FRIDAY


You wake up feeling slightly colder than you did last night, though it's probably because the fire has died down a little and Jack is no longer spooning you. A quick look around though shows that he's still here. He notices that you're up.

"Well good morning sunshine." He says sitting at a table with a candle burning.
"What time is it?" you ask, not thinking.
"Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd say it's still morning, maybe the afternoon. In any case it's daytime the last time I looked outside."
"Oh right. No modern luxuries. Is that one of those books we found yesterday?" you ask.
"Oh yeah. I was trying to read or at least understand any of it."
"You a linguist?"
"Eh, not really. I mean I have studied a few languages from time to time for my own reasons and in a couple cases thanks to the Gray Building weirdness I had to learn some new ones, but it isn't like I had any formal training on the matter."
"You understand any of it?"
"Not excessively so, but I only really started. I get the impression whoever lives here is a fur trader. Some of this book isn't doesn't really consist of words as it's a list of numerical symbols and totals. Fortunately those are universal. It would also explain the large amounts of furs piled up and this…" Jack says picking up the pouch of coins. "…I would imagine is their life savings."
"So you still think we're in a different world?"
"I dunno. As I mentioned I've looked outside while you were asleep, and wandered the area a bit. Not too far, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary save for trees, snow and a few white rabbits bouncing around. I mean that ugly head on the wall is the only thing I've seen so far that's out of the ordinary. I will say that the presence of books at least shows writing and probably literature exists. The coins imply some sort of economy system. So civilization here exists, but of course who knows what said civilization is like."
"You said you thought it was a medieval one."
"Yeah, and I'm still holding on to that belief, of course it's possible that maybe we're just in a less advanced area. For all we know there are people whizzing around in jetpacks elsewhere." Jack says and then snaps his fingers. "Oh I did see an outhouse. It's not excessively far; we just never saw it yesterday due to the direction we came from. Well that and paying more attention to wanting to get into this cabin. You'll happy to know it's not even a disgusting diarrhea sprayed mess or overly foul smelling. The cold climate probably helps on that aspect. There's even a roll of paper in there. Um, it's not exactly the softest stuff though, and you'll have to clean your hands in the snow."
"Lovely. Definitely not looking forward to the experience. So you see anything else of note on your outdoor adventures?"
"I noticed foot prints going from this cabin and heading towards the east. I imagine they're from the boots of the person who lives here. I've seen the same foot prints all over this immediate area, but those were going somewhere with a purpose rather than milling about taking care of every day chores around here I imagine."
"Wow, you're tracker too huh? You really do know a little bit of everything." You say.
"I wouldn't say I'm a tracker, I'm just sort of making guesses in the scheme of things. I just saw the prints in the snow and made the conclusion."
"You think the person living here is coming back?" you ask.
"I dunno. I mean it's possible, but I'm wondering if this place was abandoned. Seems like the door would have been locked. Of course the door can only be barred from the inside, so maybe that's unavoidable and there generally aren't many people wandering around here to worry about locks. Still, it seems like they would have hidden their pouch of coins better or even taken them with them.

You nod and there is a silent pause in the conversation.

You look back at the fire and Jack goes back to looking at the book. Probably the pair of you are wondering what the hell you're going to do now. At least you are. Jack seems like he's trying his hardest to make sense of everything and that's certainly a good thing. You can't help but think maybe you're not pulling your weight as much as you can though, it's just you don't know what you're supposed to be doing. It isn't like you've ever been in a situation like this before.

So far you've just been trying to make the concentrated effort of not falling apart and giving in to despair because you get the impression no matter what happens, from here on out your life is going to be very different.

"I know how to sew." You suddenly blurt out.
"What?" Jack responds.
"I know how to sew, I mean I haven't done it ever since my mother died, but you never forget something like that completely I suppose. My mother was the one who taught me, which is why I just sort of lost interest in it when she died." You say.
"Well that's an interesting little fact you never told me about yourself when you were talking about your family before. What made you bring it up?"
"Our situation I suppose. I mean I suppose at some point we're going to need new clothes. I've never sewn furs together, but I suppose I'll figure it out. I guess I just want to let you know I'm not completely useless and I will be contributing to our survival out here. I mean I'll chop wood and learn to hunt and whatever else we need to do together."
"Suzy, you're stressing about this too much. I mean yes, this situation isn't the best, but trust me I'm just as worried if I'M going to be useful at all in this situation. I mean it's only thanks to all the past weirdness I had to deal with due to that Gray Building that I even have some of the basic knowledge I have of various things and a good portion of that probably isn't even going to be useful here."

Jack gets up and goes over to sit with you and he takes your hand.

"When it's all said and done. We're both a pair of basement dwellers and neither one of us was truly prepared for this, but we're still going to get through it. I mean I like to think I'm a survivor on some level. And you, well I think you've more than proven to be one. I know you think it's all just been luck or coincidence in that regard, but hell, maybe there's a reason. Maybe there's a reason for all this."
"You think so? You believe that all this is part of some plan?"
"I dunno. Maybe it's just a bunch of shit that happened. Still doesn't mean we aren't going to get through this."

You look into Jack's eyes and you take the initiative and kiss him full on the mouth. He reciprocates your affection, but you're getting the strong impression that you might be the experienced one here.

And then something urgent breaks up the moment.

"Damn it." You say.
"What? Did I do something wrong?" Jack asks.
"No. That thing that I wasn't looking forward to has finally arrived."
"Wha…Oh. That. Um, well did you want me to come with you?"
"You're going to watch me go to the bathroom? Freak."
"No! I meant did you want me to come with you to show you the way or extra protection."
"I know what you meant, just joking. Yeah, I suppose you should come with me so you can at least show me where it is. Knowing me, I'd end up getting lost on the way there. Well alright come on, let's go get this over with." You say getting up.

Remembering how cold it is out there, you grab a couple of the furs to wrap around you so you're at least better protected this time. You go to grab your bat, but then you think if you shouldn't take one of those spears instead.

You take the spear

"Hey Jack, is that outhouse large enough to prop up a spear inside it?"
"Um, I think so. Why? You taking one of those instead of the bat?"
"Yeah, I was remembering something I watched once talking about how the spear was an easy weapon to learn how to use even for someone completely unskilled which is why it was used so much in ancient and medieval wars amongst infantry. I'm just thinking I'd probably want something like that with me instead of a bat if we encounter a bear or something I want to keep at a distance."

Jack looks at you a bit impressed.

"Well, look at you. Suzy, warrior princess over here. You said you didn't know anything." Jack says smiling.

You take the spear and then look over at the shield.

"Jack, help me get that shield down from the wall." You say.
"What?" Jack responds.
"I want to take the shield with me too."
"Suzy, you're just going to the bathroom, not to war!"
"Hey you said it yourself, we still don't know what this place is all about and I want to feel as secure as possible, so if that means carrying around a shield, then that's what I'm going to do!"
"…alright…" Jack says and then proceeds to grab the circular shield down from the wall and then hands it to you.

The shield isn't light and is made of strong thick wood; you definitely feel the weight just holding the thing.

"You sure you don't want the sword too?" Jack asks.
"Nah, I think this is all I can carry. The shield is definitely heavier than I thought it would be."
"I really don't think you're going to need that." Jack says wrapping a fur around himself and grabbing the axe he brought with him from the Gray Building.
"And like I said, it makes me feel better. Come on let's go."

Upon exiting the cabin you see the sun shining down and you feel the cold wind blow.

"Shit, even with these furs on I forgot how cold it was." You say.
"We'll get another big fire started when we get back." Jack says.
"I'll look forward to it, so which way?"
"Oh to the left and then past some trees, it's not hard to find."

You and Jack make your way to the infamous outhouse. You both look around periodically, but see nothing dangerous. When Jack's not looking around, he's studying you.

"So you ready to fight the Persians?" Jack asks with a smirk.
"I dunno, but I have to say I do feel rather empowered." You reply.

Eventually you get to your goal and it looks exactly like you thought it would.

"Well this is it." You say unenthusiastically.
"Your shield is going to be kind of bulky, leave it out here with me. Unless you plan on getting attacked from below and if that's the case, a shield isn't going to help."
"Fuck, now I'm going to be worrying about something lurking down there and reaching up to grab me. Thanks a lot!" you say and give the shield to Jack.

You enter the outhouse and endure the unavoidable. Thankfully Jack makes no attempt to speak or make jokes to you while you're inside.

Eventually you come out and start putting your hands in the snow. Jack watches you and then goes back to looking around.

"Well, wasn't as bad as I thought, I'm still missing modern plumbing though. Wish we had soap too." You say.
"I guess if you want to sanitize your hands even more I suppose you could pour some of that mead we have at the cabin on them."
"Will that work?"
"It's got alcohol in it, I assume it can't hurt. You ready to go Valkyrie?" Jack asks and hands you back your shield.
"Yeah, you see anything out here?"
"Nah, just a few more of those white rabbits I always see hopping around."

As you and Jack make your way back to the cabin, you and he speak on if either one of you knows anything about hunting. You of course know nothing, Jack says he's not much better, though he thinks maybe you both could start making simple traps or something, especially given that there are obviously rabbits around here to be caught.

"Wish we had the Internet so we could at least look all this shit up. God, I really miss the Internet…I think this is the longest I've been without it and I suppose those days are over as well." You say as you approach the cabin.
"Oh, you don't know. We're still just stuck out here in the wilderness, like I said, maybe there is Internet and hover cars somewhere else."
"Love that optimism Jack…" you say chuckling and heading towards the door.
"Hey Suzy, wait is that blood in the snow?"

You and Jack both stop a few feet away from the cabin, you're still closest to the door, which suddenly swings open, instinctively you put the shield up to cover yourself as much as you can.

Before you, you see a man with a good amount of facial hair and wearing several furs and clothing much more suited for this sort of weather.

He's not completely standing upright, but is in a somewhat stooped position as if wounded which judging from the blood in the snow is probably the case. While it's difficult to tell his facial expression due to the hair, his eyes are wide as if he's surprised, desperate or possibly even afraid. Maybe a mixture of all three.

The major thing you see however is the crossbow he's holding and pointing at you and Jack.

The man shouts something at you in a language you don't understand and fires, but fortunately you had the shield in front of you and the bolt is prevented from hitting your body and merely goes stops half way through the shield instead.

There is the smallest pause in this encounter where you realize that you just came close to being killed again, Jack realizing you nearly came close to being killed and the man realizing he's failed to kill you.

The man quickly backs inside and hastily attempts to reload his crossbow, meanwhile you don't think about your near death experience and just act. You charge forward with the shield up and the spear out. You even start screaming like you're in an action movie.

Your charge is stopped when you hit the man full on. The spear sinks into his body and he cries out in pain dropping the crossbow. You attempt to pull the spear as hard as you can back out, but it isn't easy because the man keeps you from doing so by gripping the top of the shaft and the man still has enough strength to grab the knife on his side with his other hand.

Fortunately he can't quite reach you and swings helplessly with one hand. Since you can't pull the spear out, you instead start wiggling it to the left and right no doubt adding to the pain as well as internal organ damage. The man once again screams in agony and lets go of the spear allowing you to pull it out. He falls to the floor.

Jack who was having difficulty in getting around you before finally succeeds so he can get in closer to swing his axe down at the man on the floor.

"Suzy, hang on I can…agh!" Jack exclaims as the man desperately slashes at the closest leg to him with his knife, which happened to be Jack's. This causes Jack to reel back and nearly stumble into the fireplace. Fortunately he only falls into a small pile of logs for the fireplace.

You press your advantage by stepping up and attempting to plunge the spear into the man's neck, but he manages to dodge and you only hit the floor. He grabs the shaft of the spear again in an attempt to keep you from using it. He's got a weak one-handed grasp though.

You pull the spear

With as much strength as you can, you pull the spear from the man's grasp. It puts you a little off balance, which is enough for the man with his other hand to swing his with the knife and plunge it into your foot before pulling it out again.

You scream in pain and lose complete balance and fall to the floor dropping your spear.

Jack has recovered by this point to help, but the man sits up and throws his knife into Jack's stomach. Jack falls to the floor, dropping his axe and stopped from being able to help you.

Meanwhile you're attempting to recover from your wounded foot, and sit up just in time to see the man stagger and stumble over to pick up the spear. Upon seeing how severely wounded Jack is, and your own injury you begin to panic. Not enough to run, but also not enough to make the best decisions.

You limp over to the man in an attempt to cave his head in with the shield, but thanks to your foot, you aren't really the fastest. The man dodges your attempt by falling back to the floor, but with the spear now in his hand, from his prone position he manages to thrust it into your side.

You cry out and fall. The agony of your wounds is overwhelming now and you can barely stand it. Actually you can't stand it at all and your body feels like it's going into shock, like all the energy is leaving you.

You weakly attempt to put your shield up to defend yourself when you see the man hover above you, but you don't have the strength just tears. He knocks the shield aside and finishes you off by spearing your throat.