Survival Of The Fittest

[GMing and post order interruption with permission]

Alex looked over at Jon and Charlene, frowning softly as Charlene spoke about Jon's friend in an unnecessarily callous way. He was about to speak when-

"Shut up!"

Jon's gun was coming up, almost faster than Alex could think. For a second he was in shock.

"Jon! Fuck NO!" he cried out with his concious mind.

His legs were moving beneath him, without his behest, towards Charlene. Alex couldn't see it. He didn't know that Jon firing was an accident. Only that there was a second's hesitation between the gun being raised, and bullets rattling free.

He was jumping towards Charlene. He didn't recall the decision being made. One second he was seeing Jon raise the gun, the next he was flying headlong through the air toward Charlene.

The gun rattled, astonishingly loud.

Pain.

More than he'd ever felt.

Every nerve ending on his body screaming at once.

"AUUGHFUCK!"

Then, his body hitting Charlene's, her side impacting his right shoulder.

The pain flared again into a white hot ball of agony.

They fell to the ground, he landed on top of her. He rolled off and clutched at his right arm. It was wet.

Whatisthiswhatshappeningohfuckohgodhowdiditallgetfuckedsoquicklyithinkivebeenshot.

He held his hand up in front of him. It was red with blood. There was a hole in him. The thought went through him and the bottom of his stomach fell out.

He seen Madelyn coming over to them. He looked over to Charlene, panting and wincing in pain. She was bleeding too, but still alive. "Are... you al... right?" he said, the words an effort for him.

Jon lifted himself, picking up the gun from the grass as he lightly touched his face and winced, his lips were cut, as he picked up his bag as he heard Hayley call at him. Jon shook his head. He hadn't mean to shoot her. It had been an accident. He turned back, Charlene wasn't dead was she? His eye's widened as he saw Alex lying on the ground near Charlene. He must of blocked the bullet for her. He shook his head slowly, they probably thought he did it on purpose, hell he wasn't sure if subconsciously he had indeed meant to pull the trigger.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" he called as he started to move away, holding the gun forward in his other hand, his right hand still aching from the gunshot. "Don't come closer! I don't want anyone to get hurt!" he continued talking as he moved closer and closer to the edge of the Greens. Jon shuddered a bit as he wrenched his eyes from the sight as his movement started to increase as he put on speed, his arms moving widely as the bag slammed against him. "Don't let me hear you about you guys!" he called out, hoping to god they knew what he meant by that. He didn't want them to die, no one should die. But people were going to die, he knew that, they always died they'll was always people like the psycho killer ripoff from last time. He needed to protect Chase.....Jon paused in his thoughts. No, people had talked to him before, tried to be nice. He needed to make sure his class survived, he needed to kill Danya.

(Jonathan Jarocki continued Mirror Mirror)

Charlene had always been slightly snarky. Whether it was because she was born like that or because of whom she hung out with was unknown. However, she wasn't that bad. The second she realized that stating that Chase was fucked was more than a little hurtful, she almost immediately edited her statement so that it stated that Chase was merely not in a very good position. It was better than telling Jon that Chase was dead where she stood, right?

"Shut up!" Maybe not. She wouldn't have had much of a problem with it (she'd been bitched out before), except that Jon was holding a (probably loaded and dangerous) gun. Charlene should have ducked, except that her body had frozen. About a second later, she felt something ram her from the right side, as -

BANG

Charlene hit the ground, looking up at what turned out to be her savior - Alex Campbell. Of course, with the adrenaline high of being SHOT AT, she wasn't thinking that.

"You FUCKER!" Charlene leapt up right after Alex rolled off, Jonathan's apologies for mistakenly having let off the shots in anger falling on deaf ears, as she whipped her right hand out of her bag, still clutching the pistol, now pointed at Jon, and squeezing the trigger (Luckily for Charlene, in her adrenaline-fueled rage, she had not thought to turn the safety off, thus rendering the weapon effectively harmless) in vain. After about five seconds, the high wore off, and she started to feel a sharp stinging sensation. She brought her left hand up to her neck to feel a slightly wet sensation. Pulling it into her view, she saw the red on her fingers, and on her right forearm.

Charlene didn't realize it, but she was the beneficiary of two strokes of luck; had Alex not tackled her, a bullet would have hit her directly in the right bicep, which would have effectively taken her dominant arm out, or the right side of her chest, which would have gone through the lung, probably killing her. Second, had the bullet that swiped her neck been about a quarter an inch lower, it would have grazed her collar just enough to detonate it. Either way, that wasn't what she was thinking. Even though the bullets had merely grazed her (Alex had it far worse, having taken a direct hit to the right arm), only one real train of thought was running through her head:

OhmygodheshotmeheshotmeIgotshotIgotSHOTIGOTSHOT!

At that point, Charlene's brain, numb from the paralyzing fear and rage of being shot, essentially short-circuited, causing her to collapse (also, currently unknown due to the adrenaline rush and subsequent emotional outburst, a third bullet had also struck her, this one grazing her inside left calf - while the bleeding there was more severe than the other two, it was still manageable), all the while her breathing very short and quick, tears coming out of her eyes, even though she wasn't really thinking about anything except for the situation at hand:

Heshotmeheshotmeheshotmeheshotme ...

Hayley wasn't thinking thoughts right now. In order to do that, she'd have to have a command of language, which she did not. Later she'd recall reading that babies did not think in words- they thought in colors, faces, sounds, emotions.

She knew how that shit felt.

She was rage. Pure fucking rage. Jon was gone now and goddammit why hadn't she put a fucking dent in his fucking face he shot at them and now and now and now she didn't even know what now but she'd FAILED and

Alex.

Alexalexalexalexalex.

Alex was on the floor. Alex was bleeding.

He hit Alex.

No.

No no no no no.

THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

This was all wrong this was all wrong this was all wrong, Hayley came here and saw Alex was okay and everything was perfect and everyone was okay and everything was fine and now, now, now, now Alex was bleeding on the floor and JON SHOT HIM and SHE LET JON GET AWAY and she hadn't done anything and this was her fault and Jon was perfectly fine, off on his way and Alex was bleeding and all he'd tried to do was make sure everyone was happy, everyone was safe, everyone would stay safe and now he was bleeding on the floor and Hayley HADN'T DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

What the FUCK is wrong with you?

What are you doing?

Why are you even HERE?

Hayley couldn't move. She was paralyzed by anger. Rage. Self-loathing.

And then she remembered. Alex. Alex. Alex.

Alex is bleeding.

Alex needs me.

Alex.

Charlene had been shot too. She saw that, out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't really care. She'd barely been hurt and she'd met her, what, ten minutes ago? On the other hand...

Alex's arm was bleeding rather badly. She'd never seen so much blood outside of a video game. How bad was it? She couldn't really tell. She had no experience. If this was a video game Alex could run around for thirty seconds and the wound would be gone. In real life...

Hayley ripped her back off her back, searching desperately for the first aid kit and a bottle of water. Finding both, she removed the bandages from the kit and made her way over to Alex.

"Alex...Alex, baby, are you okay? No passing out on me, okay?" She opened the water bottle and poured the contents freely on Alex's wound. She figured it would hurt, but it was better than nothing.

Madelyn was right there by the pair's side by the time Charlene had collapsed. She hadn't even realized that Alex had been shot until he rolled off of Charlene, revealing the bullet wound in his right arm and Charlene with a few gashes. She'd never dealt with fixing a real bullet wound before; her experience with medkits was limited to:

1. Find/pick up medpack
2. ????
3. Health bar refilled

Yet, she was already tearing through the medkit, putting on a pair of rubber gloves as Hayley began to take care of Alex.

She glossed over Charlene's wounds, noticing the profuse bleeding from a gash on her left calf as well as two cuts on her neck and right arm respectively.

"Hayley! How bad is he?!" Maddy asked as she pulled the scissors out of the medkit and began cutting away at Charlene's jeans to clean and dress the wound on her calf. "Once I'm finished with this... Oh God..." The blood kept oozing from Charlene's leg, droplets splashing onto Madelyn's sleeves as she worked. She hoped that the bleeding wasn't because an artery had been hit. The only thing she knew how to do was clean and dress the wound with gauze; fixing an artery wasn't even an option.

"Charlene. Are you alright?" Madelyn instinctively asked. Of course, it was a stupid question, but maybe talking to the girl would help her calm down. "You're going to be alright, kay?"

Madelyn quickly grabbed Charlene's pack and pulled out one of her water bottles to rinse off the leg wound, now that half of her pants leg had been removed to reveal the gash. She ran her hand gently along the gash as she poured water on the blood. Though it was bleeding heavily, it wasn't very deep. Good. The only problem was, she needed another set of hands to help keep the wound clean as she put on the gauze.

"Charlene!" Madelyn yelled at the girl as she still lay seemingly paralyzed by shock in front of her. "I need you to help me with this, alright?"

He watched despairingly as Charlene rose to her feet, drawing her gun.

"No.. Stop.."

Her gun clicked down on the safety and Alex shut his eyes, breathing a sigh of relief. Jesus, this hurt. He ran his bloody hand through his hair as Hayley arrived. He looked up at her and smiled dreamily. The world was starting to feel a little hazy. He could hear Hayley and Madelyn's voices, but they sounded far away.

"Alex...Alex, baby, are you okay? No passing out on me, okay?"

"But... passing out... is my favorite... hobby" he said, smiling up at her. He leaned up, trying to slide his arm out of his jacket before letting out a cry of pain. "AHHhh-- Fuck" he said. Slowly he slid his arms free of the jacket and looked down at the wounded arm.

About halfway above his elbow a bullet had torn a path through his flesh. He looked up at Hayley. This was bad and he knew it. He could barely move the arm without wanting to double over with pain. If he had to do something with this arm, he was going to be in trouble.

He sighed, letting his head rest back against the warm ground. "Is Charlene OK?" he said, sighing gently.

He still couldn't believe that it had fallen apart so quickly. Jon had been fine. Then, like a switch being flipped, his anger had taken over. Charlene had been fine. Now she was trying to shoot at him.

"This is how they get us." he said, despairingly.

In all of about ten seconds, everything had gone from perfectly fine (well, as fine as could be in this situation) to totally fucked up. Where there had once been calm discussion, the volume level had, due to the urgency of the situation, risen considerably.

Even so, Charlene couldn't hear anything. She was in such a state of mental shock that she had essentially tuned out everything around her, even Madelyn's attempts to help. It wasn't until Madelyn touched her leg wound when Charlene exhibited a return to alertness.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Madelyn's contact with the wound in her leg had caused her to feel the pain that had been delayed by the shock of the whole situation. In fact, the pain seemed to come in on overdrive, sending a white-hot flash through her leg before dulling down somewhat. She craned her head up off the ground to see Madelyn bent down over her leg, pouring water on her leg. She was about to ask Madelyn what the hell she was doing when she spoke up.

"Charlene!"

"Whuh - what the hell?" She now noticed that her left leg from the knee down was exposed, the result of her pant leg being ripped off. She was about to ask why when she noticed the cut on her leg. "What happened? What did he do?" Had she been merely watching, or in some way used to being shot at, the answer would have been patently obvious: she had been hit in the leg. Of course, in the shock of being shot, Charlene was now fully alert, but she still wasn't fully rational. As such, that thought wasn't really occurring to her. Neither was the fact that Alex had been hit in a much more vital area.

"What the fuck did he do?"

"But... passing out... is my favorite... hobby"

Hayley couldn't help but smile, or at least put on something resembling a smile, at this. Alex was acting so normal, considering that he's just been, you know, shot in the fucking arm. Her emotions spun confusedly, a colorful whirlwind- depression, amusement, confusion, terror, rage. Rage rage rage. Lots of rage.

Not right now, though- there were more important things to think about. Like, for example, how she was going to get this wound clean.

"AHHhh-- Fuck"

Hayley felt her eyes well up with tears instantly- he's in pain, he's in pain and it's ALL MY FAULT- but she wiped them away impatiently, smudging her eyeliner as she did so, oh that's real attractive Hayley, what-the-fuck-ever-right now! Seriously! She shook her head and took a better look at the now-exposed wound.

She winced. It hurt to look at. And she'd never seen anything worse than a scraped knee in real life.

The water she'd poured had washed away some of the blood, but it was still oozing from the wound, and she knew that water wasn't enough to really clean the wound. She'd need something...alcoholic.

Alcoholic?

...Wait.

Suddenly the memories came back to her as she dug the flask from her back pocket- vodka, She'd had trouble thinking of a use for it, and here it was. But she didn't want to pour it straight on the wound- that would be both a waste and most likely REALLY painful. She thought for a moment about tearing off a piece of her dress to dab the wound with- that seemed to happen on TV an awful lot- but then it occurred to her that that probably happened on TV because fanservice is god, and she happened to have gauze for that purpose. She poured a bit of vodka onto a piece of gauze- maybe about a third of the contents, and slowly, slowly, slowly, patted the wound with it.

"Charlene...I wouldn't say she's okay, but, fuck, honestly, she looks better than you..."

Hayley shook her head as she finished her cursory disinfecting routine. She had no idea if Alex would be any better off now that she'd done it, but she wasn't a fucking doctor, she was a pissed off teenager, and she in fact had no idea how any of this worked. But she was sure as fuck gonna try. She pressed the gauze down on the wound, moving to wrap the bandage around the gauze.

"This is how they get us."

Hayley paused for a moment. She was confused at first- what the fuck was he talking about- but then she realized.

He was right. Jon started playing, that flipped all of their switches. Everyone was in game mode.

...At the very least, she was.

And as much as she loved Alex, that wasn't about to change.

"Pretty much. Puts a damper in your whole idealism thing, doesn't it. Heh..."

Hayley let out a half-hearted chuckle as she bandaged Alex's wound. Her eyes told the real story. She was a ball of compressed rage.

She barely even noticed that her hands were covered in blood.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Charlene screamed in pain.

"AAAHHHHHHH!" Madelyn screamed in surprise, wincing as she quickly removed her hand from the wound on Charlene's calf. She hadn't meant to hurt Charlene, but she still felt a twinge of guilt nonetheless. OK, noooooo touchie. Definitely no touchie.

"Whuh - what the hell?" Charlene asked, shaken from the daze she was in by the pain of Madelyn's touch. Madelyn continued to pour water on the wound as Charlene's gaze became fixated on the wound.

"What happened? What did he do?" "What the fuck did he do?"

The intensity in Charlene's eyes as she demanded to know what happened made Madelyn nervous. Madelyn barely knew anything about the girl beyond her popularity and a few unproven rumors that circulated the halls of the school. Plus the fact that she was armed with a gun, and Madelyn had been unsure if she trusted her before Jon had shot her. She was already riled up from having just been shot as well; what if she suddenly turned violent? Madelyn hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"He, umm... He... He shot you, Charlene." Madelyn nervously admitted before preemptively trying to calm her down. "But Alex totally tried to save you! He dove in there like... like some kind of super-hero that takes bullet wounds for other people and got shot in the arm! He probably saved your life. Totally cool. You should remember to thank him, heh heh heh..."

Madelyn had a tendency to talk a lot when she was nervous. She couldn't help but keep spewing out words like verbal diarrhea. It was as if her mouth wanted to betray her at any given moment by blurting out something that shouldn't have been said. Luckily, she had somehow refrained from mentioning that it was partly Charlene's fault Jon had snapped in the first place. That probably wouldn't have gone over so well with the injured girl with the gun.

Unfortunately, now that she had started talking, she was having trouble shutting up.

"So, uh, now that you're up and stuff, and since I don't want to hurt you again, do you think you can help me wrap this up with gauze? If we stop the bleeding, it should heal up, right? I'll keep pouring the water to keep it clean if you want. It doesn't look too deep, so if we keep it clean and bandage it I don't think it will get infected." She continued to blurt out as she handed Charlene the open medkit beside her. "Nope, won't be too bad at all, right?"

Alex winced painfully as the alcohol was applied to his wound and it was bandaged. His arm felt weak, useless.

"Pretty much. Puts a damper in your whole idealism thing, doesn't it. Heh..."

Alex looked up, his eyes suddenly hard and fierce, focusing through the pain. He looked up at Hayley, seeing the rage and tears in her eyes.

"Fuck you Danya." he thought to himself.

He moved his arm, winced and decided to use the other. He raised his hand to Hayleys cheek, and gently used his thumb to clean off the smudged eyeliner.

"Don't you believe it." he said.

He was near delirious with the pain, but it didn't matter. Hayley was a ball of rage, ready to go off at any minute.

Charlene wasn't much better.

Madelyn was just scared.

He tried to get up, it took him a few attempts, which was scary in and of itself, but he finally stood. His legs felt like jelly, he swayed from side to side with the pain.

"Jonathan is dead." he said. "What did I say? Playing is a zero sum game. Even if you win, you still lose everything." he said.

"You're angry, you're scared, you want to find the biggest stick and put a bigger hurting on the guy who put one on you." he said.

"Forget it. Cause then, you're dead too. Just like Jonathan." he said.

He pressed his hand to his forehead, feeling slightly dizzy. He paused, getting his breath back.

"If we want any chance of succeeding here, we don't just have to be ourselves. We're not good enough. We're stupid and angry and scared and that's exactly what they want us to be." he said.

"We have to be better. We have to be brilliant." he said.

"Anyone who wants to go after Jonathan, go after him. But you're a player if you do and you're no friend of mine if you play." he said.

"As for me, I'm going to the fairground. I'm going to find a way of this island. Damn it, I plan on living. There's to much of life I've not seen yet." he said.

He began to walk away, towards the fairground. He didn't get more than ten steps before another dizzy spell of pain overtook him. He fell forward, screaming out in pain as he landed on his wounded arm.

"Get up you fucking weak fucking asshole" he muttered to himself, his arm throbbing in agony, his voice thick with emotion.

Madelyn looked slightly uncomfortable when Charlene asked about how she got shot. It wasn't really surprising to Charlene, not because the situation was already quite the clusterfuck as it was, but because she wasn't paying attention to that facet. But Charlene was able to not only hear, but actually listen to Madelyn speak.

"He, umm... He... He shot you, Charlene. But Alex totally tried to save you! He dove in there like... like some kind of super-hero that takes bullet wounds for other people and got shot in the arm! He probably saved your life. Totally cool. You should remember to thank him, heh heh heh..."

Charlene was about to open her mouth, not to thank Alex (who started to walk in some unknown direction, but couldn't due to the bullet hole in his arm), but to let out a steady stream of cuss words directed at one Jonathan Jarocki swearing to kick his ass at the most humane level, but Madelyn continued to talk as she handed over a first aid kit.

"So, uh, now that you're up and stuff, and since I don't want to hurt you again, do you think you can help me wrap this up with gauze? If we stop the bleeding, it should heal up, right? I'll keep pouring the water to keep it clean if you want. It doesn't look too deep, so if we keep it clean and bandage it I don't think it will get infected. Nope, won't be too bad at all, right?" Charlene just stared at the wound, now fully exposed by the McGuyvering of her left pant leg into a capri pant leg. Needless to say, this was somewhat more than she was used to, having only up to this point having dealt with scrapes from the tennis court, a sprained ankle back as a freshman at cheerleading practice, and a small incision from when she accidentally cut herself in home ec. Charlene coughed, then held her chest in a desperate attempt not to throw up. Luckily, nothing came out of her mouth as she instead fished through the first aid kit for some gauze with her left hand (she had still not relinquished her grip on the gun - in fact, it was just the opposite: her grip had tightened after Jon's actions). Finding a pack, she ripped it open, having come fully back into alertness, and pressed it onto her leg wound, grunting in pain as she did so.

"I am going to kill that fucker." She muttered, pissed off. She would have continued talking about the things she wanted to do, but then she noticed Alex as he screamed in pain from collapsing on his wounded arm.

"... Alex totally tried to save you!"

Charlene flashed back to just a minute before, when Madelyn had told her of Alex's actions, and then back slightly further to when he tackled her.

"Jon! Fuck NO!" She looked at Alex, writhing about in agony ...

"... got shot in the arm!" ... and her eyes, which had been filled with rage just a few moments ago, softened. Alex had tried to save her. He was trying to save everyone (or at least give Danya the proverbial finger). At the very least, she owed him one (of course, trying to take care of her own leg wound made it slightly hard - she didn't know if she could even use her leg without screaming in pain every step).

"Is ... is he okay?" Okay, stupid question ...

Hayley didn't move an inch as Alex moved his uninjured arm and wiped the smudged eyeliner from her eye. This did not do much good for her emotional state, seeing him all...she didn't even know the word for it. Vulnerable, maybe? Just the sight of that- fucking Alex Campbell, blue-haired, stoner musician Alex, one of her best fucking friends, in pain and clearly trying to comfort her of all things. Just...everything felt so wrong. Everything was wrong! Well yeah, everything's pretty much as badly fucked up as it could possibly ever be, ever. We're on SURVIVAL OF THE FUCKING FITTEST!

Fuck this. Fuck all of it. Fuck anything that could do this to Alex...fuck anything that could do this to me.

Alex was talking again. She broke out of her mental self pity to listen.

"Don't you believe it."

Hayley shook her head, very slightly- it was such a subtle movement that it was unlikely that Alex had even noticed it, and it was more unconscious than anything. She didn't believe Alex. She didn't believe that anyone could remain so calm at a time like this. Not to mention...hell, if someone had shot her she sure as fuck would want his blood. If her friends wanted to kill him for her, so much the better.

She shook her head again, considerably more violently, as Alex attempted to stand, and then succeeded. Oh no, BAD idea. Going to end badly. Definitely going to end badly. She didn't move, though. She couldn't move. She still couldn't think enough to process the thought of moving.

"Jonathan is dead."

That's more like it.

"What did I say? Playing is a zero sum game. Even if you win, you still lose everything."

I wouldn't lose everything. I'd lose a fucking LOT, sure, but not everything. I wouldn't lose Johnny. Johnny's at home. Waiting for me...

STOP THINKING LIKE THAT. STOP PRETENDING YOU HAVE A SHOT AT THIS.

"You're angry, you're scared, you want to find the biggest stick and put a bigger hurting on the guy who put one on you."

Well...yeah, that's a fair assessment.

"Forget it. Cause then, you're dead too. Just like Jonathan."

Hayley blinked. She was starting to lose him. Of course, she wasn't exactly thinking clearly. He can't be either, not with a wound like that. He did lose quite a bit of blood...he needs to rest, but, like, we DEFINITELY can't stay here. There was a fuckin' gunshot and we're out in the middle of Club-Medland and there's no shelter here.

Alex was still talking...Hayley's thoughts were confirmed by looking at him. He definitely needed to rest. ASAP.

"If we want any chance of succeeding here, we don't just have to be ourselves. We're not good enough. We're stupid and angry and scared and that's exactly what they want us to be. We have to be better. We have to be brilliant. Anyone who wants to go after Jonathan, go after him. But you're a player if you do and you're no friend of mine if you play. As for me, I'm going to the fairground. I'm going to find a way of this island. Damn it, I plan on living. There's to much of life I've not seen yet."

Hayley said nothing. She'd realized something.

By the end of this game...Alex is going to hate me.

The next sound she heard was a scream- that thought quickly exited her head, and she managed to take control of her limbs enough to stand and rush over to where Alex had collapsed. The sound, hearing him scream-

That, that broke her heart.

For the moment, at least, she couldn't be angry. All her thoughts were focused on Alex. Her eyes were tearing up again. She ignored them.

Fuck it.

"Alex...why do you have to be such a fucking idiot?" Hayley forced a small smile that looked entirely out of place when compared to her eyes. "We...we do need to leave, but you've gotta at least let me help you, okay? Even fuckin' heroes get help every once and a while. Let me help you up."

Hayley reached out to his uninjured hand, hoping to pull him up.

"Is ... is he okay?" Charlene asked innocently, showing concern for someone else for the first time since Madelyn had met her on the island. Her previous raged had seemingly calmed down while Madelyn sat beside her as she applied the gauze bandage to her wound.

Still, the gun clenched tightly in Charlene's hand made her a possible threat in Madelyn's book, which meant that Madelyn was still nervous. And a nervous Madelyn was a talkative Madelyn.

"I... I really... don't think so." Madelyn stuttered, stumbling over words to find the best answer. "He got hit pretty hard in the shoulder. The bullet... he might have... if we were back home..." Madelyn struggled to put her thoughts together as she talked to the gun-toting girl beside her, but her nerves were getting the best of her. Two people had just been shot in front of her very eyes. The reality of being on Survival of the Fittest was starting to sink in. Madelyn took a deep breath to try and calm down.

"If the bullet went completely through his arm, he'll have a gaping wound that probably won't heal. If we could get him to a hospital, he'd probably be right as rain in a few days, but... heh, that's not going to happen." Madelyn didn't know much about real life bullet wounds, but school had unwittingly mentioned the aftermath of such wounds several times on various occasions, either through reading material or through educational History Channel-esque documentary videos. They never mentioned it directly, of course, but an observant student could read between the lines as they tried to gloss over the subject.

"Remember in history class, how they showed us that movie that had a slideshow of Civil War injuries while they talked about the heroic valor of the chicks who worked on the frontline hospitals?" Madelyn asked Charlene. She was fairly sure that the video was a standard one for most history classes, even though some teaches had different methods of teaching their courses.

"They showed pictures of women treating bullet wounds with little more than gauze, pliers, and morphine back then. But, I remember the pictures they showed better than the voiceovers. The wounds were... gnarly. They were hideous, and often looked infected from having been dragged through the mud and blood of their comrades on the way to the tent. The only real thing they could do... was amputate the limb to keep the infection from getting worse."

We're kinda in the same situation; we're under-prepared for the kind of wounds this fucking game is going to deal us. Our med kits are a fucking joke. Madelyn thought to herself as Alex rose up and tried to make his way towards the Fun Fair. He tried to walk away like a cowboy riding off into the sunset at the end of the movie, but the pain was too much. Madelyn saw Alex crumple to the floor once again in pain. Hayley ran after him.

"See that?" Madelyn pointed towards Alex's fallen form. "He's lost a lot of blood, and that hole in his arm isn't going... isn't going to heal with just a little bit of gauze. I... I..." Madelyn choked up. A lump of grief the size of a baseball was in her throat, chocking back words that if said would cause her to burst into tears. She was trying to be strong; trying to be useful. She couldn't afford to cry now. Not now. They were still in danger. They would always be in danger.

I'm not going to cry, God damn it... she thought to herself, trying to stay calm with all of her might even as the world around her crumbled.

((GMing of Alex Campbell done with permission from nowave))

Madelyn decided it would be a good idea to talk, talk, talk. No, Alex was not okay (and that was patently obvious to Charlene even before she asked the question). His arm was probably fucked unless he got some decent medical care (which was obviously going to happen). As Madelyn tended to Charlene's wound, Madelyn went into the specifics of how Civil War soldiers usually had to lose limbs if they got shot (which was definitely NOT helping). She then started to describe how Alex was losing blood due to his wound, but she was choking up.

Great. This is totally past my maturity level. Of all the things she was expected to do as a senior in high school, grieving over the loss of all your friends as they died en masse was not one of the items on her list. She was about to reply with ... something (comforting people she had known for a total of ten minutes due to someone's impending death was, again, not within her maturity level - the worst thing she had to worry about twenty-four hours ago was that news of her sexuality would be let out into the public, possibly ruining her reputation) when a slow clap dominated the airwaves.

"Kids, I have to say that I'm truly impressed with your first day showing. Blood! Tragedy! Explosions! Mayhem! You've utterly smashed the record for first day kills; it makes an old man proud to see you all taking his instructions so thoroughly to heart! Congratulations to those of you that are still alive, because you've already outlasted 19 of your classmates."

Yeah. You're welcome, asshole. Charlene thought sarcastically. I don't want to her anything except "Game over. Go home." Even through that, she still heard the names of her nineteen ex-classmates. Most of them didn't really strike a bell. Eric Lorenz ... wasn't he a Nazi or something? She didn't really have a problem hearing his name. The only other names that she really cared about were those of Steffan Kronwall and Tony Russo. She knew both of them (not closely, but she still knew them).

"To keep you all on your toes, it's time for the dangerzones! Since a lot of dummies don't seem to understand this, let me put it simply: You go in zone. Collars goes boom. Got that? Okay children, listen close. As of this announcement, the Lighthouse, the Groundskeeper's Hut and Greens are now danger zones. If you're in any of those places, you'd better clear out pronto! Tick tock, folks!"

Okay. We're probably pretty far away from any of those zones, so ... A small beep interrupted that train of thought.

What the ... oh, shit. Charlene's blood froze as she realized what that beeping meant (Had she looked at the map, she would have realized that she was, in fact, in The Greens. Even without the map, she would probably be able to figure out that fact by virtue of the lack of any sort of structure, but then wasn't the time and place to think about where she was, except for one small equation: beeping collar = RUN).

Beep. Charlene immediately picked up the GPS a couple feet from her (she didn't really think about it - all she realized its existence meant that it was ipso facto valuable to her continued existence), zipped up her bag and stood up, gun in hand. She winced as the pain in her leg flared up for a second, and then faded away.

"We've got to get out of here!" (Of course, with the collars beeping, this was pretty obvious)

Beep. She looked around. Hayley and Madelyn seemed pretty able, having not been shot, but Alex ... he wasn't going to make it without help.

Beep. Charlene ran over to Alex, transferring the gun into her left hand.

"Come on, Alex, MOVE!" She picked him up by his left shoulder, taking enough of his weight so that he could stand (Unusual fact - in spite of the desperate situation, Charlene in fact made a conscious decision to pick Alex up on that side, as she didn't want to get Alex's blood on her - while in and of itself pretty unusual, the reason not out of safety to prevent spreading a blood borne disease. She merely didn't want to get blood on her clothes).

Beep ... beep ... beep ... beep ... She started speed-walking, the fact that she was half-carrying Alex and his possessions on her right side preventing her from going into a full out sprint.

Beep, beep, beep, beep ... She quickened her pace, trying to keep herself going. She turned her head around to the other two girls.

"MOVE!" Have to get out of here, have to get out of here. She had too much to lose, too much of a future, to just sit down and have her head get blown up. Hell, she was going to college!

Beep beep beep beep ... Charlene looked forward, looking for some definite boundary of where she was. How the hell do I get out of here?

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep ... The increased tempo raised even more fear into the tennis player. I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it ... In spite of this, something, possibly sheer survival instinct, kept her going.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep ... Charlene started to go even faster, struggling to keep the wounded Alex by her side as every thought in her head was starting to instruct her to ditch Alex, in spite of the fact that he had saved her life as tears started to go through her eyes, expecting to feel the pain that would inevitably come with her neck exploding (which in fact would not come - death by collar would be quick and painless, if quite gruesome).

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep .... Charlene took three more steps before she collapsed out of fear, taking the stumbling Alex down with her, when something unusual occurred ...

Beep ... beep ... beep ...

Silence.

Charlene just lay there on her stomach, her breath once again short and quick, first out of fear and then out of sheer amazement.

Wait ... I'm not dead? As much as she couldn't believe it, Charlene and Alex had managed to escape the dangerzone with seconds to spare.

Holy. Shit. After about a minute she stood up, the adrenaline and emotional high leaving her as she put her gun back into her bag, picked Alex up again and walked off to wherever it was that didn't greet visitors with a beeping collar. She spoke, her voice almost devoid of any emotion due to being temporary mental exhaustion.

"Come on, Alex. Let's move." I never thought I'd need a rest now ...

((Charlene and Alex continued in Break Up And Break Down))

((GMing of Hayley Kelly approved by Hollyquin))

No, Madelyn wouldn't cry. She could be tougher than that. She had to be if she was going to survive this ordeal. A few stray tears that trickled down her cheek were quickly wiped away as she began to regain her composure... just as a slow clap began to echo throughout the field.

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Madelyn stiffened slightly as the ominous clapping gave way to an sadistically eager voice.

"Kids, I have to say that I'm truly impressed with your first day showing. Blood! Tragedy! Explosions! Mayhem! You've utterly smashed the record for first day kills; it makes an old man proud to see you all taking his instructions so thoroughly to heart! Congratulations to those of you that are still alive, because you've already outlasted 19 of your classmates."

19. 19 students. 19 dead students. Madelyn could hardly believe that so many students had already been killed... and that some of her fellow students were already willing to kill. Were they like Jon: just scared and paranoid about there very survival and just set off by the wrong thing, or were there already people resolved to play the game until the bitter end?

She listened to the announcements of her classmates demises and the grisly descriptions of their murders intently, selfishly hoping to herself that none of her closest friends' names would be called out. As fate would have it, none of her compatriots had been killed, at least for now. A small glimmer of hope that they could still be saved allowed Madelyn to breathe a sigh of relief once the list of names had finished. At least the worst of the announcements was now over.

"To keep you all on your toes, it's time for the dangerzones! Since a lot of dummies don't seem to understand this, let me put it simply: You go in zone. Collars goes boom. Got that? Okay children, listen close. As of this announcement, the Lighthouse, the Groundskeeper's Hut and Greens are now danger zones. If you're in any of those places, you'd better clear out pronto! Tick tock, folks!"

Beep.

"Son of a bitch!" Hayley screamed as their collars began beeping in unison. She helped Alex get to his feet while Charlene quickly got up and grabbed her pack and Alex's GPS. Madelyn grabbed the medkit from the ground and made a mad dash back to her pack.

Beep... beep...

Alex and Charlene were already off and hobbling as Hayley quickly gathered up the rest of their supplies and threw them into her bag just as Madelyn made it to her pack. As she quickly threw everything she could back into her bag, the beeps began to come at faster intervals. Time was running out.

Beep, beep, beep ...

Hayley was the first off the line in the race against time, making a mad dash with her sword clenched tightly in her hand towards Alex and Charlene as they forced themselves into a run further ahead of them. Madelyn struggled to throw everything she could into the bag and zip it shut before grabbing her makeshift spear and made a run for it.

Beep beep beep beep beep ...

Madelyn was not used to running much faster than what was necessary in gym class. She had never seen a point in going all out for the mile run. After all. what was the reward for being the fastest besides being the first one to get to rest? In gym, all she'd ever done was jog lightly and chat together with a few friends, only moving fast enough to avoid failure.

Beep beep beep beep beep

Madelyn urged her legs to go faster than they'd ever went before, digging deep and willing herself not to give up. There was still a chance they could make it out of the zone. She still had to find the rest of her friends. She still had to make sure they were all safe. There was still so much that needed to be done; her life could not end here.

beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep ...

"We can make it!" Madelyn yelled to herself, not yet ready to give up even as the alarm clock from hell beeped incessantly in her ears, warning her of her impending doom. She ran with all of her heart, even as everything seemed hopeless. She concentrated on Hayley in front of her, trying to focus on her friend rather than on the infernal beeping that emanated from the collar around her neck.

beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep ...

"We can make it!" Adrenalin now coursed throughout Madelyn's veins as she kicked her run into overdrive. She imagined that there was an invisible wall of fire behind her, forcing her to run an endless length for her survival, like in a video game, for a little extra motivation. Her run would have to be perfect. Once false move and it was game over.

Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Her heart felt like it was going to explode. Her legs muscles strained under the stress of their newfound use, not having been accustomed to running so hard before. Madelyn pushed herself as hard as she could possibly go. She couldn't give up now. Charlene and Alex had collapsed only a few yards ahead of her, with Hayley closing in on their position. There was the finish line. There was still a chance...

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ... beep... beep... ... beep.

Madelyn threw herself past the point where Charlene and Alex had fallen just as the beeping got so fast it resembled the sound of a heart monitor flatlining. A wave of relief washed over her as she lay on the ground.

"We... We made it..." Madelyn managed to say as she gasped for air.

"Yeah... we made it girly." Hayley replied in between breaths, equally as exhausted. She pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a much needed drag of nicotine into her system. "Now let's get the fuck outta here."

[Hayley and Madelyn continued in Break Up and Break Down]