Survival Of The Fittest

Clare didn’t really know what to do or say, not that she could really do or say much at the moment anyways. Her eyes swam in and out of focus on the blood stained young man standing near them. Eventually through all the talk she managed to make the connection that Ryan and this ‘newcomer’ were related.

Another newcomer. It made her even more nervous. She wasn’t sure if she could trust anyone else, not after all that had happened, and she was sure that no one else would trust her if they had ever gone to the same school at any point.

She clung tightly to Ryan as she used one arm to rummage through her kit. After a moment, there it was. The faint rattling sound was like music to her ears as her silent prayers were answered. She pulled the small bottle out and held it up in front of her face to check the label.

‘Vicodin - Take one tablet by mouth every six hours as needed for severe migraine headache.’

"Too much happened here..." Ryan left it at that. Jeremy was right, Clare did need help. Standing around talking wouldn't help her out. They'd have to go fortify themselves in a good shelter long before jolly talk time. "And yeah, the answer to everything is way too damn long." One death was one death too many, one drop of blood was one drop too many. Everything that followed was in excess, other than the positives. There just wasn't enough happy on SOTF island. It seemed pretty much like everything evil was swallowing up everything good. Or, something.

Things like that made his head hurt. Best not go into long speeches about it just to avoid being one hundred percent crazy.

Clare's actions went unnoticed as Ryan spotted the newest person to join them. Some girl who had been through a lot, just like the rest of them. Not a kid on the island whom hadn't taken atleast one bullet. And, if there was, then they were a demon child.

"Sorry to cut our little reunion party short, guys, but we really need to find a place to hold up in. We're all hurting, so we might aswell hurry up and save our hides." Not to mention the fact that we're sitting ducks. Last time we got too cozy, our party was crashed by a madman. His thigh began to sting worse, turning more into a piercing pain that shocked throughout his leg.

Ryan winced, hoping that they would be all for stopping early and going to safety.

Jeremy looked at everyone and nodded and agreed with his cousin's notion to leave as fast as possible and find someplace to hold up in. Jeremy thought about that, where was there someplace good to hide? Someplace where they can set up camp for a little bit and help that girl? Where....?

Jeremy then turned to Heather and said, "Heather, remember where we first met? That warehouse building. I've only had good luck from in there, we should go there."

Jeremy then turned to Ryan and said, "There is a warehouse on this island, it's where I met a couple of good people, I don't know if anyone is in it, and if there are people in it I don't know if they are good or bad, so just to be on the safe side we shouldn't go right up to the door and walk right in, maybe there's a way to check who's in the building..."

Jeremy would never have thought like that before fun his stay on the island tought him not to leave anything up to chance, and to always check before entering some strange location or building. Jeremy nodded thinking more about the warehouse idea.

Opening child proof caps is a task on the best of days, needless to say this isn’t the best day. Clare struggled to remove the lid, she even resorted to gnawing on it to see if she could pry up the edges with her teeth. At least she didn’t end up dropping the bottle in the middle of her efforts. The conversation went in one ear and out the other, her complete attention was focused on getting rid of the nearly unbearable pain.

It probably wasn’t the best situation to take a narcotic based painkiller, especially considering the blood loss and the confusion she was already suffering from, but right now she would do just about anything to escape the pain. It also wasn’t a good idea to dry swallow the large pill on an empty stomach, but that thought didn’t occur until afterwards. Oh well. It wasn’t like she was going to win, anyways. If it wasn’t for Ryan she’d either be dead already or become someone’s mercy kill within the hour. She wasn’t always going to have a protector, or maybe, somehow, they’d be the only ones left and her protector’s survival instinct would kick in. At very least she had built up a bit of a tolerance thanks to her frequent migraines.

Everything will be alright soon. Ill get what’s been coming for years. One less thing I’ll have to deal with.

“We’re all sitting ducks out here. Lets get going, ne?”

Heather Pendergast felt fantastic. While physically, she was an absolute wreck, her body having sustained injury after injury, the pain had been so constant for the last couple of days that it was essentially numb. Her entire body, not a single feeling, and it just made her feel like she was floating on a cloud. Heather had, of course, passed out earlier on, but she'd awoken feeling very rejuvinated, and in fact almost refreshed from a mental standpoint. That had been the first positive that she'd started her latest period of consciousness with. The second, of course, was that the fact that she still had her shotgun with her, and as such was still armed. Truth be told, she was rather surprised that her body hadn't been looted while she'd been asleep. It was definitely a rather large piece of luck. The third thing that she had to be glad about in the last few hours was the fact that she had just met up with Jeremy again. He was the last member of her group that she'd seen, and it appeared that due to the fact he was now travelling with a different crowd, it was likely that he was the last member of their group to survive, aside from her.

At Jeremy's question as to whether or not she remembered the warehouse, she nodded, albeit with great difficulty. She'd definitely been feeling weak, and she was relying almost entirely upon the shotgun that she held pressed against the ground to hold her up. Heather was growing weaker by the second, and while she didn't realize it, she was dying. Looking at Jeremy and his unknown allies, she forced herself into a weak smile, and thought back to the warehouse.

"It's...it's where we met Fred, and...the rest of them."

The smile that was pasted onto Heather's face was genuine, and she felt a calming sensation as she looked over Jeremy. The boy had been a good luck charm for her in the past week, and when she'd been around him, she'd felt safe. It was when she had been seperated from him and his group that things had gotten out of hand. Now that she was back with Jeremy, things would be okay. Things wouldn't be bad at all. Trying to straighten herself up, Heather loosened her grip on the shotgun, and the sweat from her shivering hands only helped it fall to the ground, sending the weakened Heather Pendergast to the ground.

Upon falling to the ground, she looked up at Jeremy and his allies, and smiled again. How silly she was, always falling down, and seemingly getting herself into situations where the center of attention would always be upon her. Of course, it wasn't always positive - the time she'd been raped came to mind. It quickly slipped out, though, and as she stared up at Jeremy, a goofy grin slipped onto her face. The grin remained there as she looked over at her leg, which didn't appear to be responding to her body's requests to pull herself up off of the ground. As she looked, she saw the reason why.

Because of her awful kneecap wound, and the fact that the kneecap itself had been essentially destroyed, Heather had avoided putting any weight on the leg at all, and when she did, she was quite aware of how much it had hurt. Moments ago, when the shotgun had fallen to the floor, her weight had collapsed upon that knee, which had buckled. Of course, because of the fact that there was a large bullet wound in the kneecap that had all but destroyed it, her leg cracked inward with a sickening pop, collapsing her body to the floor and hanging off of her upper leg limply, as though it was only a string that connected it to her body. The blood pooled out of her leg as she grinned, her awareness fading and becoming blurry. Still looking at Jeremy, she couldn't help but make a remark.

"Well that's not supposed to bend that way..."

As she finished her sentence, she coughed a little, and feeling something pop inside of her, she began to cough a little more, the third cough drawing blood. Heather wasn't aware of it, but several blood vessels inside of her chest had just aneurysmed. As the blood began to pour out of her leg, and up from within her throat, coming out of her mouth and down the front of her chest, she still looked up goofily at Jeremy, attempting to gurgle something at him. What she was trying to say, nobody'd ever know. Heather Pendergast bled to death on the floor of the small house, in front of her friend, in the end looking like something of a macabre angel of death, blood running down her chest, and pooling around her. As the world faded out for (thankfully) the last time, Heather lay down in a pool of her own blood, half-wondering why it had taken so long.

And just like that, Heather Pendergast died, with that same smile on her face that would likely haunt Jeremy Torres until the day that he died.

Girl #20, Heather Pendergast...DECEASED...

Everything happened so fast that it took Jeremy a couple of seconds to comprehend the situation. Jeremy had thought he had seen it all, he had seen people die in front of him, his original group, except for Heather, they were all dead.

Jeremy was now looking at Heather on the ground though, suddenly she fell, and her leg...Jeremy ran to her quickly when she started to cough up the blood and Jeremy looked at her leg.

Jeremy had lost everyone on this island, everyone, and he wasn't about to lose Heather. He was helpless though as he watched her smile at him, he tried to hear what she was trying to say but he couldn't understand her, and before Jeremy knew what was going on Heather was dead.

Jeremy was shocked, not sure what to do, he was crouched over her dead body looking at the smile on her face, and Jeremy just said, "Heather, don't...you're not supposed to be dead! Heather! Why? Why did you have to die now? Why Heather...why....?" Jeremy collapsed, his experiences on the island finally caught up to him, and tears rolled down his eyes.

The tears were for Fred, for Glenn, for Mallory, for Heather. The tears were for Jeremy's lost friends Nev and Scott, the tears were for Jeremy's cousin Ryan who stood behind him holding the wounded girl.

Jeremy quickly wiped away the tears with his arm so no one could see. He was a guy, he was a wrestler, this wasn't the way he was supposed to be acting. Jeremy was supposed to be the protector of the group, the one with the plans, and that was what he was going to be. Jeremy closed Heather's eyes and grabbed her shotgun and went through her stuff. Jeremy turned around at Ryan and said, "Got any weapons? Take my sickle, it hasn't let me down yet."

Jeremy was now thinking like he should, like a survivor, he was going to get himself, and Ryan, and anyone else who he had be-friended off this island. Jeremy had a new fire inside of him, he was angry at Heather's death, he was angry at Danya, he was angry at the players of the game. Jeremy wasn't going to let any more of his friends die.

((What other gear did Heather have with her if she had anything and how many shells does she have for her shotgun? And woah I was surprised that she died, that was a shocker, I was also surprised Kuze wasn't doing the death post, but good post though none the less))

"Oh..."

Ryan could only watch Heather fall to the ground dead, blood all over and a smile on her face. It was scary, not being able to lift a finger to help her. He couldn't even catch her as she tumbled, or helped her walk before the end, or anything. She had been a mess when she had showed up. It was easy to predict that she would die soon, but now? This soon after she had been reunited with Jeremy? Ryan's throat burned; urge to vomit rising. Jeremy's questions to the cadaver made the sick feeling worse, because she never was going to come back, no matter how much she was needed. It reminded him of Clare, asking the key question after Neville had been killed.

"Why did it have to be us?"

There had to be a reason why. A reason for Nev's death, a reason for the insane guy at the well, a reason for Jeremy's friends...so many reasons that needed to be found. Ryan Torres would be able to sleep soundly only after then.

"Okay, yeah, I'll take it." His gun, nearly forgotten, stayed tucked in his pants, handle sticking out for easy access. He took the sickle awkwardly, readjusting his hold on Clare. "She's right. Let's get going." It felt a little depressing to have to leave Heather's corpse there, but there wasn't time to take any chances by sticking around.

"We'll follow your lead, since you know where the warehouse is."

Jeremy nodded and said to Ryan, "That sickle has protected me since I first arrived on this island, hopefully it will do the same for you, it's kind of like my good luck charm now, even brought Glenn and Mallory close together when it..."

Jeremy stopped not wanting to bring up the past events on the island, not wanting to talk about his now dead friends. He just gave a weak smile and said, "Just don't lose it." Jeremy then added in, "I know how you like to lose stuff, eh cous?"

Jeremy was happy in a sense that he was now with his cousin, he knew no matter what, this was one boy he would always trust, they had blood together, nothing was thicker than blood. Jeremy knew that the blood that bound the two cousins together would be stained on the island before they broke that sacred trust.

Jeremy emptied all the equipment from the three bags that Heather had with her into one bag, and he shouldered that bag. He then passed an empty one to Ryan and said, "You'll need it." Jeremy looked at the third one and took it with him just incase he would need it as a diversion.

Jeremy examined the shotgun and figured out how to release the clip and he put in a fresh one full of shells. Jeremy smiled ackwardly trying to figure out how to use this foreign object to him. Jeremy put the half empty clip into his bag and shouldered the shotgun and said, "Ok, I don't know if there are players in the warehouse or not, and I don't want to find out by walking in and getting riddled with bullets." Jeremy thought about it for a moment before he said, "I have a new plan. Me and you always made the most out of every situation right? Well I don't want to sit back and let those players of this game take over. I'm saying me and you go out, find people we can trust, form a tight knit group, and we help wounded players, and more importantly we go after those who have been murdering our friends."

Jeremy said, "When we get to the warehouse, we bust in, take control immediately, kind of like those stories my dad told us. When he was working on the beat how he and his shift partners would bust in a house and make everyone drop what they were doing and stuff. Me and you do that, after we know for sure that we can trust the people inside, if there are people inside. Then afterwords we round up those who are willing to join our little crusade to cleanse the island of the players."

Jeremy couldn't believe he had said all of that, it seemed like something out of a movie, out of a book, but not out of reality. Jeremy also didn't want to face the fact that the island has changed him enough to do this, and Jeremy just looked at Ryan wondering if his cousin was foolish enough to go along with the plan or had enough sense in him to propse something else before the island took over both boys' thoughts.

The idea sounded like one of the worst kinds of crazy. If they busted into the Warehouse and there already was a group inside, they probably wouldn't hesitate to kill them. With twenty four to go according to the latest report, it would be simple to knock the numbers down to twenty one. All you had to do was kill the boys playing officers and torture the girl dead. Ryan didn't like the thought of that situation, but he was all for the first part of the plan. If you got rid of all the killers, then there was no way anyone else would die. It made perfect sense. Once the players were off the face of the island, everyone could just party. Celebrate good times, c'mon, etcetera, etcetera.

"Yeah, that sounds great. I've got another idea, though, that might be even better. We send in one person without any weapons. Once that person goes in, the other two come out of hiding with guns and stuff. That way, we can take the people inside the Warehouse by surprise. They'd never see it coming!" Ryan realized that he was talking as if there were more than two able people with them. Clare was pretty much down for the count at the moment. If only the other girl hadn't—

Oh, man. He leaned forward to make sure that Clare wouldn't fall off of his back as he covered his mouth with his hands. A quick glance at Heather's corpse made the want to retch grow stronger. Whistling to get rid of the feeling, Ryan stood up more, smiling innocently.

"I'm up for anything, really, Jeremy."

Jeremy nodded and looked at the wounded Clare Ryan was holding. Jeremy said, "I've been to the warehouse before, there is a treeline outside of it, we could hide there and if Clare can manage, somehow, wether she walks or crawls, she can be the one to go inside and check everything out. No one would dare harm her, she is wounded, and...."

Jeremy didn't want to say what else he was thinking. He was thinking that she was too far gone, that Clare didn't have much left in her, and that if there were people in that warehouse willing to kill, then her life wasted wasn't nearly as bad. But Jeremy wasn't a bad person, he would never risk anyones life. He would rather himself be put in harms way than this Clare girl.

Jeremy continued, "If Clare can't do this, then I'll go in, no weapons. I'm not sure what I'll say, and I'm not sure what'll happen to me, but Ryan, how are the two gunmen going to catch the group by surprise once we have someone inside?"

Jeremy knew that either Clare was going in and him and Ryan would be the gunmen, or Jeremy would go in and it would just be Ryan. It sounded better if Clare went in, two gunman faced a greater chance of survival.

Jeremy always liked Ryan's ideas, he always had interesting ones and always thought outside the box. So Jeremy pushed his ideas aside and said, "Ryan, tell me everything right now. How do you suppose we are going to get inside that warehouse?"

Oh, yes... With every good idea, there were usually holes to fill before it became a great idea. There were a lot of things wrong with this one, though, the main thing wrong being the Clare factor. It was best to have two able people outside instead of one. Things were easier that way. But, was she even ready to stand on her own, let alone walk into a warehouse that might be full of players? What if they were so bloodthirsty that they wanted to kill her right then and there, never mind that she was bleeding already? Ignoring his doubts, Ryan began to talk again.

"We send one person in as bait. Make sure that they do their best to keep the door into the 'house open. Once the bait gives the signal, the other person waiting around the treeline goes in, with guns and everything. The signal has to be given with the group inside has dropped their guard." Ryan backtracked a little, revisiting the first part of the plan. "Of course, the bait has to play the distress role. Has to act hurt enough, you know? And look the part, too."

Jeremy would be a good candidate for playing the deer, but, with all the experience he had on the island, he probably knew how to use their weaponry better. Alone, he was probably as good as two Ryans weapon-wise. Two Ryans plus a Clare, maybe. Ryan still had no clue how to properly use the gun he had been assigned. The need to use it hadn't arised, yet, and when it did he had ended up using an empty gun that belonged to someone else.

So, that left one person that would be almost perfect for it.

"I'm going to be the one who goes in. We need you to be the gunner. You seem like you'd be the best at it. Most experience... and, if you do get overwhelmed, Clare will come to in time and help out with her shotgun." Ryan sucked in his lip, running his tongue along his piercing. Time to think it all through. "It's got to be me because I'm the least hurt... I can run out of there better than you two if it comes down to it. You've got to admit that." He smiled, hoping for that the best would happen when they executed his plan. "The signal will be 'ow, my arm hurts'. I'll scream it really loud for you to hear, don't worry."

It felt weird for Ryan to offer to put his life on the line, but this was what everything was leading up to.

Before the island, back at home, Jeremy would have been a little surprised by Ryan's plan and his mix of foolishness and heroity that he put into it. But, this island has changed everyone, and Jeremy was not really surprised, actually truth be told, deep down he knew that his cousin was a hero and half expected him to offer to risk his life for the group.

Jeremy smiled at his cousin and said, "Are you sure?" Jeremy knew though that if Ryan could run out he was perfectly safe, Ryan was very fast and back at home had embarassed Jeremy many times when it came to a foot race. Jeremy just said, "Ryan, if things go wrong in there take off at top speed ok? I would rather have a cousin than a warehouse."

Jeremy didn't take notice at first to the weaponry of Clare, and he said to Ryan, "When you say Clare's shotgun do you mean she has her own or she'll be using mine? I have no problem letting her use mine if needed." Jeremy had Aiden's revolver tucked in the side of his pants pretty low so it wasn't as noticable, only the handle of the gun stucking out. Jeremy kind of wished he had a shirt to conceal the gun, but it was ok. The gun was loaded with 6 bullets, and along with the shotgun ammo, Jeremy had a box of 44 extra bullets for the revolver. Jeremy looked at the wounded girl and said to Ryan, "I'll keep her safe while your in there Ryan."

There was one thing on Jeremy's mind though, so he asked Ryan. "One question, after you play the bait and cause the others to drop their guard, and after I go in and hold everyone up, then what? Me and you aren't murderers, what do we do? I mean, once we have everyone at gunpoint?"

(I'm checking with Kuze on the other weaponry in Heather's bag, we know for sure Heather had a shotgun and was loaded with ammo, but we're not sure on some handguns, so I'll find that out ASAP, ok I just found out Aiden's revolver is in the bag so I'm going to edit that)

Ryan nodded, confirming that Clare had her own shotgun. The group, as small as it was, had a surprising amount of fire power. A revolver, a handgun, a sickle, two shotguns, and...they probably could loot the small house for more, but the thought of it made his stomach sick. They didn't have to go that far. Or maybe we just should. It wouldn't hurt. He shook the "grave robbing" idea from his head, thinking about Jeremy's latest question, instead. Once they had the warehouse under their control, there were dozens of possibilities. They could easily knock them all out cold and hide them in a closet somewhere. Or, put them under interrogation. They were out to stop the players, right? If there were players inside, then they had to be stopped.

Every option lead to another and a series of questions to keep them company. All the strategizing was beginning to make his tired head hurt.

"We'll have to figure that one out once we do have them at gunpoint. It all depends on who the people are." He sighed. "You know what would be funny? If there's only a scared little girl in the warehouse. Kinda makes all this planning seem really stupid." Ryan laughed to himself, wheezing a little at the end of it. "Let's get this over with quickly."

There wasn't anymore time to waste with planning. It was time now to take action.

((OOC: going to the same place as Jeremy. not going to make another post in this thread because, well. XD))

((Continued in: Onslaught Redux))

Jeremy smiled at the thought and said, "Yeah, I would be kind of relieved and kind of dissapointed if we find one scared girl in the warehouse, but something tells me that won't be the case. I wasn't in the warehouse long the last time before lots of people started showing up and I left."

Jeremy then said, "The warehouse is composed of a couple rooms, the main part which I was in the whole time but I remember a small office in the back, and I'm not sure if there were others or not, but I'm just hoping when we show up there, people aren't hiding everywhere."

"I'm sure you'll do well though and get everyone together so I don't have to watch my back the whole time." Jeremy knew this was it, there would be no more time for stalling or questions, and he looked at Ryan and the wounded girl and said, "Ok, let's go."

(continued at Onslaught Redux, Return to the Warehouse)