Survival Of The Fittest

And suddenly Paris' hand was on Joachim's sleeve and they both went their own way. He showed no resistance. Sure, Zoe mentioned that searching the building for useful things was a futile effort, but Paris' attitude - perhaps it'd be better to say: his charm - excited Joachim in a strange way and he quickly found himself embracing the male-bonding exercise.

Nonetheless, something came to his mind once he and Paris created some distance between them and the girls.

Paris, not unlike Zoe, emitted an aura of mystery. There was an uncertainity about what was the truth behind their motivations, behavior and most importantly, what Joachim meant in their schemes.

Truth, falsehood... he couldn't wait to find out.

"Say, what exactly do you see in me? I mean, I am a multiple killer, but that doesn't seem to bother you in the slightest..."

((So sorry for lateness))

Paris moved in and out of the rooms, quickly checking closets and under desks before moving with Joachim to the next. As he was sifting through a desk with colorful, but likely petrified marshmallow candies Joachim asked him a question.

He stood and leaned on the desk looking thoughtful. After a moment he seemed to find what he wanted to say.

"Well, I'm with Cho and she is also a killer. Call it intuition maybe, but you're a reasonable guy. I think a lot of people do things because they don't think them through and make rash decisions. I have a feeling that when you killed someone there was some kind of plan or thinking behind it, right? I think you want to get out of here and will do what you have to, but won't lose yourself."

He stepped in close to Joachim and lowered his tone to a near-whisper.

"That's why I'm so glad I found you and Zoe. Really, I've been hoping to find another person for days. Sunny is, well, she's a great girl. But you know how girls can get. They're emotional, irrational and her especially seems like this is really taking a toll on her. I know she's a good girl, but I'm afraid she's going to snap sometime soon and so I've been hoping to find some other people so I don't have to keep an eye on her by myself."


He sighed and shook his head. "It's just really hard for her and if something happens I won't blame her, but it's nerve wracking for me too, ya know? That's why I'm so happy to have found you," he finished giving him a hardy pat on the back. He stretched and walked out of the last room.

"How has Zoe been? I mean as a person to travel with and stay by?"

Zoe spent the next few hours eager to leave. Trying to hold the school building remained an exercise in futility and pointlessness. It was too large to defend with four people, let-alone two, and there was nothing of worth to be found in the dark, musty corridors or the wilted saccharine classrooms. Zoe began to detest ever entering the building with Joachim, and detest more her decision to remain there even after Paris and Cho had arrived. Her verbal agreement with Joachim extended only as far as the edge of the forest and everything afterwards was fair play. They had gotten what they wanted from each other and their brief alliance in the building had only granted them a brief stay of execution. After all, they had both known from the start that the partnership would end with either one or both of them dead. It was just a matter of who made the first move.

One-by-one, her reasons to stay with the killers were drifting away. Zoe tried to keep herself busy talking to Cho-the-maybe-killer, but she could learn little of Paris' motives from her. Zoe had been relegated to the sidelines, back in the darkness, her assertions that they needed to move on had been ignored in favour of continuing the directionless and unsustainable strategy Paris had presented.

This was stagnation, the kind of stagnation that Zoe had sworn to avoid by leaving the forest. Stagnation was death. Worse than death, because at least a rotting corpse would feed the beasts and insects. Stagnation helped no-one and accomplished nothing. It was a slow decay that would eat away at her until she looked down and realised that there was nothing left.

Zoe needed to leave this building before it became her tomb.

In the darkness, it was easy for her to slip away unnoticed. It would have been unwise to announce that she was leaving. After all, it would have been unwise to loudly announce that she was leaving the Cult of Personality. This was the right choice. There was a chance that Cho, or Paris, or Joachim would see her slip out the fire exit at the back of the building and try to gun her down or worse, try to stop her, but dying now was a better fate than stagnation.

Never afraid of the killers, Zoe reminded herself.

The large metal door opened with a loud, metallic creek. Her feet hit the damp grass running. Zoe took her chances long before the area became a dangerzone.

[font=timesnewroman][Zoe Leverett will return in Walk Among the Cobras, Pt. 1.][/font]

They were pretty sure the building was empty and they were well enough alone. Paris wiped imaginary sweat off his brow and offered Joachim a pat on the shoulder for a job well done.

"It's a good place, but Zoe was right. Too many hiding places. We should get back to the girls, take what we need and get going to a more secure place. At least we know no one is going to be jumping at us on our way out, hu?"


Paris headed swiftly downstairs and by the time he had, Zoe was nowhere to be seen, but Cho remained. He was sure Zoe would turn up sooner or later. They always did.

((Paris Ardennes continued in The Killing Moon))

"Bizarre."

That was his answer to Paris' question about Zoe's status as a travel companion. It was actually not what he intended to say. Silent, mysterious, difficult. These were words Joachim wanted to use at first, but 'bizarre' escaped his lips.

Speaking of Zoe, she seemed to be missing, leaving him alone with Paris and Cho. He guessed that this was predictable, in some way. Their alliance did end at the edge of the forest. However, he was a bit stunned by how quickly he suddenly gained a few new allies - trustworthiness doubtful, perhaps - and even more by the fact that he did not mind.

Almost as if it managed to replace something within him that was missing.

Nonetheless, while he had no trouble with Paris being there - honestly, the physical contact and the verbal exchanges and his aura were causing quite positive feelings to stir inside Joachim - Cho seemed to be a, well, burden. Keeping an eye on her, that is what Paris said. He hoped she'd just snap and mow down some idiots, though he knew that this would be a very bad turn of events for himself.

Let's see what happens.

[Joachim Lovelace, continued in The Killing Moon]

Zoe really wasn't much for conversation, even though Cho got the sense that the other girl was trying, instead of just tolerating. Made things fall a little awkwardly, unfortunately, despite the relief of actually having someone else there that wasn't the same person she'd been seeing since the very beginning of all this.

And then in amongst it all, after things had fell quiet, and Cho busied herself with looking through what passed for supplies, Zoe... wasn't there any more. Paris and Joachim came back and Sunny was empty handed for the location of their fourth member. Where had she slipped off to? Urgh.

Cho didn't claim to be a psychologist. She didn't know the motives. Simply she nodded along, called out once or twice, and then the now-trio were off on their way.

She wasn't sure she liked this.


((Cho continued elsewhere))