Survival Of The Fittest

((Finn Grant continued from Gethsemane))

No one of significance had been called out on the announcement that morning. Then again, there wasn't really anyone left who Finn cared about anymore. However, there was still Mara, but she would probably be pissed off with him for leaving her for dead at the hotel. The only person called out on the announcement that caught Finn's attention was Eliza Patton. If someone else hadn't of killed her then Finn definitely would have. She had hated Finn and his friends and she wouldn't have thought twice about killing him if they crossed paths.

Not long after the announcement, Finn and Matt decided to leaves the houses. Finn would have preferred to stay where they were, but he knew it would probably be safer to keep on the move. An hour or so later, they found themselves at the front of the school buildings. It seemed like a decent enough place to stop off for a while and he didn't want to spend more time walking to find a better place while his leg was in pain.

Matt suggested they go inside to which Finn replied with a nod. He was about to make his way in when he remembered that there were still dangerous people on the island and a place like the school would be a perfect hiding spot for them. Instead, Finn held back and let Matt go in first. That way if there was anyone dangerous in there, Matt could distract them while Finn ran (or hobbled) away.

"Sure, after you."

((Posting for activity. My character is going to stay unconscious until the ruckus wakes her up so feel free to skip to get everything done. I'll jump back in posting order when it's appropriate))


Mara lay on the floor with her arm outstretched, palm open. She felt someone place their hand on top of hers and curl their fingers. She slowly opened her eyes to see a girl laying across from her who looked an awful lot like her. Around her wrists were heavy, thick silver bracelets. Her clean, shiny black hair poured onto the freshly vacuumed carpet they both lay on. Her skin had the warm glow of honey and her inky black, almond shaped eyes danced over Mara with amusement.

"I hate you," Mara whispered.

The girl smiled a thin smile. She pulled her knees up slightly which ruffled the many-tiered pink skirt she wore. Around her neck were numerous silver link chains, holding lockets and trinkets of varying sizes.

"I hate you too."

She seemed impossibly beautiful. Even before the game Mara doubted that she looked like that. Her bandaged hand closed around the hand on top of it.

"You're not the pretty one anymore," said the reflection.

"No...." thought Mara. "I had a lot before, but none of it was mine. I survive because it's all that I am. I live for myself."

((For simplicity's sake, we should probably just have 2 post rotations running, since Matt/Will are in a separate scene from Owen/Travis. This should make things move faster for everyone))

Matt nodded as he led the way into the high school, silence resonating through the halls. Hopefully they would find nobody here. The encounter with Sean and Gray had turned out fine, but could have easily gone poorly. He needed to stick with his plan, play safe. Survival of the Fittest, not murder rampage fun times.

"Unfortunately, I think the terrorists took everything useful from here," Matt said, trying to continue the conversation. "I was here like four or five days ago, maybe? Looked for supplies, couldn't find much of use."

God he wished he had something to talk to Finn about.

There was another reason why Travis was now entering the school grounds. As the island got smaller and smaller, Travis had realized that the school buildings would become more and more of a safe haven for kids who wanted to play the waiting game. Isolated from the rest of the town, close to the now danger-zoned woods. It was a good hiding spot which would get far less traffic than the town would.

Which was why Travis was now entering the High School with his shotgun raised, ready to fire at the smallest of movement. He couldn't be the only person who thought it was a smart idea to hide here. He needed to eliminate anyone hiding here. Then he'd be able to camp out and kill anyone who approached, while letting the other wild animals kill each other in the town. He had too many enemies now. When the adrenaline had gone away after the fight yesterday he'd realized how lucky he was. He'd been in a firefight with several others, bullets flying everywhere. It was a miracle he was alive. He just... didn't think straight when he was in the middle of a fight.

Of course, he wanted nothing else more than to hunt Tyler, and Hansel, and Virgil, and all of the rest of them down. Charge through the island. Kill them, one by one. But he was well aware he couldn't. His body hurt too much, he was too weak, and he knew that the infection was spreading upwards from his hand. At this rate, he would probably be losing at least a few fingers, maybe even more. He needed to preserve his strength for the final lap.

But first.... He needed to clear the school.

He slid the front entrance open.

Walking down the school corridor was not the greatest idea Owen had ever had, in retrospect. Strategically, it was perfect; he was now standing, rather than sitting down, and he had perfect vision of the rest of the corridor in front of him. The silence of the school also meant that if anyone made even the smallest of sounds, he would hear it.

Emotionally, the whole place reminded him way too much of Aurora. Everything about it, from the lockers and building structure, to even the doors and windows, just made Owen think of what could have been. What if his clumsiness had taken effect before the trip and he'd broken a bone again? Maybe then he'd have missed the trip and missed all of this, leaving him at home to find out that his friends and classmates had all been killed. What if he'd never left England in the first place? None of this would have affected him then, would it?

Nothing except for the realisation that Amy had been one of the Aurora students on that plane.

So in some way, Survival of the Fittest would have found a way to reach him no matter what happened in his life. He just had to have pulled the short straw and get thrust right into the middle of it, didn't he?

Owen looked down at the floor, trying to avert his eyes from the scenery around him, but a second later the sound of doors opening completely pulled him back into his current situation. His head snapped back up, trying to figure out which direction the sound had come from. That way, along the corridor, from the front entrance. There was someone trying to search the school, then, rather than the terrifying prospect the school having been occupied throughout the whole of the previous night.

The thought hardly comforted Owen.

Owen gripped the table leg tightly and raised it as if he was holding a baseball bat, ready to swing it at a moment's notice. After another few seconds hesitation, he called out to the intruder.

"H-hello? Who's there?"

If the person wasn't a threat, then he didn't want them to be startled by the sight of somebody holding a weapon directly in front of them. If they were a threat, however... well, Owen was prepared for that.

Finn watched Matt as he entered the school. He stayed where he was for a few extra seconds after Matt walked through the door, waiting just in case there was actually someone hiding in the school ready to attack Matt. During these few extra second, Finn pretended to check his injured leg so Matt wouldn't be suspicious of his hesitance to go inside.

When Finn saw that Matt still hasn't been attacked by anyone he too entered the school. Finn found the empty halls unnerving; he had only ever been to a school when it was full of people. There was something unnatural about a deserted school. The place was giving him similar vibes as the hospital had back on day 1. He thought back to all the horror films he'd seen in that past that had a deserted school in them. None of them ended well for the people in it. Now that he was actually in the school, he wanted them to find a different place to have a rest, but he didn't want to look like a wimp in front of Matt.

Finn nodded in response to Matt's statement. However, he doubted there would be anything useful in a school even if the terrorists didn't ransack the place.  Schools definitely wouldn't have any weapons in them and if there was any food here it would probably be out of date by now anyway.  

With his arms wrapped around himself, Finn stood awkwardly in the hallway. He was sure he could hear noises coming from other parts of the school, but it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him. Finn knew that when you're frightened and on alert you can make up things that aren't actually there.

"Matt, I don't like it here." Finn realized he probably sounded like a wuss, so he quickly added another excuse. "Like you said, there's nothing here and… you know… there's probably people hiding in here."

A sun beam fell over Mara's eyes and she woke with a start. Every time she woke up to see she was still on the island, it was a little less surprising. Her head still hurt a bit, a halo of an ache, but otherwise she was feeling much better. She'd gotten a full, uninterrupted night of sleep. It was almost unheard of.

It was also then that she noticed her head was on something soft. Mara pushed herself into a sitting position and saw a bag of clothes someone had put under her head. In fact, she didn't remember lying down. Owen must have carried her to the carpeted area and given her the bag as a pillow.

Her own bag along with the rifle were near a wall. She stood and retrieved both while looking around. She didn't see him, but since his bag of supplies was with her, it was a good guess that he probably wasn't far. He didn't have the stomach to stay with her and though she was grateful for the help, she had no way to repay him.

Good luck, meathead

Mara gingerly opened a window, got up onto a desk and hopped out, landing quietly on the grass outside. Bag on her shoulder and gun in her hand she moved swiftly away from the school.

((Mara Montalvo continued Caught in a Moment))

((Slight GM should be fine, let me know if it isn't))

"Maybe you're right," Matt began. He actually disagreed with Finn; even if there were other people in the school, they could turtle up in a classroom and hide. "We can le –"

Matt was cut off by a gentle thud from the outside of the school. Both Finn and Matt reacted quickly, and they both got back to the entrance they'd just come through at about the same time. There was a short girl running off, maybe 15 yards away from them at that point.

"Mara!" Finn called out, but she didn't hear him. She kept going. Finn began to move as quickly as he could, pushing to catch up with his friend.

His friend who'd killed three people.

Matt didn't like this, but Finn still had the gun. If something were to happen...

Would he let Finn endanger himself like that? They were barely friends, and Matt had a lot to gain from Finn dying.

So why was it so hard to let Finn fuck up on his own. Why did he get the feeling that, when push came to shove, he would try to protect Finn?

Matt caught up with Finn and let the other boy use him for support as they ran. They would move slower than Mara, but they would hopefully stay close enough to catch up to her when they stopped next.

((Matt Vartoogian continued elsewhere))

He sighed when he heard the familiar voice echo towards him. The island had gotten progressively smaller, so he shouldn't be surprised that he'd run into Owen again. But it didn't annoy him any less. At this point, if he did meet someone, he wanted to face a person who wouldn't instantly try to kill him for his many misdeeds. But he supposed hoping to find anyone like that on the island was merely him being very optimistic.

Oh well...

He stepped into the doorway, shotgun raised. Owen was right in front of him. In a narrow hallway. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to duck, nowhere to hide.

The boys stood frozen there, silent, if only for a couple of seconds.

"Hello, Owen." he said with a slight smirk on his face.

Owen tried responding. "Travis..."

His finger squeezed the trigger before Owen had time to finish the sentence.

Oh, fuck.

It was all over in an instant. As soon as Owen saw who the figure in front of him actually was, the blood in his veins turned cold and he realised he'd run out of places to hide. Of all the people remaining on the island, it had to be Travis who decided to explore the school buildings, didn't it? Someone who had not only been able and willing to kill Owen previously, but had also somehow picked up a gun since they'd last seen each other. He wasn't getting out of this situation alive.

Owen could do nothing but stand frozen to the spot as Travis pointed the gun straight at him. He had resigned himself to his fate, hadn't he? He knew that the chances of him getting off the island were slim to impossible. All he was doing was postponing the inevitable; trying to live one day longer and helping anybody he could until eventually his time ran out.

And yet in the split second before Travis pulled the trigger, Owen tried to speak. Tried to say something, anything, that could dissuade Travis from shooting him.

Owen only had time to say Travis' name before the bang of the gun deafened him and the impact of the bullet sent him stumbling backwards. An instant later, there was pain spreading throughout his entire body, enough to make him cry out. His vision just allowed him to see the dark red stain spreading across his t-shirt and his hand desperately clutching his chest, as if he was trying to push the blood back in.

"Mara!" Owen cried out, feeling his energy sapping with each syllable. He was alerting Travis to Mara's presence, he knew that, but right now he couldn't care less if it meant he lived.

"Mara, somebody! Help me!"

Mara, Finn and Matt were long gone. The only person around to help Owen was Travis himself. Owen stood standing for a second longer, looking at Travis with fear in his eyes and a plea on his lips, before his legs gave way and he toppled onto the floor.

He had accepted he was likely going to die, but he wasn't ready for it. He would never be ready for it, not when there was still the chance that he would be able to carry on till the next day, and the next, and the next.

People tried to romanticise death, in books and films and, hell, in general day to day life. They said stuff like ‘dying is just like falling asleep'. But sleep came with the knowledge that you would wake up the morning after, even if you just took that for granted. With death, Owen had no idea what happened after that. All that he knew about it was constant, terrifying unknowing.

Owen wasn't ready, and never had been. As he lay in an ungainly heap on the dusty floor of an ancient building miles away from home, he softly whispered to himself, to Travis, to anyone who was listening.

"Please... I...

I don't...

... don't want to die..."

B04-OWEN KAY-DECEASED

Travis simply stood there for a few seconds, looking at Owen as he began bleeding out. Feeling his own pulse racing as Owen's was fading. Enjoying the pain in his arms after the shotgun blast. Listening to Owen's pitiful screams for help.

Mara, huh? So he has a new friend?

He kept his shotgun aimed down the hall. The second anyone exited the classrooms he'd blow them away. But after a few moments with no movement or footsteps, he smiled and shrugged.

"Looks like nobody is coming, bro..."

He slowly lowered his weapon, still having it ready just in case. He walked up to Owen. The boy was slowly losing his struggle with blood loss. He silently listened to Owen's final words, and solemnly nodded as the boy died.

"Yeah... nobody wants to die in this shithole, man."

He didn't feel guilty about having killed Owen, of course. Travis Webster was far beyond that point. But he did feel a bit hollow. It hadn't been the triumphant slaying that some of his other kills had been. Most of them had fought back... Or amused him in some way. Or at least put up a fight. An obstacle for him to defeat. But Owen had died so quickly and without a fight that it just felt... hollow. Like squashing a bug.

"Sorry, but... you wouldn't have made it to the end anyway. We all want to live. Some of us just want to live a little bit more."

He shook his head. Talking to a corpse. What the fuck was he doing? Like Owen cared. He laughed violently.

"Ahahah, alright! Enough with this shit! Let's go see where your so-called ally went, shall we?"

He gave Owen a pat on the cheek and stood up.

Amaranta "Mara" Montalvo.

A new name on the list of people he wanted to kill. Not quite ranking up with names like Tyler Lucas, or Hansel Williams..... or Joe Carrasco. But a name on the list all the same!

He skipped down the hall with a massive psychotic grin on his face, completely forgetting his original plan about seeking shelter. Yet again, he foolishly ignored the hot pain. The fresh kill had reinvigorated his spirit. He didn't care how reckless it was. By this point, he was a rabid dog. And all he knew was the hunt...

((Travis Webster continued Webster's Dictionary ))