CYOA Page 150
Sep. 12th, 2013 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You want to wander around and look at everything, you want to slide down a slide... but you just can't betray Joel's trust like that. So you actually do what you said you were going to do, and let your imagination do the wandering and the sliding.
By the time Joel gets back, which you assume is about five minutes later, you're feeling pretty fucking melancholy.
"What's wrong?" he asks you.
You shrug, glancing around at the nearby slides. "Nothing, just... you know. Thinking about stuff."
"What stuff?"
You look at him soberly. "You and Sarah, mostly."
His eyes used to glaze over when you mentioned Sarah... like he was donning some kind of protective lens or something to keep you from seeing too much. Seeing his pain. But that hasn't happened in a while now. Sometimes he seems to like talking about her. And his eyes go all soft... like they are now.
"Oh," is all he says, though.
"Like... how do you do alllll the stuff you did with her... the parks and the soccer games and movies... plus all the regular stuff, like cooking her dinner and tucking her in every night... and then just..." You make a vague gesture.
"I don' know how I did it. I just... did. 'Cause I had to." He draws you in for a hug. "But havin' you with me... definitely helps."
You used to wonder if maybe Joel was trying to use you as some kind of poor substitute for Sarah... but you always came to the same conclusion: no, he's not. He's never given you any indication of that. You've decided that you can fill a void in someone's life without actually replacing the person who used to occupy it. ...And now I'm also filling a different void that I'm SURE Sarah never occupied! "She was lucky to have you for a dad."
"Uhhhh... I don' know about that. I wasn't around as much as I should've been."
"Because you had to work. And... you didn't know." You've tried to imagine how that must have felt, too... for all the survivors back then. You can't, really, but the closest you've come is remembering a time when you felt completely safe and happy (a time with Joel), and then imagined having it ripped away from you, leaving you with nothing (no more Joel).
"It's real sweet of you... to be thinkin' about that," Joel's saying now. "But try to put it out of your mind for now, all right? We have to check out the outside park an'... maybe settle here for the night, if you want. On one o' them boats."
"Okay." You kiss him softly before letting go, and the two of you head out.
Everything checked out just fine. It really did. It's not like you and Joel did a sloppy job searching the rest of the premises... the outside park, the boardwalk bridge, the harbor... there was no one around. Joel felt like some of the boats did have a lived-in feeling about them, but that could easily be attributed to the hunters who recently stayed there. Many of the places you've passed through have given off those vibes... people venture out and never return, or they abandon one place in favor of another, sometimes not by choice and with little to no warning. You found some food, but no game, no fish... nothing fresh.
Joel wanted to find somewhere else to stay. Somewhere less conspicuous, is how he put it. But you wanted to stay. And you, being you, managed to get your way. Again, if he had felt strongly enough about leaving, he would've insisted on it, no matter how charming you were, so there really was no threat... no obvious threat, to speak of...
Still. Any which way you want to spin this, there's no denying it: it's because of you that you're still at the park, which means what happens next is all your fault.
You've been trying to get Joel to relax with you in the cozy quarters of your chosen boat, but he's antsy. Keeps deciding to move the horses to a different spot. And if it's not the horses, he's dicking around with the bags, which of course don't fit in that tiny bedroom so they have to be stored elsewhere.
It's nearly twilight now, and you're waiting for him to return from the water park (where the horses originally were going to spend the night, but Joel thought they were too far away; then he decided he did actually prefer them to be closed in behind a gate that squeaks so loud it's more like a screech). You're not just waiting -- you're restocking your bags with canned goods, on a boat three down from yours. You hear the screech of the gate -- yep, it's loud enough! -- and start lugging the two bags out... ugh, maybe we shouldn't take all this. I can probably just leave these here... there's cabin room in this one. Now, how long will it be before Joel decides he can't stand the possibility of someone stealing the horses from the OTHER side of the park, avoiding this back one altogether? Or maybe Joel can hear BOTH gates, with his crazy-good--
You can see the gate now... it's open. And Joel's nowhere in sight. He should be back by now!
Wait... do I hear something... ? It sounds like it's coming from beyond the bridge, in the woodsy area. You can't even say what it is, just... people noises, possibly... And if I heard something, I'm sure Joel--
A gunshot rings out!
And it's not from that direction -- it's from inside the water park!
Joel must still be in there!
"Joel!" you scream as you run toward the open gate. Oh please please PLEASE let him be the one who fired that!
Your prayer is answered (if only momentarily): Joel comes flying out, gun in hand, no body parts mangled or missing HE'S OKAY THANK GOD-- he calls to you-- you slow down enough to pull your gun--
But now there's another man -- he's on this side of the bridge, angry, yelling--
--suddenly not running-- he's shooting-- at the exact same time Joel turns and shoots!
You're right there with him now, both of you out in the open, no cover to dive to -- all of this is happening so fast, but by some freaky phenomenon that defies explanation, time stops in that split second when you realize that the hunter's bullet is about to hit Joel!
If you leap in front of him and take the bullet (just like Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, which you guys totally watched together one day), turn to page 226.
If you're frozen in horror, turn to page 235.
If the bullet somehow miraculously misses you both and you live happily ever after, turn to page 239.
Carlos
Date: 2021-02-21 04:40 am (UTC)RE: Carlos
Date: 2021-02-21 04:50 am (UTC)RE: Carlos
Date: 2021-02-23 12:19 pm (UTC)