Survival Of The Fittest

Lulu realized that some people were staying up while some people slept. Lauren, Carson and Anna appeared to be awake and didn't seem to be sleeping any time soon. It was kind of comforting actually.

Lulu slid her black glasses off her face and folded them up. She could barely see. Everything was more or less a blur. If someone wanted to, they could smash her glasses while she slept and Lulu would be as good as dead. It was a scary thought.

She glanced around, trying to figure out where to put it. If she put it in her pack, it could get smashed by the other things in there. If she put it close to her body as she slept, she could roll over and squash them. Of course, she doubted they would break, but Lulu didn't want to chance it. She finally decided to set them at the base of a tree trunk nearby.

Lying her head down on her pack, she stared up at the tree tops above and listened to the other's conversations. They were just talking about sleeping, which in turn, made Lulu more sleepy. Brushing some dark red hair away from her face, her eyelids drooped until she finally fell asleep. After a few minutes, she started to softly snore.

Home. That's where Amanda's dreams took her, and there was nowhere she'd rather be. Sadly, her subconscious was not about to let her sleep peacefully. Not now, and probably not ever again.

~~~~
The loud, monotonous buzzer of Amanda's alarm clock rang through her head, and an arm shot out from underneath the covers, bringing its fist down on the screaming machine until it finally shut up. The teen pushed herself up into a sitting position, turning off the alarm before the snooze ran out, and pulled herself out of bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with one hand. Her bare feet trod across the thin carpet, taking her to her bathroom across the hall.

Twenty minutes later, Amanda Redder hurried down the stairs, pulling on her waterproof coat, zipper catching twice as she hurried to get it on. "Ok, guys. I'm off." Her mother grunted a good-bye, still half-asleep herself. Amy's father wouldn't be up for another couple hours on his day off, so she wouldn't see him until she got back from the senior trip.

Don't think I'll need my backpack... There was supposed to be a daypack provided, so Amy didn't grab anything as she buckled on her helmet, and pulled her bike out the front door.
~~~~

"Bye, Mom..." Amanda mumbled in her sleep, turning onto her side.

Carson smiled. "Nah, it's okay, I got a fair bit of sleep earlier and I'm kinda bored."

Carson sighed. "It's a shame that we're essentially only prolonging the inevitable here. I don't plan on doing any more killing than I absolutely have to, but I'm probably one of the only ones in that boat, so to speak. Maybe your... our group's plan with the collars could help us all get out of this ungodly mess, but that's a bit unlikely considering Danya seems to have dealt with our kind earlier on in this game."

(OOC: Wow. What happened there? Ciel's gone the longest without posting, so let's pick up the post order from there.)

(Ciel asked me zu post before he/she. Sorry, I dunno your gender. XD)

Lulu didn't expect much out of her sleep. It only lasted a few minutes and she didn't have any dreams. Even though she was exhausted, her body refused to let her sleep for long. Probably a good thing though. If she kept sleeping without disruption, she might miss something important. Best to sleep in short bursts. Power naps, that's the way to go.

Lulu sat up and grabbed her glasses, sliding them back on. Everything was just as she left it. Carson was talking to Lauren about something or other and Amanda appeared to be sleep talking or something. Lulu stretched, sliding over to Anna.

"Hey there. I couldn't really sleep.", Lulu told Anna, grinning at her. She adjusted her glasses for a second, blinking. Her hair had clumps of dirt and grass in it. Lulu noticed and shook her head, trying to loosen some of the dirt. She longed for a bath.

Lulu then spoke again. "Not meaning to sound morbid, but this is the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me. I mean, my life had been so boring. I always wanted something interesting to happen. I didn't expect it to be this though..", Lulu chattered, trying to stay positive about the situation.

(I be a man, but I can see why you'd be confused. XD)

Anna looked at Lulu from the corner of her eye. She didn't remember the girl particularly, but she could remember herself looking at her long red hair and envying her just a bit. It was beautifully cut, the bangs met at just the perfect point and her curly hair was nothing like hers. Her hair was actually very frizzy, especially thanks to the week-long nightmare she's had to endure, but Lulu's looked much better. It had dirt all along it but it was in a much better condition. Even then Anna was envious.

"Oh," Anna replied, wrapping her arms around her knees in a fetal position. She gave Lulu a cheeky smile. "Hello. I can afford not to sleep now... I like the rain, if you don't mind me saying..."

"Not meaning to sound morbid, but this is the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me."

Well... this girl is rather strange. Anna thought to herself, eying the other girl for a moment. I... don't remember ever feeling that way. Odd, very very odd.

"I..." Anna had some difficulty speaking. "I BELIEVE you're right... although I wouldn't say I'm completely happy about it. I actually was thinking that none of this would have happened, but what's done is done... I suppose." Anna was feeling slightly depressed, but even there wasn't much of a change. Anyone could tell that something was troubling her. "Still... this is rather exciting isn't it? Very exciting. I sort of enjoy it in a... melancholy, end of times sort of way.... oh dear, does that make sense? Hopefully it does."

Anna looked at Lulu's glasses for a moment. "Oh, your... your glasses are crooked." She smiled, sliding closer and presses the other girls glasses up with a finger, taking her other hand to push the pair of glasses perfectly on Lulu's nose. "There... does that feel better? It doesn't feel strange, right?." She smiled, hopping back slightly. "I... I used to wear glasses, so I know what it's like when they get messed up."

"We'll manage to find a way," Lauren told Carson. "There has to be a way."

Who was she trying to fool? Carson sounded like he had the right idea: maybe there might have been flaws in the system during the first time Survival of the Fittest had been run, but anything that they could exploit would have been eliminated by Danya in the years since that had happened. Carson knew this. He knew that only one person would survive. Was she trying to keep a charade up in front of the other girls, the ones who had come up with the idea to escape? They weren't fools. They knew that there was no hope. They knew... but what else could they do?

"There has to be..."

Was she trying to hide the truth from herself? Tell herself that nothing was certain, that just because nobody had escaped before didn't mean that it was impossible, it just meant that they would be the first to do so? After all, wouldn't it be nice if they could leave the island without having to kill each other? Wouldn't it be nice if they could return home without their lives destroyed?

Wouldn't it be nice if she could see Alex again?

"We will make it," she reaffirmed. "We'll... we'll disable the collars, or make a signal of some sort. Something that will be seen. They'll find us, a-and..."

Unsurprisingly, lying to yourself never works. In fact, Lauren was feeling herself pushed in the other direction, her constant attempts to convince herself that they could all live only further convincing her of the hopelessness in the situation. She felt like crying... except that was the one thing she wouldn't let herself do. She wouldn't let herself show weakness, she wouldn't anybody see her as a pathetic, useless waste of breath in what was likely to be the last days of her life, and she wouldn't let Danya know how much the game distressed her.

She would live. She would defend herself and her friends. She would try to find a way out up until the moment she took her last breath. It was all she had left in her life, and damnit if she wasn't going to succeed.

"I'm okay," she told Carson. She wasn't even sure if he'd noticed her distress (or if he even cared), so this must have been another little thing she did to make herself feel better. Lulu and Anna were getting along well over where they were keeping watch. Amanda was doing the smart thing and sleeping soundly in preparation for the days ahead. For the first time during the game, Lauren felt genuine hope. They probably wouldn't survive, but why worry about it? If they were already working to the limit of what they were willing to do, why fret if they still weren't going to complete their goal.

"Thank you," she muttered, mostly to herself. "Thank you for everything, Carson."

The idea of anyone thanking Carson was thoroughly new to him. He was fairly used to being treated like shit, which was not a terribly inaccurate assessment of him judging by some of his past exploits.

"You're welcome, I guess," he said. "I'm not entirely used to people thanking me."

Backhanding the goddamn head coach's son across the lunchroom doesn't help my case, he thought. He also considered saying it, but he decided this wasn't the greatest idea, and wisely kept it to himself.

"Hey, as unlikely as it is that we can do this, I think we will. 0 percent chances are like 100 percent chances for me. And if I have to give my life for us to succeed, then... I'll do it. I'd rather die as a hero than live as a murderer, even if I am a bit callous most of the time."

Carson decided to change the subject.

"Hey, do you watch any anime? Or more appropriately, did you?"

((Lauren's handler is going to be away for the weekend. Until he/she returns, I'm going to abstain from posting since Carson is having a conversation with Lauren.))

Lulu grinned when Anna began speaking to her. It made her feel more comfortable. If she could indulge in this conversation, maybe she could even forget this situation. Easier said than done, however. Lulu decided to reply and spent a few idle seconds trying to figure something out to say. Socializing had never been her strong points.

"I've been..tired but I just can't sleep for long. I guess I'm just restless..", Lulu told Anna in a quiet voice. Then Anna mentioned the rain. Lulu hated rain. She hated being wet, she hated the dark laden cast of the sky, she hated it all. She remembered past days where just a bit of rain would send her into a depression. This rain wasn't bothering her much, but how could it? There were other things to worry about. But Lulu could tell, she wasn't her usual self.

Lulu could tell that Anna was trying to think through what Lulu had said. About this being the most interesting thing that ever happened to her. Suddenly, Lulu regretted saying it. That probably made her look like a weirdo, so she started turning red with embarrassment.

"Ah! I mean..yes, I know it's not a good thing..No, of course not..but my life was just so boring..", Lulu stammered, but then she paused. Anna began speaking of enjoying this game. In a way, Lulu could understand, but in another way, she really couldn't. There wasn't much enjoyable in this game. It was a little bit like camping...Or hiking out in the woods...Except everyone had a weapon. Lulu wasn't too sure what to say to Anna until she adjusted her glasses.

"Thank you! Hahaha, I would have never known they were crooked. You're a life saver.", Lulu joked. "You had glasses? They're annoying little buggers, aren't they?"

"Oh," Anna shrugged, "Glasses aren't that bad, in all honesty. They're okay... though I never wear mine as much as I used to. Only when I'm reading something do I need them. I actually brought them along with me: I was planning to get some reading done during the trip although it seems that I won't be getting to do any of that anytime soon... oh no, I'm bringing you down aren't I. I do apologize for that, that wasn't intentional or anything of the sort."

Anna wanted to roll her eyes but she didn't. This girl didn't see to be the talkative type and Anna shouldn't feel any negativity towards her for that. "Well, anyway, I'm glad all of us are staying positive.... well, most of us. Mhmm, most of us are staying positive."

She was actually nervous for a change though this did nothing to make her act any differently. Lulu appeared as a delicate flower: Anna shouldn't just rip the girl from the ground. If she wanted to talk to her, she would have to pick very gently... which was the hardest part of all since Anna was persistently talkative and forcing herself not to talk was the hardest task for her to do.

"Uhh... I'm actually kinda upset that my... oh! Uhh... heh."

Oh dear. I want to talk about the game, I really do but I really don't want it to seem that I'm obsessed with it. Ahh... oh wait.

Anna moved closer to Lulu (possibly even breaking a few personal bubbles), a smile still on her face. Her hand pulled against the other girl's hair, pulling a few stray objects out. "Oh, and you still have some twigs in your hair..." she paused, unzipping her bag. "Say..." Not waiting for any type of response, Anna began to crawl behind Lulu. She sat on one of her legs, pulling a leaf out. "I hope you don't mind me doing this... Your hair has been bothering me for a good while. I'm just going to brush it, won't take too long. Your hair is very pretty I must say... I'm actually surprised this is the first time I've seen it."

((Lesbians much?))

"That kind of stuff never really interested me," Lauren replied in responce to Carson's question. "My brother likes things like that, though."

It felt strange, for some reason. If this stupid trip had never happened, Carson would have been one of the last people she would have talked to. It wasn't necessarily that they wouldn't have gotten along, it was just that there wasn't anything to draw them together. The same thing with Anna, Lulu, and Amanda... what did they have in common with each other?

Over on the other side of the clearing, Anna and Lulu were keeping each other company. Lauren couldn't hear what they were saying or see their faces, but they seemed to be having a pleasant conversation, at least. Amanda apparently felt safe enough with four relative strangers to be asleep, even in a game like this.

They wanted to survive. To survive without sacrificing their sanity, or humanity or whatever it was that the 'players' didn't have. To live without forsaking the rules of society in favor of Danya's twisted version of reality. To prove to Danya that he was wrong about what would happen. They were together because they believed in an impossible future when idealistic views were going to get people killed.

If they did live through this, would they be friends back in the real world? Would they stick together because of a single shared experience, or would it be something from the distant past that they forgot about and never brought up again?

There she was, drifting off into her thoughts again. Carson must have come to the conclusion that she was slightly insane, or at least a little strange. She decided that her previous answer wasn't exactly very accurate. "I've sometimes seen a bit of anime when my brother was watching some, though. It was a little interesting, but I never really liked having to read subtitles, so I don't watch it unless I'm bored and whatever Eric's watching seems interesting."

Carson wasn't terribly surprised by this.

"I'm going to throw out a guess that your brother is a fair bit older than us. That would mean he's not on the island. I guess having people on the home front rooting for you is better than nothing."

He took his jacket off, revealing a near-pristine Nine Inch Nails T-shirt. He set it down on his daypack.

Lauren was beautiful. Nay, she was beyond beautiful. Everything about her appealed to Carson.

Carson decided to go ahead and ask the question that was obviously on his mind.

"Are you single?"