Survival Of The Fittest

So that bitch refused to part with her bat. Fine. That was fine. Made Bethany’s decision for her then, she would not take a seat in armed company. Deep breath. She dug deep into her memory for some other line from the good book that might help the situation. The mental exercise helped to cool her anger at Aracelis, too.

Then Przemek attempted to help a little more with a spot of levity, which only served to distract Beth’s train of thought. Her brow furrowed as she looked over towards him and Aracelis, though only for a moment: her mother admonished her so regularly not to put lines on her face that correcting scowls as they happened had long since become an unconscious habit for Bethany.

“Hardly the time for,” she began, pausing as she saw him going for his bag.

“Don’t tell me you’re arming yourself as well.” she snapped, before catching her tone, calming herself again. She was angry and scared, she knew this, but it was no excuse to jeopardise the peace of the one small blessing she’d received on the worst day of her life.

“If…” Beth tried to recall the line she’d been thinking of, but her mind remained derailed.
“If we can’t share this hot spring, well, where else are any of us going to stay warm?”

Nobody had voted for her, in fact few here were likely to, but somebody had to take on leadership. Keep everyone from killing one another. What would the psychopathic fucks behind this travesty profit if everyone just sat down and sang kumbaya and refused to play along? As far as Bethany could see, that was the only way that they could win, by refuting the central notion and spiting the monsters who would see them tear one another apart. As for when those that did play along came calling? Well… then Bethany would face Saint Peter knowing she’d done the right thing, right?

She had the courage to face death with dignity, the faith in God not to fear what happened next, even at the young age of eighteen… right?

Besides, she had yet to see what Przemyslaw was even going for. No need to get ahead of herself. Be calm Bethany, for fuck’s sake.

Okay, maybe Ethan should interfere after all.

"Hey," he said while standing up. "I think if Aracelis wanted to attack, she wouldn't have called out to us in the first place. So if she feels safer with her bat, there should be no issue leaving her be. Sure, we are all scared and nervous right now, but arguing over little things will only drive us apart, and that is what our captors want.

"We mustn't forget that this entire situation is not about those of us who want to be armed VS those who don't. This is about all of us VS Danya."

The last statement was risky since someone was most likely watching them in this very moment. But if Ethan wanted to get anything done, he had to remind his classmates of who their true enemy was.

Przemek turned back and went to pick up his bag. Beth, weirdo that she was, snapped at him, letting the mask slip for just a moment. It made the decision for Aracelis really.

Sucked to be Przemek she supposed. But Aracelis didn't want to stick around and if she took Przemek's bag she would have more supplies and also whatever weapon he had, which could have been a gun. The maths made sense in her head. Plus, they would all end up numbers on a spreadsheet anyway.

When you had to deal with that reality and those odds? Maybe she would have made the same decision anyway. But the god squad helped her justify it to herself either way.

She went to move closer to Przemek and as she did Ethan stood up and started speaking. It started off great. Then it fell off a cliff and Aracelis felt even more like she was making the right decision. He wanted to team up against the people that had kidnapped seven prior classes and gotten away with it each time. Yeah, no. She wasn't doing that shit.

Her fast walk turned into a run as she sped toward Przemek. The bat came up and was held in both her hands.

She swung at him, aiming for the center of mass.

Beth seemed to be angry at him. Oh. Przemyslaw didn't want to come off as wanting to arm himself, he just was curious what he'd received. But maybe Beth was right, it wasn't important, he wasn't going to need it now anyway. Ethan supported the fact with his little speech. There was no need to worry. He should just leave the bag there and go to the hot spring. The other two were still a good distance away and Aracelis-

Huh, what's Aracelis doing? Why was she running-

Before he could realise she was super close to him and swung the scary-looking bat. On instinct, Przemek dropped his bag and used his arms to block the swing in an attempt to protect his torso, while the sounds of a shocked inhale came out of his mouth.

She’d been right all along. This was Hell after all. Ethan expounded on what she’d been thinking out loud for a moment and good God, is that how stupid it sounds? Maybe he just wasn’t that good of a speaker, but the whole notion sounded impossibly foolish when presented by someone else, as if he was actually thinking of fighting back and not just refusing to play along… but then, pitching the idea of sitting and waiting for their throats to blow up probably wouldn’t sound so reasonable if she just came out and said that aloud either.

However, it got worse. While she and Ethan did their best Neville Chamberlain impression and rationalised letting an armed manic go around being dangerous with impunity, that very maniac was proving them both to be laughably naive.

Motherfucker.

She heard a sound unlike any she had before as bludgeon met flesh. Instinct took hold, and Beth scrambled to scoop up the ski pole she’d been wielding as a spear. She considered the other one and the skis sitting with it for a moment, decided not to burden herself, and rose to consider her options. Help Przemek? Run? For the moment she stayed frozen in place, taking a third option until further notice.

“Ethan, do something!”

Ethan did something.

To be more exact, he at first was just as frozen as Bethany. While the possibility had been in the back of head, he hadn't expected violence to erupt so suddenly. It was Bethany calling his name that made him jump into action. Without a doubt, Przemyslaw was the victim, so he needed assistance.

Copying Bethany's action, Ethan picked up the second ski pole and made a few more steps in the direction of the fight. Then he collected all his experience from his time spent at the Arcade at the Willows and hurled the ski pole in Aracelis' direction like a javelin. Considering how the ski pole had barely any weight, it was unlikely to do more than a bruise, but the hit would hopefully throw Aracelis off-balance, giving Przemyslaw an opening.

Shouting, she expected that.

Resistance, she expected that too.

Aracelis hadn't expected everything to play out without a hitch. She wasn't one of those people who imagined arguments in her head where she had the perfect comeback for everything. Okay, maybe she was.

The impact of the bat on Przemek's body caught her off-guard. It was a much more solid and grounded feeling than she expected. For some reason, she had thought he would have been bowled over by the impact. Sent flying backward like a goon in a kung-fu movie. He hadn't been.

She hadn't expected that.

Maybe her ego had got her into trouble.

But what she really hadn't been expecting, was for a ski pole to smack into her forearm like a spear, making her yelp and jump back.

Meanwhile, the bat flew out of her grip, and back towards the path she had come from.

Aracelis rapidly looked between the bat and Przemek, one hand holding her wrist where the pole had impacted with it.

The adrenaline rushing through his body numbed the pain Przemek received from getting hit with a nailed baseball bat in the arm. He also saw a stick flying or something.

And the bat was lying on the ground now. Przemek didn't hesitate lunging for it, diving onto the direction it had landed. It would safer in his hands than hers. He bent down to grab the handle.

The hypocrisy of it apparently entirely lost on her, Beth gestured towards the melee exasperatedly, and turned to Ethan to add

“Something useful!”

She herself remained frozen in place for a few seconds more, her conscious mind telling her to defend the little patch of warmth she’d had the good fortune to wake up in, while every instinct in her body said to turn tail and run. What could she do, anyway? An incredibly average girl with a weapon that just showed itself to be thoroughly ineffectual, versus someone with a bat in her hands and killing on her mind?

In the end, she made her decision, something something no weapon against her would prosper. Some verse like that. If God was testing her, surely doing something brave for somebody else was the right way to go?

Of course, charging wasn’t easy in a long skirt at the best of times. Here Beth found herself trying it on smooth, slick rock. Regardless, after the first stumble and hasty correction, she steadied her pointy stick and threw herself towards Aracelis with stabbing intent.

Ethan's stunt had more than expected by disarming Aracelis. But now they had to keep pushing in order to fully drive her off.

It was a disappointment, but they could no longer trust Aracelis to be around. She had to go.

For this reason, Ethan quickly backtracked a bit to pick up one of the skis. Those were heavier and harder to wield, but would hopefully offer more stopping power.

He charged forward. A few meters before reaching his target, he threw the ski to his right, preparing to smash it at the girl's back.

Unfortunately, Ethan had overseen that he wasn't the only one running in this direction.

Aracelis had fucked up. She had assumed god girl and blank slate Ethan would have just not done anything. In hindsight that was a stupid assumption. Instead of standing back in shock they'd both decided to interject themselves because fucking obviously.

Przemek had moved first though, diving towards the bat. Meanwhile Beth and Ethan were charging at her with a ski pole and a ski respectively. Aracelis had no intent to stay still and let them reach her, but she also needed her bat back. She wasn't ignorant to her own weaknesses. She was small and so she needed a weapon. If she lost the bat on top of failing at a robbery she would have ended up in an even worse situation.

As she attempted to backpedal Aracelis stumbled and fell back onto the cold stone ground. Spinning around and using her hands to push herself back to her feet she scrambled up into a sprint after Przemek. He was crouched over the bat as she got close, so out of instinct more than any plan she raised her foot and brought it stomping down on the back of his head.

Unfortunately for Przemyslaw his face wasn't stomped into the ground, but into the nails of the baseball bat.

Everything had been going so well.

She’d given Ethan a hard time, perhaps unfairly at first, but things had been going pretty well. His javelin attempt hadn’t really hurt her, but in fairness, it had contributed to disarming Aracelis. It had all been going much better than expected, given the circumstances.

Then it went to shit.

Something collided with the back of Bethany’s head. Hard. She stumbled, nearly fell, but managed to right herself and rounded on Ethan, makeshift weapon at the ready. Instinct told her to be ready to defend herself from a sudden betrayal. Conscious thought told her to demand an explanation for the presumed blunder. Both fell by the wayside at the prompting of a sound that frankly defied description.

She almost didn’t want to look.

She had to, though. To be ready for whatever came next.

So Bethany turned slowly back towards the source of the sickening, horrifying sound. Would she have called it a crunch? A squelch? Ideally, she wouldn’t think about it ever again. First the furious scowl fell from her face, then the colour drained from it too. Part of her wanted to think of something eloquent or pithy to say. That part was very small and went ignored. A larger part reminded her that she wasn’t the part of person to curse. Given the situation, she was able to ignore that, too.

“Fuck me…” Beth gasped, staring blankly.

When his improvised weapon hit Bethany, Ethan stopped instinctively. He looked at her and was greeted with a girl on guard. Understandably. But before Ethan could apologize or explain himself, he heard something he couldn't categorize at first.

It was the sound of Aracelis curb-stomping Przemyslaw into her baseball bat. Ethan cursed as he started running again. Head trauma could easily turn fatal. This was no longer an attempted robbery. Aracelis was seriously trying to kill them.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM, DAMMIT!"

In hindsight, it had been a bad idea.

Aracelis had realized as much as soon as she had committed to it, but it was hard to readjust when gravity was already pulling you down.

So her foot came down on Przemek's head and she fell to the ground again. This time face down. She heard the noise of Przemek's face making contact with the bat and her mouth went dry, her eyes screwed shut.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Her voice was barely a whisper as she lay there.

Aracelis was in the process of trying to convince herself it wasn't that bad when Ethan's yelling snapped her back to reality.

Her head snapped around, scared eyes wild as she saw Przemek, still face down on the bat. Scrambling on her hands and knees she reached over and pulled the bat out from under him. He rolled off and to one side.

Ethan had started sprinting at her, so she backpedaled, hands and feet scraping against the stone as she tried to find purchase, then she was up and running.

She took the stairs to the hot spring three to four at a time, loose stones and debris flying down the side of the pathway as she nearly went over the edge of the drop. Her head whipped around and with eyes on the first set of buildings, she could see on the horizon Aracelis continued to run.

She didn't stop running until she had reached the bottom.

((S083 - Aracelis Fuentes continued elsewhere...))