Survival Of The Fittest

Hannah’s eyes widened at the note written by Jill, it was almost to good to be true. They might actually get out of this.

Oh Kurt, I knew you wouldn’t lead me astray!

The first thing on her mind was to keep up a charade for the microphones of course. She scampered over and picked up the first aid kit, opening it she found normal things. Bandages, Disinfectant, Tweezers, Gauze, and a bottle of Aspirin.

“Well, take those shoes and socks off Sid. We’re going to get that all-star foot of yours better!” She grinned. On this island she didn’t think she could get happier as she was now.

“While you get that off I’m going to see if Martyn is okay!” Hannah chirped cheerfully.

Scratching her shin somewhat with the barrel of the gun, Jill listened as Sidney almost painfully recollected the events that had transpired that had led up to him joining up with the rest of the group. The description was vague at best, and his story left a lot to be desired. However, Jill assumed it was the kind of thing you didn't push, just like the thing with Luca, which thankfully enough, hadn't come up since the incident had occurred. Smiling somewhat, she nodded quietly, satisfied enough with the not-so-straight answer Sid had given her in response to the question.

"Fair enough," she responded quietly.

As Hannah became more chipper, a smile crept onto Jill's face. Hannah's positive attitude and almost contageous smile was a comfort to Jill, something she hadn't had since she'd set foot onto the island. The last time she'd really felt safe had been when she had first met up with Adam and Martyn at the warehouse, and looking back on it, Jill saw exactly where that false sense of security had gotten them. Still, it was nice to have someone around who could actually smile. It almost brought Jill a sense of hope. If Hannah believed they could really escape, then maybe Jill should believe too. The smile spread across her face as she looked around the room at the two boys currently occupying it.

"Never in my wildest dreams," she started, but trailed off. After a moment, she continued, simply making idle chitchat, "did I think that I'd be sitting here with Jack O'Connor and Sidney Crosby on this class trip."

Jill actually half laughed at the thought and shook her head somewhat. This wasn't the class trip she had planned at all. It was supposed to have been one big party, and Lord knows she and Jack O'Connor never really socialized in high school. In fact, she never remembered so much as even saying hello to the boy. And world phenom, Sidney Crosby... who'd have thought? Shaking her head once again, a smile formed on her face again as she looked down at the floor.

"This's so crazy, you know? I keep expecting to just wake up and be having some far out dream, but I know I'm not going to. I guess that's why it's so strange. I never saw this one coming."

Closing her eyes a moment, Jill leaned her head back against the wall and sighed quietly. Now, she was simply talking to keep up some form of idle banter. She was exhausted, and if she sat in the quiet long enough, she was sure she'd simply fall asleep. Opening her eyes and fixating her gaze on the ceiling for a moment, Jill continued with her idle chat, wondering whether or not one of the boys would chime in.

"This sounds silly, but I wonder... what they say about me. You know, the ... the fans. I wonder what they write about me... if there's any websites about me. It's a weird thing to wonder, I guess, but... I don't know, it just all seems so far out. I guess I should be thankful that they didn't read some filthy story about me over the announcement system, though. That'd be, well, kind of embarrassing."

After a moment, Jill stood up, favoring her uninjured leg, and cast a glance between Sid and Jack. Shrugging somewhat, she nodded toward the back and took off in that direction, although she did so rather slowly. Her leg wound was beginning to bother her, and it was rather apparent. Despite that, Jill said nothing about the injury, instead simply turning to the other two and announcing her departure.

"I'm going to check on him."

With that, Jill trapsed back into the office style room where Hannah had taken Martyn earlier. He appeared to be resting, so she simply leaned in an almost lopsided manner against the door frame, figeting with her leg wound slightly. It had begun aching almost instantaneously after she had taken off in a sprint for the door when that girl had attacked Martyn. The girl still bothered Jill, for the simple fact that Jill was beyond positive that she knew her, but she hadn't gotten a good enough look to know for sure who it was. Sighing somewhat, Jill thought back to that moment, trying desperately to place the form she had barely gotten a glimpse of in the aftermath the girl had left behind. Coming up blank, Jill shook her head, almost annoyed that she couldn't figure out who the girl was.

Yawning quietly, Jill leaned her head against the door frame and closed her eyes a second longer, trying to fight off the fatigue that had all but overtaken her in the past few moments. As well as rest, Jill was currently in desperate need of food and water, something that the others were probably in dire need of right about now as well. It was something that would have to be taken care of soon, that much was for certain. Clearing her throat slightly, she finally spoke up, hoping that she wasn't disturbing Martyn.

"Um... I... how're you doing?"

Granted, she could have said something far more articulate, but at this point, that didn't matter. Jill was exhausted beyond belief, and for her to be able to formulate much of anything at this point was a miracle in itself. Besides, Martyn wouldn't mind. He was probably still out of it from all the blood loss from the wounds he had sustained due to... that girl.

Martyn blinked lightly in his state of being half-asleep as the voices from the other four in the main area of the warehouse began flooding in the office space he was lying in. He listening lightly to all the words, though at one point everyone went awkwardly silent… leaving him wondering what was happening, though soon enough the voices where back, and Hannah’s cheerful voice a step above them all.

He smiling a bit at the sheer cheerfulness of the girl, though returned to listening when Jill’s voice broke out above them all speaking about how she expected this too all be some dream, and about other things having to deal with the game itself. Martyn frowning a bit to himself, he didn’t know how often since this game began that he had wished this would all be some dream – and he’d wake up, suck in Ireland with his fruit bat of a auntie.

Though he had to admit, there had been a few good things that came out of this. He had met both Jack and Jill, two people he could know call friends – he wasn’t too sure about Sidney and Hannah, but that would probably take a bit of time. But maybe if they all worked together, this escape thing might happen as long as they could continue to working together… but how long would that last? It wouldn’t be long till the game started coming down the wire, and things would start becoming into a cloud of panic, would their little group be able to stand the pressure of the thought that if they didn’t kill one another, they wouldn’t be able to go home.

Could any of them do it, hell he couldn’t even think of doing it. But what about the other, lazily casting his attention toward the door he listened out on them once more… Jill seemed to be talking still, nothing more than idle chit-chat it seemed, so Martyn simply relaxed against the mat again.

Though his short relax was interrupted at the sound of Jill’s voice again, though this time louder than he had been hearing it. He cracking an eye open and looking toward the doorway and at the girl, smiling a bit at the question as he moved a bit. Pushing himself up into a sitting position on the mattress, leaning back against the wall it was pressed against as he slowly nodded.

“I’ve been better –“ Martyn muttered out lowly, sighing lightly as he rubbed at the side of his face. Glancing about rather lightly, before leaning forward and grabbing at his glasses, not putting them on, but moving them off the floor. “But how are you doing? You look like you’re about ready to fall out…” He said, lifting himself up and moved over on the mattress a bit.

“Come on and sit down,” He said patting at a spot beside him, looking thoughtful for a moment. “You don’t need to be on that leg like that anyway… and anyway – I need someone to talk to, and it not turn into a blood-loss rant of oddness… which by the way, I’m sorry about. I – I really wasn’t in decent condition when I started saying those things.”

Hannah smiled at Jill and Martyn as they talked, she stepped away to give them some alone time. She stepped out into the open and looked at the laptop in the center, it was the ticket out of here. She felt so happy she could sing.

Hannah began to hum a tune, she couldn’t remember what it was though, she got down on one knee in front of Sidney and slipped off his shoe on the damaged foot and began to bandage it up. Slowly wrapping the bleeding foot in bandages from the first aid kit, she contemplated her actions so far on the island.

From killing that boy to meeting with Lucinda and that Adam Dodd kid, this was probably the best point she would get to on this island.

“There we go! That should do for now!” Hannah happily chirped as she finished the bandaging of
Sidney’s foot. She jumped up and skipped merrily over to a box and sat down, what Hannah wouldn’t give to be out of this game and out snow-boarding down the tallest mountain she could safely be on. Turning her head to Jack in the center she grabbed the map and pencil Jill had written on earlier and began to write a message down.

So, what’s the plan then? Do we just stay here for now and wait?

Jack had still been zoned out when Hannah started happily dressing Martyns wounds and all around being a nuisance, but when he saw her write on the map and show the message, he eyed her untrustingly before taking the map and pencil.
Should I tell her the truth? he thought, skeptically looking at her breifly. She doesn't seem trustworthy, she blows our cover, and we're all dead. I suppose I could tell her a bit... finally writing something down, he showed her his reply.

"Yeah, we're waiting out the game, preserving our ammo in a safe place. It seemed the best strategy, so we're going for it.

Like I'm about to fall apart.

Cracking somewhat of a grin, Jill couldn't help but laugh audibly. She found it amusing that she looked like a tattered and torn ragdoll. Looking down at herself, she really and truly did. Her overshirt had been obliterated ages ago, leaving her in only that spaghetti-strapped tanktop, though she had to say, it was a lot better given the current weather. In addition, the bigger portion of her shoulder blade was covered in crimson spattered bandages, and the crimson stains bled through the bandages on her leg, forming a dark spot around her leg. Her laugh stifled somewhat, and shaking her head, she finally responded.

"Well, I'm trapped on an island with a bunch of psychopaths who seem to like to shoot at me, I have a collar around my neck that'll blow up if I mess with it, I haven't had a decent bath in the past week, I stink, I've got a bullet lodged in my leg and a hole in my shoulder which kind of makes my arm just a little bit useless, and if I don't kill over soon because of some psychopath, I'm probably going to wind up dying of malnutrition. Oh, but other than that, I'm fantastic!" she mused sarcastically.

Flopping down in the empty space on the matress that Martyn had made when he had scooted her, she leaned her head against the wall and laughed some more. To the television audience at home, it probably sounded as though Jill had flipped her lid. Quite the contrary, however. The sarcasm and the laughing was simply her way of sorting out all that had gone on on the island, and unjumbling all the thoughts that had ran through her mind. As Martyn apologized for his rather disturbing, if not completely humorous, rant, Jill couldn't help but crack another smile.

"No worries. For you to think someone who's covered in blood and dirt was cute, well, we all knew something was wrong with that picture. Though I got to say, it was pretty damned funny. Especially the look on Sid's face, it was near priceless."

As she rambled on about an almost pointless and trivial thing to Martyn, inwardly, Jill was sorting through the things that needed to be taken care of in her head. They weren't in very good shape at the warehouse. In fact, she really didn't know how well the people sitting in the other room would work together. It occurred to her that she knew absolutely nothing about them, and that all that the little ragtag band of guerillas had in common was that they all wanted in on the escape plan. It had almost been a three-way struggle for power between herself, Jack, and Sidney from the very beginning, with Hannah and Martyn almost following blindly.

Now, Jill wanted to play leader. First though, she decided to try out the ideas she had formulated on Martyn, if nothing else, just to see his reaction before presenting her thoughts to the group in the larger room of the warehouse. There was so much that needed to be taken care of. Food, water, guard duty. Their last attempt at guard duty has failed miserably, and Martyn's wounds were quite the testament to that fact. If they were going to send someone out on guard, maybe they should send someone up to the roof... or go two at a time, that way no one would be ambushed. Not to mention, the lack of sleep the group had gotten over the past week was starting to catch up with Jill, so surely it was starting to affect the others, right?

"We're going to have to get a little more organized," Jill announced to Martyn after a moment, "Because if we keep sitting around doing nothing the way we are now, well hun, we're fucked. Need to organize everyone, you know? People need to be on guard duty, we need to hand out food and water... and we're all a little worse for wear right now, a short nap wouldn't hurt any of us, you know? After that last little fiasco while you were on guard, though, maybe we shouldn't send out just one person anyone. Or... or maybe we should send them out on the roof? I mean... Luca had a damned good vantage point from up there. Was good enough that she could see me coming, and she nearly took me out, ya know?"

Though, regardless of who was sent on guard duty, that fact alone brought up another issue, and a very serious one at that. There were five people in the building... and three guns. Surely Jack wouldn't mind Jill or Martyn going on guard. He had been secure with them throughout the rest of their time on the island. But how would he feel about Sidney and Hannah? Especially Hannah. Jill could just picture it now.

"If you give that bitch her gun back, I'm going to put a bullet in her head right now!"

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, after all. It all came back to an issue of trust. Did Jill trust the others to keep any of the psychopaths lurking around out there away from the warehouse on their shift? Did they trust Jill to do the same? Could Jill really go to sleep in a room with any of these people purely on the assumption that she WOULD wake up, let alone with all of her belongings in tact? Truthfully, she didn't really know the first thing about Hannah and Sidney, what they'd seen during the game, or how it had effected them. For all she knew, the second she fell asleep one of them might steal her gun and put a bullet through her head. But... no, she couldn't start thinking like that. Precaution was good, paranoia... not so much.

"Guard duty isn't really that big of a priority. There's only one way in and out of here, if some crazy comes in shooting up the place, there's enough of us to take them out before we lose another one... don't you think? Really... first priority should be food and water. Mine's running kind of low, how about yours? Maybe if we get together and divy things up... ration them out... it'll be alright. Or... do you think there's any animals on the island? Don't get me wrong, I find something morally wrong about eating a cat or something, but hey, if it's what I have to do to stay alive... we can just think of it as a really bad episode of Fear Factor, right?"

Smiling a somewhat quirky smile, Jill shook her head once again and brought her injured leg up onto the matress and up to her chest, then leaned her head on it. She definitely had been thinking too much. There was so much that they could be doing right now. So much that would help them survive. At least, she'd rather do that than sit here and wait to die, or sit here and hope that Jack's plan would work out. It was all a gamble, but Jill believed that a person made their own luck. They should be out scavenging the bodies outside for food and water... and... then in occurred to Jill.

"The collars, Martyn..." she began nonchalantly, "They monitor our pulses, right? Make sure we're still alive, and transmit back to Danya's headquarters if we're in a danger zone or something... right? But you know, if someone's dead and the area goes danger zone, their collar... it doesn't blow up, 'cause they aren't alive. Do you think it'd blow up if it was tampered with since, you know, they're dead and all?"

The idea had formed a while back, but she was just now vocalizing it. After all, Jack's plan was far from foolproof and was actually quite risky. They needed to be doing something that ensured they would find a way out of here in case his plan didn't work. After all, in all likelihood, it could easily fail. But the collars... face it, the warehouse was absolutely littered with the bodies of the dead. If they didn't detonate, then maybe Jack or Martyn could take them apart and figure out the inner workings. It was a long shot. A real long shot. Still, it was better than sitting by idly with their fingers crossed. Then again, if it blew, they risked losing yet another member of their team. So... was it worth the risk?

Martyn mused a small grin as he tilted his head listening to the girl’s word, absently, once again, finding himself rubbing circles along the bandages covering his wounded neck. Once finished he couldn’t help but shrug at the overall sarcastic answer to his question. “Well ever all of those are quite low on my list of how I’d like to feel at the moment, anything’s better than being dead, I suppose, right?” In such an odd twist of fate it was the truth, any other time the condition he was in now with his throat partly slit open and back barring a gaping hole this would be the worst, but after this past week and some odd days… death was the only thing worse that could ever possibly happen to them. And in some cases, death might be something that was being asked for… some believing that it in turn, was the only true escape from this island.

He watched lightly as Jill flopped down on the mattress, he listening somewhat to her words on his earlier rant… a small smile finding it’s way across his features as he rested back a bit. “Well, I must admit you look quite flattering in all that blood and dirt. Most girls can’t pull that look off, you do it quite nicely. And would it be to much to say, blood and such or not, I still think that you're cute. About the only thing thruthful in that little rant I said, least I think -- can't remember much of what I said.” He said lightly rubbing the back of his head, before moving the hand in order to rub at his right eye, trying to rid any signs of sleep away, what small bit of rest he had got just then was something that brought back some energy to him from the attack, but nothing that would keep him moving on in the long run. "But anyway, important matters at 'and, correct?"

Martyn continued to listen on as Jill went on to speak about the organization they clearly needed, these past few days they had been running on luck and chance, and it seemed both had ran dry rather quickly. He pursing his lips a bit in thought as he went over the girl’s words, everything she said ran true. They had been running on the single hope of the plan they had formatted with use of his laptop to work, but there had to be over half of a chance of this not working, what then? Wait until the end where they’d either be killed, or by one of themselves who had finally snapped seeing killing them his only chance of the island.

“Well when it comes to guard duty I know we can’t have anyone on the ground without at least a second person there, maybe have one on the ground and one on the roof? Then again, when it comes to the people I trust in this little alliance it’s only you and Jack, it’s probably the same with Jack. ‘e won’t trust Sidney, and no doubt ‘annah to be placed on guard duty with one of the guns, and Jack’s busy working on the -- well he's busy working on his little thing, so ‘e really doesn’t have much time to step out on guard duty, so if anyone end up on duty it probably be you or myself, neither of which are in the best condition to be doing something like that for a decent period of time. Resting is also something else, no one’s going to be able to do anything if we all pass out from lack of sleep, I’m sure we can figure out some kind of pattern where we can let one or two people sleep, another person or two on guard duty, and alternating every so often, or something like that.” He muttered, rubbing along his chin at the annoying stubble there as he pondered over everything, “But, really… when it comes to guard duty, it’s all going to be an issue of who trusts whom…”

Sighing a bit, he closed his eyes somewhat… “As for food, first we need to gather all what food and water we have… I personally don’t have that much left myself. But if the well and waterfall remain open and free of becoming danger zones in the near future, we have the water source taken care of. As for food, I ‘ighly doubt we’ll all last much longer on some stale bread and bad tasting tin crackers, ‘unting will probably be our next best option, there’s got to be some type of animal on this island… fish, birds, domestic animals that whoever lived here might have left. Something, anything that keep us going in the end a little longer, till then we just gather all the food and water we have and ration it out so it’ll last us a little longer till we find another source for food.”

As Jill spoke more, this time about the collars a small spark went off in his mind, what if she was right… what if the collars went more or less ‘dead’ when the wearer or said collar died, he knew their where corpses here in the warehouse, on the second floor if he wasn’t mistaken. Not that fresh of ones at that, the smell coming from up there was enough to keep him on the ground level and away from how ever many where up there. And he took note there was at least six corpses outside, five probably being able to be worked with as the one boy that Adam had blasted the shell of the shotgun into his face had little if none of a head left, meaning that there was no doubt a chance it probably damaged the collar.

“It’s a good idea, we should try and see if we can work something out with on what corpses we have around here. Though there’s a chance there still active, just cut it off to exploding when the area the body is in comes up as a danger zone. But still responds if someone tampers with them. But it’s worth a try if it means there’s a chance of getting these damn things off,” He muttered somewhat bitterly running a finger along the cooled surface of the metal, sticky to some degree no doubt because of the blood from his wound.

“Anything is worth a try, right?”

Jack had obviously lost track of time somehow, as before he knew it the eighth announcement was ringing through the island, filling Jack with dread and resolve as he knew if the US "chose wrong", Danya claimed he'd simply kill everyone and avoid all the "winner" fuss.

Just one more reason for me to take this thing down, though it might hurt my plan. he thought, about to get to work. Until the death list was read, of course. He was not alarmed about Adam, he knew from the incident with Jason the boy was a cold hearted killer, but then he heard who the killer of Chance Burton was...





Sidney Crosby. The very Sidney Crosby he had allowed into the warehouse out of pure generosity. He had trusted the hockey player for a brief second, let down his guard for an instant.

And allowed a killer into his group.

Shit! he would mentally repeat this word several times as he thought of his mistake, picking up the double action revolver and heading towards the office everyone else was in.
Should I kill him? No, then I'd be no better. Send him off? A good idea, but how do I prevent him from being a threat? Send him away with nothing. Now there's a good idea... reaching the door of the office, he put as much force as he could into it (which was a lot for his build, as one unfortunate basketball player had learned earlier in the year in a "rumble" between the two teams) and threw it open, instantly swinging his gun towards Crosby and shouting.
"You, player! Get up, and get the fuck out! You hear me, you damn murderer? Get up or I'll fucking shoot you. You pick anything up, I fucking shoot you, you blink at me the wrong way...well, you get the idea, just get out!" now he was being fueled by pure paranoia and anger, and he knew that.

But I'd rather be paranoid than dead...

Hannah’s cheerful disposition quickly vanished as the speakers burst into life, that horrible voice happily spilling the contents of the day before. Fourteen dead in one day, Ninety-Nine all dead, only Twenty-Four left. The terrorists scared her, especially that Kaige lady seeing as she got the most kills by a close margin to the Dodd kid.

The most terrifying news thus far was the fact about back home, their president was an idiot in her opinion. Hannah didn’t believed Danya for a second, it had to be some cruel twisted joke. A twisted joke, that if true, was going to be their demise. This all took her back to when Kurt had just died...

“Oh, Hannah...” Hannah’s mother whispered to her, trying to comfort the obvious pain her daughter was going through. She had been in her room for the past week just crying, just not believing it.

“This is some sort of Joke right? A cruel Joke?” Hannah sobbed, she looked to her mother pleadingly. All her eyes met were blank eyes, eyes that didn’t know what to tell their daughter’s eyes.

“No honey, I’m sorry.” Her mother said as she took Hannah into a tight hug. The girl grasped her motherlike she was a small child again, blind to the truth of the bleak world. Hannah hated herself, hated herself for not noticing what Kurt was up to, hated herself for not introducing Kurt to her Youth group, hated herself for crying over him, and hated herself for never ever going to be able to see him again.

Hannah quickly snapped out of her daze, the announcements had ended by now. She turned her gaze to Sidney, he killed someone, he could be dangerous. For now she had to trust him, she turned to look at Jack who was now shouting at Sidney she got up and between them.

“NO! Stop fighting! It might’ve been an accident!” Hannah pleaded, she didn’t want things to get out of control. But by the way Jack was acting she didn’t see a pleasant outcome for it. She was too afraid, stuck between a gun and a person she wasn’t sure she could trust.

Getting Martyn's approval for the idea of working with the dead students collars, Jill stood up, satisfied. It had been such a stupid, faith-filled move. Just let Jack take care of it, he'll hack into the systems and we'll be out of here in no time, right? Wrong. She hadn't wanted to say anything, she had wanted to believe this plan would work. Thing was... if Jack really could have gotten rid of the collars in one fell swoop, why didn't he do it when he got into the system the first time? All he managed to do was upload some Street Fighter scene and buy them some time. Hell, in a way, he had sort of alerted the terrorists to the fact that someone on the island COULD get into their computers so now... now security on that end was going to be tighter than ever. The whole blind faith thing... it wasn't going to work in this game, that much had pretty much been proven. How many other kids had probably relied on such a silly idea and paid the ultimate price for it? They couldn't just kick back and expect everything to blow over. It had been nine days. After all the events that had unfolded, nobody in their right mind would expect that to happen. Besides, the numbers were dwindling. Drastically.

And that was when she heard it. That shrill, crackling voice echoing out over the island's announcement system for the eighth time since they had been on the island. He seemed happy this time around... giddy. As Danya began his list of the dead for the eighth time while she had been on the island, Jill's heart sank slowly and a queasy feeling built up in her stomach. He was listing the killers again. She had bypassed it... nobody knew what she had done. But now, Danya was at it again. Listening intently, Jill crossed her fingers hoping not to hear the names of any of her remaining friends listed off. She heard Adam's once again, Danya making a testament to the new people Adam had murdered, but he was still alive. In a way, she was relieved. Most of the names didn't really ring a bell to Jill. Some of them had been faces she had briefly encountered in the hallways, one was that cheerleader girl who sat behind her in her English class, but other than that, no one of interest. That is, until Chance Burton's name was read from the list, and his killer was announced as Sidney Crosby, the very same Sidney who was currently sat in the other room with the trio.

Almost directly after, Jack's voice, in a near roar, echoed out from the front of the warehouse. Dropping Hannah's pack that she had been holding onto, Jill kept only her gun in hand and dashed into the front room quickly enough to hear Jack screeching at Crosby to leave. Granted, the two had not seen eye-to-eye in the recent past, but still, wasn't Jack jumping to conclusions just a little? Then again, Sid had killed someone. But... so had she. The difference was... the other two young men in the warehouse had watched her do it. Not bothering to raise the gun toward the two young men, Jill simply shook her head. What now? Stand up for Sid, and possibly be gunned down by Jack in his somewhat maniacal and paranoid state, or simply let Jack send Sidney to his death out on the island. Sid knew their escape plan now, and if he had the mind to, he could probably get them all blown apart on the spot by announcing what they'd done and cluing the terrorists in on who exactly hacked into their computers.

"Jack!" Jill finally addressed him, "We should at least let him tell us what happened right? I mean... if you're saying he isn't trustworthy because he's killed, then does that mean I'm not either? We don't know the circumstances... we don't know what happened. On the other hand, you watched me... you watched me put the gun to her head and pull the trigger. Is that so much better? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should drop all our defenses but... if he wanted to kill us, don't you think he'd have done it already?"

Besides, you idiot, if you don't kill him and he leaves, he'll blow this whole damned thing wide open. Do you really want that?

It was a brash thought, but not far from the truth. If any of them left the group, any of them at all, they had leverage over every other person in the warehouse. They were all involved in the attack on Danya's systems, though some to a far lesser degree than others. In the eyes of a pig like Danya, though, it would surely make no difference. It wasn't so much Jack's almost instantaneous turn on Sidney that had Jill so worried but rather... the paranoia was starting to sink in. Jack had just proven it. The current scene was rather unnerving anyway. Jack currently held a gun pointed at Sidney and now Hannah, who had stepped in between to attempt to put an end to the fighting. If the paranoia this game caused had already hit Jack, who was probably the most stable-minded among them, who would it hit next, and when? This little showdown definitely had the potential to end in blood. Unlike Hannah, however, Jill was not ignorant enough to step in between a gun and its target.

"I know how you feel Jack, I really do. You're scared, and hell, so am I. I don't know that he didn't kill that kid in cold blood and then come here to play us for fools, but you're letting it take over. If you do that, all your friends are going to look like your enemies and then... well, then there's no hope. We should at least let him explain and if we don't believe him... well... then we can feed him to the psychos running around outside, don't you think?"

There was a pleading tone in her voice, almost an urgent one. Sid's death at the hands of Jack wouldn't do any of them any good. When Jill had killed Luca, it hadn't exactly done wonders for her mental stability, and now Jack was putting himself in a similar situation. If they were ever going to outlast the others in this game, they couldn't let fear and paranoia affect them. It just wasn't an option. Yeah, Sid had a kill to his name. Still... and as much as Jill hated to admit this, he couldn't have possibly done it in cold blood. He was arrogant, brash, and rude, but he wasn't a killer. This was Sidney Crosby, after all. Sighing inwardly, she hoped the conflict would resolve itself. However, she almost knew that the situation at hand would not be that simple to resolve. Jack probably wouldn't be happy until Sid was either dead or gone. Regardless, if Sid left, they'd lose another helping hand, another asset to their team... or... they might be losing a potential enemy. No, she couldn't start thinking that way. That'd mean the end of them all, if they all turned on each other. Then again, that was too late. It was already happening, and truth be told, it probably had been for some time.

As the announcement thundered throughout the island, Danya's evil voice reverberating throughout the walls of the warehouse, Sidney felt some revulsion inside of his stomach as Danya replayed his message to the United States out for all of them to hear. It was sickening, really, and the knot in Sidney's stomach just kept clenching tighter and tighter. Of course, after that little diversion, Danya began to read off the kill list. Sidney privately hoped that it would be like the last few announcements, just saying who died, as opposed to who was responsible. Of course, as soon as he thought that, the first name was read off, listing who the killer was. In this instance, he immediately thought one very simple thought to himself.

I am SO fucked right now.

As soon as he heard the announcement that he was the one who killed Chance, he heard Jack freak out, and braced himself for the inevitable yelling or shooting that he figured was soon to follow. Glancing at Hannah in front of him, who'd just bandaged his foot, he grimaced, and watched as Jack burst through the door into the section of the warehouse he was currently situated in. Shaking the pistol in his face, almost, the blood drained from his face when Jack basically ordered him out. Before he could do anything, Hannah began to yell at Jack, which drew Jill from the other room. It seemed as though the two girls wanted him to stay, and Jack was quite adamant about getting him out. Listening as both girls spoke their points, and keeping his eyes glued on Jack's pistol, Sidney slowly rose to his feet, hands in the air.

"Okay..."

Sidney swallowed. Even the most difficult interviews that he'd had to do with the media couldn't have prepared him for what he was about to say next - basically that he was about to try and save his own ass. He knew, if he left the warehouse, that he was fucked. Speaking slowly, he enunciated each word, trying to make sure that there was no misunderstanding him.

"...what happened to Chance wasn't meant to happen. Me, Chance, Toby Valerik, and Takara Asano were a group that travelled around the island for quite awhile. We got attacked by one of the terrorists, and I shot at her. I missed once, but accidentally hit Chance in the neck. His collar exploded, and he died. It was a fucking ACCIDENT, okay? Chance died because I was too big of a fucking idiot to shoot at this girl before she grabbed him and started wrestling around with him. So I'm sorry that I don't have clean hands, all right? I'm sorry that I'm a fuckup when it comes to surviving a fight to the death. But I can't change who I am, or what I've done. I'm just trying to look ahead."

Shutting his eyes for a moment, he said a silent prayer, hoping that these words wouldn't be his last.

"Besides, it's not like you guys have much of a choice. You shoot me, and then you guys have basically fractured any trust that you guys have got, and you're no better than I am - hell, you're worse, because you'd have killed me in cold blood. You force me out, and...well, I've been known to have a big mouth at times..."

Sidney let the empty threat hang in the air. He hated to make it, and he knew that he sounded like an asshole, but he was running out of options, and it was one of his last cards that he had that he could play.

((continued from Girl *70 START, ~Nev's Awakening~))

Jeremy reached the edge of the treeline and crouched down, hidden in the brush. His heart was racing and he felt butterflies in his stomach, a mix of being nervous, and a mix of excitement. Jeremy turned and looked and awaited Ryan and Clare, since Ryan was helping Clare they were taking a bit slower.

Jeremy unshouldered the shotgun and placed it on the ground. He placed both his bags on the ground and reached into the bag with all the supplies. He took out an extra clip for the shotgun, which helpt 8 rounds. He places the clip in his left pocket. Reaching in he took out 6 extra bullets for his revolver and placed those in his left pocket.

Jeremy was glad his pants had somewhat large pockets, and he picked up his shotgun and checked it over one last time. He wasn't sure what he was checking for, but he just liked that he was able to check it. Jeremy glanced behind him to see if Ryan and Clare caught up yet, then he turned back around. He was still hiding in the brush peeking out looking at the warehouse. He could see no one on the outside, but it was the inside he was worried about. Jeremy continued to wait until Ryan and Clare arrived.

((Coming from: Girl *70 START))

Ryan arrived, half-running the way there. Clare bounced a little against his back, reminding him to be more careful. Not like he wasn't in the first place. Smiling, he whispered, "easy does it", and eased her down to the ground. Once she was off, Ryan turned to his cousin, smiling nervously. It was showtime. Unfortunately, the actor playing the lead role wasn't exactly ready for it. He felt nervous, rushed, like he hadn't gotten enough rehearsal time before the big show. So, he'd have to adlib a bit, only knowing a single line: "ow, my arm hurts". The greatest script ever? Nah. Far from.

There was no one patrolling the outside of the warehouse. That was good. But, it meant that there had to be people inside, and a large amount, too. Only huge groups had the courage needed to stay inside without any protection outside. Or, maybe they were a small bunch of idiots, or just downright careless. Ryan hoped they were morons. It would be easier to pull off his all star performance that way.

"I guess this is it," He shrugged his shoulders, speaking like a naive school kid getting ready to march off to war. "But I've gotta look the part first." Ryan scooped some dirt off of the ground, smearing it on his shirt, hands and arms. He already had some of the skin scraped off of his arm (ouch, it looked nastier than he thought) and the hurt in his thigh, so there was no need to inflict new injuries. As an added touch, he took some blood from his arm and ran it down his face. It looked like he had rolled down a hill, right after trading blows with a powerful fighter.

"I'll see you guys in a bit." Ryan flashed them a thumbs up sign. "Remember the signal!"

With that, he took off running, not allowing them a chance to talk back. It was best to do that before any dams broke. The bespectacled boy nearly fell on the way to the warehouse, stumbling as he went down a hill. Held tightly in his hand was Jeremy's good luck charm, the sickle. Hopefully, it would be the same kind of charm for Ryan, aswell. He needed all the luck he could get with this coin toss. They all did with things at heads or tails, 50/50 chance. They either let him in, got chummy with him and then things went in his favor, or they killed him then and there, inside or outside of the warehouse before he could very much as scream.

Once he got to the door, Ryan Torres looked over to the treeline, where Jeremy and Clare were. He gave them another thumbs up sign, then got into character.

"Oh my God!!! Help me! They're going to kill me, oh my God!" He pounded frantically on the door, yelling so loudly that it made his voice a little hoarse. "Let me in! Hurry, hurry, help!!" The coin was flipped.

Hannah listened to Jill and Sydney as they spoke, tension was building up. She had to get out of here, soon. The warehouse was a deathtrap, it was there to turn people against one another. The large metal monster was feeding off the paranoia, it was taking pleasure from it.

This isn’t safe, but I can’t let anyone die!

Hannah slowly began towards Jack with her hand outstretched.

“Come on Jack, please put the gun down! We can talk this through!” Hannah spoke, you could hear the fear in her voice as she shakily moved slowly forward. She was horrified right now, she could get shot, but she had to try and get everyone calm.

“I know h-how you’re f-feeling, we’re all a little afraid. But, we can get through this t-t-together! Okay?” Hannah stuttered, the fear was really getting to her. Her face was getting paler and her eyes dilated, and it so happened at this point someone slammed at the door of the warehouse.

"Oh my God!!! Help me! They're going to kill me, oh my God! Let me in! Hurry, hurry, help!!"

Hannah quickly turned to the door and gasped, someone was out there.

((Man, I need to work on making longer posts.))

Jeremy watched from the treeline as Ryan made his move, hiding in the thick brush he knew he could not be seen and he turned to Clare and looked at the shotgun she had. Jeremy whispered to her, "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."

Jeremy hoped her weapon was loaded, but to Jeremy she looked to wounded to even move, so she would be out here protecting herself alone when the time came for Jeremy to make his move. Jeremy heard Ryan pounding on the warehouse door screaming for help and to Jeremy it sounded all to real, like the situations he has been in before.

Jeremy turned back away from Clare and looked back at the warehouse, watched as Ryan continued to pound on the door. Jeremy shouldered his two bags and then held a tight grip on his shotgun. If there were people in the warehouse, he waited for them to make their move.