NINETEENTH SHOT

[dog_eat_dog]

Who: Tess and Kate
What: JUNGLE SURVIVIN'
When: Jumanji plot. I'm just making things up.
Where: The... castle... all jungley...
Rating:



Tess has been in the jungle for far too long now, and it hasn't even been all that long.

And frankly, she’s sick of it already –– as much as she enjoys the sights and smells, it’s the kind of place that wreaks havoc on her anxiety, given the close quarters of trees and rock and plant growth. Any turn could have something jumping out at her, and in territory without a lot of potential for improvised weapons, that’s not a very good situation. Without any clear line of sight, every obstacle hides a potential threat, and the fact that the jungle is also technically a castle makes it even harder, as the castle’s stonework is embedded in the jungle floor and walls block off a lot of directions as escape routes.

As such, Tess is clutching her gun very, very tightly as she slips through the trees, so tight that her hand starts cramping a little.

Then she slips on a thin patch of slick mud overtop the cobblestones and right down a set of stairs. Fuck. All she needed on top of this was a bruised tailbone and skinned palms, which is exactly what she winds up with. Her gun clatters out of her hand in the process, and at the bottom she’s more frantic to get her gun back than to assess the damage.

And to her great alarm, she spies her gun at someone else’s feet –– someone who is none other than Kate Beckett. There’s no threat to herself, she knows, but her gun...

“Do not touch that,” she growls as she picks herself up to rush over. It’s low and dangerous.

(It figures she would see Kate in person for the first time since Kate’s return when she’s even scrappier-looking than her usual street-crawling, drug-smuggling average.)

Comments

[themuse]

The irony was not lost on Kate, either, and she had to bite back a wry smile as she took a look around and tried to orient herself. She wasn't particularly familiar with the castle yet as it was, and seeing it overgrown like it was not only furthered to disorient her. She huffed a resigned sigh, deciding that Tess probably did have the upper hand in this circumstance, and it was probably in Kate's best interest to follow her lead for the time being.

"I'm hoping that Alexis and Castle are actually together somewhere, so that might make them easier to find. Do you have any idea where the girls you're looking for might have gone for safety?"

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess considers that for a moment.

"Ellie and Riley probably went for cover — they're used to this kind of navigation, so I'm sure they're okay sneaking around and keeping out of sight. Castle and Alexis probably made for open ground... Better visibility, easier to see what's coming after you," she says. Survival methods change as you adapt, making Ellie and Riley just as predatory as the things they'd be hiding from.

She glances up at the canopy. It's difficult to believe they're in a castle, sometimes.

"Probably fewer predators up high than on the ground."

[themuse]

"Maybe," Kate agreed, trying to ignore the stab of fear for what kind of trouble Castle and Alexis would find themselves in. She didn't have time to be worried. Worry got in the way of action, and the most important thing right now was that they keep moving.

"Maybe the gardens? Or even the forest, I mean, as far as Castle is concerned, anything out there isn't as bad as what's in here. I just hope he was smart enough to stay on the grounds." Kate peeled off her jacket and tied it around her waist, shoving her stick snug between her waist and the sleeves so her hands were free before she glanced back up above them. "You think we should climb, stay off the ground?"

[dog_eat_dog]

With a shake of her head, Tess puts her knife back in her boot.

"Not when it makes us slower, or need to focus more on balancing than defending ourselves," Tess replies. "If we were making camp, it'd be fine, but unless you want to sit tight and wait for them to find us, it's not my plan of action."

That and Tess isn't sure how good she is at climbing trees. Trees are pretty few and far between in the Quarantine Zone, and the rest is bombed out enough that trees haven't been able to grow back properly, especially not in numbers large enough to make climbing them worthwhile. The only time she saw trees was when she was out with someone, but how often did that happen? (And who was someone, if not Joel?)

There's more pressing things to worry about, however.

"But really? You think they escaped an indoor forest to hit up an outdoor one? Why would they do that, exactly?"

[themuse]

"I hope not," Kate admitted, taking a breath. "Listen, Castle... He's a city boy. He's going to have no idea what to do in this situation. He's gonna have two objectives; keep Alexis alive, and find me. I'm hoping he's not dumb enough to try to get out of here through the forest, but we've never exactly had the 'what would you do in a situation where the castle you are trapped in is suddenly overgrown and filled with dangerous predators' conversation."

Kate sighed, taking a moment to force down the panic again as she looked up at the trees. She was thankful Tess hadn't planned to climb them, considering that was a sure fire way for Kate to end up falling to her death. She was in good shape and a hell of an athlete, but she couldn't even remember the last time she climbed a tree. Probably not since college.

"No... He's probably holed up somewhere. He knows I'm going to be looking at him, so hopefully they are staying in one place. Probably down low because I think Castle knows better to get cornered up in one of the towers. The thing is, he knows the castle layout a hell of a lot better than I do, so I'm not sure what he would qualify as a safe place."

[dog_eat_dog]

Idiots. She's looking for idiots.

While Tess has had her fair share of incompetent allies, the worst-case scenarios are generally all passed on into death. After all, you don't survive twenty years without acquiring survival skills, even in the quarantine zone. With that in mind it'd almost be better for Castle and his kid to die, sparing Kate the burden and freeing up her potential, but Tess isn't about to say that.

"Having their backs to a wall isn't a bad thing if they think they can stay holed up there until this is over," Tess says, pointedly. "It's one less side to guard, too, when you have to be looking out for your kid, first."

Besides, being holed up means you can at least die on your own terms, but Tess doesn't say that, either. This is temporary, she reminds herself. Nobody will be forced to that point.

[themuse]

It was for the best that Tess kept her thoughts to herself. Castle was an idiot, but he was her idiot, and there was nothing that was going to stop Kate from making sure he was okay. Kate just hoped that this would all pass before things got worse, or deadly.

"Hopefully that's what he's thinking," Kate conceded, absentmindedly bracing the palm of her hand on the stick wrapped around her waist. "Let's try the bar. There's food and drinks there, Castle might think it's the best place for the time being." Kate took a step in the direction of the bar - or at least, what she figured was the direction of the bar, but she was a little disoriented. "Do you know Rick and Alexis well?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"Not terribly," Tess replies, following Kate. It feels alien –– she's not used to following, she's used to leading, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to Joel. Joel had her back, more literally than she had his. Kate is a whole other story.

"I spent a lot of time at the Deathmatch." Usually in silence, but even when she and Castle talked, it wasn't necessarily riveting stuff. Tess drinks to escape difficult topics, not relive them, and anything but small talk defeated the point of alcoholism. "As for Alexis, no. We've talked once, I think. Everything else I know is just from listening in to the journal."

Kate had to expect that much, really.

[themuse]

Kate kept nearly tripping over things, which probably wasn't much to ensure her abilities in Tess' eyes, so she pulled out her stick and started wacking at the brush as they moved to try to keep it out of the way.

"Alexis is a little bit of an open book," Kate admitted, because it was true. The girl didn't hold much back, even it seemed when it came to the castle at large. And even when she tried to, it still didn't hide much. Yet, she still managed to be more mature and put together than her father was most days. "I've been to the Deathmatch a couple times but bars..." She wacked another twig out of the way, grunting softly. "Are not really my scene." Kate was more of a glass of wine at home kind of girl, not that she'd had that luxury the last few days.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess looks quite comfortable, well used to ducking, climbing, crawling and dodging across rough terrain. Sure, she's a mess for it, but she's a well-practiced mess. Once or twice she glances back over her shoulder at Kate, and when they come to a steep ridge, Tess offers a hand back to Kate to help her over it.

"I'd never been in a bar before things went to shit and alcohol is contraband now, so me, I can't get enough of them," she says. Besides, anything beats bathtub whiskey. And now that Tess thinks about it, she's a pretty open book too, when she has the chance to be –– that's the early-twenties in her that never really got a chance in her world. "I'm not surprised they're not yours, though."

[themuse]

Kate hesitates for just a moment before taking Tess' hand, letting the other woman help her over the ridge. It feels strange, knowing that she just held a gun on her and now they were working in some kind of strange truce to make sure the people they cared about were safe. Kate knew that's how it worked in times of crisis, but it made her wonder where they would stand when all of this was over.

"Nothing wrong with that," Kate replied. She let go of Tess' hand and dusted her palms off on her pants, staring ahead of them. "I've just always opted for more of the quiet kind of evening. Must be a side-effect of my privileged upbringing," she said, turning her head to glance at Tess, but there was an edge of friendly teasing in her tone.

i disappeared im sorry

[dog_eat_dog]

It is a strange truce, but that's how Tess works: she's happy to toe the line when she's feeling secure, but in the midst of a strange jungle, she'll take whoever she can. That doesn't mean she won't double-cross or sacrifice a person or two when the situation calls for it, but Tess figures it's everyone for themselves, just like home, and the righteous types always make the most reliable last-minute allies.

"Well, you probably spend enough of your day fucking over people just trying to make a living that you can't handle excitement in your evenings," Tess replies, matching Kate's tone. "But hey, at least you're not guilty about it."

it's okay!

[themuse]

Kate rolled her eyes. She tried to keep her pace next to the other woman, not getting too far ahead since she wasn't convinced Tess would change her mind and kill her while her back was turned, but also not wanting Tess to get too far ahead because Tess likely trusted Kate as well as Kate trusted her.

"Nothing to feel guilty about," she said with a shrug. "Most of the murderers I deal with every day aren't making a living doing what they do. And if they are, I don't lose sleep over putting them behind bars."

<3

[dog_eat_dog]

It occurs to Tess, fleetingly, that she hasn't had a conversation with a "good, honest cop" that didn't end after thirty seconds with Tess (and Joel) massacring them in too many years to count. The only law enforcement she willingly tangles with are the corrupt ones, because they're willing to give her what she wants, even if for a price.

Maybe that's why she's so curious about Kate.

"Guilt's useless anyway. I'd rather deal with people with conviction."

She says, but no matter how flippant her tone is, it's not entirely true. She lived and died as a shitty person who did things for selfish reasons but never quite believed she was in the right for it. If that counts as guilt, she's got enough of it in her.

"A career's a career."

[themuse]

"My thoughts exactly," Kate replied honestly. She may have carried her own guilt, but it had nothing to do with what she did for a living. She was as good and honest as she could be when it came to being a detective, and her own guilt had to do entirely with the murderers she had watched walk free. And the fact that her mother's murderer was still among them.

Kate's career was more than a career, but she wasn't going to admit that. Even if her and Tess were at the truce for the time being, Kate wasn't going to show all her of her cards, that was for sure. "I guess everyone does what they need to do," Kate said simply.

[dog_eat_dog]

"But some people are vilified for it," Tess replies, promptly. That's what the tells herself, so it's easy to put into words, and it comes from the same bitter place that a lot of her thoughts come from. She can't stand being disliked, she likes to know that even the people who hate her most back in Boston hold a great deal of respect for what she does and why she does it.

She turns to look away from Kate at the sound far-off in the jungle, some bird call ringing off the stone walls of the castle.

[themuse]

Any response Kate had to that was cut off by the sound and she jerked her head to follow Tess' gaze, her body freezing momentarily.

Though the truth was, Kate more or less agreed with her. Some people deserved to be vilified, as far as Kate was concerned; but you didn't work in homicide as long as she had and still believe everything was black and white. She's seen her fair share of the emotionally manipulated, abused or abandoned driven by anger or fear to choices they wouldn't have otherwise made.

But at the end of the day, she wasn't the judge or the jury. It wasn't her job, technically, to vilify anyone. That was to be decided when it as all over and like she told Castle, the cop doesn't get to decide how the story ends.

"We better keep moving," she said instead, deciding she'd rather concentrate on getting out of the next few hours alive than have a debate on relative moralities.

[dog_eat_dog]

"No shit," she replies. Her hand hovers near her gun, just for the moment, and she rolls her shoulders out of habit. Nothing in the jungle moves like humans do, nor like the infected do. She's taken shots at dogs exactly twice in her life and both were the hardest damn shots of her life.

"Have you ever gone hunting? You know, deer, ducks, pheasants, that kind of thing?"

[themuse]

Kate's own fingers were wrapped around her stick again, not that it was going to do her a hell of a lot of good against a wild animal. Kate just had to hope that Tess was a damn good shot, and cared enough to cover her if push came to shove.

"No." she replied darkly, because the only creatures she had ever killed had been human. "I grew up in the city. The closest I ever came was squashing spiders in the bathtub."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Yeah, well, shooting animals is harder than people. They tend to be faster, their vital points are different, different center of gravity," Tess replies. Not for the first time today, she wishes she had an assault rifle instead of a handgun. "I saw a bear once when camping with my dad. Grizzly, big old thing, hanging out on the side of the road. We spooked it with our car and it covered thirty feet in only a couple leaps."

She pauses to consider what jungle creatures might be afoot.

"How much worse could an elephant be? A gorilla, or a rhino?"

Come to think of it, she's not even sure if rhinos live in the jungle. They sure as fuck weren't in Tarzan that she can remember.

[themuse]

With that description, Kate wishes they both had assault rifles. She still had no idea what she was up against and the stick seemed ever more stupid now, besides being something she could cling to passively as they worked their way through the brush.

"I wouldn't put it passed the castle to drop all three on us at once," Kate mused, because she doubted the castle cared where rhino's lived. It seemed to play by its own rules.

"I take you have experience hunting animals like these?" Kate asked, her tone a little hopeful. It would be great if at least one of them had a general idea of how to bring something down. Kate had heard enough stories about gorillas and chimpanzees to be spooked.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess pauses, and she glances back at Kate to see her reaction.

"No. Just a couple dogs, the rest people... or former people."

[themuse]

"Former people?"

Kate paused then, catching Tess' eye and frowning.

"Does that mean what I think it means?"

[dog_eat_dog]

"Infected people aren't really people anymore," she says. "It's a fungus called cordyceps. It enters the body, works its way to the brain and hijacks it. Joel and I have to clear 'em out of our tunnels every once in a while. It's not much different from hunting."

[themuse]

"Wow. You weren't exaggerating, were you?"

Kate mostly mutters it to herself, cringing slightly as she thinks about it. It sounds like some kind of crazy theory Castle would come up with for a case, but it's obviously real. For the first time, Kate had no reason or instinct to doubt her.

"Compared to that, my life is a picnic," Kate admitted.