I don't remember where I heard this quote, but "The undeserving maintain power by promoting Hysteria." Frank Herbert. It's been so long since I've heard that. So long, in fact, I'm surprised I even remember it at all. But now. Being out here. Not only do I understand it. I see it in an entirely new light.
******
"Mckenzie! Mckenzie! Where are you! Babe! Can you hear me!?"
It had been three days. Three days since the night, Mckenzie never returned to camp. Three days of everyone assigning blame, yelling, and screaming at one another, three days of these people doing everything but going out to look for her!
"Mckenzie! We're right here! Mckenzie!"
Aliya and Lyle trudged through the unexplored path, nothing but trees, and more trees for miles. Aliya had known that Lyle would help her search and seemed to be the only person who besides herself, who actually cared about the whereabouts of her best friend. Not even that bastard Anthony was lifting a finger to help the search, but she didn't know why that surprised her. He never saw her as anything but a tool for his amusement in the first place, but what really made her mad was when she asked him to help, more like begged him to, all he did was shrug and ask "why should I?" She wanted to hit him so bad right there and then, but that would have just delayed the search, so she had left without another word.
"Mckenzie!" She shouted. It was getting more difficult to shout now that they had been out here for the past couple of hours.
"I think we should stop for the day. We've covered a lot of ground, and getting ourselves lost won't help anyone." Lyle said, pulling the knife given to them by Angelo (his only contribution). It had been for protection, but they had been using it to mark trees, so they didn't get lost.
"There's still light out; we've got time." Aliya countered.
"Not much, and we won't be able to see the marks at night, and I'm worried about wolves. Casper said he heard one close to camp last night while he was taking a leak."
"So what? Huh? Am I supposed to just give up like everybody else?" She cried.
"Hey," he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around so that she was now facing him. She got lost for a moment in his big, soft brown eyes and had to force herself to look away, praying that she wasn't blushing.
He didn't seem to notice. "Nobodies giving up Ally. Nobody is more committed to finding her than I am, but getting ourselves killed won't help anyone. We need to go back, ok?"
"You're not playing fair." She muttered.
He smiled, clearly taking the look on her face the wrong way. "I know that we're going to find her. I feel it in my gut, so there's nothing to worry about, but we have to go back for now. Ok?"
She nodded once, making sure to avoid meeting his eyes.
"Good." He said, walking over and began carving the heart with the initials L + M they had been using as marks.
"Where are you, Mckenzie?"
******
Danny's osteoarthritis was flaring up today, and he cursed Angelo for making him leave the "comfort" of his blanket bed to talk inside the plane. Angelo and that girl he was always talking with had decorated the inside with a bunch of flowers and any pictures or momentos they could find of the passengers. The big bond fire to honor the dead or whatever dumb superstitious crap they had planned was planned for tonight, and to his disliking, everyone had to attend. Danny wasn't the type to attack other peoples faith. People believe what they believe. He just liked to be left out of it.
Angelo was admiring his work as Danny entered.
"Casper said you needed to talk?" Danny rubbed his hip as if it would help soothe the pain.
Angelo turned and faced him. "I am no good with, how do you say.. beating the bush?"
Danny gasped. "What?"
"You know.. I do not like talking around subjects. I like to get to the point, so I wanted to ask, would you be my second?"
Danny lifted an eyebrow in question. "Your second what?"
"In command."
Danny eyed him suspiciously. "Why me? We haven't even spoken more than a few times, I'm sure there is someone more suited for the position, like Casper."
Angelo shook his head. "No. I have given Casper another role. I need you."
"Well, too bad, find somebody else, I'm perfectly fine with how things are right now." Danny scowled, his arthritis flaring.
Angelo shook his head again. "No, there is nobody better. It has to be you."
The conviction in the way he said it made Danny take a step back. "Why?"
"I need someone with experience, and who isn't swayed by their.. emotional attachment to these kids. They all know each other, so it'll make it impossible for them to be.. objective when tough decisions must be made."
He has a point, thought Danny.
"Not only that, but I need somebody I can trust, and I've been watching you. You have yet to bond with anyone, making you a, how do you say, free agent." Angelo smiled, mischief dancing in his eyes.
Danny had to admit he had completely misread the man. When he had first usurped the title of leader from the other bozo, he had thought the man was just a good looking idiot who just had the luck of circumstance on his side, but it turns out, he was a lot more devious than he looked.
Danny sighed. "What would I have to do as your second in command?"
Now Angelo's smile was a victorious one. "So you accept?"
"Yes, I accept."
"Great! The first thing I want you to do is examine the mad woman.. I think her name is Sandra. I want you and doctor Harper to examine her mental state to determine if she is more of a liability than an asset."
******
"Thank you for coming with me." Doddie said, still kicking herself for needing help.
"It's no trouble at all." Said Harper from behind a tree to Doddie's right. "Trust me, I completely understand. Women are stronger together, especially if one has their panties down."
"Yeah." Doddie faked a laugh. She wasn't sure what all the boys saw in Harper. She was a weirdo, and she was always saying slutty things.
She was, however, the only other female at camp currently (besides the freak who they kept at the edge of camp), and her bladder was not going to wait for Care to come back from berry picking to explode, so here they were.
She dropped her pants, followed by her panties, and squatted down, finally relieving herself, as she stared into the quiet of the forest ahead.
Crunch!
Doddie almost jumped out of her skin. What the fuck was that! It sounded like somebody had stepped on a branch.
"H. Hello? Mckenzie? Is. Is that you?" She asked, voice hardly audible.
The wind began to blow, and she could swear that somebody...
"How's it going!"
Again, Doddie's heart almost packed up and skipped town.
"Don't do that." She hissed at Harper.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
"I wasn't scared, just.. don't do that." Doddie said, lifting her panties back over her ankles and up her legs. "I'm done." She pulled up her pants but against her better judgment stopped herself from retreating to safety. She looked to where she had heard the noise, and even though nothing was there, and the forest had returned to its eerie silence. She still felt that pants wetting feeling she had before Harper had called out to her.
It felt as if someone was out there. Watching her.
******
Carrie sat at the edge of camp, doodling a bunch of tree spirits as the remaining of her watch came to an end. She usually never took old lady watch (mostly because the old lady gave her the creeps), but she had woke up with a headache that morning, and Angelo was busy with leader stuff, so after returning from berry picking, she had taken the notepad and the glitter gel pens Doddie had brought along, and taken the first shift she could relieving Tyler of his duty freeing him to stalk and kill another one of the girls.
She examined her work and was satisfied with the spirits she had drawn and moved on to coloring them, trying with no luck to forget about her suspicions, but it was a really big coincidence that Mckenzie had went missing at the same time that nobody knew Tyler's whereabouts, and he came back with a cut on his forearm that he blamed on a fall. He had time and means, seeing as he had the hunters knife that they had discovered in one of the dead passengers' luggage.
"Thank god for TSA, I definitely feel safe." She scoffed, furiously coloring the rain spirit she had named Carlette Marino.
The only thing Carrie couldn't explain was why? Why kill her? Did they have some kind of relationship that no one knew about? She didn't know, but she wasn't the only person who thought he was acting suspicious. Angelo was on her side and was having him watched.
She stopped drawing as her body warmed; she really hoped that Angelo couldn't tell the effect he had on her. Even thinking about him gave her an itch in places that hadn't been scratched in too long and being near him...
"Did you hear me?"
She jumped and whipped around, ready to claw and bite the threat.
"It's only me." Said the boy Doddie had told her about... Taz..per.. Casper! His hands were in the air, and she all of a sudden felt stupid for her reaction.
"Don't you know not to sneak up on a lady?" Carrie hissed, heart rate returning to normal.
"I did announce myself," he shrugged, "You must've not heard."
"Oh. What do you want?"
He pointed to his wrist like there was a watch there. "Time to switch."
"Oh, yeah," she laughed nervously as she began picking up the pens she had dropped, "I'm sorry, lost track of time."
"Here, let me help." He said, bending down and picking up the blue she had been using before she could tell him off. "Hey, your Doddie's friend, right?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yep."
"Cool, explains why you're so talented."
She stopped and looked up at him. "Why?"
He cocked his head, clearly confused by the question.
She sighed exasperated by him already. "Why does my being friends with Doddie explain how I'm talented?"
"Oh." He refocused his attention to the fallen pens. "I don't know. I just wanted an excuse to keep talking to you."
She was taken aback. Doddie had talked like he had a crush on her, so why was he flirting with her best friend, he had to know that Carrie would tell her as soon as she saw Doddie that evening.. unless this was apart of some kind of plan.
"You want to talk to me? About what?" She asked playing along.
He looked up, but it wasn't him anymore. He was.. her! But her face... it was twisted and bleeding!
"Mckenzie!" It shouted in a demonic voice.
Her eyes flew open, and there stood Casper, an inch away from her.
"Get away from me!" She lashed out, swiping at his face. He leaped back hands in the air once again.
"Aye, hold up. I was just trying to wake you, I swear no funny business."
Her heart was racing, and it was hard to think straight. What the hell kind of dream was that.
"Are. Are you ok?" He asked, taking a step forward.
She held up her hand, stopping his advance. "I'm fine, thanks." She said, turning back towards camp and without another word sprinted towards it. She didn't care how busy he was. She was going to see Angelo.
******
"Hey man, we should start heading back soon, or we won't make it in time to catch the bonfire." Said Josh Banner, launching a rock into a tree. "Nice."
Anthony had to count to ten before responding. "Sure, man." He drawled, looking around for a tree that would give him a good vantage point. "But before we go, I'm gonna go and check from above."
Anthony hated this pairing. In all honesty, he hated that he was being forced to be a part of this lame ass search party at all, but whenever his pops was around and out of jail for the few days he could go without getting into trouble he'd always say, "You've gotta pay your way. You're not a baby anymore. You're a man, and nobody is going to put up with a man who doesn't pay his." So he had decided not to fight that pedophile Angelo when he told him that he and this idiot tossing rocks at trees (which had to be some kind of symbolism for the morons life), that they'd be the two in charge of finding safe drinking water and shelter last night.
Josh stopped tossing rocks and spat dangerously close to Anthony's shoes.
"You think you're better than me, emo?"
Great, now the idiot was mad. "Nope, just don't call me boy." Anthony said, meeting his challenge.
Josh took a step forward, and Anthony made a show out of tapping the pocket knife he had snuck on board.
"Just go climb your tree freak."
Anthony smiled. People like Josh always wanted to pick on the smaller guys, but as soon as it was a fair fight, they always became cowards. Pathetic.
He turned away from their staring match and strode for the tree that he determined had the thickest branches and would give him the best vantage point.
Something small and suspiciously pebble like collided hard with his shoulder, and he yelped in pain.
"My bad, but you shouldn't be walking in the way of my rock."
Anthony whipped out the knife, flicking its blade open, and took a menacing step back towards Josh, who threw up his hands in surrender, but he was also snickering.
"Ok psycho, I said I was sorry it won't happen again."
Anthony counted down from ten in his head once again. If everyone didn't know that he and this idiot had been assigned this task together, he'd actually consider killing the moron, or at least maiming him.
He flipped the blade shut and put it back into his pocket before continuing to the tree. He grabbed onto the lowest hanging branch and lifted himself up. It held just as expected, and so did the rest.
He made it about halfway up before he spotted it. Water.
Not just some little stream, neither. It was a lake!
He was so excited that he forgot about the morons earlier transgressions, smiled, and shouted down at him.
"We've gotta get back to camp!"
******
"Hey there. Um. You ok?" Devon asked the clearly upset Carrie.
She gave him a look to piss off. He ignored it. "What happened? Did someone steal your underwear, too?"
"What?"
"I was trying to be funny it's nothing."
She eyed him suspiciously but returned to sulking without a word. They were currently outside of the tent that the camp leader, Angelo, had made for himself. She was sitting next to it, most likely waiting for the dude. She kind of reminded him of the golden retriever his family had when he was a kid, whenever his dad was late coming home from work.
"So, um, yeah... Nice weather we're having today; if we were back home, it'd be just warm enough to play a game of shirts and skins. You'd be skins, of course."
She looked at him, now disgusted. "Did you need something, or did you see me sitting here not wanting to be disturbed and decided to piss me off?"
"No, I swear I'm just being nice." He laughed nervously.
"Well, you can stop. It's creepy, and you're annoying, so please leave me alone."
"No, come on, just let me try to cheer you up. I tried to help around the camp, but thanks to my... situation, no one is willing to take it, and I really... want to help." He begged.
"Why? I don't care if you take this the wrong way, but you aren't the helpful type. In all honesty, I thought you'd be a rapist after high school."
"Fuck you! The bitches love the Dev bomb, I don't need to rape nobody."
She snickered. "The Dev bomb? Really. That's what you call yourself?"
He scoffed. "Hey, Dev bomb is a great name. It's just too manly for a chick to get, at least a chick that hasn't been bombed by the Dev if you catch my drift."
"I feel bad for any woman who has ever let you put those misogynist hands on them."
"Massage in what?"
"No you moron, Mis.."
"Massaging this dick!" He laughed.
"You're such a child." She said, shaking her head.
Devon was about to respond when somebody squeezed his butt.
"Hey there, nice butt. Can I give it a squeeze." Miss Harper said in that way of hers that made him want to do nasty things with her.
"Thanks, but you're too late somebody beat you to it." He said, meeting her sly grin with his own.
"Damn, I would've gotten here quicker, but I was busy finger banging your mom."
"Sounds hot, tell me more."
She laughed, crinkling her nose like she did when she was really laughing, and he almost dropped dead right there. "You're so naughty."
"Hey, if you two are gonna flirt, can you do it literally anywhere but here?" Carrie cut in ruining the vibe.
"She's right. Our fake love makes others real uncomfortable. We should leave."
A man cleared his throat behind them, grabbing their attention.
"Good evening, Danny. Did our little comedy routine make you uncomfortable as well." Harper snickered.
The man.. Dom. Looked over the group with disgust, and when he spoke, it sounded as if he were reading from a teleprompter like the fugly guy on the channel 20 news.
"Angelo sent me to have you, Miss Harper, to assist me in assessing the mental state of one, Mrs. Sandra Baker."
"Assess?" Carrie asked.
He scowled at her. "This doesn't concern you, girl."
She surprisingly held her ground. "When you're implying what I think you're implying, you're right. It concerns the entire camp."
"Then go talk to them for all I care, but as Angelo's newly appointed second when I say you're coming with me Miss Harper, it's not a request."
"Hey now, cool your jets, big guy, no need for threats." Devon said, taking a step forward.
She put a hand on his shoulder. "No, it's ok. If this is coming straight from Angelo, I'll do it, but go with Carrie and tell Barnes what is happening. I'm sure he'll know what to do."
Devon stopped his staring contest with the bald man and nodded. "Yeah, ok. You got lucky this time you, let me put in my dentures, looking mofo."
The man... Liam. Scowled once again, but Devon just ignored him following the surprisingly quick Carrie away from the two.
******
Why was he so uptight? Harper groaned as she followed the grumpy old man towards the edge of the camp, where they kept the older (and admittedly crazier) lady Sandra Baker, as if she had some kind of deadly pathogen that would spread to the rest of the camp if she weren't kept as far away as possible.
Harpers attempt at starting a conversation with the bald headed prick had gone as well as expected, and they now walked in silence with her purposely trailing behind. She hated people who thought they were better than everybody else, and normally, she would've been much more standoffish, but she wasn't dumb. Despite Sowell's constant advocacy that they would be rescued soon. She believed that they had been left for the wolves, and it would only be a matter of time before the camp leader became more than just a figurehead. It was already happening if she were being honest, and she wanted to be indispensable before it took full effect, and besides her abilities as a doctor, she also wanted to have her hand in as many pockets as she could. So she played her role as the overly friendly, kind of slutty, hot doctor, and if she did it right, she'd hold more power than any of the men, and she won't even have to sleep with them. She just needed to play her cards right.
The sun had begun to set, which meant that the bonfire would begin soon.
"We have to make this quick." She said.
"I know that." He barked.
Prick. She thought.
They were close enough to their destination that she could now see Casper, who was laying on his back tossing something into the air and catching it before it smacked him in the face.
He heard their approach, stopped what he was doing, and looked over.
"Hi Casp, I've come to relieve you, if you know what I mean," she winked, "Danny's just gonna watch."
He smiled. "I wouldn't do that to the old man; he might have a heart attack from that much excitement."
Danny made a noise in his throat like he was choking on his spit and then spat on the ground right next to her. Gross.
"Leave." Danny snarled.
"Excuse me?" Casper looked at her, confused by the demand.
"It's ok." She reassured him. "Angelo has asked that we assess Sandra's mental faculties. We're just doing our jobs, nothing to worry about."
"You mean, you're deciding whether or not she gets to stay in the camp?"
She nodded once.
"That's just not right." Casper said, leaping to his feet from a cradle position.
She smiled softly. "I know, but it has to be this way. We've been using resources on her. Resources, we just don't have. Not if she just sits there and does nothing."
"Yeah, but.."
"Hey! This isn't a debate kid. Get lost so we can do our jobs." Danny snarled.
Casper glared at him.
"Casper, sweetheart, look at me." She said quickly.
He continued staring Danny down, and for a moment, she thought that she'd have to try again to get his attention, but slowly, he dragged his glare away from Danny's and met her eyes.
"It'll be ok. Just please go back to camp for now, ok?"
He stood there, searching her eyes for something, and she made sure he saw the sincerity in them. Finally, he sighed. "Yeah, ok."
He took long strides towards them; the entire time staring daggers at Danny, but walked by without a word and was soon out of sight. Only then did she let out the breath she was holding in, but she was pissed now.
"You know you're a fucking asshole Danny."
He scoffed. "Tell me something I don't know."
She took a deep breath, leashing her temper. "Let's just get this over with."
******
"Our best option is to. For now. Sit back and wait for everyone to calm down. Whether or not Mckenzie is found, eventually they will forget about their distrust of you, and in the meantime we should lay low and make ourselves helpful around camp so that we can shape their new image of us when the time comes to strike back at Angelo. He's bound to make a mistake eventually, all arrogant rulers do in the end. It's a curse of their hubris." Said Mr. Sowell in the hush tone they had been using for the last... however long it had been. Ever since arriving, Tyler had been hopeless when it came to how much time had passed during anytime throughout the day until the sun set.
"That's easy for you to say. You're not being blamed for disappearing the chick." He huffed from his log. They're "strategy meeting" (more like Mr. Sowell, shooting down every idea that Tyler had) was being held outside of Sowell's tent.
Mr. Sowell was pacing back and forth as Doddie walked by, avoiding to look over at them as if they had the plague.
Something cracked inside him. "Hey! Future porn actresses don't get to judge me."
She turned back around, and he flinched from the look in her eyes. She had always been a freak, but he had never seen her like this, like she'd try to kill him.
"Mr. Sowell!"
They all turned to see Devon sprinting over to them. "They're going to kill Sandra."
******
Everyone was gathering by the main campfire where now there were multiple different fire pits spread out for the upcoming ceremony. The energy was uncomfortable and depressing for good reason, of course.
Sowell stood a few paces away from the pack next to Devon and Tyler who were talking at him about how they should tell everyone about what Angelo was up to, but Sowell had already decided to wait until after the burning. Tonight wasn't only about those who died in the crash but those who survived it.
"... and once it begins, we could.." Tyler was saying.
"Whatever you're planning, save it for another time." Harper said, joining them.
"How'd it go!?" Devon asked anxiously.
She sighed. "About as well as you'd think, but whatever it is that you're thinking about doing, don't. Not tonight, anyway."
"What!?" Tyler and Devon exclaimed in almost perfect unity.
"She's right guy's. Tonight is already going to be emotional enough, no reason to make it any worse, we'll get our time, we just have to be patient."
"I couldn't have said it better myself." Harper nodded her head in agreement.
"What!? Are you serious?" Tyler asked, clearly upset.
"If Harper says that this is the best way to do it, then I'm fine with waiting." Devon shrugged.
Tyler looked as if he were going to respond when Angelo spoke. "Hello friends." The crowd stopped their side chatter and faced him. By his side stood Anthony Kirk and Josh Banner. Josh seemed excited by something, while Anthony looked annoyed, but the few times Anthony had bothered to show up for his class, annoyed was basically the only emotion he ever showed.
"I have just been told the great news! The team I have assigned to locate a better location for us to settle have already found a place! We pack and leave tomorrow!"
The people cheered, even his own group, but Sowell shook his head. They were headed for ruin.