Survival Of The Fittest

((Sorry bout the break in PO, but since I'll be away, I'm getting Brendan out early))

Ray took a sheet, but Brendan took the responsibility of "separating" the bodies.

It wasn't an easy task. Even though they were still only recently deceased, they were still...indescribable words seem to pop up in Brendan's subconcious, but...he didn't know if anyone else would actually have the guts to do it, he sure as hell didn't, but it didn't seem like there was any other choice in the matter.

Resting his hands upon the spear protruding from Charlotte's corpse, he tugged. It moved a bit. He sure as hell wasn't about to care about the thoughts going through the other people's heads. He was used to not caring at that point in his life. After a few more tugs, it exited her body, still as bloody as the time spent inside it.

With an attempt at delicacy, he put his hands with an air of uncertainty underneath her chest. It wasn't like holding someone, with the abscence of breathe or movement on their behalf. Brendan rolled Charlotte onto her back, right next to the girl beneath her. Standing back, he took the sheet he placed on the floor behind him, unfurled it, and covered Charlotte.

As soon as everything was said and done, he stood back. The fact was still dawning on him that he was probably the only one on the island who'd thought of burying, or even showing the slightest amount of respect to the more recently departed. It helped him.

...this is helping me. It's reminding me that I haven't lost myself yet. Show this little amount of respect, and then resolve yourself.

((Also breaking post order to exit thread and help Inky along – he's going to be away and he and I agreed to do something with our characters. Sorry Xylophone.))

Sarah felt gentle hands around her, guiding her further into the clinic. In her half-fugue state, she could hear gentle words being spoken to her, but couldn't quite make out what they were.

There was something else she had to do. Something important. She'd forgotten something.

She took one last glance over her shoulder, looking at her half-open bag with the bottles in it. The boys with the sheets blocked her view from the bodies somewhat. Her cutlass swung a little, cloth scabbard poking against her leg. She looked down at the floor, then noticed something sparkling on her wrist.

Rubies.

Sapphire had given her rubies and she'd promised she'd be back by sundown. The girls must be worried sick by now. She remembered the scene that had just played in front of her eyes. It could have happened anywhere and to anyone. She needed to go back. She had to stop them from fighting each other!

"The lighthouse!" Sarah cried out suddenly.

She wrenched herself out of Bobby's grip, ran past the two boys with the sheets and scrambled for her bag, cutting her hands a little on the glass that surrounded it. Ignoring the pain and the cries of the boys warning her against dangerzones (if they did), she broke into a mad dash for the door.

Few people could match Sarah's initial high speeds when she was stressed or frightened. Within moments, she was out the door and running along the road back to the lighthouse.

((Sarah Tan continued on in Pearl and Destiny))

Neill glanced up as Brendan and Ray tasked themselves with covering the bodies over with sheets; a good idea. A necessary idea. He'd watched, curiously, series' of the programme in which they were now entwined and seen how they ignored their classmates' bodies, leaving them to rot in the sun. That was one of the things he'd never quite understood: how they could do that. Even now, in the same situation, he couldn't just leave them. None of them could. Considering this, Neill became aware that Bobby was motioning towards him. Pushing himself back to his feet, his back sliding up the wall now, he walked in his direction, looking hopelessly at Sarah with no idea how to talk to her: what to say. He'd dealt with grief in only the most cursory of circumstances, he'd only been four when his grandfather had died, and he was the only relative who had done. His friend's Dad had died in middle school, but that was different somehow. He had never been present in its rawest stage, shock, before.

Nodding, focussing on the present, as Bobby talked to him about staying here for the night, which made sense really. It was comfortable here, there were beds. In fact, he'd woken up in a room full of them. Neill pushed his hair, too long, off his forehead to get some much needed cooler air to it. The room was stuffy, smelling mettalic from the blood, and it wasn't too long before the bodies (that was the easiest way to think of them, objects, not people) would begin to decay.

"Yeah," he said, still nodding lamely. "The room I woke up in... it was a ward. We could hole up there for the night or something..." Neill said trailing off nervously. The thought of sleeping in a room with other people didn't fill him with the greatest of feelings, especially after seeing how quickly Jaclyn and Charlotte apparently had turned on each other while they were out of the room. He couldn't quite bring himself to trust these people. Shaking visibly, Neill started to head towards the door, walking dreamily in a staggered line. He turned to face Bobby, just as Sarah wrenched herself out of his grip, shouting something about the lighthouse. Open mouthed, Neill watched her run. He could run fast when he needed to (the moment with Monty Pondsworth in the canteen was brought to mind), but she was a contender.

Unable to bring himself to move, Neill watched her go.

From Brendans postition, he could hear vague mumblings from the other end of the room. Bobby, Neill, and Sarah all talking about something, before Sarah suddenly screamed about the lighthouse and ran off out the back.

While he was making sure that the bodies were covered, standing up there with Ray looking down on them, there was a little part of his mind that told him something was wrong.

Well, at least she knows where she wants to go. She probably has friends there or something.

But then, just that moment, he remembered. The announcement. He had a great understanding of how this game was played, mostly from reading stuff about it online on wikipedia and several fansites he'd been linked. Every day, after the dead were announced but before the Best Kill Award (fuck you Danya, seriously, fuck you) there were parts of the island that were now lethal. The danger zones.

So what were the three danger zones this time? There was the Greens, which encompassed a lot of area south of where he was, the Groundskeeper Hut, which included the area around a small hut also to his south, and...

...The Lighthouse.

Brendan's eyes went wide when he realised where she was heading. She musn't of heard the announcement, and now was walking right to her death.

Before he knew it, he was sprinting back through the hospital, back to his original room. Barging through the door, he collected everything he had, including the sex-doll which he was not sure why he was still carrying, and ran back to the room.

He was just about to leave out the same door Sarah chose to leave when he turned around and faced all three of them, who were likely wondering what the hell he was doing.

"She's heading to the lighthouse. I don't think she heard the announcement, and now she's gonna head straight into a danger zone. I don't know if any of you want to help, but don't. I," Brendan unzipped his bag and pulled out his Taurus "Can defend myself. I don't know about what weapons you got, but I'm pretty sure I have the best. I'm sorry for leaving, again, but you guys keep doing what you're doing. Ray," he turned to Ray "Sorry for lying to you, I didn't think you'd trust me if I showed you this any sooner. You two," he turned to the other two guys in the room "I'd stay with that idea you had Neil, no matter what I said. Just stay safe. Goodbye now."

And with that, Brendan ran out the back entrance of the infirmary. Not stopping for anything, he pulled out his map, and found his new location on the map - The Lighthouse, and he knew he could cut her off at the Warehouses before it.

With one goal in mind, putting aside all others, he ran faster than he'd ever run. He wasn't about to fail again.

((Brendan Wallace continues in Pearl and Destiny))

Mercifully, Brendan was the one who volunteered himself to separate the two bodies. That was probably one step more than Ray was willing to go, and the wrestler almost felt ashamed of himself for it. People around the deceased owed it, in their duty as human beings.

You expect someone to do the same for you when they top you off?

He was quick enough to follow suit with the sheet, though, tossing it over the white-haired girl, Jaclyn, and taking care to make sure it covered every inch of her body. If he could help it, no one else would have to see the aftermath of what had happened here.

As he was adjusting the sheet around Jaclyn's body, he heard Sarah shout and then run out of the infirmary, so fast he wondered briefly if the girl had ever tried out for track or something else with a lot of running. It dawned him about as quickly as it did on Brendan that she was running into one of the danger zoned places they had announced on the the PA. Ray touched his own collar, remembering what the stifling little thing would do to anyone caught in the zone. Brendan was the quickest on the draw, and Ray was almost startled by what he pulled out. Something way more effective than that blow-up doll he'd shown earlier.

While Ray was disturbed by Brendan's little lie to him, he couldn't fault him for it. In his position, Ray probably would have done the same thing. Who could anyone trust straight away in this situation?

Ray didn't say anything to Brendan as he stated his intentions to go after Sarah. He just nodded solemnly, while mentally wishing him good luck. Going to save someone's life was as strong an argument as any that these students were humans and not cold fucking murderers.

Once Brendan was gone, Ray bent over and gingerly picked up the spear that had formerly occupied Charlotte's body, trying to avoid the blood until he could find something to wipe it with. He knew fuck-all about using a spear, but it was better than that bottle he'd been given in his own pack.

Ray stepped back from the bodies and turned to Bobby. "You got a prayer, let's hear it." Ray wasn't particularly religious, but the way he figured it, they; all of them, the whole class, needed all the help they could get.

Sure, he could pray. There was ever a time to bow a head in reverence, it was now.

Neill's reaction filled him with hope. They were all going to get through this. They were comfortable where they were, it was a place that could be defended, and was a logical place for people to head, so there wouldn't be a shortage of allies.

Still, as he was about to help Sarah through into the ward area, she struggled free and ran off. She was nervous, excitable, scared. He was supposed to be looking after her, and she ran off. And he didn't move to stop her. It wasn't until Brendan was gone too, telling everybody else to stay behind, that he even began to react.

He tried to rationalise it. With his knee he'd never be able to chase after anybody. What had he been supposed to do? Wrestle her to the ground to stop her leaving? But still, he had to recognise just how impotent he was becoming on the island. He'd tried to befriend Owen, and had lost him. Charlotte and Petrushka were both dead. His friends were killing people, and now both Sarah and Brendan had run off, presumably to their own demises. And here he was, still trying to think that everybody was going to get through this and be OK.

He realised now exactly how false a hope that was. Even if he did make it out of this alive, he'd never be the same. Nobody who was on this island would. What was going to happen to him? How much longer did he have before...?

It was Ray who plucked him from his reverie. Of course there was something that he could do here, and now. Maybe not for everybody, but just something to show that he was going to keep a part of himself, despite his ordeal. He bowed his head.

"Heavenly Father, we commend unto Thee the spirits of our friends. Charlotte Cave and Jaclyn." He paused, unable to remember the other girls last name. He took a breath and continued. "May You look after them in their death, may You grant them peace everlasting." The words were little, but he found himself growing in strength just from speaking to God. "We thank Thee for Thy protection, and ask that You look over us in our time of trials. Not just those gathered here, but all of Thy children, both on this island, and those in peril throughout Your creation. We thank Thee for the blessings that you have given unto us, both in Your name and those of Your Son, Jesus Christ. In the name of The Father, and The Son, and of The Holy Spirit, Amen."

Feeling reassured and strengthened, he turned to his companions. "Thanks for being here with me for that. Now what do we do?"

Despite having never been religious, Neill bowed his head along with Bobby, taking the opportunity to close his eyes. He didn't want to look at this scene any more; he didn't want to see the bodies covered with white sheets that barely hid what had happened before. He didn't want to see the infirmary, the island, the reminders of what was going on. It was morning, they had talked and fought and died throughout the first night, and from the sounds of things, theirs hadn't been a unique experience. He was barely aware of what Bobby was saying, only knew that it didn't apply to him, but looked up when he said amen.

"Amen," Neill murmured, trying to be respectful. For the first time in his life he wished he was religious, that he had something to fall bsck on. He'd never been scared of death or what came after simply because he'd never needed to (though that incident in the canteen with Monty Pondsworth had brought him close), but he found himself wondering what would happen. An eternal darkness, perhaps, his mind floating but never percieving. Or just... nothing? Atheism sucked.

"I want to get out of here, out of this room I mean," Neill replied to Bobby, motioning unnecessarily towards the bodies on the floor and shuddering again, an image of Jaclyn's face being eaten by maggots popping into his head, an image that he couldn't get to go away. He turned to the door and twisted it, stepping out into the corridor just beyond; he could see the stairs; up there was the ward. That seemed like a safe place, a memorable place. Most kids remember the first place they learnt to ride a skateboard, and that was his. He pointed down the corridor, stood just outside the doorway. "Up there's where I woke up. There're beds and a bathroom and other survival things up there. I'd be more than happy to go there for a bit..."

((Uh oh, dangerzone, we should probably wrap this up quickly...))

Ray bowed his head along with Neill and Bob, trying his damnedest to keep his head clear of any thoughts except for Robert's words. Difficult when so much had happened, when the prayer they were saying was for the passing of two fellow students. He'd have been lying if he said it wasn't hard.

"Amen." Ray said, the word feeling unfamiliar but somewhat comforting. He'd went to church only a handful of times in his life, and every time he'd felt awkward, just wondering when it would end. This impromptu elegy by Robert wasn't like that. It was calming, gave the wrestler something to hang on to.

He looked down at the spear in his hand, at the blood of the two forms on the ground, and he almost lost his nerve, almost wanted to set the spear next to the two. But he couldn't. He was damned if he'd give up an actual weapon, and double-damned if he was going to pull back the sheet and get an eyeful of the corpses again. Then he really WOULD have lost his nerve.

Ray nodded for Neill's idea. "Yeah...Yeah, we can go up there. Only plan I had was to not die. Maybe this'll blow over if we wait long enough." He said. He didn't believe himself, especially not while still looking at the sheets.

((Should we finish our posts, do a timeskip to morning and get the hell out?))

((All godmoding pre-approved))

Bobby listened to Neill and Ray. They both looked tired. "OK guys, you go get some sleep. I'll take first watch. I'll wake you, Neill, in a couple of hours, and you can take over while I get a rest. Then Ray, you can take the last part. How does that sound?"

As his companions for the moment made their way to the sleeping area, Bobby looked around the room. While he was acting as lookout, he could make use of his time. He checked the building, seeing what supplies he could scrounge. Mostly medical stuff. He figured it could come in handy for somebody, even if he wasn't trained to properly use any of it. He grabbed some dressings, gauze, what seemed to be painkillers and anti-biotics, and placed them inside his backpack. He even took a few painkillers from his own supply to help with the ache that was beginning to creep its way from his knee to his whole leg.

Avoiding the corpses that were nearby, he found a bathroom and washed himself. It was good to be able to do something normal, even if it was only to wipe the accumulated grime off his face and hands. He took out his contact lenses as well, as they were starting to sting from wearing them for too long, and stared at himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess, his eyes their natural dull brown, bags were forming under his eyes from tiredness, his clothes were dirty. Alone like this, in the dark of night, he really began to fear for himself.

After a few hours of sitting alone near the front door, his nitrogen spray within easy reach in his pocket still, he decided that he'd had enough. He felt himself drifting, and knew he wasn't going to be any good as watchman for any longer. He made his way to the ward and shook Neill gently.

"Hey. Sorry, but I need you to take over. I don't want us to be caught napping. It's been quiet so far, but I don't want to risk anything. Not after yesterday." As Neill moved to take over, he took his jacket off and hung it on a hook he'd found on the door and clambered, half exhausted, into the bed, and drew the sheet around him tightly.

The next thing he was aware of was the scream of the PA system. The morning announcement. Already? How long had he been asleep for? He shook himself awake and tried to force himself to pay attention. Danya made barely a passing mention of the horror he'd seen between Jackie and Charlotte, but Bobby's ears pricked up at the bit after. Rachel had killed. There had to be an explanation, self defence, or an accident. He wished he was there for her, to help her through it. He wished that Danya gave more details about what had happened. But of course he wouldn't. This was propaganda, pure and simple. Make them afraid of each other.

He missed the last of the names. Hopefully somebody would be able to fill him in later if there was anything pertinent. As their captor moved on, Bobby found himself hating the man, real genuine hate. It wasn't something he enjoyed.

To make matters worse, he named the infirmary as a danger zone. That was enough to let Bobby shake off the last of his morning tiredness. He could worry about breakfast later. Now he had to move. He hurriedly got his shoes back on, grabbed his coat and satchel, and ran for the door. "Guys! We need to move!" Sure, they had to have heard as well, but as he made it out of the building, he didn't look back to check. Not this time. Not after what had happened at the hut. This time, he kept on running.

((Bobby Barron cont'd in Going Round in Circles))

After what was, compared to most people's at least, a relatively peaceful day and night at the infirmary, they were stirred up harshly by the announcement. Neill waited for Jaclyn and Charlotte's death report, feeling somewhat detached from them, trying to force the image of their bloodstained bodies from his mind. The first dead people he ever saw, and they got a tfive second mention over the intercom. He didn't know who their friends were: somewhere on the island someone was probably crying for them. This thought was quickly subsided by the fact that the infirmary had become a danger zone.

Clearly they had gotten too comfortable. He wanted to see them on the run, and this was the best way he had to do it. Neill wondered if he had temped fate by suggesting the barricade, but was immediately distracted by Bobby's response. Slower to move, he unfurled his lanky body from where it had been crouched in an on guard position for the last few hours, and looked around for Ray, motioning to him, as already Bobby was streaking off into the distance. Neill looked around; they had gotten fairly comfortable, and he moved to collect his skateboard from where it lay abandoned on the other side of the room, eyeing up the drip stand then deciding to take that as well. Grabbing his satchel, which had already been stuffed with a few last minute collectibles from around the infirmary (a bottle of penicillin, several gauze swabs and bandages, and three packets of out of date codeine tablets).

"Hold up!" Neill shouted after Bobby, running also from the door of the infirmary, wielding the drip stand in a way that he hoped looked imposing to anyone that might be watching them. He felt horrifically exposed, feeling the exterior of the island for the first time. Wind bit at his neck and he pulled his shirt tighter around him, doing up a couple of buttons, stopping for a second to weigh up his options. Bobby was far away, but Neill had nowhere else to go. He shrugged, then decided to follow him.

((Neill Robertson continued in Going Round in Circles))

Ray had been sleeping when the announcement had started up, but he'd been out so lightly a feather landing on his face would've woke him up. As he lay on his back, eyes closed ineffectually against the noise, he took the news with grim silence. More kids dead, more people he'd seen around the halls who'd never make it back home.

This rate maybe you really CAN wait everybody out

Then the announcement about the Infirmary being marked as a danger zone. He sat bolt upright, eyes wide open now, hands scooping up the Goedendag that he had finally found the time to clean off before sleeping. His other hand gently went to the collar chafing his neck. Bob's call compounded the urgency of the news.

The other two boys were already out by the time Ray had stood up and started heading out the door, so he put some hustle into his step. He couldn't see Robert anymore, but Neill was still in sight and heading toward what Ray presumed was Robert's path.

"Keep together, man!" He called after Neill as Ray headed after him, hoping to God or whoever the fuck was in control of all this was watching and being merciful.

((Raymond Dawson continued in Going Round in Circles))