Survival Of The Fittest

"Uh... it's me, Saul. I'm unarmed, don't hurt me or anything,"

Saul, Saul, Saul, Saul, Saul, I know that name...Ah, right, Saul, he's the guy in the school mascot costume, isn't he?

Brendan had to do that little cliche "slightly tilt your head to the side to indicate you have no idea what someone's talking about" thing at his other inquiry. Eight ball, huh? He looked down at the ground and ran the tip of his tongue around the outside of his molar teeth, back forward, forward back. What to do...

Well, no time to think, Jojo was looking for an answer.

"Uh..."

Brendan nodded. Sure. No harm in this, he was friendly.

"Yeah, what he said, you, uh, can get your thing and...and..." Brendan tried to say, before stumbling again at the last sentence. Once he got his ball, then what? He'd leave. Was that a good thing? Not sure. If he left, chances were that would be it for them, last time they'd ever speak. Good luck, so long, thanks for the memories. Still, he knew he'd taken that risk every time he bailed from the groups he accumulated. They had to be okay, they weren't on the announcements yet...

"...if you want, uh, you could s-stick around, I guess."

He moved the light slightly away from Saul on the green, and put it back down on the sand, illuminating the small bunker. A welcome place for the night, no?

Still, Brendan just wasn't gonna turn into a hospitable host for the time being. The light shone upon the eight ball in the sand, and Brendan left the light there until Saul got his so-called weapon back. Even then, he just curled his legs up to his stomach again, bag and gun clenched under his legs, and half-buried his face in his knees.

Avoid their eyes.

Don't let them look at how much you just wish it could all be over now.

Just avoid their eyes.

Joss Joiner, that was someone Saul didn't know all too well. 'Brendan Wallace... that's the Australian guy, right?' And they'd found his eight ball. Great. But they wanted him to come down to them in order to reclaim it. Was it all just a trap? Saul didn't think so; if his memory was correct, neither name had cropped up on the announcements, so he wasn't dealing with killers.

"Y-yeah, okay," Saul nervously replied, getting back up onto his feet. He tentatively walked down the slope, careful not to lose his footing again. The flashlight was no longer in his eyes, that much he was thankfull for. As he approached the bunker, he could see the beam shining on a certain spherical object. 'There it is!' he thought.

"Thanks," Saul said as he jumped down into the bunker, picking the ball up and putting it back into his jacket pocket. "Magic eight ball, my weapon, if you can even call it that." He sighed, sitting down and looked around through the darkness. So here he was, sitting in what amounted to a large sand pit with two people he barely knew. Brendan, who did indeed turn out to be the Australian guy, going by his accent, was asking him if he wanted to stay.

"I... yeah, I think I'd rather stick around here for the time being. I know it probably feels like I'm intruding here, but I don't have anything decent on me as far as weapons go, and I don't want to go out on my own in the dark." Well, that made him sound like a great big coward, but it was true. Leaving a place of relative safety to head off by himself in the middle of the night, that was just begging to be picked off by one of the many killers lurking around. Speaking of 'killers', he still needed to find Garry and find out what the hell had happened. And find out where Sapphire went off to while he was at it.

"So, uh, I might as well ask you guys," he spoke, breaking the silence, "you haven't seen Garry Villette or Sapphire... uh, dunno her last name, anywhere, have you? Garry's a big guy, black hair in a ponytail, has a lot of facial hair, loves wolves. Sapphire... uhh... she's got brown hair, purple shirt, lots of jewellery."

(Time-skip and GMing approved by other handlers)

As Saul came down and rambled, Jojo decided to take out out his second loaf of bread and started on it. I wish I had Sunil's damned cans of food now. He sure as hell didn't want them. At least I got to refill my water bottles today. Tomorrow I'm going to look for something edible thats not this damn bread.

He looked up as Saul asked if he had seen Garry or Sapphire. Jojo just shook his head, having seen neither hide nor hair of the hockey player or fellow craftsperson. He heard Brendan say something about possibly seeing Sapphire. He wasn't sure of details, still focused on finding Jay.

I hope I'm not dragged into helping play hide and go seek for people again. I felt obligated to Roman since John shot him, but I have no obligation to these two. I need to find Jay and make sure he's safe. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get anyone off this island but I'll be damned if I tried to leave without Jay. I'm not sure what would happen if we were the last two standing, but theres way too many people left to worry about that now.

The three of them decided to camp out near the sand bunker. Jojo and Saul shared their journeys so far, Jojo mentioning he was searching for Jay, while Brendan kept to himself while they chatted. When it came to watch duty, he convinced Saul it should just be the two of them as he whispered that Brendan wasn't feeling well. He wasn't sure what the truth was, but something was weighing heavily on his companion's mind. He thought against asking for the gun and persuaded Saul to share his sledgehammer for guard duty.

----DAY 6 EARLY MORNING START-----

The sun was beginning to rise on a new day of this forsaken land. Wearily, Jojo continued his attack on his loaf of bread before waking the others up. I hate SOTF, I hate Danya, and most of all, I HATE THIS DAMN BREAD!

"Uh...Sapphire? I...I think I might have seen her today. It was just before I headed off to find some stuff on my own, when she showed up. I think these two girls I was travelling with were her friends, cause they knew her, and..."

Brendan's voice trailed off slightly there, and he averted his gaze to his knees. Everything he just said was opening up a whole shebang of questions, and it was best to cut off the possible damage when he could. Reduce the risk of reliance, they shouldn't have to count on you, too many people are doing that already, just for your safety.

*

Saul decided to stay around, and the three of them decided to hand around for safety. The numbers decreased their chances of getting caught unawares. However, it just turned into the same thing as before. Brendan sat alone, all by himself, while someone else did the dirty work. When Jojo asked, he mumbled something, he wasn't quite sure what, about his leg and wellbeing.

What really should have set the two of them off right there was his unwillingness to help. For starters, both of them, and everyone in a mile radius, knew they had a gun, knew HE had a gun. What the three of them had between them accumulated into a hierarchy of pathetic. Gun, then a sledgehammer, then an 8-ball. A sledgehammer was a crap weapon, and as Brendan sat huddled into himself against the bunker wall, he knew he should have just at least offered to help, even if he wasn't going to be of any use.

Did he even really care about these guys? Or at least, did it look like he cared? Cause he wanted to. He wanted to be worried about their troubles, their concerns, their well-being, but...he didn't know. Brendan knew even thinking something like that was bound to get you heaps of dirty looks, and now here he was just wishing that he would come to care about them overnight. He needed it. It reminded him of the most important thing in the world.

*

Come morning, he wasn't feeling any better. Through a guise of sleeping, resting, and "not feeling well", he'd stayed to the lonesome all night and just tried to think about how he was going to make it back to his group. It was the morning, and the announcements would be on any minute. By the time Danya's voice reached across the island, they'd know it would be time to leave. Go over to the town, that's what he suggested and said they should do.

Oh, and to make the whole thing better? Nik had kicked it. The same Nik who he'd been helping out in the band for the last few months, the same one who could play guitar like nobody's business, and the same Nik who he'd only just feared for his state of mind only, what, 2 days ago now? Dead. His brother killed him, apparently.

Fuck, Nik...

So that meant...Jamie was left. He knew Laverne and Joe weren't on the trip. Wasn't sure why, but they weren't on the buses. As harsh as it sounded, Laverne was a figure that really stood out in a crowd. Joseph he knew from a distance now, so...he just had to find Jamie.

He doubted whether she'd even remember him. They weren't even that close. He only adjusted the sound and lighting for them numerous times, and their friendly exchanges and such were the extent of their brief conversations.

But it's not like he could actually catch a break with that, huh?

Oh, and to top it all off, guess what was declared a danger zone, a no-go? The town.

Once Danya drawled off the area, Brendan instinctively gulped. This was what happened when you had no back-up plan.

"Great..." Brendan mumbled, speaking for the first time in hours. He hadn't said a word, even while Saul and Jojo shared their stories. But now, he needed to get that incy wincy little bit of frustration off his chest.

So...now what?

He lifted his head from the confines of his legs, and looked to his companions for guidance.

"So...I suppose, uh, we should go. Staying around the same area for too long is kinda...iffy. So, um...I'm heading back up north, and if either of you wanna come...we stick together, I suppose.

The bag was drawn out from under the vice and loaded onto his shoulder. Brendan's legs felt the brief rush of air, of cold, and pins and needles, that came with a slight change in muscle condition over a night spent contorted entirely too wrong. HIs hands reached up to the edge of the bank on the green, and pulled the tall boy up. As if the feeling of needled legs couldn't get any worse, it reached the stitchings in his leg and then burnt for a few fleeting seconds like flint-wood held to a furnace. He bit his lip. The pain subsided, still rattling. At least Brendan could walk again.

"I'm, um...ready, yeah, I guess. Let's go then."

((Brendan Wallace continues in The Beggar King))

Neither of the two boys knew where Garry was, which was disheartening. Brendan, on the other hand, had seen Sapphire on his travels recently. However, he didn't say where exactly he'd seen her, so in the end that didn't really do much to help him. Both of them could be laying dead in a ditch somewhere and he'd be none the wiser. 'Oh God, don't think things like that!' Saul told himself.

Saul recalled the events that had happened over the past several days, having met up with Garry, Cyrille and Miranda, the group separating at the tunnels, finding out Cyrille had died, meeting up with Sapphire and then losing her during the mad rush to vacate the cellphone tower. He decided to ignore the part about discovering Garry was a killer; neither Brendan or Jojo seemed to have remembered the fact, and he didn't want to jeopardize things with the two guys. Somehow, 'oh, by the way, we're looking for someone who's a murderer,' didn't sound like it would go down well with the pair of them.

Jojo offered to share his sledgehammer with Saul for guard duty, something the mascot was grateful for. Like he'd be able to do anything worthwhile with his eight ball. And then Jojo informed him that they should leave Brendan and go off on their own way.

Saul was initially shocked by his decision, but once he thought about it for a while, Jojo had made a good point. Brendan wasn't offering his gun to either of them, and he was just keeping to himself the whole time, something Saul found to be rather selfish, though he didn't bring it up in conversation. But that worried him. If Brendan really was going to be looking out for himself and himself only, how long would it take for him to decide that playing to survive was a viable option? Sure, he seemed to be a nice enough guy, but so did people like Reiko and Staffan and Garry ('no, he's still a good person!'), and they had all gone on to kill.

And if Brendan really did decide to go down that path while they stuck around... Saul shuddered at the thought of it.

By some miracle or something, Saul managed to get some shuteye during the remainder of the night, and was woken up by Jojo moments before the announcements came on. The good news was that Garry and Sapphire were still both alive and hadn't killed anyone. The bad news was that Staffan, Nik and Marco were all dead. 'Damn... that's almost all the team gone!' Saul thought, shocked by the turn of events.

He didn't have time to dwell on it any longer though; Brendan was heading off. Saul clambered out of the bunker after him, helping Jojo out and then followed the Australian. He looked to Jojo as he departed the greens, knowing it was only going to be a matter of when Brendan's back was turned.

((Saul Fetteralf continued in Legoland Empire))

Jojo felt a twinge of guilt at his decision to ditch Brendan, but right now he had to find Jay and Brendan seemed to have his own ideas of where to go. It was nice to know he was alive but now that he knew Jay survived to another day he couldn't follow someone else's lead right now. As Saul helped him out of the bunker, his mind finally realized what was bothering him about the people the mascot was looking for.

Oh shit, Garry killed someone a few days ago! Well we've already committed to ditching Brendan but what now? Will we find Jay or Sapphire? Or will we find Garry and become his next targets? Hopefully it won't end in blows but I'm not going to let anyone else be killed if I can help it!

As he followed the others his new conviction finally gave Jojo an idea of what he'd do on this forsaken land past finding Jay.

Maria, Roman, John, I couldn't help any of them. Brendan looks like he'll be fine for now but Jay needs my help. So does Saul, maybe Sapphire too. I'll help anyone I can to survive for a chance off this island, and if that means playing this stupid game to kill the killers so be it. I'm not going to let one more person die while I'm around, even if it costs me my life!

((Joss Joiner continues in Legoland Empire.))

[[THREAD CONCLUDED]]