Survival Of The Fittest

((SHORT POST OF EXTREME EMERGENCY))


Nick lumbered towards the bag. He had to pass the fallen body on the way. He couldn't quite tell why, but he was compelled to remove the bolt. He grabbed one end and with some difficulty he wrenched it out of the boy, fresh blood squishing and sloshing out of the wound. The bolt slid out smoothly until the end caught slightly and promted him to tug. It came out.

Nick tossed the bolt at Teo and grabbed the sack of supplies. He felt better now that the cross bow bolt had been removed. The boy was still a horrible mess, but he looked more natural now.

"Cisco..." he said trying the sound of the name. He knew him. Soccer team. Yes, he'd heard his name on the announcements but he didn't remember the context. "I think I remember them saying Cisco. I could be wrong though" he said to his shoes.

"Perhaps," Meredith responded to Teo, her eyes locking onto his. She kept a tight grasp on her book as she tried to ignore the crossbow in the boy's hand. He could easily fire it and kill her as well, but she figured that he had no intentions to murder willy-nilly. In fact, he was under some helpless delusion that he had saved them all. Poor guy, although maybe that was unfair. Maybe he was right, and this Max guy was indeed Maxwell, but even Meredith, as anti-social as she was, was well-aware that Max was a common name, and there was probably a good handful of Max's in the entirety of St. Paul. Perhaps two or three in the senior class.

"You're quick," she observed, lips twitching into something of a smile. "It didn't occur to you that perhaps you framed the wrong Max? I'll let you save your overwhelming feelings of guilt for later and simply thank you for saving my life. I am forever in your debt, O Glorious Hero. You have taken down the biggest and baddest killer on the island. How does it feel? Grand? He sure looks like a dangerous type, doesn't he?"

Meredith couldn't help but smile inside of her mind. She felt so witty today, for sure even Teo would agree. However, she was going through a bit of a moral crisis here. She desperately wanted Teo and his herd to sign her book (the thought would never evacuate her mind, it was her only driving point), but he was sort of pointing a crossbow at Cisco and asking Gracie to check for a listing on the guy. Great. Was Teo going to try and "save them" again? Perhaps she should quit worrying about her notebook for five seconds and try to act like a normal human being.

One of the boys from Teo's group came over to remove the bolt from Max's body. Meredith made a face and clicked her tongue against her teeth. "The Gods of Death aren't too keen on disturbing a body after the soul has left its vessel. But I suppose you have to do what you have to do. It wasn't Max's crossbow bolt, was it? It would be entirely selfish to let his corpse keep the bolt... I don't think he'll get much use of it in the Afterlife..." She trailed off, glancing over at Cisco and his female companion, Josée. She was shaking and perhaps on the verge of tears, whispering something to Cisco that she couldn't quite hear. Meredith hated to see this, hated to see two people who weren't bothering anyone cowering in fear due to some psycho with a crossbow, bent on killing killers.

What if Cisco wasn't a big bad killer? What if he had a lack of judgement or an accident or a reason for killing someone? This just didn't seem fair. Meredith didn't exactly consider herself a specialist in fairness and whatnot, but she didn't exactly want to stay in the background and watch Cisco get mowed to the ground. She walked over and stood close to Cisco and Josée, not exactly in front of them, but close. She waved her hands and shouted, "Okay, I think I understand what is going on. Please listen to my opinionated explanation. Death is like a disease that preys upon both the living and the dead. On an island filled with the decaying and putrid odor of malice and corpses alike, it seems as if you were inspired by the bad energies to commit an atrocity upon poor Max, who, might I add, perhaps may not be a big-bad killer, but that's another story for another time. The point is! The bad energies are whispering blatant lies in your ears and filling your mind with lies. I mean, the mind lies all the time, that's reality, but the bad energies sometimes cause lies to spring up too. Trust me. These energies might try and convince you that Cisco is some bad guy, but he isn't that bad. He donates to women's shelters and homeless children funds, or so I've been told."

Meredith could have went about this in an entirely normal way and implored them to go away & not shoot them, but she simply kept going on about Death and bad energies. And of course...

"When you come to your senses, I'd like to ask you to sign my book. I'd be crushed if you left without doing so. I'd probably have to follow you when you leave and, trust me, I'd rather not do that, taking your quick-trigger skills into full account..."

"I promise... We'll get out of this." he could hear her say.

Cruel, cruel, empty reassurances. Surely Death was toying with him now, reducing him to begging for mercy lest he end up with a crossbow through the jugular, barely able to utter some kind of final taunt to his would-be murderer.

Teo Weinstock had killed someone, and by the way he was ordering his posse around he clearly had no qualms about killing again. At this point, that was true about pretty much everyone that killed and hadn't been killed by now. Even Cisco was dying - pun half-intended - to get out of this increasingly hairy situation by any means necessary. What made this scenario so particularly worrying was the fact that he was quite obviously at a disadvantage against Teo what with the weight of an entire person still cruelly denying him a reach toward his sweet music.

"He's going to kill me..." Cisco whimpered, already past the verge of tears as his sweet music lay inches upon sadistic fractions of inches from his reach. "You gotta let me at him..."

He could still see ~*PANDORA BLACK*~ off to the side, asking Teo for what seemed like an autograph for her little Death Note. He didn't know whether to be thankful for however much time she was buying, because he was too busy losing copious amounts of strength while reaching for his circular sawblade. Had he actually eaten more than he did, he would probably not have gone past the verge of tears and toward the verge of fainting from all that fear stressing him out.

Gracie frowned at Teo's instructions. She didn't really want to approach the others, but Teo was still holding his crossbow on them. Gracie glanced over to Cisco who looked…scared…no guilty she decided. Would Teo do it, kill him while he was standing here? Could she sit by and let him?

Both of the boys had killed someone, but so far there had been nothing she could have done to stop them. Both were adamant that they needed to start playing the game. Gracie wasn't so sure, this was how to go about, just killing random students as they went. Although Teo at least seemed to have decided on a standard. Of course by his own logic then he should be turning his weapon on himself and Nick sometime soon.

She circled around Teo and approached Pandora as she began spouting nonsense about signing her stupid book.

She glanced back at Nick and rolled her eyes, the girl couldn't possibly be serious. Gracie decided not to point out the little flaw in her I don't want your violence but I'll follow you. However, it did give her rather an easy way to get the notebook from her. She looked at Pandora expectantly saying, "Yeah sure we'll sign it. Just hand it on over." She stepped forward and held out her hand, unsure if she really wanted to have that kind of power. If Cisco's name was in the book, what should she do then?

(Jessica Pentangeli continued from Same Verse Same as the First)

After hours of searching, Jessica gave up. Not just the search. She gave up everything. What was the point? There was none. That was the point. Alex was her only friend, and she had completely lost her. Jessica felt useless, like she couldn't do anything right. That's because it was true. She couldn't do anything right. She should just kill herself. Then she stopped that train of thought, not because she wanted to live but because she knew that she would fuck that up too so it would just be a huge waste of time.

So the only thing Jessica wanted to do - the only thing she could do at that point, was sleep. She was on an incline, somewhere. She had forgotten to break out the map and compass when she was running around trying to find Alex. She was desperately lost now. She could have worried, had she the inclination. Now, being oh so alone and useless, she couldn't find it in herself to care.

When she couldn't sleep, she walked. In what direction? Whichever the incline was heading. She didn't care well. She had no plan. It was just something to do. Survival? She didn't think about it. Because thinking about survival meant that she would have to think about living and dying, and well, she was in no condition.

The incline ended. Jessica looked up. She wasn't alone. There were a few kids. They looked like blobs to her. She couldn't recognize them, not right away. She hoped that they didn't see her. Maybe if she ran away they wouldn't come after her. But she didn't do that, instead she walked forward and focused on one blob in particular.

Jessica looked like a mess. Her hair was all frizzy. Her clothes were wrinkled. She was pale. And yet the only thing that stuck out, the only thing that would ever make an impression were those eyes. Her eyes were large, and very surprised. Her mom always told her never to stare at people, but Jessica found it hard to do that. There were pieces of pie on one of the blob's shirt. Pie. She used to like pie. She knew a boy that she liked to eat pie with. Pie. She wished she had some pie... Jessica's blood went cold.

"... Nick?"

Teo relaxed. This was going better than he thought. Cisco and Josee really weren't doing anything and Meredith; well, she was always a little batshit crazy. Meredith's little speech left him a little confused but it was obvious that the events had pushed the girl just that little bit closer to the cliff of total insanity. She seemed surprisingly calm comparatively to the other two and that made him slightly nervous. Sure Gracie could sign her book, but Teo wasn't willing to take the risk of Meredith or anyone else pulling something over him.

"Nah babe," Teo said, putting his trademark smirk on his face, "I don't do autographs sorry. I'll give you some advice for free though. You keep thinking this is a game and you're going to get yourself killed. I know what the stakes are so I won't be pulling any punches. I'd suggest you'd do the same lest you end up in an early grave." Teo's voice changed abruptly becoming steely and hardened.

Just because I'm such a nice guy and Gracie here is a little fragile I'm considering letting you have a head start, but if you fucking keep trying to talk down to me like you know shit of whats going on right now you'll find yourself in the same position Maxwell is right now."

Normally Teo wouldn't let his emotions get the better of him, but he was hungry, tired and on edge from all the tension that had happened with no resolution. Really, he just wanted to solve his problems right now by shooting every one of the group he had run in to, but his moral compass screamed against it.

He grabbed the bolt Nick chucked him with his left hand and risked taking a glance about before grunting at Nick. "Harden up, we both know this has to be done." If Cisco did kill someone as Nick indicated that would justify them killing him. Teo had done a little bit of rudimentary psychology and could see that Gracie was not one hundred percent on board with what just happened. He needed to involve her. If she killed someone then she would be come implicate and feel like she was one of them. They could of course just take all these guys gear and food and while it was a matter of survival Teo didn't like the idea of letting anyone starve to death.

He'd do what it took to win, but he wasn't going to put anyone through unnecessary pain. No, he'd get Gracie to off Cisco if he was a killer, and then they would...

His train of thought was interrupted abruptly as a voice called out from a distance. "Nick." Teo spun around his body tense once more and saw Jessica slowly making her way towards them. She looked like a train wreck and despite the rifle on her shoulder she didn't look like she was ready to come out guns blazing. Teo glanced at Nick.

"You know her bro?"

No-one seemed to be listening to Josée, something that she wasn't used to, all she could do was sit trembling on the ground like a little baby, and no matter how hard she was trying to convince everyone that she wasn't a coward, everyone just continued to pour over the boy who just got an arrow shot through his head. How typical. The girl who had asked them to sign her book piped up, perhaps she'll be heard... And hopefully not shot. She gave off a long, psychedelic monologue that Josée couldn't quite wrap around her head, but she seemed to be defending Cisco, so she nodded in agreement sheepishly. Josée felt almost sorry for the girl when the boy seemed to laugh in her face.

"Nah babe, I don't do autographs sorry. I'll give you some advice for free though. You keep thinking this is a game and you're going to get yourself killed. I know what the stakes are so I won't be pulling any punches. I'd suggest you'd do the same lest you end up in an early grave."

"Arsehole." Josée muttered under her breath.

"Just because I'm such a nice guy and Gracie here is a little fragile I'm considering letting you have a head start, but if you fucking keep trying to talk down to me like you know shit of whats going on right now you'll find yourself in the same position Maxwell is right now." The boy turned to one of his underlings. "Harden up, we both know this has to be done."

Just as the A team had finished pulling the arrow out of the boy's head, another voice grabbed everyone's attention, she seemed to know at least one of them. "You know her, bro?" The boy turned to address the newcomer, but Josée was sick of being stuck on the ground behind his closed back, there was only so much time she could spend in fear. She took a deep breath and spoke. "A head start? What the Hell are you talking about? You want to kill Cisco because he's a murderer? You think he's going to kill us all? He's just a messed up kid. You want to know the truth? He did kill a girl, I was right by her when he did. But he didn't have a single clue as to what he did; he said he'd throw his weapon out and the next thing I knew she was on the ground." Josée didn't want to seem like he was begging for her life, so she picked herself up from the ground and shouted in the boy's face. "That was his weapon!" Josée pointed to the record. "How the fuck can something like that kill someone? How could he possibly kill someone with that? Please, leave him alone, he's my responsibility now, I'm the one who's taking care of him, and I know that he's one of the good guys."

Nick stared blankly at Meredith as she spoke. He waited until she was done and tilted his head slightly to one side.

"You talk a lot," she said, pointing at her. "But none of it makes much sense. To me, at least."

He looked around to see if anyone else knew what she was saying. They looked equally confused. Good, it wasn't just him. She had a book she wanted them to sign. He couldn't see why and he didn't really know what he would write, but Teo brushed her off in his trademark way. He called her babe and flashed a smile.

Gracie stepped forward to write in the book. Far be it for him to stop her.

He looked down at Cisco. He was certain he'd heard that he killed someone. The kid looked like he was freaking out. He was.....what was he doing? It was very strange to Nick. It made him want to take a step away from Cisco. He didn't like this person who was whimpering and crying. It gave him a prickly feeling to be near him.

And then he heard a little voice. He turned around.

"Jessa," he whispered. He felt so much just looking at her. She was dirty and tired like they all were but she had those sweet, brown eyes that looked hopefully up at him. He was happy that she was safe, but he wasn't entirely happy to see her. The position that he was in, standing next to a dead boy and his accomplice right there with a crossbow bolt in his hand..... it wasn't a good picture for her to walk into. He wanted to explain himself, but he was afraid that if he moved forward he'd scare her. He thought she might go running off like a rabbit and he'd never see her again.

He had tried to chase rabbits when he was a little kid.

He was always too loud, too slow to catch them.

He always lost them.

Meredith knew that she should have been harboring ill-feelings towards Teo's group or cowering in fear from the aforementioned boy's crossbow. And yes, that was exactly what Teo was: a boy. A little boy with a toy that he could use to incite feelings of fear and distrust. He possessed a toy that would make him feel more powerful and godly, a toy that could instantly remove anyone from the Beast's game with a single well-aimed shot. Meredith knew all of this, but she still couldn't help but feel glee fluttering around in her chest when one of the girl's (Gracie, Meredith believed her name to be), agreed to sign Meredith's Book of Life.

The smile wouldn't disappear from Meredith's face as she dug around in her trench coat's pockets for a pen. When she located one, she handed the book and pen over to Gracie. "Splendid. Just.. write your name and a message to your loved ones, please. That would be excellent. Really, I seriously appreciate it."

She left the book in Gracie's possession and looked away, hearing a small voice calling out to someone else. She turned in the direction and came face to face with something that she actually knew. Make note of this, people. It was someone that Meredith actually knew or, rather, someone she used to be friends with. Still friends with? Meredith didn't know. It had been so long since she had actually spoken with Jessica... Maybe they never were friends, just two people that occasionally co-existed in the same area every once in awhile.

At first, Meredith almost didn't recognize her. She hadn't seen the other girl since they were back in school together, composed and clean, completely devoid of ripped shirts and pale cheeks. Sucked clean of sleep and food and everything vital that kept a human running. She looked like she was running on empty, and for a few seconds, it was difficult for Meredith to match this Jessica up to her previous school-Jessica counterpart. If... that made any sense. It didn't even make full sense to Meredith, but the facts were these: Jessica was here, and Jessica was really the only human that Meredith ever really made any effort to speak with.

But Jessica seemed entranced by someone else's presence, Nick's apparently, so Meredith chose not to say anything. Perhaps wait and a bit later, she could ask her for her signature and all that good stuff.

Her focus on Jessica was broken by the cold voice of Teo, who was throwing around threats and negative comments, words that were meant to discourage Meredith but only filled her hope. Teo was so disillusioned, but perhaps that is what the Beast wanted. He couldn't see beyond the barriers that were attacking his mind, causing all senses of logic to fly out the metaphoric window. "If I wasn't mistaken, Teo, I think we're all going to end up in an early grave. Whether you kill me here and now, or some other guy kills me later because I looked at him funny, it won't matter at all. And no one will care because I was just that weird goth chick. No one even takes a second to realize that I'm the only one who knows what's going on here. The Beast is just manipulating you, Teo. I don't think this is a game, I know it's a game. And if you don't realize it, you'll be in worse than an early grave. Perhaps... the Beast's abyss? Yes, that sounds about right."

She trailed off but resumed her little tirade after a few moments. "You'll wish you wrote in my book after we're all dead. Everyone's loved ones will receive heartfelt messages from their children, except your parents, of course. They won't receive one because their child was needlessly defiant towards Pandora. Tsk tsk, you'll regret it. Your loss, not mine." She would have continued, but Josée had begun to speak. She was explaining what had really happened with Cisco, and Meredith went silent and listened. Half of her hoped that Teo would listen and feel satisfied by Josée's explanation, but half of her realized that he probably wouldn't listen. Nothing would quench his mad, Beast-influence thirst for blood.

"You talk a lot. But none of it makes much sense. To me, at least."

"That's because you're inferior to me."

"Harden up, we both know this has to be done."

ohfuckohfuckohfuckimgonnadiefuckohfuck

For once, Cisco's mind was entirely focused on something relevant: the desire to survive. And boy, was Death making it hard for him to do so what with being pinned down by someone who clearly thought she was taking care of him in front of a goddamn IDF Commando that had just killed someone in front of him while ~*LADY PANDORA BLACK*~ was getting autographs to provide legal witness to history being written here today before the millions of SOTF's fans. Whatever deity or entity was supposed to be working in mysterious ways wasn't doing a very good fucking job about it, but as long as it sent the message loud and clear that he was going to DIE HORRIBLY then it was at least getting that right.

So why not garnish it with a speech?

"A head start? What the Hell are you talking about? You want to kill Cisco because he's a murderer? You think he's going to kill us all? He's just a messed up kid. You want to know the truth? He did kill a girl, I was right by her when he did. But he didn't have a single clue as to what he did; he said he'd throw his weapon out and the next thing I knew she was on the ground."

All of a sudden it was as if a great weight was lifted from upon Cisco's shoulders. Perhaps it was more than just the obvious movement of Joseé Tremblay no longer pinning him down. Maybe it was that adrenalin rush knowing that he would definitely die within the next few seconds instead of just probably sometime soon. Or the fact that everyone seemed distracted from this glorious occasion by some other girl.

And yet he hesitated. Perhaps it was because he didn't know if it was real or one of Death's many ruses.

"That was his weapon! How the fuck can something like that kill someone? How could he possibly kill someone with that? Please, leave him alone, he's my responsibility now, I'm the one who's taking care of him, and I know that he's one of the good guys."

However it wouldn't exactly be easy to tell that Cisco was one of them, having finally taken the initiative to scurry over that precious few fractions of an inch to snatch up the 'sweet music' and remove its contents from his sleeve for the party to see reflecting in the waning light.

"Oh thank you...you're still here...I'll never let you out of my sight again," he cried, his voice reaching such a pitch that it was almost as if he sounded like a teenage mom cuddling her baby after rescuing it from an abusive boyfriend more than a reunion.

Only that baby was a circular sawblade, splattered with blood from Cisco's victim that had been smeared around the blade itself by the sleeve's cardboard paper before it dried off. And at least Cisco was taking better care not to accidentally lop off some of his own flesh in his "embrace of his weapon, rubbing his cheek around the flat side of the blade and re-moistening some of that blood with his own sweat and getting it on his face and hair.

In that moment, it didn't matter if the last thing he felt was the thin layer of skin and muscle atop his temple and cranium registering the brief sensations of pain from a bolt going straight through to his brainstem. As long as he had one last opportunity to let the world hear his music, if this was where he was going to die, painfully and by others, he was going to play them a swan song they'd never forget.

"We're gonna go down together, you and I..." he said as much as he seemed to sing, almost as much to Joseé as the sweet 'music' he was singing it too.

(Urk. Kinda skipped post order here. Sorry Anna!)

There was nothing else in the world but Nick. She had no control. Jessica stood there, just staring at Nick for what felt like centuries. She bit her lip. She couldn't move.

"... Nick?"

Her shoulders ached. Her heart thumped. She could feel herself welling up.

"... Nick?"

Without another word, Jessica threw herself at Nick. She used the rest of her energy to hug the boy, holding onto him tightly as her legs gave way. Jessica had to prop herself against Nick just to keep herself from falling. She looked almost pathetic, clinging to Nick like that. She was sobbing silently, mumbling Nick's name over and over again, as if to reassure herself that this wasn't something in her imagination. That she had found the real Nick.

She looked like a damn nutcase, with her clothes and her hair completely scrambled, but she didn't care. Jessica had found Nick. Her Nick. That was all that mattered.

...

Jessica snapped back into reality a minute later. It was a nasty reentry - seeing Cisco holding onto a saw like a baby wasn't the prettiest sight in the world.

Jessica didn't say anything. She just kept close to Nick, almost forgetting about the hug and the tense feeling in her chest. Jessica was confused. What was happening? Did she step into the middle of something? The repercussions were sinking in. Did she just walk into the middle of a conflict? Her eyes darted everywhere. The anxiety from before came rushing back. Oh god. Were they going to kill her? Did they kill someone? Did they hurt Nick? He didn't seem hurt.

She sniffed. She wiped a tear from her eye. She looked around again... Oh. It's Meredith. Jessica waved to her, like she would have back home.

"... hey Merry."

This was awkward. Jessica just kept quiet.

Gracie stared at the newcomer confused. In fact that's how she felt about the so much of what was going on in this situation. She was trying to do what Teo and Nick wanted, semi-afraid that they were going to turn on her sometime soon. Especially since this new girl had shown up and apparently knew Nick well.

What she really wanted to do with Meredith's book is pick it up and throw it down the mountain, just to see what would happen. Her hand flexed around the book debating whether or not she should actually do it, finally deciding against not wanting to antagonize the situation further.

She glanced over to where Cisco was whispering words of comfort to Josée; at least she hoped he was talking to Josée and not the saw blade he seemed to be caressing. She stepped a little closer to Teo and Nick, absently taking the book with her. She paused for a minute to check out the new girl who seemed to have wrapped herself around Nick, and wondered briefly if she was going to be replacing Gracie fairly soon.

"Umm, okay yeah, totally weirded out now. Can we just go?"

((GTFO danger zone post))

Nick caught Jessica as her legs buckled and tried to stand her up in some what of a straight fashion again. He was floored by her reaction and wasn't sure what to do.

"I- Um- It's okay. I'm here. Just try to calm down, kay?"

His eyes darted around the group nervously. Cisco seemed to be losing it and that goth chick definitely wasn't a fan of theirs. How long would it be before someone said something about what they'd done not ten minutes prior? If Jessica knew, what would she say?

"Gracie's right! Let's get out of here"

In his hurry to leave the group Nick picked Jessica up and started to walk as it seemed the fastest way to get out.

((Nick LeMonde continued in ...Because I Can't Make it On My Own))

(fffff- I'll try to edit this, gotta get Jessie out of here)

Jessica followed after Nick, latching onto his arm as he pulled her out of there.

(Jessica continued in ... Because I Can't Make It On My Own)

Teo risked a glance at Gracie. She seemed a little uneasy but he put it down to the whole being on an island full of killers thing. Nick had already grabbed this girl of his and started moving away from the stand off. Teo took a step back while still keeping his eyes on the trio in front of him. A thin smile played lightly on his lips.

"Like I said, you're lucky I'm such a nice guy, but next time I get the feeling that things will be different."

Tapping Gracie on the shoulder to ensure she would follow Teo moved off in the same direction as Nick only turning around once he was sure he was out of gun range. It didn't feel right to leave the others to their own devices. He should be removing as many people as possible from the contention pool, but sometimes it was better to let others fight it out first and conserve your strength. At least they got Mike's pack which would keep them going for a little while longer. Although with the new addition to their group the food and water would be stretched even thinner.

Teo glanced at Jessica, carefully appraising her. He would need to have a talk with Nick, and soon.

((Teo Weinstock continued elsewhere))