It's really not what you want to do, but if Donna does have drugs in her car like she thinks she does, it's going to be bad for you whether Donna runs or not.

You knew you shouldn't have left the basement!

"Alright, alright, let's do this, but I don't think we should run to Julie's house. I just don't see it being a safe haven." You whisper.
"Okay, okay, I know where we could run to and hide out for awhile. Got a friend by the name of Tina, she works over at the strip club."
"Great. Which one?"
"Kitty City, you know where it is?"
"Why the hell would I know where a strip club is?"
"Because we're going to meet up there! If we run, we can't run in the same direction! We'll get caught for sure!"
"We're probably going to get caught anyway!" you say.

Your voices start to catch the attention of the officers.

"Hey! Quiet down the pair of you…HEY! COME BACK HERE!" one of the officers shouts as Donna runs off!

You're so surprised about her deciding that was the time to start running that you don't even get the opportunity to stand up from the curb before one officer is already chasing Donna and the other has already pulled out his pistol and commanded you to stay put.

You meekly put up your hands and lower your head in an attempt to show you have no intention of running.

"I'm not going anywhere. Don't shoot." You say nervously.

The officer sees that you really aren't a threat puts his gun away, pulls you up roughly by the arm from the curb and throws you into the back of the police car before calling in on his radio about Donna being a runner.

While you're breaking down in tears and worrying about the worst, the officer who threw you into the back of the police car finishes searching Donna's car. Eventually the other officer comes back as well looking a little worn out.

After talking a moment, one of them opens the car door.

"Alright, I didn't find anything in the car, so why the hell did your friend run?"
"I…I really don't know…officer…" you say.
"Don't fucking lie to me or this is going to go very badly for you!" the cop warns and its enough to cause you to yelp a little in fear and begin to cry again.

"(sob) My sister…thought you were going to…(sob) find drugs in the car…so she thought it would be better to run. Please I was just driving with her (sob) to find a new place to live! I've never done anything (sob) wrong in my life! I've…"
"Alright, alright, shut the hell up and stop your crying. Shit. (Sigh) Well what do you think?" the officer asks his partner who is still trying to catch his breath.
"Did you call in about the bitch running?"
"Yeah, but I dunno if anyone's going to bother chasing down some junkie whore, since it sounds like everyone's got their hands full especially now that a riot's broke out at the mall. In fact we're supposed to go down there and help."
"Another fucking riot?! What the fuck is going on in this town? Someone put something in the water?"
"Seems like it. So what do we do with this one? I mean she's clean and the car's clean so…"
"(Sigh) I dunno. I could think of a few things, but we probably don't have time for that right now."

The officer that chased Donna looks into the backseat at you. He's being as intimidating as possible and despite him being red in the face and winded it's working.

"All right blondie, this is your lucky day. Due to the rest of this town seemingly losing its goddamn mind right now and the fact that you're clean, we're letting you go. You can take whatever belongings you have in the car, BUT we're still impounding it if only because your junkie sister made me fucking run several blocks trying to catch her ass."
"Got it. And thank you." You say and start to get out of the car.

Both of the officers help you out…but it isn't out of kindness. The pair of them take the opportunity to grope your chest and your ass as you step out of the car.

"Now I suggest you gather your shit, and take your pretty little ass home." One of the cops says with a leering grin while other laughs.

You really aren't in any position to argue, fight or anything else. You hate the fact you just got molested, but you know that if you give them any sort of lip, they're going to do much worse.

You quickly get your bags out of Donna's car and run away from the scene without looking back. When you're far enough a way, you find some place to sit down and reflect on your situation.

You try to think of the positive first and that's namely things could've been a lot worse you. You have no doubt that those cops would've done more than just feel you up had they been in a less generous mood. So you're glad you didn't get jailed, raped or worse.

But then you think about the negative. First off is your sister who fucking LEFT you there. No hint, no "Now!" no clue at all that she was going to choose that particular time to run. Granted you froze up when it came time to run, but she didn't even look back. You don't exactly have the best opinion of her right now putting you in a situation like that.

Second of all you don't have a new place to live now or at least you aren't where you were going to go. As far as you know the offer to live at Julie's is still open, but it would quite the walk to go there now. A walk that you don't particularly want to do given the day you've had, in fact you'd rather just go back home.

Of course the problem with going back home is you can't stay there so you're going to have to go someplace else eventually. Of course maybe Peter would let you borrow his car, but so far your track record with your siblings this weeks hasn't been great.

You walk home

Really after the day you've had so far, all you want to do is go home and hide out in your basement, so back home it is.

Your walk home isn't entirely uneventful. You see several fights along with a number of other officers arresting folks. You also see a couple of bad car accidents. While you try to avoid large groups of people, you still are paranoid about someone to try to rob you or accost you in some way, but fortunately you manage to keep your head down and look as unassuming as possible.

It isn't quite chaos on the streets, but those two asshole cops weren't joking when one of them said it seemed like the entire town had lost its mind.

By the time you get back to your own neighborhood, it's starting to get dark, though your area is actually rather quiet compared to most places you passed through. You just hope Kelly isn't home because you don't really feel like dealing with her right now.

When you get home, you see Peter's car in the driveway. Kelly's vehicle isn't here though, so it looks like you won't have to put up with her and that's at least one good thing that's happened to you today. (Besides the not getting raped part)

Upon entering the house, it's in same condition as it was when you left, though now you're hearing a lot of grunting and sounds of ecstasy coming from the garage connected to the house. You imagine Peter is in the process of filming one of his shows again.

Not wishing to hear your brother squeal like a pig as he gets fucked for the pleasure of his viewing Internet public, you waste no time in heading down into the basement and settling back into your usual routine in your room.

You know this isn't going to be permanent, but for now at least you can not worry about the pandemonium that's going on outside. You just wish the TV wasn't playing so many Ground Zero infomercials.

Hours pass as they do and just as you're getting ready to fall asleep, you suddenly get a phone call. It's Donna. You almost don't even bother answering, but you're curious to see if she's calling from jail and if she's delusional enough to think you'll actually bail her out.

"Hey sis, where you at?!" Donna asks. Sounds like music in the background so she must not be in jail.
"I'm at home, no thanks to you just ditching me like that!" you say.
"You said you were going to run, like I was! Didn't you do it?"
"No, because by the time you took off without at least giving me a signal, one of those assholes was ready to shoot me. So I had to suffer through getting threatened, thrown in the back of a police car and groped a lot more severely than the first time they patted us down."
"Oh geez…they didn't...um…"
"No, they didn't do that. Though I suspect if that had happened I wouldn't even be alive to talk to you right now. Your car didn't have any drugs in it by the way, but they have impounded it and I'm pretty sure they still have you on a watchlist or something for evading arrest."
"Shit. Figured something like that might happen."
"Hm, Yeah and I'm an idiot for nearly going along with your plan, but hey I guess everything went okay for you, I hear the party music in the back so I'm guessing you're whoring it up with Julie so I'll let you go so you can have your fun."
"Hold on Suzy. First of all I'm not at Julie's. I'm at Kitty City like I said I would be. Second, I can't even get a hold of Julie. She's not answering her phone. Now of course she could just be busy, but if I got some sort of warrant out on me, then maybe going back there isn't the best idea right now. I'm thinking maybe I should stay with my friend Tina instead. She's a stripper that's entertained at some of Julie's parties in the past. She's got room since she kicked her boyfriend out of her trailer."
"Uh huh, well that's great for you. Glad to see you've once again landed on your feet despite evading arrest. Goodbye."
"Suzy, wai…"

You hang up. You half expect Donna to call again, but she doesn't which you're glad because you've run out of patience with her for the day.

You settle down for the night and get some sleep, trying to put this horrible day behind you.

Next day…

TUESDAY


"…if you act now you'll get a free…"

You groggily grab the remote to shut off the incessant noise of the Ground Zero commercial on the TV screen.

You grab your phone to check the time and see that once again you've slept through the morning as usual. You also see that Bobby tried to call you, but you're still not in the mood to call him back. Though if you don't secure a place to live you might not have a choice. Still as far as you know the offer to live at Julie's is still good, you're just not sure about how well that's going to go over now.

While you're trying to ponder your next move, you get a call. It's Donna again. Might as well get this over with.

"Donna, this better be good, because you're not exactly my favorite person right now." You say answering the phone.
"Whoa! Hold on Suzy! Don't hang up!" Donna exclaims.
"Say what you got to say."
"Okay, look first of all I'm sorry about what you had to go through. I know that had to suck for you. I shouldn't have convinced you to run anyway. It's obvious now that was a stupid plan in the first place since I didn't even have anything in the car. (Sigh) Last night when I was sleeping on a beer soaked couch in a trailer hiding out from the cops I sort of had a revelation of how my choices in life had lead me to that point. I also sort of realized that if I probably continue on this path it's only going to get worse."

That's rather philosophical of your sister, and it's enough to keep your attention.

"So I've decided that I need to do something with my life and make it better, so I got a job." Donna says.
"A job? How the hell did you get a job so quick? Doing what?" you ask.
"I'm going to be a stripper at Kitty City! The owner was offering me a job yesterday and I already was getting tips from guys who mistook me for one of the strippers here anyway. So I figured why not? In fact I'm on break right now."

Why are you not surprised?

Donna continues before you can even speak again.

"Now before you judge, starting a new life takes money and let's face it, I don't have exactly many useful skills that are going to earn me a lot of cash in a quick amount of time. I figure I can earn enough to save and figure things out as I go."
"Hm, well that's great and all, but why are you telling me all this?" you ask.
"Because this is my new start and like I said I feel bad about convincing you to go along with my plan yesterday. Besides, don't you still need a place to stay? You can come live with me!"
"I thought I was already going to do that by moving in to Julie's."
"Nah, I'm not going back to Julie's. Too much temptation to go back to my old ways there. I'm moving into one of the trailers at the trailer park."
"Wait. You just started working as a stripper. How the hell did you manage to get a trailer already?"
"I secured one after…um talking with the park owner this morning. Look, that's not really important right now. What is important is I got a deal on a fairly good one and it's big enough for two of us. It might be a little rough going at first, but I anticipate after a few weeks of teasing these degenerates here, we'll be living fairly comfortably, if not in the lap of luxury."
"I dunno. While I'm still pissed about yesterday, it does mean a lot that you're making this pretty generous offer. I don't know about living in a trailer park though. I mean aren't you worried about the kind of people there? In fact I can imagine a lot of the type that Kelly associates with come from there, do you really think its safe?"
"Safe as opposed to what? Growing up in our household? We had a fucking paranoid psychotic older brother, a sadistic bullying older sister and at one point a goddamn SERIAL KILLER uncle living in our house. At least the hostile rednecks around here won't be living under our roof! Besides, it really isn't as bad as you hear."

You find that a little hard to believe considering you've heard more than enough stories about the trailer park outside of town. Donna might not think its bad, just because she was living there overnight.

"I just don't know Donna. I mean I wasn't exactly looking forward to dealing with the non-stop partying at Julie's, but I'd at least feel a little safer there than I would at the trailer park."
"Huh, don't be so sure of that. Julie pretty much has gotten to the point where she has an open door policy to let any creepy weirdo that walks in off the street in the house. It's actually amazing someone like Uncle Ed hasn't come in and killed us all. Are you heading over there sometime today?"
"Well if I can secure a ride over there I will."
"Okay, well if you do get over there could you let Julie know that I'm moving out? She's still not answering her phone. I'm going to have to make arrangements to get my bigger things, but maybe you could help me get some of my smaller items when I get over there tonight?"
"Well, I suppose I could." You say.
"Great. I knew I could count on your Suzy. (Sigh) You really are the good one in the family sis. It's so unfair that life hasn't been better to you. Once again I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday. It's nearly time for me to go out there and shake my ass again so I gotta go. Just…think about what I said okay? If you change your mind about your future living arrangements just come with Tina and me when we go over to Julie's tonight, or I guess if you're really feeling adventurous you could always go over to the trailer park yourself. Just go to the owner's trailer with the big signs around it and mention my name and he'll let you in my new place. He's sort of letch, but he's old so he mostly confines it staring and making the occasional comment. Don't worry about it."

After another sincere apology about yesterday, Donna finally hangs up leaving you now with a new option.

Donna seems to be genuinely trying to change her life in her own way. You almost can't believe it was Donna on the phone at all. Maybe some sort of pod person replaced her.

She also seems to be really making an effort to make things up to you, which is surprising as well. It's always a rarity in your family when you actually try to help each other out.

Still, you're not sure about this whole living in a trailer park business for several reasons, but you suppose you could give it a little thought at least. In any case, you need to get a ride to wherever it is you're going to be heading to and that means seeing if your brother Peter is going to be just as accommodating as your sister currently is.

You head upstairs and knock on the door to the garage.

"Hey, um Peter? You busy?"

You don't get an answer right away, but eventually you do after more knocking.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on!" Peter says before answering the door. He's only peaking his head out, so it's very likely he's naked.

"Um, sorry to interrupt whatever it is you're doing, but I need a ride to my new place."
"I thought you moved out yesterday."
"Yeah, there was a slight hiccup in the plan yesterday. Anyway, can you give me a ride over to my new place?"
"(Sigh) I'm kinda in the middle of recording something. I'm assuming you're going to Julie's?"
"Yeah…I think." You say.
"You think? You don't know if you're going to live over at Julie's place or not?"
"Well…Donna got a new place of her own and I'm still not sure if I should just move in with her yet."
"Donna got a new…look you know what? I don't give a shit about any of this." Peter says and then closes the door.

You think that's the end of it, but he opens it up again, but this time only his hand with some keys in it are coming out.

"I'm not your personal taxi service. Here, take my car and return it tomorrow or at least by Thursday. Now don't disturb me again!"

You take the keys and Peter slams the door. This is probably the most helpful he's been in…well ever.

You go back and repack some of your bags and drag them to Peter's car. After loading everything up in the backseat you pull out of the drive way and wonder which way you should go.

You drive to Julie's house

While you haven't quite ruled out the possibility of living with Donna, you don't think you're quite ready to go driving over there yourself and putting up with some old guy perving on you today. If you do decide to go over there, you'll do it later tonight.

Besides, you want to see just how bad it might be over at Julie's before making a decision.

A few minutes of driving to your destination and you're sure of one thing being pretty bad, the roads! Once again there are cops everywhere, but also ambulances and fire trucks racing to their various destinations too. You nearly turn around and head back home, but eventually you make it to Julie's neighborhood, which is thankfully not in the midst of anarchy.

You pull up to the driveway and get out of the car. You figure you'll assess the situation before making a decision of whether you're going to stay or not.

You sort of expected to see a few people drinking on the porch or at least hearing loud music as you walk up to the door, but so far it doesn't sound like any sort of party going on or at least not an overly rowdy one, which is odd considering how people have been acting in this town for the past few days.

You knock on the door, but get no immediate answer. After a few more bangs you finally get an answer, but it isn't Julie.

"Hello." A man says in a flat tone and almost seems to be studying you. He looks like he might be around your age, but he doesn't look like the sort that would be at one of Julie's parties. He's very "ordinary" looking.
"Hey. Where's Julie at?" you ask.
"Julie? Oh yes, the owner of this house. Well, I don't really know. I remember seeing her yesterday, but then she left with some guy and I haven't seen her since. Of course this being her house she has to return sometime right? Would you like to wait?" the man asks opening the door further to invite you in.

Something about this guy feels a little "off" to you.

"Wait, who are you?" you ask.
"Oh I'm sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Johnny. I was at Julie's party yesterday. Guess you could say I got a little tipsy and decided I shouldn't go home in that condition, so I flopped out in the basement. I'm not the only person who did that apparently considering some of Julie's other guests are still here as well."

You peer inside and see that Johnny is indeed speaking the truth. A couple of people are on the couch playing some sort of video game.

"So now that you know who I am, I have to ask who you are." Johnny says.
"I'm Suzy and I'm Julie's friend." You say.
"I see, well come on in, I'm sure when Julie gets back she'll be pleased to see you."

You enter the house and the place is in a lot better condition than you would've thought for a party house. Johnny quickly closes the door and locks it. Causing you to immediately look back.

"You never can tell what weirdo will show up with unlocked doors and all, right?" he says.
"Indeed." You say still getting an uneasy feeling about this guy.
"So, you're one of Julie's friends. Guess you're a real party girl, just like she is huh?" Johnny remarks almost in an accusing fashion.
"Hardly. Are these all the people in the house?" you ask, pointing to the stoners playing video games and completely ignoring you and Johnny.
"Yeah, I mean there were some other people here earlier, but these lot are all that's left, beside myself. Julie's pretty cool about letting people just crash here even if she's not around."

With Johnny creepily hovering near you and the stoners babbling about inane shit, you already realize that this is not going to work for you.

"Alright, everyone get out." You say, but the only one who even hears you is Johnny.
"What?" Johnny asks.
"Look I hate to be rude, and you probably didn't know this, but I'm moving in here. Now when Julie is here, she can have all her little drug addled party friends over as much as she likes, I mean its her house after all. But I'm not going to put up with them while she isn't here! So I want everyone out, you all can come back later when she's here. Whenever that is."

Johnny's still the only one who is even paying attention and his facial expression on your stance hasn't changed.

"But if it's Julie's house doesn't she have final say in what goes?" Johnny asks.
"Yeah, well when I see Julie, I'm going to have a little discussion with her about our new living arrangements." You remark.

Once again Johnny just stares at you, it almost feels like he's staring through you. It makes you uncomfortable to say the least.

"All right. You've got a point. I wouldn't want a bunch of strangers just wandering around in my home either. I'll get out of your hair, as for these guys, I can get 'em to go." Johnny says and then suddenly shouts at the stoners that everyone has to get out of the house and starts ripping controllers out of their hands.

"Hey!"
"Not cool dude!"
"You dick!"
"Sorry guys, but as the old saying goes, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Come on, let's move it." Johnny says and eventually the stoners grudgingly shuffle off to leave. Johnny follows behind them.

"When you see Julie, tell her it was an excellent party last night." Johnny says and flashes a brief smile, which comes off more creepy than friendly. You don't even reply, you just shut the door and lock it, glad to be rid of everyone.

Remembering that your sister said that if you did live here, you'd be sleeping in Julie's dad's old office. You explore that room first. When you get there it looks pretty much like the same office you remember being in a few times when you played over here. It's definitely convenient that it has a small private bathroom leading from it as well as a couch that apparently folds out into a bed.

After assessing your possible new digs, you decide to go retrieve your bags from the car. You unpack your bags and haul them into the house and head on into your new room.

After getting a little bit settled, you figure since you're all alone in the house, you might as well do something that usually puts you in a better mood. (and you sure could use it)

While you're in the middle of it, you suddenly think you hear something. You call out thinking that maybe Julie is finally home, but when you get no reply, you just check to make sure the door to your room is locked. If Julie does come home, you don't want her suddenly walking in on you.

After getting back in the mood and taking care of your needs you wash up a bit and return to your usual routine of…well doing nothing at all.

Hours pass and eventually you start to get hungry so you head to the kitchen in the hopes of finding food. You manage to find a few bags of junk food and some unopened drink in the fridge. Once again while you're doing this, you swear you think you hear noise. You call out again to see if anyone is here, but there is no answer.

Given that it's now nighttime you're a little on edge. You know its probably just the house making creaking sounds, but with all the bullshit that's been going on out in the streets lately you're just a little paranoid.

Just as you're heading back to your room, the front door suddenly opens! It's Donna and some other young woman who looks a bit on the trashy side.

"Shit! You scared me." You say.
"Why didn't you pick up your phone? I tried calling you before I got over here." Donna asks.
"I…I guess I had it on vibrate and didn't hear it." You say.
"Hm. Well I see this place is practically a tomb. I take it Julie isn't home?"
"Nope, I haven't heard from her either."
"That's really odd…"

Suddenly the trashy young woman speaks up.

"Hey Donna are we picking your shit up or what? You know how fucked up it is out there right now and I'd like to get home before it gets worse."
"Oh yeah, better get to it. Suzy, this is my friend Tina." Donna says and heads upstairs.

"Hello." You say to Tina, but she just grunts at you and heads back outside to her car.

Remembering that Donna wanted you to help her move some of the stuff, you head upstairs to her room.

"Your friend Tina isn't very friendly." You ask.
"Yeah, well if you were a horny guy with a hundred dollar bill, she'd be really friendly towards you. Anyway, she's always been cool with me ever since I've known her, plus she helped me get the current job I have." Donna says as she packs away items.
"You need anything for me to carry down?"
"Yeah, but not yet. Really I'm thinking I'll get most of this stuff later when I have a day off. Right now I just want to get the hell out of this town, it's getting nuts out there!"
"Yeah, it was pretty chaotic out there earlier on my drive here. So how was your first day?"
"Not bad. As strange as it may seem, it actually was calmer in the club than it was outside. Though having bouncers helps in that area I suppose. Still a couple of fights did break out."
"Shit. You okay? Are you sure the job is safe?"
"Oh I'm safe. Like I said, there's good protection there. Honestly I'm more concerned with the drive TO the club, but I imagine whatever is going on will die down eventually."
"Hope so."

Donna finishes packing a bag and starts to pack a new one and you stand there silent until you hear a noise from downstairs causing you to jump a bit.

"Are you okay?" Donna asks.
"Yeah, what the hell's that noise?" you ask, briefly stepping out of Donna's room to look over into the living room.
"Probably Tina."
"No, she's not down there and besides she went back to wait in the car."
"Well maybe she wandered back in briefly…you seem a little stressed."
"I dunno. The shit's that's been going on in town and I guess being alone in the house at night has got me a little jumpy. Sort of concerned that Julie hasn't come back either."
"Mmm, well that IS odd. I tried calling her again earlier too with no luck. Have you thought anymore about coming to live with me? I told you it would be fine and I know you think the trailer park isn't safe environment, is this town really any safer right now?"

You go with Donna

While you're still not entirely sure about the trailer park, you have to admit the since you've been here in the house you've felt a little nervous at times. Almost like you feel someone is watching you. Silly of course, but maybe leaving town is a good idea if it's getting as chaotic as it has been.

You just hope you're making the right decision.

"Yeah, okay. I'll come with you." You say.
"You will? Great! Seriously, things will be better between us. I'm still really sorry about yesterday Suzy, here." Donna says and hands you a bunch of money.
"What's this?"
"It's some of what I made today. Oh don't worry, I still got a lot. I'm telling you with the money I'm making, we might even be able to find some place better to live in a few months! Okay, well I think I'm all packed, go grab your stuff and meet me in Tina's car. Oh wait, I saw Peter's car out there. Are you going to follow us in that instead?"
"I suppose so, it will probably be less cramped." You say and head downstairs to your room while Donna follows and heads out the door.

It doesn't really take you long to throw your stuff in your bags since you didn't really unpack that much. Just as you're loaded up, you once again feel like you're being watched. You spin around and see nothing.

"You're giving yourself the creeps Suzy. Nobody's here." You mumble.

Just as you are exiting your room, it's a minor miracle that Donna comes back in through the front door.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" you hear her scream from the living room. This causes you to pause just long enough that the assailant who was going to ambush you when you left your room losses his advantage.

However, he's still intent on killing you though and nearly succeeds in grabbing you, but you manage to back away in time.

As you back away you get a good look at him now and he's not unfamiliar to you. It's Johnny, but this time his face displays an utter hatred towards you.

"Fucking whore! You think you could get away? I heard what you did in here earlier! I got something I can shove up in there to make you feel like you've never felt before and never will again!" Johnny screams and swing his knife at you.

You continue to back away, but there isn't much room so you go around the desk for temporary relief, but even if you make it into the bathroom and lock the door you'll just be trapped in there.

You're so busy trying to survive, you completely forget that Donna is still in the house, but you soon remember when she runs in the room and clobbers Johnny in the back of the head with a small lamp.

"Fuck…shit…" Johnny says crumpling to the floor. He's not dead, but Donna's too busy calling to you to run to finish him off.

"Suzy! Come on! Get out of there!" Donna shouts and you waste no time in doing so.

Just as Johnny struggles to get back up, Donna throws the lamp at his head and follows you.

In all the excitement you forgot if you have Peter's keys, but Donna just shouts at you to get into Tina's car as you exit the house.

As you both pile into the car, Tina is more than a little surprised.

"What the fuck? Why are you two…"
"Just drive! Drive! Drive!" Donna shouts.

You're squashed a bit in the backseat with all the bags and panting heavily, but you're glad you got out of there. Thought you're understandably still shaken up.

"We need to tell the cops!" you shout.
"Tell them what? Have you seen this town Suzy? You think we're going to get any help? Shit, I probably still got a warrant out on me!" Donna says.

Meanwhile Tina is getting annoyed about being out of the loop.

"Will one of you bitches tell me what the fuck is going on?! I mean this is my car and I'd like to know if we're planning on getting shot at!" Tina snaps.
"We're fine. Well not fine, but nobody's shooting at anyone. Some nut case with a knife was in the house and tried to kill my sister." Donna replies.
"And you didn't kill him?"
"No, I mean maybe. Shit, I dunno. I smacked him in the head twice with a lamp, but I don't think I killed him." Donna says.
"(Sigh) You should've finished him off. I would have." Tina says.
"Tina, I'm not in the mood right now okay?!" Donna shouts.
"Fine. Fine. I'm just saying you better watch yourself in the future. Anyway, I need to focus on getting us through this bullshit going on in town, because we could still be getting shot at."

The rest of the drive is in relative silence, broken up periodically by Tina swearing at the road situation and your sister asking if you're okay since you're so quiet.

Your quietness is due to still being shaken up by what just occurred and also because you just don't have anything to say at the moment and are just hoping you get to where you have to get to in peace and in one piece.

After a long drive, you eventually reach the trailer park. You look out the window at the various rundown trailers in the darkness and think "So this is what my life has come to."

Finally you stop at one towards the further end of the park close to undeveloped land and just regular wilderness. One thing you sort of were expecting was the drunken revelry of several hillbillies, and while you did see a few sitting around with some bottles in hand, it's actually pretty quiet.

"This is your place right Donna?" Tina asks.
"Yeah, thanks Tina."
"Hm, well just be ready to go in the afternoon tomorrow. I'm not waiting around for you." Tina replies.

As the pair of you get out and unload your bags from the car, Tina studies you a bit.

"Y'know blondie, you're not bad lookin'. If you ever loosen up a bit, you could easily get a job at Kitty City too. I think the school girl look would work for ya pretty well. You kinda got that innocent look."
"Yeah I don't think so." You say.
"Hm, suit yerself. I'm just tryin' to help YOU out. Whatever." Tina remarks and backs the car up and swings it around to head back to her own trailer.

"I still don't like her." You say.
"Heh, well I'm not surprised. Come on, let's get inside. I'll give you the grand tour."

Naturally being a trailer, the "grand tour" doesn't take long. Donna tried to make the place sound better than it is, but it's better than you thought it would be, so it's not awful. She points out the couch which will have to do for your sleeping accommodations.

"Well Suzy, I know this is kind of a weird way to end the night given all that went down, but I'm really tired and I need to get some sleep, but before I do, did you need to talk about what happened?" Donna says.
"Probably, but what good would it really do? I mean I'm starting to wonder if I'm a magnet for serial killers at this point. Uncle Ed, my ex, this asshole we just barely got away from…Oh shit! Julie!" you suddenly say thinking about the grim implications of what might've happened to her.

Donna's face drops a bit too.

"Fuck. You said you haven't been able to get a hold of her at all?" Donna asks.
"No. Shit, that sick fuck probably killed her!" you exclaim.
"Now we don't know for certain. She could be…"
"I KNOW for certain. That creepy fucker told me a story involving her leaving the house when I met him earlier today. He probably lied and actually killed her. Oh fuck this is bad. I mean I know I grew apart from Julie…but goddamn it…" you say getting a little teary eyed.

Donna tries to console you, but she's starting to get upset too. Really you haven't seen her get sad for quite some time. Your sadness over the very likely loss of your friend is almost like a bonding experience. In between the tears you thank Donna for saving your life.

"(Sniffle) Hey, you might've saved mine had you not called me to move out in the first place. I mean without you, I might've been very partying with that sicko and he could've killed me as well as Julie. (deep breath) Okay, tomorrow you come with me. I'll try to convince Tina to drop you off at the police station. Hopefully you can make a report or something and we can at least get those corrupt fucks to look into it. Assuming things have settled down in town that is."
"Things have been really fucked up lately."
"Yeah, I dunno Suzy. I don't place much stock in end times bullshit, but I guess those Ground Zero commercials they're constantly blasting on the radio is starting to make me think something big is going to go down, though maybe it is already."
"Seems like it with the way my luck is going." You say.
"Hey, don't worry sis. We're going to get through this, no matter what comes our way. You and me. This is a brand new start for us, remember?"

This uncommon optimism does make you smile a bit at the fact you don't have to deal with all this yourself.

"Okay, Donna. (Yawn) I guess I better get some sleep. It'll be a big day if I'm to make a report tomorrow. Thanks again for saving me, I'm never going to forget it."
"Hey, like I said, you probably saved mine as well. Good night Suzy."
"Night Donna."

Donna heads off to her bed and you eventually fall asleep on the couch.

Next day…

WEDNESDAY


"…act now and spend your life in the comfort of…"

"Oh shut the hell up…I already know the world is going to hell in a hand basket." You hear Donna say while she turns off the TV as you groggily wake up from the couch.

"What time is it?" you ask.
"It's past noon that's for sure. Still a few hours to go before we have to get ready to leave."
"Oh. How long you been awake?"
"Hm, not long. The shower's all yours though, I've already used it."

You sit up still getting used to your new surroundings

"Hm, you were right, it really isn't what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting to hear the sounds of drunken hillbillies arguing and shooting off guns when I woke up. It's actually pretty quiet." You say gathering so clean clothes.
"Heh, well I can't say that probably won't happen around the holidays, but like I said, I think you'll find that even the trashiest of people aren't acting like stereotypes all the time." Donna replies.

You nod and head off to take a shower. While you wash up, you try to mentally prepare yourself for your trip to the police station today. Part of that involves relaxing yourself and relieving yourself of tension in the usual way that hasn't failed you yet…

A few minutes later…

"SUZY! SUZY! GET DRESSED WE GOT A FUCKING SITUATION OUT HERE!" you suddenly hear Donna say as she beats on the bathroom door.

As startling as that is, what you hear next is even more so due to a loud bullhorn.

"THIS IS THE NATIONAL GUARD. THIS AREA IS NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW! ALL INHABITANTS WILL EXIT THEIR TRAILERS AND AMASS IN THE CENTER FOR OBSERVATION! ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO RUN OR RESISTING WILL BE SHOT!"

So much for putting your mind at ease.

"Alright! Alright! I hear what's going on! I'm getting out!" you shout.
"Hurry!" Donna says.

You stop your shower, grab your clean clothes and start getting dressed as quickly as possible.

Tina is looking out one of the windows when you exit the bathroom.

"There are a couple of military trucks with a bunch of guardsmen out there. I don't know what's going on, but this is really bad. Shit. This has gotta have something to do with what's been going on in town." Donna says.
"They want us to go out there too." You say not being enthusiastic about that idea.
"Yeah, fuck that. It's probably just so they can kill us easier if we're all huddled up in a group or worse, maybe they want to round us up in those trucks for some sinister purpose."

Odd that Donna always thought your older brother was a kook for talking like that on regular basis, but she sounds more like him than ever right now. To be fair though, this is all pretty strange and you're not exactly trusting of the situation yourself.

"Well what are other people doing?"
"Some are coming out and some are staying in. In fact more are staying in than coming out, but that's hardly surprising. The folks around here aren't exactly fond of the government."

"EVERYONE OUT OF THEIR TRAILERS NOW! THIS IS NOT A CHOICE, IT'S A FUCKING ORDER!"

You and Donna look at each other.

"This isn't going to end well. Maybe we should run." Donna suggests and you nearly laugh.
"Yeah, because the plan to run worked SO well for me last time!" you say.
"Okay this is different, we really would be running off together. Come on, do you really think those soldiers out there are any better than those cops that pulled us over? In fact they sound worse!"
"Well you got a point there, (sigh) okay so what's the plan? We just step out the trailer and run? They already said they're going to open fire on anyone who does that." You say.
"Yeah, but we're lucky since we have a trailer at the end of the park. We could probably make a run for it and hide in the wilderness behind the park."
"That simple huh? How long are we supposed to hide out there? I don't know how to survive in the wild and unless you been secretly reading up such things, I don't think you do either."
"Well I don't fucking know! I'm just trying to come up with suggestions here! Fuck Suzy, I'm trying to help YOU out as usual."
"Thanks. Thanks for that Donna. Real helpful right now."

"EVERYONE EXIT THEIR TRAILERS RIGHT FUCKING NOW! THIS IS YOUR LAST FUCKING WARNING OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE AND THESE RUN DOWN PIECES OF SHIT WILL BE YOUR GODDAMN COFFINS!"

You look out the window briefly and see the few people that have exited their trailers are being shoved roughly in the center of the park. Some of the guardsmen stand nearby pointing their rifles at them, but nothing more yet.

A few more of the guardsmen are starting to spread out and move about the park. It looks like they're preparing for combat.

And then suddenly you see one of the locals kick their door open and yell something at the top of their lungs while blasting one of the soldiers with a shotgun before getting riddled with bullets.

Then all hell breaks loose.

"Get down!" you shout and you and Donna are both getting as low as you can on the floor. Gunfire, shouting and screaming is all you can hear and you're praying that a stray doesn't go through the wall and hit you.

Donna apparently has the same idea.

"Suzy, we gotta get the fuck outta here!"
"Donna we go out that front door and we risk an even bigger chance of getting our asses shot off! We need to just stay low and behind as much shit as possible! Maybe your bedroom or the shower in the bathroom would be…"

A couple of bullets go through the windows overhead and small shards of glass sprinkle to the floor.

"That's it, I'm not fucking staying here!" Donna yells and starts to crawl to the door of the trailer.

You run with her

While it didn't work out the first time, there really isn't any reason to not hesitate to run now. The soldiers are obviously out of control and it's possible they'll just line you up and start shooting you. You stand up from your crouching position and run over to the trailer door.

"Suzy, what the hell, keep the fuck down! They're still firing out there!" Donna exclaims as you step over her.
"Donna, you're the one who said you wanted to get out of here quickly, well we can't waste time! Now get up and let's go!" you shout and grab the door handle.

You open the door, which to your surprise reveals a soldier who was just about to open the door. Startling the soldier, he loses balance backwards a bit, but he doesn't lose his trained instinct to defend himself unfortunately for you.

The guardsman fires and you take several bullets to your body. You're dead before you even hit the floor of the trailer as your sister screams at this sight.