Survival Of The Fittest

In spite of her portrayal of optimism, Julia was almost shaking with anxiety. Her delivery had struck a chord where it mattered, but, even then she hadn't expected Leslie, Aracelis and David to fold so easily and want to follow her plan. She played her hand as openly and transparently as she could and somehow the ace she had up her sleeve had paid off. Now she was left caught off guard with no string left to split.

She smiled timidly as Aracelis, who still carried a veil of distrust in her voice, asked if she had any water. Julia lay her gun down on the floor as she rummaged through her bag for a spare bottle of water. Between the supplies that Molly had dropped, plus all she had been given by Josh, Lily, and Victor, she had a pretty solid stash of rations.

Reaching her hand out until the bottle was received by Aracelis, her grip tight for perhaps a second too long as Aracelis tugged the bottle from her hand.

"Step one... of the plan..."

Julia let out a nervous giggle as she repeated Aracelis's words back to her. "Right..."

The truth was she didn't have a step one. Or, well. Step one was to get people to join up with her, make them trust her and realise that she was somebody who actually had a plan. Step two was... not quite there yet. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

She could feel all of their eyes on her. Like vultures circling their prey. Julia never wanted to be the centre of attention, and this was exactly why. Those eyes on her were burning holes through her skin, her cheeks singing with redness as she flushed out of panic.

"Well. Step one is to-"

As soon as she could speak, her mind racing like a car to come up with a plan, the room filled with the echoes of a man. Interpol, Navy SEALs? Going home? She barely had a chance to think before David had ushered in a new horizon of hope.

What he said was true. The plan she had. The plan Lily had. Maybe it was going to work out after all. Stopping the violence and ending the fighting was all they needed to make their way out. Or, allegedly. If this voice of miracle was as solid as it made out to be.

A loud whistling noise emerged behind the usual curtain of gunfire as Julia rushed to the nearest window to look out. In the sky, high above the island, a flare erupted with a flash of light.

Maybe they really were going to get out of this.

Together.

Julia turned back to the others who had also rallied by the window. The skittishness consuming her had backed off and for once she felt confident. In fact, so confident she wanted to chunder right there and then, but she held her stomach down as she smiled to the group of disciples. The timidness from before replaced by a glowing warmth.

Her prayers to the unknown gods had been answered, miraculously.

"That. That right there is step one."

Julia nodded a grin of reassurance as the others looked on mystified.

For a glimpsing second about whether or not this rescue scenario was actually legitimate, not just a trap by the terrorists to lull them into a false sense of security or punish them for not playing by the rules. But those stray intrusive thoughts didn't last long, the desperation in her psyche hopelessly trusting their saviour.

"I knew that explosion had to mean something!" Julia whelped with excitement as she moved toward the door to the office, sticking her head out just enough to peer left and right. The glee in her expression was unprecedented, overwhelmed by the excitement of the new prospect this stroke of luck had created. It was that twist of fate that built up her newfound confidence.

Everything was going to be okay.

"Grab your stuff. I'll check to make sure the coast is clear and then we can go to the beach together."

Leslie leaned against the desk and observed the others. His gaze was tinged with suspicion for all in the room except for Aracelis. If they had wanted to kill each other, they'd had plentiful opportunities by now, so there was no point in suspecting.

One corner of his mouth twitched upward when she asked Julia for something to eat. They were surprisingly well-matched as a team -- trash buddies but not war criminals or psychos.

Whats-his-face asked what the plan even was, seeing as he seemed to be expecting a plan rather than expecting a meat shield. And just as she was about to answer, it sounded like God himself sent down a booming response in her place.

Interpol. Seals. Collars. Home.

Leslie was in too much shock to register that Julia had said that was step one, as if she knew that something way out of left field was coming. He was in too much shock to do anything but stand and stare into space. Eventually, he came back and noticed his hands were shaking.

"It's.... over?" he said quietly to himself.


"It's over," a little louder and more sure this time.

Well, it wasn't quite over. They had to get to the beach.

Leslie picked up Aracelis's things and moved towards the door. He was operating partly on autopilot -- the same animal instinct that sent predators to fresh meat or people to Black Friday sales. What's for sale? Who gives a fuck, it's a sale, start running.

Leslie flung open the door and then processed Julia's words. She volunteered to go first. Surely no one would be looking to kill now, right? There was no point and no reward for killing. Only a completely insane psycho would still be looking to roll heads.

He briefly reflected on their classmates.

"Yeah, you scout and we'll follow," he agreed. "Once we can see the beach, we're bookin' it. And we're not stopping if anyone falls behind."

((Leslie Romero continued in V8 Escape ))

There was a moment of resistance when Aracelis went to take the water bottle from Julia. The other girl held her grip tight, Aracelis’ eyes narrowed, as if to ask if Julia had a problem and then she tugged harder, prizing the bottle free.

Out of spite more than anything she made a show of unscrewing the cap and taking large loud gulps.

But then any hesitation or distrust on Julia’s part was forgotten as the room was bathed red and a voice was projected to them over a megaphone.

The army had arrived.

They’d been saved.

Aracelis didn’t believe Julia when she claimed that she’d known the explosion meant something. They’d heard a lot of explosions, Aracelis was sure that another one hadn’t struck anyone as special. But still, the red light of the flare danced through the window, illuminating their faces with a scarlet glow.

The general feeling in the room was strange, as if the air had been sucked out, pumped full of fresh oxygen then sent back in. The weight of their words—of every word and movement—suddenly fell away. The need to assess every slight twitch or gesture from the others had fallen away all at once. It no longer mattered as their time on the island was over. They could go home.

Aracelis looked over at Leslie as he vocalised the same thought. She couldn’t help a small twinkle filling her eye and a smiling forming on her face. Somehow the two of them had managed to make it to the end, despite having every chance and every reason to split up, to betray one another, they had for some reason stuck together and it had paid off. They’d worked as a team and they would get to leave as a team.

So, of course, Leslie ruined the move by picking up her things and heading towards the door.

“Hey, what the hell…” Aracelis protested as she hopped off the desk and quickly followed Leslie and Julia to the door.

Julia offered to go ahead and Leslie agreed to let her. Aracelis didn’t argue against the idea or offer herself. No, she was too close to the end to catch any heroic ideals. She wanted to go home. She wanted medical attention for her arm. She wanted a surgeon to fix her disfigured face.

No one was going to prevent her reaching those boats.

No, nothing was going to stop her reaching those boats.

If a pack of wolves appeared then Julia was getting thrown to them metaphorically and literally.

It was like Leslie said, once they saw the beach they’d be gone.

She wasn’t going to be sentimental about it.

((Aracelis Fuentes continued elsewhere…))

Of course that wasn't Julia's plan. It just happened to align with what she wanted to do. The idea that they were going to be saved at all was so laughable that any plan to stop fighting had "die" as a necessary part of the plan. A mere coincidence. Still, quite the welcome one. Either way, Julia offered to go in front of them, and Leslie and Aracelis bailed, because of course they would. David simply nodded at Julia, hiked his bags up, and ran for the beach.

((David Worth continued in The v8 Rescue))

Stepping out into the cold was less harrowing than it had been previously. The horror hanging on every cusp had been lifted, the breeze offering a taste of freedom in its taste.

Julia licked her chapped lips, fortifying against the icy zephyr that met her as she pulled open the doors to the Sheriff's Office. The fear hadn't fully subsided, but the flare in the sky proposed the ceasefire far better than she had been able to vocalize. The others had grabbed their belongings and not wasted any time in following her out, Julia leading the charge like the alpha lioness amongst the pride. Being at the front of the train was a new experience for her, she was fearful of the uncertainty, yet it felt overarchingly warmer than being the last carriage being pulled around by others. Julia had spent too long being the deadweight at the back of the group. The expendable one that nobody really cared about. Yet taking the lead, it was a different type of fulfilment. Even if it probably only mattered to her, Julia doubted that Aracelis, Leslie or even David, were remotely bothered about her.

She knew that. Yet, for some reason, it didn't really matter.

As the small group walked in the direction of the beach, Julia couldn't help but think about what their saviours had said about their neck collars. Were they really deactivated? The terrorists had been pretty clear that tampering with your collars secured you a one way ticket to having your neck blown off, a grisly fate that Julia wanted no part of. What about the danger zones? Would that just all sort itself out? Were they actually able to jam the signal on the devices, or whatever they were able to do to deactivate the transmission between the terrorist headquarters and the island.

But there wasn't enough time to dwell over such meaningless thoughts. One by one, they passed each building within the fringes of the mining town. It had been where Julia had spent the majority of her game, so there was a striking familiarity in the streets that rang in her ears. Yet even with that familiarity, the memories of each stone previously trekked with her friends, the town transposed

As they crept from building to building, hiding from any remaining threat, Julia couldn't help but look up. The hill overlooking the town, the shadow of the church in the distance, like a lighthouse providing safe passage. The smoky silhouette of a figure guarding it.

Huddled together, hiding from the sound of gunfire that echoed down the streets around them, she knew what had to be done. Loosening the grip over her magic weapon, the assault rifle, as she let out one deep breath.

"Here," she whispered, passing her trusted weapon to Aracelis. "Take this... it should keep you all safe."

The girl opposite her looked more confused than anything else, a puzzled expression wrapped around the remnants of her face.

Julia swallowed hard as her glance turned down toward her feet.

"T-there's something I have to do.

I'll meet you guys at the beach, okay?"

Maybe it was the biggest mistake of her life. Perhaps even the mistake that would end her life. But it had to be done.

[S119 - Julia Guercio - continued in my september]