#codecx

even confined behind the hatched fence of the animal pen, the guide, in his khakis — as alien to natalie in themselves as his presence, well - fed and rested and armed, and with a route out of the wild purgatory they'd struggled to survive — cut a hulking figure several heads taller than any one of his captors. quiet ire seemed to radiate off him: an air of unpredictability that kept her in a state of tight - jawed wariness, and her wrist tense against the knife she'd held sheathed in the sleeve of her jacket. a contingency tool, she'd decided, while she'd gathered a handful of food for the prisoners — one she'd never intended on using.

" you're gonna want to take a step back, " nat warned, low, and on the near, dangerous fringes of conspiratorial.

it'd take more than a squaring - off amongst the waterfowl and rabbits to intimidate her into any kind of submission. ( it'd take more than a man like him to scare her. ) even so, with her back against the dilapidated overhang of the shelter that'd held coach until his dying breath, the same spot in which she'd stayed 'til the sun had risen, on her knees, in a mess of hay and rot and blood, she almost found herself missing the familiar weight of her hunting rifle.

❝  You  really  don't  have  to  be  so  rude.   Do  …  Do  you  need  a  snack?  ❞ 

" you go. " those two words slipped out of natalie's blue - tinged lips quiet and forlorn, the middle of her exhale broken on the way out by a razor - thread of regret. no, she wanted to plead. the margins for a quick escape were minuscule; with just the one leg, and the density of fallen snow up to his only knee, he'd have to leave now. only she had no place with him, away from the rituals the others had constructed to enact their necessary violence.

not while javi lay on the chopping block they'd knocked together out by the firepit, dull - eyed and frozen to the touch. ( not when it should have been her, naked and bleeding out into the snow from her throat like wild game. )

" i thought i told you i didn't want to see you. " jackie snaps back, keeping her eyes trained on the books she's hauling out of her locker. it's another one of their offs in their constant cycle of push and pull, and his presence grates at her already frayed nerves. shauna's being weird again, and her mother is being ... well, her mother, and she's barely passing french, and coach is running her ragged on the field, and—

CRASH!

the textbooks she was ripping out of her locker slipped out of her grasp and slammed into the ground. the sound startles her into dropping her other two textbooks and a folder, papers flying across the hallway as all eyes turn to look at her.

" FUCK. "