Survival Of The Fittest

You know, you're not as strong as you think you are. Sometimes you need help.

...you're not as strong as you think you are...

...you're not strong...

Reiko's eyes narrowed as Carol turned her back. Of all the things that the other girl could have said in that moment... she'd said that. Reiko didn't need help from anyone, let alone little miss prim and proper. How could she act like everything was going to be okay, while at the same time questioning Reiko's ability to survive? Reiko looked from the retreating form of Carol to her gun. It would be so easy to prove her wrong. Just raise the gun and pull the trigger. Teach her to question her resolve.

The girl began to raise the gun in her hand, but stopped. Shooting her was a waste of ammunition. She stormed after Carol, pocketing the gun as she went.

How dare she, How fucking dare she.

Reiko returned to their little camp site, if you could call it that, to see Carol hunched over her bags, doing whatever. It didn't matter to the small girl. All that mattered was Carol was going to learn what it meant to be strong, to be a survivor. She wasn't just going to let her get away with it. She couldn't just let her walk away.

She slipped her hand into one of her many extra pouches, catching the chain attached to her wallet on the way up with her fingers. The wallet had seen better days, much like everything else on this damn island, but that wasn't the object of Reiko's desire at that moment. The two clips on either end of the long, thin chain were quickly detached, the wallet finding it's home back into her pocket. It would do.

Reiko looped the chain once around each hand as she approached the crouching girl. She almost considered spewing one of those cliché one liners or something before doing what she was about to do, but that just seemed silly. There was no need to waste time and energy on words. Without even giving Carol a chance to react, the small girl forced Carol off her feet and onto her stomach with all her weight, looping the chain that once belonged to her wallet around the girl's throat. Crossing the metal joints across each other, Reiko applied all the force and pressure she could.

She was strong.

She didn't need anyone else.

She could make it on her own...

Right?

Suddenly, Carol felt a pressure on her back, forcing her stomach-first to the ground. Oh hell, what was happening now? What was going on? Did someone tackle her from behind or something? Did someone throw something at her? No, they tackled her and pushed her to the ground.

Carol struggled under the weight on her back, hoping to push it off. But, it was no use. She couldn't just push it off. The weight remained despite her protests.

Something slid under Carol's neck. She didn't have enough time to ponder what it was before it had wrapped around her neck and tightened.

Oh god, get it off get it off!

Carol's hands reached up to pry it away, but it was so tight... she could vaguely tell it was a chain or something like that. Oh jesus, she was being attacked and she couldn't fight it off. She couldn't scream for help or yell at them to stop. Her lips opened and closed like a fish, both in the struggle to say something and for air.

This was it, right?

No, this wasn't it! She was going to escape with everyone! She was going to be saved! Reiko would be with her! So would Ben, Jacob, Sarah, Kari, Rein, and everyone else!

The chain roughly rubbed against her neck and only got tighter with each second. It felt so cold and tight... her hands only trembled further as she attempted to pry it away. She couldn't. She couldn't pry it away.

Reiko. Was she doing this to her?

She couldn't be.

In spite of threatening her, she wouldn't do such a thing to her, right? She didn't really mean it. She probably meant something else, or just said that out of frustration. And Carol ran away like some coward. Yes, she was a coward. She ran away from Simon and their attacker, as well. She ran away from what was left of Hermione. This entire time she had been running away from her friends whenever something bad happened. And look how that ended up. Simon was dead, and she was being strangled.

She wanted to apologize to everyone. Simon, Reiko, Hermione, Rizzo... everyone.

The air was quickly leaving her throat, and Carol's struggles toned down, her hands falling away from her neck.

Her vision faded...

Suddenly, she was standing. She looked down at the ground, seeing a tomboy-ish looking girl being strangled with a chain and small yet dexterous hands. Was this... her? Was she standing outside her body? Was she dead? The girl's body was barely moving.

Carol felt herself being pulled away from the scene, the scenario seemingly disappearing down a dark tunnel until she couldn't see it anymore.

She looked around where she was now. And suddenly, she smiled.

Her friends! Everyone who had died, they were here! Wherever she was, she wasn't alone.

With the smile still on her face, she ran over to join them.

__________________

Elsewhere, in Nevada, she wasn't forgotten.

Mrs. Burke had tearfully called back home once the news of her daughter's whereabouts had surfaced. And needless to say, her friends hadn't been doing so well for the past few days. Every time the three remaining of the group of friends hung out recently, it was quiet, as if death itself was in the room. Alan, usually the energetic jokester type, was for once silent. All Whitney wanted to do was sleep, and it was hard just visiting or even just talking to her only to see how devastated she looked. Jake, however, was the only one who had bothered to look through what had been aired so far. And often, he wished he hadn't. Aside from all the myriad deaths and violence that he would see, occasionally he would find what he was looking for; his childhood friend Carol Burke in danger. The very first clip he had seen was the one where she had woken up on the beach and had a panic attack, only to be surrounded by students with guns. It was a good thing they turned out to be helpful. The next he had seen was one where she was crying, and soon another classmate had approached, only to commit suicide in front of her.

The clip of her that surfaced the day after that, though, had her pointing a gun at two people to protect her friend. He noticed that the girl she had been defending, Reiko Ishida, was currently one of the top killers on the island. He could remember Carol talking about her before. She often told everyone about who she met back in Minnesota, and what kind of things she would do with them. The two kids had run off, but they soon ran into another attacker (apparently his name was Maxwell or something?). He had tried to shoot them all, but one of the people Carol had met on the beach tried to fend him off while she and Reiko ran, only to get shot to death.

To be honest, Jake didn't want to view any more of this. Carol was in serious danger, and he couldn't do anything about it. All the death... the violence... it made him sick. Just the other day, he had snapped at one of his classmates who had been wearing a Survival of the Fittest T-shirt, as if nothing had happened. They didn't realize who these people were, who Carol was. Carol wasn't just some image on the screen, she was a good person who was in a horrible situation. They didn't know how much she meant to other people, and who would miss her.

But, he had to keep going and watching. Only because he wanted to make sure Carol made it out safely. If there was any way he could save her, he would. He'd give up anything to make sure she made it out alright.

So now, despite his wishes, he went to watch what was in store today. On the TV screen, Carol and Reiko were sitting down, talking... Reiko was doing jumping jacks... suddenly, Carol went to investigate something and accidentally set her gun off. Reiko pointed her gun at a guy who had been shot by the bullet, and fired.

He stared unblinking in horror as Carol and Reiko proceeded to have an argument. Carol wanted to leave, to be rescued and escape. Reiko didn't think this was possible. Carol had went over to her bags, and...

Right behind her, Reiko was holding a long chain. He knew what was coming next, but he didn't want to admit it.

Carol was knocked to the ground, the chain wrapping around her neck. He saw her struggling, trying to get Reiko off her. Her eyes bulged in shock and confusion. After a few seconds, her body stopped moving, and he could see her still face, her eyes losing the spark he always remembered her having.

With fumbling hands, he quickly shut the damn thing off.

That was it, then. Carol was never coming home. She was never coming on IM and talking to them. She was never going to visit them after graduation like she had wanted. She was never going to grow up and become a chef like she had planned. She was never going to live a long life. All those things had been taken from her, all because someone she once called a friend decided that it was time to take her away. No, because some terrorist wanted to send out a "message".

He could remember Carol. She, Jake, Whitney, and Alan had first met in elementary. Carol was always the cheerful energetic one, always believing in doing the right thing. They played together often, often card or video games. She and Whitney were particularly fond of them. They would often hang out together, and come over to each others' houses. Once Carol got an interest in cooking, she would often cook for them. Jake in particular was never good with that sort of thing, and to make matters worse, his parents often had to go out of town, leaving him to make his own dinner. Carol usually came over with some kind of food or another whenever this happened. He never asked for it to happen, it just did whenever Carol knew about it. And when it came time for her to leave, it was truly upsetting. Carol promised to come home once she graduated.

The last conversation they had with her over IM was fairly simple. Her telling them that she was going to be on the trip, Jake reminding her to be careful, she saying it was going to be fine, Alan cracking jokes, Whitney being the one voice of reason. Carol had said goodnight, and went to bed.

She never returned from that trip.

He had a phone call to make. He hated to be the one who broke the news, but he had to. He took out his cellphone, and started to call Whitney's number.

"Hello?" the girl's voice asked.

Oh god, how would he tell her? Her and Alan?

"... She's gone."

A silence. Then after a few seconds, she hung up.

Taking the phone away from his ear, he set it down beside him. Suddenly, he buried his head in his hands, sobbing.


A good soul had been claimed too early.

G015 Carol Burke- ELIMINATED

While Carol made a token struggle against Reiko, it wasn't what the girl was hoping for. She wanted her to kick and scream and struggle and fight back, to try to live. But she didn't. She just rolled over and kind of died. Somewhere within all the rage, all the contempt that Reiko was feeling for the girl who lay beneath her, having her life choked out of her, she felt... sad. Sad that it was so easy, sad that she wasn't fighting back, sad that she was dying, that Carol wouldn't be around anymore. She was killing one of her only friends. Somewhere inside her mind something was telling her to stop, that this was wrong and it was all a misunderstanding, and yet she didn't. She just pulled and choked and squeezed until Carol stopped moving. It wasn't until that moment that the chain went slack, the metal implement slipping from her hands as she stood up.

Reiko couldn't look at Carol. Or rather, Carol's body. She didn't want to face what she had just done. There was nothing she could do to turn back time, to keep her anger in check, to stop herself from doing what she just did. Even if she refused to look, she knew what had happened. Even if she tried to block it out mentally, the physical pain she felt in her hands from the chain was enough to remind her of her deed. The stinging sensation behind her eyes, the dull ache in her chest, everything was reminding her of what she was. There was no hiding from it, no justifying it. One word rang clearly through her consciousness above all else.

Murderer.

This was it. Reiko had passed the point of no return. As soon as her name came up on those announcements, everyone would know her for what she was. Sarah, Ben, Jacob, they would all know that she was a murderer, a cold blooded killer, thinking of no-one but herself. Which, in a sense, was true. Reiko had fallen into Danya's little trap, had gotten into thinking about her own survival, and she had acted upon it. And now... Carol was dead because of her.

Reiko's head lowered, Carol's shotgun coming into her view. Even something as simple as that was enough to cause Reiko to close her eyes in disgust. Disgust at being in this situation, disgust for herself. The girl had to practically force herself to open her eyes again. The gun was still there. Reiko's hands slowly reached out, taking the weapon in her trembling grasp. She almost put the gun back down, not wanting to have another instrument of murder, but managed to keep hold of it. She might not have wanted it, but she didn't want anyone else to have it either. Still avoiding the sight of Carol's body, the girl grabbed her bag. Then she began to walk away, back towards where Rizzo lay.

Rounding the bend, Reiko reached the spot where everything had gone downhill. Rizzo still laid there, eyes staring vacantly into the sky. She knelt down beside him, and with one hand, closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." the girl didn't know what else to say. Words just weren't enough anymore. Words wouldn't be bringing back Cyrille or Sally or Raina or Rizzo or Carol. They were dead, and she was responsible. Reiko stood back up, shouldering her bag again and grabbing the dead boy's by its strap. It didn't quite feel right taking the belongings from a dead person, but she was running low on supplies. Shouldering this bag as well, Reiko began to walk away from the scene of her latest atrocities, silently holding back the tears that were threatening to burst forth.

((Reiko Ishida continued in The Hardest Part))