Survival Of The Fittest

"Hey does anyon... oh no!"

Stephanie stepped into what seemed to be an innocent field of flowers and realized that there happened to be some type of gun, being fired at somebody, by somebody else. She really couldn't tell who. Who could blame her? This game was messed up enough that it forces your classmates to kill each other, it's seriously hard to recognize them in all the chaos. Who knows who you might accidentally shoot, trying to protect someone else? She almost killed Will, and she wasd sure he had been thinking something similar. He did shoot Christian, didn't he?

"Ugh... why me?"

She lay in the flowers, hopefully obscured from the vision of the people who were already shooting each other in the field. She only had just walked into the field and they probably wouldn't notice her.

"Or, they do..."

Stephanie rolled onto her front, prone. She could see a figure with a gun, but no one else. Maybe he was shooting at HER? She realized that if she didn't act now he may see her, and she would be dead very quickly. Not if someone didn't needle-gun his ass.

She really had no clue what a needle-gun was. Or a Dreyse needle gun for that matter. It was a gun, one of those old ones that was really load and loaded with the little paper cartridges. In her time on the island she had gotten the technique for the weapon more or less down - she knew how to load it.

Firing, on the other hand, was completely different, and the fact that she needed about 20 seconds to load it was another problem. If she didn't hit him, and at least bring him down, she would be done for. She didn't think her aim was that bad, but because the gun was designed a hundred-something years ago, it could explode in her face for all she knew.

Stephanie took aim at his midsection, and fired. The thunderous boom of the needle gun left a ringing in her ears and the burst of gasses obscured the target.

I hope that hurts him more than it hurt me...

((Stephanie is shooting at Shawn))
((Fun fact - Dreyse needle guns have an odd habit of expelling gasses in the user's face after extended use.))

Shawn was a bad gambler, though he did posses a few small strokes of luck. That's not to say that they where particularly good strokes of luck, he was lucky to have never been in the red, the few nights that he managed to avoid the good news that some sort of profit would give him he also managed to end up striking even. Taking the gun was a gamble, but overall he was sure he would benefit from this whole ordeal...that is, or that was until he turned to look at Dorian smugly.

Now would be a good moment to look at things, Dorian was directly in front of Shawn and Steve and Viki where placed on his sides, if he had chosen to look at Steven, things would've ended up a lot worse than what did happen that moment that Steve fired his gun. Instead, with his hazed eyes fixated upon Dorian, things just ended up slightly more painful.

The sound of the gunshot decorated the area.

The bullet went straight for Shawn's head, the first bullet was a direct hit, Shawn fell to the floor. The second bullet whizzed right by him, the same would be said to the needle of the gun that some unknown assailant had fired at him. One thing remained clear though: Shawn Waits had been shot and was now sprawled out on his side.

The sound of him turning over was heard.

RAT-TA-TAT-TA-TAT-TA-TAT *click*

The clip was emptied into the sky and then tossed aside, leaving a large thud to be heard as the now useless gun decorated the landscape surrounding them. Five people, one concealed. One writhing on the floor cursing like a madman.

"WHAT THE FUCKING! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

Shawn, was a bad gambler.

Steve, was a good shot.

What had happened of course, if you haven't caught on just yet was simple, Shawn was shot in the head. But, in due to his turning to the side in a very special, a very non-lethal part of the head, I'm speaking of the cheek. One bullet, entered Shawn's cheek, whizzed through, scorching and scraping his tongue, destroying his molars, and exiting out the other side.

He was a bad singer before, god help us if we imagine how he sounded now.

No gun, surrounded by well armed hostiles whom he had openly attacked and insulted, shot in the mouth, a quickly fading buzz. Nothing could make this whole scenario worse.

That much was true until he started swallowing what amounted to the tons of blood that was in his mouth, the strange mixture of blood, crackers, and alcohol running it's prospective course on his stomach...he threw up, leading to the vomit to leak out of the sides of his now ripped open cheeks.

I had said Shawn was a bad gambler, he was also a disgusting one as well.

Dorian's master plan hadn't gone exactly according to...well, plan.

Intending to hack at Shawn's shins with the knife, tripping him and injuring, but not killing him, Dorian had lunged at his legs. Unfortunately, he had not appreciated that Shawn was bigger, stronger, faster and albeit more formidable than him, and Shawn had swung around him and pushed his head into the dirt. And then he had stolen his gun.

Dorian's head snapped up from the ground to see Shawn wave the gun around for a second before pointing it at him.

"Oh, shitfuck..."

Dorian had closed his eyes and heard the gunshots. So this is how I'm going out. The final bloody curtain. The Lear of reality television. Killed by my own fucking stupidity. God, this sucks...

Hm. The bullets are taking their time.

Dorian opened his eyes and saw Shawn scream as the bullet passed through his mouth and cheek. As much as Dorian wanted to look away, he couldn't. Expletives running through his head, his mouth agape, he watched as blood sprayed from Shawn's mouth and he waved the gun in the air, bullets firing out into the sky until that telling click was heard. Dorian prayed to nameless metaphysical deities that those strays didn't come down in their general area. A needle flew past, inexplicably...

Dorian peered in the direction that the needle had come from, and could make out a concealed figure. "Stephanie?" he said semi-aloud - he knew Stephanie fairly well from Drama, a talented actress and rather attractive, if he did say so himself...

The sound of Shawn vomiting. Dorian looked over to see vomit oozing out of Shawn's ripped cheek, and this was enough to set him off. He staggered a few meters behind Steve and Viki, and the disgusting acidic taste of spew passed through his mouth and onto the flowers. He wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and then walked slowly over to where his gun had landed. He picked it up and walked over to Steve, standing right in front of him. He was shaking, but he still looked his peer directly in the eye. The guy who'd saved his life deserved that much.

"Sorry. And than..."

SHORYUKEN!!!!

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

It only took a moment for the tense conversation to turn into an altercation between Steve, Dorian, and Shawn. Seemingly out of nowhere, Shawn suddenly lunged toward Steve, and in retaliation, Dorian came barreling toward Shawn with a butcher knife. Miraculously, Dorian somehow managed to miss Shawn, only to have the drunk pick up his discarded gun during the confusion.

Things just went downhill from there.

Steve started firing at Shawn, and Viki couldn't help but clench her eyes shut in anticipation of what was to follow. The first time she'd run into a corpse on the island, she'd passed out, and probably would've busted her head open on the floor of the hospital if it hadn't been for Ianto. She'd seen a lot of things since then, but the fact remained, she didn't want people dying in front of her very eyes.

Shawn's screams of agony as he was hit made Viki cringe. Tentatively, she opened her eyes and found them falling to the student laying in the field. He was still alive, much to her surprise, but was screaming in pain. He emptied his entire clip up into the air before throwing the gun to the side and laying limply on the ground. Steve had shot Shawn. But... if Steve hadn't shot Shawn, he might have killed them all.

Right?

Right?!

Through all the thoughts running through her head, combined with the noise of both boys' guns, Viki didn't even notice the shot that another student had taken at Shawn throughout the squabble. Dorian had, though, and looked out into the field, muttering the word "Stephanie" as he scanned for the newcomer. Had she tried to help them? Hurt them? It hardly mattered now. It seemed like this fight, quick though it was, had already been settled. Now, all that was left, was the dying.

It always seemed to end the same. Every time they ran into a person, that person wound up getting killed. Why couldn't they co-exist? Why did everybody submit to the game? Fear? Anger? It was like some people were getting off on it... some of them felt like they had no choice... but it didn't make it any more right. Steve shooting Shawn... wasn't right. But it wasn't wrong, either. This past week had skewed "good" from "bad", "right" from "wrong", so much that nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

The sudden sound effect blasting out from seemingly nowhere made Viki jump.

SHORYUKEN!!!!

Steve flinched and frantically looked around as the noise blared interrupting Dorian. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that the noise was coming from the speakers.

Well that was wierd.

Steve spent the next minute surveying what exactly he had done. Shawn's face looked a mess. He was bleeding pretty bad, and the vomit out the cheeks was enough to cause Steve to take a few more steps away from the boy on the ground. After Steve regained his composure, he addressed Dorian.

"Don't be sorry. Grab your gun, I'll make sure that asshole doesn't try anything funny on you," Steve said as he pointed his gun at Shawn once again, "There was nothing you could do. It was pure dumb luck he rolled on the gun. None of us are hurt. After you get your gun, go see if Stephanie is okay."

Steve turned his head to look at Viki who had a look of shell shock on her face. What could he say to her now? He knew she thought he'd shot Serenity out of mercy, but now with how readily he'd shot Shawn, would she think differently?

"Look Viki...I don't know what to say to calm you down, but I did what I had to do. He would have shot us and the way he was talking about you, maybe something worse for you. Had Dorian and I not reacted..." His voice trailed off.

He turned back to focusing on Shawn and making sure Dorian got his gun back.

Well now what the fuck do we do with him?

Stephanie got up off the ground and...

SHORYUKEN!!
.
...got up off the ground and looked to see whom she was actually shooting at. Whoever he was, he wasn't up anymore, in his place were a few people she didn't recognize... She thought she saw Dorian but couldn't be sure. Without looking away she loaded in another cartridge in the needle gun, then walked towards them, gun in her left hand.

Now she got a clearer look at the scene. Dorian, Steve Digetano, and another girl were in the field, and a boy was lying on the ground, screaming and holding his face. Stephanie figured she missed, considering that if he was shot in the face with the big gun she had with her, he probably wouldn't have a face anymore.

"...Go see if Stephanie is okay"

"Don't worry about it guys, i'm juuuuust fine. What the hell happened here? And what the hell was that noise?!"

((Sorry for the shit post, i'm not feeling too well right now.))

The sudden Street Fighter sound effect had startled everyone, and Dorian was holding his butcher's knife in a rather threatening manner when Stephanie decided to get up from the ground.

"What the hell happened here? And what the hell was that noise?!"

Dorian turned around to look at her. She wasn't exactly in the best condition, and she was looked cold - a given, considering the clothes she was wearing didn't exactly lend themselves to wet weather. She was holding a nasty-looking needle gun in one hand.

"Hi Steph," Dorian said quietly, then he pointed at the writhing mass of Waits on the ground. "That prick happened. Decided it'd be a good idea to rush two guys with guns and knives. Silly fucking idiot."

He looked back down at the idiot, who looked to be almost in tears. Your own fucking fault.

"As for the sound? Your guess is as good as mine. I would say Ken just killed Danya, but I'd probably be wrong."

He glanced around at the three people assembled around him, deliberately not looking at the whimpering man on the ground. Dorian sighed and turned to the others.

"I don't think there's anything we can do for him. I don't...I don't want to be in the position that I'm responsible for someone's death, but we can't help him in this instance. So...I was thinking...maybe we could stop more people dying like this. Wash Shawn's blood off our hands by saving others. You already know I have a plan - well, all except you, Steph. If you want to hear it, then come with me. I don't want to tell you around him in case he makes a miraculous recovery and tries to put a stop to it."

Dorian walked past the three of them and to an area of the field where he figured they would be out of earshot of Shawn if they talked in regular voices. Then he turned around, to see who would join him.

((Sorry 'bout the short post.))

Everything escalated so fast... just like it always did, it seemed. Things never seemed to end peacefully in this place. It was like no matter who they encountered, someone wound up either hurt or dead. To put it plainly, it sucked.

Viki locked eyes with Steve for a moment and found herself unable to respond when he explained his actions to her. She knew he was only doing it to protect them. She knew that what he was saying was true, and that Shawn Waits was a hazard to every one of them. But still... it didn't make it right.

And leaving him on the ground to suffer wasn't right either.

But they were going to do it. They were going to leave him there and walk away. It became that much more apparent when Dorian was the first to do it, simply declaring that he had a plan that Shawn wasn't worthy of hearing. Of course she wanted to hear the plan, but...

But this just wasn't right.

She opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Instead, she simply stood there meekly, eyes moving from Dorian to Stephanie to Steve and then to Shawn. If Dorian really did have a plan, what would make him think Shawn would sabotage it? Everyone just wanted to go home... no matter what they did out here, they were doing it because they were trying to go home.

Things hadn't seemed nearly so crazy when Gabe and Evan were with her.

"Steve..." she muttered quietly, wrapping her arms tightly around her chest and attempting to fight back the tears forming in her eyes, "Look... I just really... really... want to go find Evan and Gabe."

Steve listened to Dorian staring into the jungle as Dorian spoke. He was right, there was nothing they could do for Shawn.

Well not that I'd want to anyways. Steve thought bitterly.

Dorian walked a short distance away leaving Steve, Steph and Viki standing there. Steve turned to listen to Viki and watched the girl fight back tears as she spoke.

"I know, so do I. Believe me I do, but I'll be honest, I want to hear Dorian. He's right. If there is a chance we can be saved, I want to know about it. Please Viki, I guarantee you that we'll do everything we can to find those two after we hear what Dorian has to say."

Taking a glance at Shawn on the ground to make sure he was still out of it, Steve made his way over to Dorian. His mind blown away by the sheer amount of frustration that everything was causing. Serenity's death, an attempt on his life, shooting another person and now Viki being difficult.

Why can't one little thing go easy?

Stephanie walked over, towards Dorian. Escape didn't really seem possible at this point. They had explosive collars and there were heavily armed boats around the island, who will shoot anyone who attempts to leave. Still, it seemed like a better idea than sitting around, waiting to die.

On that thought, she looked at Shawn, who was still on the ground, bleeding from his face. She realized that if she'd actually hit him, he probably wouldn't even be alive right now. Killing somebody wasn't something she ever wanted to do. She didn't understand, even knowing what he'd been through, why Will would ever want to kill anybody. Or why people like Wade Wilson and Bobby Jacks seemed to find it so easy, from what the announcements told her.

Stephanie heard Viki speaking, she wanted to find Evan and Gabe... They may be dead by the time they found them, and finding them may cause them more harm then good. No, Stephanie was more for Dorian's plan... whatever it was.

"Alright Dorian, i'll hear it..."

Dorian watched as Vikki voiced her concerns to Steve. Dorian couldn't exactly make out what she was saying - the rain had only eased up slightly, but still drowned out a lot of noise - but he could tell it wasn't good. He looked down at the ground, forlorn. Everything had gone to the crapper since the marshes, and it wasn't looking like things were going to improve. And there were so many possible flaws in his plan, it would be hard to convince himself - and them - that it was the best course of action. And then there was Julie, that cold-hearted bitch who could be dead or alive - and if she was alive, gods help the...

Dorian looked up at Steve and Stephanie, who had walked over to him to hear the plan. Dorian wasn't sure whether Vikki was in or not. If she is, she can get the plan off one of the others later, Dorian figured.

"Hey."

He fell silent for a few seconds, thinking. Then he looked the two in the eyes and shrugged. Better to do something than to sit around and die like fucking Grunts.

"Right. We're on a TV show, right? What keeps a TV show going? Ratings, that's what. If the ratings fall, the show dies. Simple. Now the drawcard of Survival of the Fittest is kids on an island killing each other. That's it. Nobody cares for challenging character arcs or futile death-by-exploding-collar - you go online while the shows are running, all they're talking about is who's killing who and who looks like a killer. Nobody cares about the ones who don't play. They're unimportant. People like to watch for the death and the competition.

"So put two and two together. Ratings are directly tied to kills. So if killing stops, and nobody shoots or stabs each other, what happens? Ratings fall. Then what can Danya do? Kill us all off by exploding our collars? One, that doesn't make good business sense - there's no suspense, it won't draw viewers, then it won't draw advertisers, and profit margins fall - and two, it gets blood on his hands when it's not necessary. He'll be a terrorist for the sake of being a terrorist, not one for the sake of business of Haneke-style audience-complicity experiments or whatever he's doing it for right now.

"So here's what we do. The announcements come out of speakers on the island. We know Danya isn't based on the island, so there must be a transmission tower somewhere. Which means there must be a microphone or something with it. We can override whatever system Danya's got running or do whatever is necessary to tell people to throw their weapons into the sea. To stop killing. It's the only way to save us all. Get the weapons out of hands. If the transmission tower idea doesn't work, hell, we'll find a way to put up signs, or pass the word around, or something, anything.

"We have to get weapons out of hands. That's the only way to cut the ratings and get Danya to take us back. Because if we're not drawing viewers, we're just liabilities. And if he kills us all, we become liabilities in a different form. It makes sense. It's logical.

"And if we fail? Well, fuck it. We died trying to save everyone. And that's better than killing or sitting on our arses doing nothing."

Dorian looked at the two for a few seconds, before asking the ultimate question.

"So. Who's in?"

((Continuing from Battle of Epic Proportions. Clive will come along any moment now.))

Liam Black rushed along from another part of the field, cursing to himself. It was bad enough he had to deal with the rain and these stupid flowers. There was also that stupid bitch with the gun and the laser. Getting a laser in your eyes sucks. And it hurts. And there was the stupid wanker that stole Clive's gun. Liam and Clive managed to make a truce in order to hunt him down and kill him. Brutally.

I HATE this rain. I HATE these flowers. I HATE that bitch. I HATE that bastard. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE THEM. HATEHAHTEHATEHATEHATE-

"SHORYUKEN!"

WHAT THE FUCK. Apparently, the terrorists were fans of Street Fighter. Liam stopped in place, gigging at the thought of Ryu upper-cutting the goit who stole Clive's gun.

Oh, hold that thought, more people.

Liam crouched, and tried to see what was going on. Three guys, two girls. The two guys standing had a rifle and a big knife. Best not fight them. They were more than enough for him to figure that he could get himself shot and stabbed, in that order, if he attacked. As creative as he could be with a stapler and a garroting wire, they paled in comparison to those weapons, in terms of killing effectiveness. The third guy had been shot through the cheeks, and he was bleeding and vomiting at the same time. Fascinating. Liam stared at the sight, grinning.

Then he slapped himsef. This was no time to be looking at people in their misery, as fun as it was. One of the guys were telling the others of a plan to inform everyone to throw their weapons into the ocean. It wouldn't work, of course. Liam wouldn't dream of giving up his weapons. Such fun to kill people with... And if everyone else threw away their weapons, he'd probably be able to kill everyone with ease, painfully~

Best let them do as they wished.

He looked back towards Clive, grinning, and whispered to him, "Let's ignore these guys. If they do what they plan to do... It'll make things a lot more fun in the long run, wouldn't you say?"

((Liam and Clive are now officially allies, planning to kill Bobby. Let's see how that goes, eh?))

(Clive continued from wherever Liam came from...)

"This is your game, Clive...."

Clive had been hearing that voice in his head for the past two days. Every moment of every hour of every day for two plus days, it was driving him in all the wrong directions. It was inside his head, over the rain clattering, splashing against the damp forest grass. He grit his teeth, giving his noggin a nice hit. Damn it all... He wasn't going crazy, of course not. He was just a little... unwell. Yes, that's right. All this nasty weather wasn't doing him any good, that was it. That was it...

"Let's ignore these guys. If they do what they plan to do... It'll make things a lot more fun in the long run, wouldn't you say?"

"A cold hearted, manipulative, conniving, conquering, alpha male jackoff?"

Clive looked towards Liam, half paying attention. "Huh? Wh-what?" he said, rubbing his eyes slightly. He looked at Liam with less interest than he would have given him beforehand. Certainly. Clive would have been very interested in hearing about Liam's plan: the both of them were very similar in more ways than one but... But. His head was spinning. Spinning like a top. A huge, teetering uneven top.

"Did I ever mention, Clive, that you are a fucked up person?"

"W-What?"

Clive looked away from Liam. Oh god. What's going on? What the hell is going ON? He turned back to Liam, giving the boy a half-baked smile, other than his usual sadistic one. He sighed loudly. "Hey. I'm going to walk away for a moment. J-Just hold on." He groaned, shaking his head as he began to walk away. First it was a slow steady shuffle.

"I can't do this. This game, I thought I could play, but I honestly can't."

Shut up, Shut up!

Then he started to run. He started to run as fast as he could, nearly stumbling off his feet. From what? He had no clue. Away from himself.... away from everything.

(continued elsewhere...)

Liam raised an eyebrow when Clive said, "Huh? Wh-what?". He hadn't been listening. He was about to explain what was going on, but then Clive began to act weird. As in, weirder than usual.

Then Clive looked freaked out. Liam had never seen Clive in this state, and it put him on his guard. Clive was being-

"Hey. I'm going to walk away for a moment. J-Just hold on."

That half-baked smile... The shaking head and the groaning... Something wasn't right with Clive, and Liam thought HE was crazy. Liam just sat there, watching Clive... As he started to walk... Then jog... Then break into a run. He was running away, the cowardly goit!

As Clive disappeared, Liam growled, and stood up. Liam was cross. Very cross indeed. His only ally had deserted him. The only other "friend" he knew was stone dead, curse SADD to hell...

"I HATE HATE HATE HATE THIS! HATEHAHTEHAHTEAHTEAHTEAHTATE..."

Liam ran off, his screaming of hate being audible to the nearby group. However, before they could recognize where it came from, and perhaps decide any action, he was long gone, having dashed off into the jungle.

((Continued in Kimmy, Kimmy, Candy Eater... I'M FREE!))

(OOC: Shawn is inactive, rolled, and being taken care of. For the sake of speeding things along I would appreciate if Scipher and I could get the next two posts after this, please and thank you.)

Shawn really had no other option but to lay there helplessly as the still-growing group of idiots around the field conversed and trash-talked him. Stupid little ingrates. He had to admit, his plan had been pretty stupid in retrospect. He'd never been the type to think things through; in fact being impulsive and living in the moment was how he'd always lived his life, but in this situation it wasn't very practical. Both of his cheeks had been torn open as a result of Steve's bullet, and it hurt like hell.

"Aunnnnghhhh..." he moaned loudly, clambering to his feet rather clumsily. Even as he stood he found himself wavering back and forth as a result of both the drunkenness and his new battle wound. He really couldn't manage to speak very well any more, especially given how much it hurt. There was so much he wanted to say, though! Calling Steve out for bringing a gun to a fistfight would've been a good start, maybe throwing another line Viki's way, telling that Dorian guy how stupid his escape plan was...now, though, none of that would amount to anything.

The only clear thought he'd had since he woke up flashed through his head almost in that instant. What did he always do whenever he wasn't sure how to handle something?

...He fought.

That was it. Shawn decided to return to his roots, and do what he did best. He wasn't going to be very effective, but with some effort he managed to pick up his pace and rush towards Steve, fists bared and charging with no particular plan in mind.