Survival Of The Fittest

Ray took the water back, capped it and set it on the floor. The girl must not have eaten or drank anything in a day or so, the way she tore into the water.

Ray had to fight to keep the disappointment from showing on his face when Isabel confirmed she hadn't seen either of his former companions. Not like it wasn't a long shot anyway, but it never hurt to hope, right?

Maybe a little.

Then Isabel had started into her story about what happened to her. Seemed like she had gotten into more shit than him, especially when concerning Liz Polanski. And while he agreed with her that Liz fucked a lot of people with her plan, he didn't agree with Isabel's hindsight.

"Hey, yeah she fucked up, but I wouldn't say you shoulda just kill her like that. You wanna be like those people on the announcements every day, murderers, people who finally gave up and started playing? Have Danya or whatever the fuck his name is win?"

Then Isabel was talking about her buddy Dave and the rest of her group, and she looked like she was being crushed under the weight of what she thought she did. Ray could relate. He'd lost Bob and Neill right after he'd really gotten to know them, and for all that his knowledge was they could be getting killed, right now.

Ray reached out, gently, To Isabel, hoping she wouldn't freak out this time. As a career big brother, his knowledge of comfort came from physical contact, and if he couldn't use that, what else did he have?

"Hey, c'mon. You didn't do anything wrong. You had to run, or else you might've been laid up dead or injured somewhere." He said, then he delivered the line that he'd later wonder if everyone who said it knew it was usually, on some level, bullshit. "I'm sure they're ok."

Isabel shook her head and looked down at the floor with her teeth and fists clenched.

"No. If I had known, if someone had come up to me and told me that she'd be the cause of five innocent deaths, I would have done it. One life to save several. It's a no brainer. Sometimes you have to do what you think is right even if people would hate you for it, you know? And..... sometimes the right thing is face stabbing."

She startled herself a little at that. Though perhaps Annaliese would have agreed with that sentiment seeing as she was the one gearing up for the zomb-pocalypse, but she wasn't talking to her. She was talking to Ray, and Ray seemed to be maybe a better person than she was.

"Or maybe you're right and I need to take the intensity down a little," she said. She didn't mean it but it seemed prudent to try and at least seem as normal as possible now that these people saved her from being found by God knows who outside.

"I hope your right, Ray. I hope they're okay. I hope the make it long enough to get out of here."

She looked up suddenly at Ray.

"We're going to be rescued. You don't have to kill anyone. You just have to wait it out. I don't blame people who killed, they had no way to know, but I want you to know. I know it sounds crazy and stupid but you've got to believe me."

Ray reached out and gently put a hand on her shoulder and she twitched like she'd been electrocuted. She sheepishly scooted away from the hand.

"Sorry, I uhhh..... have a thing. I've got a phobia of touching. As you can imagine, I'm a hit with the boys."

Continuing to bliss out on Planet Annaliese, the lanky blonde was content to simply rest and continue spinning out her fantasy scenario.

And then on Friday, if the weather holds and everyone is done with class, we can have a barbeque on our back patio. I'll refill the bird seed holders and sweep and straighten up our collection of milk carton chairs because we're too poor to afford proper furniture inside, let alone for our patio. My folks will call to check on us, like they do every Friday night, and will assure me that the weekly care package is on the way. Ray will call his mom and step-father, but spend most of the evening on the phone with his sister. It will be the perfect way to unwind after a week of hard work in the classroom.

Annalise watched as a small bird landed in the too-tall grasses of the backyard and began foraging for its food. "Hey there, little dude or dudette," she softly called out as she fought the urge to tap on the glass. "I'll get out there and refill the feeder soon, I promise. And maybe this week, there will be vegetable seeds in the care package and I'll finally get started on that all organic veggie garden. That'll definitely help out with the food bill."

Humming to herself, she stood and watched the world outside, momentarily unconcerned with anything except planning her invisible garden.

Ray stayed quiet as Isabel pleaded her case. He wasn't entirely buying it, but then again, he would have been a hypocrite anyway. Once upon a time, hadn't he considered killing Rachel Getty, impaling her on the tip of that spear, just to keep her from hurting anybody else? Extenuating circumstances made killers of them all, least on this island. That's why he wasn't about to fix his mouth to scold her or anything.

"Nah. You say and do what you feel you need to. Ain't my place to tell you different."

He didn't know if Isabel's words about being rescued were because she actually had something, or because she was desperate and hoping for it, or if she was still weak and maybe delirious from not having eaten, but he went ahead and agreed with her anyway. It seemed to him this girl needed something to hang onto, anyway.

"Alright then. I'll take your word for it. Will they be bringing food? I'm fucking tired of bread." He smiled.

She moved away from his touch again, and finally she explained to him why the contact seemed to be such a taboo. He held his hands back to either side of his body, palms out, to show he wouldn't try again.

"My fault. I'm used to touching people. Been a big brother most of my life, and a wrestler almost as long. Physical contact's in my nature."

He smiled again, wider, showing white teeth that contrasted the darkness of his skin. "That's a shame, girl. If it wasn't for that I'm sure guys would be interested. Hell, I would."

It seemed like a dumb thing to say, but the mundane feeling of the conversation was almost relaxing.

((Quick post before I leave. She's Holly's after this 'til I get back!))

Isabel looked down at her shoes. He didn't believe her, but why should he? Wouldn't she think just like he did if some chick who just woke up from being passed out started telling her that there was someone coming? And to be quite honest, she didn't even know for sure that anyone was coming at all. But their message must have gotten through undetected, or else there'd have been an announcement to hunt her down like they had for Liz. And there had to be someone out there watching who'd recognize morse code. She was still faint, but she hoped beyond hopes that she had been right when she said there was rescue.

"You don't believe me," she said quietly. "That's understandable. You just have to....trust me that I'm right. Which I know is asking a lot since you just met me and all."

Isabel briefly thought about the letters still hidden under her shirt. She couldn't tell them what she'd done. These seemed like nice people and if they knew, they'd be in danger. She couldn't do that to them.

He apologized and she waved it away. "No, no, it's fine. You were just trying to be nice. It's not a big deal."

Isabel noticed that he kept fussing with his hair. Her bag had been brought in as well, she noticed, and she dug inside for the bag of toiletries. Inside were three scrunchies. As she pulled out the brown one for him she heard him compliment her. There was a quick spike of panic, but it only lasted a few seconds, leading into a slight blush.

"Well thanks," she said happily as she handed over the hair tie. "You uh, you aren't bad either," she returned awkwardly.

Isabel stood and walked a few steps until she could see Annaliese again. She was staring out at the yard. Isabel leaned against the door frame and smiled a little.

((Alex Jackson continued from Second Verse Same as the First))

"Stupid island. Stupid, stupid island," Alex muttered. Back at school she'd always had someone to talk to, to keep her company. Here it seemed like everybody had abandoned her. Maybe they were all playing some sick hide and go seek and she was permanently "it". She didn't like being alone. She hadn't had much experience with it before, and now she knew. It sucked. It gave her way to much time to think. Alex much preferred action, doing something to solve a problem. Even if the action was wrong at least she was moving forward. Being stuck in limbo was definitely not her thing.

And now she found herself walking once more. "Yet another reason why this island is stupid," she said. It seemed like all she'd done was walk or run from one end of the island to another. When she'd managed to stop she'd found Roman and lost him.

As the wooden terrain leveled out into flat plain she saw a group of houses huddled together. "Why not," she asked no one in particular.

She couldn't help but whistling the theme to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, as she walked down the abandoned street. Maybe there'd be a bed, some place she could crash for a while.

‘You do realize that there is no package. This isn't your house, and there won't be a freshman year veggie garden,' the ever-so logical portion of Annaliese's brain pointed out. ‘We won't survive that long. We're out of water. Food will be gone soon. This is not let's-talk-it-out kind of place. And I don't know about you, but I really don't want to have to kill anybody. These factors do not help out our longevity.'

"Shut up," she muttered, squeezing her eyes closed. Why couldn't she just keep pretending? It wasn't hurting anyone. It was so much easier to pretend. If she pretended to be an airhead, if she pretended that none of this matter, it didn't hurt so much. The deep, nagging ache in her heart was manageable. The urge to just sit and weep uncontrollably because she would never see her family again could be put off. She could keep the fear and terror and regret all under wraps. Then the ugliness of this place, this situation, couldn't touch her.

It was almost easier to tell herself that this was a horror movie or some zombie apocalypse or dark, deranged buddy comedy. At least those were predictable, safe. She understood exactly how those things worked and what would be expected of her in that situation.

As she thought back to the first time she woke up, strapped to a chair and sick from whatever it was they had all been given, she started to tremble. Shaking her head, she tried as hard as she could to banish the images from her mind. ‘Think of zombies. Think of Evil Dead. You've got to pull it together. Ray and Isabel are in the next room,' she silently scolded herself. ‘We can do this. We can keep it all up and running. You've just got to be a companion worthy of Ash.'

For the first time since they were dumped off on the island, Annaliese took some time to practice her yoga breathing. Dropping her head to her chest, she softly exhaled. "We can do this. We just have to ask ourself: What would Ash do?"

She slowly lifted her head and opened her eyes. The scene outside was still and serene. Trying to take her cue from her environment, she walked back to the front room window. Scanning the area, she spotted someone approaching. After a moment, she realized she recognized the approaching girl. It was Alex, the outgoing half of the Jackson twins. She also remembered that Roman's name had been read off a few days ago. Her heart went out to Alex, who she hoped hadn't had to watch her brother die.

"Ray," she called out. "There's half a set of twins heading this way. What should I do?"

"Thank you. Haven't hit it with a girl yet, but it's not for lack of trying. Hard when you got bounced around to somewhere new."

Ray took the scrunchies, suddenly more grateful for Isabel's presence. He probably should have felt a little weird about wearing one, but at this point whether or not people perceived him as girly was the least of his concern. Besides, the thing was brown anyway.

"And thank you again. I needed one of these, like bad. Keep this fucking rat's nest on my head in check."

Ray pulled his hair back, tied the scrunchy around his hair and doubled it up to keep his hair secure in as tight a ponytail as he could manage.

When Isabel stood up, Ray got up a half second behind her, intending to keep an eye on her if she hadn't rested enough. After all, she had just woken up after he tossed her on the bed.

"Hey, take it easy. Don't need you passing out aga-" And then Annaliese was calling him, worried about someone in the yard again.

What is this, Grand Central Station? Goddamn.

Instead of answering Annaliese, he headed out to the sliding door to take a look. When he saw Annaliese, something about the way she was standing and her face was drawn hinted that something had been going on with her while he was in the room, but he couldn't figure it out. He could ask her later.

There was a girl out there, walking around, whistling. He didn't know if that was a good sign. She could've just been a little...off, like Annaliese. Or fucking crazy. Ray didn't have a good track record with fucking crazy. But then, she didn't look armed

Do they fucking ever?

and she wasn't covered in blood or carrying around a body or anything. His conscience ended up getting the better of him, and Ray threw open the sliding door.

"Watch my back." He said to Annaliese, and stepped out onto the wooden step of the deck. He leaned, almost nonchalantly, against the frame.

"Hey! You lost?" He called out to Alex.

[[Kidnapping Babysitting Isabel until Rugga-dear comes back~]]

Isabel felt woozy. That made a lot of sense- considering everything she'd been through in the last few days, a bit of water wasn't going to be enough to totally revive her. Her steps were of the tentative, tottering, jelly-legged variety, and she saw Raymond's concern before she actually heard him voice it. She turned the smile she'd been pointing outside towards Ray- it was kinda nice, being worried over. She was really lucky, having stumbled here instead of...probably anywhere else on the island. Anyone else coming across a half-dead girl on Survival of the Fittest wasn't going to react by helping her.

She opened her mouth to respond, to tell him that she was fine, really, the dizziness would pass, but Annaliese spoke first.

Isabel blinked and turned back to where she'd been looking originally, and this time she saw another girl approaching. She didn't know her name, but she definitely recognized her from the halls of Bayview: she was one of those really recognizable individuals, the kind who make no concessions to conformity and instead look exactly like themselves. Annaliese had said "half a set of twins"- so she knew this girl? Made sense enough to her, Annaliese did seem like the type to keep up with the goings-on of Bayview (very unlike herself), and besides, both girls looked like they went to the same hairdresser.

The girl was whistling, which didn't bode well for her sanity, but she didn't looked armed. She was just about to warn Ray to be careful when he was already out the door, and, after a moment of debate, stepped out after him. Not that she could really help, but...no, there wasn't really a logical reason to do it, other than that she really did not want Ray or Annaliese to die. Sure she couldn't do much, but at least by being here, she could tell herself she was helping.

And hopefully this girl is actually unarmed. And not crazy?

...Is that Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?

...Okay, maybe a little crazy...

"Hey! You lost?" He called out to Alex.

Alex stopped whistling, which was just as well as she'd almost reached the end of the song, and turned to face the voice that had called out. It took her a moment to find the boy that was standing on the porch of one of the houses.

"I don't know. Does it count as being lost, if you had no particular destination in mind to begin with," she called back. She waved and changed directions heading towards the house. "It's Ray, isn't it? I'm Alex. Like I said I'm not really looking for any place in particular. I started out looking for my brother Roman and I found him only to lose him again."

She paused and offered him a smile. "That sounded a little Alice in Wonderland or something didn't it? Sorry, I'm rambling," she said pausing to take a breath. "I've been on my own for a little over a day now and the one thing I've discovered is that I really don't like it. Do you mind if I come in and hang out for a while?"

Hearing Alex's voice, Annaliese charged up behind Ray and Isabel, who was thankfully short enough for Annaliese to see over her head. "It's not Alice in Wonderland! It's very Lord of the Rings," she called out with a manic grin. "The line is ‘Not all those who wander are lost'." She waved enthusiastically, trying to make the newcomer feel welcome.

"Hey, Alex. Come on in. Chill a while." Annaliese practically vibrated in place, trying to contain her glee. She'd had numerous classes with both the twins over the years. Alex was always the more outgoing Jackson while Roman was the quieter of the pair. Unless the two of them were together. Then you had trouble getting a word in edgewise. She processed what the other girl had said about her brother and sobered. "Oh. Sorry to hear about Roman. Are you doing okay?"

Annaliese had a way of making bleak situations seem a little less so, as evidenced by her making yet another movie reference as she saw the girl. Ray almost smiled. Almost, because Alex said she had lost her brother. Sort of in a way that made him think she wasn't meaning she just didn't know where he was. Annaliese seemed to key in on that fact, anyway.

The girl said his name, which was a new one on him. He thought no one knew who the fuck he was at this point, having moved to Minnesota just this year. One school year wasn't enough for people to know you, especially if all you did was wrestle and you weren't much of a talker. Still, he took note of her name as Annaliese said it.

And look at you now, building up a regular goddamn Brady Bunch. All that's missing is a maid and inexplicably tight bell bottoms.

"Chilling's fine with us. Was just about to turn on the gas grill. I can burn a mean slab of ribs." He smiled, pushed himself off the doorframe to allow a gap.

"You bring some potato salad, maybe a bag of chips or a 2-Liter of Faygo? This here's a potluck." The smartassery was good natured, at least he hoped. He felt like the mood needed a little lightening.

So, the girl seemed pretty nice. And pretty not insane, despite the whistling, which was always good. Judging by her words, she knew Ray, but the expression Isabel caught on Ray's face said otherwise. Maybe they'd just had a class together, and the girl- Alex, her name was? she'd have to remember that- was the type who remembered the names of everyone she came across. Very unlike Isabel herself. That really would've been a useful skill...oh, well.

It seemed like she'd been right about Annaliese, anyway- the girl was practically bouncing in place from joy at Alex's arrival, greeting the girl like an old friend. Isabel found her joy infectious, felt a smile spread to her own face until Annaliese sobered. It hadn't quite occurred to Isabel to think of Alex's statement- "I found him only to lose him again"- as anything other than innocent, but the way Annaliese's voice darkened told her that the other girl reminded something from the announcements that she didn't. For her it was just a bunch of names she didn't know- for a girl like Annaliese, she imagined, the announcements had to be horrible, knowing every one of the dead...

She shook herself out of it. Ray was cracking jokes again and her smile came back- both of her new companions had a way of defusing tension, which had to be the most useful skill, here on Survival of the Fittest. The ability to keep people from breaking down, because it would be really, really easy to break down.

Isabel aimed her smile at Alex. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose a brother, not having one herself, but she figured this girl could use all the smiles she could get. Though she did seem in quite good spirits, all things considered.

"Nice to meet you, Alex," she said somewhat uncertainly, though keeping a smile on her face. "I'm Isabel. And really, Ray's ribs are to die for..."

Alex broke into a wide smile as she saw Annaliese appear. Just when Alex was sure she didn't have a friend left on the island, one appeared. Alex laughed as she corrected her movie reference, but before she could formulate a response she'd rushed on. Alex nodded her thanks at her sympathy for Roman.

"Chilling's fine with us. Was just about to turn on the gas grill. I can burn a mean slab of ribs." He smiled, pushed himself off the doorframe to allow a gap."You bring some potato salad, maybe a bag of chips or a 2-Liter of Faygo? This here's a potluck."

"Nice to meet you, Alex," she said somewhat uncertainly, though keeping a smile on her face. "I'm Isabel. And really, Ray's ribs are to die for..."

The sudden shift in conversation and demeanor took Alex by surprise and it took her a second to catch up. She didn't know the other two people nearly as well as she did Annaliese. There was a small part of her brain was warning her that now was not the time to meet and trust in new people. She couldn't seem to ignore this new camaraderie that had developed. It was so nice to be around people that were acting normal. For the time being, came the warning from the little voice again. ‘Shut up Roman,' she silently ordered the voice. She decided that new cautious part of her brain must be her brother and was glad he was still with her.

"A potluck, well then I got here just in time. I'm sure I've got some macaroni salad in here at the least," she said playing along. "Hiya, Isabel, pleased to meet you."

Alex gratefully stepped through the gap Ray had provided and walked into the house. She took a moment to take in her surroundings. She set her pack on the floor and turned to face them. "Well, what do we do next?"

Annaliese fought the urge to swing around and look at Ray and echo Alex. She was sure he knew what they should do next and would tell them when they needed to know. Until then, they would simply chill out here in their little Fortress of Semi-solitude and wait.

Instead, she looked at Alex Jackson and raised an eyebrow. "Macaroni salad? You didn't put mayo in the dressing for your salad, did you? Because, you know, if there's mayo in it, we can't eat it. It's not safe because it hasn't been refrigerated. Do you have any idea what kind of bacteria can colonize on improperly refrigerated food?"

Annaliese's eyes were solemn and huge as she stared at the new arrival. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she leaned forward. "Warm mayo can kill you." She looked at Ray, Isabel, and Alex in turn before standing up straight again.

"Also, it doesn't have raisins in it, does it? I hate raisins. They're the souls of little dead grapes," she matter-of-factly reported. Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed the first piece of the zombie barricade and dragged it in the direction of the front windows.