Survival Of The Fittest

As soon as the hobo fell to the ground, Branca smiled in satisfaction. She was doing the world a favor, after all. Who wanted hobo's running around begging for food and water? Not her. That was her food and asking for was it crossing all lines.

Branca looked behind her to see Afra lying on the ground. It was so hard to find good help. They either ended up stealing from you or dying. Branca spat on Afra's apparently conscience body and raised her trusty gun over her head once more.

SMASH

Staring down at Afra's broken face, Branca couldn't help but sigh. The physical exertion was wearing her out. She wouldn't last a second longer without food. She was withering away! Tracing her 'curves', Branca concluded that she was nothing but skin and bones. All the womanly goodness God had giving her was quickly going away.

Branca walked back over to her bag with food on her mind. Tossing the gun on the ground, Branca noticed a peculiar switch on the side of it. Curiosity took over. The-not-so-bright-Branca picked up the gun, barrel towards her face and hand holding the gun with her finger on the trigger, and pushed the switch

An ear-splitting boom sounded off and the fat body of the now very dead Branca thudded to the ground, empty belly and all.

G60: BRANCA BRAUNSTEIN - ELIMINATED

(Alexis Machina continued from Breaking Point)

Shortly after she'd left the hollow tree and her first victory behind, Lex had been reminded of the need to patch up her arm by the constant downpour of the rain pelting against the open and quite exposed gash. It bled freely down her arm (and the rain didn't help any), and after a while it looked so disgusting that Lex found herself taking a pit stop to sanitize, disinfect and wrap the slash-wound. She hardly considered herself an expert in first-aid, but shoddy though the job might have been it would have to do for now.

Soon afterwards she'd set out again, taking greedy mouthfuls of the loaf of bread she'd pilfered from Nick's pack. She'd run out of food the day before, and luckily enough Nick had provided enough for her to continue on. It didn't last very long, but it settled the uneasiness in her stomach, and for now that would have to do. Washing down the bread with thirst-quenching gulps of water from her now second-last and almost empty waterbottle, Lex turned down a fork in the trail and out into a clearing.

The sight that met her eyes was both alarming and spontaneous, as Lex turned towards the storehouse just in time to see Branca Braunstein blow her own brains out with several rounds from her SMG. The gun clattered to the ground with a dull thud, and Branca more than topped it with a loud crunch of her own as she impacted with the solid (albeit slightly wet) earth. Lex felt her grip around the chainsaw tighten, and cautiously she made her way over to examine the scene.

As much as she enjoyed repaying her classmates for the many grievances they'd caused her over the years, even Lex found herself hard-pressed to take any pride or joy out of the bloody battlefield that lay before her. Olivia Swan was one of the people Lex would've most liked to kill herself, but the sight of her battered and mangled face was almost enough to send Lex into a dizzy spell. Branca's visage was none the better, and the smell around the area was intoxicating, but in a terrible way. Another boy lay on the ground a few feet away beside a cane, and Lex had little hope for him being alive either.

Almost out of reflex, Lex made her way towards Branca's gun and picked it up, laying the chainsaw down on the ground beside the brute's corpse. The gun clearly worked, so she'd have little use now for the heavy and abominably loud blade that had scored her first kill. Laying her own pack on the ground, Lex set to work transferring the ammunition and operating manual for the SMG into her own belongings, as well as the newly acquired food and water she managed to scrounge up from Branca and the surrounding daypacks. She'd be set for a while now.

Zipping up the daypacks after she'd procured her supplies, Lex decided to examine the inside of the storehouse to make sure she wasn't in any immediate danger. Hefting her pack over her back, she entered the building with the SMG raised, her eyes darting every which way multiple times over, mostly out of fear. Another corpse or two were strewn in various places, but something seemed off about the building. The eerie atmosphere was being broken by the occasional sound of...

...snoring?

Curiously, Lex made her way around corners and boxes until she finally found a boy sleeping behind a number of them. He was in a rather unflattering position; his mouth was hanging open and spots of drool had slid down his chin and onto his shirt. The audible wheezes of his snoring added to the grotesque picture, and Lex couldn't help but scowl in disgust as she made her way over to him. Maybe she could take advantage of his position and get some more supplies?

As Lex inched her way closer, she couldn't help but notice that the boy was stirring in his sleep. Mixed and intermittent mumbling could be heard between his painful-sounding gasps for air, and curiousity getting the better of her once again, Lex leaned in in a vain attempt to make out what he was saying. As dire as their situation was, the opportunity seemed too ripe...

"Huh? What? Who!?" The boy broke out suddenly, causing Lex to jump back.

"WHOA FUCK!" she screamed, instinctively depressing the trigger of the Kel-Tech and sending the remainder of the clip flying in James' direction. She was hardly aiming at him at all, but with all the bullets spraying towards him quite a handful had managed to hit him in various parts of his body, silencing him almost instantly.

After taking a second to regain her composure, Lex's gaze hardened on the boy.

"DON'T FUCKING SCARE ME LIKE THAT!" she started, screaming at the top of her lungs towards the belligerent and now bullet-ridden boy. After a moment she registered what had just transpired, and her expression softened, though more out of confusion than remorse.

"Oh, uh...oops," she bellowed, silently hoping that if anyone heard her outburst they wouldn't judge her too harshly. It was a hard habit to break, not wanting to be judged; it was about the only feeling she tied to Southridge that still remained within her, with the exception of bitter resentment. Her heart was still racing from the shock of having James wake up next to her, and the startled Lex failed to notice James' magnum or his daypack in her bewilderment.

"I've gotta get out of here..."

Deciding that her work at the storehouse was done, Lex turned tail and fled shamelessly back into the wilderness she came from, making a mental note to avoid places like that in the future.

B80: James Migato - DECEASED

(Alexis Machina continued in Point of No Return)

Why am I not dead?

Noises had drifted in and out of Jimmy's head ever since he hit the ground. He hadn't been able to make sense of them, but they were there. He had heard muffled gunshots, and sounds like people screaming. The noises were barely audible, drowned out by an obnoxious pounding, somewhat like a drum being struck right next to his ear. As the world came back into focus, the drums faded, only to be replaced by a loud ringing. As the ringing escalated, so too did a sudden aching feeling in the back of his head. He noticed that he was on his back. Why was he on his back again?

That's right, the 'princess' knocked me out. Must have hit my head on a rock. That would explain....OH SHIT!

When his head had started hurting, Jimmy had reflexively brought his hand back to massage it. To his horror, he felt a sudden dampness. Springing up from his lying position, he quickly felt the back of his head, in case he had gouged it open. At that moment, he noticed that his sleeves were also damp, and sighed in relief. His hair had just gotten wet from the sopping wet ground. He wasn't going to die. Not yet anyway. Checking himself for other injuries, he noticed that the side of his head had been cut open, and his spine was also giving him complaints, but otherwise, he was fine.

Not taking any chances though, he searched around for his daypack, relieved to find that he still had it, and took a dressing from his Medical Kit. As he pressed it against his head, it protested in force, but he knew that a little pain in the head was nothing compared to what would happen if he let it bleed. After the bleeding stopped, he could apply disinfectant and place a bandage on. As for his spine, the best he could do was a few torso twists to pop it out a little. He would just have to live with the pain, as it didn't really feel like it was out of place.

That accomplished, the next step in this case was to analyze the situation. He hadn't yet paid attention to his surroundings, he realized, and that was just asking for trouble. From his sitting position, he could see the shapes of two new people on the ground from before. One of them, he could tell, was fairly large, about the same size as the "Princess." Crawling slowly over to the larger one, he recognized it as the greedy slob who had knocked him out. As he leaned over to see how she died, he immediately recoiled in disgust. The fat lady had shot herself in the head.

Geez! This game....This game is nuts! I've got to get out of here!

It was a short amount of searching to find his cane. Using it as a support, he pulled himself shakily to his feet, wincing as a twinge in his spine sounded on the way up. While he was here, he decided that he would take Branca's gun. She wasn't using it for anything anymore. Much to his surprise, as he felt the ground around Branca for her weapon, all his hand touched was a chainsaw. Jimmy didn't recall either of the girls having a chainsaw. He definitely would have remembered seeing something like that.

Suddenly, the realization hit him. Somebody had been here! Maybe Branca's wounds were not self-inflicted. Perhaps somebody else had done it to her instead.

They must have thought I was already dead. I got lucky, real lucky. Wait a minute, where's my food?

Rummaging through his daypack, Jimmy discovered that whoever had been here had stolen all his provisions. A search through Branca's daypack revealed the same thing, along with the girl he had stuck an axe into. At least whoever it was hadn't taken the medical supplies as well. Forcing himself to calm down, Jimmy refilled his Medkit, and reclaimed his axe. He was happy to see that his gun hadn't been pilfered, because he needed that. He could barely fire it, but it was good for intimidation.

But what am I going to do? Sure, I'm alive, but without food or water, I'm going to die really quickly. I've got to find someone, someone who wasn't looted. Someone....

A sudden burst of gunfire disrupted Jimmy's train of thought, coming from inside the Storehouse. He could hear someone yelling, but shocked as he was by the noise, he didn't recognize the words. Instinctively, he threw himself back on the ground, just as someone ran out the door, tearing out of the area in a hurry. Slowing bringing himself to his feet, Jimmy crept over inside to see what had happened.

It was exactly like he expected, though he had to walk halfway inside before he could see it. A student who Jimmy didn't recognize lay dead in an alcove between two lines of boxes. Hesitantly investigating further, the half-blind man discovered, to his great relief, that the corpse's daypack had food and water in it. Not enough for more than 2 or 3 days, but it was a start. It would keep Jimmy going, anyway. As he looked through the dead man's stuff, he found something even more amazing.

A revolver? And a pretty big one too. Not much use for me, but every little bit helps.

Rifling through the rest of the man's belongings, Jimmy came across the manual for the gun. It would be useful to read this if he ever needed to use it. Who knows, maybe somebody would be stupid enough to attack him with a stick or something, and he could shoot them then.

What with all the bodies lying around, Jimmy determined that the Storehouse was simply not safe. If he valued his life, he would need to go somewhere else, and soon. Holding his new shiny Colt Peacemaker out in front of him with one hand, he held his cane in the other, and walked out into the unknown, hoping to stay alive for another day.

(James Trejo continued elsewhere.)