Harper contain their own joy from each other well. The bitter air entering their lungs is no match for the pleasure of knowing that they truly aren’t alone in the wasteland. This alliance changing the game for the both of them, Harper and Len dig with a purpose, ready to settle in for the night in the new landscape their simple handshake ushered in. | High stepping through the snow, Rena leads Marlhy closer to the abandoned trailer park, barely able to spot a small little village off in the distance. “You need a rest?” Rena calls out, watching Marlhy shake her head, wiping the small snowflakes falling from the sky from her hair. “You should start putting those locks in a ponytail” Rena calls out, watching the smile on Marlhy’s face accompany the excuse that no elastics are strong enough to do the job. “I’m sure we can find something” Rena says, the silent nod from Marlhy putting a sudden end to the conversation. Without much to follow it, Rena looks back down at her tracks and thinks quietly to herself, the quick turn into silence not going unnoticed by the girl tailing behind her. “You’re wondering how I knew that about you” Marlhy exclaims, watching Rena turn towards her, reminding her of the conversation about Rena’s approach a few miles ago. “It’s not like it’s written on your face or anything, it’s just obvious by how you act” Marlhy explains, “You’re clearly into Tessa, you’re just more into the hookup idea than a fully-fledged relationship. It’s not difficult to see that.” Tilting her head down as her steps become slower, Rena continues to think quietly to herself as Marlhy begins to catch up again. “It’s not a bad thing” Marlhy explains, reminding Rena that it doesn’t make her a bad person or anything along those lines. “If anything, it’s a smart move. You know people need to start dropping off to make surviving out here for a year worth it, and the possibility of one of those people being Tessa would keep you from having something long-term with her.” “It’s selfish” Rena says under her breath, not noticing Marlhy shrug her shoulders as she begins walking beside her. “The game is selfish. Either the selfish people win because they’re selfish, or the selfless people win because the selfish people were too selfish… That’s how it was designed.” Usually one to look on the brighter side of the conversation, even when the sky is darker than some evil hearts, Marlhy’s upbeat personality never refuses to acknowledge the truth in the less-than favorable approach. “Should I want something long-term with Tessa?” Rena asks, watching the girl curl her lip as Rena goes on about whether people have to play selfishly to win. “If there’s anyone you can put money on to be the most difficult to get to bow out, it would be Tessa… So the card’s aren’t immediately stacked against you” Marlhy begins, thinking it over for a second as she swipes the snowflakes from her hair once again. “But whether or not you should play this game selfishly depends on how well you think the selfish people in this game will do. They overcome, you’ll lose… They lose their shit, you’ll win. It’s a coin toss most times, and this doesn’t seem much different.” Pausing for a second, Marlhy begins to speak once again with the best unbias advice she can offer Rena. “The way you win this game varies, the best thing to do is play the game your own way. You either let it take you where it pleases, or you force the game to adapt to how you play. It really is up to whatever you choose.” Smiling at the woman beside her, Rena nods and looks back to the trail, finally walking up to the abandoned trailer park and looking for a gap to walk into. Squeezing through a tight slot with Marlhy not far behind, Rena begins to feel the same uneasy buildup in her gut that Liz mentioned just before they left. As they walk closer in, thus farther away from their point of entry, Rena and Marlhy both feel a sweat starting to come on, the bitter cold serving as no help towards putting an end to it. The further they travel, the lighter the snow begins to feel beneath their feet, lending credence to being concerned. “Mike! Austin!” Rena shouts, calling for the two men in hopes of a response, only to be answered by her words being echoed back to her. Calling for the men again, Rena stands directly in the center of the trailer park whilst Marlhy looks through whatever campers she can squeeze into. Calling one more time, Rena hears no response the sweat now starting to run down her neck as if it were water being poured over her head. “Marlhy, they’re not here” Rena calls out, arming herself with the gun over her shoulder as Marlhy concerningly calls for Rena’s company. Without second thought, Rena rushes to Marlhy’s spot a few campers over and storms into the main room, watching Marlhy stare at a shattered kerosene lantern. “It’s still warm, Rena” Marlhy says, picking up a steamy piece of glass, “There was at least someone here.” Standing idly, watching Marlhy dig through the broken glass as if it were going to read off her fortune, Rena mentions the old ghost town just over the horizon. “If they’re not here, they might be down there” Rena says, instructing Marlhy to keep pushing. “We don’t know who else is out here, so keep your eyes peeled” Rena says, squeezing through tight corridors made from the trailer remnants before popping out into the open, the girls charge forward, eyes firmly set on the vacated town. | “This makes no sense!” Rick shouts, pacing around the campfire whilst Warren leans against his quarters. Still on the logs around the fire, Tessa remains staring into the bright orange glow of their only source of warmth, whilst Liz folds up and simply takes whatever warmth Barrow can afford her with. “Why would they put us in some reality show and not be filming us? Isn’t that the whole point!?” Rick shouts, waiting for an answer that doesn’t come. “Why the fuck are we all just shutting up right now? Am I missing something?” Rick calls out, questioning whether or not his age, thus his lack of understanding modern technology is to blame for his confusion. Looking towards Warren in hopes that a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will suffice, Rick’s head drops when his response comes in the form of a silent shoulder shrug. “Seriously, what the fuck is going on here!?” Rick shouts, “Why am I the only one so up in arms about this!?” “You’re not” Liz replies, “you’re just the only one losing your shit over it.” Throwing his arms in the air, Rick asks why no one else is. “Because losing our shit over this isn’t going to fix anything” Warren replies, capturing Rick’s attention as if he were a bottle rocket breaking the sound barrier, “It doesn’t change where we are, it doesn’t change what we’re doing, and it doesn’t answer either of those questions.” “So we just sit around and do nothing?” Rick asks, watching the group remain stood in silence as he slowly loses his grip on what is and is not part of the game. “There’s nothing else we can do, Rick” Warren admits, “If you haven’t noticed, there’s no producer around to ask why the fuck they lied to us. So we don’t have much of a fucking option.” “Well we need to do something about this” Rick shouts, finally catching the attention of Tessa, who turns her head around and shouts a few decibels louder than Rick. “What the fuck do you wanna do, Rick? Who the fuck do you expect to answer your questions? What the fuck do you think the point of all of this is, exactly?” Standing from her seat, Tessa sprints up to Rick, telling him to shut up and act like his age for once. “I’m tired of you acting like a fucking kid, crying over spilled milk. And I’m sure as shit tired of you acting like a needy little pissant. So go find your fucking answers or shut the fuck already!” Taken aback by Tessa’s hostility, Rick slowly walks into his quarters and closes the door behind him, leaving Tessa stood at his doorway, the attention of Liz and Warren fully placed on her. Looking to the ground and taking in a deep breath, Tessa walks for her cabin and tells the two remaining competitors to keep the fire going. Left to their own vices, Liz and Warren look at each other, the only competitors remaining at the cape, smiling to each other to make sure the blistering anger flooding the camp like a virus has no chance of getting to them. | “You still going at that thing?” Natalie asks, sat on the couch watching Charlie try to run the door down with his shoulder alone. “You’ve been going at it for twenty minutes, give it a rest before you fuck up your shoulder” she calls, walking Charlie to a chair before handing him a bottle of water. Waving off the water, Natalie places the bottle in his lap, assuring him that the door will still be there in another twenty minutes. Returning to her seat and finding her place in her book, Natalie stops for a second and looks to Charlie, thinking about something for a second before thinking better of it. “Do you think we should want to know what’s behind there?” Charlie asks, catching Natalie off guard before she admits that there’s no simple way of knowing. “I know we’ve already made our own conclusions, but I wouldn’t put it past the producers to purposefully lead us to this place just to keep the show moving along” Natalie admits. “Think about it, Charlie… They put a big metal box in the middle of the cape just to get us to go on a wild goose chase. Is it really unbelievably for them to leave a spooky door in some off-the-grid cabin in the middle of nowhere?” Thinking it over for a second, Charlie admits that he’s firmly in the camp of them not being meant to be in the cabin. “There’s no cameras here, we haven’t found a mic yet. If we’re meant to be here, there’s no footage for them to use” Charlie says, making a strong case for the path they’ve taken being genuine. Shrugging her shoulders, Natalie repeats the original question once more. “Do you think we really want to know what’s in there?” the woman asks, watching the thoughts flutter through Charlie’s mind as if he could legitimately see them written in the air. “I guess only time will tell” Charlie replies, firmly believing this cabin was an accident, but not confident enough what resides here is something they want to dirty their hands for. “The only way to know is by getting it open and taking it from there” Charlie exclaims, smiling at Natalie as if he were silently begging for this conversation to end. Taking his cue, Natalie returns her eyes to her book, finding the spot she left off on after a momentary gaze at the empty keyhole in the door right beside her. | “We can work something out” Michael calls, his exhaustion at being cracked over the head and trying to do whatever he can to break free beginning to take its toll. “Biologically, humans aren’t as full-hearty of a meal as you’d think” Austin calls, “You’re all much better off with a bag of apples than one or both of us on your plates.” Emerging from his station and leaning over the counter as he puts the final touches on his preparation table, the man tells them to stop worrying about trying to reason with them. “What’s going to be done is not going to change” the man states, “you’re better off saying your final prayers and reflecting on everything you did or didn’t do.” Shutting his mouth and looking towards the sky, Michael bites his lip and jolts forward in frustration, eating another forearm to the back of the head for his efforts. “You’re not understanding the full picture!” Michael says, the sound of metal slamming onto harder metal coming from the back stations as the man emerges once more. “Eating us won’t keep you from starving, it’ll only delay the inevitable!” Michael shouts as the man rounds the corner once more. “That’s it, I’ve had it with you” the man says, his voice powerful as he unties Michael’s arms. Punching him in the back of the head, the man lifts Michael up and throws him over his shoulder. “You’re not worth cleaning the table over!” the man utters, indicating that he’s getting the job done now rather than later. “No!” Austin shouts, “We’ll shut up, just don’t do this!” he continues, eating a strike to the back of the head. Doing his best to fight through the sickness and daze of a likely concussion, Michael squirms in the mans arms, being run into the corner of doorways and the side of walls for his actions. “You’re making a mistake!” Michael shouts, his exhaustion and injuries allowing him just enough power to let out a burst of adrenaline. Trying to get the situation under control as Michael is thrown onto the table, one of the survivors fires their rifle into the ceiling, letting out a pop that rings through the ghost town. “No!” Michael shouts, fighting off the man and two other starving survivors, eventually biting the man’s arm and drawing blood. “Pile of shit!” the man shouts, wiping the blood with his hand, and using the same hand to slap Michael across the face, dropping him to his knees. “Get him on the table!” the butcher shouts, watching Michael, now bleeding from the lip, be hoisted onto the near-clean metal table, and strapped to the sides. “No, please!” Michael shouts, his desperate pleas for mercy falling on deaf ears as the butcher puts the finishing touches on his knives before walking them over to the man that is soon to serve as the community’s dinner for the evening. “Drop your weapons!” a voice calls out from the dining room, with a second voice ordering anyone within eye sight to put their hands in the air. Some doing as told whilst others refuse to obey, instead choosing to stand with a menacing look directed towards the two women. “Oh thank god!” Austin exclaims, watching Rena and Marlhy hold the twenty-something people at gunpoint. “Where’s Michael?” Rena asks Austin, who points them in the direction of the backlot. Looking to join the butcher in his kitchen, Marlhy stops at the sight of a captive Michael being walked back into the dining room, the butcher using his body as a human shield. “Cut them loose” Rena demands, watching the smile on the butcher’s face as he assures them that they will not be doing that. “Cut them loose or I’ll make sure none of you are left to do that” Marlhy orders, her stance taking prominence over Rena’s, though still not enticing the butcher. “Do you even know how to use that thing, girl?” the butcher asks, slowly walking closer to the woman with a knife to Michael’s throat. “They’re cannibals!” Austin cries out, watching Marlhy look back towards the butcher with a smile of her own. “Is that so?” Marlhy asks, noticing the butcher growing rather comfortable with closing the space between himself and the two armed women. “Well then” Marlhy exclaims, firing off two quick shots at the only armed members of the small community, killing them instantly, and splattering their blood along the booths and windows. Stunned at the quick turn of events he finds himself witnessing, the butcher puts an immediate stop on his forward progress. “Now you have dinner, so give us our friends back” Marlhy says, the hold of Rena’s being almost nonexistent as she realizes the double-murder she just watched take place. Lip quivering as Marlhy demands they hurry up, the butcher relinquishes his grasp on Michael, allowing him to stumble back into the arms of Rena. Just ahead of them, a malnourished child unties Austin, who takes with him the guns of the fallen natives. “If I ever see you again, I’ll make sure I kill every last one of you. Do you understand me?” Marlhy says, making sure her lead goes not only recognized, but feared by the individuals she has just declared the enemy. “We’re not gonna let you get away with this” the butcher says, his words coming through gritting teeth. “Enjoy that chick’s calf muscle, I’m sure you’ll get over it sooner or later” Marlhy says, the last competitor to walk through the front doors of the shack. “Marlhy, what did you just-” Rena begins, the sudden shock wearing off as Marlhy interrupts her, telling her to just keep walking and not stop until they get back to camp. Following their own footsteps, which find themselves stained with drops of red from Michael’s lip every few steps, the foursome return to their cape beneath the dastardly night sky, accepting that their game has now become a fight for survival on the surface of the frozen, ghostly tundra.
0 Comments
“Are you going to tell us why we can’t go home?” Michael asks, warmed by the firepit offering a lifeline beneath the frosty night sky. Staring at the man calmly sat with the large gun nonchalantly resting against his knee, Michael eventually gives up on asking questions he knows full-well he will not get the answers to. Growing impatient with his yet undetermined fate, Austin’s leg starts bouncing, his anxiety keeping him from noticing the slothing of snow his ruffling feet creates.
Staring up from the fire, the unnamed man with a gun aimed at the pair stares at Austin, watching his eyes stare daggers at the fire. “Nervous, kid?” the man asks, asking a second time to finally pry Austin’s sights away from the bright shade of orange. “You’ve got us held at gunpoint and we have no clue why, should I not be?” Austin replies, watching the man’s humored smile as he returns to tending to the flames. Without response, Austin tucks his arms together and looks back to the fire, caught off guard when the man gives him a legitimate answer. “You shouldn’t be if you’re not with them” the man replies, offering the conversation a new route to take that had yet to be uncovered. “With who, exactly?” Michael asks, eyes bolting open as if he caught a glimpse of something otherworldly and didn’t know what to make of it. Smirking as if he had seen this kind of thing happen prior, the man sets down the open soup can he holds over the fire and cups his hands together, dropping them into the space between his legs. “Who do you think?” the man asks, hoping the response of his captors will afford him all the information he seeks. “Our... group?” Austin asks, watching the man’s eyes roll before he asks what he is referring to when he says ‘his group.’ “The twelve of us out by the cape?” Michael asks, his uncertainty offering his presumed innocence a level of genuinity. Squinting his eyes and taking a glance at the pair, trying to find something to pair with their soaking-wet clothes and disheveled appearances, the man stands from his seat and keeps the gun pointed at them, though feeling slightly less inclined to need to use it. Almost as soon as the man stands up, the sound of a small amount of bells jingle in the air, with the man ordering them to remain seated or become hunted down. Not wanting to anger the man with the large gun, the two stay put, somewhat beginning to share the unspoken inclination that they may be finding themselves on a similar point of view. After a few moments, the man returns with four other people, all sharing the same invested look as each other. One by one, the five take seats surrounding the pair of men and size them up. “Tell us why you’re here” one of the unnamed women ask, watching Michael begin to calm down, feeling more at ease with what’s unfolding. “We’re a part of this game show” Michael starts off, noticing the eyes of the man begin to soften. “We all signed up for this in some way or another, and eventually twelve of us were selected to take part in it, so they shipped us out here when it was time to start the show.” With the rest being obvious enough to piece together, Michael stops and awaits the reaction of the people around him, hoping for something more along the lines of forgiving and understanding. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, you just have to ask me the questions you want answers to” Michael replies, making it clear that both he and Austin are more than open to telling them whatever they wish to hear. As the tension that filled the air prior like smoke from an out-of-control fire begins to lift, Michael and Austin watch the man in front of them place his gun atop the snow and slide them the soup can, offering them whatever was being cooked as a sign of solidarity. Accepting the offer, Michael allows Austin the first bite and asks for anyone to ask him what they wish to know. = Neptune City is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = “Can we all take a second to breathe and talk like we’re civilized, please?” Tessa asks, watching the crowd of the remaining campers, minus Liz and Warren, collect their bearings and try to fan the flames of their raging anger. “We can’t be sure she’s telling the truth” Rick says, caught with the sharp, yet resonant demand to ‘piss off’ from Marlhy, who tells him to quit with the bitter-pill mentality. “It doesn’t matter what she saw, what matters is that she was telling the truth when she said something else was here, and we have to believe her until something else proves her wrong.” Not liked, Marlhy’s stance soon becomes the only logical approach when no other sensical options are made available. “With that being settled, what do we do?” Tessa asks, hoping for an answer to flutter from the small pockets of the room to keep her from having to dawn the cape of the group’s leader. Despite the seconds feeling like hours, nothing emerges from the near-full group of voices. With a deep breath, Tessa accepts her new role and gives Rena and Marlhy a radio and the other gun, sending them off on a mission to find the men and bring them back to familiar ground. “Shoot to kill?” Rena asks, watching Tessa’s face drop, having hoped the task of what to do would have concluded with the original order. “Shoot if you need to, not under any other circumstances” Tessa replies, watching Rena give off a brief smile before walking off with Marlhy as the remaining group members stand around, waiting for whatever comes next. “Let’s just get a fire going” Tessa directs the stragglers, “Let’s have something ready to eat when they get back.” | Wedging regular spatulas and kitchen spoons in the crack of the door, Len tries prying it open and Harper emerges from the bathroom. “Still going at it?” Harper asks, just barely getting the words out before the wooden spoon snaps in half, the piece remaining in Len’s hand being tossed across the room like a defective match. “Easy!” Harper shouts, noticing the frustration on the man’s face as he slides his hand down it, annoyed and defeated. Feeling sorry for him, Harper takes a seat beside him and jokes about the door frame being spoon-proof, lifting his spirits slightly as knocking on the front door signals the end of their stay. “Hey” Harper says, welcoming Natalie and Charlie into their home for the night, the pair not making it through the doorway before they notice Len staring intently at the source of his defeat. “What’s up with him?” Natalie asks, setting her bag down on the sofa as Harper informs the pair of what Len has begun to theorize. “I know for a fact that there’s something more than just a coat closet behind this!” Len replies, feeling his findings were lacking their true resonance. “No little closet just spits your words back at you with an echo” Len repeats, making room for Natalie, who lets out a simple scream into whatever rests behind, hearing her shouts matched by whatever remains out of sight. “It’s definitely not a coat closet” Natalie says, immediately siding with Len’s theory. “He thinks it’s a cave” Harper adds in, immediately setting buyers remorse over the girl as she looks to Len, not reassured by his lone shrug. “Whatever it is, we’ll try to get to the bottom of it” Charlie says, assuring Len and Harper that they’ll do whatever they can to give this theory an answer. One minute later, Harper and Len share a quick hug with their successors and leave for the camp, leaving the cabin to Natalie and Charlie to make themselves at home for the frigid night. In the distance, through the think air, Len and Harper spot the starting of the camp fire on the cape, readying themselves for whatever warm welcome awaits them at the end of their journey. | “And none of you knew about this?” one of the unnamed men asks, watching the genuine expression of surprise come across the faces of both Michael and Austin. “We knew when it happened” Austin admits, “But they never told us why!” Looking down with disappointment, thinking about the lies the producers fed to their competitors, the men and women feel spited once again. “I’m so sorry” Michael says, offering his condolences at the knowledge he’s now been granted. “They’ve been planning this for years, as much as we might want to, we can’t blame you for what you weren’t aware of” one of the women admits, telling them not to hang their chins for it. “Once the world went to renewable energy, our days relying on the pockets of oil up here were numbered” the original man admits, forcing himself to acknowledge the value of Barrow dropping every day the prices of oil became less relevant. “Once we were low enough, the city became cheap enough to be private property. Low and behold, it’s fate as such was written.” Told of the city being purchased, the native inhabitants of the land of what was once Barrow being forced out of their homes, and the land being turned into a symbol of decaying American entertainment, Austin and Michael are horrified in what they’d signed up for. The competition they arrived into the tundra desiring to win and survive in, being nothing more than an obstacle course built off the backs of thousands of people displaced by greedy millionaires with an addiction to ratings. Being presented as a genuine competition, the series built its base at the expense of unfortunate people. In a way, the suffering of the innocent individuals uprooted unjustly made the genuine competition feel ironically synthetic in hindsight, leaving the disgusted pit in the stomach’s of Austin and Michael to grow the longer the nights grow. “Why did they let you stay here?” Austin asks, watching the man bow his head down and fight his own inner conflict silently. Watching this transpire, Michael and Austin wait patiently, watching the man nod at random intervals, trying to convince himself that the two men can be trusted with secretive information. After a few tense moments of battling the pros and the cons of such a choice, the man tells the two competitors that the conversation can be had another day. Knowing they aren’t trusted blindly by the people surrounding them at every side, Michael and Austin quietly nod themselves, acknowledging their understanding of where their place lies. “So what are you going to do with us now?” Austin asks, keeping his eyes down with his head as Michael places his directly on the man. “I know we aren’t immediately trusted, but if we don’t go back to the cape, the rest of the group is going to start getting paranoid.” Positive that the group can figure out their own places if necessary, Michael argues otherwise. “Look, you don’t have to trust me, but you do need to hear me out if I have a differing opinion” Michael says, taking a stand for himself and the group. “You scared away one of our friends down there, so they already know they’re not alone” Michael says, beginning to figure out the chords he needs to play to bring the man around. “It’s only a matter of time before they come down armed to the teeth and start assuming you had some nefarious hand in us disappearing.” Looking to the rest of his unnamed community, the man takes a moment to consider the different angles his next decision could force being taken. Sucking in a breath before spitting it out into the flames, letting his breath join the smoke in their dance into the sky, the man stands to his feet and straps his gun over his shoulder. | Hand squeezing around the doorknob in await of some amount of give, even just a sliver, Charlie finds himself further engulfed in his boundless wonder of what Len is so desperate to uncover. “Is it really that hard to get open?” Natalie asks, handing Charlie a sandwich having to make do with what remains in the home. “Thank you first of all, and yes it is for the second” Charlie replies, feeling around the sides of the door in hopes of feeling any give yet unnoticed. Taking a seat on the arm of the sofa, Natalie watches Charlie’s eyes grow close, finding something off. “I’ve never seen that look before” Natalie says, watching Charlie admit the reason being having never seen something like this before. “What’s off about it?” Natalie asks, only for her question to be answered in the form of a correction. “It’s not what’s off about it, it’s what it is” Charlie says, getting one over on Natalie. “Doors have weak points, often in the center, but there are some trick doors that have a weak point moved somewhere else as a diversion” Charlie says, “This has neither.” Scouting it out for a few more seconds, a realization comes over his mind, leading him to a glass cup in the kitchen cabinets. Placing it in the direct center of the wall, Charlie listens closely, a sharp smile coming over his face as he realizes what they’re so flabbergasted by. “This isn’t a door” Charlie says, “it’s a wall!” Sticking her neck out as if she believed she heard him wrong the first time, Natalie asks him to be a little more specific. “How much more specific do you want me to be?” Charlie asks, “It’s a wall, we’re trying to open a wall!” Returning the cup to the kitchen and heading for the shower, Charlie thanks Natalie for the sandwich and heads into the still-misty bathroom. As the door closes behind him, the jittering mechanisms of the bathroom door seem to act as an unintentional beacon in Natalie’s head. Staring at the wall, the girl stands and walks towards it, refusing to take her eyes off the doorknob. The water now running, with the creaky pipes making that impossible to miss, Natalie looks around the room for a moment before grabbing a hold of a thick, hard-cover book. Holding her breath to get the most out of her shot, Natalie swings the book down and takes off the doorknob, shattering the illusion-causing pieces of metal from their place as they collide with the floor. Getting to her knees and placing her eye against the open slot where a key would normally be inserted, Natalie spot a faint yellow light off in the distance, small enough to be a convincing mile away. “What are you, little guy?” Natalie whispers to herself, captivated by the sight before it disappears, blanketing itself with the darkness of its immediate surroundings, and returning whatever could have been seen to it’s natural, dark habitat. | Sitting in her quarters, alone and desperate for Michael and Austin to roll around the corner at any moment, Tessa thinks to herself all that will change in the coming months, especially when the sky goes dark and stays that way for over two months. The ground will grow harder, the temperature will drop even further than it does now, and exit from the region will be almost impossible. Suddenly, the shifting of the ground and the blaring screams of the Neptune Box strip Tessa of her situational confliction and pulls her towards the middle of the cape. Joining the group as Rick opens the giant metal chunk, Tessa watches him pull free a bottle of lighter fluid and a small blowtorch. “What the hell is that for?” Liz asks, voicing the group’s own confusion as they already had enough matches to keep a fire burning. “Guys, it’s obviously in case we run out of matches” Rick says, his theory shut down immediately as Warren points out that they would have offered up firewood if the case was concern over whether or not they could start a fire. “Maybe there’s firewood in there and we just have to get it” Liz says, trying to keep from playing devil’s advocate against the court of public opinion. “There’s a more important question we need to start asking” Tessa says from the back, asking who triggered the Neptune Box. Looking around at each other, the group starts the slow, burning process of pointing fingers and making outlandish accusals. Rick suggests that Liz is working with the producers, whilst Warren suggests that Rick is keeping something for himself. As the finger pointing grows further and further out of hand, and Rick begins to start blowing up more than the rest, Tessa takes the split-second opportunity and slaps Rick across the face, sending a line of spit dashing through the air like the smoke following a bullet out of a gun. “Everyone calm the fuck down!” Tessa shouts, looking at a stunned Rick with a hand plastered against his cheek, partially buried into the snow at Tessa’s feet. “Get up or I’ll hit you again” Tessa says, asserting her dominance over Rick, who wastes no time in climbing back to his feet. With a finger aimed for Tessa, Rick makes the first move to talk back to the woman responsible for laying him out like a bedsheet, only to find himself backing up into his place as the cold stare of Tessa assures him that she will not hold back punches. Having seen what happens when you attempt to overtalk Tessa, Warren and Liz patiently await further instructions, wary to get on her bad side. Tucking her shirt back into her pants in the spots they were pulled from with the extension of her arm on the slap, Tessa looks at the trio before her and comes upon a decision. Taking the fire starters out of Rick’s hands, Tessa looks at the three and says that she’ll check all of their quarters and figure out who truly set off the Neptune Box. “What?” Rick asks, “That’s a complete invasion of our privacy!” the man argues, watching Tessa’s nose become close enough for his eyes to see it twice. “Do you have something to hide, Rick?” Tessa asks, watching the man pull his head back to offer himself as much space as he can get. “No, I just don’t-” Rick begins, his concerns buried where they were uttered when Tessa replies “Good” and moves on to check his quarters first. | “I’m getting really sick of the early sunset” Marlhy says, doing her best to keep up with Rena as the latter finds an easier time navigating the snow-covered terrain. “The less daylight we have, the less we can get done” Marlhy mutters, overhearing the slight chuckle from Rena, who tells her it’s only going to get worse when the sun doesn’t come back up. “Let’s just hope we’re ready for it when it comes around” Marlhy mentions, her optimism challenged when Rena tells her not to get her hopes up. “We’re all competitors” Rena reminds the girl, “If there’s an opportunity to fuck someone over, there’ll be people that take it.” Wanting to argue the prediction, Marlhy finds it more suitable to tuck her head down and return to silently fighting off the fluffy clouds of soft snow from making residence in her boots. Taking notice of Marlhy’s silence, Rena flips the conversation to another topic, still wanting to find something to fend off the raging winds threatening to silence them. “Why are you so optimistic?” Rena asks, turning to look at the girl for a moment, long enough to notice her head bob up as if the question were Marlhy’s beacon. “I mean, I can’t guarantee it isn’t all an act, but-” Rena begins, almost immediately corrected by Marlhy assuring her the opposite with a simple “It’s not.” Taking notice of the girl’s simple but assertive manner, reading it as a reason to take the topic to be much more than surface level with her, Rena redirects her course. “Well regardless of that, this isn’t the environment where you find it commonplace” Rena says, turning to look at the girl, whose attention is firmly grasped. “Why are you so different?” Rena asks, watching the girl smirk and tell Rena it’s the exact opposite of why Rena is who she portrays. “What do you mean?” Rena asks, watching the girl manage to start catching up to her. “You’re not looking for friendships-” Marlhy begins, inserting “or relationships” to draw Rena in a bit further, “-Because you’re still aware that this is a game, and the less you know someone, the easier it is to watch them walk away.” “What does that have to do with the way you and I act differently?” Rena asks, making a point she either would regret pointing towards or enjoy depending on how introspective she is. “You put on a front because you normally like to make connections, you wouldn’t be so open with people if that weren’t the case…” Marlhy says, looking to the gaze of Rena moving elsewhere, indicating to the girl that she’s found the right track. “I always look for the best way of thinking… And that doesn’t change regardless of what I do or what I’m doing entails” Marlhy concludes, watching Rena smirk and shake her head. “I don’t think you really know me” Rena suggests, pausing for a moment, as if forgetting why she and Marlhy find themselves trekking through the snow. “Don’t I?” Marlhy asks, turning around in front of Rena to remain eye-to-eye, “So you’re not looking at Tessa as just a fling?” Her smile diminishing, Rena can feel Marlhy’s words as if they were crawling to her skin, navigating through her billions of nerves as if they already knew the layout of the network as a whole. “I guess the question is what you plan on using her for once you two get cozy” Marlhy says, turning around and returning to her journey as Rena stands alone for a few moments, watching Marlhy walk off and staring at herself as if she were gazing into a mirror. Eventually, she frees herself from the grip Marlhy had on her before following after the girl, returning to the duties she finds herself on call for. | Hosting roads so frequently walked they remain the only paths not buried by numerous feet of snow, the small little camp a few miles off from the ghost town of Barrow, Alaska hosts a small, bordered-off seafood shack, covered and protected by whatever remnants of the homes forced into vacancy long ago. “How did you take this place over without being caught?” Austin asks, following the large man as he and Michael remain surrounded by his allies. “Your producers never cared to make things look pretty. Once they set things up the way they wanted them, they didn’t come back for a second look” the man says, only further draining the optimism in Michael and Austin of anything redeemable resonating from the producers’ camp. Prying free a loose board from onescrew, the man leads Michael and Austin into a dimly-lit, small and cramped shack storefront with roughly twenty people remaining inside. “You’ve all been here for-” Austin begins, cut off by the man who repeats the same as before. “Since they forced us out… Yes” the man replies, taking a seat beside two dirty and malnourished children. The sight of the children with their ribcages near-showing, Austin crouches before one of them and asks, “How you doing, little guy?” Chuckling, the man silently shakes his head, which is more than enough to capture Austin’s curiosity. “What? What’s funny?” Austin asks, receiving the news from one of the other unnamed community members that the child, just below five feet tall and weighing almost one hundred pounds was, in all actuality, seventeen years old. Surveying the boy for a few moments as the near-adult silently watches on, Austin notices the terrible shape of his knee and hip joints, the tendons damn-near being visible through the skin. Looking throughout the hall, Austin moves his lips as if he were attempting to find whatever words felt appropriate for the time and place, eventually giving up and returning to Michael’s side. “What happens now?” Michael asks, watching the large man stand from his seat and nonchalantly walk behind the counter. Looking to each other as if to ask what they should be expecting next, Michael and Austin watch the man emerge from beneath the counter with two large butcher knives. Brows lowered as if to ask what this is meant to symbolize, Michael and Austin await a verbal response as the knives begin to ring throughout the front. Small sparks flying from the sheet metal from time to time, the man concludes his efforts and tells the men that it’s time to take back what’s theirs. Not a moment sooner, the unnamed community behind the pair of competitors attack them from behind, striking them in the back of the head and shoving them into the walls and countertops. “What the fuck!?” the men shout, overpowered by the numbers disadvantage as multiple people team up to restrain the pair of men, now forced to a seat on the floor. “When you landed here, you became just as guilty as they did” the man says, telling them that the group needs to do what’s best to survive. “What the fuck are you talking about!?” Austin says, fighting to get the words out as the unnamed natives try to force his mouth shut. “We’re starving and we can’t risk your producers knowing that we’re here” the man says, gently caressing the side of Michael’s face with the larger, much sharper knife. “What are you doing to us?” Austin shouts, his jaw being the only part of him stronger than the restraints of the unnamed group, which resort to trying to beat him into silence. “Isn’t it obvious to you?” the man asks, “We’re gonna eat you.” With this letter of intention, Michael and Austin stop trying to host a conversation, instead opting to up their struggles in hopes of breaking free. Despite knowing their individual inferiority when compared to the two captives, the large man chuckles at their will to break free, holding enough confidence in the group members to keep their hold on them as he prepares the butcher’s station. “No!” Michael shouts at random intervals, matching Austin’s silent struggle, putting a pep in the large man’s step. Outside the shack, beneath the darkening sky and the light snow fall, the baron town remains peaceful. The decrepit shack with the appearance of a vacated storefront acts as the only source of noise or light in a small town once full of them. The screaming of desperation to break free fighting the snow for supremacy of direction above the ground, and the utter will to survive a perfect symbol of the fight to do much the same the small town had been hiding for decades before. “It all just feels really off” Charlie says, pacing around the group comprised of everyone other than the crew remaining on the opposite side of the lake. “How do we know she’s not just faking it?” he continues, asking for an answer from anyone, only to find a lack of outright proof against it. “I get she has a reason to fake it, but I’ve been proud to be able to read people pretty well, and that kind of fear isn’t one you just come up with” Austin says, putting his support in Liz’ camp.
“And you, Warren?” Charlie asks, looking towards the kid, noticing his look of uncertainty. “Listen, I’m not stationing myself in either camp” Warren replies, “I’ve never just believed someone at face value when there’s no immediate necessity to…” Looking at the kid, Charlie thanks him before he can get a chance to finish, halting himself as Charlie continues his point. “...However, I’ve also never outright refused to believe them if there wasn’t an immediate necessity to either.” “So what do you lean towards?” Charlie asks, watching Warren admit that if it all turned out to be just a feined attempt at scaring the campers off, she would have had him completely fooled. “She’s either the world’s greatest actress, or someone that was afraid for her life and doesn’t need people calling her a liar for it” Warren says, standing from his seat and walking over to his quarters, going to check on Liz. “Anyone else?” Charlie asks, looking around the camp before Rick speaks up, suggesting that it was all a ploy to spook them. “Coming from the guy that wanted to screw us out of dinner the other night” Austin says, stirring up drama between himself and Rick, with the latter shouting at him to say something to his face if he’s got a problem. “I’d knock your ass out, but I’m afraid I’ll get a faceful of booze breath, old man” Austin says, angering Rick and getting him to stand to his feet, walking towards Austin and getting into his face. “Rick, get back” Michael demands, trying to pull Rick back, and earning a strike to the bridge of the nose for his troubles. “What the fuck?” Austin shouts, watching Rick walk back over to him before a piece of firewood flies off from the side and decks Rick across the head, laying him out. “Try that again and I’ll put you in the ground” Warren says, walking over to retrieve the wood he threw like a pitcher in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series. “Play nice or I’ll make quick work of you, got it?” Warren says, standing over Rick as the older man clutches at his head, trying to stop the bleeding from the gash over his eye. “Tell me you understand what I’m saying to you!” Warren repeats, his voice growing louder and more affirmative with every repeat. Doing nothing more than nodding, Rick watches Warren walk back to his quarters and toss the firewood onto the stack with the rest. The group speechless, not wanting to say something that can stir the pot again, simply stands around waiting for someone to break the silence. “Fuck it!” Rick shouts, punching the ground and storming to his quarters as Austin sits on a rock, hands over his face as the tensions in the group begin to rise as they had originally expected to do. “I’m calling it a night” Natalie says, walking back to her quarters and leaving Michael and Austin to talk everything over. “You saw something at the trailers back there, didn’t you?” Michael asks, earning all the confirmation he needs in Austin’s simple gaze upwards to him. “What did you find?” Michael asks, watching Austin fold his hands and look off, not wanting to answer the question. “Listen, you can choose to tell me or not” Michael says, watching Austin glance over to him out of the corner of his eye, the orange fire reflected off his glassy pupils. “At the end of the day, if I really wanted to know what you found down there… All I need to do is make the trip” Michael concludes, giving Austin the chance to take the floor. “Come on, man... Let’s not be enemies here” Michael pleads, trying to convince Austin to come clean, only to be met with further silence. Dropping his head, having retired to the notion that Austin was going to keep his findings secret, Michael takes a breath before standing up and walking towards his quarters. “I found a lantern” Austin says, not wanting to end tonight having made an enemy out of the only person at the cape he feels he can trust the most. “Why keep a lantern a secret?” Michael asks, turning around with his arms extended. “It had the year ‘2012’ engraved on the bottom” Austin replies, watching Michael’s face develop an intrigued gaze. “Okay, you’ve got me hooked. What else did you find?” Michael says, returning to his seat with his arms rested atop his thighs. “That was it” Michael replies, the frustration at his lack of success appearing more evident than before. “I tried to find something else that felt off but I just missed it” Austin continues, angered at the result. “You’re gonna go back looking for it tomorrow, aren’t you?” Michael asks, watching Austin look up to him, having given into the idea that Michael’s probably gotten his answer before Austin himself can even think of the question. “I was gonna use the cover of looking for the figure” Austin admits, watching Michael smile and nod. “Not a bad plan, to be fair” Michael replies, watching Austin snap a twig in half and chuck both pieces into the roaring fire. “So what happens if you find something?” Michael asks, clarifying that he means finding proof of the figure or something out of place. “If I find the guy, at least we’ll know that Liz was right. If I find something else out of place, at least we’ll know the producers didn’t tell us everything we needed to know.” Looking towards each other, Austin assumes that Michael’s silence is his way of telling him that he’ll be joining Austin on the journey the following day. “We’ll leave at dawn, not a moment sooner, not a moment later” Michael says, standing up and returning to his quarters before he spots Rena, Tessa and Marlhy returning from the cabin. “You’re back!” Michael shouts, walking with Austin back to the trio and welcoming them home. “Find anything?” Michael asks, informed by Rena that the cabin is fully abandoned, and the next steps are to get a strange door open. “Austin and I are heading out to the trailer park tomorrow morning, Liz said she saw a man there and it wasn’t Warren or I” Michael says, ringing alarm bells in the girls’ heads. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna head down there and see for ourselves if we can find something while we’re out. Just send two guys out to take over for Harper and Len while we’re gone” the man concludes. “Are you sure it wasn’t one of the producers?” Tessa asks, watching the men shake their heads. “By the sounds of it, she called out for him thinking it was Warren until she figured out that it wasn’t. He didn’t respond to anything” Michael replies, bringing the spirits of the group into a crater. “Everything’s gonna be fine, we’ll get to the bottom of this. Let’s not start worrying” Austin says, assuring the trio that everything will be under control soon enough. “Until then, let’s get some sleep and be ready to take on tomorrow morning” Michael suggests, offering to take the first watch of the group. With that, the pairing splits up and goes their separate ways, moving into their quarters and getting some rest in anticipation of the following day. = Neptune City is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = “Natalie, you wanna head out with Charlie to the cabin?” Tessa asks, walking off with Natalie’s agreeance and meeting Michael and Austin as they ready themselves to leave. “You’ve got everything you need, nothing holding you down?” Rena asks, laughing as the pair give her a simple thumbs up before wishing them luck and getting a start on their journey. “What now?” Rena asks Tessa, watching the woman shrug her shoulders and turn to look out at an empty cape, most of the residents still asleep. Walking off to her quarters, Tessa retrieves a notebook from a chest and writes something on it in dark permanent marker. “Harper or Len must be up, let’s see if they can get this from afar” Tessa exclaims, leading Rena to the lake and taking a seat beside it. “What are you doing?” Rena asks, reading the note informing those on the other side that Natalie and Warren are on their way. “We’ll give it about ten minutes and hope they see it” Tessa says, patting the ground beside her and offering Rena a seat. Without much else to do, Rena obliges and joins Tessa in her staredown with the opposite part of the lake, the cabin on the opposite end more clear on the sunny morning than it usually is hidden behind fog. “How much longer until someone drops out?” Tessa asks, trying to find something to kill the time with. Looking to Rena, Tessa notices her intent thought, proving the effort of trying to pick the upmost likely answer of them all. “Natalie” Rena replies, disappointing both Tessa and herself. “I think Natalie can hold for a really long time!” Tessa says, though initially not making a choice of her own, she does make it clear that she isn’t going to rest in “Natalie first” camp. “I never said she couldn’t” Rena says, watching Tessa look towards her before suggesting that she may not want to. “I get she’s got this idea that this is all suspicious and everything, but there’s still a million dollars on the line” Tessa says, reminding Rena that if there’s nothing else, the pair sat beside the coastline will always be in her corner. “I like her, I think she’s great” Rena says, “I just worry she’ll get so suspicious that she’ll just call it a day and move on.” Approached with an argument she has no solid defense to, Tessa accepts the choice and moves onto predicting Liz as the first one out. “If Austin was right about that look he saw on her face, I’m pretty convinced she’s not long for this game” Tessa says, finding a common agreeance with Rena, who picks Liz as her back up option. Remaining seated beside each other, the pair talk about their plans once they make it out of Barrow. “If I walk out with the money, I’m gonna find something other than stripping to do” Rena says, turning to Tessa with a smile and suggesting that she’ll look for something with fewer handsy clients. “I can imagine that kind of change would be nice!” Tessa replies, fist bumping the woman and figuring out an answer of her own when Rena brings the question back around. “Not sure yet, I don’t really have any reason to stop what I’m doing right now” Tessa replies, admitting that she likes her line of work, she just hates the bosses she works beneath. “So start up your own techno-fixer thing and be your own boss” Rena replies, watching Tessa shrug at the idea and take a moment to consider it. “Where do you come from anyways?” Rena asks, surprised when Tessa’s accent-less reply of Georgia comes around. “So why aren’t you calling soda pop and shit like that?” Rena asks, pondering over all the possibilities. “I was born there and moved to New York shortly thereafter. I moved back down a few years ago” Tessa replies, watching the eyes of Rena light up with glee. “What part of New York?” Rena asks, her glee erupting into outright joy when Tessa replies with ‘Manhattan.’ “Fucking exact same!” Rena replies, the dark unknown of seemingly everything revolving around the game being made alright with the light fun, even if for only a few minutes. “At some point we probably bumped into each other and never even knew it!” Tessa says, watching Rena’s face light up and suggest it was unlucky to go through most of their collective lives not knowing each other. “All of that time lost talking about what we’d do in year-long game shows!” Tessa says, one-upped with Rena’s assurance that the time missed not discovering mysterious cabins was a bigger loss. “How about all the people that wouldn’t have assumed we were fucking as soon as they met us?” Tessa adds, watching Rena’s smirk coincide with a head tilt. “What?” Tessa asks, assuming Rena to inevitably be getting somewhere. “Listen, I’m not saying we would’ve fucked each other’s brains out had we met sooner…” Rena begins, looking at Tessa and making sure to stare her in the eyes and she moves forward. “...But regardless of whether I would have met you or not, you would’ve gotten a free dance if you walked into my place of work.” Flattered and slightly more willing to test the waters, Tessa nips the conversation in the bud before it can get a chance to move any further, suggesting that Harper and Len have had more than enough warning. “Oh!” Rena says mockingly, “We were just getting to the good stuff!” earning a smile from Tessa, who humorously replies, “If you want to get to the good stuff, don’t push it on me too soon!” Despite meant as a joke, both women take in the words for a moment and realize that it came out much more sexual than it was initially intended to be. “Just forget I said that” Tessa requests, turning to return to the cape before spinning herself around once more with Rena’s assurance that she will not. “Cool” Tessa says, nodding with a smirk on her face as Rena gestures with finger guns behind her. | “This it?” Michael asks, pointing out a rundown camper in the middle of the lot. Assured in his theory from the man tailing him, Michael climbs into the camper and surveys the room, looking for the fabled lantern. “Where is it?” Austin asks, rushing over to the stand he returned it to having discovered it to have gone missing. “Michael, I swear I left it right here!” Austin says, watching the man take a seat and drop his gloves to the floor. “Listen, I’m not going to call you a liar… But unlike most other things, a kerosene lantern doesn’t just get blown over” Michael replies. Watching the man frustratedly rearrange the room as if he were looking for the perfect setup, Michael sits back and takes in the effort on display, trying to gage its genuinity. “I know you’re thinking that I’m crazy, but-” Austin attempts to reply, only for Michael to interrupt him with quite the opposite. “Unlike most others, I like to look at things from a logistical standpoint” Michael says, making sure that Austin is following along. “I believe you because you had no reason to suggest something that specific… It didn’t benefit you in ay way as far as I can tell.” Breathing a sigh of relief, Austin’s mind is returned to Austin’s words as he switches gears onto another topic. “However, I’m also starting to believe that Liz was also right” Michael replies, “As if you’re missing a kerosene lantern, that must mean someone else has a kerosene lantern. And I don’t think any of us would know where to find one.” Coming to the quick realization that Liz was correct, Austin switches his focus to finding the figure now haunting Liz at the mere mention of it, determined to get to the bottom of this. “So what do we do now?” Austin asks, watching Michael stand up and return his gloves to his hands before making for the front entry. “Now we start looking” Michael says confidently, disappearing through the front before Austin follows soon after, making it a point to remain as close to him as he can. | “Damnit!” Len shouts, beating the hefty metal door in with the crowbar after another failed attempt at prying it open. “It’s not gonna budge” Harper says, resting her head against the back of the chair she sits the wrong way in. “I’m starting to become increasingly aware of that” Len replies, blowing the hanging hairs out of his face with his hands depressingly rested against his thighs. “Give it a rest, let’s save our energy for the walk back” Harper says, patting Len on the shoulder for his efforts before going over to take a shower. “There’s something about this fucking thing, man” Len mutters to himself, fuming at the idea that he can’t break into it. Dropping to the floor and putting his head as low to the ground as he can manage, Len tries to take a peek at whatever remains behind. “Fuck this thing!” Len shouts, his anger subsiding for a moment as he tries to hear something through the onpour of water. “Harper!” Len shouts, hearing the water turn off, and the woman, her nude body covered by nothing more than a towel, as she walks into the living space to see Len making friends with the floorboards. “What are you doing?” Harper asks, doing her best to keep the towel wrapped around her as Len explains that he thinks he heard something inside. “It was probably a water tank or something, Len” Harper replies, met with assurance from the man that it wasn’t a noise as much as it was a voice. “What do you mean by ‘a voice’, Len?” Harper asks, doing her best to keep the towel covering her privates as she huddles as close to the ground as she can. “Yes, playgirl, a voice” Len replies, handed a smack over the back of his head for his efforts. “Motherfucker!” Len shouts, listening intently to his words being spit back at him as they bounce off of something hardened and unrelenting. “It’s an echo, I’m hearing an echo!” Len exclaims as if he were a kid unwrapping presents on Christmas day. “You had me hop out of the shower to tell me you were talking to yourself?” Harper asks, watching Len turn towards her with the intent of replying before freezing like bad connection. “What?” Harper asks, watching the man smirk with wide eyes as he points the end of his crowbar towards Harper’s breasts fully fallen out of the towel. “Well, Madam ‘D cup’, the fact that my echo’s bouncing around down there like a bouncy ball means that this isn’t just a closet or a basement.” Nose scrunched at the fun poked as she pulls her towel over her chest once again, Harper tells Len that it could still be just a really big basement. “One that rings through like you’re screaming into a train terminal?” Len asks, assuring Harper that something massive is hidden down there, only kept from them by one aggravating door. “I’m getting back in the shower” Harper replies after a moment of thinking about the gravity behind Len’s statement, ultimately not wanting to wrap herself up in a blanket of hope that could end up being for nothing. | “Find anything?” Austin asks, annoyed at the decisive ‘nope’ from Michael, having seemingly stammered through trailer cabins throughout the entire day for nothing. “Hey, Austin!” Michael shouts, calling the man over and pointing out something on the side of one of the trailers. “It may not be ‘2012’, but will ‘2009’ do?” Michael asks, pointing out the wording to reveal the date of the final year of the 2000’s. “It’s still far and away more recent than the mid-90’s” Austin replies, leaping from the trailer and marching over to the next, getting the chance to see it up close for himself. “I guess your theory of the producers feeding us horseshit’s been proven” Michael says, confident that Austin’s been working along the correct lines. “It may not be a lantern, but it’s definitely as much proof as it would have been” Austin says to himself, climbing into the trailer and surveying the interior for anything out of place. “Holy shit, we’re idiots!” Michael shouts, walking over to a dining table and picking up a newspaper with the date ‘January 15th, 2014’ on it. “All we had to do was pick up a newspaper?” Austin asks, already knowing the answer, just wishing for something that makes him less of an idiot to fall into his lap. “So what now?” Austin asks, looking for their new approach now that their biggest concern has been answered for. “Well I’m not gonna wait past dark for this guy to just show up and kill us” Michael replies, insisting the pair begin to pack their things up and prepare for the ride home. “Don’t move a muscle” a voice calls out calmly, holding the two men at gunpoint with a sawed off shotgun, demanding they follow him. Looking to each other as if to question whether or not the other is seeing this too, the pair eventually give in and follow the man, going with the flow with little choice in the matter. | “Tessa!” a woman calls out, pulling the woman towards Marlhy as she stares at the ceiling in her quarters, awaiting the woman’s response. “You alright, Marlhy?” Tessa asks, watching the girl point towards the ground and a hole in the ceiling where the camera once was. “The camera in my ceiling just slammed into the ground for no reason” Marlhy says, picking up whatever she can and handing it to Tessa to evaluate. “Is this normal?” Marlhy asks, assuming Tessa’s tech-savvy mind would help her better understand what’s going on. “No, it most definitely is not” Tessa says, fascinated by the camera and completely thrown off by the lack of a port to plug a cable into. “Did I break it?” Marlhy asks, unable to understand most of what Tessa is referring to. “No, I don’t even know why it was up there… This-” Tessa begins, quickly silencing herself as she comes to a sudden realization. “This isn’t a real camera” Tessa says, picking up a pair of nail clippers and doing what she can to pry the tool open. Suddenly, with less effort than she was using prior, the top of the camera pops off and the sound of the Neptune Box going off sweeps the pair off their feet, startling them before they figure out what was going on. “What happened?” Liz shouts, watching Marlhy follow Tessa to the box as she reaches into the compartment. Inside is a note a case of four radios, all connected to the same frequency with a massive box of batteries to follow. “Fucking sweet!” Charlie says in excitement, peering over Tessa’s shoulder to read the note. “Holy shit” Charlie says, his amusement immediately killed off as Tessa’s eyes wander off the paper, and her focus stares off in the direction of the trailer park. “What’s wrong?” Liz asks, the enjoyment of the group being put on halt as the eager reveal of what the note reads begins to hover over everyone. “What does it say Tessa?” Rena asks, watching the girl turn towards her with a look of immediate fear. Walking over to Rena, Tessa hands her the note and breaks for her quarters, leaving Rena to read the short statement off to the residents of the cape. “Rena?” Marlhy calls out, watching the woman glance over at the group as she finishes her brief read to break some news. “Congratulations on another completion. Here is a four pack of radios with enough battery life to last the full calendar year. It seems you’ll need them, because… SURPRISE! You aren’t truly alone here. Happy hunting!” With the words being read beneath the sky turning into nightfall, Rena looks over to Tessa with a bag draped over her shoulder. “Tessa, where are you going?” Rena asks, storming off towards the girl determined to get back to Austin and Michael. “You can’t go out there, it’s gonna be pitch black out in a few minutes!” Rena shouts, pleading with Tessa to calm down and think things through. “Tessa, you need to stop” Liz calls out, the tremors in her voice apparent enough to bring Tessa to a halt in the spot in which she stands. “You don’t wanna face whoever’s out there” Liz continues, watching Tessa turn towards her with her eyes narrowed as each individual in the camp that once called Liz a liar have no such comments to be made further. “What was it that you saw back at the trailers, Liz?” Tessa asks, watching the girl’s eyes flush with fear as the feeling of horror begins to enrapture her all over again. “It just stood there, it didn’t answer… Didn’t even acknowledge me. All I saw was his back and I knew it didn’t seem…” After a pause drops her head, Liz speaks freely without care of how the group may choose to see her. “It didn’t seem human” Liz says, “All I needed was to see it’s back and I knew something was really bad.” With this revelation unfolding upon the group, Tessa mutters aloud that they all just let Austin and Michael walk into the den of a monster with open arms. Looking around without any voice of hope or inspiration coming around the corner at any point, the group remains silently stood in the center of the cape, staring out at each other as the sun falls beneath the horizon, blackening the sky. Harshly awoken by the feeling of an unusually rough mattress, Michael gives in trying to fight for a comfortable position in favor of starting on work as the sun begins to rise. Joining Tessa and Austin in stowing the firewood in whatever cover they can find, Michael wishes them a good morning and asks about their sleep. Placing the blame on their early wakeup call as per usual, Austin and Tessa help form a line, tossing the spare wood to each other as if it were a conveyer belt.
From her own quarters, Liz emerges into the center of the cape, cutting off the line between Tessa and Michael and stealing one of the chunks of wood, rolling it beside the firepit. “We’ll keep that there for tonight’s fire” Liz says, ultimately suggesting that they go out looking for firewood today. “We’ve still got some deer curated, we’re set for the next few nights… What we need right now is a way to keep feeding the fire once we run out of firewood” Liz states, suggesting a few people head out to the vacated town and bring back whatever flammables they can find. “It’ll take more to keep the fire going than one block of wood will, but it’s our best bet” Liz admits, reminding the trio just how sparse wood is found laying around in the arctic circle. “I’m up for it” Austin says, volunteering to bring Warren and Natalie along. “Harper, Len and I will head out to reach Rena and Marlhy in a little bit” Tessa continues, heading off to wake them up before she is approached by Michael, who asks to speak to her privately. Walking to the coast and away from whatever can be found, Michael asks Tessa in secret what she thinks about Len. “I think he’s a guy trying to win a bunch of money, why do you ask?” Tessa replies, watching Michael become conflicted, as if he were trying to figure out whether or not to hide something from her. Having seen that look from many people before, Tessa steps out ahead of the man, telling him to tell her, in full, what he is thinking. “It’s nothing” Michael replies, “I’m probably just over-reacting.” The response not good enough for her, Tessa refuses to forget about it, telling Michael to tell her exactly what he was intending to. Worried that he’ll say something that jeopardizes Len’s place in the group unrightfully, Michael looks around to make sure the pair are alone and away from any audio or visual equipment before responding. “When you guys went for the fire last night, I figured I’d bring all of your bags back to your rooms. I figured it was the least I could do after what you guys risked to get across the lake.” Pausing for a second to take another glance backwards, a sort of paranoia showing, Michael turns back around to face Tessa, telling her to keep this a secret. “When I picked up Len’s bag to bring it into his hut, this orange bottle fell out of one of the side pockets. I picked it up and took a quick look at it, but before I could read anything, he ripped it out of my hands and took his own bag into his hut.” Obviously surprised at what Len was hiding, Tessa’s even more confused when Michael admits that it took the appearance of a medication bottle. “I don’t know what medication it was or what it was for, but those bottles are the only one’s I’ve ever seen look like that” Michael continues, admitting that he believes Len is hiding it from the group. “Have you seen anything off about him?” Tessa begins, rattling off a few things it could be ranging from a required medication to a drug addiction. “I don’t think it’s required, he wouldn’t be able to get it refilled out here” Michael begins, hinting at the notion that he’s not supposed to have it. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t feel like he would need it unless he had a supply stashed away somewhere. And while I know we were allowed to bring some things, I know meds aren’t one of them” Michael concludes, visibly distressed. After a few moments of silence, both competitors trying to pull explanations from their minds, Michael tells Tessa not to worry too much about it. “He hasn’t murdered you guys yet, so that’s a good sign. Let’s just treat this like it’s nothing when we’re around him until the time to ask him comes along. If I see anything else out of place, I’ll let you know.” With that, the two return for the cape and both Len and Harper eagerly await getting on the journey back to the cabin. “Ready to head out?” Tessa asks, grabbing the bag from her doorway and joining the trio in beginning their venture, winking to Michael on the way as he gets together a party to head into town. = Neptune City is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = “Wake up!” Rena shouts, practically rolling Marlhy over on the couch as she hands her a cup of coffee. “I thought the coffee machine wasn’t working properly?” Marlhy says, managing to string together one coherent sentence as she wipes the exhaustion from her face. “I didn’t say it would be good coffee” Rena replies, holding her cup up and clinking it with Marlhy’s before taking a swig as she walks onto the cabin patio. “Anything during the night?” Marlhy asks, watching Rena turn around and rest her elbow on the dining table. “Yeah, someone came in while you were sleeping and I tied them up and stuffed them under the couch. Sorry, did I not tell you?” Rena sarcastically replies, earning an unamused grin from Marlhy, who refuses to buy the statement for anything, but does check beneath the couch in case Rena is as crazy as she can seem at times. “So what now?” Marlhy asks, watching Rena peer out at the camp on the other side of the lake. “Tessa and the others will come for us and try to figure out what to do next. After that, who knows?” Rena replies, unable to see anyone through the binoculars, assuming most are still asleep. “Who do you think the person that lived here was?” Marlhy asks, genuinely intrigued by the concept of not being in Barrow alone, though also amused at the idea that the producers were spying on them. “If I had to put money on it” Rena begins, scanning the room quickly in search of something out of place, “I’d say it was a producer. I think we caught them off guard and they had to vacate to keep from jeopardizing the game.” Wiping away her eyes and tilting her head down, trying to keep from looking too far into the sunlight, Marlhy ponders the wonder of what happens when people start getting greedy the longer the game goes on. “What do you mean?” Rena asks, with Marlhy reminding her that whomever is left ends up splitting the money. “Some people aren’t going to be happy with having to take less money because more people stuck around” Marlhy says, reminding Rena that it still is every competitor for themselves. “Eventually, when we’re close enough to the end, it’ll start being a burden to have too many people left. Fewer people means more money for everyone else.” With that, Rena nods and returns to her spectating of the cape, trying not to let Marlhy’s assumption of the game affect her spirits. “Let’s talk about something else, okay Mar?” Rena asks, saying enough for Marlhy to stop whilst she’s ahead, allowing Rena to continue her lookout in peace. Watching the girl take specific interest in trying to spot anyone or anything on the other side, Marlhy begins to take her own guess as to the reasoning behind Rena’s fixation. “What do you think about Tessa?” Marlhy asks, addressing the elephant in the room, unknowingly putting a smile on Rena’s face, who responds with a simple, “she’s cool.” Figuring that she’s captured Rena on a hook, Marlhy digs a little further, trying to gage the level of interest that Rena takes in the topic. “You like her?” Marlhy asks, smiling as she notices the girl begin to blush, not wanting to go too into specifics in hopes of not blowing the little cover she has remaining. “I said she’s pretty cool” Rena replies again, noticing a prying smile on Marlhy’s face in the reflection of the girl in the window. “Yeah, I guess she is pretty cool” Marhly replies, watching Rena nod without vocal response, playing it off as best as she can. Despite having her sights fixated on what remains across the lake, Rena can feel Marlhy staring daggers into her back, trying to tease her as far as she can before it stops being funny. Rather than continue the joke, however, Marlhy drops the metaphors and leaves nothing to the imagination, asking Rena what she thought about Tessa outright. “It’s clear that you’ve got eyes for her!” Marlhy says, watching the grin come across Rena’s face despite her best efforts to conceal it. “Everyone in the camp has already figured it out, hell, I’m pretty sure the both of you notice it too” Marlhy says, watching Rena turn towards her with her eyebrows raised, pointing out an internal concern. “What are you afraid of?” Marlhy asks, standing from her seat and taking a moment to gain her balance, touching onto the floor with the original feeling as if she were at sea, rocking back and forth. “I’m not afraid of anything” Rena starts, watching Marlhy take a seat beside her and join her lookout party. “I didn’t come here to find the love of my life, I came here to win money” Rena says, immediately countered by the question of why she can’t have both. “Because it’s a game, that’s all it is at the end of the day. The more people that drop, the more money we all get. I don’t want to let anything get in the way of that if it doesn’t have to.” Knowing that the statement made makes anyone sound like an asshole, Rena brushes off the concern in favor of using it to remind herself that the game at hand doesn’t spare room for people that let their feelings get in the way of winning. “It’s not like I want to push people away, but if I’m going to be here for the next year, I need to remember what I’m up against.” Looking at Rena at trying to gage what the girl truly feels, Marlhy asks whether or not she would try to persuade Marlhy to leave the game if she had to. “It’s not like I hate you or anything, Mar… But I’m sure you’ve seen it happen all the time too” Rena begins, handing the girl the binoculars. “People go in to win, they start jelling together as a family and it impedes their better judgment. And in this fucking place, losing your better judgment can get people killed, and that’s not what I signed up for.” Disliking Rena’s outlook on the competition, Marlhy ultimately accepts that Rena’s coming from a genuine place, and not one harboring malicious intent. With the sun finally fully rising above the horizon, the two girls finally earn a few moments in the warm light, allowing it roll across their skin like warm water. “I’m not going to sabotage anyone or try to push them out of the game” Rena says, watching Marlhy turn towards her, less judgmental than she very well could have been. “I don’t want to jeopardize my place in the game or anyone else’s. But if I don’t keep reminding myself that this is a game, I’m gonna forget about it and it’s going to cost me everything” Rena concludes, watching Marlhy nod to her and place the binoculars to her face, staring out at the cape. | Not feeling like it to the phased skin, the sun above makes the baron wasteland feel like a sauna despite the temperature still being below freezing. To most, it would be a rare winter day with more sunlight than usual, but for the competitors in Barrow, it’s like an oasis just begging to be recognized as such. Beneath the sauna-like sunlight, Austin, Warren and Liz traverse through the near knee-deep snow in an effort to reach the long-vacated central residency. “Most of what’s left is probably stripped and pulled already” Warren calls out, making it clear that the producers cannot be trusted to make the game as easy as it would appear to be. “Everything we do is more difficult than it we thought it would be, so I wouldn’t expect this to be any different” the kid continues, earning a smirk from Austin. “Of course, they’re gonna do what they can to defy our expectations, but that doesn’t mean they thought everything through” Austin replies, reminding Warren that, regardless of what remains in the home, most of the wood-comprised homes can be burned with their materials alone. “Anything you find, literally anything, can and will be burned” Austin declares, making it clear that the group will not drop their group campfire tradition without a fight. “I’m fully on board with that!” Liz exclaims, fist-bumping Austin as Warren nods in compliance, giving in and letting his hopes rise just a slight amount. Fighting through the snow and refusing to acknowledge the cold after being exposed to it for long enough, the group fights through until a grouping of buildings can be spotted in the distance metaphorically calling their names. “Just over there, keep pushing!” Austin shouts, knowing the annoyance of lugging whatever they return to camp with, but comforted by the warmth it will bring everyone at the cape. Kicking up the snow beneath their feet and fighting their way through the fluffy snowfall, the trio finally reach the vacated lot and climb within the first abandoned shack front they can stumble across. Though not offering much warmth, the intact windows and isolated walls offer a good enough reprieve for the group to take a seat and get whatever snow they can out of their clothes. “It’s all still intact!” Warren shouts with enthusiasm, the group having forgotten about the aforementioned fear in the excitement of being freed from the tundra’s environments. “We got a fuckin’ break!” Liz exclaims, standing up and laying a firm high-five into both Warren and Austin before settling down on the couch. “Alright, let’s gather our bearings for a little bit. We’ll figure out a plan and take it from there” Austin states, laying out the groundwork and letting Warren and Liz get situated. A busy body, Austin deviates from the group, opting to check out the rest of the home, finding very little worth in the remnants. “I’m gonna go check out some of the other homes, keep the blood circulating, y’know?” Austin says, assuring the group that he’ll be back in a couple of minutes to put together the next few steps. Through the rear entry, Austin begins a walk through the group of homes, all scrunched together with some slots of space offering very little room to maneuver through. After few squeezes, Austin finds himself staring down a decrepit trailer with a broken front door, almost pleading for the man to avoid it and move on. As curiosity takes over and the reliance on instincts kicks in, Austin makes the slow ascent up the stairs and into the run down trailer cabin. Scattered around the room are what remains of the previous tenants, ranging from shattered plates and bowls to overturned furniture. Despite not noticing much out of place at first, Austin catches the sight of the sunlight above reflecting off of something in the corner of his eye. In the corner of the room, a kerosene lantern with a gold finish sits unharmed upon a rundown nightstand. “What are you doing here little guy?” Austin asks himself, walking over and picking it up, initially singing his hand on the heated golden finish. After managing to grab it by a cooler side, Austin realizes the distinct differences between the lantern and what remains of the remainder of the property it finds itself within. Trying to inspect the lamp, Austin notices a few tiny words engraved on its bottom. Despite the appearance of being nothing more than a manufacturing label, Austin takes a hard interest in the number “2012” at the very end. “I thought they said this place had been abandoned since the mid-90’s?” Austin asks himself, realizing the producer’s story of events doesn’t line up with the proof in his hands. Figuring this may not be the only piece of a bigger puzzle he needs to solve, Austin looks around the room, flipping furniture and looking through dormant papers in hopes of spotting something else out of the ordinary. “Damn it!” Austin mutters to himself, looking at the mess he further worsened without results worthy of the effort. Calling it a day on the search, Austin walks over to the front door to leave before looking back to the lantern and returning it to its original position. Once returned, Austin leaves the home and returns to the group, catching his breath and telling them of the plan. Once on the same page, the trio begin to start moving, and Austin keeps his findings secretive, choosing to withhold the information for now whilst he does his best to further inspect it later on. | “Miss us?” Tessa asks, knocking at the door and reuniting with Rena and Marlhy and taking a seat wherever one is available. “Find anything?” Len asks, resting against the couch and letting out a sigh of relief as the plush of the cushion makes up for the tension in his back. “We couldn’t find anything” Rena admits, “We looked everywhere but there was nothing to be found.” “No one came in the night” Marlhy adds in, watching the disappointment start to loom over Tessa’s face. “Not many would live out there without proper shelter, so unless he’s got a hut out there, he’s gone and he isn’t looking to come back.” With that declaration, Marlhy convinces herself that the future of this cabin lies in the decision of whether to take it for their own or not. “Well it’s not as clean-cut as that” Harper replies, reminding everyone that Barrow still falls under the jurisdiction of the United States. “If whoever owns this place comes back, this is still their cabin” the girl states, reminding everyone that this is still a game more than it is a test of survival of the fittest. “Until he comes back, though… This place belongs to us” Harper adds in, returning the hope to the group. “How do we know this isn’t another one of those challenges from the producers?” Len asks, noting that this could all be something for them to figure out. “If this was one of their side missions, the Neptune Box would’ve gone off by now” Rena states, “if this was the work of the producers, they’ve would’ve left something for us to figure out.” Looking around the room, it takes Rena very little time to find someone thinking on the same wave length when Tessa speaks up. “The only reason the producers have side missions is so the whole game won’t be us just trying to do nothing and survive. They know some people will start going out of their way to solve the side missions, so it keeps the story moving along and makes for good TV.” “So trekking around a lake four times doesn’t make for good TV?” Len asks, only to watch Marlhy walk towards the front door and open it, waving her hand around the air as if to point something out. “No cameras, no microphones” Marlhy declares, “they didn’t mean for us to find this place. They had to vacate it before they started influencing the game.” “Then why would they let themselves get caught?” Harper asks, a result of her trying to recall loose ends to tie up. “My theory is that this place was for one of the producers to keep an eye out for us from afar. I don’t think he expected us to notice the light from so far out, and when we did, his cover was blown” Rena says, pulling the group together. “Listen, this place has running water, a hot shower, solar electricity and I’m pretty sure there’s a boat in that closet over there” Marlhy exclaims, telling the group that this place can be their safe house over the next year. “I’m on board already” Rena says, finding Harper coming to an alliance with the pair that have spent more time in the home than anyone else at the cape. Looking to the man resting on the couch, Rena patiently awaits his response, excited once he stands up and walks over to the two, bumping fists with them in place of a handshake. “Tessa?” Rena asks, watching the woman tuck her hands in her pockets and come to an agreement, keeping the home in possession of Neptune City. “Now for the main course” Rena begins, pointing the four towards the locked door off to the side of the room. Walking over to it and pulling on the handle to show everyone the way it’s been locked, Rena tells the four that there is something inside to help them through the game. “It’s locked from the inside, so whatever’s on the other side must have been important to whoever was here” Rena says, correcting Harper when she suggests it to be an empty basement. “No, I was thinking of something more along the lines of an emergency failsafe” Rena says, suggesting that whatever remains beneath is crucial towards the game. “If we get in there, we might have a better idea of what the producers are thinking with this thing” Tessa suggests, standing behind an effort to gain access to whatever rests beyond their sight. | Still sorting through the rubble of what remains left behind, Liz gathers the lighter objects such as wooden boards and plastic containers into big garbage bags. “All of this junk and not much of it can be carried across the fucking tundra” Liz mutters to herself, angrily toppling heavier furniture over as they litter her way. Sifting through old newspapers and plastic bags, Liz gets the feeling that something is out of place, but can’t figure out how to put her finger on it. Scanning the room of the mostly-intact trailer cabin, Liz pokes her head into one doorway after another hoping to find something that doesn’t look like it belongs. “You good in there, Liz?” Warren asks, pounding on the trailer door to make sure the slamming of furniture was just that. “Yeah, just looking for something I could’ve missed’ Liz replies, turning into a darkened room and becoming mesmerized by it. Entering through the doorway and feeling the air grow colder as she walks further on, her eyes grow accustomed to the lack of light well enough for her to notice something bright at the end of the room. Seemingly muffled by something in front of it, Liz walks carefully, making sure to avoid tripping over anything laying dormant in the middle of the floor before reaching out. The sensation of something soft and flimsy allows Liz to assume it to be a blanket, allowing her to reach for a corner and yank it down, allowing a flood of light to bathe the room like never before, blinding Liz for a few seconds. “Holy shit!” Liz shouts as her vision returns in full, scared shitless by the sight of Warren looking in at her, having taken notice of the blanket coming down as he walked by. “What’s up with you?” Warren asks, jokingly shaking his head and walking off with a smile as he lugs a bedsheet or flammables over his shoulder. “Apparently a lot” Liz mutters to herself, regaining herself before returning to the interior of the home and walking into the living room. “Okay, Warren. Knock it off” Liz says humorously, watching the figure in the living room staring out at the front door. “Warren, fuck off” Liz says, awaiting a response that still fails to come as the figure remains stood, idley staring at the door. “Warren!” Liz calls out again, this time louder than before to no response, beginning to worry the girl, who’s now begun to grow anxious. “This isn’t funny, Warren!” Liz shouts, walking towards the figure with the intention of pushing him away, only to stop in her tracks with the sound of Warren’s voice shouting back to her from a few trailers away. “Warren!?” Liz shouts, this time louder than any other call she’s made before awaiting a response from either the figure before her or the voice across the camp. Without hesitation, Warren asks, “What!?” from a few homes away, his voice distinct and clear enough for Liz to realize that Warren is not the man standing in front of her. With her eyes bolted open, knowing the head of the figure before her does not match that of Austin’s, Liz takes her chances in hoping that the figure did not hear her before hurrying for the opening in the previously-blackened room and leaping from it, leaving behind her collectibles. “Warren!” Liz calls out, running away from the trailer as if she were Wiley Coyote before rushing into the young man and hurrying into his arms. Curious as to why she was calling him, Warren asks what she needed before Liz tells him that they are not alone at the camp. “What do you mean there’s someone in there?” Warren asks, splitting his focus between Liz and the trailer in which she had just come from as the girl does her best to adequately explain herself in spite of the fear rumbling through her body. “Stay here, alright?” Warren demands, calling for Austin and telling him to look after Liz as he storms towards the trailer. Refusing to take the front entry, Warren climbs through the window and charges out of the room. “Hey motherfucker, what are you-” Warren shouts, fully expecting to storm at some random freak only to find an empty living room with nothing other than Liz’s bag of collectibles dropped into the corner of the room. Calling for the girl, Warren shouts as loud as he can that there’s no one inside the trailer, baffling the girl and surprising Austin, who doesn’t take to the idea that Liz would be on to fain something as outlandish as this. Cautiously returning to the trailer, Liz is followed by Austin, walking around the corner to the front door of the cabin and joining Warren in his search for the mysterious wanderer. “There’s no one here, Liz” Warren repeats, looking in each room and guiding his flashlight around to no use. “I swear” Liz says, pleading with the two to believe her when she says that he was standing directly in front of the doorway. “Calm down, we’re not calling you a liar” Austin says, putting his arm on Liz’ shoulder in an effort to calm her down as he looks to Warren for any sign of this figure. “As much as I’d like to say it looks like someone was here, all I can see is Liz’ trash bag” Warren says, admitting that the signs of a mystery man don’t exist. “I’m telling you, he was here!” Liz says, standing in the place of the silent figure pleading with the two to believe her. “Liz, we’re not calling you a liar!” Austin say as Warren pulls Liz into his arms to calm her down, noticing the pupils in her eyes dilated, clearly indicating her fear. “We’re just looking for something to say he was here before we go back to the camp. They won’t believe something on face value without a reason, alright?” Austin asks, assuring the girl that they know she’s telling the truth. “Let’s head back with what we have and we’ll come back tomorrow to look for him, okay?” Austin says, leading the pair out of the trailer with Liz’ findings draped over his shoulder. Both men knowing the fear in Liz’ eyes, voice and movements to be genuine, Austin and Warren look to each other with widened eyes, telling each other that they need to figure out what Liz saw before it comes back to bite them. Fighting through the snow to return home as the sun begins to set, the trio depart the trailer park and leave behind whatever can be left to return for another day. Scattered in no particular order, as if they were just dumped in their spot and abandoned, the trailers sit lifeless and empty, just waiting for a reason to be put to use. Amidst the messy order of trailers, one broken and battered one stands out from the rest when seen directly above, sticking out like a red button in a sea of blue lights. Within the broken trailer, the sound of clicking resonates and the flicker of a flame burns from within it, fighting off the darkness of the night sky as the moonlight engulfs the seemingly vacated tundra of Barrow. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed