June 2021 - A New Arrival?

[staymods]

A New Arrival?

For the last two months, arrivals in the settlement have all been the same. First an Otherworlder is picked up by the Finnish government, then they are quarantined and questioned, and finally they are brought to the island. There has been no variance to the pattern, and the familiarity of it gives life in the settlement a kind of rhythm to live by.

Or at least, it did. Up until today.

Because at some point in the early afternoon, the air around the settlement shifts. For a few seconds, anyone outside will feel the hairs stand up on their skin, not unlike a static charge. Then there is a, audible snap, the feeling abruptly disappears, and all returns back to normal.

Except for one important detail: there is now another person in the settlement, standing on the sandy, treeless banks of Snake Island.

Comments

[ghoulserrand]

[For ages he'd wished for nothing more than to see another person again. Someone who'd stop and listen just long enough. Someone alive.

The fact that this person is Kano is just more proof that the universe has a vendetta against him personally.]

Wha-- No...! N-- [He breaks off into coughing, but he's not letting go of that bow. Kano yanks and he holds fast.]

Let... GO!

[He lifts his boot up to try and shove Kano back.]

What is wr-- [He coughs again and draws a particularly raspy breath.] wrong with you...? What are you... doing?

[suddenlybees]

[ He takes the boot wherever it hits him, shaking off the nostalgia and laughing at that question: what is wrong with him? there's just so much. ]

Ouch... I'm saving our asses, that's what! What can you expect to do, holding onto this thing like a safely blanket all your life? You gotta let go of it someday!

[ghoulserrand]

You're... crazy...!

[What is even happening right now.]

This safety... blanket... isn't for me...! What if the... monsters showed up? [What if one was already here, that is.]

[suddenlybees]

If the safety blanket isn't for you, then for who? [ The only other person here is Kano, and if it's for him, shouldn't it be in his hands? ]

If the monsters show up—

[ huh

If they show up, they'll be dead. Absolutely dead. No way around it. ]

I'll give it back then! But they can't swim— or I don't think so, anyways, 'cause there was one way up north that we could hear screeching and whatever all last month, and it prowled up and down the shoreline but it never went into the water towards camp.

[ghoulserrand]

[He clutches his bow and quiver closer to himself.]

No.. no, no... Bad idea...! And you... are a liar... who stole my rope...!

[He scrambles up to his feet, trying to put distance between he and Kano.]

This... is a safety blanket... for everyone! [He coughs.] Including you.