Survival Of The Fittest

Sophie put Nina's bag over her shoulder next to her issued bag, keeping the lead pipe in her hands. If Nina's bag was this light, then it was likely any of the bags in the pool area would have been raided as well. Sophie took another look down at the dead girl. It was hard to believe that weeks ago, she and Nina were running around the labyrinth in The Castle, enjoying the height of their youth. They were never going to have that kind of fun again.

Finn mentioned that he was going to leave a note for his friend. Sophie nodded as he went to write the note. She walked back to Alex as he did.

"If we're gaining allies, I don't think we need to worry about supplies right now," she said to her friend. "I'm just glad he trusts us."

She turned back to see that Finn had left the note on Nina's body. It looked like they were ready to go upstairs. However, that's when Sophie saw someone enter the lobby. It was Mara Montalvo, the girl Finn was looking for. She had a large gun around her shoulder and was bandaging her hand. She must have just run into some trouble, but at least Finn had his friend.

Sophie grinned and waved at Mara. She didn't want Mara to think there was any reason to worry about her or Alex. After all, if Finn trusted them, then Mara should as well.

Finn managed to make it part of the way up the stairs just as he heard a bang come from the bottom of the lobby. For a brief moment Finn paused, his foot froze in midair as it was about to come down onto the next step. He spun round and trotted down a couple of steps before peering over the handrail. A girl had just come through one of the doors and was now sorting through her bag on the reception desk with her back to him.

Pushing himself away from the handrail, Finn made his way down the rest of the stairs. By the time he reached the bottom, the girl had just turned around and was now bandaging her hand. Finn's eyes widened with joy when he realised that the girl was Mara. She called out his name and walked towards him whist informing him that she'd got caught up by something.

"Oh my god, Mara!" Finn called out in delight. As Mara got closer, Finn noticed that she wasn't re-bandaging the hand she injured a couple of days ago when they first met up, but a newly wounded hand.

"Oh shit, what happened?" Finn added as he started to take a few steps towards her.

Summer wasn't cut out for a game like Survival of the Fittest, already a broken girl long before it came into her life. Her life was based around being well-liked and being recognized, considering herself valueless without it. If people didn't know her, or didn't like her, she was nothing. Had life gone on normally for her, chances were she'd find herself in the same position many girls before her had, seeking validation and love anywhere she could get it.

Maybe dying on the island had been a good thing, dying as part of an exclusive club of kids.

There would be funerals for all everyone who didn't make it, monuments commemorating the deceased and her name would be on there until the end of time.

She wouldn't be forgotten.

---

Summer Simms, girl no. 21, continued from DISSOLVED GIRLS

Summer made no attempt to hide her presence, the heavy double doors parting with a bellow to announce her entrance. She wasn't recognizable at the sweet-faced girl from back at a Aurora, her face eerily devoid of emotion aside from her widened glassy eyes. Her right hand was wrapped white-knuckled around the grenade, still bleeding and embedded with the shards of glass from the lounge and leaving droplets of blood as she walked toward the center of the room, breaking out into as much a jog as her twisted ankle allowed.

She saw the people around Mara, faceless blurs that didn't matter, people she didn't care about. People who'd just get in the way. She'd become a slave to the emotions she'd once been so careful to hide from everyone, now unable to control herself as they flooded her. White hot anger, the deep sting of betrayal. The desperation to make the people behind the cameras, the only people who hadn't turned their backs on her, proud.

They'd seen her at that point, their bodies and heads swiveling to look back at her, but she didn't give them long to react, still half-jogging as she moved the grenade to her mouth and pulled the spoon out with her teeth before hurling it toward Mara and the group surrounding her.

She didn't waste a second, her hands shaking violently as she adjusted her gun in her hands and forcefully latched on to the trigger, mistakenly believing she'd be able to aim after she'd begun firing. The force knocked the gun painfully into her collar bone as she tried to control it, but the gun seemed to have a mind of it's own, spraying the area around and above her with bullets before sending her careening to the ground, her grip on the gun compromised as it too flew to the ground.

For a split second, everything was quiet, just the ringing in her eyes and her shaking breath.

Then the roar of the grenade and white light.

Sophie stood in place as Finn went over to help Mara. She stopped waving at the girl and turned to Alex.

"We should help her," she said to her friend.

Before Sophie could say anything else, she heard a loud noise towards the entrance. She quickly turned and saw a figure walking in. She couldn't recognize the person walking in, but did notice the person throw something before raising a gun up. Sophie's eyes widened in shock. At the sound of the first pop, Sophie threw herself to the ground, dropping the lead pipe and the two bags on the floor.

She closed her eyes tight as she heard more gunfire go off. She once read about shooting sprees and a tip to possibly survive. If someone opens fire, you should throw yourself to the ground and play dead. If she got blood on her, the shooter might think they hit her. She'd have to lay absolutely still and control her breathing if the shooter came near. The slightest movement or sound could be the end of her.

Oh god, this can't be happening! Is Alex okay?

Sophie tried to open her eyes slightly to see if she could tell where Alex and the others were. She couldn't see much, but she did notice a small round object lying near her. She didn't even have time to figure out what it was before it exploded, just a few inches away from her face.

There was a loud bang, and then there was silence. No longer was Sophie afraid or sad. For the first time since she awoke on the island, she was completely at peace. It was the kind of peace she felt when performing a song or working on a sketch. It was the serenity that accompanied family dinners and lazy days at school. It was nirvana, and it was sublime.
 
If anyone came across Sophie's unrecognizable body, they'd have no reason to think she was feigning death. They could leave her alone, and she would be all the happier for it. She was at peace, and nothing could take that from her.

G035 Sophie McDowell: Deceased

"It was Summer!" she said in response to Finn's query.

"She's gone completely-"

Mara's sentence wasn't to be completed. She heard a slow groaning sound and turned away from Finn to see what new misfortune approached. As it turned out, it was an old misfortune. The heavy doors she just walked through opened once again and Summer had hobbled and dragged herself after her. She was determined.

"Speak of the..."

A spray of bullets burst forth. Mara crouched near the reception desk, but they didn't seem to hit anywhere near her. Then she held up a round object and removed something from it which was a good indicator that the object was nothing good. Mara watched the thing fall in an arc and just as it began to come down she turned and ran to a heavy looking sofa a few feet away and vaulted behind it. Just as she cleared the top and landed on the seat, an immense force of light and sound smashed Mara and her barricade into a wall.  

Alex had fallen rather silent when the plan had been abandoned. It was getting to be too much. When someone else came in, he bit back his suspicions, even as he got the uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong. Something bad was going to happen.

He tried to pay attention to what Mara was saying to Finn. Wait, was she implying that she'd just had a run in with Summer? The same Summer who'd won the BKA? Did that mean crazy Summer was right around here, lurking somewhere nearby?

And there she was, providing an answer for him, even closer than he'd been expecting, coming right through the doors after Mara. Summer threw something and started shooting, and Alex didn't even have time to open his mouth. He took a hit in the upper thigh, the pain jolting through him, causing his breath to catch, and he nearly toppled over. Beside him, Sophie dropped to the floor. Hit?

Was she dead? He couldn't tell. She couldn't be. Not now. Not so suddenly. He had to do something. That thing Summer had thrown, it looked like a grenade. They could be in really big trouble, even more than they were being shot at by a crazy girl.

The smart thing would have been to run as best he could with his bad leg, to dive for cover like Mara was doing right at that second, something Alex could barely see out of the corner of his eye. That would have meant abandoning Sophie, though, and if she even might still be alive, he couldn't do that. Not after he'd gone after her when she left the group, not after they'd stuck together so long. But if she was alive, why wasn't she moving?

He knelt, ready to try to grab her and pull her to safety, but his indecision had cost him. He'd taken too long, and the flash of light and heat and shrapnel tore threw him, picking him up off the ground and tossing him backwards against a wall. He was dead long before he impacted.

Summer? At first, Finn found this hard to believe, Mara and her were good friends back at school. However, this initial feeling of scepticism soon vanished as he remembered that only a couple of days ago Summer had violently killed Naomi, anther one of her close friends. The wound on Mara's hand looked pretty recent, and if she was only bandaging it right now, that must mean Summer was nearby. If Summer had no problem ruthlessly killing her friends, god knows what she'd do to people she didn't know. They had to get out of here right now.

Before Mara could finish informing him on what had happened with Summer, there was a loud groaning noise as someone else came through the door Mara had just came through. From what Mara had said, Finn already had a pretty good idea of who the person could be before he turned to look.

When he first saw the girl hobbling towards them, Finn was slightly taken aback; that was not the Summer he remembered from school. She was a mess, she was covered in blood and dirt, and she now had a messy crop of hair that was shorter than his own.

Finn took a few steps back as Summer hurled a spherical object towards the group. He didn't have enough time to inspect the object that was now rolling towards them before Summer whipped out a gun and started firing wildly. Finn spun around and darted back to the stairs he was walking up only moments ago. He noticed Mara sprint in a different direction to him and Sophie and Alex drop to the ground. Had they been hit by the bullets?

A couple of bullets whizzed past him and struck the marble wall in front of him as he swung round the banister and sprinted up the stairs. Finn shielded his eyes with his arm as small fragments of the marble wall that were hit by the bullets shot towards him. He managed to make it about a quarter of the way up the stairs before hearing a thunderous bang and a blinding light engulfed him. Finn momentarily felt himself be lifted off of his feet before he was brutally slammed into the marble steps.

Summer heard the world through cotton, miles beyond the ringing of her ears. She knew she was screaming loudly if the burning of her throat was any indication, but it was swallowed almost entirely by her blown eardrums. She hadn't accounted for the radius of the grenade, walking just close enough that the blast threw her several yards away. She'd landed on her back and the wind had been knocked out of her, and she immediately rolled over to her stomach, trying to get her bearings and access the situation when she became aware of the pain in her leg. A dull throb, the type of pain akin to hitting your funny bone, had replaced the sharp daggers of her twisted ankle.

That's when she started screaming.

Where her foot had once been was instead a bloody stump around the middle of her shin, much of the bone flayed and sticking inches beyond where the flesh ended. A dark pool had already begun to form around it and she instinctively clasped her shaking hands around it, barely able to comprehend the pain as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding.

Fresh tears made their familiar trip down her face and she could still feel herself partially screaming and partially sobbing.She scanned the room quickly from behind the blur of tears, unable to decipher much past the dust and tipped furniture. She wasn't looking for bodies or her foot or her gun, instead trying and failing to find her friends in their familiar spots due to the dense dust. Pulling chin to her chest, clenching her eyes and sobbing loudly, she pushed herself toward a wall with her free foot, each pull sending waves of agony through her leg, shivers of shock taking over her body.

"Help me," She cried to nothing, her voice barely above a whisper "Please... please,"

She was beginning to feel dizzy, but she forced her eyes open.

They send someone to help her, she'd be fine. They were her friends, their favorite. They wouldn't just watch their favorite die.

I…..I'm alive?

The explosion slammed the couch Mara was behind and Mara herself into the back wall. She'd been spared the shrapnel and some of the shock from the the blast by the sofa. Being in the middle of the couch meant she hadn't been crushed between it and the wall, but her back had still hit the wall like a doll thrown by an angry toddler. It was hard to breathe. She gasped, only able to take shallow, painful breaths. Shakily, she kicked the sofa away and after a few tries, succeeded in moving it enough for her to crawl out from behind. She lay flat on her stomach, trying to get her breathing back up to at least half of what it normally was.

She couldn't hear. Her ears were filled with a high-pitched buzzing. The air was filled with a thick dust that made it hard to see anything. Maybe she was deaf forever. Mara's eyes fluttered and focused on something in the distance. One of the other people she'd seen with Finn was laying motionless, probably dead. Mara felt her voice work and her mouth move, but she couldn't hear herself.

She crawled forward slowly. It felt like her singular existence was suffering, both emotional and physical. The yokes of her pain were trying to root her to the spot, anchor her to the ground.

Of course she had a grenade. Sure. Why wouldn't she? Because it's not like anyone on this island can take a five fucking minute break from trying to kill me. If it's not Jesus homo threatening to shoot me or sports meathead trying to bash my head in or Miranda looking like she's going to skewer me or ghetto trash playing operation, it has to be this girl trying to blow me up. I have had it with these fucking people!

Having progressed from her starting point where she'd been tossed, there was a new object in her path.  Mara clawed, reached out and grabbed it. It was Summer's huge gun. Mara jammed it against the ground and used it as a crutch to stand. She was almost in a transcendental state of existence.  She was injured to the point that every tiny movement was a reminder of days past. Acid raged against her stomach lining. The more the chains of her limitations weighed down on her, the more she dug down and dragged herself forward, deaf and half blind.


Something else was moving. Mara gave another silent shout. For a moment she started coughing uncontrollably and thought it would be terribly anticlimactic to survive the blast and die from a coughing fit, but she clutched her chest and it passed.  A few more feet forward and she discovered what was still left of Summer Simms.

"My God" she mouthed.

Her old friend was missing parts, hair singed, cut and mangled. Mara leaned down and saw she was trying to speak and although she couldn't hear it her repetition of the world "help" was obvious.

Without her hearing she could feel her heart beat racing. Eyes fluttering, she closed the gap and gave Summer a clumsy kiss on the cheek, then stood back up. Mara lifted the gun off the ground, buckled for a moment with out its support, and recovered. With both hands she pointed the barrel at Summer, feeling as if the weapon weighed a thousand pounds.

You're one of my best friends and so I never wanted anything bad to happen to you. I wanted you to have the life you wanted as long as it wasn't nicer than mine. You're a good girl, understanding and smart and always there for me. I know that this is what you would have wanted.

"This is all I can do for you, Sunshine. Te quiero."

Her hands shook madly and her inexperience showed. The first shot hit Summer near the collar bone. Mara screamed, corrected and pulled the trigger a second time as the gun rested on Summer's head.

Consciousness came in waves, Summer slipping between this world and the next as she fought desperately to stay awake. The color had drained from her all but completely, her sallow skin ghostly against the bright reds painted across her. She could feel herself shaking violently against the wall and became all too aware of how cold the lobby had grown. Someone must have opened a window. Nausea tore through her body, threatening to dispel what little she'd eaten through the day, and her eyes grew heavier by the second, sometimes closing without her even realizing it. All she had to do was hold out a bit longer, she told herself over and over again. Just a little longer. Someone would be there soon.

Just a little longer.

She was awoken some time later, unaware that she'd even fallen asleep, by someone's voice. They'd come, she knew they would. Weakly, she opened her eyes, the world spinning and producing multiples as she tried to focus on the figure bathed in the swirling of dust.

"Mara," her voice was weak and shallow and came with much struggle, "You're not dead. They're going to be upset with me."

All she could think about was how disappointed the people behind the cameras would be with her for failing. They probably wouldn't send the letter she wanted, even though she tried so hard.

"No, no, no," Summer whispered woefully, her voice steeped in desperation as Mara pointed the gun at her.

She wanted to kick and claw and scream and fight, but she was drained of strength, of the will to keep fighting and could do little to prevent Mara from firing the gun, her arms to heavy to move, body unresponsive. All she could do was lower her head and cry and hope Mister Danya would blow Mara's collar before she killed her.

The force of the bullet grazing the side of her neck pushed her the rest of the way to the ground, warmth spilling down the front of her neck as she lay near motionless on the ground, the only movement coming from the heaving of her chest. Her eyes darted frantically around the room, lids fluttering as she desperately clung to consciousness. She wanted to see them, the cameras, her friends, wanted them to be with her in the end, but to no avail.

In a corner of the room, a glossy eye lingered on Summer as the boom of a gunshot echoed throughout the area and the last of her warmth was seeped into the air.

With one more kid down and one less story to watch, it turned its attention to Amaranta Montalvo.

G021, Summer Simms: DECEASED

Finn stayed unmoving on the staircase for several moments after the explosion. He was sprawled out on the stairs with his eyes closed tightly. All he could hear was a continuous, high pitched ringing sound in his ears. Every inch of his body was throbbing with pain and there was a particular searing sensation coming from his right leg, but he was too afraid to open his eyes to inspect the damage.

He began to feel himself slowly sliding down the stairs. With each step he slid off of, an intense pain shot through his body. To avoid sliding down any further, Finn sluggishly moved his left leg over to the banister and jammed his foot in between the marble railings.

After a while, Finn finally decided to open his eyes and was greeted by the slight of a blurry marble step with a large red smudge on it where his head had been. His eyes couldn't seem to focus on the red patch, but it wasn't hard to tell that it was blood. Finn lifted a shaky hand to his head and brought it back down in front of his eyes which now had the same red smudge on it as the step.

Placing his two hands either side of him, Finn feebly propped himself up. He looked down onto the lobby which was unrecognisable from what it had been a few minutes ago. This wasn't just because Finn was now seeing two of everything, but because it was consumed by dust and debris. He couldn't even distinguish which of the blurred objects on the floor were pieces of furniture and which were his friends and allies. Summer had probably killed them all.  

Moving away from the edge of the banisters, Finn twisted around so he was no longer laying on his front. Finn groaned loudly as another wave of pain shot through him. Now that he was in a suitable position, he began to inspect his body. His arms were different shades of blue and purple and were riddled with small cuts. He looked down his torso and saw that his clothes were ripped and covered with dust. Finn's eyes then wandered down his body and onto his right leg, upon which they widened with horror.

There was a large, thin shard of marble that was gauged into the side of his calf. Finn just stared at it for several moments, his hand covering his mouth in shock. Summer had done this to him. She'd mutilated his leg and blown up his friends.

"You. Fucking. BITCH!" Finn roared. If Summer was still alive, then she soon wouldn't be. Finn would make sure of that.

The ringing in his ears was easing up, but it was now combined with the sound of a girl screaming. He hoped that it was Summer screaming in pain. If it was Mara or Sophie, then there wasn't much Finn could do to help them at the moment, not with that piece of marble sticking out of his leg. He'd need to get it out fast.

Bending down, Finn stretched out his arm and gripped the shard of marble. Upon contact, an intense pain shot through his leg, causing Finn to immediately let go and whimper. If he was going to pull it out, he couldn't do it slowly, it would just cause more pain for him. He'd need to do it quickly, like pulling off a Band-Aid.

Sitting up straight, Finn stared down at his leg again. He began to breath rapidly as he prepared himself for what he was about to do. There was a different sound mixing with the ringing now: a loud banging noise, the same as he had heard when Summer started shooting at him. He was in major trouble if Summer had recovered and was now mowing down whoever had survived the explosion.

In one fluid motion, Finn's hand wrapped around the shard and ripped it out. An agonising scream left Finn's mouth as his hands shot up to his face. Finn flung the shard down the steps, breaking into smaller pieces with each step it collided with. He slumped onto the stairs as he began to sob, partly out of pain, and partly because Summer had more than likely killed his friends in the lobby and was now coming to finish him off.

The banging sound had stopped. Summer was done with whoever was left alive in the lobby and he was next. Finn slowly sat up again and slid his gun from his pocket. As soon as that bitch came to the foot of the stairs, he'd have a surprise waiting for her.

Her eyes were large and wild like an animal just before she delivered the shot. She was like a feral cat panicking, scratching and hissing. She was barely even human anymore, but in those last few seconds as her eyes dimmed, Mara liked to think that they softened a little and had a speck of the Summer from school left in them.

Mara dropped the butt of the gun back to the floor and leaned on it again. Her whole body shook and she could feel her legs get light and numb. They were giving out. Her hand slid down the gun, slowly slumping until she was on hands and knees over Summer. The gun clattered to the floor, though she only barely heard it.

Her jet black hair hung limply, creating a curtain while she looked down at the dead girl.

"I'm still here," she said.

She meant it to mean that she had survived. She was alive and still present, but she thought about what Summer had said. She asked her if she'd stay with her and Mara had said no. It was the right thing to say. Yet, she somehow ended up in a position where she honored Summer's request.

"You...

Her knees slid out from under her and she fell so that she was resting on top of the body. Her head was on Summer's chest and she tentatively put her arms around the other girl.

"...always got..."

Mara let out a breath. She was starting to be able to breathe again and feeling more air come in was a shock. It was too much for her to handle and though she survived, the decision was made for her that she needed a forced period of recovery. There was an abrupt darkness and then nothing more for now.


((Mara Montalvo continued in Drink Me))

Finn waited and waited, but no one appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He was beginning to think that Summer had left without checking if he was still alive. He was too afraid to look over the banister to see if she was still there just in case she saw him, so he moved to the other side of the staircase, grabbed his bag and slowly began to slide himself down. Finn hovered his wounded leg a few inches above the steps, but every so often it would bash against the hard surface and he would grunt in pain.

When Finn reached the bottom step, he stopped and re-positioned himself so he was on his knees. Gripping hold of the banister, Finn peered round it and examined the lobby. No one there appeared to be alive which meant Summer must have left and he was safe. Letting go of the banister, Finn turned around and leant on the wall. With his head in his hands, Finn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was sure everyone was dead, but he still had a glimmer of hope that Mara or one of his new allies had managed to escape somehow. It was time to see who had survived and who hadn't.  

Using the banister to steady himself, Finn lifted himself off of the floor and limped into the lobby. He was immediately welcomed with the mutilated corpses of Alex, Nina and he assumed Sophie, whose face was almost completely missing. Finn could feel his eyes welling up again as he continued to stare at the bodies. Sniffling loudly, he staggered further into the room, stopping in the centre when he finally discovered what he'd been dreading.

"Mara, no…" Finn whimpered.

As he dropped to the ground, Finn began to cry convulsively. She was dead and now he could never see her again. All the time they spent together would be nothing but memories now. He couldn't bear to look at the corpse of one of his best friends strewn out across the person who'd murdered her. If he hadn't of been trying to fix his leg and came down earlier, he might have been able to prevent it. There could have been a chance of him helping her and she would have lived.

Finn stayed there for several minutes longer, wailing into his hands. He looked up to get one last look at Mara. Finn's face was puffy and his eyesight was blurred by tears, but he could just make out her jet back hair and dark skin. He managed to get himself up again and stood facing Mara's corpse. He wanted to go over to her and put her body in a respectful position instead of leaving her cradling her killer, but Finn didn't want to get up close and see the bloody state she was more than likely in. Instead, he turned away and limped out of the hotel.

"Goodbye Mara." Finn whispered.

((Finn Grant continued in Prayer for the Someone Who Is Somewhere Dying))