Survival Of The Fittest

All this attention was unfamiliar for Marian.

Well, except for that one time she has said something about how the War on Christmas was real. That day, she had gotten a lot of attention, and she cracked under the pressure.

She wouldn’t be surprised if she did that again.

“Hum, we could,” she looked up at Mitch, her face was wet and cold. Her plastered to her face and her neck from the sweat. “We could…”

She looked back down at Oakley.

“We could make sure that nobody else dies.” She wiped at her face. “By taking off his collar.”

Lúcio inhaled sharply, stone faced. His eyes flicked over to one of the cameras, its black eye menacing over them and staring them all down.

He didn't disagree on principle that they should try to resist the game, but they were ultimately just a bunch of dumb teenagers going up against well-funded—and by all accounts, way too successful—terrorists. They were out of their depth, and better off waiting for rescue. When the military rolled up, the terrorists could hold them all as hostages to get away, but then their rescuers would bail them out, and all of them—or at least, everyone left—could go home.

Only, they couldn't go home if they got blown to bits for being stupid in the meantime. Lúcio knew he wasn't the sharpest knife in the shed, but years of lacrosse meant that he knew a bad play when he saw one. As much as he wanted to say go for it, and as much as it pained him to disagree...

"What, so they can just blow us all up for trying?" Lúcio remarked, gesturing to the camera. "You wanna go for it, then sure, but count me out."

“Oh, no, I’m not going to...”

Molly took a few steps back. To her, it felt like the smell of the body was getting stronger, and Marian’s idea… Lúcio was right on that.

“How’s that going to help? Taking off the collar of the one person who it won’t help? Even if it works… yeah, they’ll just p-pop yours before you can do it to yourself.”

She stopped. She shut her eyes, pressing the palm of her hand to her mouth as she tried to stop herself. The smile was gone now.

“No, just… this is...”

It was stupid and dangerous and there’s no way it’d help, but those words wouldn’t come out.

She was sick of Oakley’s corpse. She wasn’t going to hang around to watch Marian do whatever she was going to do, because she knew it wouldn’t be pretty. It couldn’t be pretty. Oakley blowing up was the best case scenario. And even as Mitch slowly buried him in snow, she could still see Oakley poking through.

“I have to go.”

With that, she turned on her heel and left. Not intending to go far. Just far enough, away from the body. She was reasonably sure Lúcio and Mitch would follow. They’d leave, put Oakley and whatever Marian was going to do to his corpse behind them, find that hole in the ground that Lúcio had talked about, and… and it’d be fine.

It would be fine.

Oakley wouldn’t ruin it.

((Molly Oliveira continued in Dissension.))

Oh...

Mitch gulped.

He had to give Marian credit, he hadn't even considered that. He didn't know the slightest thing about tinkering, or electronics, or... Explosives. The thought of messing around with those collars gave him the shivers.

Then again, he also had to respect Marian's chutzpah for even considering it. A part of him wanted to help, take a much more active role in their escape instead of hiding away somewhere...

But then Lucio and Molly's responses helped defuse that initial excitement, remind him that Marian's suggestion came with some hefty risks. And much as he wanted to go down flipping the bad guys the bird, there were other ways he could help that didn't involve throwing his life away. He still needed to find Steve and Evie, do what he can to prevent more Oakleys. But he couldn't do that if he got his collar blown.

And nor could he do that whilst hiding away in a hole.

"Look..." he says, looking Marian in the eyes. "I wish I could help you there, I really do, but... I got friends I need to find. I can't take that risk, not yet."

"Still, if you really think you've got a shot at pulling this off..." he continues, forcing a grin and giving her a thumbs up. "Then you've got my approval, bro. Got bigger cojones than any of us, that's for sure."

He gets up and looks to Lucio, seeing that Molly was already trying to get as far away as possible. He couldn't exactly blame them for wanting to lay low, hell trying to find somewhere quiet to hide was probably the smart thing to do. Too bad he wasn't that smart, then.

"Lucio... I got some things I need to do, people I need to find. I don't think I can just sit idly and let the Oakleys keep piling up, not when Steve and Evie are still out there."

He steps forward and offers a manly handshake before he left. "Find somewhere safe for you and Molly, I'll be back with friends soon enough, you'll see"

Watching Molly walk away, Mitch pulled back and looked down at Oakley, half buried beneath the snow. No point burying the rest of him if Marian had something planned, and he didn't want to ask what exactly she had in mind for him. With a deep breath he would head over to lift up his digging bar, taking one last look back at the Oliveiras before giving them a salute fairwell.

"Adeus" he says, before then heading off in the opposite direction, following the other set of footprints in the snow leading away from Oakley's cold form.

((Mitch McDuffy continued in Disposable Teens))

Great.

She had fucked the dog.

She looked at everyone dispersing like rats under a spotlight, and Marian felt a tinge of violence raising in her. She wanted to put her hands on someone, and wring it out of their necks. It was stupid. She never had liked any of her classmates anyways. They were all self-entitled assholes who wanted to do nothing except further their own stupid goals in life.

"W-well! Then- then bye!"

Marian crossed her arms, huffing.

"You people suck anyways."

Lúcio glanced between his fleeing sister and the departing Mitch, cursing under his breath at himself for not keeping everyone together.

"Don't you die, Mitch!" he shouted after him.

He looked back to the direction Molly was running off to, then back to Marian. He closed his eyes, grimaced, and looked at her with a quiet intensity.

"I gotta catch up with my sister. You can come along too, if you want. Whatever happens, don't die, okay?"

((Then Lúcio gathered his belongings, gave Marian one final wave, and dashed after Molly.))

"Go fuck yourself too."