Silence Falls

After about twenty-five minutes of cooldown from Bam being...well, classic Bam, Otep observed a flickering light between some broad swamp bushes that necessitated her to pause in her tracks. Bam, not paying attention because he was too engrossed with being peeved, barrelled straight into her. Alert now, he spat. “What th-”

“Would you watch it, you dumbass?!” Otep hissed firmly over her shoulder, elbowing him in resentment for not being focused on their precarious surroundings.

“Fuck yo-” Bam started to quarrel, not inclined to let her get away with reprimanding him like she always seemed be doing since they met.

“And shut the fuck up, or someone might hear you!” Otep seethed, promptly turning to launch a jab in his chest at him, making him flounder back in shock. Something was up ahead between those two bushes, and they couldn’t tell if they were associates or adversaries. If Bam advanced on in that clamorous volume of his, they’d be detected, and if they were detected, lords know what will happen to them. Their lives could be over before they began to experience it.

But Bam didn't care if someone heard him. Hell, he didn't care if the whole world chose to eavesdrop on them traipsing through this swamp at that point. All he knew was that this chick was getting on his last nerve and quick! Bam rested a hand where she popped him and stepped forward with the blinding fury to slap anymore words from coming out her mouth. “Oh, you’re gonna regret that.”

That was until Bert stepped forward to join in by wedging his body between them, his eyes frantically combing the swamps ahead. “Wait, what's going on!?” He then glimpsed between Otep and Bam, realizing then that they were probably just fighting again like usual, until Otep pointed ahead. Narrowing his eyes, it took a second for Bert to diagnose what she was indicating, and it ceased his breath and sent his heart hastening in an astonishing acceleration. Oh my god, was that a light, he contemplated from a safe distance. From the look of it, it was obviously not natural, but...man-made.

“Someone had kindled a fire out here. Should we go check it out?” Otep confronted Bert, examining his face for any emotion that would give her the boosted endurance to go with him if that ended up being their next objective.

“Fuck no! It could be those Black Ops guys looking for us!” Bam insinuated from beside them. Despite their feelings towards him right now, they had to grant he made an excellent point. Sticks versus guns? It didn’t take a genius to calculate who would win over the other. “That can be one of their many camps for the night!”

“But then again it might be help, perhaps someone residing in the swamps that could give us safe passage outside of town? Or it could be the lost campers that used to live in that campsite we discovered behind us.” Otep hypothesized, shrugging her shoulder. It might not be likely, but they couldn’t rule everything out in the jeopardy they were putting themselves into just to scout ahead and see if the coast was clear for them to proceed on their expedition to freedom.

“OR it could be the Black Ops guys and their big friendly gun!” Bam restated again, but more heatedly to get his point across. They were taking a risk going to access the scene ahead. To him it wasn’t worth it. What could they possibly find that could assist them in their battle to attain their lives back.

“Bam, we get it already!” Bert persuaded him sharply. Weighing over their options for only a minute, he conducted their small group of three on their next move. “Let's just take a peek, okay? Then we'll vote on whether we should move on or infiltrate the camp. But as always, let's be attentive now, and dead quiet.”

After bestowing Bam a few minutes to lament, the three drove in unison towards the bushes recounted and gingerly parted the thick green leaves to unearth a small dying campsite with three people attending it. One man was facing the woods with his back to them, the other man squatted in the long grasses rocking himself, and the female perched in front of the expiring fire, gazing into it and rambling incoherently beneath her breath. They all donned unkempt white clothes...wait!? All three pairs of eyes multiplied then flashed at each other in realization. Barely even declaring out loud, Bert confirmed. “They're surviving patients from the facility!”

“Oh...well, that's okay, right? I mean they didn't assault us the last time they identified us after we broke out of the facility.” Otep recalled, notably unclear about what their next move should be. Would they be fortuitous crossing paths with these people a second time, or find themselves being brutally attacked as well?

“Yeah! Yeah, they raced right by us like they didn’t even see us!” Bam cited as well, the uneasiness from before fading more and more in reminiscence of the day before when they crossed paths with the other patients that had managed to escape the facility as well.

“Do you think they could help us in getting out of this town though? I mean, they are technically insane.” Bert reminded them, concern in his eyes that mirrored their own.

Otep shrugged, not knowing what else to do. She looked to Bert and smiled a little. “It’s worth a try, I guess. Better together than alone, right?”

Bert returned her smile right back, recalling that in his moment of freedom when he first located an escape out of the facility below that held him for years, he went straight back underground to retrieve his friends. He didn’t want to face this new world alone, not without his family by his side.

Not preferring to delay the unknown, Bam surged forward out of the bushes to expose himself to the trio by the dying campfire. He pasted on a friendly smile as he waved a greeting, sweat dripping down his neck in horror of what could happen to him. “Excuse me! Hey, my name is Brandon. Um, my friends and I could surely use your service. You see we've gotten ourselves into some predicament as you probably already know…”

The three patients looked up madly and aimlessly, as if they were peering right through them because they couldn’t see where the voice was coming from at all. Their movements were comparable to Zombies when they creepily stood up. Bert and Otep came out to stand by Bam in unity, their eyes inspecting the patients as they briefly spared each other a distressed glance.

“Anyway, we were wondering if you'd like to joi-” that sentence concluded with a howl as the female suddenly screeched to the top of her lungs and flung herself at Bam as if she suddenly spotted him out of the blue, slamming him down onto his back. Before Bert or Otep could tear her off of him, they too were besieged by the two crazy males that tackled them next like they were football players, knocking the breath out of their lungs and generating stars to materialize before their eyes.