[ c h a p t e r f o u r ]
bullets in the water
"In the end, even stars choose destruction over life,"
•••
Karma was sitting next to Helena at the front rows. Avery took a seat on her left, while Leo and Adonis sat behind the three girls.
Helena have been trying to dial her boyfriend for a few minutes now, biting on to her nails as she waits, staring worriedly at her phone. "Anything?" Cassandra asks Helena.
"He's not answering," Helena replies.
"Neither is Grizz," Avery says, lifting her phone that was still dialing Grizz. Karma ran her fingers through her hair, a habit she picked up whenever she was stressed or frustrated. Harry looked at her momentarily before facing Helena.
"They must be headed back here." Harry speaks, "Thats why he wanted us together."
"Yeah, Harry's right. He wouldn't make us gather all in one place without a reason." Leo speaks, his arms inside the pockets of his blue hoodie.
Adonis, who seemed half-asleep, nodded his head in agreement. Karma didn't even notice Clark and Jason sitting right beside them, she guessed they must've arrived late.
"So fast. Twelve hours. Maybe they found something," Kelly speaks beside Elle.
"Or maybe they found nothing. Why wouldn't he say if it was good news?" Helena talks back. Karma crossed her legs, trying to figure out what must've caused them to ask for a meeting.
"Listen." Cassandra started to speak, "Hey, listen up." She stood from her seat, trying to silence the people gathered inside the church.
It annoyed Karma how others continued to speak, dismissing Cassandra, so she stood up from her seat as well, the palm of her hand leaning on the chair as she looked at the noisy teenagers behind her.
"She said listen the fuck up." Anyone could hear the annoyance in her voice, and people immediately stopped talking amongst themselves. She ran her gaze at all of them, nodding when everyone had chosen to listen.
She sat back down and nodded at Cassandra to keep going.
"Yeah, okay, While we're all here, together, there are some things that we ought to figure out." Cassandra announces loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Before we rip this place apart and maybe, you know, start hurting each other." She continues, "I don't know what the hell is going on. Maybe Luke will come back with some good news."
"Maybe? Of course he will." Elle spoke from behind Cassandra.
"Yeah, why don't we just wait and see, Cassandra?" Harry taunts the girl.
"Because I would rather prepare for the worst before the worst happens." Cassandra tells him.
"What does that mean, prepare?" Kelly asks Cassandra with a look.
"I don't know specifically, but I think it means.." Cassandra trails, "We agree not to just take things, when we want." Cassandra now turns to the crowd, eyeing the people.
"Until all the food is gone and we starve," The crowd grumbles, whispering to each other. "Well i'd agree to that." Allie raises her hand.
"Yeah, so do I." Avery steps in as well. "Me too." Helena speaks. Clark and the two other boys mumble small 'yeahs', agreeing with Cassandra.
"This is bullshit." Harry says while laughing.
"Jesus man, what's your problem?" Will talks back, glaring at Harry.
"What are we agreeing to, Cassandra?" Harry asks the blonde girl who had now sat back on her chair. "Which one of us gets to decide who gets what?"
"We're agreeing to be normal human beings, Harry," Karma's voice was firm, and loud enough for everyone to hear. Harry looks at her, not wanting to fight back.
"It's called democracy." Becca says, looking at Harry.
"Im not a fucking idiot." Harry sarcastically replies.
"How do you want to decide things? Every person for themselves? Then we're back to where we started." Cassandra walks to the middle, right in front of Harry. "Maybe you wanna flip a coin to see who decides?" She suggests.
"You don't like democracy? How 'bout random fucking chance." Cassandra takes out a coin from her jacket, taunting Harry. "Call it, Harry. Call it." She says with a tone.
"I-Im not gonna do that."
"Okay, okay." Cassandra tells him, "I'll call it for you." Cassandra positions the coin on top of her thumb and curled pointing finger. "You get heads."
She flips the coin, then landing it on her palm. She removes her hand from covering it, "It's tails." She looks at the boy with a faint smirk.
"Still think it's unfair? Best two out of three." Cassandra flips again, "Tails." She announces.
By the third time Cassandra had flipped another tails, Karma leaned forward from where she was sitting, the aura inside the room starting to feel eerie. She began to feel like there was some bigger force here, dwelling them in.
"Do it again, Cass." Karma tells her friend, now standing up.
"Tails." Cassandra said, wearily, for the fifth time.
"Tails." She said it again.
"Fuck." Harry whispers. Karma took the coon from a worried Cassandra, flipping it. All the attention moved to her when she unraveled the coin by removing her hand.
"Heads." The crowed sighed in relief. Karma gave the coin back to Cassandra.
"It's all up to us." Karma looks at everyone, her gaze landing on Harry for a second, making sure he knows she was mentally scolding him for being hard-headed. "There's no civilization here, not until we start one."
"So what are we going to do?" Cassandra says, stepping forward. "First, I think we have no choice but to share. Share food, Share resources."
"Houses?" Harry asks the girl. Karma rolls her eyes, thinking how Harry just really have to talk back to Cassandra every time.
"Maybe," Cassandra replies.
"Fuck you." Harry looks at her. "Really? How much electricity do we have? Until it's all used up and everything goes dark?" Allie talks back.
"I think 225 people in 200 houses doesn't make sense." She adds.
"Keep what's ours!" A boy from the back had spoken up, earning a glare from Karma.
"Yeah? Well, what is yours?" Karma faces the crowd. "Do you have money? Who you gonna pay?" She questions sarcastically.
The crowd had grown silent, no one daring to answer her. "The things that you need to live, food, clothes, the stuff in stores, no one owns them." She continues to speak in front of the silent crowd.
"Are we going to fight each other over food?" Will speaks up, agreeing with her. "That's fucking crazy."
"That's because you have nothing." Harry taunts Will. "And some of us have things that others want."
Harry turns to Will, "Right, Will? Like houses, or girlfriends."
"Well, I've got everything, Harry." Karma cuts in, looking at Harry dead in the eyes.
"And I respect the way you all feel." She turns back at the crowd, "Trust me, i've felt the same. But how long do you think are we going to be able to stay stuck here? A week? A month? Maybe even a year. You really think you won't swallow your words after realizing that we've lost everything because you decided to keep, what, your gold? money?"
"I know that, Kar, I just—"
"You're right, Harry. I have no house. The place that I used to live in is outside of town, it doesn't exist. You want me to just live on the streets?" Will cuts off Harry.
Karma didn't making Harry feel like shit. She knew how protective the boy was over her, and she, too, were protective of her friends. But Harry was being such an asshole right now, and Karma isn't one to hold her tongue.
"You can live wherever you want. Just not with me." Harry retorts.
"You can stay with us," Allie offers to Will, who nodded back at her.
"I don't have to listen to this. Not anymore." Harry stands up, moving forward to leave the place.
"Harry, this has nothing to do with you—" Cassandra speaks, following after Harry
Karma looks at him and sighs speaks in a soft voice, "Harry. Sit down, please. We still need to wait for Luke and the others," Harry looks at his best friend, fighting the urge to leave. He nodded at her silently and before he could sit back down, a gunshot echoed inside the church.
Karma immediately felt hands drag her down to the ground, she turned around and looked at Avery who's crouching beside her. Everyone had fell down to the floor, some still screaming, while others covered their mouths.
Harry, a few steps away, was looking at her in panic. Though the boy wouldn't admit it, he wanted Karma to be closest to her, knowing well she would act stupid at times like this.
"Well, fuck this," Campbell's voice rang inside Karma's ears. Her expression had changed, feeling anger rise. Although her knees felt weak from the sudden grab Avery just did, she felt the sudden urge to stand up.
"Harry's right, No one elected you King, cousin." He speaks, "Did anybody vote for her? Did they?"
"Did anybody elect her to speak on your behalf?" He smirks.
"W-wait. I-I don't want to be king." Cassandra speaks while standing up and cautiously walks forward.
"That's not what it looks like," Campbell fakes a dumb face, looking at his cousin. "Is it?" He is quick to point the gun at Cassandra.
Upon seeing the gun pointed at her, Allie immediately rises to cover her older sister.
Karma slowly removes Avery's trembling hands from her wrist and stands up. "Karma, what the fuck, get down!" Avery says in panic, trying to grab the girl again. "Karma, I swear to god—" She could hear Adonis swear beneath is breath.
"Campbell," Karma pats down the dust from her jeans. Campbell looks at her amused, lifting an eyebrow.
"You really want to do this?" Karma walks towards him, blocking the two sisters and taking him by surprise by grabbing his hand that had a gun.
"What are you doing?" Campbell's eyebrows turn in to confusion. "Well, since you've gotten this far to scare everyone else shitless," Karma trails off, positioning the gun directly in front of her forehead. "Shoot me."
Karma could hear the gasps around her, and in the corner of her eyes she saw Adonis and Harry immediately stand up.
Campbell looked at the brunette's eyes and saw something he couldn't point out. It was as if she was familiar with the words and actions she had spewed out. He couldn't deny that Karma was different—the girl was almost just as sane as he is, though he knows she'll never admit it.
There were a ton of things Karma would never admit, which is probably why her thoughts were heavily clouded and distorted.
Harry looked at Karma, cursing beneath his breath.
"What? I'm waiting." If anyone only respected Karma before, they had feared the girl now. Other than being completely calm as a gun pressed on her forehead, she had displayed such stone cold eyes.
"I've thought a lot about dying," Karma starts to speak, "I've almost gotten used to that, but I'm far from afraid."
"You want chaos?" Karma's lips turn into a smirk, taking Campbell off guard. "Fucking shoot me."
Campbell snickers, not removing her gaze at the brave girl. "I don't want to shoot you." He tells her. "I wanted to get everyone's attention." He lowers the gun down, turning around at the crowd.
Karma dropped her stare as soon as she felt Harry hold her wrist, as well as Avery who came running to her side.
Harry spoke in a soft whisper, "Are you fucking insane, Kar?" She looks at Harry apologetically, as well as to Avery who had tears about to fall from her eyes.
"This meeting's obviously over," Their attention went to Campbell who proceeds to speak, "We'll be back when Luke gets here,"
"Until then, if anybody else is tired of listening to Cassandra, you can follow me." Karma made sure to hold Harry's wrist, and the boy knew it was a signal for him not to leave. He nods to Karma and stays put beside her.
A few boys had moved towards the exit, following behind Campbell who was leading the small group of people. Just as he was about to open the cathedral doors, Luke had pushed the doors open.
Karma trailed from the boys facial reaction before dropping her gaze on the body he was carrying.
A dead body.
Karma could feel her knees getting weak. She just saw Emily hours ago. She just smiled to her, and the girl never looked so alive. Yet, here she was, lifeless, head and legs dropping as the only thing keeping her body up was Luke's arms.
Everyone stood up, and the air inside the church had never turned so tight, Karma could barely remember to breath.
Luke made her way forward along with Grizz and the others who came along with them. Karma was quick to react and made her way towards the table in the middle of the stage.
"Somebody help me clear this table," She said loudly for others to hear. Grizz came to her side and help remove all the things on top of it.
Karma wanted to hug her best friend when she saw the look on his face. She's never seen Grizz look so lost, and she wanted to wipe that look from everyone's faces.
Luke placed Emily's body on the table softly, feeling the weight of lifting her for hours finally leave his shoulders, but the aching stayed.
Everyone crowded around the table, horrified looks on their faces.
"She died from a snake bite," Luke started to explain, his voice hoarse. "Her whole body just shut down."
"We did everything we could, but we couldn't save her." He finishes, looking at everyone.
Karma felt guilt starting to tighten inside her chest. She felt like she was to blame for not insisting to go with the group. She could've done something, anything, to help Emily. Her father had taught her how to aid herself if she ever got a snake bite when she was younger and her family had decided to go to a camping trip.
Not that Karma remembered every detail, but she remembered some things, and if those could've at least helped prevent Emily's death, she could've saved her. It broke Karma's heart that she wasn't able to do anything.
But she wasn't a hero.
And she couldn't save everyone.
"So we're going to bury her tomorrow," Grizz speaks from beside Karma, tears falling down his cheeks. "Before it starts to smell."
He looks down at his feet, "So i'm gonna need a couple of guys." He swallows the lump in his throat. "Clark?" He turns around. Karma didn't notice the guy behind them, she was too fixated with the body before them.
"Yeah, no problem." Clark tells him.
Karma feels a tear roll down her cheeks. She turns to Luke who was already looking at her. "What were you able to find?" She asks softly.
"There's nothing out there, guys." Luke looks at everyone, not only responding to Karma, but speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. "Just a whole bunch of...just woods that go on forever."
Luke breaths deeply, "We're all alone."
Karma softly shakes her head, closing her eyes while taking a deep breath before she speaks, "This isn't our home."
Karma had to be strong. She looked around, seeing everyone still had their eyes on her, waiting for her to say anything. She turned to Helena. "Can you pray for her, Hel?" She asks the girl who nodded her head.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me." Helena starts her prayer, lightly brushing her fingers on Emily's face.
"Thy road and thy thaft, they comfort me. My cup runneth over."
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author's note
yikes, this has probably been the shortest chapter i've written so far.
we're finally done with episode one! whew, that took me four chapters to finish.
i've also been seeing a couple petitions going around for netflix to produce another season for the society, so i'm hoping everything gets heard and considered, other than that, hopefully season two—if ever the do continue with its production—gets released before i finish writing season one, so that I could follow through season two in netflix other than creating one myself.
enjoy reading the next chapter!!
- keezii