Survival Of The Fittest

Adam nodded, and shot River a look of sad bemusement as he turned to Hawley and picked up the gauze from the first aid kid.

"Okay, man. Just tell me what to and I'll do it. I'm not...well, TOO squeamish around blood...heh..."

As he took hold of the gauze and began to help Hawley, he spoke to River, describing some of the previous events.

"What happened? Well...from what I remember, when I first met up with Hawley here, I was with Alan Shinwrath...remember the homophobic guy who came to a few of our games and got in a fight in the stands? Well, the two of them got into a bit of a fight - I admit, I did shoot at this poor guy too, but at that point I'd seen his, uh...handiwork. But that's another story for another time. Uh, anyways, the three of us ended up kind of allying for the time being, and we ended up heading to that lighthouse that's on the island. We got attacked by those two fucktards Uriel and Jacob with molotovs, which is how Hawley got all the burns. I think he took a shot to the arm too. Uh, anyways, then later on, after we chased 'em off, we got attacked again, and again Hawley took some more abuse. Couple punches and such. We moved on when the lighthouse became a danger zone, and went to some bamboo place, where we got attacked again. Hawley took another gunshot wound there, too. That's this one, I think. We got attacked again at the school, but I don't think Hawley got hurt there...I lost my damned Leafs jersey in the fire though."

Adam sighed.

"Hawley's seen a lot of death, a lot of killing already, wouldn't you say, man?"

Hawley overlooked Adam as he begun wrapping the gauze about his arm, grinning, “Just keep it somewhat tight. And I’ve seen you around blood… Didn’t quite stay to long when I was doing Alan's stitch job.”

He allowed himself to lean back against the wall, overlooking the wound as it was wrapped a slight smile forming on his lips when Adam spoke. Nodding somewhat, “Hen, horrid shot he has with a pistol though. Somewhat better with the shotgun, only reason Alan and I got into a fight was because you two came up on where I was staying, and personally all my encounters with visitors that hadn’t been good ones. Alan punching me in my head didn’t help at all, and for my injuries. Oi, My knee is messed up from a fall I took, Helena got my shin, Alan punched me with those brass knuckles, you shot at me, arm was burned by Uriel and Jacob, then Jacob shoots me in my arm and my wrist got nicked. I think that’s it, I haven’t been too lucky these last two days, not to mention I believe I still have my fever.” He muttered pressing a hand to his forehead, still feeling the burning warmth.

As Adam ended, Hawley nodded somewhat. “I suppose I have, and there’s no use just calling it my handiwork… He should know, next announcement bastard will tell about me killing that one girl back at the coppice… given if it was an accident.” He added under his breath, lightly flinching at remembering the sound of the gunshot that killed the young woman.

“There’s no use not telling you, and it’s of course your choice if you want to trust me or not. But when I came on this island, and was given a weapon my first thought was to pay back all those who done me wrong, my thoughts have changed since then… and now I see as I’ll only kill if my life, or one of my allies is threatened.” Dropping his attention to the floor, he sighed before speaking.

“But so far in this game I’ve killed four people…”

Adam looked at Hawley and shrugged.

"Dude, fact of the matter is - if you hadn't, would you still be alive at this point? Terry and August would have killed you - that I know, and Helena, being the whore she was, well, you just don't know what she would have done. As for that other girl - you said it yourself, it was an accident. Those happen all the time, it wasn't your fault."

He looked at the arm as he finished bandaging it.

"You got shot in the fucking arm, dude."

“Yeah, but you have to look at it like this. Terry and August wanted to kill because I killed Helena, if I hadn’t killed her those two wouldn’t have come looking for me. And instead of having four, I might at this moment just have one kill to my name.” He said lightly, though shrugged and grinned.

“Though I suppose I can’t do anything about that now can I? I just have to worry about keeping alive… keeping alive and helping find a way off this hellhole one way or another.” Blinking somewhat, he over looked Adam’s work on his wound. Lifting the arm somewhat, and twisting it a little. “Pretty good job…”

The redhead blinked again at the comment about him being shot in the arm, he nodding lightly. “Yeah… I suppose I did. Hm." He said as he allowed his arm to drop along his side, glancing back toward Adam. "You didn’t get hurt during our last few encounters did you, besides the bump you look to your head after the whole… well you know.” Hawley said a thoughtful look passing over his face. “The whole thing with August, and her collar going off.”

Adam nonchalantly rubbed the bump on the back of his head. It hurt. A lot. He winced as his fingers ran over the egg on his head.

"No, I got lucky, I guess. Nothing really got hurt but my pride. I took a bullet in the backpack at the school but that only gave me a little ride. Cheap thrill, if you ask me. But no, aside from that bump that I took, I'm completely okay...which honestly, I feel guilty saying, being as you've been torn up so much, man."

He winced as he touched the bump on his head again. He was lucky that it hadn't bled. Personally, though, he felt more upset about the loss of his Leafs jersey than he did about his own injury. Adam was a hockey-lover, and that jersey was perhaps the only remnant of his life in Toronto, which he had, for the most part, enjoyed. Now that it was gone...his attire proudly proclaimed his love for Audioslave, but Adam couldn't help but wish he had his jersey back. Regardless, that was neither here nor there, as surviving was the main priority.

Hawley frowned, though nodded as he spoke. A small smile once again finding his features, "I not that messed up, am I?" He mused the question pushing himself to sit up some, and close his daypack up.

Leaning back he found himself overlooking all the damage that had been done so far, personally he just figured himself lucky this all could have been a lot worse than they where. And truthfully he didn't even want to think of what could happen if the bullets had aimed a little higher, or if the molotov had landed on him instead of near him.

Shaking his head lightly, he gave a sigh. "I am pretty messed up."

Adam smiled at Hawley and winked at the other boy.

"Dont' worry, dude. We won't hold it against 'ya. You've just found yourself in the fray moreso than anyone else. It could be any of us, were the bullets more accurate or the molotovs on target, you know? I consider myself ridiculously lucky as far as it goes, after all, I've been hanging around you for a bit, you seem to be a psycho-magnet. Heh."

Adam chuckled, but then cocked his head to the side.

"Or maybe I'M the psycho-magnet. Never thought of that."

He shook his head. His sole intent now was mainly to cheer up the obviously sinking Hawley.

"In any case, we know one thing about you, dude...you're a durable fellow. If you were a company, I'd buy stock in you."

He laughed, but then another thought came to mind that silenced him.

"Oh god...I wonder if there's betting going on...like, on this whole thing...?"

The horrified look on his face didn't even speak at all to how mortified Adam truly was of that concept.

Hawley found himself letting out a small chuckle at the statement. “Personally I think it’s you that’s the psycho-magnet, I was fine till I joined up with you and Alan.” He mused with a grin; “I don’t figure myself durable, just stubborn as hell. I figure to myself if I’m going to die on this island, it better be in a half-decent way…”

Pulling his daypack off to his side he propped his elbow atop it, resting his cheek in open palm. “I wouldn’t hold it against them, these bastards have to do something besides watch us, and listen to us all day… And there’s probably some that are watching this from their homes that are placing and taking bets.”

Adam rubbed his hands through his short red hair, that was beginning to get a little dirty from all of the fighting and rolling around trying to avoid explosions and the like.

"That's kind of frightening. Could you imagine...if your family turned on the TV, flipping channels and whatnot, and they stumbled upon this? It...my god. I think it would ruin my mother."

He sighed and scratched the stubble on his cheek, then smoothed his goatee a little out of anxiety.

"It's funny, because even if they do find us, the collars will make sure that none of us get out alive...so it wouldn't matter if they got caught, because they set out what they intended to do."

He lowered his voice.

"We NEED to get these damn things off."

Hawley nodded lightly, going over what his family would think about this if they came across it one day when they where just flipping channels. Seeing the youngest of the family forced to kill his classmates and others he didn’t even now. What would his family think – his father would probably be wondering why the hell this was happening, his brothers would be the same he supposed, by what about his step-mother… what would Abigail be thinking?

What about his real mother, then again he didn’t even know if she knew what he looked like now. Having not seen him since he was a baby after all. He forced himself out of his thoughts when Adam begun speaking about the collars, he finding his and lightly running fingers over it.

They did have to find a way to get these things off… but how?

“We know if we want off we can either win… or find a way to get these things off. Only question if how to get them off.” He said in a soft tone, remembering what Alan had said about the mics in them. “If we even mess with them they’ll set ‘em off and blow our throats out.”

Adam grinned. "You don't think they'd accept it if we just decided that we had like four or five winners, and declared it a tie, huh?" He chuckled at his ridiculous suggestion. "They'd probably say 'uh, no' and blow us all to kingdom come."

Adam sighed and stood up. He had been sitting down for a bit and his leg was beginning to fall asleep. Walking to the window, he looked out and peered around the area. It was dead silent, no one coming near or even around the house at all.

"This part of the island is deserted, man. Makes you wonder if everyone else has grouped up somewhere. I've gotta say, I expected a lot more random people to just wander around and shit. Then again, as they say...there's strength in numbers."

He turned and looked at the other two boys.

"And yeah, you know, there's one other thing I've noticed - they say this island is guarded and shit, but really, have you seen a single guard? I haven't! I bet that they're all far away somewhere and there aren't any real guards or anything. Fuckers are just controlling us by remote. I'd love it if Mr. Danya walked right into this room. Probably a little much to hope for, I suppose. I'd have better luck wishing the Leafs a cup in the next five years."

He sighed, and looked out the window again.

“That is probably how they’re controlling us, by remote… the collars, as well as the cameras probably keep them informed of every step, or move we make.” Hawley said removing his glasses and placing them off to his side, finding himself pondering lightly over the others.

“Most people are probably trying to team up, figuring they will be safer. But it’s just a matter of time before people start loosing their grip on reality… and start to figure that the only way off the island is to be the last one standing. So they’ll turn against their allies in the thought, and end up betraying each other and all dying in the end.”

Adam suddenly slammed the wall with his fist. He was getting pissed. At Danya, at the cameras he couldn't see, at the collar he couldn't take off, at the whole situation. All he wanted to do was go home and enjoy a nice rest on his couch, listen to a couple of CDs and maybe play some X-Box. That was it. Unfortunately, as it seemed, that wouldn't ever happen again. This pissed Adam off. He felt his composure slipping away but he shook his head and he grabbed it back, albeit a little looser than before.

This time on the island was beginning to take its' toll on Adam Dodd.

"So what the fuck do we do? Like, we can't just sit here and take it, you know? These guys are fucking us - they're fucking with us. There has to be some way that we can go and stick it to these guys. We have to come up with some form of plan, some way to get these collars off, and then we can really go to town on 'em. Even if we can get the attention of the guards, they DID give us weapons. If we all bum-rush the fuck out of them, they're bound to falter at some point. We get ahold of those fancy assault-rifles that I'm CERTAIN they have, well, we can mow those fuckers down and get ahold of whatever device gets the collars off. If we get these things off, we're home fucking free. That's the only problem, you know? These glorified cockrings around our necks. Goddamnit. Damnit all to hell. I promise you both this - I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to get out, and then I'm going to find Mr. Danya, and I'm going to kill him. But I'm going to make him suffer. For every single one of my friends that dies, for every single life that he played with like it were nothing - I'm going to make him fucking pay for what he has done. When I'm through with him he'll wish he'd never decided to put his dick back in his pants and mastermind this whole merry little fucking operation. YOU HEAR THAT, YOU SICK FUCK? I'M GONNA BE THE ONE THAT GETS YA. I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT. YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU, DANYA. I HOPE YOU'RE LISTENING, BECAUSE WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU WERE NEVER FUCKING BORN! I WISH YOU'D JUST FUCKING SHOW YOURSELF, EH? BUT NO, BIG-SHOT OL' DANYA JUST DON'T WANNA COME ANYWHERE CLOSE TO US, PROBABLY TOO AFRAID THAT WE'RE BETTER THAN YOU. Fucking jackass. You're all gonna fuckin' pay."

Throughout his rant - which is what it ended up turning into as his self control slowly slipped away and his rumored violent temper came to the surface, Adam found himself kicking numerous pieces of broken furniture, tossing items around the cabin, and punching several of the walls. Finally, as his rage subsided, he slumped down in the corner of the small house, completely and utterly spent, as well as a little embarrassed at losing his temper like that.

Hawley had to admit – Adam’s sudden outburst of anger gave him a light jolt of shock, and freak him out to a degree. After all, the older male didn’t seem to be the one to lose his temper to begin with. Even if it freaked him out, he still found himself biting back chuckles at the comments made Danya way, he giving his silent agreement with his words with a nod.

After a moment he had found himself closing his eyes when the physical violence against the broken furniture, and was hoping it would pass over quickly. Because he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle him if he got to out of control, Adam was somewhat bigger than him afterall.

But when he heard things crashing against the walls of the house continued, he found himself reopening his eyes as one kicked piece hit the wall not to far from where he rested. Blinking he simply rested back against the wall deciding against saying something to him along the lines of ‘Please just sit the fuck down.’ In the light fear that the next piece Adam kicked wound find him this time, he just kept silent.

As the boy’s anger finally subsided and he slumped to the ground against a corner of the house, Hawley still blinking lightly. He found himself gulping a little… wondering if he should speak or not, though in the end he smiled a fit of laughter escaping him. “Do you feel any better now?”

The deflated Adam couldn't help but smirk at the laughter that came from the visibly shocked Hawley. Shaking his head, his cheeks red with embarrassment, he mumbled aloud.

"Yeah, I, uh, guess so...although I think I'm gonna need a couple minutes to myself..."

Adam sighed, and put his head on his hands, resting his hands on his knees. It was almost the fetal position, and one could see Adam being visibly upset at his outburst and lack of control.