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Post by piñata on May 8, 2007 9:18:01 GMT -5
Jason didn't notice the new arrival at first -- he was too intent on poking through the wreckage on the shore. He pulled a promising-looking bag -- a bright pink one -- from underneath a pile of bodies and started rifling through it. "Please let this chick have a sewing kit in here," he muttered as he opened the bag. He immediately dropped it, recoiling in shock. Reaching back in, he pulled out a chihuahua with a broken neck and tossed it aside. "Good riddance," he mumbled under his breath -- he had always considered those annoying d**n things to be closer to rodents than dogs.
There was no needle or thread in the bag -- in fact, the only useful items Jason wound up pocketing were a handful of tampons, which he could use to stop bleeding in an emergency. He started to pull out the next bag, but then paused. He heard three voices, but there were only two other people there. Looking around, he finally noticed the new woman. He waved in what he hoped was a vaguely friendly manner, then said, "Hi. I'm Jason. You're not hurt, are you?"
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Post by ev1lpoptart on May 8, 2007 15:00:04 GMT -5
O'Connell wished to God that his gun was working. He'd beat her to death right now if he had to. Maybe she was bleeding internally. These thoughts passed behind his eyes, and he knew she knew it; she was probably wishing the same upon him.
"No, I feel...fine," she said with a toothy smile. Kassia had rather small teeth that were complimented by small gums. She cracked her neck and looked at O'Connell. Things were no doubt going to get very interesting, very soon. "My name's Kassia," she said. "Glad to meet you."
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Post by zyphan on May 8, 2007 22:42:53 GMT -5
Karina didn't like the look on O'Connell's face, and it was scaring her.
"Um...We're looking for any salvagable items like a first aid kit or protection against wild wolves. Would you like to help?" She asked Kassia, hoping O'Connell's odd behavior had nothing to do with the arrival of another survivor.
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Post by piñata on May 9, 2007 11:50:12 GMT -5
"Good," Jason said, relieved that Kassia wasn't injured. He had no idea how much he would wish she had lost a limb or four in the crash later on, but for now he did not know who or what she was, and therefore felt vaguely friendly toward her. "Well, it's nice to meet you," he added lamely. God, he sucked at this social crap. He turned back to the wreckage before he could embarass himself further.
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Post by ev1lpoptart on May 9, 2007 15:10:02 GMT -5
Kassia hesitated a moment, looking for the words that the group would understand. "We could sharpen some metal from the plane...against some rocks maybe?" She looked at O'Connell. "In any case, we can't afford to waste a day," she said, and began to scamper off through the wreckage ahead of the others.
O'Connell watched her move ahead. Rather than say anything, he simply followed closely, not allowing the others to get between him and her. He'd seen first hand how deadly Kassia could be. Hopefully these others meant more to her alive than dead, for now...
Upon scavenging through a section of wreckage, O'Connell was able to find some blankets in what he assumed was an overhead compartment. He also came across a book of matches. "Jackpot," he said aloud.
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Post by zyphan on May 9, 2007 22:06:43 GMT -5
Karina looked up from the piece of twisted plane she was trying to lever up at O'Connell's voice. She saw the blankets, but was only overjoyed when she saw the matches.
"Yay!! We have matches now!! We should build a fire when the sun starts to set, not now though. Keep them safe." Looking around again, she spotted an intact duffle bag with only a few scuffs and burn marks.
She zipped it open, and her whole face lit up. Inside was an assortment of daggers and three pistols. Looks like the owner of the bag was a wannabe terrorist. There were also a few bags of trail mix and jerky; even a fairly large bag of fried calamari.
She held up the calamari and one of the pistols. "Hey, anybody up for some squid and a protection device?"
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Post by piñata on May 10, 2007 8:14:51 GMT -5
"You probably know how to use it better than I do," Jason said, snubbing the gun and reaching past Karina to seize a dagger. "Even if I don't have to kill anything with this," he explained, "it's the closest thing to a scalpel I'm likely to find."
He wondered how the bag had gotten on the plane, but then remembered that checked luggage was treated differently from carry-on bags. Still, this was a lot of weaponry for one person, and he found himself hoping that the bag's owner hadn't survived -- he didn't want to come up against someone who had a need for this much hardware.
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Post by ev1lpoptart on May 10, 2007 22:57:11 GMT -5
O'Connell didn't know whether to be angry or jubilant. "f**king baggage handlers," he said. He gathered the blankets and stuffed the matches in his pocket. "Check for ammo for the guns," he said. He grabbed a pistol and quickly disassembled it. It was the new Glock .45 model. Made out of a composite that couldn't be picked up by most metal detectors. There was a full clip in the gun, as well as a chambered bullet. How had those gotten past the detectors? O'Connell stuffed the gun into his waistband, after seriously considering turning and blowing Kassia's head off with it.
Kassia's mind was humming. She needed to get her hands on one of those knives. She HAD to have one... The girl would be so scrumptious. Her muscles weren't toned, and would be so savory...
O'Connell wouldn't do at all. His muscles were too sinewy. She wondered about the good doctor... Kassia picked up one of the knives--a kabar--turning it over slowly in her hand. "I don't know how to use one of those," she said, motioning to one of the other Glocks in the bag. The sun was high overhead, and its light caught in the knife so exquisitely. She was finding it almost hard to control her impulses...
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Post by zyphan on May 10, 2007 23:09:29 GMT -5
Karina reached deeper into the bag, and found five more full clips; the other two Glocks O'Connell had left were empty. She picked up one pistol, loaded it, and took three shots at a nearby coconut palm. Three coconuts fell to the ground, fully intact.
"My grandpa called me a 'Lil' Annie Oakley'." She said, picking up one and using a dagger to pry open a small hole. She passed it to the doctor. "Here, try some coconut milk. It's really good."
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Post by piñata on May 11, 2007 10:15:19 GMT -5
"Thanks," Jason said. His admiration for Karina went up another notch -- between the fruit she had gathered earlier, and the coconuts now, she was becoming instrumental in the party's searches for food. He doubted they'd be able to live very long without her around. He poured some coconut milk into his hand, tried it, and said, "You're right. That's awesome." He gave Karina one of the first genuine smiles he had had cause to give since waking up in the plane, then offered the coconut to O'Connell. Since he hadn't taken a drink directly from the coconut, he couldn't give the air marshal any diseases.
He watched Kassia. She was checking out the knife she had taken with almost sexual interest. There was something not quite right about the way she was looking at the weapon, but being imperceptive, he couldn't put his finger on it. In any case, if she knew how to use it maybe she could help with hunting -- Jason thought maybe he could kill an animal if he needed to, but he didn't think he could gut or skin it. He reflected on how strange it was for a surgical resident to be squeamish, but decided cutting with a scalpel was different from using a blade to kill.
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Post by ev1lpoptart on May 11, 2007 16:01:51 GMT -5
O'Connell tried the coconut milk and found it to his liking. He felt a bit uneasy at the ease with which Karina shot. Hopefully he didn't have another Kassia on his hands. He shook off those feelings pretty easily, though. He knew Kassia had a knife. But he had a working gun now, as well. Hopefully she would find the trio useful alive; you could never tell with a sociopath.
How dilectable. Kassia saw as both the doctor and O'Connell eyed her. She figured O'Connell was more focused on the knife. But the doctor was showing some form of interest at least. Kassia put the knife in her waist band and began searching through some more wreckage for anything useful.
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Post by zyphan on May 11, 2007 19:12:06 GMT -5
Karina returned Jason's smile, then placed the bag over her shoulder. The weight would hinder her some, be she could manage.
Karina could tell Kassia was having a strange effect on the men. But it wasn't anything they would normally feel; Jason was studying her, and O'Connell was watching her like a hawk did a mouse.
Karina shrugged her shoulders, moving off down the beach, limping while looking for more salvageable items. Near one area of severely twisted metal, she was forced to turn away quickly, and threw up the fruit she ate earlier. What made her sick was one person, severely burned, sliced in half with their innards hanging out. The eyes of the person were open and staring eerily at nothing.
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Post by piñata on May 14, 2007 11:54:22 GMT -5
"Are you all right?" Jason asked, rushing to Karina's side. He saw what had made her sick and very nearly lost his own lunch -- the only thing that stopped him was that he shared every doctor's strange ability to view such things with cold, clinical detachment. This almost made it worse sometimes -- he knew he should feel something for the dead person -- but he had gone to a place devoid of human emotion.
"Dead body," he explained to the others after swallowing to make sure he wouldn't be sick as soon as he opened his mouth. "It's pretty nasty -- you might not want to look." He picked up a bag that was definitely not a regulation-sized carry-on and placed it where the body's upper and lower halves had once met, covering up the most gory area of the scene.
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Post by zyphan on May 15, 2007 23:19:47 GMT -5
Karina nodded, wiping her mouth. "Yes, I think so. It's probably a good thing I didn't become a doctor. Let's go."
She walked away from the covered corpse, still limping slightly, and began searching again.
The sun was now at the highest point in the sky, with no cloudcover visible. It was reaching ninety degrees, and the tide was at its lowest.
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Post by piñata on May 16, 2007 9:07:29 GMT -5
Noting the low tide, Jason ventured out closer to the water, grabbing some of the more promising-looking bags to prevent them being carried out to sea. He also checked the corpses in that area for pulses, but wasn't surprised to find nobody alive, especially as badly mangled as some of these bodies were -- it seemed the closer to shore they got, the worse the wreckage was. He warned Karina to stay back from the bodies so she didn't see anything else that would make her sick -- if they vomited too many times, they would have to deal with dehydration, which was an issue Jason was hoping to avoid. He dragged as many bags as he could up onto the beach, and started going through them. He hit the jackpot on the first two -- a cooler full of bottled water and a bag of toiletries that would make life on the island more convenient for everyone -- toilet paper, soap, shampoo and other items were passed around. It looked like somebody besides Jason was sick of the low quality of the hotel versions of these items, which Jason had always assumed were made in Afghanistan.
"Here," he said, handing one of the bottles of water to Karina, "you need to replenish your fluids after being sick." He passed out water to everyone else as well, took one for himself, then shut the cooler -- for all the good it would do. The ice would melt anyway, in this heat. Hell, in this heat, the water'd probably melt.
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