Survival Of The Fittest

Jenna was asking her questions. Yukiko wanted to drown her out. Not now. Later. Not right now.

But Yukiko knew that what had happened would come to light eventually. Tomorrow. Then what? What was going to happen to her? To their group? She didn't want to think about it.

She heard Jack's voice, telling her that it was going to be alright.

"No," she said, her voice dropping into the grass, barely audible even in this quiet atmosphere. "It's not alright. It's not alright at all..."

She felt the grass rubbing against her side, and she registered that she was shuffling backwards slowly. She sat up, staring at her palms, as if they were the ones that did the deeds. An image flashed at the front of her mind, the form of Stacey, waving her plank around as if to clobber her. Yes. It was Stacey's fault. Yukiko didn't do anything wrong; it was a simple act of self-defense.

She had a hard time convincing even herself of these words.

"It's not my fault... it's not my fault," she repeated, as she hugged her knees to her body.

Damn, from the look of things Yukiko was not in the mood for talking. And why would she be, given the situation?

Jenna gazed into the distance, noting how the sun was beginning to set. She couldn't believe how quickly the day had gone by, most of which was spent trying to keep up with Yukiko as she blindly ran from one side of the island to the other. Despite Yukiko's current mental state, Jenna still couldn't help but be somewhat frustrated with her friend for that, especially seeing as it's now led to...

No, she still didn't know whether or not that was the case. She had absolutely no idea what had truly happened here, and Yukiko did not seem incline to let her know. From the look of things, she wouldn't find out until the next announcement informed the whole island as to Stacey's fate, and whether or not Yukiko had any involvement in it.

As desperate as she was to get the truth out of her, she also realised that they needed to get a move on now if they intended to find somewhere to stay before nightfall.

That's a whole day wasted trying to keep up with you Yukiko. You should probably be thankful I found you in his state...

"Come on Yuki, we can't stay out here..." she began, slowly lifting her friend up from the floor with a helping hand as she turned to face Jack. "You still have the map, right? Could you lead us to the nearest settlement, preferably somewhere with some supply shops."

In all this chaos, she hadn't forgotten to come up with some kind of plan. One which admittedly may be more difficult to achieve now than it was before, depending on whether or not Yukiko ever snaps out of her current mental state, but it was a plan nevertheless.

"Let's get going. It's okay Yukiko, Jack and I will make sure nothing bad will happen to you..."

On that note, the group began to make their way down from the hill, avoiding the twisted body of Stacey Mordetsky as they left the grisly sight far behind them.

((Jenna Rhodes heading elsewhere...))

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. With Yukiko not really being in the mood to answer anything, he was left out in the dark information-wise. He hated being left out in the dark. Especially in a place like this, where every bit of information could be integral to their survival.

Jack stood up from his crouching position, ignoring the fact that his legs felt like they were on fire. If he had been able to think of anything else to say to Yukiko, he would have. But he didn't.

Instead, Jenna took the initiative, coming over to help Yukiko up and asking Jack about the map.

"Oh, yeah, right," Jack replied. He pulled out the map, which had been haphazardly smashed into his pocket some time in the middle of their little chase. It was fairly crumpled now, but that really wasn't of any concern to him. It was still readable anyways.

He didn't have much of a specific idea where they were (god, the woods were HUGE), so he had to do a bit of guesswork. Still, there was one noticeable option.

"Looks like there's a town not too far from here. Would probably have some stuff in it."

No one argued that point, so Jack simply stuffed the map back into his pocket and estimated the direction they would have to go in. His estimation mainly consisted of "we came from that way, so it's probably the opposite way". He just had to hope he was right.

For the first time since he had woken up, Jack took the lead as the group left the clearing. Hey, at least they had some idea what they were doing now.

((Jack McDonald continued in Crowds))

Yukiko offered no resistance as Jenna came over and scooped her up off the floor. She wasn't even listening to Jack and Jenna discuss their next steps, instead stuck in an endless loop of justifications. It was self-defense. It was either kill or die. It wasn't her fault.

She only vaguely registering that they were moving. She wasn't even paying attention anymore.

And so, as she almost leaned on Jenna as a support, Yukiko was brought away from the clearing.

((Yukiko Sakurai continued Crowds.))