Ordinary Execution

**Ordinary Execution** is the name of Gwenn Fourneret's execution, as featured in All Aboard the Despair Train.

## Sequence

*Excerpt taken from Chapter 69 of All Aboard the Despair Train*

Gwenn ran faster than they had ever run, their feet lightly bouncing off the grass as they hopped above the stream. They hadn’t chosen a specific direction to run towards; they were acting on pure instinct, in their mind there was no room for thought. They crossed an empty field, a dusty road, climbed over a rock formation, jumped down a three meters drop and took the time to massage their ankles, which were beginning to hurt.

They were alone. No one seemed to be following them.

They looked in every direction, but there wasn’t a single soul in sight. The sky was empty of drones, much to their surprise.

*Did I do it?* They wondered in disbelief. *Have I actually managed to escape?*

Feeling their stomach twisting in fear, they resumed running, although at a slower pace this time. They were trying to be quick and stealthy, jumping in fright whenever something moved (though it was usually nothing more than a runaway lizard shaking some dead leaves).

For fifteen minutes, nothing happened. Gwenn was lost in the french countryside, with barely any hints of civilization. It was agonizingly quiet.

Until they began to hear gunshots. They first mistakenly thought that they were being targeted by someone, until they noticed the fence. It was a lot like the one that blocked off all exits back at the killing game grounds, and led to a particularly large and flat field, akin to a golf course. Gwenn noticed a few people hiding behind some trees, wielding some very heavy guns, along with a few corpses laid down on the grass and mud.

*What is this? Another killing game? Or is there something else going on here?*

The fence didn’t protect them from stray bullets, so Gwenn safely retreated, carefully hiding behind large trees. Their escape continued for a short while, until they suddenly arrived on a beach. The light of the evening sun blinded them, and they almost immediately collapsed in the sand from exhaustion.

The sea stretched widely in front of them, its strong waves brutally wrecking themselves upon the shore, carrying the scent of salt and algae. It made for an ugly painting at first: a large strip of blue color above a large strip of white. But slowly as Gwenn’s eyes adjusted to the lights, the simple duality turned into a beautiful gradient, ranging from pink to orange to blue to green. It was as if someone had dropped a box of paints inside the water, and their colors were slowly spreading, losing their intensity as the stains expanded.

Gwenn stood back on their feet and stumbled forward like a drunk man, their clothes and hair dirtied with damp sand. The water was strangely appealing to them, they were tempted to throw themselves in and let the waves carry them away. Without thinking too much, they crouched to untie their laces, removing their shoes and socks, which they tossed away carelessly. The wind blew in their hair as they approached the water, feeling the dampness of the sand under their feet, and the sharpness of the shells that they squished.

“Hey!” Someone called, making Gwenn jump in fright. “Over here!”

*Anastasia?*

Gwenn recognized the voice: though they had only met Florian’s sister once, she had made enough of an impression on them that they couldn’t forget her. However the first time she had showed up in their life, it had been dressed as a soldier, and wielding a mighty impressive shotgun. Meanwhile on that day, she was wearing torn jeans, a gray shirt and a dark leather jacket, all of which looked somewhat torn and burned, as if she had been recently attacked. Gwenn nearly threw up as the sight reminded them of the state of Florian’s corpse. They began to run away from her, their heart racing.

“No!” She shouted in fear. “Come back! I have a boat!”

They refused to listen and ran away from the beach, aiming for the woods which they had previously left. It wasn’t so far, and the cover of trees would protect them. Thirty meters, maybe more, and they would be hidden from-

A bullet grazed their left arm. A few soldiers came out of the woods, carrying assault rifles, and began to storm the beach. Screaming in shock, Gwenn tripped on their own foot and collapsed in the sand, hearing more gunshots in the distance. They were trembling with fear, unable to move. There was nowhere for them to hide – no matter what they did, they were screwed.

A cold hand grabbed their forearm firmly, and suddenly they were being pulled up to their feet.

“Don’t give up!” Shouted Florian’s sister.

Her grip around Gwenn’s wrist was iron; in her left hand was a pistol, which she fired twice. One of the soldiers was hit in the head, which shattered the glass pane on his helmet and sent him to the ground. One of the others stopped by the body, while the others continued with the chase. Anastasia turned around and dragged Gwenn in the opposite direction, toward the water. She led them behind a tall rock where she had hidden a small boat.

“Hop inside, I’ll get us out of here!” She ordered.

Gwenn didn’t hesitate. They didn’t know if they could trust her, but they had better chances of survival on the boat than anywhere else on the beach, so they obeyed immediately. She quickly turned the engine on, and jumped beside them.

“Duck,” she whispered.

Gwenn threw themselves down immediately; a bullet which hit the side of the boat narrowly missed their head. They were paralyzed with fear, thinking they were going to be hit any time then. However, they were still alive a minute later, and even though they could still hear the sound of gunshots, those were getting quiet and sparse. Only when the noises faded away completely did Gwenn dare to raise their head. Anastasia was nowhere to be seen, but Gwenn could hear her footsteps from below the deck. The sandy shore which they had escaped from was barely visible anymore – all that was left was a faint blurry shape in the distance. They turned around, but didn’t see any other coast on the horizon. Maybe Anastasia knew where she was going; but it seemed like she was going to lose them both in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The setting sun gave the water a peculiar glow, matching the color of the clouds. It made it seem like the boat wasn’t floating, but flying. Gwenn briefly wondered if they had ever seen anything more beautiful in their life.

And if they ever would see anything else.

“Where are we going?” They muttered to themselves uneasily as they crawled toward the front of the boat, gazing down at the green waves beneath them.

“I’m going nowhere,” Anastasia said as she came back on the deck from behind them. “This trip is for you only.”

She seemed to be carrying something heavy, which she dropped in front of her feet loudly. Gwenn was submerged by an intense feeling of dread. Part of them urged them to turn around so they could see what it was, but part of them was too scared for that. Perhaps they thought that it wouldn’t become real if they ever saw it. However, after a few agonizing seconds, they dared to turn around, as slowly as possible.

Anastasia was standing up, holding something that looked like a heavy chain, which she must have gotten from below the deck. It formed a pile near her feet, and was connected to a heavy ball. Her resemblance with Florian wasn’t particularly striking, but they had the same eyes, and the two irises seemed to burn into Gwenn’s chest. They felt the bile rising in their throat.

“No,” they whispered. “Please...”

“Look, it’s nothing personal,” she said neutrally. “I didn’t really want to do it, but my boss thought it would be poetic if you got betrayed by both the Finistère siblings. It’s the only reason I’m here.”

She crouched next to Gwenn and locked the shackle around their ankle. The chain was dark, long and heavy; with the perfectly round ball at the end, it looked like an object straight out of a cartoon. In a brief moment of clarity, Gwenn realized how unfitting it was that this object would lead to their death, they who were the only one among their classmates not wearing a prison uniform.

“I should have stayed on the beach,” they realized. “A gunshot wound would have killed me quicker.”

“These gunmen were paid to miss you. Things were meant to go this way from the very beginning.”

She got back up and lifted the ball in the air, ready to throw it in the water. Gwenn began to panic. They wanted to say something, hoping that making Anastasia talk would maybe delay their death just a little longer.

“But how did you know where I was going to run?” They whimpered.

“There are ways,” she explained neutrally. “We have agents everywhere in this area, tasked to redirect your path subtly. A gunshot here or there, a tree fall to block your path, we knew you’d end up on the beach at some point. And I was waiting.”

“But you don’t want to do this,” they pleaded. “I loved your brother, I was the only one to support him when he needed it. Florian wanted me to live, so shouldn’t you care about his last will?”

She chuckled.

“Shut up Gwenn. I told you it wasn’t personal. I have a job to do, and I’ll do it – end of the discussion. Besides...”

She smiled mysteriously and crouched once more to stare at Gwenn in the eyes.

“You’re going to be back among us soon. So it’s not really a murder, is it?”

She tossed the metal ball. Gwenn watched stupidly as the long chain slowly unfolded like a snake throwing itself into the sea. When their leg was carried with it, they didn’t even think of trying to hold onto something. The water immediately went inside their mouth and nose, a stream of salt burning their throat and lungs. As the surface grew further and further away, as the darkness began to engulf them completely, their last thoughts was that in a parallel universe, Rebecca had probably dived in to save their life. Sadly, she couldn’t do that now, because she was dead.

And then, they were dead too.