Survival Of The Fittest

Lyndi had fallen into utter silence. Staring blankly at the two, she shook her head slightly. What did they think they were doing? Fred was out there fending off that psychotic monster to protect them, and they were just standing there. She could almost understand why Elsie was simply standing there, what else could she possibly do? Vince Samsa, though... the strong, powerful football player that he was supposed to have been... the entire reason Lyndi had asked him to join up with their group was because of his size, his strength, and his weapon.

We have to help him, we have to help him. Is that all you can do? All you can freaking do it stand here and talk?! You're worthless! Useless! Why aren't you DOING SOMETHING?!

Finally, Lyndi had had all that she could take. She stood there, eyes closed, fists balled up and shaking lightly in fear, aggravation, and frustration. Vince kept saying he was going to leave, he just kept saying it. Why had he even come in here? Was he not man enough to fight? Lyndi and Elsie would have done nothing but get in the way, that much was certain. But Samsa... the entire reason she had wanted him to stay with them was because he had had a gun.

"Why are you still IN here?!" Lyndi shrieked in frustration. "What's wrong with you?! He could be dying out there, and you're cowered down in here like a pansy! You're in here with girls while Fred's outside trying to save your rear end! You should be out there! You should have been out there! Instead, you let him stay out there to die and you came in here to hide. Coward! What's even more pathetic is that you're trying to be macho about it, like you're some great hero coming to save the day."

Walking up to the boy, she shot him a vicious glare before turning directly to face him. Never in her life had Lyndi been so confrontational. Normally, she was rather timid, friendly, outgoing. Now was not one of those times. She had no reason to be friendly. She was the one who had invited this... this imbecile to join them, thinking that he could help do what Callum had promised to do before he left. Instead, she found him cowering down with girls while Fred gallantly took the brunt of that maniac's assault for them.

"Well Samsa, let me tell you something... if you were a real man, you would never have left him out there alone to BEGIN with."

Before she fully grasped what she was doing, she felt her hand come into contact with Samsa's face in a harsh slap. She recoiled slightly, not realizing what she had done until after she had already taken the action. She had just slapped Vince Samsa. If she had made him angry enough, he could have easily broken her in half. Oh well, no turning back now.

"The ONLY hero I need is outside, fighting to protect us, while you're in here hiding like a little girl!"

With that, Lyndi brushed past him, her head held high, and headed right for the door. Tears were still streaming down her face, now more from anger than anything. She was going out there, and come hell or high water, she was going to do all that he could to help. Unlocking the door, she simply turned and nodded to Elsie as she walked outside, closing it behind her.

Taking a few steps, she felt something catch around her ankle. As she looked down, she realized that Fred had left his daypack lying on the ground. Not bothering to look inside, she picked it up. Glancing around hurridly, she tried to look for either of the two boys. Her cheeks flushed white upon not finding either of them. Where are you? Please don't die... please...

Glancing uncomfortably at Vince, Elsie followed her friend out of the edifice. Best friend's couldn't... shouldn't fight alone.

"Wait up Lyn," Elsie called, "I'm coming."

Perhaps it was that she also felt uncomfortable around the much more physically imposing Samsa that she followed the shorter girl out into the open but oh well... at least she was doing the right thing.

EDITED FOR PLOT PURPOSES!

Vince stared at Lyndi for a few seconds, she had slapped him and he knew he deserved it as well. “It ain’t that easy… and you’re right I am a coward. Every time I think about using this gun, I think about my mom y’know? She was killed by shotgun blasts when I was just a little boy… she sorta deserved it being that she was the biggest coke dealer New York had ever known, but she was my mom.” he stared at Lyndi “and it is just like it is now as it was then! I have so much ability I have so much strength and I sit back and just watch like a little pussy.” he shook his head “The football team said it a lot…when I got tackled, it was because I am hesitant.” Vince was crying lightly at this point.

When he saw Lyndi head towards the door and out into the open his heart sank.

“So Momma left me?” Vince asked, “Not quite, but yeah… momma went off into a better place.” Vince’s father said sadly “But it ain’t fair! I never got to say good-bye and she leaved me! That stupid bitch leaved me!” Vince was crying now “and you you are the man of the house and you just stood by and let them kill her! You are a monster!”

His father had long since forgiven him for that day, but Vince seemed to understand why then he did something, something that he would be grateful for the rest of his life for… he walked outside.

Vince reacted to the fact that Fred was being killed very normally; he just stood there. The hatchet stayed in his hand and he was just pointing the handgun in the general direction of the battle. His hands where shaking very violantly has he saw the Tire Iron driping blood and Fred strugling for life.

Just like his mom. Guilt his Vince quicker than he expected, he had been responsible for Fred's untimely demise... if he had just been a little braver Fred would be standing right next to him, high fiving him because they vanquished motor cycle kid. Lyndi wouldn't be upset with him and he would be able to find comfort with the group.

Vince lost all care for his own life at that very moment, he had seen two people die before his very eyes in his short life, two people that he had known. The similarities where huge, his mother was killed for saying something wrong to the mafia, Fred was killed for saying something wrong to the crazy boy. Vince had just stood there in both cases and this time he did not have an excuse for it, has he gripped the axe tighter and has the gun was cooling his other hand he felt wet tears run down his cheeks.

Cody felt the pipe wrench contact his ribs, and could feel something inside of him crumble. A sick pain began to spread through his left side, and burned slightly with every breath. With an effort, Cody pulled the tire iron out of Fred's chest, stumbling back a bit.

Time...Time to get this shit over with...

"Good...Bye...Fucker..."
Cody said breathlessly, removing the gleaming pistol from the front of his pants where it had been so innocently perched during the entire battle. He drew the gun up to the level of Fred's chest, and with a smile, squeezed the trigger three times.

(OOC: I'm sorry it's short, but I'm exhausted and it does what it needs to do. ^_^)

Even after Elsie had wandered outside after Lyndi, she continued to look around frantically, searching for any sign of Fred or the maniac who had attacked them. Casting a glance back to Elsie, she bit her lower lip slightly. Part of her wanted to plead with the girl to help her find the boys they had recently left outside the lighthouse. Part of her wanted to tell her to get back inside, where it was safe.

What are you doing out here, Elsie? You being out here won't help anything. You might get hurt... or worse. For that matter, what am I doing out here? I can't do anything either... I'm just as helpless as you... we're useless. At least Samsa has a gun, even if he is a coward. I don't even have that. I can't save him with a jumprope... I can't save him anyway.

All the words Lyndi expressed in thought could not seem to formulate into a sentence. Tears of anguish and fear continued to stream down her face as she averted the panicked glance from the girl and once again scanned the entire area, in search of either of the boys. All the while, she had been oblivious to the fact that Fred was fighting for his life on the other side of the lighthouse. She had also been oblivious to the fact that Vince Samsa had exited the lighthouse after them.

The sound that Lyndi Thibodeaux heard next made her blood run cold. A gun had just fired. Casting another urgent glance at Elsie, she pointed toward the lighthouse. She was shaking visibly, obviously out of fear.

"Get inside... now! Go!" she ordered Elsie.

As tempted as Lyndi was to follow her best friend inside, to seek protection and shelter in the colossal edifice that jutted outward from the area, she could not bring herself to. Silently, she prayed that those gunshots were from Samsa's weapon, and not that of this new boy's. Refusing to heed the warning the gunshots imposed, Lyndi ran desperately toward them.

The girl rounded the building and three figures came into view. One stood, fearfully pointing his gun at the newcomer. The other two figures were much closer, one towering over another. Everything came into view just as Cody Jenson pulled the trigger of the gun the third time, bullets aimed directly at Fred. Lyndi stopped in her tracks. Her bright blue eyes, which had already been filled with tears, widened dramatically, and she placed her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. Oh God... no. Please, no...

He couldn’t help but grin to himself as the pipe wrench came in contact with the boy’s ribcage, the pain spreading across his face clear that Fred had done something this go round. Fred felt himself blinked through, as he felt pressure on the tire iron once more as Cody pulled against it, ripping from it had been lodge into his chest. A yelp escaping as he dropped the wrench, grasping at the wound with both hands.

Gritting teeth again, he didn’t bend down to retake his pipe wrench and instead dug his hand into his pocket, removing the flashbang from where he had placed it. Though as he looked up, instead of being met with another boy in pain. He instead found himself staring at the barrel of a gun…

Bang…

The first shot lodge near his ribcage, along side the wound given to him by the pipe wrench. Hands moving to try and hold back the pain and the blood, as the force of a shot in such close range sent him stepping back. His attention going up at the sight of Vince coming into view, noting the gun in his hand, but also how bad the boy was currently shaking as he stood.

Bang…

The second shot found it’s way into his body, passing through his lungs and out through his back. Another muffed cry leaving his throat as he stepped back again… the flashbang dropping from his hand, bouncing and carefully rolling as it found it’s way toward and off the edge of the cliff.

Breathing in gasps of air, his body shaking violently as he looked up once more. Fred’s attention having been focused on the ground since the first shot had found its way into him. Blinking a bit through blurry eyes though, he noticed the figure of someone familiar a sad smile crossing his lips as he looked toward the girl.

“I’m so sorry…” He found himself muttering as loud as he could manage, “I’m so sorry… Lyndi…”

Bang…

As the third bullet raced from the barrel of the gun, piercing through his chest and through his heart Fred found himself once again stepping back, but as he went back, knees bulking and his body finally falling. He came to notice that there was no ground below him anymore, the shots Cody had fired pushing him right onto the edge, he not even noticing not till now.

Not till now as the ground raced past him as he felt his body plummeting off the side and starting its descent toward the loud roar of the ocean below. And as he fell, he felt as his body began to grow numb and his vision going from the blurry sight in thanks to blood loss, to sheer darkness. He could hardly think of anything as he continued racing toward the water, though many pictures did come to him…

His friends…
His family…
But most of all, a memory in the back of his head stuck out the most.

-------

They’d been stopped at a red light… sometime on their way home from soccer practice. Glenn sitting plainly in passenger seat, plucking at his seat belt strap while he in turn was busy using the steering wheel of the car as something like a drum set in beat to the song currently belting out on the radio.

As the song came to an end, Fred found himself frowning as he glanced over to his placid looking twin. He seemed far more intent of plucking that damn strap than anything else, including talking with him! Three times he had tried to strike up a conversation with his younger brother, and all three times Glenn had been far to busy with other things to worry about what was on his brother’s mind.

Was almost as if rejected had been brilliantly stamped onto his forehead…

“Oi, Glenn…” He muttered, taking a glance over again to him again as the younger boy’s lips pursed out.

“Fred…” Glenn began, blinking as he glanced up. “Lights turned green.”

Blinking himself, Fred turned noting that indeed the light had turned green and pressing against the gas continued on down the road. Glenn returning to the plucking, and Fred lightly twitching with a sigh. “What’s the bloody ‘ell is wrong with you?”

He watched a little a Glenn blinked another thoughtful look on his face. “Noth –“

“Oh don’t you bloody dear say nothing, I know right and well when you aren’t right. And this baby brother – is one of those lovely little moments.”

Sighing a little, Glenn nodded some… “I was just thinking about something is all.”

“And about what?”

“Like I said; it’s nothing.”

“Glenn Felix Hughes damn it, stop being such a lone wolf and talk to me.” His voice was on the verge of begging, and sheer annoyance continuing driving as he turned down the road their house was on, staring forward as he listened to see if Glenn would talk, he smiling some as he heard the other sigh.

“Well..."

-------

All thoughts came to a blinding halt as his body hit the rocks, this ending what little life he had left in him as his body hit, striking the rocks before hitting the water. Stinking into the murky waters, and into a watery grave and ever lasting sleep.

B34 – Fredrik Hughes - DEAD

Elsie heard the shots. Only this time the shots were definately accompanied by the sinister noise of searing metal peircing flesh. Screaming as the noise reached her ears she turned to run but tripped over an abandoned wooden crate which cause her to tumble forwards and land face first on the concrete steps of the lighthouse. Going limp she lost consciousness, the blood trickling from her temple and into her platinum blonde hair however and the fact that she had gone pale as milk made her appear dead.

“NO!” Vince shouted when he saw Fred hit the floor, he had been there just five minutes a go and now he was dead… because of him. Responsibility hit Vince like a freight train; he had caused Fred’s death. It should have been him lying cold and dead with blood slowly pouring out of his chest…. He had saved him.

Anger was the first thing that Vince had felt has he picked up his gun and pointed it at Cody Jenson “HEY ASSHOLE!” he shouted, the gun had fourteen bullets, he had to remember that fourteen was the lucky number. “C’mon crazy dude!” he said loudly “I guess it is because you’ve never had a girlfriend that you are staying there, I can just imagine it…” Vince then put his voice very high pitched “I already have a pussy and I don’t need another one.” Vince had a sick smile on his face has he picked up his gun and fired five shots at the boy, he then hafted up his axe and placed his gun in his pocket… the next step would be collecting his head.

Cody watched the boy gracefully fall for a second, but before he could enjoy his victory, the other, larger boy was yelling something again. He saw the gun being raised, and, without thinking, immediatly jumped to the left. He watched as the boy overcompensated his aim and darted back to the right, quickly scuttling towards the boy on all fours, jumping at him when he got close enough. He began swinging his tire iron with both hands, beating the boy in the face and the body several times. With a gasp, the giant fell.

Cody retrieved the gun where he had dropped it by the edge of the cliff and placed it back in the front of his pants. He then removed his ax from Samsa's grasp and placed it back in his pack. He then stepped over the boy and began walking back around to the front of the lighthouse.

Dont you even try to call the cops little girl, cops little girl...

OOC: Not to rent-a-mod, but isn't that slightly godmoding?

OOC (yeah, but i had permission.)

OoC- I let him, fool.

BiC- Vince laid on the floor, his had a large bruise on his eyes and his temple was bleeding slightly. Vince laid on the floor, the initial pain had passed and he now noticed the aching feeling in his stomach, he had been hit in the ribs a few times as well, after further inspection he noticed that none where broken. Cody had spared him and instead left him axe less.

Vince got up and groaned very loudly “Fuck. I just froze up and let him beat me… I could have kicked his ass and I just froze.” Vince said quietly before getting up slowly. I have to get out of here before I try anything else. Vince than got up and hauled ass, the river would sounded like a cool place to say… maybe get some cold water on his various wounds and clean himself up a bit before he plans his next move.

((Continued in: Back to the Scene of the Crime...))

OoC- Sorry for the shortness, didn’t know what else to post.

OOC: Alright, alright. no need to blow up on me, I don't know everything (oh how I wish I did).

(OOC: But would you really want to know EVERYTHING? )

All at once, Lyndi Thibodeaux's fear had become a reality. Much to her horror, Fred staggered back as all three bullets lodged themselves inside of his body. All the while, Vince Samsa stood there, watching them. Doing nothing. Continuing to cry, she dropped her arms down, shaking almost violently. His words... she heard them. They were nearly inaudible from her range, but she heard them.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry, Lyndi...

As Fredrik Hughes stumbled backward off the cliff, a surge of anger rushed through Lyndi's body. Now, more than ever before, she wanted this newcomer, Cody Jenson, dead. Never in her life had Lyndi ever wished bad things on someone, but now, she wanted Cody dead, be it by someone else's hand or her own.

You're sorry... you were supposed to protect me, and now you're gone. You're gone because of this... this bastard. I'm the one who should be sorry, Fred... it's my fault too. I sat inside, knowing full well that you probably didn't stand a chance against this guy. I let you fight him. If anything, I'm the one who failed you. You stuck your neck out for me, and I let it get chopped off... Don't worry... I won't let it be for nothing. I promise.

Vince Samsa was now yelling at the top of his lungs. If the gunshots and shouting did not attract others, Lyndi did not know what would. The sound of gunshots rang out once again, this time, coming from Vince's gun. You worthless bastard... if you'd only done that sooner, Fred wouldn't be dead right now. You helped kill him... because you're a coward!

Much to her dismay, Cody Jenson took Vince down in one fell swoop. Suddenly, a feeling of nausea overtook Lyndi. Cody would kill Vince too, surely. To her surprise, this did not happen. What did happen, however, shocked her. Vince struggled to his feet, and he ran. He ran away from the lighthouse, as fast as he could. He had left them both, herself and Elsie, to be killed by this insane murderer.

As Cody began to stalk toward Lyndi, she clung fiercely to the strap of Fred's daypack, her eyes widening in terror. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. The flashbangs... Fred had not used them all, surely. Casting a peek into the unzipped daypack, she saw them. Three of them. Now was her chance to make Fred's death count for something. If she could use one, even if she could not kill Cody with it, she could nab Elsie from where Lyndi assumed she had gone into the lighthouse and escape.

"Well, what now, you worthless piece of shit?!" Lyndi found herself shouting, surprised that such vulgar language could come out of her mouth. "Are you going to kill me, too? Huh?! Do it! I dare you. Shoot me, you bastard! Just like you shot him!"

Still shaking visibly, even moreso than she had been previously, Lyndi reached into Fred's bag, grasping a flashbang grenade in her hand. Her hands shook in fear, aggravation, and sadness as she clutched the flashbang tightly. I'm going to make you pay, I swear it. I'd like to shove this thing down your throat. Unfortunately, I probably won't get that chance. But... I can't let Fred die in vain. I... I won't.

Cody looked at the girl. He heard her shout, but did not hear the words that came out of her mouth. He slowly walked towards her, soaking in her beautiful features. The refined curve of her cheekbones, the silkiness of her hair. Cody wanted to touch her hair.

I will save you, I will make sure you are ok, no one will hurt you...

Cody smiled. Not an insane, grimacing smile this time, but a genuine, friendly smile. It was something he had not done in a long time, and it immensly softened up his hard features. Some women would say he even had a rugged handsomeness, were it not for the missing teeth.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. That boy-" Cody pointed at the spot where Fred fell off the cliff "-tried to kill me, so naturally, I fought back."

"The other one deserted you. What kind of protecter is that? Here, you know what? Lets get out of here. We can meet up with someone. I know of a kid named Adam Dodd, he can help us out."

Too bad I have to kill him...

Cody placed his hand over hers, which still clenched the flashbang.
"So, what do you say?"