Survival Of The Fittest

Kai didn't turn to look at Lily as she said the last of her piece and left, but if she was looking at him, she might have seen his shoulders go stiff at her parting remark. There was a momentary urge to snap back at her.

Of course he didn't know what he was doing. She didn't either. None of them did. Throw a bunch of people into the wilderness, put weapons in their hands, and tell them to go to war. How could any of them know what they were doing from one day to the next but trying to survive? Her one and only apparent plan had crumpled like cardboard as soon as Kitty realized what was going on.

It passed, and Lily left. Kai kept his eyes on Kitty as she wilted underneath his gaze. When the sound of Lily's footsteps crunching through the snow had faded, he reached out a hand towards her, palm up.

"Let me have the gun."

When Lily left, Katelyn's heart jumped into her throat, waiting for the shot that would tear through her chest. Only, it didn't come, at least not immediately. Instead, she was left in purgatory with Kai, barely able to stomach the stress. Her eyes remained focused on the treeline, even as Kai asked for the gun.

He didn't trust her. Wouldn't let her keep a weapon, even if her brandishing it had only been in her own defense. She would've given it to him anyway had he not asked for it, considering that she still had the grenade launcher slung around her neck. Yet he asked anyway, at once declaring that she couldn't be allowed to keep it, and admonishing her for her actions. Despite the fact that she had been right to react the way she did, and despite his plan to hide not working.

How could he treat her like this, when their lives were still in danger?

With some reluctance, Katelyn took hold of the barrel and held the weapon out for Kai to take. Despite her indignation, she couldn't afford to argue with him right now, as the terror of impending gunfire outweighed any of her anger. Once they were both out of harm's way, she could try to convince him. He had more than enough evidence now to realize she wasn't being unreasonable in her behavior. He just needed time to think about it.

"Please," she mewled, her whole body trembling in fear, "carry me a-away with it. So they don't sh-shoot me."

It all fell apart, but not in the way that Amaryllis was expecting. Lily returned, unharmed, after what seemed like a flashpoint for potential escalation—Kitty had spotted Amaryllis, somehow, or figured out the set-up more likely—defused by Kitty's travelling companion. Maybe Lily did have the right instincts, then, about their humanity.

Amaryllis didn't. For one thing, she almost shot without the signal, when the shotgun came up. For another, it took active restraint not to shoot at Kitty after Lily's back was turned.

She lowered the gun slightly as Lily came stumbling over, muttering. If Kitty and Kai decided to bum-rush the trees, Amaryllis would be ready. She was still watching them.

"You okay?" she asked, half-whispered, "we can get out of here soon, as soon as they clear off. Preferably in the other direction."

Kai took the shotgun, keeping his fingers carefully outside of the trigger. With the weapon out of her hands, Kitty seemed to immediately return to her usual self. He let out a long, slow, exhale, and then nodded.

He bent enough to wrap his free arm around her waist, hooking the other one underneath her legs and lifting her up against his chest. "Keep your head down," he murmured, trying to ignore the feeling of the grenade launcher between them digging into his sternum.

He carried her back to their camp like that, the whole way half-expecting to hear a gunshot just a fraction of a second before he felt it. There was no way to tell how far was far enough to be out of range, and when he finally set Kitty down so that they could gather their things, he set about it with urgency.

It was easier to focus on the task at hand as long as he had one. Kai had just about managed to reach an equilibrium as long as it was just him and Kitty, and then Lily had gone and knocked that out of balance once again.

As much as he wanted to be mad at her about it, he couldn't entirely blame her.

He semi-consciously kept himself between Kitty and the treeline as much as he could as he stamped out their campfire and then shouldered the umbrella once more. If him acting as a human shield was the only thing that kept all of this breaking down in either direction, then fine. Fine.

Nobody here had to lose another friend today. That was all he could do.

"Let's go." He didn't make a move to hand the gun back to Kitty.

Lily was still shuddering as she turned to Amaryllis, offering her a meek thumbs up as she nodded her head. 

"I-I'll be fine, I just need..." she stutters, taking a deep intake of breath. "Just need a moment."

She pressed her head back against the tree bark, taking another long deep breath, before slowly exhaling warm steam. A part of her felt unsure if she'd ever get used to being in danger like that, even after her brush with death back at the mines. Her encounter with Janice was one thing, the memory of that blade inching towards her eye etched deep into her mind. But to find herself staring down the gun barrel of the island's top killer... She didn't want to meet the version of herself who shrugged off an encounter like that.

Forcing herself back onto her feet, she peeked around the tree to check if Kitty had followed her, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Kai taking her away. There was a small part of her that worried for a moment that Amaryllis was going to take the shot anyway, after all she'd made no secret about which option she preferred when they first happened across them. She'd always struck Lily as somewhat absolutist in a sense, unafraid to label certain folk as irredeemable or even straight up evil.

Maybe she was right. Lily sometimes wondered if she leant too far in the opposite direction, so focused on trying to see the good in people that she blinded herself to the obvious, freely giving the benefit of the doubt to those undeserving of it. Perhaps she was so desperate to find a third option that she was willing to overlook the horrendous things that had already happened, making any excuse she could to avoid making those hard choices.

Who could say. At any rate, deep down she knew she'd never forgive herself if she didn't at least give Kitty a chance to prove her word. And if Amaryllis' instincts proved to be right... Well, she wouldn't give her a second, that was for certain.

"Eeeeasy..." she says, keeping an eye on the two in the distance disappearing into the treeline. "Kai's an innocent in all this. If it wasn't for him, I..."

She gulped, biting her bottom lip before turning back to Amaryllis. "I... I think he might be the only thing keeping Kitty from hurting anyone else."

For a moment, when Kai was holding her and she was clinging to him, she almost allowed herself to relax. They wouldn't shoot through him to get to her, and that much was proven right once they made it back to camp. Once Katelyn was set down, she went about helping Kai gather their belongings, semi-consciously keeping Kai between herself and where she had seen Lily flee to, and where she had seen the glint of that awful scope.

She didn't say anything as Kai kept the shotgun to himself. It wasn't like she really needed it anyway, and maybe after this encounter he would be more keen to defend himself. Between Matthew and Lily, he had more than enough evidence that people were out to get her. Words had resolved the conflict once, but would they succeed again, with someone less forgiving?

Katelyn certainly didn't think so. She understood the true shape of this place. Both of them needed to be ready for violence at any moment. She had already long passed that murderous threshold, and now she needed to help Kai across it as well. They could talk it out, once they were out of sight. She was sure he would understand.

With camp unmade and their belongings all together, Katelyn didn't waste a second following Kai's instructions.

((And so Katelyn ran away, with Kai close behind.))

The silence sat heavy between them as they moved on.

Kai couldn't bring himself to disturb it, for fear of what might come out instead if he did.

((Kai Rosado-Prince continued in And No Lessons Were Learned))

A moment could be provided. It seemed that moments were all they had now, moments and the certainty of death.

"I guess it's good, then," Amaryllis said, "that Kitty has a conscience."

She watched them move through the trees and out of sight. When they were gone she put her rifle down and shook her head at how it had gone.

"Still," she said, "we'd be safer if they were dead. Only a matter of time until he gives in, I bet."

Self-defense, a scramble in the dark, out of rations—to be driven to murder here was a trivial undertaking, or else they'd have designed it wrong.

"I don't like counting on luck like this."

"Neither do I..." replied Lily, watching as Kitty and Kai made their exit in the distance. "But what choice do we have? If we start shooting first and asking questions later, then we're hardly any better than Matthew..."

There was a hint of venom in her voice as she spoke his name, having not fully recovered from that morning's bombshell. She was surprised at how deeply upset she was to hear about Corbin's passing, how regretful she felt for ever assuming that he'd be much happier with his friend. She should've known better, especially after overhearing Matthew go on about shooting hostages and living out some twisted Dirty Harry fantasy. Corbin was never going to be safe with a heartless bastard like him, but that hadn't stopped them from splitting off, leaving him in the care of a vigilante nutcase. Lily wasn't sure if she was ever going to forgive herself for abandoning him like that.

"She..." Lily began, clearing her throat. "She claimed that she's only been acting in self defence, that she never meant to hurt anyone... I think she certainly seems to believe that's the case... But I think she also means it when she says she's trying to avoid hurting anyone else, too."

Lily wasn't sure if she was trying to convince Amaryllis or herself at this point. It certainly didn't help that her companion reminded her of a thought lingering at the back of her head, an inconvenient truth she couldn't ignore. That even in a best case scenario, where Kitty and Kai truly meant what they said, sooner or later the issue would be forced. That if Kai really was the one thing keeping Kitty on a leash,... What happens when he's no longer around to do so?

"She also..." Lily began, before stopping herself. No. She didn't want to talk about that just yet. Right now, she just wanted to put this all behind her and focus on finding shelter, like they were doing before ever encountering Katelyn.

"Anyway, we should... We should get a move on, find somewhere to hold up whilst there's still some sunlight..." she says, heading over to pick up her bag and sling it over her back, nodding to Amaryllis and gesturing for her to follow.

((Lillian Larsen continued in Three Bullets)))

Amaryllis followed closely behind. It all swam in her head like a pod of whales.

If we start shooting first and asking questions later, we'll survive. The whale of a question in the room. How long until they turn the guns on each other? She didn't believe Kitty for a second that it was all self-defense, that she hadn't sought out some of her names. It was just unrealistic, given the volume.

She'd been at this so long it was starting to feel like second nature. Her life before this felt less real with each passing hour, each minute.

On she went regardless, self-aimed disgust mounting.

[Amaryllis Peszek-Byrne continued in Three Bullets.]