CYOA Page 218
Sep. 11th, 2013 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12As much as you'd love to hear Tripp's account of what happened that day, you really need to find Joel. If he thinks you didn't open that door for him due to something bad happening to you, who knows what he might do? Besides, you were getting a distinctly bad vibe off Tripp. You can't wait to tell Joel; gut feelings are TOTALLY a masterable skill!
You peek around the curtain... and you don't see which way they went. You'll just have to be extra careful as you creep around, looking for an exit that's not blocked. You can't go back to the stairwell you already tried... and while you're kind of curious about the elevator you just passed, you don't want to try it out without Joel. Would Tripp be more likely to take the elevator, though, or the stairs? Wouldn't you have heard it ding if they took the elevator? Maybe you weren't close enough.
...but you think you were. You decide to try the elevator.
You know how elevators work: you have to 'call' it by hitting one of the arrow buttons. You hit the 'down' button, and it lights up! Cool! You wait there impatiently, fidgeting, your gaze darting around... Stop it, Ellie! You look very guilty! You didn't DO anything...
You wait... and wait... and fucking wait... What the fuck is taking so long?
In fact, it takes so long that not only are you starting to think it doesn't actually work, but you hear voices down the hall.
"She's right in there. I'll have her come out, and then..."
"I'll hold her still so you can knock her out."
"Great. I'm ready."
The first one sounded like Tripp... the other two are unfamiliar. So one of them's going to hold me while the other one beats me up? ...WHY?!?! There's no doubt now that you did the right thing in running off!
The elevator dings. Fuck! Should I get in? The door hasn't opened, though. If it doesn't open in two seconds--
The door opens, revealing an empty elevator. You rush in and hit the lowest button, which you assume is for the first floor, although it has a "G" on it, not a "1." You hit it like ten times before the doors finally hiss shut -- and not a moment too soon! You just heard some indistinct raised voices, and you're sure they discovered that you're not where Tripp left you. "Go go go go go," you mutter to the elevator -- in case it can hear you and decides to go faster? Your stomach feels a little weird and you somehow know you're going down, even though you can't see anything in this box of a room...
They must've heard the ding -- and they probably know I'm in here! Can they call it back to them before I get out?! You see a red "stop" button... you can try pressing that if you feel like you're changing direction. What good would that do? I'd be stuck in here... maybe it would give Joel enough time to... what? Somehow figure out that I'm in danger because Tripp betrayed me, and then magically FIND me... while you're stuck in an elevator where he can't see you?! But when you think about it... that wouldn't be very fair of the elevator to bail on you, would it? You got here first. It should take you where you want to go before it goes back to them. Isn't that why it takes forever when you're the one waiting for it? Maybe they know some trick to make it do that, though! Some kind of... insider override?
You feel it stop moving, and you hold your breath, not knowing if you're going to start moving up or what...
The doors part, and you practically fly out of them -- and then stop short as you remember that you can't just escape; you have to find Joel first! Would he still be on this floor? You accost the first person you see: a young-ish woman who doesn't look like a doctor or anything in her plain, not-lab-coated attire. "Excuse me -- have you seen a man come by here? He's like... tall... but not that tall, really, just taller than me... kind of old... black-and-gray hair... probably looking pissed off, except he's--"
"Ellie!" --you hear Joel's voice!
"Oh! Never mind!" you tell the bewildered-looking woman who probably couldn't have helped you anyway. You see him coming from the direction of the stairwell you had originally tried to use. You rush over to him, take his hand, and yank him toward the exit door (where you were supposed to meet him).
"What--"
"I'll explain later -- we need to get out of here!"
He lets you tug him out the door... lets it close behind him, which means you can't go back in unless you want to sneak over that barricade again -- but he seems to get that you won't want to do that. He does stop you on the way to the parking garage, though. "Hang on -- we've gotta pick up our shit from this trash can over here..."
No wonder you didn't see your backpack! Joel stashed it along with all of his weapons in one of those bins that has a push flap on the lid, totally out of sight. -Except it wasn't ALL of his weapons... he went back for one through that back door -- a small one that he could hide under his shirt, like you were doing.
"You wanna tell me what happened now?" he asks while he gears up.
"I'll tell you on the way! Hurry up!" You help him as best you can (mostly by stuffing more guns in your pants), then tug him by the arm toward the parking garage, where you left the horses. He doesn't argue or resist, and when you start running, he runs with you... so you actually don't even start to tell him until you're safely under cover, in the parking garage.
You don't even have to finish your story before Joel looks concerned enough to get the hell out of there. "Come on, let's get movin'." He mounts his horse.
"Uh... I didn't even tell you what happened!"
"You told me enough. Let's go."
You told him about the blocked stairwell, of course (which he already knew about, having run into it himself from the other end), but as for the part that would explain why you're freaking out, you only got up to the point where you recognized Tripp as a Firefly you'd seen with Marlene back in Boston. That's it! Nothing about your conversation, or what you overheard later. "But--"
"I trust your instincts. Now come on!" he urges you again.
You mount your horse and follow him to the down ramp. "This is a first. I really thought you might tell me I'm being paranoid. Can I finish telling you--"
"Wait 'til we get out of this area. Stay alert."
You make it out of the area just fine, pushing the horses to gallop for a good stretch, then trot... until you get back into the more sprawled-out, woodsy suburbs.
"How far are we gonna go?" you ask him once your horses are merely walking again. "I mean... we still have to find Danny, right? Or did you--"
"No -- let's take a little break here an' talk about it," he suggests.
'Here' being a pretty dense patch of trees, far off the highway. You feel like it's pretty safe... and Joel must, too, obviously. You tell him what Tripp said to you, how he asked you to wait, how you got the heebie-jeebies after waiting only like five seconds, how you left and then overheard them while you were waiting down the hall for the elevator.
"That was real smart, runnin' away when your gut told you to," Joel praises you.
...and when I really did want to stay and hear what he promised to tell me? you mentally add. You didn't expect Joel to just offer up that information himself after hearing that part, but... you're going to have to ask him directly at some point. "Why would they want to hurt me? That's what I don't get."
He gives you a sad sort of smile. "I don't get how anyone who knows you would wanna hurt you. But... you know there are bad people in the world who don't think like you an' me."
"Yeah, but... Tripp is a Firefly. They're the good guys."
"You can't assume that. People are people: there's good ones an' bad ones in every group."
You snort. "You never say that about a group of hunters."
"...Except hunters."
"But you were one of the good ones!"
"Not when I was one, I wasn't. It's hard to be... a ruthless bastard, killin' indiscriminately, while still carin' about other people." He frowns. "I don't like it that this guy knows you from Salt Lake City. That ain't good."
"Well... I left, so what's he gonna do about it now?"
"He told... at least two other people there? An' who knows how many others. We can't go back in there."
You figured as much. "Okay. But what about Danny? You didn't find out if he's there?"
"No. The guard said he didn' know anyone's names."
"...And then he just let you wander around looking for him?"
"He didn't want to. He was tryin' to call someone over on his radio... someone to help me... but I told him it wasn't necessary, I'd go find out myself -- then I left real quick-like, so he couldn't stop me. He didn't seem happy about it, but I guess he reckoned it wasn't worth leavin' his post to chase after an unarmed man. As for Danny... I don' know... maybe we can think of another way to find out if he's in there."
"So we're not going home yet. You still want to look for him."
Joel sighs. "I don' know what I wanna do yet. You ain't settin' foot in that place again, though, that's for sure."
"...And you're not either. Right?"
"...I don' know."
"You're not going in without me!" you cry. "They know about you, too, remember? He asked about you! Who knows what--"
"Ellie, I can't just... if someone knows about your condition, they're a threat to you."
"Not true. Tommy and Maria know. You know."
He just gives you a look.
"Okay, look -- we left. Right? That's it. They'll look around, they won't find me, they'll be like 'oh well' and go on with their lives."
Joel snorts. "I wish we could be sure of that. But there's also the chance they'll pursue it. That trippy dude remembered--"
"His name is Tripp," you interject, chuckling.
"...The guy with the weird name remembered your name. The guard knows I was there lookin' for someone. They start askin' around, mention it to Danny or his mom, realize we live in Jackson..."
"That's a bunch of 'if's though, isn't it?"
But Joel continues the thread. "...they send people down there to check it out... try an' seize you..."
"Seize me?"
"Maybe we shouldn't go back to Jackson," he concludes.
"What?!"
"For a bit. Until--"
"Joel -- this is crazy. Didn't people in Salt Lake City know where we were going when we left? You weren't freaking out then."
"I'm just thinkin' out loud. Sorry, kiddo... didn't mean to scare you."
"You're not... scaring me..." ...Well, he KIND of is? You know he knows more about this than he's letting on. "If you could just tell me what's scaring you so bad..."
"You have to ask? You just told me that guy acted like he was your friend, then turned around an' tried to hurt you."
"That doesn't mean we can't go home!"
"Maybe it means exactly that."
"Joel--"
"Maybe we should do a little recon before goin' back."
"Recon? Pfff," you scoff. "How are we gonna do that if neither one of us can go inside? Put on disguises?"
He doesn't answer; he seems to be considering this!
"I was kidding." You can't believe you have to tell him that.
"If I shaved... I reckon I'd have to shave my head, too, unless we by some chance happen to find a decent wig layin' around... change my clothes, ditch the accent--"
"Oh my God, you can't be serious!"
"...It prob'ly wouldn't work."
"Fuck no it wouldn't work!"
He looks a little offended. "Don't be so sure. If I put my mind to it, I bet I could--"
"Fine -- I'm sure you'd be brilliant," you groan. "How are you gonna shave your head? They use a special electric razor for that back home."
"Well... maybe not shave it all the way, but if I could just borrow your knife, I--"
"No! You'd look like a freak!"
He laughs. "Thanks a lot."
"No offense, just... you're not a hairless kind of guy. And how the fuck would you explain that to everyone back home?"
"Midlife crisis," he says with a shrug. "It happens."
"...Shaving your hair is a crisis?"
"A midlife crisis is... when you start freakin' out about gettin' old," he explains. "Sometimes people do weird things to... try an' deal with it. Things that make 'em feel younger somehow."
"Um... okay. Don't men lose their hair when they get old?" ...which means Joel ISN'T really that old yet! He still has lots of hair! "How would getting rid of your hair make you feel young?"
"Maybe... if I didn't like seein' all the gray?"
"Then you'd have to do your eyebrows, too," you tease him. "Super freaky."
"It was just an idea. I'll come up with somethin' else."
"Aww -- I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. If you--"
"It's fine," he chuckles. "It probl'y wouldn't've worked anyhow. Maybe we can... recruit someone to spy for us. Or do a stakeout."
"A stakeout!" That's a movie thing! "You mean like spy on the hospital from across the street or something?"
"From one o' them buildings over there, yeah... we've got binoculars... assumin' Danny comes out for fresh air once in a while, we'd at least find out if he's there. Unless he props open one of the back doors or somethin'... Anyone starts headin' out toward Jackson, we could follow 'em... interrogate 'em..."
"We should do that," you decide.
"It'd be pretty damn boring," he warns you. "Sittin' around doin' nothin' for long stretches of time..."
"But we'd be doing something. Something that's not running away." Too bad you wasted all that time riding all the way out of town just now, only to go right back!
"All right then. But we gotta be real careful not to be seen. We'll have to hide the horses since we won't be able to watch 'em for a while."
"Fine. Whatever. Let's go!"
And maybe while you're waiting around 'doing nothing' for those 'long stretches of time,' you can persuade Joel to finally tell you what the fuck happened in Salt Lake City last year.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2021-01-01 05:17 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2021-01-01 07:38 pm (UTC)