Survival Of The Fittest

[[A click; a beam of light. Enter Jezzie Stark.]]

Was this going to be a theme of her time here? Coming across all the horror shows? First seeing Janice kill Tana, now she enters a church just in time to hear muffled screaming. What next, she's going to come across the aftermath of a slaughter of horror movie proportions? She was supposed to be a respected actress, not a dime-a-dozen slasher movie final girl!

Okay, stupid tangent, but it felt fitting. Especially with what this place looked like.

God. God. This place felt horrific just looking at it. Dark, damp, disgusting, and something fucking moved and it was NOT HUMAN!

Fuck. She didn't want to do this. She really didn't want to do this. But the idea of just leaving the screamer to whatever her fate could be just made her stomach churn. Not as bad as Janice and her bullshit, but like she was letting someone die, and that felt...uncomfortable in a way she didn't quite know how to describe.

So...venturing into the unknown.

Despite the dark and the wet and the rats and the spiders and the-

Jezzie quickly started taking steps down before her mind could keep going down that script. The flashlight she got from the bag shined all around the room, searching for the screamer. She kept her voice at a stage whisper volume, hoping the other girl would hear her, but trying not to get attention anyone-or anything-less appealing than a human.

"Hey-Hey! Where are you? Do you-do you need help?"

She hated the stutter her words took as she considered bad this could be. It made her sound weak.

Too bad reshoots don't exist here.

S126 - Anderson, John "Jack" - GAME START

Jack came to in a belated haze. He actually tried to go back to sleep, and then upon drifting, very much against his will, back into the land of the living, he muttered something which vaguely resembled words.

"Dun wanna ged up..." he mumbled...

...and then there was screaming.

Shit, what the hell is going on?

Touching his forehead for a moment in reaction to a headache, possibly from having been deposited roughly and possibly getting a headache from all of the screaming, Jack muttered a bit more before staggering to his feet.

"Okay, who is screaming and why?" he asked. "And where the hell are we?"

The second question was more at the surreal surroundings he found himself in than anything, as he slowly made out the presence of others.

"Da-hadd-ee-ee!"

Panic gave Iris strength to move, but not enough to do much more than that. Truly in hysterics now, screaming and crying in oblivious terror of the new voices nearby, she started to thrash. A kick of her legs shifted the bag on her feet enough for one leg to just up out of the barrel and wave fruitlessly in the air. The barrel rocked slightly, but with her weight holding it down at the bottom, that was all.

"Daddy!" Iris shrieked, her own voice rebounding and echoing in her ears in the confined space. Every cry made her head throb, but she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to. "Help me!" Tears were running upside down up her face, soaking into her hair and the rim of her lopsided hat.

One second you're climbing through the window of a church, thinking it might be a good place to hide and calm down after seeing a girl die and getting stuck in a closet with her corpse. The next, you're in a creepy basement, trying not to break any glass bottles that are for some reason on the floor, praying you don't get stains on anything from touching the wrong item or stepping in the wrong place, dealing with a screaming girl stuck in a barrel and a boy apparently oblivious to everything going on.

Just fuck her I guess, right?

Jezzie didn't recognize either voice, but she could at least hear the words being said. She didn't bother shining the light in the boy's direction, focusing it on the barrel the screaming was coming from. She did respond to it, though.

"Don't know and don't know for the first two. For the third, we're in a basement in a church on murder island, also known as Survival of the Fittest."

She rolled her eyes, thankful the cover of dark mostly kept it hidden.

And Jesus, did the terrorists put this girl in the barrel? Did the fuckers just enjoy putting them in terrible places to wake up? Or did someone else do this to her? She couldn't tell which was the answer, but she might as well see if the girl herself would, once she was free.

Jezzie took more quick steps to the barrel, trying to roll up her sleeves the best she could before placing them on the side of the thing. "Give me a sec!" She whisper-yelled again as she started to push, but fuck this was heavy. She was already not the strongest person, and this girl definitely weighed more than her. This was either going to take a while, or she was going to need some help.

Her eyes darted to the direction the boy's voice came from.

"Hey! A little help here with the screaming girl stuck in a barrel?!"

Jack began making his way over towards the barrel, stepping carefully as he still tried to clear the cobwebs from his brain...and any disbelief alongside it.

"Wha..."

Jack began in response to the answer, when any attempts at even a pretense of stealthy movement were ruined quite thoroughly as he lost his balance from stepping wrong on some bottles. He managed to avoid falling, but there was quite a lot of clattering as he did so, and then Jack decided to just...gently kick the bottles aside as he made his way over to the others.

One problem at a time. Girl in the barrel...

He took a second to look over the situation as he approached, entering the light provided by the flashlight.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Jack asked, figuring that letting the person who was already awake-and-with-it make the calls in this situation made more sense than trying to improvise...well, anything, really...until he got his wits about him.

Voices. There were voices, in between her screams, and they were close, and they were just fucking talking while Iris struggled and sobbed and begged. Her frantic, racing thoughts could make out that much, and maybe later a part of her would want to be angry, but right now it just made her wail more.

The barrel rocked again, this time from some outside force. Iris swung her freed foot towards the source without thinking. Jumbled thoughts of protecting herself from any further harm and humiliation clashed with how very, very much she didn't want to be stuck in here any longer.

She sucked in as deep a breath as possible. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Her voice, so shrill in such a confined space, left her ears ringing.

"Pull, push, I don't care, just-GAH!"

WHY THE FUCK WAS THIS GIRL TRYING TO KICK HER, SHE WAS TRYING TO FUCKING HELP GOD DAMN IT!

Jezzie managed to step back before the foot could connect, meaning the only thing screamer girl made contact with was the inside of her jacket. It better not have stained, this was one of her nicer ones and worth over seventy dollars!

"I'M FUCKING TRYING, BITCH! It helps if you don't try to fucking hit me!"

Oh, the temptation to kick this damn barrel. But if there was anything she couldn't immediately see that could stain her shoes, she wasn't about to fuck them up because of this girl.

She turned her attention to the boy, actually trying size him up. Black hair, blue eyes, taller than her-who wasn't but not the point-not the most athletic but he'll have to do.

"Okay, you pull on one end, I'll push on the other. Got it?"

Jezzie didn't wait for an answer before she started pushing again. The sooner screamer girl was out of here, the sooner she could get out of here and not worry about any guilty conscience. Though at this point, the girl trying to kick her may negate any guilt she would've felt...

Better not risk it. She wasn't about to Lady Macbeth herself into murder by inaction and start screaming about spiders and spots that weren't actually there.

Jack nodded in assent and, as quickly as he could manage to, started pulling.

It was pull, right? Or was it push?

Luckily, he got it right (at least for what he was told to do).

"Calm down, damnit!" he grunted at Iris. "We're trying!"

He didn't know it, but Jack's thoughts were beginning to track Jezzie's: If this person didn't stop thrashing, he wasn't going to feel bad about walking away or something.

I just got up, give me a break!

And now they were screaming at her, telling her to calm down, like June hadn't just hurt her for no reason at all, when Iris had only been trying to help, and these people didn't even care what had happened to her, she was just an annoyance, just a stupid problem to get rid of, and so-

-so Iris didn't stop crying or thrashing, but her movement combined with the two shoving at the barrel, however halfheartedly, finally resulted in the barrel's center of gravity shifting just enough to tip over. It landed with a loud, not-quite-hollow thud and then rolled just enough to make Iris fear that she was about to fall victim to some kind of slapstick routine where it rolled away for a long time with her still in it. But it fell still.

Inside, she just lay there for a few seconds, still sniffling and sobbing. Her whole face felt like it was burning with humiliation, and the back of her head throbbed whenever she moved too much or made two much noise. She wanted to just lay here and just- just die. That would show the people yelling at her.

But no, it wouldn't. They'd just keep acting like this was her fault, and they wouldn't care, and-

Iris forced herself up onto her hands and knees, stumbling a bit over the bag that had landed nearby when the barrel fell over. She snatched it up and held it tightly to her chest like an oversized stuffed animal. Something, anything to hold, even if it wouldn't hold her in return.

"G-get-" She hiccupped. "Get away from me!"

And then she was up on her feet, unsteady but moving, and she let her legs carry her blindly up out the stairs and finally into the light.

((Iris Waite continued in Come Out, Juanita, Don't Let Me Wait))

What the fuck was wrong with this girl?! Even when they were making it clear as possible they were trying to help, she kept moving and trying to hit them. She was lucky it helped knock the barrel over, otherwise she would've officially given up and walked out.

And then, when it's finally over, when the girl is finally free, she looks at them, yells at them like they did something wrong, and runs out.

What. The. Fuck.

"YOU'RE WELCOME!" Jezzie yelled after the girl. She couldn't help growling a little bit. "Some fucking people..." was muttered before she turned her attention to the guy. She definitely saw him around school, but either he wasn't the most popular person or his name just alluded her at the moment. Something about him made her think Jack, though, so until getting his name she'd just think of him as Jack.

"Any idea what the Hell happened with her?" she asked, pointing a thumb towards the direction the girl went. The boy had been down here longer than Jezzie, so there was a chance. Not a good chance, considering it seemed like she woke him once she got here, but hey, may as well check.

While also walking towards the stairs, because the sooner they were out of this shit hole the better, SHE IS NOT GETTING ANY SPIDERS CRAWLING ON HER DAMN IT!

What happened to her? Jack shrugged.

"I wish I could tell you. I just..." Jack shook his head. "I just woke up." Beat. "I've never been a morning person. Looks like I overslept again..." he said, shrugging.

He cast a look in the direction of Iris storming out. "I think someone forgot to take her meds this morning..." Jack mumbled and sighed.

"You're...J..."

Fuck me, why can't I remember her name?

He knows he's seen her around school - the school isn't that big. But he's drawing a blank.

"...J...Jesus Christ, I'm sorry...I can't remember your name," he mutters, following Jezzie in the general direction of the stairs.

Thank God all her acting experience meant hiding the urge for Jezzie's eye to twitch. Otherwise she probably would've looked a little too threatening there.

Still, how did he not know her? Did he live under a rock? Was he still out of it from being unconscious? He did say he just woke up. And he at least got the first letter right, if his stuttering meant anything. Plus, it was Survival of the Fittest. She supposed people had a right to not be in the best state of mind, when there was danger of death literally every day. Hell, she had a front row seat to how bad things were going to be here.

So, he'll get a pass. Just this one, though.

"Jezzie Stark. And I'm gonna guess your name is Jack."

'Considering you didn't know Jack shit,' went unsaid.

She took the steps two at a time. She didn't care right now if the act seemed fearful. She needed to be out of this little Hell hole now, before something got stained or something started crawling on her.

"You're doing better than some people at least, if that makes up for oversleeping."

She paused in her steps for a moment, at the middle point of the stairs, before turning to face the guy.

"By the way, if you see a blonde girl wearing blue and carrying around a knife that looks like it could be a pizza cutter, answers to the name Janice? Don't trust her. She's already killed someone."

Shit's already hit the wall. May as well tell Jack. The more people who know about the psychos, the better.

"...actually, it is. Jack Anderson." She got it in one!

Jack thought for a moment, trying to remember if they share a class that he's not remembering, before giving up.

The bit about Janice having...killed someone?...caused him to blink.

"You're..." Kidding? No, she isn't. "...serious, aren't you?"

Beat. Yeah, she's serious.

"Well, that escalated quickly..." he offered, letting Jezzie lead the way towards...somewhere...not here. Definitely somewhere not here.

Huh. Score one for her internal monologue.

Jezzie watched the shock roll over his face. Disbelief before acceptance. Not that she could blame him. Even if she'd seen it first hand, she didn't want to think people in their class were so bloodthirsty. At least not enough that they'd kill someone still asleep.

But she couldn't ignore the facts, and the facts were that Tana was as dead as a doornail in a closet on this island.

She continued walking, talking only one step at a time as she kept talking as well. Though it turned more into a ramble as she went on.

"An understatement, but not wrong. Barely was even awake before I saw her kill a girl-Tana. Lucky I woke up in a closet and she didn't see me, otherwise she might've tried to kill me too. But then, just when it seems like she might be leaving, some guy-Salem-decides now is the time to come around and start making friends. And I mean that literally-he realized Janice had killed someone, and rather than telling her to fuck off, he offers-"

[[Exit Jezzie Stark, up a staircase, out of the dark.]]

Jack listened with rapt (if not quite stunned) attention as Jezzie gave her description of what happened. And then...

[[Following Jezzie Jack Anderson heads upstairs as well...]]