Survival Of The Fittest

Oh, for the fucking unconditional love of a dog, why was no one ever happy to see Michael point a gun at Hansel? First, Andi had been pissed for some unfathomable reason, and now this prick wanted to join in on the fun and point a gun at him?

Maddie, at least, still had her shit together, aiming her sharp pistol at Hansel, who still didn't seem to be attempting anything suspicious. He even backed away from his gun. Didn't guarantee that he still wasn't planning something, but there were bigger fish to avoid being shot by at the moment.

Slowly, (and hella reluctantly) Michael lowered his shotgun to the ground, so it lay behind him, and raised his hands in the universal gesture of "oh god I don't want to die please don't be a dick". There wasn't much else left for him to so at the moment, at least anything without a highly discomforting chance of death.

And then everyone was shouting.

But in the chaos the new arrival put the gun down and raised his hands up. Maddie shouted that he wasn't a threat. It was too late for that and Hansel yelled for everyone to calm down. None of it mattered, the offending gun was on the floor, and the fake crisis was averted. If the guy hadn't snuck up on them it wouldn't have been an issue.

Chris turned his gun back on Hansel and found that the girl also had a gun pointed at him. Chris had no idea she had a gun or where it had come from but that wasn't important. It was just another layer of danger for Hansel to try and deal with. Another person who could take a shot at him. That was good. He was less likely to try anything when there was more than one gun pointed at him.

He talked about how no one had to die. It was a loaded statement coming from a known killer and Chris wondered if the situation served as some sort of irony or karma. The killer saying no one had to die. Chris had a feeling that it was the guns that were currently pointed at Hansel that were the real reason he was suddenly pro-living and non-violence.

"You're right," Chris said keeping his voice calm. "But I can't just let you walk away. So you can throw your gun and bag over here, then you can leave."

Could Hansel still find a way to kill without a weapon? Probably. Would it be much harder for him? Yes. Chris didn't possess the heart to kill someone else so soon. Instead he'd have to make do with neutering the threat Hansel posed to everyone else.

Hansel narrowed his eyes as Chris swung his weapon back towards him, apparently satisfied with whoever-it-was' response to his rampant gun-waving. He was standing there, the gun at his feet, with two separate people pointing guns at him and having disarmed a second person, and all he could think was it had been seven days.

It had taken seven days to do this to them, to the point of not listening to reason.

There was no place for him here. Not among people who still squabbled and pecked in the sand. And as he watched Chris, the way he switched targets, shifted threats, he didn't believe that he was going to shoot him.

So he leaned forwards, reached towards the FAMAS with his right hand, two fingers extended. He snagged the strap, was about to lift it -

The sand exploded at his feet as he leapt backwards, falling to a knee on the beach as Maddie's gun arm jerked backwards. His right hand scrabbled for purchase, now - grasping the strap and hauling it with him as he regained his feet, taking all of his concentration to not snap the gun to his shoulder and fire back. Instead, he stood still, his gaze tracking from Maddie's weapon to Chris'.

"Yuh-hoo st-till think I'm the threat here, Jack?" he asked, gesturing to his wounded arm, the gun slung over his shoulder and pointed to the ground, the disturbed sand at his feet.

"Fuh-huck you both. You can shoot me in the back."

He turned, pulse racing, and strode away from the group - his gait a little too fast to be cool, legs a little to weak to be completely steady. His eyes turned towards the sunset - the explosion of colour, disappearing behind the ocean waves, casting a radiant display across the water, the clouds, the sky. He walked, waited for the sound of the gunshot, waited for this to be his last image before death.

Decent way to go.

When he got fifty feet, he considered it a successful called bluff.

When he got a hundred, he started to breathe again.

((Hansel Williams, Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.))

Maddie stood, still not sure of what to do, pointing the gun-knife at Hansel.

Chris told him to leave his stuff behind. Good, disarming a killer is always a good idea.

Then, Hansel leaned down towards the FAMAS, making a move to pick it up. She started panicking. Hansel was probably just going to gun one of them down as soon as he got the FAMAS in his hands. Chris didn't look like he was going to stop Hansel. She had to.

She took aim at Hansel, hands shaking, and fired.

She hit the sand near Hansel, not actually hitting him. Hansel jumped backward when the musket ball hit the sand at his feet. He said something she didn't quite catch, and then pointed to his wounded arm. Then, he picked up the FAMAS and just left. She didn't fire another shot, neither did Chris. She stood there, stunned that Hansel didn't try to kill them, and that he had just gotten away with that. She put the gun-knife away, nestled in her pocket, unloaded. She looked back at Chris and Michael.

They had all just made it out of that situation unscathed, and Maddie didn't have to leave her stuff behind. She wanted to thank them, especially Chris, but she wasn't quite sure how to do so.

She settled on something simple that could be later turned into her gratitude.

"So... what now?" She asked, projecting, but not quite yelling.

Shit went down, and Michael kind of just stood there, silently grateful that none of that shit had been flung in his particular direction. It looked like... Maddie had shot at Hansel for some reason? Shit, Michael didn't like the asshole either, but it was still a dick move to fire a gun at someone who had just surrendered. Hansel had been picking up his gun, yeah, but the fuck did they expect him to do with two guns trained on him?

Well, whatever. What's done was done, all proverbial dust in the proverbial wind, Hansel a literal speck in the literal distance. Michael supposed he couldn't complain about an asshole being treated like an asshole, even if said asshole hadn't been up to any particular assholery at the moment.

Michael drew his pen and pad of paper from his pocket, taking extra special care as he wrote his message. Man, that was a close one. Anyway, fancy meeting you here, Maddie. Good to see you alive. Have you seen Daniel around lately? Or Rachael, Tim, Corey, or Phoebe? I'm kind of bad at finding people. Understatement of the fucking year, right there.

He tore the note from the pad, walked over to Maddie, and handed it to her. It didn't exactly feel good to be back to passing notes, but shit, at least he had people to pass notes to now.

Hansel was gone. Maddie had almost shot him but he'd gotten away. He'd managed to keep his bag too. That was annoying, Chris had wanted to keep Hansel from being able to hurt anyone else but he'd failed at that. Maybe he'd get a second chance but he doubted it. Things happened too fast on the island and a plan had to be fluid to accommodate that. Every announcement changed the game added in new threats and took away old ones. Chris had no idea whether Hansel would even survive to the next announcement let alone if he'd manage to see him again.

What now? Chris would have to think about that one. He'd not had a plan since everything with Stephanie had gone down. He guessed escaping from an encounter with Hansel when he hadn't planned any of it should have gone down as a blessing and a warning. He needed a plan. He didn't really have one though.

He shrugged in response to the question. "I don't know right now." He turned and walked to his bags, picking them up and returning back to Maddie and the other guy. He was handing her a note but Chris didn't think too much of it, he was supposed to be friendly anyway. "There aren't too many sane people left alive though. So I think sticking together may be the safest option."

Maddie got a rough answer from both Michael and Chris shortly after asking her question.

She read the note that Michael had given her while listening to Chris. She agreed with Chris that sticking together would be a good idea, it meant that she didn't have to be all alone again like she thought she would be after RJ's death.

She frowned and looked down at the ground, suppressing a sob. Seeing RJ die right in front of her wasn't a pleasant experience, and then proceeding to murder his killer in a rage was an even less pleasant experience after the fact.

She blocked that out of her mind, she needed to focus right now. She went back to reading the note, Michael's handwriting was actually very neat, she had just been reading it slowly because she was distracted by both her thoughts and listening to Chris. After she finished reading the note, she looked up at Michael and shook her head, frowning a bit while doing so. She handed the note back to Michael and turned her attention to Chris, responding to what he said. "I think sticking together would be a great idea. Good to keep yourself surrounded by the few sane people left in this place." She looked down at her jacket and frowned. "...Even if I'm not the most well adjusted myself, if I'm being honest."

She looked back up at Chris and extended her hand. "But... now that all of that is over, it's nice to meet you." She extended her hand, keeping a warm smile. "My name's Maddie, yours?"

Goddammit. Considering the length of the list he had handed Maddie, Michael had hoped that she had at least seen one of those assholes, but nope. Michael wasn't just back to square one, he had never actually left the square in the first place and had instead just deluded himself into feeling like his days of being square were long past. Mother of fuck.

Other Guy and Maddie started doing introductions or some shit, so Michael was once again left to aimlessly shift the sand around with his foot and think. Where the hell did he go from here? Was he just gonna casually go with the flow and end up swapping groups again? Like, he wouldn't mind hanging with Maddie or anything, but would that ever lead him back to Daniel, or any of the other dudes he'd lost?

Christ, Michael just didn't know. Might as well just stick with the option that guaranteed at least one comrade in arms. Michael wrote another message and handed it to Maddie. So, where do we go from here? Do we band together to form the ultimate trio of probably-okay dudes? Phrasing things in the silliest way possible was one of Michael's only remaining joys in life, and by god, he would cling to it for as long as he could.

"Chris." He reached out and shook the girl's hand returning her smile. "I wouldn't worry about the whole well-adjusted thing. I've had...a rough couple of days myself."

Images of Stephanie flashed through his mind as he let go of Maddie's hand. That partnership handed ended well, and Stephanie had seemed outwardly sane before she'd flipped out. Still Maddie had just gone face to face with Hansel and seemed to have kept her cool meaning she had a better head on her shoulders than Stephanie at the very least. Anyone who could stare down a ruthless killer like Hansel and still be able to smile afterwards was mentally tough that was for sure.

Chris had a feeling he'd heard Maddie's name in an announcement at some point but he lacked the ability to be high and mighty about her killing someone, he had done the same thing and he hadn't done it in a life or death situation. His kill was about as brutal as they came.

The other guy passed another message across to Maddie. He wasn't much of a talker it seemed and Chris was curious why he was only deciding to communicate with Maddie, he didn't want to sound paranoid but it was disconcerting when two people knew each other and left you out of the conversation. Chris had no idea of knowing what they were talking about.

He nodded his head in the direction of the other boy. "What's with the notes anyway?"

Maddie gave a small, friendly nod to Chris after he shook her hand.

She turned back to Michael only to see that he had another note for her. She took the note and read it. Michael's idea of forming another group would probably be a good idea, it would mean that none of them would have to worry about being alone. Maddie certainly didn't want to be alone, and she didn't think that Chris wanted to be alone either. Maddie finished reading the note, but before she could respond, Chris asked about the notes that Michael had been passing.

She turned her head to Chris. "Oh, the notes? Michael's deaf, he can't really speak all that well. It's more out of necessity than anything." She handed the note back to Michael. "I think for now we should just group together, like you said. Although, you will probably need to ask Chris about that and see if he's fine with it." Maddie gestured between Chris and Michael.

"I'll leave that to you two, I need to collect myself for a bit."

With that, she crouched down and started rummaging through her bag, beginning to think about what supplies she had, what had happened over the course of the day, what was to come in the next few days, and how she was going to plan for it.

Maddie was down for grouping up, which was hella rad. Significantly less rad than if she had had the slightest idea about any of Michael's bros, but hey, you took what you could get. If Michael told himself that often enough, he might even be able to convince himself to be happy with that! Oh, how wonderful and not soul crushing at all that would be.

At the very least, he now had a name to go with the face of the other guy. Chris. Not a name that sent the proverbial belltower come crashing down and smashing city hall, so that was probably a good sign. An unknown reputation was better than that of a jackass's! Michael shot Maddie a thumbs up before writing another note, this time to Chris.

Yo, dude. I'm Michael. Safety in numbers is probably the truest cliche around, so whaddya say to sticking with us?

Plans were probably made, conversation was probably had, but in the end, Michael definitely ended up walking off the beach, slightly ahead of the other two.

((Michael Mitchellson: Continued in I Was Once Alive))

Oh he was deaf. That made sense.

Chris had a group again. He wasn't sure what to make of it since his other groups had all ended terribly. Luckily Maddie and Michael seemed to have good heads so he was confident it wouldn't end up exploding straight away at the very least. Maddie had busied herself with her bag so Chris and Michael were left to continue the conversation, which seemed awkward to Chris since Michael was deaf.

Michael was writing something down and when he was finished he passed it to Chris. He couldn't help smiling slightly at the message. Michael was in high spirits at the very least. That or he put up a good front of positivity. Chris didn't care either way if he was honest.

"Sounds good man." He said, giving Michael a thumbs up when he was done.

He picked his bags up and slung them onto his back. Maybe he'd gotten lucky and things had finally worked out. That was a big maybe though.

In the end Chris followed Michael as he left the beach.

((Chris Harlin continued elsewhere...))

Maddie did a tally of her belongings while Michael and Chris got to know each other.

She had a decent supply of food and water, having been mostly pilfered off of other people. She was in pretty good standing with a lot of supplies. Except... she looked at her pill bottles. She had one day's dosage left in each of the bottles. She hadn't had a chance to take the last dosages this morning, with her being stuck in a danger zone with RJ, and it later slipped her mind. She downed the last dosages of each medicine with some water and put the pill bottles away, despite not needing them anymore. The fact that they were gone upset her, she didn't like the thought of having to deal with male hormones again for the first time in nearly two years.

But she needed to. If she ever wanted to go home, if she wanted to continue living, she had to. She had to endure, not only the sudden hormonal shift, but also everything else, the death, the misery. She had to make it to the end, be the last person left. The sole survivor of the tragedy that was Survival of the Fittest. Maddie looked behind her, hearing the other two walk off. She zipped up her bag and hoisted it over her shoulder. She had to keep looking ahead, despite all that's happened to her, she had to keep going forward. She had made it so far already, the end was slowly coming.

She pushed away the ever present nagging thought about how if she lived, everyone she knew and loved at Aurora, friends, acquaintances, peers, would all be dead. Including Michael and Chris, the two she was now grouping up with. She needed to push it away, if she focused on it, she would be unable to really go on. Maddie needed to push away all of her emotions, really, not let them get in her way. She needed to do awful things to keep moving forward, if she let her emotions run wild, she would die. And she accepted this, sadly, there was really no other way. That was probably the point anyway, of the game. Either you died or became a monster, maybe both.

You're going to make it out of this, she said to herself, as she began following Chris and Michael. And she would make sure to do her very best to not become a monster in the process.

She only hoped that she wasn't a monster already.

((Madeline Wilcox continued in I Was Once Alive))