Survival Of The Fittest

“Very well. You want Emmett, you got him.” Marco was really, really surprised to hear that coming from Adonis. “I still got dibs on Sierra and Willow. I won’t mind help, but... I get the killing blow.” He was surprised how quickly Adonis turned. He was expecting conflict with him, that they wouldn’t see things eye to eye, but it turns out that they had a lot more in common than he thought.

Marco smiled, but there was worry in his eye. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that to be honest. Like yeah, he didn’t want to be alone anymore and he didn’t want Adonis to be alone, but was this what Adonis wanted to do? Was this really him? Marco didn’t want him to go through with this just so somebody would accept him. He didn’t want to drag him through something that he didn’t really agree to.

“Adonis, before we get ahead of ourselves, I need to ask you something.” Marco inhaled, then exhaled. “I want you to know that you don’t have to do this if you really don’t want to. Don’t do this because I am, or because you think I’ll like you more if you do. I’m doing this because this whole thing is me, I live for the fight, the struggle to win. This is my Valhalla. I’ve got no regrets.”

He felt himself get just a bit misty eyed. “I want you to do this for the same reasons. Don’t go along just because I’m doing it. Go along because you want to. I don’t want you to have any regrets either; don’t get me wrong, I’d love for you to join in and stay with me while I carve a path here, but I want you to be happy. These are our last days alive and I don’t want you to feel like you made a mistake.” His head turned to Colin, still staring at the trees. “I want you to imagine Emmett like Colin here. Or me, or yourself. I want you to think about doing that, seeing that happen to me, or becoming that. I want you to look at me, look me in the eye, the eyes, and all my cuts and bruises. Could you handle feeling that, doing that to someone else. I want you to tell me that you’re okay with all of this.”

Marco looked at his shoulder, and the limp arm dangling. “I want you to hurt me, to hurt me so you can fix me. I need to know that you can take it, because I won’t be the one to break you, and I won’t let you break yourself. If you can’t fix me to fight again, then my dream is done, and I’m not going to let you throw your life away over a pipe dream.”

Marco looked Adonis into the eyes again. “Can you do this?”

Adonis knew that Marco was just looking out for him and he knew that he was worried that Adonis wouldn't be able to handle it. Killing people.... Adonis had to be truthful with himself about what he wanted to do and he knew that he shouldn't be doing something like this. He knew that there were going to be people who would come after him for what he did to Tristan and that he had to live with it for as long as he could live. Broken.... Wasn't he already broken? He actually laughed at a headless Colin and he hardly felt bad about it.

Adonis glanced at Marco more clearly and he let out a small sigh of exhaustion. "If I didn't want to do this, I would have walked away from you, Marco. Heck, I would have let Colin kill you and then I would have run back to Myles like a complete coward." He said honestly and he was taking this more seriously than he thought he would. He was kind of scaring himself. Had he always secretly felt this much disgust and anger towards his classmates? "I want to do this, Marco. This is my choice and I want to stick with it. I know you are worried about my state of mind and let's be honest, I think I've always had something wrong with me deeply."

He glanced away from Marco to look at the ocean for a second or so and then he looked back at Marco with a sincere smile on his blood-smeared face.

"What's the point in trying to the right thing anymore? If I make mistakes, I have to own up to it, right? I killed Tristan because I wanted to kill someone, Marco. Doesn't that make me a bad person in the first place?"

Well shit.

They were one in the same weren’t they? They knew who they really were, they knew what they were meant to be. Marco smiled. He beamed. It was one thing to be living your dream, to act out an apocalypse you always wished would happen, but it’s nothing compared to living it out with a friend. Someone who not only understands you, but agrees with you. He’s spent his whole life alone with nothing but enemies, the closest ones he could call friends were his rivals. Marco’s eye trailed over to Colin again. Not anymore. Never again would he be alone.

Never again would it be just him versus the world. Now it was him AND Adonis versus the world, and Marco was truly, honestly certain that they could win. They were about to open the motherfucking Lament Configuration. They would become the heralds of the apocalypse, the cenobites of carnage. Marco felt himself laugh at imagining that. Kings of a new era. There were no rules in the world of Anarchy, except one. Bow to your new kings. Oh you’d know they’d bow too. One way or another they’d bow. The Kings will get theirs.

No, they will.

“Alright. You wanna be the bad guy too?” Marco smiled nodding his head. “Very well, we’ll burn this island to the ground, we’ll-“

Marco paused and stepped back.

“Ow.”

Throughout all the daydreaming and visions of the carnage to come, Marco had forgotten all about his shoulder. He should probably put his arm back in his socket, yeah?

“Err, yeah. We’ll fuck shit up. But first I gotta ask you another favor.”

Marco looked at his shoulder, then Adonis. Then his shoulder again. Then Adonis. He hoped that this would have good hurt and not bad hurt.

“Can you relocate my shoulder? Colin kinda fucked it up...”

Adonis glanced at Marco and he winced slightly as he thought about it. Body parts getting dislocated was never a fun thing and Adonis had done it himself a few times in the past. Lachlan had done it once or twice and Adonis had to help him out with that as well. Just thinking of Lachlan was hurting and he knew that his family would never forgive him for what he was doing. Did they even know that he was here? Maybe not. He hoped that they would be able to move on without him in their lives.

"Colin was really a tough opponent. He really did do a number on us and we just have to be more ready next time." He said with a small nod of his head in acknowledgement and he placed his hand gently on Marco's shoulder. "I should be able to do this as I had to do it for my brother a few times."

He felt his eyes cloud over for a moment and he thought the sad thoughts out of his head. He couldn't get distracted anymore. He had to be in the now with Marco.

"Are you ready?"

“Colin’s the toughest one I’ve fought here. There’s not much more like him who can fight like that.”

It was a relief that Adonis knew what he was doing. He was the literal antithesis to Arjen. Someone who’s competent, someone capable, someone who gave a fuck!

Adonis asked him if he was ready. The answer was no, but he said “Go for it.” This shit was gonna hurt, and not in the good way. “Just warn me when you-“

>Fist Of The North Star pressure point buzzing ear rape edition intensified

>Begin hidebu.exe

>Begin scream in pain.exe

...


...

>Scream.exe failed. No mouth detected. Rebooting.

>Rebooting...

>Scream.exe failed.

>Begin whimper.winrar.

Adonis had been hearing Marco scream a lot and it make him felt more awkward as he had done it so suddenly to put his shoulder back into place. It normally wasn't like this when he had done it to Lachlan and he knew that Marco was nothing like his brother. Marco was more fragile and Adonis knew that Marco would possibly get mad if he heard that from his mouth. This was not the time for him to fantasize about the boy in front of him and he glanced at Marco's shoulder, making sure that it was back in place.

"Hey, Marco. I'm done." Adonis said as he looked at Marco's face and he kinda looked like he was a bit out of it. "Sorry for doing it out of the blue like that. It's better to do it quickly, even when that person is still talking. Haha."

He coughed, tasting a bit of blood in his mouth again and he knew that he had to take care of himself as well.

"You okay....? Wait, sorry. Dumb question. H-Heh...!" He was now grinning like a dumb idiot and he wondered what the hell he was even doing anymore.

He moved his hand up to Marco's cheek and he just watched the other boy, feeling like he shouldn't have done that.

"I hope that I didn't hurt you too much, Marco. It still scares me. Just screaming like that. It sends a shiver down my spine."

“I’m fine... Don't worry about me. I’m doing fine.”

So pulling it out was one thing. Putting his shoulder back into its socket was a whole new world of shit. Marco was really not expecting that shit to happen with Colin, but in hindsight he really should have. They’ve fought before and Marco knew what he was capable of, he should have known better. He’d have to go against people who he wasn’t sure of, ones with as many or more kills than him.

If he was alone, he would have died. Even if he somehow hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to set his arm into place. This wasn’t just some bossfight. This shit was a reality check.

Marco rolled his shoulder, feeling the aches. This was gonna be a constant hurt. Chances were it’d get dislocated again. Marco took the time to breath before speaking again.

“We’ll be hearing a lot of screaming before this is over.” Marco winced, opening and closing his hand. “Where was I?” Marco rolled his shoulder through the pain, feeling a satisfying pop that sent waves to his fingertips through his arm. “Oh yeah, I remember.”

He grasped Adonis’ hand between his. “We’re gonna make this island burn. Everyone on it is going to know who we are, and what we’re about to do. Even if we don’t win, people will remember us. We’ll still fuck shit up. We’ll still have fun.”

“You ready to cause the apocalypse?”

Adonis was sure that he should have backed out of this when Marco had given him the chance and now there was no way he could turn back now. This was what he wanted to do and even if everyone saw him as more as a selfish monster. Then that was what he was going to be for them and if it made Emmett more devastated.... Then Adonis wasn't going to feel guilty about his actions as Emmett never gave a flying shit about him and he had ruined the best night of his life. He knew that he was petty to think about that night but....

"Of course." He said simply with a nod in agreement with the other boy and he really wanted to clean himself up suddenly. He had to look less threatening to other people if they wanted to play it smart and he wondered about Catherine for a moment. What was Marco going to do about her? His friend? Would he take her out as well? Adonis was going to have to wait for the time to come to that.

"Now, I think I need to clean all this blood off of me, use some things from the first aid kit for my face and put on some new clothes." His hand was still grasped by Marco's and he felt himself trying not to be an awkward idiot that wanted to stutter around Marco like a weirdo with a silly crush. It's not like they could do anything about it. Adonis was sure that both of them were gonna die anyway. There was no way that either of them would make it to the end and he was strangely okay with that. "We'll make them remember us.... We will...."

They would remember them wouldn’t they? This was certainly a new start. Marco nodded back. Adonis had to clean himself off, that’s fine. Marco needed to gather his belongings anyways and formulate some sort of method of fucking shit up. “Alrighty, you clean yourself off, and I’ll guard you, then we can switch.”

They had all day anyways. It was probably time for Marco to clean himself off as well, the last time he did was two days ago. Marco let go of Adonis’ hands and turned to look at the beach. There was the body of Colin, bags strewn everywhere, some blood, a beached jellyfish. The first thing Marco did was grab his chainsaw as he wandered around the beach, taking periodic stops to look at the tree line, or look at Adonis.

He wandered over to where Colin knocked the fuck out of him and saw the splashes of blood, the knocked out clip on fangs that cut up his lips and gums on the way out. His glasses. They were broken. Fuck. The lens was cracked, and the frame was split in two, they weren’t serviceable. Marco picked up the half with his lens and wandered over to the jellyfish.

He tore a piece of its shirt off and laid it to the side, before putting the lens on the ground. The last bag was two small to burst open on someone’s face, so he’d have to add something. Marco crushed the glass beneath his boot, before taking the cloth, and wrapping it around the sand and glass mixture, tying it tight. This one would burst on impact, definitely.

He put the glass bomb in his pocket as he continued to patrol the beach, and occasionally watch Adonis.

Adonis had never felt more strangely at ease about their situation and he almost bit down on his lower lip before realizing that it had be bruised and split a bit from when Colin had hit him. Now he knew that he had to worry about the blood that had trailed down under his shirt and he was sure that some of Colin's blood was mixed in as well. It all felt so normal to him now and he felt like he wanted to laugh once more. He really was more fragile-minded than he thought and now he had to keep himself sane for as long as he could.

Adonis remembered that he has a bottle of shampoo that he had stolen from the hotel on the trip and he remembered the thrill and excitement of doing something that he shouldn't. Now he was getting that same feeling all over again and he didn't want it to go away until he knew that he was finished. He stripped off all of his clothes expect for his boxers as he felt self-conscious about Marco's eyes being on him a few times and he walked pass Arjen's corpse and Colin's head to get to the water to get to cleaning and refreshing himself.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

He was feeling a bit better later and he didn't smell as bad as he had beforehand. The smell of blood was still lingering in the air and he knew that it didn't matter. He could smell the horrid scent of Arjen's body more clearly and he almost felt like gagging from it. But now was not the time for that and he had to focus on guarding Marco. He found himself staring a little too much at Marco than actually doing his job and he felt like a creep for watching Marco too much.

His nose had definitely been broken and he had tried to clean away the blood as best as he could and his lip had finally stopped bleeding as well. His hair was still wet and dripping a little onto his new white shirt that he had replaced with the other bloody shirt that he had thrown away. He didn't bother with the orange and yellow ones as he would have been more noticeable in those shirts and he wanted to try to be smarter about things. He was still wearing his red sneakers and he had put on a pair of black jeans to complete the set. He was-

He felt a stab of pain from his stomach area and then he remembered that Colin had bruised him pretty badly there. He didn't realize at the time of their fight that Colin must have broken a rib or two in the process and Adonis was sure that he was going to notice more bruising in that area as time went on. He had taken some pills to try to dull the pain and it wasn't gone yet.

He put a hand against his stomach gently and he slowly lowered himself to sit down on the sand, feeling his eyes wandering around the area cautiously and then they were back to staring at what Marco was doing.

Second time Marco was cleaning himself off on this island. Twice in five days wasn’t a good habit, hygiene was important, and he needed to keep his wounds as clean as possible. Also, he didn’t like smelling rank as fuck. Fucking humidity.

Why did it have to be some tropical far cry looking island? Why couldn’t it have been some colder slav shit sov bloc, or like a place with working electricity and running water? Why’d they have to get stuck with this Viet Cong ass Jim Jones no plumbing in the houses at all middle ages hippy hole? Shit sucked. It was pretty, but it sucked and smelled sucky. No matter where you go now, you smell dead people.

Also, salt water stung. Soap did too, but Marco felt particles all over his body each time he cleaned himself off here. Also he always felt like he was being watched, though at least this time his ogler wasn’t gonna try to steal his chainsaw like last time. Marco didn’t mind being watched though. Admittedly he’d look a lot better without all the scars and bruises, but some people are into that sort of thing. Maybe Adonis was into that sort of thing; hue hue hue.

Speaking of Adonis, Marco wondered if he was okay. Like really okay. Marco knew that Adonis wasn’t as mentally all there as he used to be, but he wondered if he was physically okay. Marco didn’t want his body to break as much as his he didn’t want his mind to break.

There was also the fact that Marco had his own way of doing this. His way of playing wasn’t just playing, he had a set of standards, rules that he had to follow. Sure, some were going to be broken just by Adonis being there, but there were specific lines he wouldn’t cross. Adonis wouldn’t break them either, if Marco could do anything about it.

Marco finished up and dried off. He wiped what remained of the makeup away from his face, before ruffling his hair with his fingers.

He kept the same boots, but changed his underwear and socks, along with any bandages that needed it. He checked his new stitches around his ribs, and he was sure he did alright.

His new wardrobe consisted of dark blue skinny jeans, and his white Dead Kennedy’s Nazi Punks Fuck Off T-shirt, with the same studded belt, and red suspenders as before, only this time he was actually wearing the suspenders instead of letting them dangle at his waist. He tied his checkered bandanna around his left ankle to finish off his new look. It was a lot brighter than his usual attire, and like the nonconformist he was, it was against the schools dress code (despite never actually wearing it around on the trip at all.) Still, bright clothes plus blood was a good combo, some tasteful jets of blood would really make the splatterpunk skinhead aesthetic really pop.

Marco sat down next to Adonis, laying his chainsaw next to him in case anyone showed up. “So, how you holding up? We haven’t talked in a while, and I don’t think we ever got to really catch up before Colin came and fucked our shit up. How’d the island treat you?”

Adonis still had his hand lightly touching the fabric of his shirt near his stomach area and he glanced at Marco who was now sitting beside him. Now they could get back to talking without any interruptions from someone trying to be heroic and Adonis would appreciate the break from not getting into a fight again so soon. He rather just rest himself up and he realized that he was still hungry. He still hadn't eaten anything and he didn't want Marco to know for some reason. Was he being foolish for not taking care of his health? Of course he knew that it was bad that he was not eating food and he didn't want puke it up back up.

"Well, you know.... What I said about Tristan before Colin.... yeah...." Adonis said with a small, shaky breath and he was trying to make himself feel more relaxed beside the other boy. "Also got robbed by Brandon the other day and he was holding Myles hostage.... I didn't want Myles to die so I gave him Tristan's bag. Not that it mattered since we heard the gunshots that killed Brandon. Didn't know that it was Zach.... Heh... I wonder what he's doing now."

He paused in speaking and he winced slightly when he moved his sitting position. He definitely felt like something was broken.

"I didn't really do that much. Just a lot of walking and stuff and feeling sad and guilty..." Adonis let out a soft chuckle and his eyes were focusing more on Marco's face clearly. "What about you? I mean, Ariana...? What happened there? I know that you got your revenge on...." He give a small nod towards Arjen's body. "....Arjen. I haven't seen Catherine at all. Just wanted you to know as she's your friend...."

He wondered if Marco would hesitate to kill Catherine if they ever run into her. Would he hesitate with Emmett as well? With Declyn? Lorenzo? Axel? Zach? Many other people on the island?

You don't want to hurt Myles, do you, Adonis? You just hope that someone else would take him out. You don't want to look him in the eyes if you find him again.... You don't want to feel anything for him. But you do, you do.... Myles had got into your head just like Marco. You can't tell Marco that. EVER.

“I’m not mad at Catherine. She’s fine if I see her.” Marco had almost forgotten about her after he’d scared her off after she helped untie him from the tree. “I’m not killing everyone I see, just the people that have it coming.”

“Case in point Ariana. I was minding my own business when she came out of nowhere. Started making demands, insulting me, acting all smug and shit. Bet she felt invincible then, hiding behind a gun. She didn’t see me as a threat, she thought it’d end up like that stupid party. It didn’t. I took her gun away, and her arm, and then I handed them back to her, and she wasn’t invincible then. Couldn’t even find the strength to shoot me until my back was turned, the coward. Her friends are even weaker, can’t wait to kill them all. I hope they’re hunting me, but they’re probably not. Probably hiding scared to be honest.”

Marco pointed to Colin’s remains. “Of all the people, he’s the only one I have any respect for. I let him live the first time went I sent that dead bitch over there into the ocean.” Marco pointed to the soggy cadaver on the beach that didn’t rate a name. “We fought for about an hour after I got rid of that spineless amoeba. Least it felt like we did. I won though, took his ear and let him live. Wanted to fight him again. Guess I got my wish.”

Marco leaned his head back and closed his eyes, chuckling. “I haven’t seen the fuckers who gave me a fucking diavolo pupil in one eye. Saw a few other people though. All of them sucked, ‘cept one group. Actually had a decent conversation with them last night, but I didn’t stick around because we’re on opposite teams.”

He brushed his hands through his hair. “Got no regrets though.” He put his chainsaw into his lap as he pulled out his makeup kit. “There’s a method to my madness, and everything I’ve done, I can justify myself even if nobody else can. Got rules, you know?” Marco began marking another tally on This Machine, that makes three now. “I don’t kill the helpless, I’m not running around killing everyone hiding in a corner solely because they committed the crime of existing, like Quinn or Erika, I kill only the ones who are capable of fighting back, with the exception of one, who let’s be honest, I was committing a public service in getting rid of him, his very presence was harmful to anyone within a sixty foot radius of him due to his babydicked incompetency. The people I kill were looking for a fight. Sure they might’ve been unprepared and expected me to be an easy win, but that just proves my point further in that they deserved what they got. I don’t do anything unnecessary when I kill either. No rapes, no making trophies or tying someone down to torture them, no sick-fuck shit from me. I haven’t robbed no one.”

Marco pulled the saw from his lap. “I’m rambling again, but those are my rules. I expect you to follow them too if you’re sticking with me. We’re warriors, even if nobody else wants to admit it. There’s nothing wrong with lying, ganging up, or playing dirty in a game like this, but there is a lot of things wrong with being a nasty fuck. We’re not nasty fucks. We kill nasty fucks. I kill nasty fucks.”.

Marco turned to face Adonis. “Sure, I’m a thrill killer, and I guess that makes me a bit of a hypocrite, but I kill for the fight, the risk to win it all or lose it all.I don’t kill just to inflict pain on the helpless to compensate for some shit ass weakbody insecurities. I fight for my pain, not theirs, and I take pride in that.”

Marco leaned his head back and sighed, smiling. “Yep. Ramblin... Alrighty let’s change the subject real quick while we got time. Want any food or anything? I’m sure Colin left us something. Any other stuff you wanna talk about?”

Adonis was silent the whole time that Marco was talking and he nodded a few times inbetween his words. Okay, Adonis understood what Marco meant by his rules and that they should just take care of the people that deserved it. Ariana's death kinda made sense in a way and Adonis didn't think he could really judge Marco for his actions with her. He honestly didn't know what to say anymore. He felt like the island had made him more quieter and he wondered if he was really not the confident, flirty guy before everything. He still felt like something was missing from him.

"I'll make sure to follow those rules, of course." Adonis said with a reassuring smile and he still felt like something was wrong. Ignore it. You're fine, Adonis. You're fine, fine, fine, fine, fine.. "So you get a thrill from the fighting and the killing? Even when Colin was beating the crap out of me and it hurt like hell; I felt something. Not arousal or some perverted stuff like that. I'm not really sure what it was. But I did feel some strange reaction to it all."

Adonis didn't know why he was being so open about all of this with Marco. But Marco was telling him a lot of what had been happening with him and Adonis felt like he owed him for that. Was there anything else that he wanted to talk about? What was there to talk about? How even if they were killing each other; Adonis had some stupid growing feeling for Marco AND Myles?

"I...." Adonis trailed off and he frowned slightly, feeling a bit lost for words. "I really am crazy. Because I like...."

He couldn't say it because he didn't know what the hell he was doing anymore. He really was messed-up in the head, wasn't he?

“You’re not crazy. Not here anyways.” Marco tapped his fingers along the engine block. “Crazy is just another word for not fitting in. Here, everyone’s crazy except for the so called sane, who are the minority now. You’d be crazy if you tried to pretend that things could still be normal.”

Marco smiled. “Besides, everyone feels something when they’re fighting for their lives. The people who don’t are bullshitting or sociopaths. Everyone feels the same thing from it, I’m pretty sure, it’s just they have different reactions to it, it’s not an everyday thing for us to experience something like that.” He chuckled. “Y’know, if I was born in a different era, I think people would call me heroic. If I was a Viking, or a Gaul or something, I’d fit right in.”

“I know you’re uncertain with what you’re feeling though and I get it. You feel things and you think it’s wrong or somethings wrong and you don’t know what to do with all of the information your body’s processing, but that’s the thing. There’s nothing wrong. You’re human, you feel things. It’s just nowadays we’re groomed to feel bad about certain normal human reactions. Everyone has to feel the same and be the same. You’re not wanted if you’re different, but the funny thing is everyone is. Everyone feels the same emotions, but we try to block them because we’re not supposed to allegedly, that we have some sort of mental discrepancies going on.”

Marco put his hand on Adonis’ shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Really, we’re no different from anyone else, besides from the fact that we’re honest with ourselves. We don’t try to pretend to be something we’re not.”