"W–wh–at–" Olga opened her mouth multiple times without really speaking, her lips moving a few times, struggling to form a word.
Ian was tempted to imitate her stutter but decided against it. 'Would it be in bad taste?' he mused, 'Yeah, considering the situation, probably.'
Let it be known that nobody could accuse him of having no tact.
"What the fuck was that???" She screeched, finally managing to properly articulate her words.
"First of all, lower your volume," He ordered in a patronizing tone, making a shushing gesture.
An indignant expression appeared on her face. She glowered at him and was about to retort with a scathing answer of her own when she saw his expression, and paused.
Ian was staring at her with intense dead eyes promising murder.
She flinched, instinctively taking a step back, her high heel clicking against the ground.
"Now to answer your question, it was the so-called monster obviously," was his dry answer. "A sort of undead if I have to guess."
"T-that… what?"
"An undead, a zombie, a ghoul, a monster, or whatever you want to call it, it's the thing that we have to fight and kill in order to pass the Rite. You know the thing that we all have signed up for." Except him.
"No, t-that's not what I wanted to say…" she spluttered, staring at him with a not-so-small amount of wariness. "Y-you, you just… I mean, you just kill them like it was nothing…"
"Huh, weren't you asking what the fuck that was though? What does killing them have to do with anything?"
"Everything!" she stressed out. "I was also talking about everything, the monster, the entire thing but also you! I was talking about you! What the fuck! How can you kill them so easily? They came out of fucking nowhere and you just attacked then killed them li-like it was nothing! How were you not afraid?"
Ian stares.
"Firstly, it wasn't easy, my weighted sports vest can attest as much," He waved at his torn attire. "Secondly, they didn't come out of fucking nowhere, when I saw the first one, I signaled you all to stop and was slowly backing off from it. It didn't see me at first and was sniffing the air, probably looking for me, from that I suspect that they're all blind. They only really started to attack us when you started screaming hysterically. So that one is your fault."
"W-what? No!"
"W-why? Yes," This time, he couldn't help it. He imitated, slight stutter and all. A mirror inverse of her own reply. Olga's face reddened, having caught on his mocking. "If you hadn't screamed so fucking loudly, it would have been fine. At least, we wouldn't have to deal with two of those things at the same time. So yeah, this one is really on you. And thirdly, what did you expect me to do? Let them bite me? Run away while screaming? Just like you? Lol." He snorted. "Lmao even."
"Y-yo-you!"
"Enough!" Brian intervened, stepping between them, "Enough! Both of you please, calm down! It's not the place nor time to go at each other's throats!"
"Oh hell no, he's mocking me and I'm supposed to just take it lying down?"
'Yes, take it lying down, title of your college sex tape.' He chuckled mirthfully in his mind. He was really tempted to blurt it out and see what face she'll make. There was a je-ne-sais-quoi about bullying a curvy blonde woman that tickled a certain itch he has. Even better when they were tsun-tsun, or any other kind of dere, except yanderes. Fuck them.
"No, but let's not do it here, please. You saw those things too right? Some of them may come and attack us again while we're arguing." Brian practically pleading her.
Seeing how restless he was about it, Olga relented. She nodded at him in confirmation, agreeing to drop the matter for now.
"And Ian," the older man turned to him next. "I'm thankful for your help and for what you did, but treating her like this while knowing how dreadful the experience was for her and everybody else isn't warranted. Let's not needlessly antagonize each other alright?" And asked.
Yeah, hard no. "I disagree," Ian spoke, making the older man blink at his dissent. "How I'm treating her is warranted, I literally saved her ass and instead of thanking me like any decent person would with a 'Thank you, Ian, you're my hero, if it wasn't for you we'd be dead, I'm eternally grateful for that, please let me reward you with my sincere devotion'-" he mimed, using an exaggerated high-pitch voice and accent. "-But noooo, a simple thank you is clearly too much. Instead let's accuse him offf – what? – fighting back against a monster wanting to kill and eat us. Not even particularly in that order. You do realize that she's coming across as accusatory to me because I decided to fight back instead of running away and screaming? Yeah, no, It's fucking warranted."
The pure vitriol with which he said it at the end made them pause.
"And contrary to what she thinks, I'm absolutely stressed. Do you think that I wasn't scared when those things pounced at me? New flash, I was and still am," he lied. He hadn't felt stressed in a long while and certainly didn't feel it here. The regressor was in a trolling mood, and indulging in a little session of gaslighting sounded fun. He hadn't forgotten the little stunt that she and her two companions pulled at him when they were leaving the gymnasium. Was it petty? For him, no. For other people though? Probably. Did he care? No.
"This—" he trailed off. "–is my way to take the pressure off. By joking and making light of it. Besides Brian," he drawled. "She's the one that caught the idiot ball here and decided to make her priority the fact that I wasn't seemingly afraid to fight back. I don't see you saying something about that."
Brian couldn't say something in reply after being put on the spot. Neither could Olga, the blonde woman, only wince at his words, knowing that she should have thanked him instead of pressuring him as she did. But she still couldn't help but feel victimized, the guy was acting so assholishly.
An awkward atmosphere fell in the group.
"Anyways," Ian huffed, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "It's not the time or place to keep talking, we need to move. We can discuss all we want and settle our differences once we're in the safe house and out of danger, so let's move on. Same tactic as before."
Alejandro timidly raised his hand. Ian raised an eyebrow in amusement prompting the farmer to speak.
"Can't we just go back? It isn't too late to turn around. You saw what those things were able to do. Imagine if we faced more than two of them. We'll die. There is no shame in retreating, we can figure something else once back at the gymnasium. What happened here is a warning, let's not ignore it, please. Just, let's go back before it's too late."
Humming, Ian asked. "Say Alexa, can you tell me how far away we are from the safe house?"
"Huh, who?" The Martinican asked.
"You evidently, you're the one with the map, no?"
"My name isn't Alexa…"
"I know… it was a joke Laura. You're the one with the map and someone mentioned before how similar the map display of the scroll was to Google Maps, hence the Say Alexa thing…"
"..."
"..."
"Oh…"
"It was funnier in my head," Ian sighed. "Just tell me how far we are."
"But it's true! It looks a lot like google maps. I remember that it was even Miss Laura that said it." Àlvaro timidly piped in, trying to cheer him up.
It didn't. But weirdly enough, he was slightly touched by the gesture.
"Yes! Right," Laura coughed, in an attempt to change the subject. "Wait a second– ah yes, we are 2,9 kilometers away from our destination."
"So a little over one-third of the way. Can I see your map too?"
"Of course, here. We're currently at this point."
"Hum, it's super easy to tell, unlike the physical map that I had the opportunity to read. It's even pathing an itinerary, really not unlike google maps. Really not unlike… Did they copy-infringe on Google? They're lucky that they can't sue their ass. Though I wonder if an employee from Google could do just that if they arrive here…"
"Does it really matter?"
"For us? No. But the boys at Google will beg to differ…" Ian shrugged, handing her scroll back. She took it with a quiet 'thank'
The Montrealer, him, turned his attention back to the farmer. "Sure."
Alejandro blinked, surprised by his easy acceptance. "What? Really?"
He wasn't the only one, everyone was. Michael and Brian especially were blindsided. After all, the high school graduate was the most adamant one about going out to improve their situation. Seeing him give up and easily acquiesce with the older man was surprising.
"Yes, we can surely go back, but it won't be with me."
"What?"
"Sure, you can. But I won't." He repeated. "No way I'm going back after coming this far. I was ready to fight for my survival, meeting those monsters hasn't changed that. Look, we walk a good kilometer before encountering anything. We're here and nothing is jumping us from out of nowhere. It's dangerous, true. But I already made my case for why staying in the gymnasium won't cut it. I won't repeat myself on that. But you're free, and again, like I'd always say– you're free to go and call it quit if you aren't okay with how things go. That's your right to exerce and that's exactly what I'm going here."
"Chamaco, are you crazy? You want to go alone? Don't be rash, please think a little."
"He's right," Before he could answer, Michael interjected, stepping up in the conversation for the first time. The older man had been oddly withdrawn before speaking. Ian's impression of him was that of someone used to command and take charge while being totally at ease with it. Him not saying or doing something at any point beforehand was odd. "The kid is right. I and Nathan are out of points. We can no longer buy food, water, or any other supply. At this point, going back to the gymnasium is a pointless endeavor. We would have to fight those monsters eventually. Either for sustenance or for survival."
'Not entirely true, you did slay a ghoul, so you have 1 to your counter.'
"I'm down to two points… the map had cost me 5." Laura said.
"I didn't buy anything so I still had all my points but…" Olga hesitantly supplied.
"Like he said, zero," Nathan added, showing his war glaive.
Àlvaro and Ajelandro were another big fat zero for obvious reasons.
Ian wisely decided to shut up and not say something about his new balance score.
"Well," Brian said, pointing to his heater's shield. "You saw from upfront how well the shield had fared against the monster, so worth the expense."
"Oh! Good work for that by the way, you too for killing it Michael. I wouldn't be able to handle two at the same time."
"I should be the one saying it, kid…"
"You're welcome, I guess."
Brian and Michael replied respectively.
"But still…"
The regressor shook his head. "Believe me, I understand your concern, there's a real risk that we might find ourselves surrounded by those things. Having to deal with three or more of those monsters can be a death sentence. But we come this far without encountering a single one. We only did after walking for some time, and even then I was able to spot it first and warn you. Our plan, as basic as it was, worked. It only got this dangerous because they were actively drawn to our location by Olga's screams. Look at us. We're talking in the open, and are you seeing a ghoul jumping on us? No. So, I say we keep going, we raise our guard even more, pay more attention to our surroundings and it's going to be alright."
"Besides, I want to sleep on a real bed if possible, not on cold, hard flooring. Add to that, I smell like shit. Seriously, I stink, it's unbearable. I smell like a dead skunk. Even worse, it sticks to my skin, urghh." He said, sniffing his shirt.
Laura let out a polite chuckle at his words, having approached him, she could understand.
Alejandro nodded, even if he still didn't look convinced. With him, and Michael pushing for continuing their march, along with the other tacit support, it was useless to try and object anymore.
"Is everyone okay with that then?" Ian asked, staring at Nathan in particular. 'I dare you, I dare you to say something, anything.' Seeing as nobody wanted to add something, he smiled before turning back for the road ahead.
"Then let's go."
Still somewhat shaken, the group of player candidates cautiously followed after him in formation.
"In the end, I wasn't the one screaming like a little girl…" Àlvaro whispered to Alejandro, in another tentative to cheer up someone.
The farmer chuckled, ignoring the scandalized expression directed at him and the boy.
"Indeed, chico. Indeed."