Survival Of The Fittest

"No."

Crystal looked at the others looking at her. The uncertainty that had characterized her initial greeting boiled off with the vapor of her breath.

"Don't do anything."

They cowered before her. She hadn't known what this would become when she first stepped out. She hadn't known if they would greet her like it was nothing. She hadn't known if they would attack. She hadn't known if they would be cautious but civil. But they cowered.

The well-built girl with the long, bladed spear brandished it, but she also stepped back. Stupid, Crystal thought, as Danya's hands casually guided the gun to point that way. The spear would require her to be close to make use of it. She was backing up, and she was downhill, and Crystal had a gun. If the girl wanted to attack, she would have to charge uphill through gunfire to do it, and still she was making more space between herself and a ranged weapon. Combat wasn't Crystal's favorite part of RPGs, but she knew enough to keep her characters safe. She knew a bad move when she saw one.

The tall, thin girl was trying to hide behind the big guy with the sword-glove, but he'd been slow to react. He'd just be in the way, a shield and not a sword. They also had no ranged weaponry. They had no choice that didn't end with them gambling on Crystal's capabilities.

They were all weapons here. Danya's finger brushed the trigger, but didn't pull. Not yet.

"Drop—"

A pause. Uncertainty, now, because there had been no plan, and now the role before her was not the one she'd chosen.

"—drop what you think is fair, and then if I agree you can walk away."

Dave did do something: he bolted back into the bushes, all thoughts of prayer or plans banished from his mind by the gun.

((Dave Dearborn continued elsewhere))

Shit.

Dave was much closer to the girl, if he had done something, maybe Jenny could've helped. But he just ran off, and Jenny was at a range disadvantage. Not to mention, she had never really been pointed at with a gun before. All of the memories of watching PSAs, being cautioned, and the dark humor she remembered hearing were all flashing back to her. As usual, Jenny did her best to remain calm, but it was more difficult to do when your life is literally in danger.

But it wasn't just her life. For a moment, she realized again that Janice was here too. She had to act calm. That's what she's supposed to do in this situation right? Act calm. It didn't matter if she was stronger now, the girl had a gun, and she would shoot her before she could even move. Even if she did a miracle throw, she might not live to see the result. But even more importantly...

...she didn't want to kill anyone.

"Okay. Just... just relax, okay? What do you want? Company? Protection?" asked Jenny, trying her best to keep her hands from trembling too much. Or her voice, for that matter. She slowly lowered her spear, but didn't drop it just yet.

What she said was also a gamble, however. The girl hadn't shot Dave... yet. But she also didn't just come in and shoot them unaware. Maybe she could be reasoned with.

Dave had the right idea. The gun couldn't split. Janice hesitated for a second before running the other direction of to where Dave ran.

And Jenny? Well, the robbery was Jenny's problem now.

((Janice Cresner continued in Puppet Girl))

Crystal was slightly surprised when Danya didn't shoot either of the two who fled. But maybe it made sense. It was easy to imagine the gun turning, tracking, spitting. It was easy to imagine them turning, falling, bleeding. But it was also easy to imagine a miss, and that spear turning, coming charging up the hill. Danya would laugh as he drove it deep. It wouldn't even require a miss, really. Just an opening. A distraction.

So Crystal didn't get distracted.

The gun stayed trained on the one who posed the biggest threat. The one who wasn't smart or cowardly enough to run. The one who seemed... confused?

Crystal suppressed a shiver as the chill ran through her. She was confused by the confusion. This girl was offering... help? To travel with her? Fight for her? Was she stupid? Did she think Crystal was?

This was not the start of a partnership. There could be no trust built upon such a foundation. Crystal would never sleep if they left this place together. She would sit up all night, huddled with her knees to her chest, arms around knees, gun always—always—within reach, and she would wait for the inevitable slip-up when she would sign her own death warrant. And this girl wouldn't think about that if she was sincere, and so she would be rested and ready when the time came. Or if she was insincere, she'd be watching and waiting for the perfect moment. A million possibilities, and some were okay for Crystal but none of them were good. If she needed allies, she could negotiate them. She didn't have to steal. And she could do better than someone who backed away from a gun with a melee weapon. And if she didn't, then all she was buying was an opportunity to pull the trigger closer up, and she didn't have to jump through hoops for that.

"I want your stuff," Crystal clarified.

She moved her shoulders, just sort of vaguely. To remind the girl that the gun was here. It could fire, but it didn't. Yet.

"Not the weapon," Crystal quickly added. "You can keep that."

It was too big for her, probably, and besides, if she took too much, the girl might want revenge, or might decide the risk of death was worth the reward of not being robbed. That was the logic Crystal retroactively assigned to her decision. But whatever the case, she had decided, and she would stick to it.

"Just what you think is... fair," she said. "That's all. Put it on the ground and then go."

This was a robbery? She was going to get robbed?

In a way, Jenny expected this. But she didn't expect it to happen so soon. It was better than the alternative, though. Far better. She silently cursed that she got herself stuck with a spear, and wondered if someone else in this island had something crazier, like a bazooka.

But no time to think about that, there's someone with a gun pointed at her right now.

Surprisingly, all she did was ask for her stuff, not even her weapon. Jenny couldn't tell if this was out of compassion or practicality (it would be difficult to lug around a spear and a gun, and frankly, Jenny would pick the gun). She could never imagine anyone in her grade would shoot her, but school shootings were a thing, and they weren't exactly in the city, so taking this chance would be... highly risky at best, and fatally stupid at worst.

"Okay. Okay. Just... let me put my stuff down, okay?" Jenny slowly put the spear back in its holster on her bag, then unpacked her daypack contents. Half... half of what she had. She can scavenge, right? Can she? How long do these things last? A morbid thought crossed her mind. If she survived for one day, people would've died. So she could scavenge from the dead bodies.

She shook off the thoughts of looting the corpses of her friends, to throw Crystal half of her food and water.

"There. Are we... are we cool?" Jenny asked, slowly backing away, raising her hands up. No spear, no threat. She could just shoot her, but Jenny hoped she wasn't playing any sadistic games. This early on, people couldn't have snapped already, right? right?

Crystal walked towards where the tossed provisions had landed. Slowly. Carefully. The gun stayed roughly aimed the whole time, even held one-handed as she crouched down to recover her bounty.

She didn't feel bad. After all, she hadn't stepped out of hiding with this in mind. The others had chosen this, all three of them, when they reacted with fear. If they'd just called out to her, this could've been different.

It was a pain to keep the gun pointed and pick up a bunch of scattered ration bars and a loaf of bread and a tin of crackers and several one-liter bottles of water, especially left-handed. Crystal actually had to stop and put the first bottle back down and open the bag hanging at her side (which she sort of didn't even think about until she needed it, just like she sort of didn't think about the collar around her neck motivating her) and then shove it in.

She didn't feel bad. After all, she was too on edge for that. At any second, the girl could choose to charge, and Crystal would be on the defensive, both of them in a fight for their lives instead of some paltry rations. If the girl felt just a little luckier, this could've been different.

It took a while, and Crystal didn't answer the question at first, because if the girl was waiting for a reply then she wasn't doing anything rash. She was busy trying to figure out if Crystal was going to shoot her, instead of figuring out how she could turn it around or get revenge. Crystal preferred it that way.

She didn't feel bad. After all, she had only asked for what was fair. The girl had chosen what seemed right to her, which was half of her supplies, and if that was what her safety was worth to her, then Crystal couldn't be accused of greed. If the girl had tossed a single ration bar, this could've been different.

"Okay," Crystal said, straightening up and zipping the last of her prize away. She brought her left hand back around to steady the gun. No slipping up. Not right at the end. "We're cool. You, uh, you did. A good job. At what I asked. Thanks."

She didn't feel bad. After all, this entire situation was out of her control. None of them had chosen to be put into a struggle for their lives; that decision had been made by a terrible man far away, and it was at his feet that any and all blame fell. If he'd been hugged more as a child, this could've been different.

Crystal backed up, one step, two, backpedaling up the slope while keeping the gun trained. Get out. Take the money and run. The aftermath was the girl's problem now. Odds were, they'd never see each other again. Crystal couldn't even remember her name, and that was before the robbery. How funny was that?

She didn't feel bad.

((Crystal Henderson continued in The Other Judas))

And then there was one...

Five minutes was how long it took for Jenny to snap out of her stupor. It was getting dark, and cold. She needed somewhere to go, and she needed to do it fast. She had to get out of this mountain range. Making sure her bag (and spear) were secure, Jenny made a jog down the mountain path.

((Jennifer Farrow continued in Until Dawn))