Chapter Text
“You did what?! ” Eva’s voice tore through the air, directed at the group who’d only recently returned. The leader of it, Duncan only gave the athletic girl an uninterested huff as a response, only further angering the athletic girl.
Cody felt like he could only watch, his feet stuck to the ground. It hadn’t fully processed what Duncan had said, just that the returning group was missing a member, his eyes kept darting between the people who had returned hoping to find someone who clearly wasn’t there. His attention was snapped back to the fuming pair as he heard the delinquent’s voice.
“Bookworm wouldn’t quit complaining about how we were going the wrong way, thought he would do better leading than me, so I thought since he was so adamant about going the wrong way then we should just let him, guess I was right all along” Duncan draws out the word adamant mockingly with arms crossed as he says it, he looked irritated at how Eva had gotten close to his face as if he hadn’t just admitted to leaving one of their fellow contestants turned survivors for dead.
A pit felt like it was making a home in Cody’s stomach, his chest was full of dread, Noah was out there, alone. Eva’s face was starting to look red, an anger brewing that caused everyone but Duncan to back away, she looked like she was about the beat the piercings right off of him, and just as she was about to raise her fist Leshawna came between the pair in an attempt to distance the two.
“Now let's back off you two, a fight won’t be doing us any good,” her voice was strong despite being between the most intimidating people of the remaining group, Cody would have admired her for her bravery if it wasn’t for the current situation at hand.
The air was tense, everyone around them watched in bated breath as the three were in a silent stand-off, the only sound in the air being the occasional crackling from the fire Courtney made, it was dying out now though, making the area darker than it was only a couple of hours prior.
Finally, Eva turned and stomped away with a frustrated growl, probably to pummel something and imagine it was the delinquent she’d been facing. Izzy ran after, but not before shooting Duncan a threatening gesture with her hand.
With Eva’s leave, Duncan took it as his cue to storm off to the cabins shoving Leshawna as he passed by, Courtney chased after him her face was a flurry of emotions, none happy or anywhere in the field of positive, but that wasn’t a shock. She was the one who organized the group split, it had been so they could cover more ground while still remaining in large enough groups, it was supposed to keep everyone safe, so nobody would end up on their own.
But that didn’t work, nothing seemed to work, and now Noah’s out there on his own.
With the fight dispersed, the reality of what happened had sunk in, Duncan and his group had left Noah out in the woods by himself. Nobody else had moved yet, despite the fight ending before it could even begin there was still a pressure in the air weighing down on them, there were some from Courtney’s group staring at Duncan’s, some in shock and some in disgust, others with a emotion Cody couldn’t bother to pin down. The pit in his stomach had twisted itself into a knot, it seemed to worm its way to his chest with how prickly it felt.
“We aren’t just going to… leave him out there, are we?” His voice was shaky, the knot was making him feel anxious.
Everyone’s expressions shifted, some turned away almost seeming ashamed while others looked at the forest nervously, almost regretful.
Why wasn’t anyone saying anything?
The silence itself felt like enough of an answer before Cody could push any further-
“He’s probably already dead you know, we’d just be risking losing someone else going out there, just begging for the killer to pick another one of us off.” It was Heather’s voice, cut-throat sharp as always, she looked disinterested with the entire matter but that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Leshawna immediately turned to the Japanese-Canadian girl, no doubt telling her off for her callous tone, but that didn’t mean she disagreed.
In fact, nobody did. While some might've thrown glares towards Heather’s way nobody disagreed with the point of it. They were really just going to leave him out there to fend for himself? They didn't even know if he was actually dead or not- he could still be alive right now and they’re just wasting time fearing over a what if!
But you’ve seen it, the moment someone is alone it's over, isn't it?
…
No, this could be different.
But he didn’t argue back, there’d be no point in trying. And with that things began to settle down. People either moved into their own smaller groups or sat alone, Eva eventually returned with Izzy in tow, her hand was bandaged and she kept to herself, nobody asked about her or her hand.
A while later Courtney returned from the boys' cabin, Cody couldn’t see her face but as she made her own spot within the group a sniffle could be heard from her, Leshawna moved towards the CIT and the two settled into a private conversation that he couldn’t hear, probably about what happened after she went after Duncan, he wasn’t interested in hearing about it, not a bit.
Speaking of, Cody hadn’t seen Duncan exit from the cabin for the remainder of the night, and frankly, he didn’t care if or if not the juvenile delinquent would show his face, his mind was too wrapped up in its own thoughts, his leg bounced in place as the chill of the night slowly crept it's way back in with the campfire's death, and one by own people began to turn in their respective cabins.
“I think it's gotten dark enough, best we turn in for tonight..” He didn’t know who said it, but he nodded quietly in agreement, knowing fully well he wouldn’t be sleeping at all.
Those who remained out slowly made their way to the cabins together until splitting up between the remaining girls and boys, Cody was about to enter the boy’s cabin when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. A pang of fear struck him as he turned to face the person behind him accidentally taking a step back and stumbling a bit before correcting himself.
It was just Trent, it was just Trent.
Who else were you expecting?
The musician took a step back. “Woah it’s just me dude, just wanted to check in since you were looking pretty… down” Trent spoke carefully.
“Really? Wonder why that could've been” Cody bit back, a part of him felt bad for being harsh with the taller teen, but.
…
The air between the two was uncomfortable, to say the least. Trent took a deep breath and exhaled and then he spoke again.
“I was talking with Gwen and some of the others earlier, we thought we could try to wake up as early as the sun’s out and look for Noah- hell maybe he might even turn up during the night.” There was something in Trent’s voice, implying that Noah would be okay on his own.
He was just trying to give him false hope.
It didn’t make Cody feel any better, but he still gave Trent a nod.
“Guess I’ll be..seeing you in the morning then, night man” The taller teen smiled at Cody like he actually did something, raised his hand for a moment before hesitantly backtracking and laying it back by his side.
…
“Night,” Cody mumbled and turned to head into the cabin, most of the other boys seemed to have already turned in or were in the process of turning in, nobody seemed to feel like talking tonight but that was fine Cody didn’t feel like it either, he glanced where Duncan’s bunk was the delinquent teen seemed to have already turned in, or he at least looked asleep from where Cody was standing.
How could he just rest easy, after what he did? After practically sentencing someone to death, and over what? A petty fight? Cody clenched his jaw and made a tight fist, but he turned away and climbed up onto his bunk gripping the handles with force, his bunk was above Noah’s currently empty one, it shouldn’t have been empty. God he wished Eva would have punched him, just once or maybe he should’ve punched Duncan himself, but he’d probably get his nose broken if- actually more like when Duncan would fight back.
He shook his head in an attempt to wave away the thoughts as he settled on top of unmade sheets, he wouldn’t get into them now or later though because he might actually end up falling asleep and he couldn’t let that happen.
Silently he waited, petting Jerry’s soft fur to pass the time, comforting but it fell back to the antsy waiting in barely minutes. Quiet conversations he could barely make out slowly died out in the dark as the guys settled into bed, that should’ve been him and Noah right now, quietly talking about nothing and everything until one or the other (Noah usually) finally decided to call it quits and turn in. He waited and waited for minutes that felt like hours passing by until the only sound present was the faint ticking of the clock that was in the cabin.
But even in the silence he couldn’t be sure that everyone was sleeping so he forced himself to wait longer, at some point he tried counting every tick but it quickly became tedious, and the ticking soon became mocking, every tick was another second Noah was out there another second where the killer had the chance to make his move another second that could’ve been spent finding him tick tick tick tick
Tick tick tick
Tick tick tick…
..
.
Cody suddenly jolted awake, gripping at the sheets beneath him, he wasn’t sweating but his heart was definitely pounding, fuck he almost fell asleep that’s what he was avoiding he sighed, releasing a breath he hadn’t even noticed he was holding and patted around searching for the familiar emu plush and when he found it he brought the doll close to himself squeezing it as he waited for his heart to calm, this was fine he didn’t fall asleep this was good.
It didn’t take long for it to calm down and as he waited his eyes adjusted to dark shapes and faint details of sleeping bodies. The natural light filtering in from outside allowed him to see some of the floor below, everyone was actually asleep now, or at least he hoped everyone was asleep because he couldn’t wait any longer.
He sat Jerry down by the pillow and gently tucked him under the sheet so nobody would see him, he didn’t want to be made fun of for still sleeping with a plush like some sort of kid. With Jerry tucked he carefully shifted his body towards the ladder trying his best to be as quiet as possible as he descended to the ground now regretting his choice to eagerly take the top bunk on the first day, every small creak on the cheap bed made Cody wince in response.
Finally, his feet made contact with solid ground, a step closer to his current goal. Now what he needed was one of the flashlights, and as much as he hated having his socks touch the dirty ground walking around in his shoes would only make unneeded noise. So he picked up his shoes and began quietly and frustratingly navigating the dark trying to avoid any creaky floorboards, thankfully they had the flashlights kept in one pile because of Courtney’s orders on organizing the supplies they did have so none of it could be misplaced if needed in an emergency, maybe he should thank her when he comes back.
After a couple of shaky steps and a startingly loud floorboard or two he managed to snag one from the pile, score! He already had a good amount of paintball ammo that he’d found a while back to use as a breadcrumb trail so he wouldn’t get lost between the trees, he tried using blueberries beforehand but… it nearly resulted in him being mauled by a bear, thank god for Eva saving his life and scaring the bear away.
Cody did a final check over his supplies, flashlight? Check, paintballs? Check, Shoes? In his hands. All he had to do was put them on.
He was all set, he’d gone over in his mind if there was anything else needed, maybe an extra layer of clothes but that would be wasting more time and the noise from rummaging in his bag was bound to wake someone, it's better if he left now, the sooner the better.
Cody stood up and walked towards the door. As he slowly opened it, the door decided to make an abhorrent wailing creak that made him freeze, stupid shitty door, stupid show staff, stupid Chris.
His heart was pounding and his legs were starting to slightly tremble, he tried to listen for anyone waking up.
.
.
The shuffling of someone shifting around in bed, his grip on the handle tightened his palm was sweaty against the warming metal.
.
.
.
Nothing, he was fine. A false alarm, the door was opened enough that he could slot fit his thin frame through so he slid through to the other side as quietly, the flashlight brought close to his side.
Being out and open to the cold air made Cody shiver as he closed the door, he turned and clicked the flashlight on. Much like everything else they had that wasn’t foraged, it was crappy and barely lit up his surroundings, but that was fine he just needed it to be able to light the floor so he wouldn’t trip over on something like a rock, it was probably for the better anyway the Killer wouldn’t be able to spot him as easily.
He stared out into the darkness, the only idea he had on where to even start was the direction Duncan’s group had returned from, he sucked in a breath, push his chin up, and began his trek onward.
He wouldn’t go back now.