Survival Of The Fittest

When he felt the hands finally leave his throat, breathes came back in deep takes trying to regain his breathing into a regular pattern. After a moment, he sat up and glanced around at the two bodies near him… he had just killed two people.

That brought his total to three, and he did it without any remorse in any of his murders.

All three people he had known two he had hated. But the third one, Terry he hadn’t anything against if anything the other boy was even nice to him at times. Pulling himself onto his feet, he lightly looked over Terry’s dead body with the blood seeping in through the fabric of his shirt.

Turning to his side, he looked to August’s corpse… her throat having been blown apart and blood was still pooling about her now paling form. “Adam… I…” He began, glancing over to where he had last remembered the boy begin though not seeing him he moved back toward the door, looking over his collapsed form.

“Shit.” He cursed, placing the hacksaw back on his belt and the pistol in his back pocket as he moved toward the other boy’s fallen form and lightly tapping him on his cheek like he had done when Alan had been knocked out, “Oi, Adam. Come on now man, wakey wakey.” He muttered lightly…

Oh, this wasn’t a good day at all. With him getting attacked and getting sick. Alan having that wound on his face, and now Adam passing out of him… no not well at all. “Come on now Adam, get up.”

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tappity-tap.

Come on, Dodd. Pull yourself together. Concussion's nothing you can't handle...


Adam's eyes flew open, his pupils as large as saucers. The smack on his head, while not a damaging one, hurt like hell, and Adam instantly likened it to a few checks he'd recieved in his hockey career. They didn't, however, carry with them the nausea...

Adam felt the bile in his throat, and he did his best to make a stab at aiming to the outside of the lighthouse as he felt himself throw up. Probably a result of the concussion, coupled with just seeing two people die...

Spitting a few times, to clear his mouth of the awful taste, Adam pulled himself back into the lighthouse, propping himself up on the wall. Wincing, he looked at Hawley through his dialted pupils. He slurred his words, almost as if drunk.

"Damn, man...youuokay? Friggin...throatexplodin'...shit. My shotgun...wentoff. Didn't, hitcha did I? Ifso, I'm...sorry, dude. Thinkah hit myhead. Oooohh, where'stha Advil..."

Hawley lightly smiled at the fact that Adam seemed fine, though his stomach gave a light tug at the sight of Adam throwing up anything he had eaten as of late… The smaller redhead glancing off to the side till her heard Adam finish.

Taking a small look, he found himself smiling more when Adam began speaking. He shaking his head as he gave himself quick looks over, “No. I'm fine, You didn’t get me; sorry we don’t have any Advil either. I’ve already checked for that…” He said, picking himself up and moving back outside the door moving to August’s body as he removed the daypack from her bloody corpse, doing the same thing in removing Terry’s.

Throwing them inside the house, he shut the door behind him before he collapsed against the wall Adam sat against sliding door to sit beside him as he opened one of the packs. Bringing out an unopened bottle of water and holding it out to the other boy at his side, “Drink up, it’ll probably help you feel a little better.” He said weakly, getting one out for himself.

Holding the water bottle, it was clear the boy was still shaking…

His mind still racing with the thoughts of the two dead bodies outside the door, and making a mental note to check Adam's head later where he had fell.

Water...well, that was nice of him...

Adam nearly downed half of the bottle before taking a breath. He then rubbed the back of his head a little, and felt a bruise beginning to take form. He lightly shook his head a little as he felt the haze lighten a little bit. Taking great care, he began to speak, trying to make sure that his words made perfect sense.

"So what's that...three for you, now?"

He couldn't help but grin a little.

"I heard...I heard you say something while you were grappling with them...something about how August had tortured you in school...what did they do to you, exactly, man? Aside from act like the bitch queens of the school?"

He took a glance at the boy's shaking hands.

"And you sure you're okay?"

“Yeah. I’m fine… I’m just really tried its probably the fever.” He muttered lightly, glancing at the water bottle in his hands as he lightly swished the water about in it. He glancing at the other boy’s grin when he questioned his kill counts. “Yup. That makes three…”

Though the other question stung at him a little, he keeping silence before sighing and speaking. “It was at the start of the year. They pretended to be my friend… pretended to like me and enjoy my company. I’ve always believed I was a rather smart kid, and I guess they thought the same because after awhile after doing anything they asked, namely in the homework department. They both, and all the others pretended to not know me… spread horrible rumors about all my cuts on my arms, and then when I slit my throat.” He said weakly, taking a quick gulp of the warm water.

“They used my weakness, my fear of being alone against me, and they used it for their own pleasure… I always wanted friends, always wanted somewhere there for me sorta like how Helena and August where there for one another. But I never could do it, get friends and they used that fact. I have to admit I was happy when I thought they all my friends. And then everything got dark again… and the world starting to crack and fall out from under my feet. And when I reached out, hoping one of my friends would grab my hand, no one did and I fell into the dark world I’m in now.”

Adam shook his head, sighing. He took another drink of his water as he listened to Hawley's story. As he finished, Adam scratched his beard, and rubbed his face, realizing that his five o'clock shadow was beginning to grow in. Had they really been on this island for that long? It seemed like forever.

Thinking about the two late girls, Adam recalled his first impression of them.

"I remember when I moved here, two summers ago. I met August through some guys that I met, a couple who lived next door and whatnot. A buddy of mine; Andrew Lipson, he had a crush on this girl, and a few of us went out to a movie one night. I dunno, I had kind of an odd feeling about her, because like, she seemed to be acting really...well...it just almost seemed faux. The next weekend, I remember the two of them were supposed to go out on a date or whatever, and he calls me up at the last minute and asks me if I can come along, keep one of her friends company or whatever. Turned out it was that other bitch friend of hers. The whole night, her friend was just complaining about every little thing, basically ruining the night for us all, you know? And August....I don't know, I just had a feeling that she was leading my buddy on. Turned out that I ended up being right, a few weeks later when he actually asked her out she looked at him like he had two heads and gave him the 'friends' speech. Such bullshit, you know?"

Adam shook his head.

"It's funny, you know? The nice guys always seem to get fucked. I used to be a big believer in karma, but lately I just don't know. My buddy, he's like, one of the nicest guys...fucking guy is so nice and what happens to him? He gets plowed into by a drunk driver, gets paralyzed from the waist down on his BIRTHDAY. You probably heard about it, happened last summer...it was all over the news and shit. Look at you, man...you seem to be a perfectly decent guy, and shit...you've been fucked around with by those bitches, you know?"

Adam coughed some bile out of his throat, and shrugged.

"But then again, maybe karma did catch up with us all after all, eh? I mean, look at it...you're still alive, and they aren't...and Andrew, well...lucky bastard managed to avoid this hell-hole, eh? Guess I just dont' know what to believe, you know?"

“I believe August could have made more for herself…” He said weakly, “You notice how her arm was bandaged? House caught fire when she was little; her older sister was killed in it. Her mother’s never looked or talked to her like a daughter since, I remember her telling me. She didn’t want to close to anyone; she didn’t want to get anyone hurt again. Though I don’t know what to think about her she was still there and did the same thing Helena did and never once tried to stop any of them, And hell I was just the cause of her throat being blown apart.”

Hawley thought lightly about the boy he was talking about, remembering lightly to the night he remembered seeing the news program. “Yeah, Andrew is his name, right? My dad was one of the doctors working on him that night, I remember him telling me about it… saying how angry he was at the fucker who did it. My auntie, his sister was killed by a drunk driver sometime before I was born, so he hates them all the same.”

Taking another long sip, he placed the bottle at his side. Though mind clicked a little, and he lifted himself up on the ground removing the wallet from his pocket and opening it to two pictures in there side by side, one was of his family though it was an old photo. Hawley no older than four or five though he was he rather out of place, the only red head in a group of dark haired people, His brothers, mum, and dad sitting around him in the picture, his mum holding him in her lap.

The second picture was clearly somewhat old as well was of a young woman, her bright locks of red hair falling about her waist as she posed proudly in her simple outfit, stomach large and no doubt pregnant. A beautiful smile pastured on her lips…

Adam looked at the pictures, the family portrait reminding himself about his own family. His family, his parents...Adam had, unlike many adolescents his age, been very, very close to his parents, who had treated him well. He pointed at the woman in the second picture.

"That your mother? You kind of resemble her...especially the hair. Ya damn redheads..." Adam trailed off, and winked at Hawley, wondering if the other boy would realize that Adam also had red hair, although his hair was more of an orangey-gold than red.

He chuckled a little, and got a bit of a shiver talking about the dead girl outside of the door.

"Yeah...I guess she probably could have made more than she was, but some people are just so caught up in being a part of the group, being a part of that 'in-crowd'...it's just unbelievable how people can get so caught up in it. I never respected August or Helena after I saw how they treated people...it was why last year I ran against Helena for student council. The way I looked at it, if she's a bitch, and she's representing the students, then what's that say about us?"

His mind strayed off of the dead girls, and onto his recollection of the day of the accident. "I remember that accident like it was yesterday, because I was in the car at the time. Scariest moment of my life, man...I was lucky, though. I was the only one who didn't get hurt. I don't know how. We're cruising down the highway...Andrew's mom's driving us to the paintballing place, you know, a little south of city hall? So we're just sort of driving down the highway and all I hear from the front seat is 'oh god'...and then everything just kind of gets jumbled...the car hit the passenger side, and we rolled, must have been like six or seven times until we hit the railing and went over the bridge. It was a weird sensation, being in a free-falling car...the damn thing falls, again on the passenger side, and I just hear this cracking noise when we hit the ground...finally the damned car stops rolling and I'm just sitting there, in shock. My best friend's in the front of the car, and he's just lying there like...he just looks dead."

Adam winces at the painful memory.

"So I get out of the car...the window was rolled down on my side and shit...and I look at the car and the damn thing's on fire...so I try to pry the door open on his side...the damn thing won't open so I've got to pull him out through the broken window...I think I injured him when I was pulling him out or whatever...but the damned car was on fire..."

Adam shakes his head, he can't talk about it anymore. He again looks at the pictures of Hawley and his family.

"So that's your family, eh? Your brothers...they look like they're a lot older than you, man..."

Hawley listened silently as Adam spoke, trying to picture the events in his mind. But it seemed impossible to picture something that hurt the other boy so much. Shaking away the thoughts he had imaged up, he glanced over to Adam when he commented on both the red haired woman in the second picture, and that of this family.

“Yeah. They are alot older than me… Douglas…” He said, pointing to the smallest of the dark haired boys. “He’s 24 now, the twins are 27, and Matthew is 29.” He admitted, pointing to each boy as he said there names, though listening to what he said about the other woman in the other picture, he couldn’t help but smile at the thought of what he said, happy.

“Personally, I don’t know to much about her, other than she is my real mother. I found this picture in my parent’s room when I was really little; I liked it because she had my hair color. I remembered when she came over once; I was probably 9 at the time I think… My mum, though I didn’t know at the time she wasn’t, was yelling at her, my father was trying to clam her down but she just kept yelling at the woman.”

His memories where flashing again, closing his eyes briefly. “And she just kept muttering through the tears, 'I just want to see him…'"

Rubbing his burnt arm somewhat he continued. "Abigail, my father's wife and the woman I thought was my mum all along, she always hated me in some way. From what I’ve gathered, my father had an affair on his wife…” Hawley said, “With one of his coworkers… my mother. I’m the product of that. My mother couldn’t raise me, and gave me to my dad… and Abigail hated the fact that the spawn of her husband cheating on her had to now live in the same house as her, and her perfect sons.”

Glancing at the pictures again, he sighed. “I never saw my real mother after she was kicked out of the house that day… After I found out who she really was, I always used to wonder what she doing now. Was she thinking about me, did she still even care… guess I’ll never find out now.”

Adam looked at Hawley, and muttered "wow..." at the other boy's story. It was certainly a difficult life that he had grown up with, and it just didn't seem like it would ever get any easier for the poor guy. It seemed that all he had wanted in life was to be liked by his family, and his peers, and neither had come easily for him.

"Hey dude, look...I guarantee you...wherever she is, if she's anything like you, she's definitely thinking about you. Probably every day. I mean, the way I look at things, you get certain characteristics from your parents. Your mother, even though she wasn't in your life, had certain things about her that you inherited, that came to the forefront. It's just part of who we are. I guess the main example of that would be your hair..."

He sighed, and took another drink of water.

"Yeah, sure...the way we're raised, and who's around us has an impact on who we are and how we turn out, but nothing can influence our personality more than who our parents were. They say you turn into your parents. Whether or not it's true...hell, man...I don't know. But no matter if you've got two parents, three parents, or no parents...none of that's going to change who you are. You get what I'm sayin'?"

He looked again at the picture of Hawley's family.

"Wow...almost thirty. I'm the oldest out of my two brothers...one's 14, one's eight. Being the oldest is good sometimes, but...it blows ass at sometimes too, you know? Having to set an example and all that crap. It's a pain in the ass sometimes."

Adam laughed.

"Wonder if my brothers are watching this on television? Hell, I wonder if anyone even knows we're here? For all they know, we're off on some trip, we won't be even thought about being missing for another couple of days..."

He trailed off, shuddering a little.

"But we'll get out, you know? I believe that. I wholeheartedly believe it. No matter how many people die, no matter what we have to do, we're gonna get out. I know it. You can't orchestrate some mass kidnapping like this and expect not to get caught. I bet this Mr. Danya fucker goes down in flames, and dude...we'll be standing right there to see it happen. You watch."

Adam grinned. As optimistic as he was, he wondered if perhaps he was simply being delusional. Odds were that if the government didn't know where they were by now, they might never...plus if they did, the terrorists could just detonate their collars, and...that would be it. Perhaps there was a way to get the collars off...Adam would just have to find a way how. A computer would be helpful, if only he could find one...

"So..." he muttered, bringing himself back to reality. "...got any crazy, deep, dark secrets that you'd like to get off your chest?" He laughed at the adolescence of the question, remembering many a 'truth or dare' session in years prior where people had always asked that.

Hawley found himself chuckling a little as he closed his wallet, pushing it back into his pocket as he sighed. Smiling some, “I just have one of those made for TV movie lives don’t I?”

Once again he found himself looking to Adam as he spoke, spoke about how their lives where both impacted on what was happening on the inside from who you parents where, and what was happening on the outside. He nodded somewhat as he found himself biting his lip in thought over everything that had said about it. “Yeah, I understand what you’re saying. Even though I never had a chance to be with my mother, her being my mother still affects who I am… and who I will be.”

Though he would himself stopped once again and listening to Adam, and he found himself smiling yet again as he felt some relief spread over him as he listened to Adam speak of getting off the island. Listening to him actually made some part Hawley believe it, and want it to happen more than ever. To get off the island, and start anew… forgetting everything that had befallen here. The fact he was now a murderer… of not only one person but a three of his fellow classmates.

The smile faded some, each murder, each shot, every movement made in the murder of Helena, August and Terry replayed over and over in his mind like a video. He unable to stop it, and instead found himself forced to watch every small second play over in slow motion. Though at the thoughts of freedom from this, he couldn’t help when his body began shaking from just the thoughts of it, the sheer thoughts of happiness. “I really… really hope that could happen. That we can leave here…”

The light shaking stopped as he brushed a strand of bright hair from his face as he listened to Adam question him again, though this time a more of a rather silly question. Though still a thoughtful look passed over his face as he tried to think of any deep secret he kept… though Hawley wasn’t the one to keep secrets, let alone to do anything to have them in the first place. “Sorry, but I don’t have any… least none that I can think of at the moment, what about you?”

Adam grinned. "That's the thing about those TV movie lives. It can happen to anyone. S'why to some people they're so potent."

In response to his own question, he shrugged.

"I don't know...I kind of get what you mean about not having any secrets. I've always been a real straight-up kind of guy. If I've got a problem with you, you'll hear about it. As such...I don't know, I never really kept secrets. Of course whenever I had a crush on a girl, I'd keep it secret...but mainly because I suck at talking to girls in that respect."

He thought about it some more.

"There ain't much that people don't know about me. Aside from the crap with my brother I mentioned before...I'm a pretty open individual. Have no secrets, have no prejudices. If I don't like you, it's because you're an asshole, you know?"

He grinned, but then lowered his voice a little, as Alan was still upstairs.

"How 'bout Alan, eh? You trust him? I remember he beat up a buddy of mine a few months ago when he found out he was gay...I'm kind of wondering if he's on the level with us, you know? I'm...just concerned, I guess."

His voice went back to a normal speaking level.

"It's been awhile since there've been any announcements...I wonder who's still standing...hell, I wonder who else is even here..."

Hawley too had been wondering about the fact there hadn’t been another announcement yet, glancing about he lightly shrugged. “They’re bound to come around sometime. And about who’s left… I know there’s at least three, and probably Edward Rommel… maybe, kid acts weird but he’s pretty smart. He’s the tenth-grader with the odd hairstyle and the jelly bean fetish, swear kid had enough with him on the bus and the plane to feed a small country. But the three came before you and Alan did, I shot at them. Not wanting to kill them, but to scare ‘em away, you know? But I think I hit one of them in the arm… but I do wonder if this game will ever end, end... with them bringing new kids in all the time how is there ever only to be a single winner if that keeps happening?”

The other redhead found himself thinking a little when Adam answered the question, “Well. I suppose I do keep secrets… but all my secrets you know now. I’ve never talked about what’s happened to me, my family, my fear of being alone… any of it to anyone, but to you and some to Alan.”

Speaking about Alan, Hawley had already thought about this… his voice dropped as well as he went about answering the question. "I was seriously considering putting a bullet in his head since about the time he took those brass knuckles to my head, I’m surprised him and that Uriel character haven’t teamed up together yet, they’re both kind of the same. Though Uriel scares me, Alan just pisses me off from time to time.”

Adam nodded, and lowered his voice again.

"I don't trust Alan as far as I can throw him, which isn't very far at all. I don't know, something about him just kind of puts me off. He's so pessemistic, it's just...I'm worried he's gonna put a knife in my back, or whatever, you know? I don't know what it is about you, man...but as crazy as it sounds talking to a guy who's just killed three people, I trust you."

He winked at Hawley, and grinned, indicating that he was kidding around. At the mention of Rommel, Adam's eyes lit up.

"Hey, yeah...Alan and I ran into him earlier on. I woke up on that cliff, and Alan kind of surprised me right off, and while we were kind of sizing each other up, Edward stumbled off a path and fell over. I helped him up and stuff. He seemed a little disoriented, but okay."

Adam thought some more.

"Uriel...isn't he the religious nut? That guy always kind of struck me the wrong way. I don't like people who take religion and try and shove it down your throat, you know? Not a fan, myself. Personally, I'm not very religious. Not an athiest or anything, more of an agnostic. But Uriel...kinda scares me a little. I guess we know that Jacob Starr is here, I think he was the one that rearranged Alan's face a little with that blade. I remember I was sitting with River Garraty on the plane, he's a guy I was friends with from hockey. I don't know if you ever caught a game, but he was number 43, one of the star players of the team. Nice guy, pretty funny, a little cocky though. As far as the girls go, I thought I saw Umi Martin on the plane...I had a class or two with her, although I don't really know her all that well."

He shook as head.

"Kinda feel a little envious of my buddy Lipson though. For all the shit that the guy's gone through, he had the good enough fortune to forgo the trip. Lucky bastard."

“Ah. Thanks, I’ll remember that.” Hawley mused, shaking his head some. “It is kind of weird that you trust me though, I figured you where scared of me, or at least hated me because we didn’t quite get off on the best foot. You finding my handy work done to Helena, and then trying to put a bullet in me… yeah, I had to admit at first I wanted to kill you too just because Alan had made me mad. Though what made me change my mind, is what you told me after I told you about all my bully problems, who you wound help me. Though, don’t take this the wrong way, I think it’s going to take a hell of a lot to get you to kill someone, I still thought it was… well rather cool. So I’m going to say this right now, no matter what happens I won’t turn my gun on you and shot you dead, alright? I promise that much…”

At the mention of Umi’s name, his mind flashed back to the trio that had come by the clinic just minutes before Alan and Adam. “I think one of the three I shot at could have been her… wasn’t sure though the one I hit was a male, rather childish one at that. Oh, And now that I remember I met up with Naoji, I wonder if he’s still alive…” He muttered, thoughts pondering.

Though he listened as they mentioned having already met up with Edward, and his state, “He sat with me on the bus, and on the plane. Tried to start a talk and such… course I wanted nothing to do with it and he seemed rather upset. Though the kid took a lot of medicine both on the bus and the plane, I wonder what’s wrong with him that he has to take all that.”

“Jacob here’s…” He repeated, “Uriel’s just always bothered me… with his nonsense talk about demons and such… he just gives me the chills is all. River Garraty? Can’t say I know him, though the name is familiar… and no, I never went to many sporting events for the school. So I can’t say I ever watched any of you play.”