paradisa | FOURTH SHOT

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FOURTH SHOT

Lee ––

I met with Joel. I don't know if you've met him, since he's hardly been here longer than I have, but he's my better half. We went out into the woods and waited it out so he could put me down, but I didn't turn. And when Joel wasn't watching me, I went down to the damn clinic, where the world's most terrified doctor hacked off the wound.

So now that my shoulder has roughly the same texture as raw hamburger, and it doesn't seem to be spreading, I can finally let you know that your advice was complete bullshit... but I appreciate it all the same.

We should get drinks. Proper ones, this time.

Tess

------

Hey, kid.

You've been here much longer than I have. Let me drill you for information and I'll make it worth your while. What do you say?

Tess

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[That looks such a girly drink, Tess, but he'll take it anyway. She seems the sort not to piss off in any way, shape or form]

Bottled water, antibiotics, first aid stuff. The essentials.

[Girly virgin drinks for boys who won't drink. Tess takes a swig of her drink.]

That's it for essentials?

What else would you count?

How about a fucking gun?

I'm not great with guns, that's more Lee's thing.

As in you've tried?

Yeah, I've tried. I can fire one, I'm just not...good at it. [The joys of being the deadweight of the group]

Jesus christ.

[She snorts.]

Make it worth my while and I'll have you picking targets off in no time.

[Yep. She's definitely The Lilly of Ellie's group]

That's pretty hopeful, but how am I supposed to even make it worth your while? I can't really do much.

You tell me. Surely you have something to offer.

[He scoffs bitterly, looking into his drink. That was one thing he had learned, one thing he was pretty sure of at this point]

I really don't. I'm nothing but dead weight.

Do you have the fucking will to survive, at least?

[Not really. Not any more]

I thought I did.

So why are you still here? Seriously. There are plenty of fast ways out if you don't have the balls to live.

You don't stay dead here. And I wouldn't do it to them.

I don't care if people don't stay dead here.

I wanna know why you think you're so useless that there's no point in fighting to keep what you have.

I don't like telling that story. [He's told not a soul yet, since that mess in Crawford. He's learned his lesson about divulging there]

I've got my reasons. That's all you need to know.

[She rolls her eyes.]

Suit yourself.

And drink up, your ice is melting.

[Enjoy your ginger ale and sweet pomegranate syrup.]

[He'll watch her from the corner of his eye for a moment, before taking a sip of it. He's decided he doesn't know her well enough to sass at her yet, and he has a feeling if he even tried she'd break an arm]

[She focuses on her own drink for a moment.]

So what do you do around here, to pass the time, then?

I read, play video games, regular teenage stuff. [Albeit mostly alone because he's still getting the hang of spending TIME with regular teenagers again] I play basketball in the gym. I used to do that before everything fucked up.

I haven't done any of that since I was your age. Or close, anyway. At least I got to graduate.

That's gotta be something. [Even if it led to hell down the line, having the chance must have been nice] What about you? You can't just plan all the time, right? You've gotta have downtime, too.

Yeah, I guess. So far I've mostly slept and eaten and popped painkillers like no tomorrow. I don't even know what this place has to offer for fun, yet, other than booze.

So ask me that again in a few weeks, and we'll see.

Okay. I'm sure there's something here that'll interest you.

Tess

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