Survival Of The Fittest

As Peter shown his more impulsive side after the accident, Max tried to calm him down, although since he was far away from being calm himself, his explanation hardly worked.

"MAX, FUCK! How many times have I told you to put it the fuck away?!?"

"Hey, I was trying to do just that. I just wanted to pull that safety switch on. Were you even listening to me? Okay, I screwed up, I understand, and I'm sorry, but our lives weren't in danger. I pointed that thing to the ground, chill out."

Max could hardly blame Peter for that outburst. Even though it was an accident, Max was perfectly aware that it could be easily avoided, if he would be smart enough to keep his finger away from the trigger. As a person, who usually just goes with the flow, and doesn't mind the past mistakes as long as he'll learn to avoid them in the future, Max wanted to finish talking about the gun already, and move along. He was already stressed enough, to the point, he noticed his hands were shaking a bit. He needed to listen to some music right now, and not excuse to Peter for the billionth time, so he was glad to hear and execute any order to repent for his 'sin'.

"Give me the god damn gun."

Except from that one.

"WHAT?"

Max noticed Peter saying something after the order, but since Max brutally interrupted him he didn't know what exactly. But did that matter? He wanted him to GIVE AWAY his only form of defense on this island? Why would he want that? After all, Max wasn't stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. He wouldn't even touch that trigger on his Auto Mag ever again, unless it was completely necessary. So why? There was no reason to do so, unless...

Silence. Complete silence which started to scare him. He just made a huge noise. He should have heard the rustling sound of animals running away or whatever. But there was none of that. Max looked nervously around. Movement near the caves. Kaitlin? Or maybe someone else. Or maybe even Kaitlin, but not the one he expected. After all, he barely knew her. Guy with the rifle and the girl back in the distance were gone now. Or were they? They probably just sat behind the cover, waiting for the moment he would be defenseless. Waiting for the signal. The signal being...

Max looked at his shaky hands, then again at Peter, his angry face, and his open palm demanding the gun. HIS gun.

That's it. That's exactly what he wanted. Max's gun. He just waited for the perfect occasion. Maybe even HE was the one to jam the locking mechanism in his handgun, you never know.

"So... That's your plan, huh?" Max looked at Peter with eyes full of fear. Open field, lots of hiding spots. And silence. The god damn silence. A perfect setting for a trap.

"You think, you got me huh? You think you can play me like a guitar, MANIPULATE me into giving away my only protection, and then DISPOSE OF ME like a waste, huh?" Max pointed his handgun at Peter with his trembling hands. His whisper filled the air once again. "I saw right through you. You won't fool me."

Max's index finer started to look for the trigger, when he realized something. Someone in the cave. Two people 'Missing'. Of course. He was outnumbered. The moment he would pull the trigger, the others would change him into a swiss cheese.

No, he couldn't do that. Not now. But if he won't, they'll kill him anyway. Silence. the god damn silence.

Instantly, Max lowered his hand, turned himself toward the forest line and made a mad dash in it's direction. He wasn't sure, but that was probably the fastest sprint in his entire life. Even when he reached the forest, he still didn't slow down, only dodged an occasional tree before him. He wanted to be as far away from the trap as possible. He was not going to die. Not on that day. Not anytime soon.

And silence. The god damn silence was finally gone, as his feet touched the ground second after second.

((Max Crowe continued in The Mercenary))

[Skipping to remove Kaitlin before the 25th, sorry if I inconvenience anyone.]

More shouting and more panicking, the consequence of an unintended action and a bullet never meant to be fired, the fear and anger borne of a misunderstanding. Even though there had been no injuries from the event, the damage had been done to the little group, the tensions of each person already running high and the accidental gunshot having pushed everyone over the edge; the shouting and the yelling had kept Kaitlin from moving any closer to Peter or Max, the sudden building of fear in the back of her mind telling her that they couldn't be trusted. She couldn't know if they would hurt her or not, she didn't really know them, didn't really know anyone in her class that well and despite everything she wanted to be true about Peter... she didn't really know him either.

When Max continued shouting, when he got up and ran from Peter with a gun in his hand, Kaitlin couldn't help but back away and try to hide, try to find some meager amount of safety in the shadows behind anything she could find to hide behind. She didn't know what to do, didn't know what to think about Max or Peter or the two other figures nearby, didn't know if she should run away or stay where she was and wait for Peter. She wanted to hope for the best, hope that Peter wasn't going to be like the other students, the ones who had already killed or hurt others, she wanted him to remain her friend and not turn out to be one of those people.

But she didn't really know him.

However much she wanted to hope he was different from the others, from the ones who attacked and killed their friends and their classmates, she couldn't be certain about anything. And no matter how much she tried not to doubt him, she couldn't stop the thoughts from coming, couldn't stop the fear and the panic that began to take hold in her mind, the ones that told her to avoid everyone she couldn't completely trust and avoid these situations. The very thoughts that told her to slip back into the tunnels despite the very reason she ran from them was the fear she was feeling now, about not knowing what would happen or who was capable of things she couldn't imagine, things she didn't want to imagine.

When things had finally stopped, when Max had disappeared from sight and things looked to be calming down, she fought back the urge to run away and pushed aside her doubts about Peter. After all, she had to hope for the best didn't she? Hesitantly, she stood from her place of hiding and motioned toward the boy, but she didn't want to go any closer, to go out in the open after she had seen the others in the distance and the weapon one of them held. It was best if she remained there, if she just waited for him. But she could always move somewhere safer to wait, away from the dark tunnel and the one with the rifle...

Cautiously, she slipped out of her hiding place and waved to Peter, called him to her.

"Peter! Let's go!"

They would have more time to talk, to discuss what had happened just now and in her absence, but that all would have to come later. For now, she wanted to get somewhere safer, wanted to go someplace where they could sit and rest and where they could just be safe, where they could get away from all of these horrible things that were happening.

So she ran. Hopefully, not alone.

[Girl #48 - Kaitlin Anderheim. Continued in Measure Once, Cut Twice.]

The shooting had stopped. Jen stayed where she was for several moments, cowering under cover. Morgan would rescue her. Morgan would-

Fuck that. She could rescue herself. Morgan wasn't exactly in a much better position than her, so there had to be a way that the pair of them could get out of this. Of course, there was still one advantage that Morgan had. The rifle. If he would return fire then maybe they would be able to escape.

Or give away their positions, and end up shot dead in a fire fight. The first shot hadn't been followed by another so far, so perhaps they were lucky. No point in hanging around though. She got to her feet in a hunkered down position and darted over to the pile of logs that Morgan was behind.

Arriving slightly out of breath, she paused to recover before dispensing advice. "I think we're ok. It's not a sustained attack, and it's probably not against us. I don't want to hang around and find out though. We need to move. You're the man with the plan. Where do we go?"

Life moved slowly for the first few seconds after Morgan hid behind the logs. The rifle was still shaking in his left hand. His right hand was patting his body, looking for any kind of wound. He hadn't felt any pain, but it wasn't a bad idea to make sure. He let out a sigh of relief when he found nothing. He then waited for the next shot, but there was nothing. Hearing nothing was almost as bad as hearing anything at all.

He was relieved to see Jen sit right next to him seconds later. Now the two of them were safe, for now. Maybe the two of them were safe, but if poker had taught him one thing in his life. It was to never trust that you were out of the clear.

Morgan's tiny companion was right, they were likely free, but he still wanted to be sure. He slowly bent his knees and lifted his head over the logs. He took a quick glance and saw that one of them was gone and that the other wasn't holding any gun. He didn't stick around to get any more details though. He quickly slid back down onto his rear end and took a deep breath.

Jen was counting on him to get them out of this situation and the pressure could be felt in this very moment. He had to think about whether that guy out there still had a gun. If he guessed wrong, well...there wouldn't be much thinking about the move afterwards.

"Ok Jen," Morgan said, taking a deep breath before doing so, "One of the dude's is gone, and the other doesn't seem to have a gun...I uh...I think that we're going to have to make a break for it again though..."

He wiped off a layer of sweat and haphazardly picked at his lip. It was time to move, there was no debating it now. If the two of them were going to survive here and live to find a way out of here. They had to move now.

"Ok," he said, with more confidence in his voice. "We're going to make a break for it. On my mark..."

Morgan got up onto his knees before starting in a crouch. He wished he didn't have to run now, his feet and legs would be killing him but it would all be worth it.

"3...2...1........Go!"

Morgan ran. He hoped that Jen was close behind but he didn't check behind him. All that mattered now was getting out. He jumped over logs and avoided stumps as best he could. He nearly fell three times already, but he maintained his balance.

The two of them would find a way out. He still had hope...

((Morgan Leftowitz continued elsewhere))

...What?

Max had literally just broken when Peter asked for the Gun. He started spouting something about "this all being part of his plan" and "manipulated and disposed of". He sounded like a conspiracy theorist. Peter only wanted the gun because he at least had some minimal experience with a gun. Granted it was a .22 pellet rifle at scout camp, but he had a basic understanding of a safety and gun safety in general. And Max obviously didn't. If he could have truly understood society and how it works, he would know that he should have prefaced with something about his experience, and not "Give me the God Damn gun". And he would have understood just how he came off to his now Ex-Companion.

But he didn't, and he never would. As it stood, he felt a twinge of relief that the crazy kid that he had misjudged was gone and couldn't hurt him or Katlin anymore. That sprint made Peter's eyes spin, watching fear and paranoia incarnate flee into the woods, probably towards his final resting place. And Peter hurt because he couldn't prevent this. But it was probably for the better. If Max was that unstable, Katlin and Peter really were in danger.

Thoughts of the two down in the field left his mind in favor of his group's own internal struggle. Now he just thought for Katlin. Had she fled during this incident?

"KATLI-"

"Peter! Let's go!"

Oh. That answered his question. Again he was caught off guard as Katlin sprinted past him. "Shit, wait for me!" His eyes flashed between his things, half strewn on the ground. Keeping up with her was more important than this stuff. The ground pad and binoculars laid on their own on the ground as he scooped up what of the pack he could, turning on his heel and running after, her, clipping the awkward bag as he ran, hoping nothing decided to fly out of the top. Almost as an afterthought, his hand hooked through one of the straps of the day pack, making sure he didn't lose his main food and water supply; those provided rations. "Katlin, wait up!" He shouted after her as he attempted to maintain his balance, his stubby little legs moving as fast as they could carry him.

((Peter McCue continued elsewhere.))

Jen tried to be strong. She tried to be the good soldier that she needed to be to survive in here. As Morgan ran off, instructing her to follow, she debated her choices. Sure, the shot hadn't been followed. There was a good chance that they hadn't been the intended targets. And what figures she had seen were now all gone.

Still, there was something holding her back. Fear. If she went out there only to feel a bullet tear through her, then what would it all have been worth. And there was every chance that there was somebody waiting for her. She knew that she'd made enemies in her time, people who wouldn't hesitate to use this as a chance to get revenge on her for real or imagined slights.

On the other hand, hiding and waiting to be caught wouldn't do much use either. Right now, she didn't have much choice. If she wanted to have even a shot at getting off this island, then she had to stick with the plan. And that meant Morgan. She raced off behind him.

((Jen Romita cont'd in The Worst Bath Ever))

((I think that the fat lady has sung for this thread. Thread is closed.))