Survival Of The Fittest

Rick listened to Dawson, and agreed with him.

"You're my partner, and we'll achieve nothing if we don't work together. I don't trust him either."

Rick listened to what Will had to say but didn't care about any of it. They would send the boy packing. Rick had no proof that he was a killer, so that was enough to spare his life, yet Rick didn't want any tag alongs. Especially someone with such a bad reputation on the island.

Rick was about to tell the boy that when he heard him having a fit.

Leaning out from behind cover, he saw the boy knelt on the grass. Was that vomit? Something was wrong, and Rick wasn't sure what it was. The survival side of him told him to leave the boy out there. It could be a trap to get Rick and Dawson to let him in. It could be anything really.

Though, the human part of Rick, the part of him that helped him join the marines, the passionate side, told him the boy could really be hurt.

"Damnit. Sorry Dawson, I won't let him in but something could be wrong."

Rick, with his handgun pointed at the boy, slowly walked out of the building and approached him.

"Don't make any sudden movements or I'll kill you. What's wrong?"

You don't want to kill anybody? But you have done, so excuse me if I don't believe you.

Dacey was a naturally suspicious and anti-social person, something that made it a little odd, now that she thought about it, that she had trusted Rick so implicitly. But what the hey. If Rick had been thinking of stabbing her in the back, he most certainly would have done so by now. Besides, it wouldn't have been like he needed to be sneaky about it. He was, after all, the man with the gun.

"Be careful," 'he' muttered as Rick headed on out there. Frankly, Dacey didn't care what was wrong with Will. If he was ill, or hell dying, then it was none of her concern. In fact, she was glad. It stopped him from having the capacity to cause them much harm, and if he died... well, that was one less complication and killer to deal with.

It wouldn't really have been a great idea to just let Rick go there on his own. What if it turned out Will had been faking or something? If Will took Rick by surprise, marine-training or no he'd be down in seconds. Dacey followed along after him, her (finitely useful) knife in one hand. She stood to one side of Rick, behind him, sidling around so she could approached from one side. Even if Will decided to start shooting, he'd have two targets, and both in opposite direction. It was morbid to consider, but one of them at least would be sure to survive.

Just try it. Just try it.

((Amanda Redder continued from Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer))

Despite the firepower, sense of security and invaluable intimidation factor that came with lugging a grenade launcher around an island filled with armed teenagers, there were disadvantages. One of which is that your arms and shoulders start to hurt a lot sooner than if you were carrying, say, a knife. Amanda had been alternating arms, getting used to the weight and size of the tool, though it still felt quite foreign in her arms. As such, she wasn't thinking so much about what she would do when she actually caught up with Rick and Dawson as how to hold this gun – this real gun, not a paintball gun or airsoft gun or any of those other nice guns that she felt much more at home with.

So when the trees began to thin and she could make out a large building looming ahead, she slowed her approach. There was a bloody body out the front, and she briefly wondered if it had anything useful on it, when she suddenly remembered that it was a body, which meant someone was dead, which meant that someone out there was doing some killing, and it was not nice and quick. She had become too calm walking over here – all by herself, amongst the trees, it'd had the same effect as a peaceful hike on her, and now her mind was somewhat removed from the carnage and chaos surrounding her.

Thus she was abnormally calm as she watched Rick point a gun at a sickly looking figure she thought might be Will, but she wasn't sure. Scanning for Dawson, her palms began to sweat a bit, and she remembered that she hadn't actually found out what her weapon was. The calm she'd gathered from her walk was wearing off quickly. Her eyes darted to the roof of the bathroom, thinking surely she'd find Dawson stretched out with a sniper rifle's laser marking the middle of her forehead. ‘Fuck this, I'm out of here.' Amanda turned to leave, but movement on the ground snapped her back to attention, where Dawson emerged from the building to back Rick up.

Holding a fucking butter knife.

All of a sudden, all of Amanda's muscles felt very weak, and had Rick not been standing over Will with a gun like they were actors in a hostage drama, she'd have laughed out loud.

‘Well, Amanda, you found ‘em.' What now?'

It did occur to her that one well-placed grenade, right here, while they were all having their one-sided Mexican standoff could very easily put her three marks closer to getting off this island. And she did think about it – it was very tempting. It would probably be quick for them too – they'd never see it coming. Or they might a millisecond before impact and think ‘Oh, shit' or something equally eloquent before being laid to rest in pieces.

On the other hand, she was no killer. Not yet. She should be, though. She knew she should be. Teams don't work in this game. Teams let you down. Teams will slit your throat and take off with your weapon in your sleep. Best way to survive, most painless thing for them, is to just pull the trigger. Just aim and...

Stop. Stop thinking. Just stop thinking, Amanda, and we'll take things as they come.

Taking a deep breath, Amanda emerged from the jungle, grenade launcher aimed and ready. Hopefully they'd realise what she had – that she could have killed them at any time, and still could – and wouldn't resort straight to violence. This thing may be aimed and loaded, but she wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger.

"What's going on here?"

((I was waiting for waffle, but seeing as this place is now a danger zone I think we should kick things into high gear))

Rick was waiting to figure out what was happening to the boy when Amanda Redder came into view. It was the girl with the grenade launcher she and Dawson had encountered before. Luckily back at the lookout tower things went pretty smoothly and nobody killed each other, but right now, with everything going downhill it seemed, her appearance only added to the stressfulness of the situation.

Her question appeared valid, and Rick answered, "He's hurt or something, I'm trying to help him."

Then the announcements came to life.

Bam, just like that.

One day they're absent, the other they are back on.

There was a lot of names, and Rick cringed inside as he heard his friends names, and even people he didn't care for being listed as dead. It was horrible. Though, what made it worse was the fact Danya wasn't announcing who was doing the killing. That was making Rick and Dawson's job even more difficult than it already was.

Beep

"What the-"

Rick looked down and saw a red flash on his collar.

Why? Was Danya getting bored now?

No...danger zone!

Rick spun around and sprinted back towards the showers.

"Get out of here! Now! It's a danger zone!"

Once inside the shower he grabbed Dawson's arm and pulled him towards the door and let go.

"We need to move man!"

Rick looked at Will and Amanda and as he made his way to the jungle shouted, "Move!"

With that, Rick Holeman was in the jungle, hoping Dawson was close behind, onto their next leg of the journey. Rick knew it only got harder after this.

Semper fi.

((Rick Holeman continued at Break Out, Break Out))

"Oh so NOW you decide to tell us who's died!"

Needless to say, Dacey was not too happy, and the frustration showed. Instead of her deliberately gruff voice, she once again came out with her natural speaking. Although Dacey had a fairly low-pitched voice, the unconcealed version was still unmistakably feminine.

However, there wasn't time to worry about it or look and see if anybody had noticed. (Rick had been remarkably unobservant as regards to her slip-ups so far). Danya made sure of that. Having the place you were currently hanging around in declared a dangerzone wasn't really the best news you could get in an announcement, and given the lack of information pertaining to killers, it was more useful than the rest.

Dacey made to follow Rick, then a thought struck her and she half-turned, looking thoughtfully at Will. Then she took a quick step back and charged forward, lashing out with her right foot, aiming for the kneeling boy's throat. Suffering, dangerzone, wounded - she didn't care. As far as Dacey was concerned, the guy was a murderer, in which case a kick in the throat was the least he deserved.

Irrespective of success, she would then sprint as fast as she could for the treeline.

(Continued in Break Out, Break Out))

Will recoiled, Dawson's foot connecting with his shoulder instead.

What the... fuck is going on?

Everything around him seemed to be a blur. His sense of direction almost completely gone and the pain in his shoulder diverting what was left of his attention to it, Will had no idea it was a dangerzone.

"Fucking... aaaggghhh.."

"Move!"

Will shook his head, and as the world came into focus he saw Amanda, and realized what exactly was going on. Dangerzone? Fuck, not again.

"You heard the man, get the fuck out of here!"

Stumbling, barely managing to get off his feet he headed out of the clearing and once again into the jungle.

((Will Sigurbjornsson continued elsewhere))

((Sorry I didn't post sooner – I was away.))

Amanda stood in shock for a moment. Just when she finally came across some other people, they scatter to the winds.

‘Just my fucking luck.'

She turned and ran from where she came, not caring about her aching arms, trying not to think about the wealth of lost opportunities the newly appointed Danger Zone had generated, focusing on placing as much distance between the cursed Showers and herself as possible.

((Amanda Redder continued elsewhere...))