John Dove
Location: Road's End - Streets
Phase: Evening Phase
Date: 11.09.1994 (SUN)
Weather: Overcast
"... Eh?"Originally Posted by John
Mercedes blinked owlishly at John fro amidst her tears, watching as the boy pushes himself into a sitting position. It seems that his words take a while to register in her brain, as does the fact that he isn't dead yet... just on the death's door if nothing's done. Indeed, it must have been that the shock and the trauma of today has broken her mind to the point that she has hard time even acknowledging someone else's words, let alone work as someone else (not to speak of herself) instructs.
But just as it starts to look like she is simply going to sit there, dumbfounded...
SLAP!
Mercedes West uses both of her hands to smack herself in the face, using sheer physical force to snap herself out of her stupor. And while her cheeks are red, and while her eyes are still full of tears, when she looked at John after this maneuver, there was once again focus in her stare. Once again she had found some sort of heading in her mind, and if something had broken in there, well... it could be talked about later.
Instead...
"A-alright, bag, first aid kit, got it... though, like... what the hell are you even doing with my notebo---" Mercedes shook her head as she jumped up from the ground. "Gawd, not the time for this. I mean, I suck at first and, like, don't know much about it but I can give it a try and...?"
It was at that moment that Mercedes West realized the color of the sky too. Her jaw dropped as she stared up towards the clouds which were awash with waves of technicolor spectacle, travelling outwards like ripples from a point that seemed to be deeper, deeper into the forest. A silent curse came out of Mercedes's mouth when she saw it... almost as if she had half-an-idea what it could be. But whatever it was, it seemed to affect nothing else but the clouds now, so why was she so transfixed upon the sight?
"... It's... not supposed to look beautiful..." Mercedes murmured to herself.
Then, as if remembering again what she was supposed to do, the girl sprinted back to the road, her eyes scanning the area for any sign of John's missing belongings. The car nearby was still rumbling, it's engine on. That sight was definitely the clearest sign of hope today... a way to get out of this horrible town and the events that had transpired there. Just take the road and drive, drive without looking back, on the same road that all of them had taken to arrive here earlier this week.
... How could have things changed so much in a single week?
Still, how long was it going to take Mercedes to find that bag? Judging by the sounds, she was running and walk all over the place without much success when it came to locating the first aid kit. And while she had been muttering encouraging words to herself for a while, now she had gone all silent. Only the sound of her shoes upon the asphalt road could be heard. They were hasty and they were panicked, but she still held herself together, until...
Until...
--- Her footfalls came to a stop.
"John..."
Mercedes said, her voice betraying a mote of horror in it.
Then, kneeling down momentarily, she squatted down on the other side of the road from where John had flown and... lifted something up.
Something familiar.
Or rather... the ragged, tattered and broken remains of what had once been a first-aid kit.
One that was completely useless now.