"Now, don't lash out—"
"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!?"
Pencil stumbled backwards, shocked from Fanny's outburst.
Fanny whipped around to look at Snowball, "And you–! Why would you support this!? You were so against it before, but now you're just helping her!!"
Snowball opened his mouth to give a response, but his eyes locked on Pencil, not saying a word.
Fanny waited a bit longer, hoping for him to say at least something, but nothing ever came out.
"This—" She hesitated, trying to find the right words to say. This was the first time she'd ever been truly rendered completely speechless, "...This isn't survival, this is just mindless murder!!"
Pencil didn't utter a single word, she just stared her down with this uninterested expression. Fanny shrunk backward, spitting in fury before turning and dashing toward home, not daring to look back. Snowball called after her, but she didn't respond. She just kept going.
Once she slowed, catching her breath, she heard someone approaching her in the distance. It was Snowball, who had chased after her. Her head slowly turned to face him as he halted right next to her.
"You need to stop it," Snowball told her firmly, "if you keep shouting at Pencil you're gonna dig your own grave."
"I don't care!" She snapped, "She deserves to get sense knocked into her!"
"You don't get it! She's never gonna listen to you! This whole damn apocalypse has ruined her. Nothing you do is gonna knock even a sliver of sense into her."
"..." Fanny went silent, the anger in her voice melting, "Why did you listen to her?"
"What else should I have done? She would've killed me on the spot, and frankly I'm not ready to die."
"She would've killed you?" Fanny scoffed, rolling her eyes, "You're twice as strong as her!"
"And Match would've backed her up. I may be stronger but I was also outnumbered. Plus, we need allies more than anything right now."
"You'd be better off without her as an ally! We all would! She's just bringing herself down, and she'll take all of us with her!" Her scream was interrupted by a bout of nasty coughs.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Snowball spat, "I would've fucking dipped by now if that were the case. Strength comes in numbers, not in morality. Morals mean nothing in an apocalypse."
"You sound just like her," Fanny grumbled.
"I follow it because I want to survive, not because I want to partake in senseless killing! I may be a jerk but I'm not a damn murderer."
"Tell that to Blocky."
Snowball went dead silent, Fanny following. They shared no words for the longest time, the only noise to be heard being the rustling of the forest leaves.
"...I'm gonna leave and so should you if you know what's best for you."
"Fanny, I get you're angry but this isn't the best course of action," Snowball attempted to reason with the girl, but she was already trudging back to the house. He continued to call after her, "you're gonna get yourself killed if you do this!"
"Better than staying here with the others."
"Fanny, come on. Don't do this. You'll die out there."
"Then come with me, if you truly believe in strength in numbers."
"I can't—." He insisted.
"Then you've made your choice. And I've made mine."
The sun slowly rose, peeking out from behind the horizon. Fanny hopped off the couch and made her way to the closet, opening it as quietly as she could muster. She began to shuffle through the items, looking for something that could carry a decent haul of supplies. Through a bit of digging that only took a few seconds, she spotted a backpack collecting dust in the very back of the closet. It was Pencil's backpack from earlier high school years. It had been relatively untouched from the year it had been used from what Fanny had seen, it even had all her chains and pins on it.
She hauled it out of the closet, holding it out in front of her. It was flattened and extremely light, thankfully empty.
She stood up, slinging the backpack over her shoulder and shutting the closet door before moving to the pantry. She collected multiple of the food cans (which had been restocked by Pencil and Match from earlier in the day) and shoved them into her backpack, as well as some other necessities. At last, once she thought she had gotten everything she needed, she zipped up the backpack and brought it over her back.
It's now or never.. I guess.
She rushed toward the door and fiddled with the lock, opening it up and rushing outside. The moment she felt the cold breeze hit her face, a wave of relief coursed through her. She turned around to look back at the open door. She grabbed onto it and went to shut it, but right before it closed all the way—
A foot shot between the wall and the door, preventing it from closing.
It took Fanny a few heartbeats to process, but once she did, she lurched backward with a gasp, "Wh—"
"Where are you going?"
The door flung aside, leaving the house wide open.
Pencil stared down at her condescendingly.
"Away," Fanny didn't even try to hide the truth from her, "from all of you."
"Are you that upset?" Pencil retorted, fury rising in her voice. She slipped on her shoes and stepped out the door, grabbing onto the harpoon. That made Fanny's heart nearly stop.
"What are you doing—"
"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised," Pencil ignored her, slowly inching closer. Her tone was low and hostile, "you always had a knack for overreacting."
"I'm not gonna be any threat, I'll be gone long before morning–,"
"Yeah, you're right. You aren't gonna be a threat."
"Just leave me alone!" Fanny shrieked, backing away. Her arms raised as her hands balled into fists defensively, "I'm going far away and I'm not coming back, don't you want me to be out of the way!?"
"That's never what I wanted," Pencil insisted, "I wanted you to have a place with us. I thought you could. Turns out I was dead wrong... but I guess I can't be too mad. I did always view you as expendable."
"Expendable? Is it because I didn't agree to the reckless murders!?"
"You can't keep yelling at me for that!" Pencil retorted, "So what if I killed them!? If they were too weak to stand up against me they deserved to die!"
"You killed a child!"
"That doesn't degrade my argument at all! It's survival of the fittest, and he just wasn't strong enoug—"
Fanny struck Pencil right across the face.
She slammed onto the grass, yelping in pain.
Lots of footsteps erupted from inside the house, coming closer to the door. Only a moment later, the rest of the group poured outside to see what was going on.
Fanny gasped for breath as Pencil slowly hauled herself back up onto her feet, face now bloody from the hit, "You deserved that! You deserve so much worse!!"
She rushed at Pencil once more, pushing her back onto the ground, using every open window she had as an attempt to punch her. Pencil jabbed Fanny in the stomach, shoving her off and reaching out to grab the harpoon she had dropped a fair distance away.
As Fanny recuperated, she lurched forward in an attempt to strike Pencil across the face one more time, only for Pencil to grasp onto the harpoon and lunged it straight for her face.
Excruciating pain flowed through Fanny's body as she shrieked in pain and horror. Pencil had gotten her right in the eye. She grabbed onto the harpoon, tugging desperately on it in attempt to get it out. Pencil was the one to finally rip it out, taking her entire eye with it.
The others watched in horror, only Lightning able to speak out, despite it being in a cry, "Fanny!!"
Fanny's hand covered the area of her face, now vacant where her eye used to be.
Yet, despite the immense amounts of agony she felt, she forced herself to slowly rise up once again onto her feet, once again face to face with Pencil.
No matter how much she wanted to scream and fight, she couldn't even begim to muster the energy. It was already extremely draining just to stay standing. Pencil took notice.
She grabbed onto the collar of Fanny's shirt, holding onto her in a threatening manner. At last, her eyes trailed to the others, "Let this serve as a message. If you stand against me, you'll end up just like her."
"Leave her alone." Snowball spat, beginning to walk toward the two.
"Oh?" Her eyes lit in amusement, "You want her back? She's all– YOURS."
She plunged the harpoon straight into Fanny's chest, splattering blood all over the both of them. Fanny tried to scream out in pain, but she felt her consciousness drain before she could even make a move. And the pain slowly faded... along with the beating of her heart.
The last thing she heard was the sound of Snowball screeching out insults, while others cried out in terror.
She gasped in the fresh air of the night breeze.
And just like that.... her eyes were open.
Fanny slowly hauled herself onto her feet, spitting up saliva and blood. Her legs were weak, but she managed.
"What... the hell......?"
Her eyed darted around frantically. She recognized the area of the forest, but she didn't ever recall coming close to the place.
I must've been... dragged here.
The memories rushed back, along with all of her emotions... emotions of rage.
Pencil.