Survival Of The Fittest

The brief flash of light only lasted so long; illuminating that burst of blood, brain matter and bone fragment propelled out by a 9mm bullet that once made up Karin Han, and then it was gone, replaced only by a quiet trickling sound as something leaked out of her head. Grimacing, Matthew pulled the gun away, wiping gunpowder residue and little specks of blood off the barrel and onto Karin's clothes before he put it back into his holster. With a last glance at whatever trap she had fallen into, Matthew swallowed some vomit that had started to come up in his mouth.

It was different, this time. Both good and bad. With Jack, Ren, there had been a threat coming from them. One that Matthew was right to eliminate before they eliminated him. But Karin? Karin hadn't posed a threat at all. She was just a girl who'd fallen into a trap and sealed her fate, just like that. What kinda threat would a girl with a leg broken like a toothpick pose to him? On the other hand... it was better than leaving her to suffer. To bleed out from that broken leg or to freeze to death in the forest, drowned in snow and frost. If that ever happened, Matthew wanted to think someone would do the same for him.

Sighing, his light flashed around to Shawn, making greeny-yellow snow with chunks in it. Poor guy. Probably hadn't seen anyone die in front of him before. The corpses? Yeah, the corpses weren't new. If you hadn't seen a dead body yet, you were either dead on the first day or were hiding in the ground or some shit. But watching someone get turned from person to body?

Matthew still wasn't used to that either. Even if he could tell himself he was right.

"It does. Much as I hate that, it does get easier. It's different when you're defending yourself, though. Poor fucking girl..." There was that assault rifle, at least. Trodding over, trying to avoid the parts of the snow with crimson dotting, Matthew bent down and grabbed it by the midsection. BR18. Never heard of that one before. But a gun was a gun. Popping the mag out, Matthew's initial relief was shattered.

"The mag's fucking empty. Fuck."

"I, uh... Wuh?" Shawn replied, straightening himself out as he tried to get a hold of himself.

He hesitantly turned back towards Matt and the body, flinching away from the grisly sight before closing his eyes to compose himself. It was just a bag of flesh and bones. Just flesh and bones, nothing different from what you'd see hanging up at a butcher's shop.

After letting out a long breath, he was finally able to turn his attention fully to the scene before him, trying to focus on Matt's new rifle. The empty one, as it turned out, which wasn't promising. He assumed that the guns all came with extra ammunition, and that they weren't expected to make it through this game on a single magazine. So the fact that Karin hadn't bothered to reload was worrying.

"Hold on, lemme go check her stuff..." he says, bottling up his disgust as he crept forward towards the carcass, looking away from her face to focus on her belongings. His eyes couldn't help but drift towards the fateful hole she'd stepped into, gulping at the sight of one of those wooden stakes piercing her foot. No doubt about it, that was one of his. A small part of him couldn't help but feel proud that it actually worked, not that it made him any less uneasy about seeing his handiwork up close and personal. Best to do what needed doing and get the hell out of here.

With this in mind, he unzipped the bag and started shifting through it's contents, searching for some extra magazines. There were the usual suspects of course, along with a power drill that he'd pull out and give a test whirl, as well as a pair of... Handcuffs? Interesting. But alas, no extra magazines.

"SSsshhhhhit, no ammo" he grunts, running a hand through his hair as he lets out a frustrated groan, before turning back to Matthew. "Don't suppose your pistol rounds are the right... Like, caliber or whatever for that bad boy?" he asks, though it was obvious that he doubted that was the case.

"Nah. The pistol's 9mm, and the rifle's, uh..." Matthew flipped it over, taking a look at the markings on the side with his flashlight. "5.56mm. So yeah, we need to find whoever took her goddamn ammo. Maybe someone got here before we did." But then, why not take the goddamn gun itself? Why only steal the ammo? Hm. Maybe Karin stole the gun itself from someone and just forgot to make sure that it was loaded? Sorta made the most sense, but... hm.

Eh, didn't matter now. Flipping the gun around, he offered it to Shawn. "Here. I know, no ammo, but it's probably worth it for the intimidation factor alone. And hey, once we find a proper gun we can just dump this somewhere." Being real, he felt kinda bad, not being able to give Shawn a proper gun with bullets and all that. But the pistol had already proven itself with three kills in Matthew's hand, and he didn't really want to hand it off to Shawn. Not because he didn't trust him, but... just felt better to have one.

The drill and the handcuffs might be useful at some point, but he couldn't really think for what. Cuffing someone would be a waste compared to just shooting them, and the drill? What, did Danya supply an IKEA kit to someone as well, so they could build a bookshelf or some shit? Still, there could be a use at some point, so he said nothing about leaving them behind.

"Wanna get a move on? We're burning daylight here. Or, uh, what's left of it, anyway." There was still some light filtering through the trees, but soon it'd be pitch-black.

"Figures..." sighed Shawn, removing his glasses so that he could rub his brow. Personally he thought it was more likely she stole it from someone without bothering to check it was loaded, with either the drill or those cuffs being her original assignment. Either that or she was just extremely careless with her ammunition.

He put his glasses back on before nodding in agreement, taking the rifle that was handed to him before giving it a proper look-over. "Was about to say, yeah. Besides, you never know... Could get lucky and find someone out there with some spare mags."

It felt weird, finally getting his hands on a firearm, only for it to be functionally useless. It was like he had made it to the end of a long maze, with a big glittering treasure chest waiting for him at the finishing line, only to open it up and find nothing but scraps. Still, as Matthew suggested there were ways of making the most of it, and it wasn't as if he was completely defenceless. Considering what he started out with, he could be positions far worse than this.

Putting the gun aside for now, he pulled down his bag to start evenly distributing Karin's supplies between them, pondering for a moment whether it was worth packing the power drill or not. He wasn't exactly desperate when it came to melee weapons, what with his pickaxe or the machete in his jacket pocket, but every tool had its uses. Same went for the handcuffs, which he was quick to pack away. He could think of a scenario or two where they could come in handy.

He offered the drill to Matthew, either handing it over or packing it away himself, before finally zipping up his trust pickaxe. His bag heavier than before, he hauled it over his back and got up, lifting the rifle up to test it's weight. Empty or not, it was hard to not feel a little more powerful with such a hefty weapon in his hands, even if it was currently a useless lump of metal. At least he had a back-up tucked away in his jacket pocket, should harsh language and a large gun prove ineffective at warding away danger.

"Sounds good to me, chief..." he replied, taking one last glance down at the pit Karin stumbled into. "Might I, uh... Suggest we take the road the rest of the way?"

Matthew took the drill, shoving it into his bag. Yeah, he didn't know when a drill would come handy - if it ever would - but it was one more thing that they had. Maybe at some point, they'd be disarmed and all they could count on to save the day was a drill bit made of steel. Or diamond. Or whatever they made drill bits out of, Matthew should know that but he didn't. The handcuffs, on the other hand, held a more immediate and obvious use. But again, if he was gonna cuff someone, he could just shoot them instead. Shit, it'd be easier.

"Yeah. I don't think we're too far now, and I wanna get there before sundown." Katelyn was probably gone by now, but if he was lucky she'd still be hanging around, waiting for the chance to strike at someone.

And they would be waiting for her.

((Matthew Bell and Shawn Bellamy continued elsewhere))