Survival Of The Fittest

Josh. The one who'd killed two people. He'd been there, harassing Cassie, threatening her while Madeleine entertained her stupid, stupid fantasies. She could have done something. But she just stood there.

"C-Cassie, Cassie, you're fine, you're gonna be OK, it's, just, uh, just, just a bad flesh wound! I-it'll be OK. J-just, just focus on me!" The rational part of her brain had been shoved back, because Madeleine refused to believe what she was seeing. It was like, like head injuries, they bled a lot, right? They bled a lot even if they weren't too bad, so this must be the same kinda thing. If you got shot in the chest but... but it wasn't like, a real lethal round and...

She knew. She knew it wasn't a flesh wound.

But she couldn't accept that her friend was dying in front of her eyes and she couldn't do anything about it at all.

"Fuh..." Madeleine took a deep, shuddering breath as the tears started to drip down her face, letting out a whimper as she dropped the medkit and shifted closer to Cassie. "Fuck." She let out a singular word, her hand creeping to grip Cassie's, squeeze it tight. It was cold and clammy already, and she knew it wasn't just the cold outside, but it had to be the cold, because she was cold because of the cold and the red snow soaking into her very being, right through her ribs and into her heart.

"I'm here. I'm here. You're not alone. I'm here, I'm-I'm here. You're..." Madeleine closed her eyes, took another shaky breath.

"You're going to be fine." She whispered, her voice cracking and her hand squeezing tight like if she just held it hard enough, it'd take the bullet out of Cassie and make her better. But she couldn't do anything. She couldn't stop her from getting shot. She couldn't fix her. Cassie had done more than the stupid girl who daydreamed of food and weapons.

"Please, p-please, please don't. Don't leave me. I can't, I, I need you. Please." She selfishly pleaded, watching the snow get redder and redder underneath them.

Cassie clung tightly onto Madeleine's hand - her friend's hand, even. That's who she was, right? After everything they had been through, she was probably the closest friend she'd ever had.

It was strange. She had always overreacted to the most insignificant symptoms back home, or treated minor injuries as potentially life threatening.  Now that she found herself on death's door, she began to feel unusually calm about it all. As if the anticipation of bad news was infinitely worse than the news itself. Maybe it was because a part of her had already long accepted that this was always how it was going to end? If not by someone else's hand, then...

There were times where she thought back to that frozen lake. Where she imagined herself donning those ice skates before venturing out, let all her worries fade as she danced until the ice gave away beneath her feet. There were times she considered leaving her things behind and returning there to make that fantasy a reality, to relieve Madeleine of her burden.

As she clung tightly onto her friend's hand, she felt happy that she didn't abandon her in the end. That she chose to stay with Madeleine, that she was able to save her when it mattered the most. That she didn't spend her last moments on this Earth alone, like she always assumed she would.

"Thh..." she muttered, her voice faint and grip growing weaker by the second. "Th... Thank... You....."

All her life, Cassie always found herself preparing for the worst. Always found herself catastrophizing and falling into doomspirals, conjuring up a series of events that quickly escalate into the worst case scenario possible.

Now that she was so close to the end, she tried something a little different. Tried to picture what was going to happen next, in an ideal world where everything worked out alright. 

She pictured Madeleine, Dawn, Kelsey and all her other friends managing to figure out a way off the island, pull off a big escape like what happened all those years ago. 

She pictured people like Josh getting the help they needed to regain their humanity, whilst the real villains who arranged all this get their just deserts. 

She saw her friends growing old, starting families, succeeding in all the things they wanted to do with their lives before this game stole their futures from them.

It was... Nice. Comforting, even. Unlikely, sure, but maybe not impossible. 

As for herself, well... Maybe it was for the best this happened now rather than later. She dread to think what would've become of her if Madeleine passed in her place, what she could've become had circumstances been different.

In a way, this was the happiest ending she could've hoped for.

S020: Cassie Chao - Deceased

Her friend's grip weakened as her life flooded out of her body, Madeleine hoping desperately, praying in her head to a God that she'd never really considered on the island until this moment, for just a few seconds more, a brief respite from the void that threatened to claim Cassie. But God didn't listen, or maybe he just didn't hear her. Eventually, her hand slipped from Cassie's cold, nonexistent grasp, unable to bear holding it any longer, because Cassie wasn't there anymore. She was somewhere better now, away from all this murder and bloodshed and horrible men with guns. No more pain, no more sadness, no more evil. What was left was just a body. A shell that once held the closest friend she'd had on this island. And now, Madeleine had nobody.

Cassie was gone. But, but Madeleine kept pleading between tears, now fully wrapping her arms around her and begging her to just wake up, that she was fine, that she had just passed out or fell asleep or something. Red snow, red Cassie, now red Madeleine. No matter how much Madeleine shaked her, begged, pleaded or pulled her close and tried to transfer whatever warmth she felt in this cold, snowy island to her body, Cassie wouldn't, couldn't come back.

Eventually, she just buried her face into Cassie's shoulder and sobbed. For her friend who'd been so cruelly taken because some madman wanted to shoot her. Even when she was staring him right in the face, her first thought was of Madeleine. For Cassie's family, who had just lost a daughter to some madman. She'd actually never thought to ask Cassie about her family, and now she'd never get the chance to. For everyone, every innocent soul who'd died on this island and seven others like it. There were too many names, too many people to remember. Cassie was just the latest in a long list that scrolled back decades. But mostly, Madeleine cried for herself, who'd been left on this island all alone without someone she could call a friend. There were people she was friends with, yes, but nobody who was quite like Cassie.

Once she'd shed all of her tears, Madeleine stood up, staring down at her dead friend.

She'd emptied her heart into Cassie's shoulder, and now all that was left inside was a deep emptiness, like she'd lost a part of herself there. But she had.

On autopilot at this moment, Madeleine gently picked her friend up, her hands and jacket and everything covered in blood. Then, moving slowly and methodically, she brought her back into the bar. The idea that her killer might still be lurking occurred to her, but she didn't care. A little part of her hoped that he'd still be there, so she could... could what? Kill him? Join Cassie? Both sounded tempting.

Laying her down on the floor, she grabbed Cassie's medkit from her bag, unzipped her jacket, pulled up her shirt, and got to work patching up her wounds. In the back of her head, she knew it was irrational, that crudely bandaging up a giant hole in her wouldn't bring Cassie back, but Madeleine just couldn't bear to think that Cassie would be just... lying there. Still bleeding. Like she'd just been shot. It just seemed so wrong.

When she was finished, she put Cassie's clothes back the way they were, took what remained of Cassie's food, water and her medkit, and then brought Cassie into the back room of the bar. There, she set to work. Using her bag as a pillow and the emergency blanket as a well, blanket, Madeleine arranged it so it just looked like Cassie was sleeping. If you ignored how pale she was. It just...

She wasn't going to leave Cassie to just rot behind the bar, like she was just a piece of trash. So many people here would just be left where they died to rot. Uncared for, unwanted, just another face that'd been killed by madmen with guns. But she didn't deserve that. Nobody did. But she'd died holding Madeleine's hand, and so she felt a sort of obligation to her, to make sure her body wasn't uncared for, unwanted.

Watching the body as if it might start moving, Madeleine kneeled down.

"Cassie, I..." What did she even want to say? That she'd avenge her? That she's sorry? She'd never really felt angry before, but... if she saw the guy who killed Cassie, she'd kill him. The decision was made in her head surprisingly easy. "I'll... I'm sorry. I hope..." She sniffled, reaching up to wipe a tear with bloodstained hands. "I hope you're somewhere better."

She couldn't bear to be in this place any more. Just ten minutes ago they had been chatting and now Cassie was dead. Quickly gathering her things, Madeleine left the building. She didn't know where she was going, and really, she didn't care. Just as long as it wasn't the bar.

((Madeleine Molliqaj continued in Gold Slouch))