AUGUST EVENT PART TWO: GIL'S ALL-FRIGHT DINER

[sailmods]

[someone has to be the first to notice.

is it someone on the ship? who passed through the metal detector, only to find themselves still standing on deck zero; who watched Friday freeze up suddenly before fleeing from the room, hands wringing together?

or is it someone in the diner? who opens the portal door to find that it's now a real closet? who notices that the clone Friday has disappeared completely, along with every native vehicle? someone has to notice it first, and then spread it through the crowd like contagion. who's first?

it doesn't matter. all communication has been cut off. all access has been blocked. for now, on both sides of the portal, the passengers are on their own.

for now.

the sun has disappeared over the horizon. the beginning of stars in purple skies. and everything is completely silent.

for now.]

Comments

[makesomedeals]

[Sigh.]

That escalated quickly.

[ He grabs Ava by the arm from where she's rescuing the La Cucaracha horn, and marches them back in the car, throwing her into the hood and knowing she's dissipate into the seat.]

I think we've overstayed our welcome.

[And he is absolutely peeling the fuck out, doing a three point turn at approximately 200 km/hr and perhaps backing into everyone standing around what used to be the Captain, then hauling straight for the diner.

He might hit every zombie in his path. Definitely not intentionally.]

[decohere]

"Ah, see, I knew there was something else," Ava sounds almost pleased by the eruption of corpses from the ground. Right before she's yeeted into Max's car.

She's safe, but most importantly, she has what she came for. The steering wheel and horn from the little bastard that she clutches tightly to her chest.

It's the main reason she's so determined they make it back alive, to make sure it's still in her possession. If she dies, not only will she be dishonoring Skulduggery's glorious sacrifice, she won't be able to deliver it to him as a welcome back from the death gift.

She doesn't bother telling Max to watch out for anyone he might hit.

[makesomedeals]

Max is having one (1) emotion right now, and it's: This Sucks.

Their friend splattered like pottery all over the ground, both cars are destroyed, the Captain became a small goop monster, Max didn't get to hit anyone with his car except a corpse and now zombies, there are gross entrails all over the hood of his car, and worst of all when they get to the diner he is going to have to leave his car.

Here.

With the zombies. And whatever the hell else the Captain is gonna do.

"Does the horn still work?"

[decohere]

"Can't believe they were just... digging through his bones..." Ava's still muttering through her teeth.

"Not some goddamn jigsaw puz-"

Max's question stops her for a moment. She presses the car horn and smiles.

[makesomedeals]

It is the absolute most ridiculous sounding novelty horn he's ever heard in his life. But right now, he'd be grinning if he could, making sure to splatter a few more of these zombies on the way there.

He's not looking at them, doesn't care if they all started looking like people from the ship or Friday on rollerskates or everyone who owes him money from back home. Pointless distraction and he doesn't care. He is heading straight for the diner and he's not even looking back to see if any of the others are following.

"I'm not sure if they wanted to take a memento or maybe attempt to gather him for burial? People do strange things under stress." Or so he's told. He does not. He certainly didn't do anything weird like make sure Ava was in the car before him. That was merely a side effect from him throwing her towards the car. Meaningless. Absolutely meaningless.

"As an aside, I'm not going to stop the car when we get there, as things are starting to seem well, slightly crowded." The zombies are growing in number and while he's metal and it's not like they can eat him, they can certainly touch him with their decaying fingers on his fine bespoke suit that he just got on the portal trip over here.

As soon as they're near the diner he kicks the door open and tumbles out, surprisingly graceful for leaping from a moving vehicle at breakneck speeds. He heads for the portal. Pauses. Looks at his car continuing to careen off into the night.

Starts for the portal again. Looks at his car.

He is now feeling two emotions.

With scream of rage he finally stalks towards the portal to leave.

Oh he is furious.

[decohere]

Ava's jumped from so many moving vehicles in her life that it's basically an old trick by now, out the windshield and a few bouncing steps off the zombie-splattered hood.

She feels a bit bad about it, mostly because she remembers just how delighted Max and Skulduggery were upon seeing their nearly identical vehicles parked out in this dusty lot. Gleaming against the backdrop of a barren desert, their little chirps in response to the key fobs as if the cars were capable of being happy to see their owners in turn.

It's bittersweet. Between the wreckage of the Bentley and their best friend at the bottom of a cliff, and now Max speeding them back to safety at the diner only to leave it behind.

They were both good cars. And Ava will miss them both. But she chases after Max, stomping a zombie in the head on her way, and follows him back through the portal, the steering wheel still in a white-knuckled grip.

She's not sure what she feels.

[makesomedeals]

Max storms through the portal, fists clenched at his side, and straight up punches whoever the first person he sees on the other side is. Sorry, not sorry.

He doesn't say anything to the throng of people who are standing by to help with the wounded or the traumatized, he simply pushes through them. He is going to go to his room, hope Maeve isn't there, and scream into his mattress at a decibel that will probably shatter glass.

Though he does turn to Ava, nodding once, his eyes shifting briefly from furious to concerned, "He'll be back in the morning."

Or so Max hopes.

[decohere]

Ava wants to follow. But Max is angry and she's... numb. They need different things in that moment, though she hopes his is more easily solved. But she does catch up to Max briefly, to place her palm against the side of his face, though her touch is more like static and she can't quite muster up the energy to be more.

"Yes," she agrees, because she can't accept otherwise. "Thank you." For getting her out of there. And then, lowly. "I hate them." Nobody specific. Just a general them. Everyone else. Not even sure if she means it, but it's the only sliver of a feeling she can grasp at that moment.

She doesn't care about the zombies or the injured or saving anyone. Maybe she should. Ava pulls back, turns away, and disappears.