[b][Collaboration between [color=39b54a]Tomahawk[/color] and [color=0072bc]The Fabulous Fox[/color]][/b]

[b]23:00[/b]

[color=0072bc]Triss shivered heavily in the cold and wet weather that was November. Outside, the snow fell heavily, building up slowly on the ground. This would surely make travelling quite interesting. Her hands trembled as she set her harness up on the cold concrete floor of the supermarket, her breath fogging in front of her. She finally got the last knot tied, before looking over to Emmie, realising she only had one harness. She swore softly to herself, the flashlight in her trembling hands casting a shaky beam of light.

“I don’t think i’ve shown you how I sleep in buildings, but it’s way safer than sleeping on the ground.” She holds up her harness, then points to the roof. “Basically, I hang myself from the ceiling and sleep up in mid air. How are you with heights?”

She looks back down, beginning to make another harness with rope for Emmie, measuring it on herself. “If you stay out of sight and out of reach, you’re completely safe. Most people don’t think of this.” she says proudly, having finished tying the left leg portion of the harness.[/color]

[color=39b54a]“Not…” she began, fidgeting, “Um… not great.” Emmie massaged her forearm nervously, eyeing the harnesses with a very clear apprehension. “When I was, like, ten, dad took me to the Six Flags in St. Louis, and we went on this huge rollercoaster, and - and -”

Taking a breath to steady herself, Emmie shook her head. “I just… don’t like heights. Maybe I can sleep on the ground - and wake you up if anything happens?” Not the greatest of ideas: if a walker stumbled upon her, she’d be pulp by the time Triss could return to the ground… but the notion of suspending herself from the ceiling gave Emmie the distinct feeling that she might just lose her lunch. Seeing as her lunch was watery carrots, the prospect wasn’t terribly exciting.

With a heavy sigh, Emmie seated herself on the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her head. “I just wanna sleep on a nice, comfy bed… like, a memory foam… my folks had this super cushy memory foam mattress, before… before this. When they went out of town without me - and, like, that didn’t happen too often, but… y’know - I’d crash on their bed, and it was sooo comfy!” Groaning, Emmie added - “And now I can’t even sleep on a futon…”[/color]

[color=0072bc]“If it would make you feel better, I’ll clip my harness to yours so we’re close together up there.” She looked to Emmie, then going back to tying the remaining leg of the makeshift harness onto herself. Her fingers tremble and fumble with the rope, pulling the last knot tight.

“I n-never liked roller coasters either, if we’re being honest.” She thought of the time her dad took her to Toronto in Canada. The roller coasters there were crazy. She always felt as if she was going to fall off on every corner. She looked to Emmie again, clearly empathizing with her fear of heights. She ran through her brain, trying to think of any other way so that Emmie wouldn’t have to face her fear of heights, but to no avail.[/color]

[color=39b54a]“Okay,” she agreed, nodding her head - with no small amount of reticence. “Yeah, we can… we can do that, I guess.” Sometimes Emmie wished she had taken up smoking cigarettes, like many of her peers. Something to calm her nerves. Instead, she quietly hummed the melody of one of her favorite songs, musing about the fact that she hadn’t listened to music in months. It was a crying shame.

“You know,” Emmie started after a moment, drumming her fingertips across her thighs. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody that I was afraid of heights before. I mean… it never came up much, you know? Like, I had a friend, Josh - and he couldn’t swim. And I guess that’s not too uncommon… but he never wanted to talk about it, ‘cause when you can’t do something that everybody else can do - or you’re afraid of something that a lot of people aren’t - you feel like an idiot when you talk about it.”

Emmie smiled, giggling just a little bit. “Thanks for not making me feel like an idiot, I guess.”[/color]

[color=0072bc]Triss laughed quietly, removing the now finished harness from herself and going to help Emmie put it on. After a few moments struggle, the harness was secured to her and Triss began to put on her own, grabbing a few carabiners from her bag to attach themselves. She ran the line through the loop on her harness as she had done a thousand times before, then she moved to loop it through Emmie’s harness as well, tying it off tightly, attaching the two of them together with a pair of carabiners.

After putting her backpack on and making sure Emmie had all of her things, she looked over to Emmie and began to explain the process to get them up to the ceiling “So, first off, if you’re going to panic and change your mind, do it now so we don’t have to come down till morning. Second, the less you move up there, the better. I’ll tie us together at the chest when we get up so that we don’t wake up upside down. Lastly, if you wake up and hear or see anyone or anything approaching, wake me up quietly and stay absolutely quiet.” She looked to Emmie and waited for a response, flashlight held between her head and her shoulder as she prepared to toss the bundle of rope.[/color]

[color=39b54a]“Um,” replied Emmie, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Okay - yeah, no, I’m… I’m fine… I think. I’ll be okay. Just… go slow? I really don’t want to do this, but I guess it’s better than the alternative.” Eyeing the rope, Emmie knit her eyebrows together curiously, and enquired - “Why’d you decide to start tying yourself to the ceiling, anyway? Kinda seems like… I dunno, a plan that not a lot of people would come up with.”[/color]

[color=0072bc]Triss grasped the coil of rope tightly in her hand, the end of it in the other. She looked up to the ceiling, judging the distance in the darkness, swinging the weighted end of the rope in her right hand. “Well, I mean nothing beats the ceiling for safety. Besides, I used to compete in rock climbing, so I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do.” she looked down to the rope, undoing a good fifty feet of it onto the ground before winding up to throw the weighted end.

After a good ten minutes of pulling themselves up to the ceiling Triss finally manages to tie them off to a ceiling beam. They hang about five feet down from the ceiling, but still easily out of sight for any onlookers. “...T-that is so much easier with only one person.” she pants, looking down. She turns her head slightly to Emmie “We should get some rest, i’m exhausted. You gonna be alright?” she says, a slight concern in her voice.[/color]

[color=39b54a]“Oh, yeah,” Emmie murmured, eyes wide as she stared at the floor below them. “I’m… I am super, thanks.” She cleared her throat, and shut her eyes as tightly as she could manage, hoping to simply block out the empty space between herself and the ground. Her heart raced - easily felt by Triss, as they dangled together from the ceiling - and she began to suspect that this was an awful idea.

She was more or less an adult, though! Emmie wouldn’t freak out. She had to keep it together, because her father wasn’t around to give her a hug and let her know that everything would be okay. She had to believe herself that everything was going to be okay. Maybe it wouldn’t - but she had to pretend.

“G-goodnight, I guess,” she whispered, eyes shut, as she drifted slowly into an uneasy, fragile sleep.[/color]

[b]06:00[/b]

[color=39b54a]In the wee hours of the morning, Emmie found herself stirring - and not for the first time that night. Sleep had been unreliable, at best - but she had tried her hardest not to shift too much, allowing Triss, who was far more comfortable, suspended as they were, to get some sleep. Emmie reached up to gently brush a thick clump of blonde hair out of her eyes, acutely aware of the warmth of the body snuggled behind her, hoping to go back to sleep and ignore the floor beneath her.

Abruptly, however, she sensed that something was amiss - and a moment later, realized that she could hear the voices of several people beneath them. Men’s voices, she suspected, glancing around beneath them. On the other side of the room, three large, bearded men had entered the building, each with firearms: a shotgun, a rifle, and a pistol.

Emmie’s eyes widened in fear as she slowly reached around towards Triss, attempting to wake her. “Triss,” she whispered furtively, hoping not to draw the strangers’ attention, her heart beginning to race. “Triss, wake up!”[/color]

[color=0072bc]Triss had slept quite well that night, this being the fifth time she had suspended herself from the ceiling. She dreamt she was in a baseball game, stepping up to home plate. She clutched the bat tightly in her hands, waving it gently back and forth, stretching her wrists. She looked at the pitcher and was slightly confused. She was calling her name…she looked like Emmie...she looked scared.
Triss woke up startled, shaking her head quickly. She looked to Emmie, blocking her nudges to let Emmie know she was awake. She blinked a few times, looking to Emmie “What is it..?” she said quietly, tugging at her line to make sure it was still secure. It was then when she heard the voices and was instantly alert. She grabbed Emmie’s hand, her heart pounding “...Just be very quiet..’ Her eyes darted around, counting the figures. “Three men….all armed.” she whispered to herself. She squeezed Emmie’s hand tightly, unsure of what to do.

“C’mon Triss, get it together.” she thought, taking inventory on what weapons they had. A baseball bat and two knives, a far cry from just one gun, let alone three of them. She shook her head. “Hey Emmie….how good of a runner are you…?” she whispered, panic in her voice.[/color]

[color=39b54a]A slight quaver in her voice, Emmie replied: “I was one of the top five volleyball players in the state when I was a Freshman.” She squeezed Triss’s hand back, clearly frightened - but doing her best to keep things together. “I haven’t… exactly taken it easy, since Valentine’s Day,” she added with a slight, awkward laugh.

“So… you wanna get down to the ground and then bolt, right? ‘cause that sounds like a decent plan to me.” She didn’t want to be caught by these guys - maybe they were perfectly ordinary men, but… then again, maybe not. Emmie didn’t want to think about what might happen to the pair of them if they stumbled upon the wrong sort of folks… and, even though they were bigger and stronger, she knew she could outrun them - and she was fairly certain Triss could, too.[/color]

[color=0072bc]“T-that’s the idea.” was all she could manage. She looked herself up and down, making sure everything was secured to her person so nothing would be lost in their attempt to flee. She looked to the rope, swearing to herself quietly. Either she left it here and lost one of the most useful things she had, or she’d cut it and risk being spotted as she slowed their descent.

“Emmie….close your eyes.” her voice quivered as she drew her small knife out and opened it as quietly as possible. She crossed her legs at the calves, clamping the rope in between them, then in between her boots as well. She took a deep breath and cut the support line, all the weight now on her legs as their weight lurched towards the ground violently. Triss groaned under the weight as they slid down the rope, accelerating. “Oh shit..” she thought “We’re going too fast…I’ve only done this with my weight…”

She clenched her jaw as she did the only thing that would save them both from death. She grabbed the rope with both hands, biting down on her lip as pain seared up through her hands. Triss hit the ground hard, but intact, grabbing the rope and beginning to run in a full sprint, Emmie trailing behind her. Tears streamed down her face but she didn’t dare look at her hands. She couldn’t afford it, not now. This was her life, Emmie’s life. She wasn’t gonna let them die because she was weak.

A gunshot whizzed by them as they exited the building, shattering the window next to them. She ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her chest and her lungs begging for air in the form of sharp breaths. She blacked out as they got over the second hill, collapsing to the ground. They had stopped in a forest, two miles from the supermarket.[/color]

[color=39b54a]“Oh my God,” Emmie panted, beyond exerted. “Oh my God, I thought they were going to shoot us!” She brushed her sweaty hair back, sighing with relief. “That was close… hey - hey, are you - Triss?” Emmie moved closer to her companion, and realized the girl had lost consciousness!

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Emmie swore - Triss would probably be astonished, were she awake; Emmie never swore. “Okay, this is - this is not good,” she murmured, rubbing her forehead as she thought… she had very little in-depth medical experience, but she could make Triss comfortable and hope she came to soon.

“Jeez, these are bad, girl,” Emmie mused as she examined the rope burns on Triss’s palms. Rummaging through her pack, she found some bandages, neosporin, and half of a bottle of water; with these ingredients, she cleaned and disinfected the wounds, then bandaged them as best she could.

Triage done, Emmie hauled Triss on top of her sleeping bag and propped the girl’s head up in her own lap, quietly playing with Triss’s hair as she dearly hoped that the girl would come to. Emmie began to hum to herself, staring at a robin perched on a tree nearby.[/color]